ADNOTATIUNCULAE IN THRENOS

255D(THREN. I.) How doth the city sit alone, that was full of people? So far as concerns the letter, Jeremiah bewails the desolation of Jerusalem, and this is the voice of one wondering or grieving. And he begins from wonder for this reason, that he may show the greatness of the calamity, and by this make his hearers attentive: that they may recognize in what evils they are, and be turned to repentance. How doth the city sit alone, that was full of people? as if he should say: 256DThe city which once, in the time of David and of the other good kings who pleased God, was full of people — mark why it has now remained alone. For why, unless because they offended God? But he says alone, that is, desolate, because of the people led away captive into Babylon. Or, if it be referred to the same time, she is full of people, and yet sits alone; because she has not God propitious, since 257Aa multitude of people cannot profit where the help of God is wanting. But that he says, Sitteth, pertains to casting down and to humiliation.

She is become as a widow, that is, forsaken while her husband is yet living: and therefore not a widow, but as a widow; because if she shall have repented, she will still be able to be reconciled. And God is called the husband of that people for this reason; because he had joined her to himself in chaste love for his own worship, that she might not commit fornication through the various cults of idols.

The mistress of the nations is become as a widow; the prince of the provinces is become under tribute. So it was of old, that the peoples of foreigners served the Jews, and the provinces of the nations were subject to them; but now they themselves, forsaken by God, are made tributary to the nations. 257BThe recollection therefore of the former glory is the heightening of the present misery.

According to the sense of allegory, Jeremiah signifies in the Church any spiritual men whatever: who, when they see that a multitude of men has flowed together to the faith, and that the name of Christ has been spread through almost the whole world, but find none, or exceedingly few, who follow Christ in truth and sincerely hold his faith — all men seeking the things that are their own — grieving and groaning say: How doth the city sit alone, that was full of people? Why do we discern so great a people in the Church, and yet see the Church to be alone? because we can scarcely find anyone who is truly with the Church. I have found something similar in the Gospel, the Lord being set in the crowd, 257Cthe people hemming him in on every side and pressing upon him: There came a woman with an issue of blood; and coming behind she touched the hem of his garment: and he straightway: Who, he saith, hath touched me? (Marc. V.) Did someone touch me? For he who, when the woman touched the hem, asks as though he had suffered something new, who touched me, plainly declares that before (although all were jostling and pressing) he had not been touched. As therefore Christ remains untouched while the crowd presses, so the Church, the body of Christ, sits alone among many; because the catholic faith has many professors, few imitators, just as then too those who were near the Lord by bodily presence could not touch him; because they were far off by faith and dilelectionem. 257DThe spiritual Jeremiah therefore laments, and says: How doth the city sit alone, that was full of people? For wherever the servants of God are, they cannot see these things without grief and groaning. The mistress of the nations is become as a widow; the prince of the provinces is become under tribute. By the nations we rightly understand all carnal men placed within the Church; but by the provinces, all whosoever are established outside the Church, such as are pagans, Jews and heretics. Then therefore is holy Church mistress of the nations, when by the rigor of discipline she subjects all the carnal placed within to serve her: she is prince of the provinces, when by power she repels the unbelievers placed without, that they may not be able to harm. But if perchance, when for the demands of sins she is forsaken by God, so that she is able neither to restrain those who trouble her within, 258Anor to defend herself from those who assail her without: then the mistress of the nations is left as a widow, and the prince of the provinces is made tributary. For when she beholds the faithful drawn away to unbelief, whether deceived by heretics, or broken by the powers of this world through reward or through terror, what else does she do than pay tribute to foreigners?

According to the moral understanding, the city signifies the soul, which sits alone when it is forsaken by God; but full of a people of virtues, when it is inhabited by God. But if we have found the city whose desolation is lamented, where is Jeremiah to be found? Each one of us ought to be a Jeremiah, and to lament his own desolation just as he lamented the desolation of Jerusalem. And surely, if he so lamented 258Bthe ruin of stones, we much more ought to lament the desolation of our souls, and each one to say: How doth the city sit alone, that was full of people? How is my soul made desolate? How has it lost that good inhabitant, in whose presence it was once full of a people of virtues? The mistress of the nations is become as a widow. The nations are the desires of the flesh, which are inborn in us according to the corruption of our first nativity, and gainsay the law of the mind: over which the soul then rules well, when it is perfectly made subject to God. The prince of the provinces is become under tribute. By the provinces we can understand the bodily senses, because, as in one province there are many men, so each of the senses has diverse motions and diverse operations, through which it is poured out abroad 258Cupon visible things; and while the appetites of the several senses are moved at the beck of reason, the soul holds rule as over certain provinces. If therefore the soul desires to rule over what is beneath it, that is, over sensuality, it is necessary that it make itself subject to what is above it, that is, to God; because it will in no wise be able to be troubled beneath itself by what is beneath it, so long as it shall have God above it as its governor. But if, forgetful of the fear of the Lord, it has followed its own concupiscences, God takes away his grace from it, and then of necessity it succumbs nervelessly to those desires which before, when it was subject to God and was ruled by him, it powerfully constrained — the appetite of its own senses — to the command of reason.

And note that he says mistress, not prince, of the nations, 258Dand prince, not mistress, of the provinces; because vices, which are not natural, ought to be repressed; for the senses, because they are natural, must not be repressed but ruled, so that in extirpating the former a man should study to be strict, in moderating and guarding the latter, discreet. But it happens sometimes that, while a man neglects to resist the lawful desires of his flesh and to guard the motions of his senses, he is at length so bound by depraved custom that afterwards, even willing it, he cannot resist those same desires. When therefore he is compelled to serve the vices to which before he consented of his own accord, what else does he do than pay tribute to depraved custom? Three goods therefore and three evils has he enumerated. The goods are: a city full of people, mistress of the nations, prince of the provinces; the evils: alone, a widow, tributary. But let us see 259Afirst how she obtains the goods, afterwards how she descends to the evils. Before the Holy Spirit comes to our heart, our soul is barren; but when he has come, he makes it fruitful, that it may bring forth and that virtues may be born in it. Which virtues, so long as they are still imperfect and beginning, and cannot yet go forth abroad, but are still nourished within by the grace of the same Spirit, that they may grow and become sturdy, what else are they than certain little ones brought up in the father's house, until they come to lawful age? But when they have come to full increase, and have begun to use a certain solid food of wisdom, then they no longer need to be nourished as little ones, but ought to live as a certain people in a city under the law of its own ruler. But when God, 259Bpresiding within, rules us, then the flesh, made subject, serves without; and the more humbly we are made subject to him within, the more sturdily we hold rule without. If therefore our soul was within full of a people of virtues, when it had God as king; it was also without the mistress of the nations, that is, of carnal desires, and prince of the provinces, that is, of the senses of the body. But now alone, because it has lost its king; a widow, because it has lost its husband; tributary, because, made subject to vices, it serves.

Weeping she hath wept in the night. The driving home of the word signifies the abundance of grief. Weeping she hath wept in the night, that is, in the time of rest, in the time of forgetfulness, when men are wont to forget their own evils. And mark how great is the misery of her from whom even then 259Cgriefs cannot be absent, when others rest from griefs.

And her tears are on her cheeks. There is sometimes a grief which touches the heart in some fashion, but does not suffice to wring out tears. Not such is the grief of this woman; for her tears are on her cheeks.

There is none to comfort her among all her dear ones. Either because they despise her, set as she is in tribulation, or because in so great an evil they cannot come to her aid. And he calls the dear ones of that people the prophets and the princes, who had been wont to comfort them: the prophets, by promising help from God; and the princes, by purging away enemies and defending the fatherland. But now they in no wise comforted the people set in tribulation, because the one sort preached God angry, and the other could not resist the enemies 259Dlaying waste the country and taking the people captive. Or it can be read otherwise: weeping she hath wept in the night, that is, in secret, in hiding: which is a thing loved [amicum] by those who weep, who will not be comforted, but are fed upon their own griefs. Or the people set in captivity weeps in hiding for this reason, that it does not dare to make its sadness manifest, on account of the cruel lords to whom it is subject, lest it should stir up their greater wrath against itself, if it appeared sorrowful over its own servitude. But so great a grief cannot be hidden, because her tears are on her cheeks, that is, in the open, in the manifest, because from the constancy of weeping the face has swollen. And in these so great evils, what comfort could they look for, 260Ato whom even their dearest bring no comfort!

All her friends have despised her. By friends he would have understood the neighboring nations once joined by treaty to the people of the Jews, who now have not only despised that people, set as it is in distresses, by bringing it no help, but have even become its enemies by persecuting it. According to the sense of allegory the night is sinners, but the cheeks are the preachers who by expounding it break small the food of the word of God, and so pass it on to the weak and to those dull of understanding. But when the Church, in this exile of the present life, weeps in her more perfect members for the falls of those who grow weak, she bears, like a people set in captivity, tears on her cheeks through the night. Or the night can signify this very present life in which we live, 260Bwhen as yet we do not see one another's consciences. And, as we said above, the cheeks signify those who have the knowledge of the word of God. Then therefore does holy Church bear tears on her cheeks through the night, when all the perfect, the more nearly they behold by the illumination of the mind the day of eternity, so much the more lament the darkness of the present life, according to the sentence of Solomon, in which he says: He that addeth knowledge, addeth sorrow [laborem] There is none to comfort her among all her dear ones (Eccles. I). By the dear ones of the Church we understand those same sinners whom above we said were signified by the night; whom assuredly, while she laments them, she loves, because she would in no wise lament over their perdition, unless she loved their salvation and their conversion. But then she receives no comfort from 260Cthem, when none of them returns to repentance, because the comfort of those who weep would be the conversion of sinners. Or the dear ones of the Church are those blessed angelic spirits, or the souls of the saints, to whose fellowship she sighs out of the night of this exile; who then bring her no comfort, while they still suffer her to be a pilgrim away from their company. Of whom it is further added. All her friends have despised her. Whom does he here call friends of the Church, save the powerful of this world, who sometimes, while they see her exalted in temporal things, honor her and feign to love her, but when they behold her set in distresses, persecute her and are despised? According to the moral sense the soul has its own day, has its own night. It has day, when it is raised up into the light of contemplation; 260Dit has night when it is darkened by the gloom of temptations. But in the day it laughs, in the night it weeps, because the mind which groans, pressed by the weight of temptations, afterwards, being lifted up, grows glad in the joy of contemplation. The soul therefore weeps in the night, when it pricks its darkened conscience within with wholesome grief. It bears tears on its cheeks, when by strict chastisement without it afflicts the flesh. For then are the tears on the cheeks, when the griefs of the heart reach even to the maceration of the flesh. Whereupon, for a yet greater heightening of the grief, there is subjoined:

There is none to comfort her among all her dear ones. In three ways is a man forsaken by God: sometimes 261Awithin and not without, sometimes without and not within, sometimes both without and within. Job was forsaken without and not within, who outwardly endured the scourges of the flesh, but within did not lose constancy of mind. David was forsaken within and not without, whose mind lust subjected to itself within by consent, but the prophet's admonition without called him back to repentance. That prodigal son in the Gospel was forsaken within and without, who both, living luxuriously, ran to waste within, and, wasting away with hunger, found no comfort without. But of those whom God deserts in this manner, some he deserts for their testing, that they may be exercised by temptation; others he deserts for their overthrow, that they may be cast down by temptation. For which cause the Psalmist also prays: Turn not aside in wrath from thy servant (Psal. XXVI); as if 261Bhe should say: Even if thou permittest me to be tempted, do not let me be led into temptation, that is, to be overcome by temptation. But because a man cannot penetrate the depth of the divine judgments, then most of all does each one set in temptation dread that he has been forsaken, when he beholds himself harried by temptations both within and without. But he bears adversities without more easily whose conscience within the delight of sin does not trouble. And again, he endures temptation within more easily who has comfort without. Whence also the great tribulation of this woman is shown, who is demonstrated to have been forsaken both within and without; for this which is said: Weeping she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks, intimates that she was forsaken within; but that which is said: There is none to comfort her among all 261Cher dear ones, declares that she was desolate without. There follows: All her friends have despised her, and are become her enemies. See how many are the tribulations of the just. Perhaps it was too little for her, set in distresses, that she received no comfort from her dear ones, unless she also endured persecution from her friends. But who are these friends who persecute us, save those of whom it shall be said in the Gospel: A man's enemies are they of his own household? (Matth. X.) These therefore are our enemies, our persecutors, our own household, our friends, near to us according to the affinity of the flesh, who love us for the present life by a love of the flesh, but gainsay us as we walk in the way of God. For when we desire to remove ourselves far from the love of this world, 261Dstraightway we find those who before seemed friends to be adversaries. First indeed, when we wish to be converted to God, they strive under the pretext of a pestilent affection to call us back with flattering persuasions. But if they see them fixed and immovable in their good purpose, presently they disown and spurn them as adversaries, and sometimes even, by hounding them with most savage hatreds and afflicting them with punishments, from false friends they become true persecutors. Let him say therefore, there is none to comfort her among all her dear ones, because in tribulation she does not deserve to receive the words of the just for her comfort; all her friends have despised her, and are become her enemies, because from the wicked she suffers insult and contempt.

Judah hath departed. He passed over, he withdrew, he fled from his own land into Babylon, because he could not endure the great 262Aservitude with which he was afflicted by the nations, judging that it would be more tolerable for him if he served one nation in a foreign land than if he were a prey to all the nations in his own.

He dwelt among the nations, nor hath he found rest. It is proper to the afflicted that they always judge the present peril the heavier. As the sick in the night look for the day, and in the day desire the night, and while they always long for their pain to pass, always tend toward pain, so surely this people, while it was afflicted in its own land, sought flight; but when it was made desolate in exile, and, wandering as a vagabond, could not find rest, it sighed for return. And here he expresses the feeling of those who waver, not because they departed of their own accord, but because, set in straitness, they changed their wishes to a contrary 262Bmind.

All her persecutors have taken her in the midst of straits. Hemmed in on every side, he could find no place of escape; fleeing the Chaldeans, he fell among the Egyptians; and when he was fleeing from the Egyptians, he ran into the Assyrians.

Mystically, Judah, who is interpreted confessing, signifies certain men in the Church who confess the name of Christ; but because they are not yet firm in the love of Christ they blush to suffer adversities for Christ. Of such it is said: They believe for a time, and in the time of temptation they fall away (Luc. VIII). These therefore, on account of the affliction and the multitude of servitude, in which, while they will not share in the sufferings of the just, become strangers to the fellowship of the just. He dwelt among the nations. 262CTo dwell among the nations is to imitate the life and conversation of the depraved. Not to find rest is to be entangled in the actions of this world; for because in the actions of this world there is no end, there can be no rest for those who pursue them. Yet often a man for love of the present life willingly bears the labors which for the love of God he was refusing to bear. There is made therefore a great reproach against those who depart from God, and at the same time excuse is taken away from them, since it is openly shown that they transgressed without cause, when by declining useful labors they came down to useless labors. All her persecutors have taken her in the midst of straits. So long as the heart of a man is enlarged by charity and by the hope of eternal goods, if perchance it endures without in tribulation, yet within it has no straitness. How great a good therefore 262Dhe loses who loses the confidence which is in God, a man can recognize from this, that the heart always suffers straitness in adversities, unless it be enlarged by the hope of future goods. In the midst of straits, he says, they have seized her. And consider what are the straits of those who depart from God: they are never secure, they always tremble; in prosperity they fear, in adversity they despair.

Judah hath departed. There are some who, while they look upon their own sins, kindled by a certain transitory compunction, come as far as confession; they purpose to enter upon the ways of a better life, and promise that thereafter they will not return to the vices they have committed. But because they will not afflict themselves with a satisfaction worthy of what they have committed, 263Anor with the Apostle chastise the body and bring it into servitude (I Cor. IX), when temptation quickly comes upon them they return to the sins which they had forsaken; because they cannot easily resist vices who neglect to mortify in themselves the affections of the vices. Of whom it is here said: Judah hath departed because of affliction and the multitude of servitude. For what does Judah signify but those who confess their own sins? who depart because of affliction and the multitude of servitude, when, overcome, they go away after their own concupiscences; because they dread to mortify them by the affliction and servitude of their own flesh. Against whom Wisdom says: Son, coming to the service of God, stand in fear, and prepare thy heart for temptations (Eccle. II). For those who confess their sins and resolve to amend their 263Blife, these surely come to the service of God. But they neglect to stand there, when, overcome by adversities, they fall from their good purpose. This is what he admonished, prepare thy heart for temptations, that walking in the way of God we may be ready to bear adversities: we who, before we were in the way of God, swelled with pride at not having perpetrated unlawful things. He dwelt among the nations, nor hath he found rest. What is it to dwell among the nations, save to comply with carnal desires, where rest is not found — that rest, surely, which the Lord in the Gospel promises to those who labor, saying: You shall find rest for your souls (Matth. XI); and of which it is said to the sinner: Thou hast sinned, add not again; but be at rest (Eccle. XXI). And deservedly: those who would not endure labor in the body 263Ccome to the labor of the soul, and the fury of evil desires harries the mind of those whose flesh the due penalty does not chastise. So surely that Samson, his eyes plucked out, is set at the mill; because the spirit, having lost the light of truth, is carried round about by the appetite of earthly desires. Which Samson, so long as he had the hair of his head, was unconquerable; but after he fell asleep in a woman's lap, and, shaven as to his head, lost his hair, forthwith he is taken by his enemies, and is blinded, and is even made over to servitude. Samson is interpreted their sun, and signifies the spirit illuminated by divine knowledge. The head of Samson is the principal part of the mind. The hair of the head is the ray of contemplation. The woman's lap is the blandishment of the flesh. For so long as the spirit cleaves to contemplation, 263Dit cannot be overcome by temptation. But if he shall have been dissolved incarnis delight, and shall have fallen asleep there, forthwith he loses the light of inmost truth, and, the ray of contemplation being cut off, he does not suffice to fight back against depraved motions; and at length, his eyes plucked out, he is set at the mill, when, forgetful of the inward sweetness, he is scattered abroad through earthly desires. For what is the mill, save a mind unstable and unquiet which, while it always strives to grasp what it craves, driven round as it were by its own desires, never rests? Well therefore is it said: He dwelt among the nations; nor hath he found rest. Because the mind which follows the desires of the flesh is a stranger to inward quiet in the measure that it is scattered abroad without through things that slip away. All her persecutors 264Ahave taken her, in the midst of straits. Sometimes those who fall away from the purpose of the virtues are worse than those who have not yet been able to come to the purpose of virtue: because the latter hope that they can attain to that which they have not yet had; but the former are so much the farther from salvation as they have the more evidently lost, with despair, the virtue they had begun. More therefore are these open to the snares of the demons than those; because hope of future correction in some manner draws those back, but their own despair drives these to ruin. Therefore of those who, after the beginning of good, return to their vomit, it is here said: All her persecutors have taken her, in the midst of straits. For who are our persecutors, save malignant spirits and the desires of the flesh, which war against us in our 264Bmembers? And what is the straitness, save the despair of a sinful conscience, which straitens the heart within? He therefore is seized by all his persecutors in the midst of straits, who for this reason does not gainsay the demons suggesting sin, and his own desires, in his fault; because from a preceding lapse he already despairs of pardon. Judah therefore hath departed because of affliction, when this man, who by confession had already begun to amend his life, broken by the trouble of temptations, falls from his purpose. He dwells among the nations, when he fixes his mind upon the delight of carnal desires. He does not find rest, when concucupiscentia drags his heart apart through the precipices of the vices. He is seized by all his persecutors in the midst of straits, when, now pressed by despair, he struggles against no 264Cdepraved suggestions.

The epilogue of the whole first alphabet. Our physician, holding the sick man in his hands, behold how he proves the skill of his art. First by long stroking he calls the numbed limbs back to feeling, and by handling the painful wounds with a gentle touch he steadies them for the stroke; then he cuts, then he anoints, then he binds, then he cherishes, and restores him to full health. So this alphabet is divided into five partitions. The first is complaint; the second is rebuke; the third is consolation; the fourth is instruction; the fifth is entreaty. By the complaint he strokes; by the rebuke he cuts; by the consolation he anoints; by the instruction he binds; by the entreaty he cherishes. The complaint is from the beginning of the alphabet as far as that place where it is said: To what shall I 264Dcompare thee (Thren. II), etc. There the rebuke begins, and reaches as far as that place where it is said: The Lord hath done that which he purposed (Ibid.), etc. There the consolation begins, and reaches as far as that place where it is said: Let tears run down like a torrent (Ibid.). In which instruction sinners are formed unto repentance, and it reaches as far as that place where it is said: Behold, O Lord (Ibid.). And from thence to the end is the entreaty, in which the prophet beseeches the Lord for sinners. These things having been briefly tasted beforehand, let us now inspect the order of the complaint itself. First he laments them as though absent, because he ought not so quickly to have disturbed with direct address those who were in bitterness. He begins also to lament first those things which are least, 265Alest the weight of unforeseen grief overwhelm the minds of the mourners; and thus, going forward little by little in his enumeration from the lesser to the greater, he gradually rouses the minds of his hearers to mourning. First therefore he mourns the depopulation of the country; then the destruction of the common buildings; then the overthrow of the sacred edifices; then the contamination of holy things; then from inanimate things he goes forward to the misery of men, namely to the bewailing of their casting down and their want; and so at last he ends his complaint.

(THREN. II.) How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Sion with gloom in his fury. A lamentable beginning: it begins from wonder, that so suddenly was that people cast down which before seemed exalted even to heaven. The gloom signifies the sadness of tribulation. 265BThe daughter, he says, of Sion — Sion herself, that is, the nation of the Jews, whom he loved and guarded with a father's affection; or the daughter of Sion herself, that is, the region of Judea. For the custom of the Scriptures holds that metropolitan cities be called mothers, and the surrounding regions, and the towns too, and the forts and the villages, daughters, Therefore he begins, as was said above, to lament her from afar, namely the region, that at last he may come to the very head of the region, Jerusalem. There follows:

And he remembered not the footstool of his feet. That is, the people, which was humbly subject to his service.

The Lord hath cast down headlong, and hath not spared. Here distinguish.

He hath destroyed all the beautiful things of Jacob in his fury. Here 265Cdistinguish again. Then there follows:

He hath cast down to the ground the strongholds of the virgin of Judah. Here once more distinguish. Then there follows:

He hath polluted the kingdom and its princes. What in the preceding clause he had set forth generally under the name of the land, this he here pursues by parts — the beautiful things, the strongholds, the kingdom, the princes; and see how the lament grows: before he had named the soil only, then the land; but lest perchance that land itself should be thought barren and untilled and therefore less to be lamented, he thereafter strengthens his lament concerning its opulence and its loftiness. He hath cast down headlong, he says: it is more to cast down headlong than to cast away; and what is yet graver, and hath not spared. This was truly fulfilled in the last captivity, because they are now no more to be called back — he hath cast down headlong. 265DWhat: he hath destroyed all the beautiful things of Jacob, he hath cast down the strongholds of the virgin of Judah. By the beautiful things understand opulence: by the strongholds strength and power. By Jacob and the virgin of Judah the same people is signified. Yet Jacob is the general name of the twelve tribes: but Judah pertains to two tribes only. Therefore, the general name having been set first, he at once joined the special name, that he might show that he was lamenting the captivity of the two tribes. Jacob therefore and Judah are the same people: Jacob, because sturdy in power; the virgin of Judah, because delicate in opulence. What then are the beautiful things of Jacob, save the opulence of the strong? and what are the strongholds of the virgin of Judah, save the strength of the opulent. There follows:

266AHe hath polluted the kingdom and its princes. That is, of the virgin of Judah. He hath polluted, he says, because of the nations among whom they were scattered: by whose fellowship and rite they were profaned, who before reigned secure in the protection of God, and trusted in the strength of their own princes. But now the whole kingdom with its princes is polluted, because the people, with its protectors, is subjugated to the nations.

He hath broken in the anger of his fury every horn, and hath at the same time turned back his right hand. By the horn is signified the strength of her princes; but by the right hand of God the divine protection is understood. What then is it that is said of God, he hath broken every horn of Israel, he hath turned back his right hand, save that in a transgressing people he both crushed all human strength, 266Band at length took away his own protection, so that those may be shown wholly desolate from whom, after human defenses, the divine help too is taken away. He hath turned back, he says, his right hand. He turned back the right hand, that he might not protect; and stretched out the left, that he might strike. Whence there follows:

And he kindled in Jacob as it were the fire of a devouring fiammae round about. As fire also, when kindled, ranges widely and consumes all things, so the enemies of the Jews, after all strength had failed in them and the divine help had been withdrawn, with none besieging them, laid all things waste.

He hath bent his bow as an enemy. In the bow a threatening is understood. To bend the bow therefore is to enlarge the threatening or to defer it; but he who strikes after 266Cthe threatening has bent the bow as an enemy. Whence there follows:

He hath made firm his right hand as a foe. When in Scripture the right hand of God is set down, sometimes protection, sometimes a grievous striking is signified, in that the right hand is by natural aptitude the readier for striking. First therefore God turned back the right hand, that he might not protect; afterwards he made the right hand firm, that he might strike. But that it is said, he made firm his right hand, expresses the grievous indignation of him who strikes. Or he makes firm his right hand over the stricken, because the blow which once in anger he inflicted he does not purpose to heal any more; which is properly referred to the last captivity. Whence fittingly is joined, as a foe, who namely strikes unto utter destruction, 266Dnot unto correction. For he would not make firm his right hand as a foe, if, while that one strikes to destroy, he himself were striking to correct. Whence it is to be pronounced with grievous sorrow: as an enemy, as a foe. He, whose wrath the guilty cannot escape, nor can an enemy hinder his mercy.

And he hath slain all that was beautiful to see in the tabernacles of the daughter of Sion. Nothing is slain save what lives. Above he had said: He hath destroyed all the beautiful things; but here, wishing now to say something further, he says, he hath slain all beautiful things, that he may show that by this calamity he took away not only riches, but the very souls themselves. Whence it is rightly subjoined when it is said:

He hath poured out his indignation like fire. Not like 267Awater, but like fire. For the violence of waters is wont to cast down and lay waste things, not to consume them. Whose inundation the Lord threatens through another prophet, saying. I will bring the waters of the flood upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the spirit of life (Gen. VI). But fire not only destroys, but consumes. And therefore rightly is the indignation of God said to be poured out like fire, when the divine vengeance ranges even to consuming. Lastly, in the very name of pouring out there is expressed the violence and, so to say, the abundance of the tribulation.

The Lord is become as an enemy: he hath cast down Israel headlong; he hath cast down headlong all her walls. Thus far he seems to have lamented the desolation of the daughter of Sion, that is, of the region of Judah. Now he turns himself to the bewailing of the mother Sion herself, namely 267Bthe city of Jerusalem, saying: The Lord is become as an enemy — a grievous grief. The Lord, who was wont to cherish, who was wont to love, is become as an enemy, because he now strikes not as a father unto correction, but as a foe unto consuming. He hath cast down headlong her walls, that is, Sion's; he hath laid waste her strongholds. Walls are made in a city for adornment, strongholds for safeguard. What then is it, he hath cast down headlong the walls, he hath laid waste the strongholds, save that he cast down what was lofty and broke what was strong? What therefore he had lamented above concerning the region, this same thing he now bewails as done in Jerusalem also; so that there, by the beautiful things of Jacob, you may understand the beauty of the region to be signified; here, by the walls of Sion, the adornment of the city; there, by the strongholds of the virgin of Judah, the strongholds of the region; here, by the strongholds of Sion, the strongholds of 267CJerusalem herself. Whence quite fittingly he set there the beautiful things only, here the walls, because the adornment of a region is one thing and that of a city another. For the adornment of a region is rather considered in the richness of its crops and the fecundity of its flocks. The adornment of a city, in the loftiness of its buildings; and therefore the beautiful things are said to be destroyed and the walls to be cast down headlong, that you may know all things laid waste — both those, namely, which adorned the city within by their beauty, and those which adorned it without by the usefulness of the regions.

And he hath filled in the daughter of Judah the humbled man and the humbled woman. The desolation of the region and of the city having been described, as though answering to both he brings in: And he hath filled in the daughter of Judah, that is, in the Jewish nation, which he had loved as a daughter with a father's 267Deffect, the humbled man and the humbled woman, that is, he filled her with the humbled of either sex, so that she should be full of the humbled, that is, of the cast down. Or by the humbled man we can understand the order of prelates; by the humbled woman, the subject people. Corresponding to which he had said above, in the laying waste of the region: He hath polluted the kingdom and its princes, so that we may understand the same by the kingdom as by the humbled woman, the same by the princes as by the humbled man.

And he hath laid waste his tent as a garden. Now he comes to the bewailing of the destruction of the sacred edifices. And so far as concerns the letter, by the tent and the tabernacle he signifies the temple of the Lord which was in Jerusalem, which was overthrown first by the Chaldeans, then by the Romans. And he calls the temple a tent 268Aor a tabernacle for this reason, that in its stead the children of Israel of old made use of a tent and a tabernacle for the worship of God, first in the desert and afterwards in Shiloh. Moreover a tent is properly so called where curtains are stretched by cords to stakes fixed in the ground. But a tabernacle is constructed with certain boards, as is written of the tabernacle of the covenant which Moses built in the desert, over which veils were spread outside and curtains stretched on every side. It is said therefore of the overthrow of the temple, he hath laid waste his tent.

He hath demolished his tabernacle. And according to the letter the words are fitting, that what is stretched out should be laid waste; what is fixed to the ground should be demolished by a kind of undermining. As a garden, he says, 268Bhe hath laid waste his tent. Which Isaiah had foretold before in these words: The daughter of Sion shall be left as a shade in a vineyard, and as a hut in a garden of cucumbers (Isa. I). As if he should say: As from a garden and from a vineyard, after the fruits have been gathered, the guard of men is taken away, so from this people, because it is barren of the fruit of good work, the divine guard shall be taken away, so that it be given over to the laying waste and the plundering of its enemies. Or, by the garden, we can understand a place of pleasure and luxury. Whence it was forbidden by the law that a grove be planted in the courts of the Lord, because the worshippers of idols too were wont to sacrifice under leafy trees and in verdant places, serving wantonness and pleasure. He says therefore, he hath laid waste his tent as a garden, as if he should say: Because into a place of sanctity 268Cunchastity and pleasure entered, therefore laying waste and desolation came. There follows:

The Lord hath delivered to oblivion in Sion the festival and the sabbath. That is, he not only cast these away, but after casting them away seeks them no more. Which properly pertains to the last captivity, when, grace being now made manifest, the observances of the former law were utterly overthrown and repudiated. There follows:

And to reproach and to the indignation of his fury the king and the priest. It is understood: he hath delivered. To a king honor is owed; in a priest devotion is loved. And now, instead of honor, reproach is rendered to the king, and instead of devotion, indignation to the priest, that all the excellence and religion of the Jewish people may be shown destroyed. There follows:

268DThe Lord hath cast off his altar. Here he now begins to treat of the contamination of holy things. The Lord hath cast off his altar: he shows himself to be implacable, when he casts away even that whereby he was wont to be appeased. There follows:

He hath cursed his sanctification. That is, the sacrifices by which they were formerly wont to sanctify those who offered them. Which we now plainly see fulfilled, when the legal victims, which in their own time could sanctify those who offered them, if they be held to after the fulfilling of grace, now the rather provoke God to wrath. There follows:

He hath delivered into the hands of the enemy the walls of her towers. That is, of the sanctification; for that he might show that he no more 269Areceived those former sacrifices, he permitted the very place in which they had been wont to be offered to be overthrown from the foundations, so that from this it might become clear to all that, the former place being made desolate, the former rite ought to cease. But that he says, the walls of the towers, so far as concerns the letter is to be understood thus, as if he should say, her fortified towers, intransitively, that is, not only the walls of the city without, but also the walls of the towers within. Whence there follows:

They have made a noise in the house of the Lord as in the day of a solemn feast. The enemies themselves, namely, with none resisting them, seized upon all things, and rejoiced that they had prevailed.

The Lord hath purposed to lay waste the wall of the daughter of Sion. Lest God should seem to have brought in these so great evils without consideration, he is said to have purposed, that is, deliberated, before the deed. 269BBy the wall of the daughter of Sion we ought to understand the strength and the defense of the Jewish people. There follows:

He hath stretched out his line. That he might measure their merits, and render to each according to his own works. Or he stretched out the line, that is, the penalty. wherewith he should bind sinners, he drew out long, waiting through patience; but striking at last so much the more grievously, wherefore there follows:

He hath not turned away his hand from destruction. That is, because he found none free from fault, he left none exempt from penalty. There follows:

And the outwork mourned, and the wall is laid waste. So ambiguously is it placed, alike, that it seems able to be referred to either, namely either that the outwork was laid waste alike 269Cwith the wall, or that the wall mourned alike with the outwork. And we can not unfittingly understand by the outwork the guard of men, but by the wall the guard of angels, both of which were taken away from the people of the Jews by the just judgment of God, so that neither men without nor angels within could defend from the pressing tribulation the people forsaken by God; according to which acceptation the distinction is fitting, that he bewails the outwork to have mourned and the wall to have been laid waste — so that he may show, namely, the former, that is, the good prelates, troubled by compassion even at the overthrow of their own people, but the latter, that is, the angels, withdrawn from their guardianship.

Her gates are sunk into the ground. That is, Sion's. For 269Da memorial of perpetual grief, after the overthrow of all things the signs of the ruin remain. For the gates remain not for a defense, but for a sign of the calamity; which, that they may lie wide open, are fixed in the ground, and, lest they should furnish a protection, having lost and broken bars, they have no bolts. There follows:

Her kings and her princes are among the nations. It is understood: he hath destroyed and crushed them: and it looks back to what he had said: The gates and the bars (Ezech. XXXVIII), that is, the kings and the princes, who were the defense and the strength of the people, have been cast down and cast away and crushed. There follows the cause of so great an evil, because:

The law of the Lord is not with them. That is, because they are transgressors of the law, and because:

Her prophets have not found vision from the Lord. 270AThat is, because they listened to those prophets who did not speak from the Spirit of the Lord.

How hath he covered, etc. Under the appearance of one nation he bewails the fall of the whole human race. The first man was stricken in three ways: with ignorance, with concupiscence, with mortality. And by mortality is understood death itself, together with all the defects and penalties that run before death itself. He says therefore: How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Sion with gloom in his fury; because man, whom he had created to contemplate the light of eternity, deserting him when he sinned, he left in the darkness of ignorance: for Sion is interpreted a watchtower, where the incursion of enemies is descried from afar. And to the first man it was said: Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil eat not: for on whatever 270Bday thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death (Gen. II). Man therefore is set up as it were upon a certain watchtower, when he is bidden to beware by circumspection of the peril of the impending evil. What then ought we to understand by the daughter of Sion, save the soul of man not yet strengthened by the practice of circumspection? For, as there is said a daughter of Babylon, that is, a daughter of confusion, and a daughter of Jerusalem, that is, a daughter of contemplation, so there is said a daughter of Sion, that is, a daughter of watching, as one still tender and new in watching, and not yet made solid into manly strength. As if he should say: This at least might have mitigated the fury of him who judges, that he who had transgressed had not yet been made solid in the precept by the practice and experience of obeying. How hath he covered, he says: what is covered is indeed hidden, not taken away; because the light of reason 270Cin man was darkened by sin, not taken away. How hath he covered, texitne lest it should be able to see the higher things, that is, the heavenly. There follows: he hath cast down from heaven the glorious land of Israel. Israel is interpreted a man seeing God. And the first man, before he sinned, was Israel, because through the presence of inward contemplation he saw God. By the land of Israel therefore we fittingly understand the body of man; which God indeed took from the earth by creation, but by immortality transferred in a manner to heaven; and because, sin demanding it, he again bade it be dissolved into death: he cast down the land of Israel as it were from heaven, that is, from incorruption to corruption. And rightly does the prophet, in lamenting the fall of man, commemorate first 270Dthe gloom of the mind, and then the corruption of the flesh; because that ought deservedly to go first in the penalty which went first in the fault: so that, as the flesh would not have come into unlawful delight unless the mind had first been corrupted, so likewise, unless the mind had first been blinded by ignorance, the flesh would not have descended into corruption; because Adam himself too first, while he was being sought, hid himself, and then, having been found, received the sentence of death. There follows:

And he remembered not the footstool of his feet in the day of his fury. By the feet of the Lord his precepts are understood; by the traces of the feet, the knowledge of the precepts. By the footstool of the feet are understood those who by obedience are made subject to the precepts of God; as it were therefore did God set his feet upon a footstool, when upon the first man 271Ahe laid the precept of life to be obeyed; but of this footstool in the day of his fury he was as it were not mindful: he who with great strictness exacted the penalty of transgression from him to whom before he had gently given the precept of obeying.

The Lord hath cast down headlong, and hath not spared. A casting down headlong pertains to a great and to a sudden ruin. See how great a ruin: from paradise into this world, from this world into hell, from immortality into death, from death into damnation. Whence well is it joined: And hath not spared. For he would as it were have spared the sinner if he had tried his guilt by penalty, but had not compelled him to go into corruption through the death of the flesh; or if, after the death of the flesh, he had not at the least cast the soul too headlong into damnation. There follows: 271BHe hath destroyed all the beautiful things of Jacob in his fury, Jacob is interpreted supplanter. And man in a manner supplanted the devil not by fighting but by grace, when he receives the power of ascending thither whence the devil had fallen. This Jacob in the first condition of his being was beautiful within and without, whose conscience flourished through innocence and whose flesh through chastity. But the beautiful things of Jacob were destroyed; because concupiscence both polluted the comeliness of chastity, and the guilt of his own crime made his conscience at once foul and dark. Or he had the beautiful things of Jacob because within, the sight of invisible goods gladdened him, and without, the beauty of visible things roused him to the glory of his Creator. But the beautiful things of Jacob were destroyed, because God, in vengeance for the first guilt, hid from 271Chis mind the knowledge of invisible goods, and changed the sight of visible things from that spiritual gladness into the concupiscence of the flesh. Whence well is it joined: He hath cast down to the ground the strongholds of the virgin of Judah. For what do we understand by the virgin of Judah, save the chaste intention of the soul: which intention, namely, when it is everywhere directed to the judgment of the divine will, what else does it do than confess to the Lord? Of which intention the strongholds were the good desires of the soul and the natural appetites of the body. For so long as neither the flesh without nor the soul within craved anything inordinate, the intention of man was in every action as it were fortified and secure. But when the natural desires degenerated into enticing appetites and earthly affections, the strongholds 271Dof the virgin of Judah were as it were cast down to the ground, so that now the intention of man is not secure even in good things, since it can easily be corrupted and deceived from close at hand by inordinate desires. Whence it is subjoined: He hath polluted the kingdom and its princes. The kingdom of the soul was the flesh, so long as the soul had God reigning within it through love. The princes of the kingdom were the virtues of the soul, by which the soul ruled the motions and the appetites of the flesh. But after the spirit swelled against God, straightway it found in its own flesh the contumacy of contradiction; because by God's disposing it was brought about that the cleanness, of chastity should pass into the pollution of concupiscence, so that where before he gloried as humble, there he should blush as proud. Its kingdom therefore, that is, the soul's, and its princes, 272Anamely the kingdom's, God polluted; because out of the concupiscence by which the integrity of the flesh was violated, he suffers the virtues of the soul also to be stained.

He hath broken in the anger of his fury every horn of Israel, etc. By the horn is signified the strength of virtue; by Israel, man; by the right hand, the protection of God; by the enemy, the devil; by the face of the enemy, the pressing on of the devil; by the fire, concupiscence; by the circuit, the body which surrounds the soul. A horn is not born with the animal, and yet there is naturally in it the cause from which the horn may arise. So the soul has its virtues not from nature but from grace; which virtues nevertheless the same grace works in man not without the natural consent of free will. But because man by sinning lost the liberty of choice, and God justly withdrew his grace from sinning man, 272Bevery horn of Israel was as it were broken; because he both lost the virtues he already had, and did not deserve to obtain even those which he was to have. There is also another thing which we can note in the horn. For the horn in growing hardens out of the moisture of the flesh, and the rational creature, grace cooperating, receives strength from the advancement of the virtues. Likewise, as the horn defends the head and the feet, so virtue guards the mind within, and the works without, from harm. He hath turned back, etc. The devil followed the first man walking in the way of obedience, that he might call him back; but he could not have access to harm the man, because the right hand of God was between him and the man. But when man of his own accord turned himself to the persuasion of the devil, straightway God turned back his right hand from the face of the enemy, 272Cso that he should not repel him, now pressing on, from harming the man; that the transgressor might feel the fault of his own transgression at least in the penalty. There follows: And he kindled in Jacob as it were a fire, etc. The fire is the concupiscence of the flesh, which we contract in being born; and so long as we live in this concupiscence, we bear with it as though carrying a certain household foe within ourselves. This fire is always in us, but it does not always burn, it does not always have a flame. But then is the fire kindled into flame, when the tinder of sin is roused as far as delight and consent. Which flame, namely, devours round about; because as the moth consumes a garment, so too depraved delight corrupts the integrity of the flesh with which the soul is clothed. It devours round about, because through all the senses 272Dof the body it pours in on every side the venom of corruption for the violating of the soul's chastity; or by the circuit we can understand this world. And the concupiscence of the flesh devours round about; because running through all the delights of this world, it labors to satiate its own evil desires. He hath bent his bow, etc. In the bow a threatening is understood: in the right hand made firm a vehement striking is marked. God therefore both bends the bow and makes firm his right hand, because to sinning man he both threatens perpetual penalties in the future, and meanwhile avenges his guilt with present scourges as well. Which nevertheless, because he works it not out of anger but out of mercy, he is called not an enemy but as an enemy, and as a foe. Which can also be read otherwise. God bends the bow 273Awhen he threatens sinners with penalty, and yet still defers the sentence by waiting: but because he defers with some that, being corrected, they may be amended, and with others that, persevering, they may be more grievously punished — in those whom he awaits unto amendment he bends the bow, not as an enemy, but as one propitious; but in those whom he suffers to live unto the heaping up of their damnation, he bends the bow as an enemy. Likewise in those whom he corrects by scourges he makes firm his right hand, but not as a foe; but those whom he strikes unto utter destruction, in them he makes firm his right hand as a foe.

But that it is said, he made firm his right hand, can be understood thus. For upon the first man God laid as it were his right hand, when he inflicted upon him as he sinned the stroke of mortality; which right hand God still confirms, 273Bas often as he adds daily scourges upon the first wound. But that he said above. He hath turned back his right hand, and here says, he hath made firm his right hand, is not contrary. For he turned it back, that he might not protect; he turned it toward them, that he might strike; he made it firm, that he might multiply the scourges, so that the present penalty may teach the stricken what manner of penalty awaits in the future those who shall have persevered in evil. Whence it is said in the psalm: Thou hast given a warning to them that fear thee, that they may flee from before the bow, and that thy beloved may be delivered (Psal. LIX). There follows: And he hath slain all that was beautiful to see in the tabernacles of the daughter of Sion. The tabernacle of the soul is the body, because it inhabits it by making it sentient. The tabernacle of the soul is also the conscience, because in it each one rests with himself 273Cand with the household of his own thoughts. All therefore that was beautiful to see in the tabernacles of the daughter of Sion the Lord slew, because he both made all the vigor and beauty of the human body without to wither away from that state of immortality, and within stripped the conscience of man of the honor of right thoughts. Or by all that was beautiful we can understand without, discipline and the comeliness of good works, and within (as has been said) the cleanness of good thoughts. And note that nothing is slain save what lives. Good works live, when they are done with right intention; good thoughts live, when they feel the affection of inmost love. But care must be taken, when God is said to destroy and take away the virtues from man, that he be believed to do this not by acting, but by 273Dpermitting. For he does it, because by a just judgment he permits it to be done. There follows: And he hath poured out his indignation like fire. In the pouring out abundance is signified; as if he should say, he did not drip it, but poured it out, like fire, not like water, but like fire. For fire consumes hard and strong things; like fire therefore is the indignation poured out, because in vengeance for the sinner's transgression not only the flesh but the soul also is tormented. Or because fire hardens mud, but either liquefies or reduces to ashes what is hard: the indignation is poured out like fire, so that in one and the same penalty the hard and the rebellious may be confounded and perish; but those who have been willing humbly to acknowledge their own infirmity may be strengthened and made safe.

The Lord is become as an enemy. We have made 274Athe reason why he should be an enemy, who before was not an enemy, because he hates not that which he himself created, but that which we have made. There follows: He hath cast down her ramparts; he hath destroyed her fortifications. The ramparts of the soul are one thing, her fortifications another. The ramparts pertain to comeliness, the fortifications to safekeeping. So there are certain gifts of graces which adorn, as is prophecy, kinds of tongues, the interpretation of speeches; and certain which fortify, as are faith, hope, charity. The former, if they be present, furnish an ornament to the virtues; the latter, if they be lacking, a peril. The former, even if they be lacking, do not for all that hinder salvation; without the latter men cannot attain to salvation. And well is it first said: He hath cast down the ramparts, and then subjoined: he hath destroyed the fortifications; because, when a sinful soul is abandoned, first 274Bthere are taken from her the gifts which were given for manifestation, and then the foundations of faith, hope and charity are overthrown. He hath cast down, he says, the ramparts. What is lofty is cast down; what is solid is destroyed: because, as has been said, the ramparts pertain to glory, the fortifications to protection. There follows: And he hath filled in the daughter of Juda the humbled man and the humbled woman — that is, he humbled the spirit and the flesh in man by filling them with misery and grief, so that they who would not be humbled well through virtue might be humbled through affliction. Or by the humbled man and the humbled woman we may understand sense and thought, so that she is driven with reproaches within and without, until, confounded, she return to penitence. This may also be referred especially to the Jewish people. For the prophet, considering how 274CGod, after the casting out of the first man, willing to have mercy upon the human race, chose this people alone, that in it he might prepare the beginnings of our salvation; how he tended it with the commandments of the law that was given, and everywhere exalted it by his own protection; and after all these things cast it off when it sinned and transgressed — and so, reckoning a second to the first adjection, he laments, saying: The Lord is become as an enemy, he hath cast down her ramparts, he hath destroyed her fortifications. For when he took away from the people of the Jews prophecy, and doctrine, and the signs of miracles, he cast down as it were her ramparts. But when he permitted them to be blinded through unbelief, and to be strangers from the hope of his permission and of his inheritance, he destroyed as it were her fortifications. There follows: 274DAnd he hath filled in the daughter of Juda the humbled man and the humbled woman. What shall we understand by the humbled man, but the order of prelates; and what by the humbled woman, but the subject people? For both were humbled at the coming of Christ, because the truth which they had preached and believed was to come, they denied when it was present. Concerning whom it is further subjoined.

And he hath destroyed his tent as a garden, etc. The tent is without, the tabernacle within: as also the tabernacle of the covenant, into which Moses entered to consult the Lord. Rightly therefore by the tent is signified the people, by the tabernacle the order of prelates. For when God so exalted that ancient people with temporal glory, he spread out as it were a tent for comeliness. But when, enlightening certain 275Aof them unto the knowledge of his secrets, he held them worthy also of his familiar converse, he built as it were a tabernacle to dwell in. But because afterward, coming in the flesh, he both deprived that people of the knowledge of the truth, its sins requiring it, and then scattered it by the Romans among all the nations of the world, rightly is it now said: He hath destroyed his tent, he hath demolished his tabernacle. And it is to be noted that he says the tent is not demolished but destroyed, and asserts that the tabernacle is not destroyed but demolished. For what is demolished is pulled down gradually and secretly. What therefore in this place is expressed by demolition, but hidden hatred? The tabernacle therefore was demolished and the tent destroyed, because unless envy had driven the Scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of the people, 275Bto the slaying of the Saviour, the vengeance of captivity would not have destroyed that people so cruelly. And see by what likeness he says the tent was destroyed: as a garden, he says. As a garden is laid waste when, its fruits having been gathered out of it, the hedge is destroyed and the guard removed, so from that people, after it ceased to bear the fruit of justice, the guard and protection of God at once withdrew; according to the prophecy of Isaias saying: The daughter of Sion shall be left as a shade in a vineyard, and as a hut in a cucumber-field. And the Lord himself in the Gospel speaks to the Jews, saying: The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruit thereof (Matth. XXI). For the barren garden, and not bearing fruit, that is the Synagogue of the Jews, is laid waste; and the garden bearing 275Cfruit, that is the Church of the Gentiles, is fortified and enclosed, as is said in the Canticle of Canticles: A garden enclosed, my sister, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up (Cant. IV). And well does he call her sister whom he names an enclosed garden, because the Church of the Gentiles was born by faith out of the Synagogue, from which also Christ took flesh: yet nevertheless that same Synagogue, because it had not the fruit of justice, he laid waste as a barren garden. The mother therefore of Christ, that is the Synagogue, is a garden laid waste. The sister of Christ, that is the Church, an enclosed garden. There follows: The Lord hath delivered over to oblivion in Sion the festival and the sabbath. For the observances of the law were certain shadows of things to come; and therefore, after the 275DTruth itself came, God no longer admits the former things unto his worship. For he calls him as it were forgetful, because he no more commands those things to be rendered to him. There follows: Unto reproach and unto the indignation of his fury, the king and the priest. Understand: he hath delivered them over. By these two persons was that people governed, namely the legal and the priestly. And the words are fitting: honour to the king, devotion pertains to the priest; but now against honour is set reproach, against devotion indignation. And by their sacrifices God is not appeased, but is angered. As it is said by Isaias: The blood of he-goats, and of calves, and of rams I would not: incense is an abomination to me. When you came before my sight, who required these things at your hands? (Isa. I.) And by the Psalmist: I will not take, 276Ahe says, calves out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy flocks. Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the most High (Psal. XLIX).

But if we turn the things said above to the moral sense, by the tent we may not unfittingly understand good action, which is spread abroad without for comeliness. But by the tabernacle, conscience, in which each one abides with himself in a certain familiar and domestic converse. For that the tabernacle signifies conscience, the Psalmist makes plain when he says: The voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the just (Psal. CXVII). For the just utter their voice as it were in tabernacles, because concerning their good acts they wish to become known within, in conscience, to God alone. As it were a tent, therefore, is destroyed 276Bwhen the brightness of a good work, shaken by the wind of flattery, is driven from its state of uprightness. But the tabernacle is demolished when the cleanness of conscience is secretly corrupted by unlawful delight. And rightly is it said: He hath destroyed his tent as a garden. For in this each one begins to be barren, that he seeks to glory in his good work in the eyes of men, so that for the rest he is now unworthy of God's protection for working well, because he does not keep with God the fruit of his own seed, that is the reward of his own work. This too we may note in the tent: that as a tent is first stretched out by cords, and then those cords are held by stakes fixed in the earth, so also good working ought to be stretched by the perseverance of intention, lest it be slackened; and that intention itself, lest it grow slack from its purpose, 276Cought to be confirmed by the hope of eternal reward, as it were by certain stakes fixed in the solidity of the earth. There follows: The Lord hath delivered over to oblivion in Sion the festival and the sabbath. What is understood by the festival, but inward joy; and what by the sabbath, but the rest of the mind? For he had said two things above, namely: he hath destroyed his tent, and he hath demolished his tabernacle. To these two he seems to answer. As if he said: Because he hath destroyed his tent, therefore he hath delivered over to oblivion the festival. But because he hath demolished his tabernacle, therefore he hath delivered over to oblivion the sabbath. For how great is the sweetness of inward joy he does not remember, whoever seeks joy in the praises of men and in transitory things; and in no wise 276Ddoes the mind enjoy true peace within, when it is troubled by the incentives of vices and by the affections of carnal desires. There follows: Unto reproach and unto indignation the king and the priest. Our soul ought to be both king and priest. King, because it ought to rule its own flesh. Priest, because it ought unceasingly to offer to God its own devotion. But the king is delivered over unto reproach when the soul, made subject to her flesh, is servant to base desires. The priest is delivered over unto indignation when the obstinate mind is hardened by the habit of sin away from that devotion which it was wont to have toward God. God therefore destroys us, demolishes us: he is said to deliver us over unto oblivion, unto reproach, unto indignation, because the afflicted mind complains that this is done as it were by God, which by him, his own judgment 277Apermitting, is not hindered. For he permits that we be destroyed, that being destroyed we forget him, that having forgotten him we come unto reproach and unto indignation. There follows:

The Lord hath cast off his altar. Above he had spoken of the blinding of the Jews; now he subjoins in what order the same was done, saying: The Lord hath cast off his altar. For what is the altar of God, but Christ? Because when through him the mediator God is rendered appeased toward the human race, the sacrifice of our propitiation is as it were offered to God upon him. This altar God the Father as it were cast off, when in the passion he abandoned Christ, even unto the gibbet of the cross, into the hands of the persecuting Jews. God the Father also cursed his own sanctification, because upon him 277Bwhom he had singularly sanctified, and had sent to sanctify us, he first laid the penalty of our curse to be expiated, and then made us, absolved from the guilt of the curse, partakers of that sanctification. There follows: He hath delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her towers. The walls of the towers, which in a city are the more eminent, designate the apostles, who then in holy Church were both more eminent in dignity and stronger in constancy. But these too were delivered into the hand of the enemy, because, when they saw Christ die, they in a manner fell through unbelief. There follows: They have made a noise in the house of the Lord as in the day of a solemn feast. By the house of the Lord the Church is understood. The enemies therefore made the voice of exultation in the house of the Lord, when, the shepherd himself being dead and the sheep scattered 277C, they gloried that they had utterly prevailed. Or by the house of the Lord we may understand Christ himself, as the Apostle says: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself (II Cor. V). And so they made the voice of the enemy in the house of the Lord when they insulted him as he hung upon the cross, saying: He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the Son of God, let him now come down from the cross, and we believe him (Matth. XXVII). Whence it is well added, as in the day of a solemn feast. For a solemnity is a general and common festival. As it were therefore in the day of a solemn feast do they make a noise, who, their joy being fulfilled, exult that nothing now remains over for their desires. The Lord hath cast off his altar. The altar of God in us is our faith, upon which we immolate the sacrifice 277Dof good work. Which altar, namely, is then cast off, when our faith, stripped bare of good works, is reprobated by God. Concerning which it is further subjoined: He hath cursed his sanctification. For our faith is sanctified when merits are increased to it by the increments of virtues; the sanctification is cursed when, the virtues being lost, faith itself is violated by depraved actions. Whence it is further added: He hath delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her towers. For what do the walls of the towers signify, but the more eminent virtues, which are both solid through fortitude and upright through circumspection? The walls of the towers therefore are delivered into the hand of the enemy when, the soul being made subject to him through consent unto iniquity, the adversary lords it even over the highest virtues. Concerning which it is rightly subjoined. They have made a noise 278Ain the house of the Lord. For then do the enemies make a noise in the house of the Lord, when the malignant spirits, admitted within the conscience, no longer knocking from without persuade sin to one who resists, but presiding within command one who consents. Whence beautifully by a likeness it is subjoined: As in the day of a solemn feast. For then does the devil fully exult, when he finds nothing in us that gainsays his will.

The Lord hath thought, etc. God is said after the manner of a man to think upon a deed, lest he be believed to do anything rashly and without deliberation. But the deliberation of God is nothing else than his patience and his justice. Patience, by which he long bears with offenders, that they may be corrected; justice, by which he repays those who persevere with what their merits deserve. Whence it is subjoined: He hath stretched out his line. 278BFor what is it to stretch out a line over offenders, but first diligently to examine the manner and the quantity of the offence, and then, according to the measure of the fault, to moderate the measure of the vengeance? Wherefore it is subjoined: And he hath not turned away his hand from destroying. As if he said: He excepted no one from punishment, because he found no one free from fault. Which may also be read otherwise. The Lord hath thought, etc. For by the thought of God the hidden dispensation of his incarnation may be understood. And because, coming in the flesh, he cast off the Jews by a certain hidden counsel, that he might gather the Gentiles unto the faith, he first as it were destroyed the wall of the daughter of Sion, that is, he took away his protection from the people of the Jews, and so thereafter stretched out the line of his inheritance over the people of the Gentiles. For his line was as it were contracted 278Cwhen it was said of the people of the Jews only: Jacob is the line of his inheritance (Deut. XXXII); but then is the line stretched out when, as has been said, the lot of the inheritance is spread abroad over all nations. But because the blinding of the Jews went before the enlightening of the Gentiles, it is rightly subjoined when it is said: And he hath not turned away his hand from destroying. For as it were, stretching out the line, he would have turned away his hand from destroying, if, gathering the Gentiles, he did not reprobate the Jews. Hence it is that the prophet Isaias, when he beheld in spirit the faith of the Gentiles and the blinding of the Jews to come, said: Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast not increased the joy (Isa. IX). For the nation being multiplied, the joy was not increased, because the former 278Dfathers, although indeed they rejoiced over the salvation of the Gentiles to come, yet at the same time grieved over the destruction of the Jews. Whence here also it is rightly subjoined: and it sucked the autemurale, and the wall is destroyed. For what in this place does the bulwark designate but the former fathers; and what the wall, but the Mediator himself of God and men. As it is said by Isaias: Sion the city of our strength, a saviour shall be set therein as a wall and a bulwark (Isa. XXVI). For he, according to the form of the humanity he assumed, is made for us as it were a wall; because those whom he received as believing in him through faith, he also guards by defending them against the assault of malignant spirits. But because the holy Fathers also, for the guarding of the Church of God, keep watch unceasingly by preaching and by example in spiritual vigils, 279Athey stand without as it were a bulwark in the city of God let it therefore be said: The bulwark mourned, and the wall is destroyed together; because thereat all the multitude of the former Fathers grieved, that the faithless people of the Jews receives not the Saviour sent unto them. But that it is said, the wall is destroyed, is said in respect of those from whom he was taken away. He was destroyed for the Jews, that he might be built up for the Gentiles, because faith in him passed over to the Gentiles by this, that Judaea, remaining in faithlessness, reprobated it; as it is said by the Psalmist: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner (Psal. CXVII).

For by this, that he was reprobated by the faithless Jews, of the Gentiles alike and of the believing Jews, as of two walls running together from opposite quarters into one, 279Bhe was made the head. But that he said, together, may be taken thus: either that the wall mourned together with the bulwark, or that the wall was destroyed together with the bulwark. For neither disagrees with sound understanding. For that the Redeemer of the human race himself also, with the rest of the faithful, wept over the faithlessness and the ruin of that people, the Gospel manifestly declares, where it is said. When the Lord drew nigh to Jerusalem, seeing the city he wept over it and said: For if thou also hadst known, for the days shall come upon thee, and they shall compass thee about, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground (Luc. XIX). Likewise, that the fellowship of the saints together with its own head was destroyed by them, is openly shown in the Acts of the apostles, where it is related how the Jewish nation 279Cwould not receive the faith of Christ, and cast out his faithful ones from their own borders. The Lord hath thought, etc. What is it that the Lord is said to think before the deed, but that God first long bears with sinners through patience, that he may afterward more strictly exact the fault through justice. Whence rightly is it now said: The Lord hath thought to destroy the wall of the daughter of Sion. For what do we understand by the wall of the daughter of Sion, but the virtues of the soul: And often almighty God, reprobating afterward on account of depraved works those whom he had already adopted as sons through faith and the grace of spiritual gifts in the bowels of his Church, deprives them even of those very virtues which he had already bestowed. But because he is never wont to be so grievously angry with us when we sin, unless 279Dhe has first been long provoked by our iniquities, rightly is it now said: The Lord hath thought to destroy the wall of the daughter of Sion. As if it were said: He deliberates before he strikes, nor does he quickly pronounce sentence, until by subtle consideration he examine the fault. Which is also more evidently explained when it is said. He hath stretched out his line. For what is it to stretch out the line, but subtly to examine the measure of the sin? Or to stretch out the line is to bear long with those persevering in sin — not that he by bearing increases the iniquity, but that by his own just judgment he permits it to be prolonged in us, either by not correcting or by not punishing; which iniquity is called the line of God, because it finds in us wherewith we are bound. Wherefore it is needful that we be always solicitous lest, through the gifts of virtues received, 280Aeither pride lift us up or negligence dissolve us; because perhaps, while we, ill secure, neglect to guard the grace received, we know not how dreadful is that which the invisible judge thinks concerning us: who, although he long bears with us sinning, dissembling indeed yet not unknowing, we ought nevertheless to know that where a long deliberation goes before, a heavy chastisement follows; even as we see that the more attentively a man brandishes his stroke, the more perilously he hurls it. Whence it is subjoined: He hath not turned away his hand from destroying. As if it were openly said: The more he first endured by bearing, the less now does he spare in striking; because assuredly it is exceedingly just that, if we do not draw back our own hands, while we may, from unlawful work, God's hand also in avenging be not turned away 280Bfrom destroying. There follows: And the bulwark mourned, and the wall is destroyed together. If by the wall, as has been said, the virtues of the soul are signified, rightly by the bulwark do we understand the works of the virtues. What is it therefore that, God taking vengeance upon us, the bulwark mourns and the wall is destroyed, but that, his grace withdrawing, both virtue is taken away and the works of virtue are made foolish. For then do our good works mourn, when, virtue being lost, even if they remain for a time, they nevertheless have no merit. There are those who will understand by the wall works, by the bulwark faith; and well is faith said to mourn when good works are destroyed, because without good work faith is not approved with God.

Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars. In the gates the loftiness of the kingdom, in the bars 280Cthe strength, is noted. The gates therefore are sunk into the ground: loftiness humbled and cast down. The bars destroyed and broken: strength lost and shattered. How this was done he adds, saying: Her kings and her princes among the Gentiles — understand: the Lord destroyed, that is, scattered, and broke, that is, reduced to nothing. By what desert this also came about he subjoins: There is no law, namely among them, because they keep not the law of the Lord: and her prophets have found no vision from the Lord. With bitterness must it be pronounced, her prophets. As if he said: She loved those more who prophesied false things out of their own spirit, than those who found a vision from the Lord. Her gates are sunk into the ground, etc. What ought we to understand by the gates 280Dand the bars of the city, but the prelates of the people? For the same men are both gates through word, and bars through counsel, and ways through example. Through eloquent word, gates of brass; through firm counsel, bars of iron; through good example, level ways. For they are gates when they lead in unto the faith, through the word of preaching, those placed without. They are bars when they confirm and direct, through the counsel of salvation, those established within through faith. They are ways when they become to such as are already beginning an example of walking rightly through good working. Rightly therefore by the gates of Jerusalem may we understand the Scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of the Jews. Of whom it is here said: Her gates are sunk into the ground. Gates, if indeed they are upright and have solid bars, can according to the time 281Abe shut and opened — shut, namely, to enemies, and opened to friends. But gates loosed from their bars, and taken away, do not fortify the entrance, nor do they withstand those wishing to enter. But gates which, their bars being broken, are delixae in the ground, do not indeed furnish a defence, and yet they hinder those wishing to enter. What therefore are upright gates, but teachers preaching heavenly things, which hang well upon bars, because the word of preaching is made firm out of the counsel of the heart? And what are gates destroyed and taken away, but negligent and lukewarm preachers, whom the Lord rebukes by the prophet, saying: Dumb dogs, not able to bark? (Isa. LVI.) And elsewhere: Thou hast not gone up over against them in the day of the Lord, that you might set yourselves a wall for the house of the Lord (Ezech. XIII). Of whom also 281Bhe had said above: Her gates are destroyed. But here, wishing to intimate something further, he says: Her gates are sunk into the ground. For to such the Lord says in the Gospel: Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, because you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered in, and others who wished to enter you have forbidden (Luc. XI). Let it be said therefore: Her gates are sunk into the ground. For by the earth either the love of earthly things, or the humanity of Christ, or the carnal observances of the law may be understood. Well therefore are the gates said to be sunk into the ground, because the Scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of the people, for this cause that they had fixed their mind upon earthly desires, not only would not receive Christ, but rather, lest they should lose that land, killed Christ. Or they are sunk into the earth, because, regarding in Christ the flesh alone, 281Cthey fell into the snare of faithlessness. Or they are sunk into the earth, because, the spiritual understanding of the law having been transferred to the Gentiles, they themselves remained in carnal observances. Whence it is well subjoined: He hath destroyed and broken her bars. For what do the bars designate but the hidden and strong counsels of the Scribes and Pharisees, by which they took counsel to kill Christ, lest they should lose the land? But he destroyed and broke the bars, because he reduced their counsel to nothing. The counsel was destroyed, because by killing Christ they could not extinguish him. The counsel was broken, because for this they lost the land, that they killed Christ. Wherefore it is subjoined: Her kings and her princes among the Gentiles — understand: God appointed, namely that 281Dthe Gentiles should reign and rule over them. So therefore were the bars destroyed and broken, that they not only paid tribute to the kings of the Gentiles, but also that the prefects and governors of kings dwelt among them and oppressed them, and at length cast them out, rebels, from the land, and scattered them through the whole world. Concerning whom it is further subjoined: There is no law, namely among them, because, even though they have the books of the law, yet because they believe not in Christ, they do not observe the law. But because they still promise themselves that their Christ is yet to come, against this it is rightly answered, when it is said:

Her prophets have found no vision from the Lord. As if he said: What they preach concerning the coming of Christ, falsely flattering themselves, this they have found from themselves, not from the Lord revealing it. Sunk in the ground 282Aare her gates. What do we understand by the gates of the soul, but the senses of the body? Which gates, namely, we then sink into the ground when we incline our very senses to earthly desires. But because the sense without never succumbs to base desires, unless first within the guard of the mind has been broken and destroyed through negligence, it is rightly subjoined, when it is said: He hath destroyed and broken her bars; for he destroys the bars when, good fear being taken away, he leaves the mind wandering and dissolute. He breaks the bars when, the vices entering in, he permits the constancy of the mind to be broken and softened. Whereupon there follows: Her kings and her princes among the Gentiles. For by the Gentiles the vices are signified. The kings therefore and princes of the soul are among the Gentiles when those vices themselves through consent begin 282Bto lord it over her. Or by the kings and princes we may understand the very virtues of the soul, by which she was formerly governed. Kings, because within they preside over the wills; princes, because without they move the mind to act well. And it is to be referred to what he had premised: he hath destroyed and broken her bars, namely the kings and princes, that is, he destroyed and broke the virtues among the Gentiles, that is, he permitted them to be broken and oppressed by the vices. For hence it is that he adds, saying: There is no law. For the mind ought to have a law within, namely the fear and the love of God, and to govern its senses without according to the judgment of this law. Fear, namely, lest it dissolve through wantonness along with the concupiscence of the flesh; and love, lest sloth render it torpid in good work. But if perchance the mind fixes its gates, that is its own senses, 282Cin earthly delights, it is itself a judgment to itself, that, its bars being broken — that is, its virtues lost — it has lost also the law of life within, namely the fear of God and love. To whom it is well further said by way of reproach:

Her prophets have found no vision from the Lord. For after the mind, the governance of the understanding being lost, begins to follow the judgment of the senses, it now shuns those things only which the affection of the senses reports to be evil, and follows those which the affection of the flesh approves. Whence it must needs often be deceived: which, while it considers present delights only, does not avoid future bitternesses. Hence it is that Moses so often runs back to the tabernacle, to consult the Lord; 282Dbecause a man ought rashly neither to seek nor to shun anything without, unless he first discern within, by the judgment of the mind, what is pleasing to the will of God. Or to the perverse soul, which everywhere follows the affection of the flesh, not the judgment of the mind: rightly here by way of reproach is it said: Her prophets have found no vision from the Lord. Because assuredly he casts himself headlong into the pit of destruction, who always considers what is sweet to his own flesh, and attends not to what pleases God.

The ancients have sat upon the ground, they have held their peace, etc. Thus far he has described as it were the destruction of buildings: henceforth he laments the misery and grief of men. The ancients have sat upon the ground, they have held their peace. The sitting designates dejection, the silence stupor. And fittingly 283Aare the ancients, in whom the authority of counsel ought to have been, said to have kept silence; because so great was the calamity that it could be relieved by no counsel. There follows:

The virgins have sprinkled their heads with ashes. Of their own accord they defile the beauty of their comeliness, that by that very squalor without they may show the vehemence of inward grief. And beautifully in tribulation do the ancients keep silence, while the virgins sprinkle their heads with ashes; because evil, when it presses vehemently, turns mature senses into stupor, and wanton ones to impatience: concerning whom it is further subjoined:

They are girded with haircloth. This to the ancients.

They have cast down their heads to the ground. ALLEGORICAL. This to the virgins. They wish to hasten death, who to pressing evils add voluntary afflictions besides. 283BThe ancients have sat upon the ground, they have held their peace, etc. The prophet's mind, considering all the evils of the present life, leading the eye of compunction from the beginning — from the very fall of the first man, unto the blinding of the Jewish people, and then descending through the evils of the present Church — extends its lamentation unto the end of time. For in the foregoing he described buildings pulled down, ramparts destroyed, beginning as it were from the lesser: hence now, advancing as it were to greater things, he laments the misery and grief of men these things therefore, which follow, may not unfittingly be referred to the present Church. The ancients of the daughter of Sion have sat upon the ground, they have held their peace. What is understood by the daughter of Sion, but the present Church: which was born of the Synagogue through faith? The ancients therefore of the daughter of Sion are called the prelates of the Church, 283Cwhose old age is sought not in the number of years, but in the advancement of wisdom and in maturity of manners. And well ancients, because not as little ones set under the law, as it were under a pedagogue. For the ancient people was as it were a little one; because it was nourished by the rod of the law and by earthly promises, until it should climb to a mature sense, that it might serve God not for earthly but for heavenly things. These ancients therefore of the daughter of Sion ought not to sit upon the ground, that is, to seek earthly and transitory things; but to be in the heavens by their converse and their desire, so that what they preach by word they may show by their manners. But because the prophet foresaw that there would be many in holy Church who, obtaining the place of prelacy, would stain by perverse manners the dignity of their office, they will burst forth into a voice of grief, thus 283Dhe says: The ancients of the daughter of Sion have sat upon the ground. For what is it to sit upon the ground, but by leaning upon earthly delights to cease from good work? But because they who, ceasing from good, do perverse things, blush to speak the word of truth lest they become witnesses of their own depravity, he rightly went on and added: They have held their peace; because assuredly, where the guilt of crime gnaws the conscience, the fear of confusion binds the tongue from preaching. There follows:

The virgins of Jerusalem have sprinkled their heads with ashes. What do we understand by the virgins of Jerusalem, but the good subjects in the Church, who, preserving the integrity of faith by sincerity of manners, hasten to the vision of the peace above? And what by the head, but spiritual action? What 284Ais signified by the ash, which is left behind by fire, but earthly thoughts? For ash is born as it were from fire, when the leavings of empty thoughts are generated out of carnal concupiscence. Well therefore, after the ancients sit upon the ground and are silent, do the virgins sprinkle their heads with ashes; because whenever the simple in the Church see their prelates, the zeal of preaching being set aside, leaning upon earthly delights, they too begin to be carnally delighted even in the good things which they do. And rightly did he name the ancients of the daughter of Sion, and the virgins of Jerusalem, because prelates in holy Church ought to be lofty through the providence of circumspection. But subjects, in the good things which they humbly perform, ought always through the intention of the mind to look toward the vision of eternal peace; so that both 284Bthey, being set on high through virtue, may guard the things that are beneath, and these, being placed below through humility, may always strive by intention toward the things above. This therefore the prophet laments, that they sit who ought to have stood upright, and that they who were wont to contemplate heavenly things cast ash upon themselves, that they may not be able to lift their sight to lofty things. And note that even the perfect are said to have dust upon their feet; but they who sprinkle their heads with dust are now numbered among those to be lamented, because in earthly actions the good do indeed sometimes contract light stains through weakness, whereas the evil grow foul, even in those things which they seem to do bravely, through the intention of praise. There follows:

They are girded with haircloth. What is signified by the haircloth, but the care 284Cof earthly things, which pricks the conscience with the continual stings of occupations? First therefore are the ancients described as sitting upon the ground, and afterward as girded with haircloth, because where the mind has first been loosened in the love of carnal delights, presently thereafter care follows, which pricks it by making it solicitous for the fulfilling of its own desires. The virgins likewise are said first to sprinkle their heads with ash, and afterward to cast down those same heads to the ground, because this is the order of destruction: that each one first darkens the good things which he does through the intention of human praise, and then changes even those good works themselves into depraved actions. MORAL. The ancients of the daughter of Sion have sat upon the ground, they have held their peace. By the diverse ages, and sexes, and offices of persons, 284Dthe inward motions of the soul are distinguished. For what the offices of persons distinguish without, this the motion of the affections performs distinctly within. What therefore ought we to understand by the ancients of the daughter of Sion, but the counsels of a faithful soul? But it must be known that the counsels of the elect are one thing, and those of the reprobate another. For the counsels of the elect are to despise the present life and its delights, to keep patience in adversities, through present tribulations to reach per tingere unto future glory. The counsels of the reprobate are to flee adversities, to love the present life, to give tarrying to carnal desires; to despise or to despair of the life to come. Of the counsel of the ungodly it is said by the Psalmist: Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly (Psal. I); and of the counsel of the just, in the same psalm afterward, 285Ait is consequently added: Therefore the ungodly rise not again in judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the just. If therefore they who are converted to the counsel of the just rise, deservedly are they said to sit who have slipped down into the counsel of the ungodly; because the one tends upward and the other downward, the one seeks heaven and the other earth. The ancients therefore of the daughter of Sion sit upon the ground, when the affections of a soul forgetful of the eternal promise cleave to earthly and transitory delights. Of whom it is rightly said, they have held their peace. For inward desire is as it were a certain cry in the ears of God. And therefore the more a depraved mind seeks transitory things without, so much the more does it fall silent within from the desire of things eternal. There follows: The virgins of Jerusalem have sprinkled their heads with ashes. By the virgins of Jerusalem 285Bwe ought to understand the clean thoughts of the soul. What is it therefore that, after the ancients sit upon the ground, the virgins are said to sprinkle their heads with ash, but that when the affections of the soul have been depraved, straightway a mist of thoughts is generated? Whence it is further subjoined: They are girded with haircloth. For after the sitting and the sprinkling of ash the haircloth follows, because the depraved delight and the confusion of the mind a harsh compunction out of the guilt of its own crime is generated to the sinning conscience. But last of all, at the end, the heap of unhappiness is added, when it is subjoined: The virgins of Juda have cast down their heads to the ground. For to cast the heads to the ground after the girding of haircloth is, after the anguish and trembling of an evil conscience, to despair also of pardon. Wherefore also they are rightly called the virgins 285Cof Juda. For to the increase of grief confession is named last in them, because that too, the last of all, after all the other virtues have been lost, is shut out from the despairing.

My eyes have failed for tears, etc. LITERAL. The prophet, in the person of the Church lamenting her own members, having enumerated the evils of the lost, adds the compassion of the good; for the evil are lamented by the good before they are lamented by themselves; and while the ill-sound still exult in their own destruction, the sighs of others indicate how much they are to be made. He says therefore:

My eyes have failed for tears, my bowels are troubled: my liver is poured out upon the earth. The eyes in holy Church are the provident, the bowels the merciful, the liver the zealous and those fervent in good work. For as 285Dthe natural philosophers report, in the liver is the heat of digestion. As therefore the jecut, or liver, by its own heat digests raw food in the stomach itself, and thence transmits the nutritive juice into all the parts of the body, so assuredly do they who rouse others by the fervour of their devotion from torpor to work well minister nourishment, as it were out of their own digestion, to the body of Christ. What is it therefore that, sin laying waste the faithful people, the eyes of the Church fail, and the bowels are troubled, and the liver is poured out upon the earth, but that they who truly have the charity of Christ always suffer with the miseries of others? As the Apostle says: Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? (I Cor. XL). For there is no surer sign of true charity 286Athan the affection of fraternal compassion. And well did he say that the eyes fail for tears, because often fault ulcerates the life of subjects with so vehement a blow that all the reason and diligence of prelates succumbs, and now amid such great evils there is no other counsel save only to flee to tears and to implore the divine clemency. This the Psalmist beautifully signifies, saying: They were troubled, and were moved like a drunken man; and all their wisdom was swallowed up. And they cried to the Lord when they were in tribulation: and he delivered them out of their necessities (Psal. CVI). Well therefore do the eyes fail for tears, because often, when evil presses vehemently, sorrow makes the eye of discretion grow dim. The bowels are troubled, because within the affection of piety is shaken. The liver is overspread upon the earth, 286Bbecause often in the elect, through sorrow at another's peril, the alacrity of the mind is bound up, so that they are rendered the more lukewarm to do good things even in themselves, the more they are afflicted in compassion for a brother's tribulation. By the eyes therefore, and the bowels, and the liver, are signified they who lament, not they who are lamented. Whence also presently, joining on a sentence by the words following concerning those who are lamented, he sets forth the cause of grief, saying:

For the destruction of the daughter of my people. For what is signified by the female sex, but the weak common people? whom nevertheless, when he names her daughter, he shows to have the profession of faith; and by the destruction an irreparable calamity is shown, as what is crushed is no more repaired. There follows

286CWhen the little one and the suckling fainted in the streets of the town. He determines the destruction: by the little one, the untaught people and simple in faith. By the suckling, depraved teachers. By the streets of the town we ought to understand the pleasures of this world. The little one therefore and the suckling faint in the streets of the town, when all the carnal and foolish go with perverse teachers along the broad way of pleasures unto destruction; and note that he says, fainted. For those are more to be lamented who fail from good, than those who never were good.

They have failed, etc. ALLEGORICAL.: It is proper to the elect to lament others' evils as their own. For as by rejoicing together with the good they become partakers in their merits, so also by grieving together with the evil through compassion they make gain for themselves out of 286Dtheir destruction. Let the sinner therefore learn how he ought to weep for his own evils, when the just man afflicts himself with so great contrition for the offences of others. My eyes, he says, have failed for tears. How greatly, think you, was that man pricked, who so wept? For he does not show that he poured out tears once only, who says that his eyes have failed for tears. But because many pour out tears and are not pricked in heart, he went on and added: My bowels are troubled, that is, the arrow of grief penetrated even to the inmost parts of the heart, grief touched the sense, and the affection of piety trembled. There follows: My liver is poured out upon the earth. What is signified by the pouring out, of the liver, but the affliction of the flesh? For because in the liver the digestion 287Aof the stomach receives its heat, they who in the affliction of their own body set care for it aside, what else do they but pour out the liver upon the earth. Lest therefore the tears be believed empty, the sighs feigned, the groans simulated, behold, a manifest affliction of the flesh follows. But perhaps this man grieves for parents or kinsfolk. Hear what he says. For the destruction, he says, of the daughter of my people: not of a father, not of a mother, not of a brother, not of a sister, not of a kinsman, not of a relation by marriage, but of my people, he says, lest the goad of his grief should be thought the affection of the flesh and not of charity. But I suppose this man honours with his lament the famous and the rich among the people? Attend to what he says. When there fainted, he says, the little one and the suckling. First of all mark his discretion. He laments that they fail, and does not lament that they are not rich. Who a little one, he says, and 287Ba suckling. See that he has compassion on weakness, and does not venerate strength or pomp. But perhaps he still honours, in the weakness of sex and of age, nobility of birth: In the streets, he says, of the town. Not in a hall, not in a city, not in a commonwealth, not even in a house, but in the streets of the town; because the greater the abjection of the crushed, the heavier, and therefore the more precious, is the compassion of him who grieves.

They have failed, etc. MORAL. What is understood by the eyes, but the clarity of contemplation; and what by the bowels, but the sense of inward sweetness; and what by the liver, but the fervour of divine love? What is it therefore that the prophet records, at the destruction of the daughter of his people, that his eyes have failed, and his bowels are troubled, and his liver 287Cpoured out upon the earth, but that every spiritual man, the more he pours his mind outward unto compassion in the tribulation of his neighbours, so much the more deplores those inward joys, which he was wont to taste in quiet, as withdrawn by that very perturbation of his own sorrow? There follows: For the destruction, etc. By the daughter of the people is understood the carnal soul; by the little one, the sense of the flesh; by the suckling, the virtue of the mind. For the sense of the flesh, so far as in it lies, always seeks certain childish and light things, save in so far as the constancy of the mind restrains it through discipline. As a little one therefore it is fed with milk, because through the virtue of the mind it is nourished little by little unto the maturity of constancy, as unto manly strength. There follows: In the streets of the town. By the town we may not unfittingly understand the body which 287Dthe soul inhabits, and by the streets of the town the flowing desires of the flesh. Why therefore are the little one and the suckling said to faint in the streets of the town at the destruction of the daughter of the people, but that in a carnal soul the sense without is first corrupted through enticing desires, and then the virtue also and constancy of the mind is softened?

They said to their mothers, etc. LITERAL. In mothers is noted a more tender affection of love, who, if they can, not only hear the desires of their sons but anticipate them. Why therefore do they wait for their sons to ask, unless because they have not what to offer to the needy? And lest thou suppose that a mother's tenderness had hardened by some natural vice, hear what they once showed themselves to their sons. 288AThey do not ask for barley and water, that is, servile foods, because they were not wont to give anything of that kind; but:

Where is, they say, the wheat and the wine. This they ask, which they were accustomed to receive. Yet they do not ask, but enquire in wonder, because they were not wont to ask, but to have. But perhaps thou wilt say, these sons were wanton and dainty, they sought superfluous things, which even a mother's tenderness ought to refuse; hear what follows.

When they fainted, he says, as the wounded in the streets of the city. A twofold evil, want and ignominy. It would at least have been more tolerable to faint in the house, and to be consumed with hunger in secret, than in the streets, together with the wasting of hunger, to bear the confusion of ignominy. There follows:

When they breathed out their souls in the bosom of their mothers. 288BAll things work together unto evil. In the streets they faint. In the bosom of their mothers they breathe out their souls, so that both the manifest wasting may multiply confusion, and the present death, grief.

To their mothers, etc. ALLEGORICAL. The prelates of holy Church ought to be ancients in prudence and in counsel, and mothers in tenderness. But because any who are depraved and negligent, when they obtain the place of prelacy, put off the care of their subjects, and study rather their own avarice or their own luxury, rightly is it now said by the prophet: They said to their mothers: where is the wheat and the wine. A great grief, because what they withhold from those who ask, this they ought to have offered even to those who do not ask. But it must be known that in three ways the life of subjects speaks to prelates: through misery, through desire, through obedience. 288CFor they ask when they are in need, they ask when they desire, they ask when they are ready to hear. Through misery they ask, because the neediness of the afflicted, once seen, while it provokes pious minds to succour, even if the tongue be silent, the life cries out. Through desire also they ask, because in a manner to ask is to wish to have. Likewise through obedience they ask, because, while they offer themselves ready to receive, they say as it were that they wish and desire. To negligent prelates therefore, even if not the tongue of their subjects, yet their life always speaks; because both by the peril of the evil and by the desire and the obedience of the good they are moved to bestow the zeal of preaching and the example of a good manner of life. And attend to this: that in the time 288Dof necessity the sons call not upon fathers, but upon mothers. As if they said: If you have forgotten what is due, you ought at least not to forget tenderness. Let the dumb dogs, not able to bark, blush (Isai. LVI). Let them blush, who from shepherds are become wolves. Let them blush, who feed the Lord's flock not as shepherds but as hirelings. Who are strong for tearing and feeble for protecting. Ready to receive, slow to bestow. Eloquent to circumvent, untaught to speak well: who either exact more than is due; bestow less than is due, or nothing; who have changed the judgments of truth into forensic causes. Woe to them, why do they not attend to what they owe; and if they will not anticipate the petition, let them at least hear those who ask, because perhaps even in the petition itself they will be able to learn 289Awhat they owe. Where is, say they, the wheat and the wine? They do not ask for barley and water, but for wheat and wine. Let us see therefore what this wheat and wine may be, and why the sons do not ask for barley and water, although they are set in the necessity of famine. In the Gospel we read that five thousand men were fed with five barley loaves (Joan. VI). But afterward four thousand are satisfied (Matth. XV), and yet nothing is there said about barley loaves. Likewise we read in the Gospel that six stone waterpots were first filled with water, but afterward those waters were changed into wine (Joan. II). Of wheat also the Lord himself makes mention in the Gospel, saying: Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much 289Bfruit (Joan. XII). What therefore is understood by the wheat, but Christ; what by the barley, but the law; what by the water, but carnal sense; what by the wine, but spiritual understanding? To servants therefore, who held the law by a carnal sense, barley and water could suffice; but the sons, who are now adopted through grace in Christ, and know how to eat Christ spiritually, desire nothing but wheat and wine. All these things, says the Apostle — namely the observances of the law — I count as dung, that I may gain Christ (Philip. III). See in what manner this man casts away the barley of the law, and seeks to eat nothing but wheat, that is, Christ. And well by the barley, which is rough to eat, is the law understood, and by the wheat, which is pleasant and sweet, Christ; because the law 289Ccame to punish sins, and Christ to loose them.

Why therefore Christ should be called wheat, we now by the grace of God both learn by reading and perceive by eating. And in four ways do we eat Christ. For we eat Christ when, by bodily taking the sacrament of his body and blood, we spiritually fatten our souls. We eat Christ when by believing we love Christ. We eat Christ when we imitate Christ. We eat Christ when by hearing the word of God we pass over into the manner of life of the new man. What is it therefore to seek wheat, but to seek Christ, to seek the word of God, the doctrine of truth, and the manner of life of the new man? Wheat therefore we seek 289Dwhen we desire to hear the word of life and to imitate Christ. But if we eat wheat, we ought to drink hibere wine and not water, that is, to take the word of God by hearing, and through spiritual understanding to water it within us. For this is what is commanded us in the law, that we boil not the flesh of the paschal lamb in water (Exod. XII), because that which is given for spiritual feeding ought not to taste carnally to us. Let the good subjects therefore question their evil prelates, and say: Where is the wheat? As if they said: Where is the doctrine of truth? where are the examples of the new man? As if they said more openly: You neither by speaking show forth the truth, nor by living well show yourselves worthy of imitation. Where is the wine? As if they said: You, who handle even spiritual things carnally, how will you be able to call us from carnal things 290Ato spiritual? You, who cannot forget the earthly things which you seemed to have cast away, how will you make us drunk unto the forgetting of the things which we possess? Eat first, and afterward refresh others; be made drunk, and then make others drunk. O the shame! What shall we say to these things? What wonder is it if the people love carnal things, when the clergy sell even spiritual things for carnal? Whence it is rightly subjoined, when it is said. When they fainted as the wounded in the streets of the city. There are two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. But Babylon has streets, that is, broad ways, which lead to death. In the streets therefore of the city do they faint who, flowing away through the enticements of the flesh, grow soft from the virtue of the mind; or by the city we not unfittingly understand the Church herself; for 290Bholy Church has streets, and has also paths. For what are earthly actions, but certain streets; and what are spiritual actions, but paths? In the streets therefore of the city are they who in holy Church lawfully serve earthly actions. But in the streets of the city they faint who, occupied with earthly business, find no spiritual consolers. Who assuredly would in no wise faint, if the losses which they often suffer without were always repaired within by the counsel and admonition of good prelates. Whence it is well said of such, as the wounded. For what are sins, but wounds? As the wounded therefore do they faint, who tend to destruction through negligence, just as others do through fault. With great grief therefore must it be pronounced, as the wounded, as if it were said: 290CWhy do these perish through the negligence of prelates, who are not wounded by crimes and outrages? Whence there follows: When they breathed out their souls in the bosom of their mothers. For what is the bosom of the mothers, but the soft flattery of prelates? As it were dying; for mothers hold their sons in the bosom, when evil prelates, the minds of carnal men perishing in their own body, not only do not rouse them to good working, but even, stroking them with soft favours, cherish them in their own destruction.

They said to their mothers, etc. MORAL. What are we to understand spiritually by the sons of mothers, unless a multitude of thoughts, which, while they come forth in one mind out of diverse affections, proceed as it were the offspring of many mothers 290Din one house, yet not from one origin? Now we have said that thoughts are born of the affections for this reason, that assuredly the memory of those things comes to us most frequently through thought, with the love of which we have been affected. This we easily prove to be true through the individual vices and virtues. For hence it is that it is said in the Gospel: Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart (Matth. VI). As if it were said: Where thy love is, there is thy mind. Such as thy affection is, such also is thy thought. But it must be known that, just as the affections generate thoughts out of themselves, so those thoughts in turn the more inflame the affections from which they arise. Whence also in those who diligently guard their heart from unlawful thoughts, the roots of evil 291Aaffections at length wither away utterly. But on the contrary those who neglect to exercise their mind in holy meditations, even if they have first grown warm with some spark of divine love, gradually cool, and at last so far that, even if they should sometimes have thoughts of good affections, yet they perceive nothing of inward sweetness distilled from them into the bosom of the mind, not even thinly. For which reason it is rightly said in this place: They said to their mothers: Where is the wheat and the wine? For what is signified by the wheat, unless the food of wisdom; and what by the wine, unless inward joy? For as bodily bread refreshes the belly, so wisdom feeds the mind; and as wine eagerly drunk inebriates, so inward joy estranges the mind from carnal desires. What is it then that the famished sons seek from their mothers 291Bwheat and wine, unless that thoughts born of good affections, but dried up through negligence, cannot find in them the savor of their former sweetness? Of whom it is rightly added: When they fainted as wounded in the streets of the city. For what are the streets of the city, unless the wanderings of the mind? In the streets of the city therefore they faint, because, while the wandering mind does not gather them to inward quiet, they do not reach as far as the taste of the innermost savor. To whom this also well agrees, that it is said as wounded. For depraved desires are the wounds of good thoughts, because, while they infect them by their admixture, they corrupt the integrity of their rectitude like certain blows. Rightly therefore are the barren thoughts of the soul said to faint as wounded, 291Cbecause they remain as empty of the fruit of justice as those which have been corrupted through unlawful desires. There follows: When they breathed out their souls in the bosom of their mothers. The bosom of the mothers is the lukewarmness and sloth of good affections; in which the little thoughts are deservedly said to breathe out their souls, because, when the mind grows lukewarm from the fervor of divine love, presently all the vigor of good thoughts dies away

To what shall I compare thee? etc. LITERAL. Little by little he advances the lament. First he mourned the buildings, and then the men, and these as though absent; now at last, their minds being as it were softened and made accustomed by long weeping, he turns his words to those present, saying: To what shall I compare thee, and to what shall I liken thee? as if he were to say: Because thy contrition is so great, to what shall I compare thee? and, because thou art so 291Dgrievous, to what shall I liken thee? Which is openly to say. Thy evils surpass all misery both in magnitude and in manner. But because great things too can sometimes be compared with the least by a certain differing likeness: he adds: And I shall make thee equal, etc. Which is to say. Other evils, even if they can be compared with thee by a certain difference, yet none can be so by equality. Why? There follows: For great as the sea is thy contrition. It is remarkable that he records that her calamity can be made equal to none, and at once makes the greatness of the sea equal to it in comparison. But it is to be understood thus, as if he were to say: Just as the sea excels all other waters both in bulk and in bitterness, so no calamity can be made equal to thy contrition. There follows: 292AWho shall heal thee? As the water of the sea cannot be dried up, so thy contrition will not be able to be reckoned by man, nor is there any in whom thou mayest hope save God alone. To what shall I compare thee? Those who, after the truth has been acknowledged, go back are worse than those who have never acknowledged the truth. And the more excellent each one's rank is, the more perilous is the fall. Whence the prophet, when he had lamented above the negligence of evil prelates in the Church and the ruin of their subjects, straightway following added.

To what shall I compare thee, and to what shall I liken thee, and make thee equal, O virgin daughter of Sion? The heaping up of words expresses the force of great grief. As if he were speaking to the Church herself concerning her withered members and saying: As formerly, when thou didst hold the faith by living rightly, thy glory 292Bwas comparable to none, so now, when by a reprobate life thou hast fallen from the faith, thy ignominy is comparable to none. There follows:

For great as the sea is thy contrition. ALLEGORICAL. What is understood by the sea, unless the worldly life; which, while it is always drawn by an unstable motion now from adversity to prosperity, now from prosperity into adversity, is tossed as it were by certain surging storms? And because it never excludes either fear in prosperity or grief in adversity, like the sea, into whatever quarter it flows back, it does not lose its bitterness: let it be said therefore to her who grows bitter away from the sweetness of the spiritual life through carnal concupiscence and worldly cares, let it be said, I say: Great as the sea is thy contrition. As if it were openly said: Thou who, through contempt of the world and desire of eternal goods, from carnal love 292Cwast made sweet, how art thou turned again into bitterness? There follows:

Who shall heal thee? MORAL. Let the prelates of the Church hear this, who are appointed physicians of souls; let them hear what is said. Who shall heal thee? As if it were said: Physicians cure other sick men, but who shall cure ailing physicians? If the people sins, the priests pray for it. But for the priests, if they have sinned, who will pray? These things are utterly perilous, and yet true. And though we fear to hear them, yet we cannot deny them.

To what shall I compare thee, etc. The sinful soul is rebuked, whose so great evils have been enumerated above, which, having played the harlot away from the love of God, made her incest the more shameful in proportion as the integrity that fell was the more precious. 292DTo whom it is well said. Great as the sea is thy contrition. For what is understood by the sea, unless a depraved conscience, which both the memory of past crimes and the delight of present ones toss about by driving it hither and thither? For like certain waves coming from opposite quarters they dash against one another, when in a certain way the penitence for her past errors always draws the unhappy soul back, and the love of present ones drives her on. And because in this so great contradiction that sweetness of wretched delight, such as it is, is always infected with grief mingled in, rightly is a depraved conscience called a sea not only for its unquietness but also for its bitterness. There follows: Who shall heal thee? He shows it to be utterly great and difficult, yet not for God 293Aimpossible: that such a one should return to health. Hence it is that John says of him that sins unto death: I do not say for him that anyone should pray (I Joan. V). As if he were to say: Just as I do not forbid desiring his salvation, so I do not presume to command praying for him, because the cure of so mortal a wound, although it does not exceed the power of God, nevertheless surpasses all human estimation; and therefore it is done more considerately if meanwhile, with prayer humbly suppressed, desire only be offered to God, because perhaps in a case so difficult a humble and fearful devotion will obtain more quickly than a presumptuous petition. He says therefore: Who shall heal thee? As if he should say: Perilous is thy wound, which cannot be relieved by human industry, and which on account of past guilt is not worthy to be healed by God. 293B

Thy prophets, etc. LITERAL. It is said with reproach: Thy prophets. As if it were said: Behold to what great misery thou hast sunk by hearkening to false prophets, whom thou didst love, while thou wouldst not hear the prophets of God who spoke true things. They have seen for thee. For thee they saw, because they were thy prophets. Therefore their lie redounded upon thee, because their malice pleased thee. Thy prophets have seen for thee. What did they see for thee? False and foolish things. False, in which thou wast deceived. Foolish, in which thou canst not be excused. If they had seen only false things, in which there would at least have been some likeness of truth, thy simplicity could perhaps have been excused through ignorance; but now, because they saw foolish things also, and yet thou wast not afraid to believe, 293Cthy folly is deservedly punished. But what false things and what foolish things did they see? False takings-up, behold the foolish; false castings-out, behold the false. When and to whom they willed they promised prosperity. When and to whom they willed, they threatened adversity. But both were false, because to those who were to be cast out they promised takings-up, and to those who were to be taken up, castings-out. When God was angry, they announced that he would take thee up to protect thee; when he was appeased, they threatened that he would cast thee out to afflict thee. But the threatening was false, and the promise foolish. In the promise there was not only falsity but also folly, because, even if thou didst fear the terrors, it is utterly alien from reason that thou, conscious of so great a crime, couldst be deceived by empty promises. 293DBehold, thou didst not know what was to come; yet thou wast not ignorant of thy evil desert, which was present. But they, by seeing false and foolish things, did not open to thee thy iniquity, because, while they promised prosperity to the perverse in their crime, and troubled with empty terrors those who walked in simplicity, they did not open, nay rather they veiled thy iniquity, lest thou shouldst acknowledge it. Or it can be distinguished otherwise. What he said, false and foolish, this pertains to the promises; but what follows, false takings-up and false castings-out, both are to be referred to the terrors. For he calls tribulation both a casting-out, in that the people was to be cast out by God, and a taking-up, after the likeness of a burden, which when taken up weighs down the bearer. For hence it is that where the blessed Jerome 294Atranslated the burden of Babylon, or of Tyre, or of Damascus, etc. Symmachus and Theodotion rendered assumptio. And rightly, for the aforesaid reason, he calls the terrors only false; but the promises he names not only false but also foolish, because, even if a man cannot always know what is to come, yet it is exceedingly foolish to be ignorant of oneself in the present. Whence immediately after he had said, they have seen for thee false and foolish things, he subjoins. Nor did they open to thee thy iniquity. For he who promises to a sinner the reward of the just, as it were hides his iniquity, lest it be seen.

Thy prophets, etc. ALLEGORICAL. As it is a fault in evil prelates that through their negligence their subjects perish, so also it is reckoned a fault in the subjects that, 294Bthe good being despised, they imitate the examples of evil prelates and give ear to perverse teachings. Fittingly therefore, after he has censured the perversity of the prelates, he now turns the words of grief by way of reproach to the subjects themselves also, saying: Thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish things. The prelates of the Church are prophets when, for the instructing of the faith and morals of their subjects, they now unlock the hidden things of the Scriptures, now foretell things to come concerning the rewards of the good or the punishments of the evil. But since all the perverse, in speaking, seek not so much the correction of their hearers as their favor, it is now rightly said of them: They have seen for thee false and foolish things. For they see false and foolish things, because in discerning the morals of their subjects they do not hold the judgment of truth. And when they praise any depraved men in their perversities for the sake of 294Cfavor, they the more befool by flattery those who are foolish through negligence. Whence it is rightly added: Nor did they open to thee thy iniquity, that they might provoke thee to penitence. But because evil prelates sometimes pursue with hatred even innocent subjects, and, while they avenge their own injuries, pretend that they are pleading the cause of God, it is rightly subjoined, when it is said: But they have seen for thee false takings-up, and castings-out. As if it were said: To those with whom they themselves had been angry, they announced that divine wrath and vengeance were hanging over them, so that, by calling God the avenger of their own injuries, they might provoke the minds of the people to show reverence to themselves.

294DThy prophets, etc. MORAL. Who are the prophets of the sinful soul, who see false and foolish things for them, unless outwardly the senses of the body and inwardly the crafty thoughts which the providence of the flesh begets? Let us consider a little more attentively how false these prophets are. Behold one of them. How sight deceives by prophesying false things. If thou shouldst see a thing to be desired, what does it foretell to thee? Love, it says, follow, lay hold, enjoy; thou shalt be happy if thou hast gained such a desire. But the unhappy soul, while, ill-credulous, it follows the deceitful promise, is bound in a greater misery through the accomplishment of the crime. So hearing, so smell, so taste and touch prophesy false things, and ensnare those who believe them, because, before concupiscence takes its trial, they promise that all things to come will be prosperous and alluring; 295Abut when the wretched delight, briefly tasted, has passed away, they leave the conscience stunned and full of horror. But these prophets can be caught out in their deceits the more easily, the more manifest, and the more often devoid of reason, is that which they promise. But the craftiness of the heart is the more perilous the more hidden it is, because it not only promises deceitfully but also compels the mind to believe by a certain artful reason for acting. This is the prudence of the flesh which works death, which the wicked sons of this world have, as the Lord says in the Gospel: The sons of this world are wiser than the sons of light in their generation (Luc. X). This prudence begets those perverse prophets, namely the crafty thoughts of the soul, which coax the soul 295Bwith false promises, and seduce and ensnare it when it consents to them. One of them lies in wait for patience, another strives to violate chastity; that one mocks contempt of the world, this one teaches that one must be zealous for dissimulation. Let us consider these one by one. There is one thought which is born of the prudence of the flesh. This says to a man: Avenge thy hurt, take vengeance for thy injuries, because, if thou bear the present ones patiently, thou wilt embolden others to further ones; let men rather fear thee than despise thee; all will show thee reverence, if they see thee manfully avenging thy injury. See how deceitful, and how false, is that most wicked prophet. He was thought to have persuaded cunningly, when he foretold that reverence would be shown to the raging man; but when he has turned him into rage, he renders him not to be revered but abominable 295Cto all men. There is yet another false prophet, an enemy of integrity and continence, who seduces a man in this order: Often, under the pretext of health or the necessity of work, he urges that fuller and more delicate foods be indulged in; but when he has inflamed the body by surfeit, forthwith he sets the allurements of lust before the eyes; he asserts that it is hard and impossible that a man set in the flesh should not live carnally, that the years of youth can easily be pardoned; that long times still remain for penitence; that God is merciful, that the torments of hell are either none or small. But mark how deceitful this prophet is. He promises delights very many and destined to endure for long times, but a punishment slight and soon to pass away; and perhaps eternal are the 295Dtorments that follow, whereas that which delights cannot stand even for a moment. More deeply, by a certain reason for acting, he teaches that one must be zealous for avarice: that this life is such that a man cannot have honor if he has not means; that riches are often of very great profit not only to bodies but also to the salvation of souls, that from them proceed the sustenance of the poor and the building of churches; lastly, that it is better that he should have whence he may seek merit for himself, than that, having nothing, he be compelled to ask of others, whereby he becomes the more a debtor. But know this prophet also for a liar. He proclaims that for those who possess riches the merits of virtues can be increased, in order that he may take away from those who love divilias all the merits of the virtues, 296Aand may corrupt their minds first by cupidity for seeking riches, then, when they have been acquired, by tenacity for retaining them. There is yet one of the false prophets who urges that one serve dissimulation. For that a good reputation avails as much as may be; that a man ought everywhere to keep his good name unpolluted; and that, if there have been any sins, of infirmity rather than of deliberation, they are to be concealed on account of the scandal of neighbors; that a double loss is incurred if, the one being corrupted by the deed, the other should be corrupted by the example; that therefore a man ought always, for the instruction of others, to display a praiseworthy bearing and one that is a token of virtue, and that he ought with the utmost zeal to avoid that anything sinister or contrary to honor be either said or believed about him; that merit is vehemently 296Bmultiplied if a man both exercise himself by the pursuit of virtue and gain others by his example. O how crafty a promise? He proclaims that merit is to be multiplied through dissimulation, in order that, when he has taught a man both to cover his evils and to make a show of his goods, he may overturn all the solidity of good merit. Concerning these prophets it is said by way of reproach to the sinful soul, set also in tribulation: thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish things: as if it were said that what the carnal affections promised was false; or, now acknowledge, taught by punishment, what before thou wouldst not attend to, when thou wast being drawn to guilt. False and foolish things have they seen for thee; when by a reason for acting they persuaded thee to evil, they saw false things; but when they drove thee, conquered by cupidity, even to irrational acts, they saw not 296Conly false and foolish things. Whence there follows: Nor did they open to thee thy iniquity. As if it were said: They would open thy iniquity to thee, if, before the deed, they showed what punishment would follow after. But now, that thou mightest not be able to perceive thy iniquity, a feigned reason blinded as it were thy right eye, and depraved delight thy left. Nor did they deceive only by promising prosperity, but also by terrifying through adversities. For they have seen for thee false takings-up, and castings-out. Takings-up, namely, of evils, which they said were hanging over thee, and castings-out of present goods, which they announced were to perish, so that thou, fearing to lose the goods thou didst love and striving to avoid the evils thou didst fear, mightest the more quickly consent to the doing of iniquity.

All they that passed 296Dby the way have clapped their hands over thee; they have hissed, and wagged their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem. LITERAL. As if he should say, hear; and learn, if only by another's testimony, how much thou art to be pitied. By those passing by the way are understood pilgrims and strangers. For those who are named as passing by are shown both to come from elsewhere and to tend elsewhere For by this, that they come from elsewhere, they are shown to be strangers in blood; by this, that they tend elsewhere, strangers in intention. And yet those whom both the affection of blood and the purpose of intention divide, the astonishment at a new calamity fixes in compassion. They have clapped, he says, their hands over thee. Beautifully did he say over thee, as over one cast down and prostrate. They have clapped their hands. There have been some who would reckon that all these things pertain rather to mockery 297Aand derision, because clapping and hissing seem to belong to those who insult. But that in the following clause hissing and insult are treated of again, it is thought to differ in this, that these, as strangers, look down upon lespiciunt her who is cast down, whereas those, as foes and enemies, show by hissing and exulting not only contempt but hatred also. Which sense does not seem to us to run counter to reason either. Yet because, according to the spiritual understanding, these things are more fittingly referred to compassion, we can fittingly say that by the clapping not insult but simply the striking together of the hands is expressed. But the striking together of the hands does not always signify the same thing; rather it indicates sometimes joy, sometimes grief, sometimes wonder, 297Bsometimes compassion. Hissing also indicates diverse affections; for sometimes it hints at contempt, sometimes at despair, sometimes at blandishments. Likewise the wagging of the head expresses sometimes indignation, sometimes insult, sometimes grief, sometimes wonder. But because these motions look to diverse affections, we can understand by the clapping of hands wonder, by hissing despair, by the wagging of the head compassion; or on the contrary, by clapping compassion, and by the wagging of the head wonder. For those passing by, when they behold ruins so lamentable, are provoked to compassion by a certain humanity, and grieve over the present misery which they see; but they despair of the 297Crestoration to come, and marvel at the glory that is past. Out of the grief of compassion they clap their hands; out of despair they hiss with the mouth; out of wonder they wag the head. And this is what follows:

Is this, they say, the city of perfect beauty, the joy of all the earth? As if it were said: Once so glorious, now so wretched. Yet, as has been said, they are to be believed to have said this not in mockery but in compassion.

They have clapped, etc. ALLEGORICAL. First let us consider who these passers-by are, then what is the way through which they pass. This whole present life seems to be a certain passing; since from the moment we enter it by being born, we hasten without intermission through daily changes toward death, as in the psalm 297Dit is read: Man, his days are as grass, as the flower of the field so shall he flourish. For the spirit shall pass through in him, and he shall not stand; and he shall know his place no more (Psal. CII). But there is another passing, a praiseworthy one, which is not common to all. For all men, as we have said, pass through by the necessity of their condition; but the wicked, since by their condition they cannot remain here, nevertheless fix their mind by love upon the desire of this life. The wicked therefore pass by necessity, but by will they do not pass; whereas the good, who do not love the present life but desire the life to come, join will to necessity; nay, to say something truer, they anticipate necessity itself by will, because they depart hence 298Aby will before they do by death. These are the true Hebrews, that is, passers-over: to whom that word of Wisdom is directed: Pass over to me, all ye that desire me (Eccli. XXIV). Of whose number the apostle Paul also glories that he is, when he says: They are Hebrews, so am I (II Cor. XI). For how he is a Hebrew, that is, one passing over, he makes plain in another place. Those things, he says, which are behind being forgotten, I ever stretch myself forth to the things that are before (Philip. III). And again: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith (II Tim. IV). Of this passing also Moses says: I will pass over and see this great vision (Exod. III). Since therefore some pass by necessity alone, while others join to the necessity of their condition the choice of will also, rightly here, when he was speaking of those who pass, did he declare by a necessary addition that he did not take in any and every 298Bpasser-by, saying: Passing by the way. For the way, in sacred discourse, signifies sometimes Christ, sometimes the law of God, sometimes the present life. The way signifies Christ, as he himself testifies, saying: I am the way (Joan. XIV). The way signifies the law of God, as is read in the psalm: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord (Psal. CXVIII). The way signifies the present life, as is said in the Gospel: Be at agreement with thy adversary whilst thou art in the way (Matth. V). For what is the divine word made to us, unless an adversary, when it sets itself against our depraved wills? To which adversary, namely, we are at agreement in the way, if in this mortal life, where there is still room for meriting, we take pains to obey the precepts of God even against our 298Ccarnal wills. But in this place the way cannot signify the present life, because, since every man passes through it by the necessity of his condition, the prophet would not have made a distinction if, speaking of those who pass, he signified the present life by the way. The way therefore is Christ. And perhaps it is not without cause that, whereas the Psalmist in a certain place has called some men crossers of the way, or those who go beyond it: here he says not those who cross the way, but those who pass through the way. For they cross the way who transgress the law of God, and who either desert the faith of Christ once received, or scorn to receive it when offered through the word of preaching. From these therefore he wished to separate those whom he called not crossers of the way, but passers through the way. And note that he did not say, 298Dstanding in the way; but passing through the way. For they stand in the way who keep a faith idle without good works: who indeed are in the way through right faith, but do not walk through good working. But they pass through the way who, in right faith, by a daily advance in virtues, always tend from good to better. Let it be said therefore: All they that pass by the way have clapped their hands over thee. But what is it that is said to the Church on behalf of her ailing members: All they that pass by the way have clapped their hands over thee; unless that the perils of their neighbors move to compassion all the elect, whom the allurements of this world have no power to hinder from the course of good work or from the desire of eternal things? Which was beautifully signified in the book 299Aof Kings by those two cows which carried the ark of the Lord, returning from the Philistines, set upon a new cart: of which it is written: Taking two cows that gave suck to calves, they yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home (I Reg. VI). And a little after: The cows went straight on by the way which leads to Bethsames, going on and lowing; and they turned not aside, neither to the right hand nor to the left (ibid.). For what do the cows designate, unless all the faithful in the Church; and what the ark, unless the law of God; and what Bethsames, which is interpreted the house of the sun, unless the heavenly country? The cows therefore, as it were carrying the ark set upon them, going on and lowing, go by a straight journey to Bethsames, when the faithful, bearing continually in their heart 299Bthe meditation of the divine law, tend by the way of good work to the heavenly country, and through the nations utter lowings of compassion for those whom carnal affection still binds fast in this world? who neither turn aside from the straight journey on account of compassion, nor cease from the lowing of compassion on account of the purpose of their journey. This same thing the prophet intimates in this place, saying:

All they that pass by the way have clapped their hands over thee. For they clap and at the same time pass by, because they so show the affection of their compassion to the afflicted that yet they neither fail nor turn aside from the purpose of the straight journey. The manner of which compassion is rightly subjoined, when it is said: They have clapped their hands, they have hissed, they have wagged the head. In sacred discourse working is often wont to be designated by the hands, speech by the mouth, and the mind 299Cby the head. If therefore we say that works are designated by the hands, what are we to understand in the clapping of hands, unless the fame and report of good works? For the fame and report of good works sounds in the ears of the people like a certain clapping of hands: and often, when it has resounded suddenly, it turns the eyes of all upon its author, from whom it arose. For hence it is that all the perverse always wish to become known in those things which they seem to do rightly: namely, that, when they have brought their good deeds into the midst to be gazed upon, they may turn the untutored minds of the people to admiration of themselves. But the elect shun to be made manifest in their good acts the more, the more they greatly fear that the reward of eternal recompense is diminished for them by the admiration of earthly praise. And if they sometimes set forth their virtues 299Dand their brave deeds before their neighbors for an example, they by no means do this from a desire of glorying, but from a love of taking counsel for them. Whence here too it is rightly said, under the figure of the desolate city, to the multitude of sinners: All they that pass by the way have clapped their hands over thee. For the elect, who pass by the way of God's commandments from the exile of this world to the heavenly country, often, when they see their neighbors ailing, out of the affection of charity, to rouse their minds, set forth their virtues for an example. But those who pass by a byway do not lament over them that lie fallen; because they display their virtues not for the profit of their neighbors, but for the enlarging of their own glory. There follows: They have hissed, 300Aetc. For the forming of a hiss, the lips are wont to be drawn together on the outside, and within the tongue to be laid under, curved in a manner after the likeness of a channel, so that, when the breath issues drawn through a narrow passage and thinned, it may come forth softer and more soothing to caress the hearing. What therefore can more rightly be understood by the hissing of the mouth than the word of consolation? For to hiss, as it were with the lips drawn together and the tongue laid under, is to bend all the effort of speaking, with words softened and tempered, to the use of consolation. Those therefore who pass by the way both clap their hands and hiss with their mouth over the desolate, when all spiritual men both provoke sinners to do well by the examples of virtues, and confirm them in the hope of pardon by the word of consolation. There follows: They have wagged their head. By the head we can not unfittingly 300Bunderstand the mind, and by the wagging of the head, the compassion of the mind. Rightly therefore do those who pass by, after the clapping and the hissing, also wag the head; because assuredly they cannot effectually console the griefs of others who have not known how truly to suffer with the griefs of others. See whether any of these was lacking to Paul. Paul clapped his hands, when he said: Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ (I Cor. XI). He hissed with his mouth, when consoling the Corinthians after their penitence: I wrote to you not that you should be made sorrowful but that you may know what charity I have more abundantly toward you (II Cor. II). He wagged his head, when he said: My little children, of whom I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you (Galat. IV). There follows in the letter: Over the daughter of Jerusalem. What does Jerusalem, which is interpreted the vision of peace, 300Cdesignate, unless the heavenly country? As if it were said to sinners: You make for any of the elect a grief over your perdition the heavier, the more certain it now is that you ought to have belonged to the fellowship and society of the elect. And just as your salvation would make joy for all, so also from your ruin there proceeds the grief and sadness of all. And this is what follows: Is this, they say, the city of perfect beauty, the joy of all the earth? For the city in this place is to be understood as the catholic Church, in which the gates and the walls are those who both form others by the doctrine of truth and encompass them with watchfulness: which Church, namely, then has perfect beauty when both in the prelates virtue adorns wisdom, and in the subjects obedience adorns the discipline of good works. The beauty therefore of this 300Dcity is rightly called the joy of all the earth; because its discipline is now spread abroad through all parts of the world. Let it be said therefore: Is this the city of perfect beauty, the joy of all the earth? As if it were said: How could she so quickly come into desolation, who formerly by her beauty gladdened all the elect throughout the circuit of the world? But what is it that in the ruin of certain men the whole Church is lamented as though desolate, unless because while one member suffers all the members suffer with it: for which reason they ought greatly to fear who in their own iniquity sadden the charity of others; because assuredly, just as those men by suffering with the evil increase their own merit, so these by saddening the good aggravate their own guilt.

301AThey have clapped, etc. MORAL. He who provokes a sinner to penitence by a gentle exhortation, what else does he do than feel the sick man's wounds before the cutting? As therefore a wound which cannot bear even the gentle touch of remedies is believed to be altogether incurable, so the sinner who spurns even a gentle admonition is reckoned as though incorrigible. This is what the prophet here casts up to the sinful soul with grievous sorrow, saying: They have clapped over thee, etc. As if he were to say: Formerly the suggestion of the flesh could easily prevail with thee to persuade thee to iniquity; but now all the solicitude and industry of good men has failed in thy correction, and as rash as thou wast formerly, through contempt, for perpetrating iniquity, yet now art thou hardened 301Bthrough despair in that very iniquity of thine: All they that pass by the way have clapped their hands over thee. That her ruin may be shown the graver, he recalls that she had already entered upon the way of good work, and had, as it were, collapsed in the middle of the journey. Whence also he calls the others passers-by, that he may plainly show that those who now begin to go before her by the merit of virtues were once behind her. But because in the ruin of their neighbors charity always provokes the elect to compassion, and the example to fear, they are rightly described as both passing by alike and clapping. For by advancing they pass by; by suffering with others they clap, so that they so rejoice over their own advance that yet they do not presume to despise their neighbors lying in infirmity. They have clapped, he says, their hands. The clapping of the hands designates the example of good work; the hissing, the word of consolation; 301Cthe wagging of the head, the affection of compassion; because all spiritual men both provoke by example and confirm by word those whom they see to have fallen through iniquity, and show by the very grief of their own compassion how much they would rejoice over their salvation. There follows: Is this, they say, the city of perfect beauty? They therefore recall what she ought to have been, that from the memory of her past dignity she may the more quickly recognize into what misery she has slipped. They call her a city, as being lofty and fortified with virtues, who formerly had God reigning within her, when she was not yet subjected by consent to the dominion of the vices. There follows: The joy of all the earth. As if it were said: The more there were who ought to have rejoiced over her advance, the more are there now whom her ruin and desolation saddens, so that if 301Dshe will not spare herself, she may at least blush to afflict others by her own perdition. By all these means the hardened conscience is dealt with, that, so manifold a medicine having been applied, it may at length soften to penitence.

All thy enemies have opened their mouth over thee, etc. LITERAL. As if he should say: If it does not move thee that thou hast been mocked by false prophets, that, having fallen into calamity, thou hast been set for a sign and a portent to them that pass by; let this at least prick thy insensibility, that thou hast been made unto thy enemies a prey and a trampling, a joy and a derision. They have opened, he says, their mouth over thee, all thy enemies. The opening of thy mouth designates cruelty and derision. 302AThe greedy have opened the mouth to devour. The proud have opened the mouth to deride.

They have hissed, and gnashed with their teeth. The hissing expresses contempt, the gnashing wrath and indignation. All thy enemies, the Chaldeans, the Romans. Grievous is the pressure where all press and all prevail. There follows:

And they said: We will devour. They wish not to harm a little, but to blot out even to consuming; nor only to blot out, but to devour — they who feed and take delight in thy ruin. Whence there follows:

Lo, this is the day that we have looked for in desiring; we have found it in seeking; we have seen it in exulting. So that the greater is the gladness of those who afflict thee, the more bitter and intolerable is thy misery.

302BThey have opened, etc. ALLEGORICAL. The enemies of holy Church are the heretics, because they assail the constancy of her faith with depraved dogmas. But these do not presume to open their mouth against her, so long as they behold both wisdom and discipline flourishing together in her conduct. For against wisdom they close their mouth, because from those whom they see stable in the knowledge of truth they hide the proofs of their error. Against discipline likewise they close their mouth, when in the conduct of the faithful they do not find what one might blaspheme. But if perchance wisdom should have lost discipline, they open their mouth against her, that they may blaspheme; or if discipline should not have wisdom, they open their mouth against her, that they may disseminate errors; but if neither wisdom nor discipline be in her, now they open their mouth not only against her but 302Cover her, that they may devour, and, as it were by incorporating them into themselves, may consume all the remnants of truth in those whom they are able to draw into their own fellowship There follows: They have hissed. In the hissing we can note the crafty and coaxing persuasions by which they deceive the unwary, and, like serpents after a soft hiss, pour in the venom of death. But because the blandishments of the heretics proceed not from piety but from cruelty: rightly is it subjoined: They have gnashed with their teeth. As if it were said: Coaxing was that which the speech hissed, but exceedingly cruel that which the intention gnashed. There follows: Lo, this is the day that we have looked for, have found, have seen: the oppression of the good they name not night but day, because from that whence the darkness of unbelief blinds others, they themselves shine by an iniquitous gladness. 302DWe have looked for it, they say, namely desiring; we have found it seeking; we have seen it exulting. And note that what is hidden is found; what is seen, is open. As if they should say: What formerly we desired to find, even in secret, now we see made manifest.

They have opened over thee, etc. MORAL. The demons open their mouth against the soul: when they beat with the voices of suggestion upon it as it stands upright in good desires. But they open their mouth above it, when to those lying in depraved delight they no longer persuade iniquity, but command it. Or they open their mouth above her whom, having first drawn her to guilt by coaxing, they afterwards by raging demand for punishment. Whence it is added: They have hissed, 303Athey have gnashed with their teeth. For first they hiss, and then they gnash with their teeth, because, as we have said, after the coaxing suggestion they cruelly demand the punishment. Of which punishment, namely, it is yet further subjoined, when it is said: And they said: We will devour. For what else is it to devour, unless to swallow up unto eternal damnation the soul going forth from the body? But it must be known that they never avail to devour a soul going forth from the body which they have not first, while it was set in the body, boiled down with the fire of the vices. And therefore great confidence is born in them concerning a man's future damnation, when they lord it over him in the present life through iniquity. After therefore he had said, they have opened their mouth, they have hissed, he rightly added at once, saying: They have gnashed with their teeth; they said: We will devour; because from the moment a man is subjected to their suggestion 303Bby consent to sin, they are straightway girded with the fury of the cruelty to come. And because they see the food already softened by long boiling, they promise themselves a devouring close at hand. In which name of devouring, namely, both their vehement desire is shown, and at the same time the bitterness of the damnation is expressed. There follows: Lo, this is the day that we have looked for, have found, have seen. They who say that they have found intimate also that they had sought before they found. First therefore the demons seek, when they take pains to try by suggestion the secret intention of our heart; then they wait, because, although they sometimes receive license to tempt, yet they can never bring force upon the tempted man to consent. But after the search and the waiting 303Cthey find, when, after the suggestion has been sent in, they at last behold manifest signs of a spontaneous consent coming forth from the heart. Last of all they also see, when the consent to the crime proceeds even to the effect of the work.

The Lord hath done that which he purposed, he hath fulfilled his word, etc. LITERAL. Next, after the rebuke, he subjoins consolation, saying: The Lord hath done that which he purposed, etc. First he consoles the mourners by the justice of the judge; then by the malice of the enemy. By the justice of the judge, that they may not grieve over the past; by the malice of the enemy, that they may not despair of the future. For it is a great consolation to the afflicted, that the punishment has been brought upon them by him whom injustice cannot please. Likewise it affords great confidence of obtaining mercy, that 303Dhe is our adversary who is known not to please our judge either. He says therefore: The Lord hath done that which he purposed. As if he were to say: Our enemies exult, and ascribe our ruin to their own strength; but we ought to bear their insult the more lightly, the more truly we know that our evils proceed not from their strength but from the just judgment of God. The Lord hath done that which he purposed. That is shown to have been ordained which is recorded as done with premeditation, especially because it had been foretold long before, so that they may have no occasion of murmuring against God who were able to foreknow the peril and would not beware of it. Whence there follows:

He hath fulfilled his word, which he had commanded from the days 304Aof old. He had commanded his prophets to declare this word, and that they who had been long waited for might at least repent, not newly, but from the days of old, that is, long before it should come to pass. But the longer they were waited for through mercy, the more justly did they, persevering in evil, deserve to be grievously punished. Whence there follows:

He hath destroyed, and hath not spared. These things are properly referred to the last captivity.

And he hath made thine enemy to rejoice over thee. The greater the gladness of the oppressor, the graver is the misery of the oppressed. But yet the arrogance of the enemy is easily despised, if his power be ascribed not to himself but to God. And it is to be noted that I said, over thee he hath made thine enemy to rejoice. For against us, yet not 304Bover us, does the enemy rejoice, when he is indeed permitted to harm but not to oppress; but he rejoices over us when he not only afflicts but also oppresses. There follows:

He hath exalted the horn of thy foes. In the horn strength and power are signified; by the foes, the Chaldeans or the Romans are understood.

The Lord hath done that which he purposed, etc. ALLEGORICAL. Through the heretics the Lord does that which he purposed, because, while they draw away certain men from the Church to their own errors, others become more approved in faith and in the knowledge of truth. Whence there follows: He hath fulfilled his word, which he had commanded from the days of old. For the word of God, which he had commanded from the days of old, is understood to be Holy Scripture, which was long since published to the world; but 304Cis still for a great part hidden. Which is daily fulfilled in the minds of the faithful, when they, exercised by the questions of heretics, grow up to greater pursuits of the virtues, and advance to a loftier understanding of the divine oracles. Thus assuredly do the wicked serve the divine will even then when they strive to go against it, because he so fulfills his disposition through them that by their errors he both permits the reprobate to be ensnared and exercises the good. There follows: He hath destroyed, and hath not spared. When he suffers certain men to be cut off from the unity of the Church through unbelief; he does not spare, because the sorrows of compassion afflict, in the ruin of their brethren, even those who persevere. There follows: He hath made thine enemy to rejoice over thee. The singular enemy of the Church is the devil, who pursues the faithful 304Dwith perpetual hatred, as we read in the Apocalypse of the dragon who persecutes the woman (Apoc. XII). But this enemy then rejoices over holy Church, when he receives even out of her those through whom he afflicts her. There follows: He hath exalted the horn of thy foes. The foes of the Church are the heretics, who daily lead forth a battle-line to storm her. Whose horn is then assuredly said to be exalted, when, many deserting the faith and passing over to their fellowship, the people of the faithful is found lesser in number.

The Lord hath done, etc. MORAL. It is a great mercy of God when those things which a sinner perversely loves are turned to bitterness for him, because by this very thing he is compelled to return to 305Athe love of God, in that he sees set against him those things by desire of which he was being drawn away from the love of God. Hence it is that to the sinful soul, afflicted in her iniquities, this is first brought forward in this place for consolation, namely that her affliction is dispensed at God's nod, so that she may both fear him whose scourges she bears, and at the same time trust in the mercy of him by whom she sees herself visited even through tribulation. The Lord hath done that which he purposed. As if it were said: Because thou wouldst not do what he commanded, he himself has done what he purposed. And because thou didst scorn to fulfill his word which he had commanded thee concerning thy salvation, he himself has fulfilled his word which he had threatened thee concerning thy tribulation. See what was done in the first man. The Lord had commanded him: Of the tree of the knowledge of good 305Band evil eat thou not; he had threatened: In whatsoever day thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die. The man would not fulfill the command, and God fulfilled the threat. Still daily to those who gape after unlawful and forbidden things God says: Touch not, taste not, in whatsoever day thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die. I have appointed, I have commanded, that its own punishment should follow every unlawful affection; my threatening can be avoided, but my precept cannot be annulled. From the days of old I commanded this, from the days of old I showed it to be true. For this the first man died, for this the world was blotted out by the water of the flood. Nor in thee will the sentence be able to be changed, which from the beginning of the world down to this time has always remained unchangeable. Rightly therefore is the affliction spoken of: he hath fulfilled the word which 305Che had commanded from the days of old, that she may the more patiently bear the justice of God in her tribulation, in that she sees it exercised upon sinners from the beginning of the world. There follows: He hath destroyed, and hath not spared. What is it to destroy, unless to scatter those things which a man had made ready for unlawful delight? But he destroys and does not spare, when he takes away the delight, and at the same time punishes the guilt by the tribulation that follows. There follows: He hath made thine enemy to rejoice over thee. Our singular enemy is the devil, who rejoices against us when power over those things which cleave to us outwardly is granted him. But when he is permitted to rage even against our very selves, then assuredly he rejoices over us. As we read was done in blessed Job, whose substance he first destroyed, and afterwards struck his flesh. 305DOr the enemy is then said to rejoice over us, when he lords it over us through consent to iniquity. There follows: He hath exalted the horn of thy foes. What do we more rightly understand by the foes of the soul than the desires of the flesh, which assail her with assiduous temptations? Which foes, namely, we then make as it were tributary to us, when we temper the motion of the flesh to the nod of reason. But when the affection of sin begins to hold dominion in us, and the mind follows not the judgment of reason but the appetite of the flesh; then assuredly is the horn, that is, the strength, of our foes exalted. These things God is said to do; because by a just judgment he permits them to be done, so that, while the adversary is known to have been able to do nothing in our guilt save as permitted, he may not be feared even in the punishment. 306AAnd let the human mind the more humbly subject itself to the scourges by the justice of God, the more certainly it has learned by experience that he first long bore with the guilt through patience by himself. For it greatly lightens the weight of tribulation in an afflicted soul, if not even in its own punishment it gainsay contradica the equity of the judge

Their heart cried to the Lord, etc. LITERAL. After the equity of the judge, he consoles the afflicted also by the malice of the enemy; because what God justly permits, that one carries out iniquitously. For while God through him avenges his own injury upon sinners, he himself by an iniquitous intention does injury to God. As is said in Isaiah: Woe to Assur, the rod of my fury, in their hand is my indignation (Isa. X), but he himself does not so judge; of whom here also it is rightly said: Their heart cried to the 306BLord upon the wall of the daughter of Sion. For in the crying of the heart we can understand either the cruelty or the pride of the enemies. Cruelty against those whom they were oppressing; pride against God, whom in the oppression of his people they blasphemed, and believed to be powerless to save. But this thought of theirs cries to God, because in a certain way it provokes him both to have mercy on his own and to punish his adversaries. It cried, he says, upon the wall. They were proud of this, that they had prevailed, that they held the walls and fortifications of the cities. Or by the wall we can understand the divine protection, upon which the enemies cry; because, while they are permitted to hold dominion over the people of God on account of its sins, they detract from the divine power: and they judge that this cannot be hindered 306Cwhich they know not comes to pass by his own permitting and disposing.

It cried, etc. ALLEGORICAL. The wall of the daughter of Sion can signify each several defender of the truth, if through whom the heart of the enemies cries to the Lord; because then do the heretics the more despise, through the elation of their heart, the author of truth, when they turn to their own errors not only the simple in the Church, but the very defenders of the truth themselves.

Their heart cried, etc. MORAL. If by the foes of the soul we understand the desires of the flesh, what are we to understand by the heart of the foes, unless the inmost delight of carnal desires? And again by the wall of the daughter of Sion; because the delight of the flesh is then made injurious to the Creator, when evil desires by the consent 306Dof the mind hold dominion over the virtues. For of God it is said: His place is made in peace (Psal. LXXV); because assuredly God rests sweetly in that mind which, gathering itself from the distraction of this world, composes itself to inward peace. In which, even if outwardly, so far as pertains to the corruption of this life, earthly desires make their din; yet if they are not admitted inward, unto consent, they do not reach as far as the ears of God. But when the delight of the flesh penetrates through consent even to the inner parts of the soul, then assuredly the heart of the foes closed toward God presiding within, so that now he himself, stirred by the importunate din, rising up out of that quiet of his, may say. The cry of the Sodomites and of the Gomorrhaeans is multiplied, and their sin 307Ais grown exceedingly grievous; but I will go down and see whether they have accomplished in deed the cry that is come to me (Gen. XVIII). And rightly; because iniquity is far from God, depraved desires are said to have cried not before God, but to God. For praise and thanksgiving cry not only to God, but also before God. Necessity and iniquity cry to God. For when we praise the power and magnificence of God, or when we give him thanks for the mercy bestowed upon us, then assuredly we cry before God. But when by acting iniquitously we provoke him to wrath, or when, set in necessity, we demand his help, then we cry to him as it were from afar. Iniquity therefore cries to God, and necessity cries; but the one cries provoking, 307Bthe other beseeching; the one calls forth wrath, the other begs mercy. Of the cry of necessity it is said: The cry of the children of Israel is come to me (Exod. III), and I have seen their affliction, wherewith they are oppressed by the Egyptians. Of the cry of iniquity it is said: The cry of the Sodomites and of the Gomorrhaeans is multiplied, and their sin is grown exceedingly grievous. Of the cry of praise it is said: They shall cry out, yea they shall sing a hymn (Psal. LXIV). Of the cry of devotion it is said: My cry before him entered into his ears (Psal. XVII). The angels cry in heaven with the cry of praise; Moses cries in the desert with the cry of devotion; the children of Israel cry in Egypt with the cry of necessity; Sodom and Gomorrha cry with the cry of iniquity. But then is the cry of iniquity said to reach 307CGod, when malice grows so great that it deserves to be borne no longer.

Bring down thy tears like a torrent by day and by night. LITERAL. Their minds having been raised up by the consolation, an exhortation follows, in which sinners are invited to penitence. Nor is it without cause that thus, as it were abruptly, in the middle of a clause, he suddenly seizes upon another matter. But because in the very course of the discourse an occasion of exhorting offered itself, and what is subjoined is wont the more to move minds, inferring it as it were from the preceding, he thus says: Bring down thy tears like a torrent, as if he were to say: Because thine enemies provoke God to wrath through elation, do thou implore his mercy through the humility of penitence; and by the 307Dtorrent is signified the vehement motion of compunction. The perseverance of which is also subjoined, when it is said: By day and by night. Insistence too is added, when it is subjoined: Give thyself no rest. As if it were said: Neither intermit nor slacken the rush of tears, but at every time and with all insistence press on with weeping; because the tears themselves also have their own voice, and will cry for thee to the Lord. This is what follows:

Neither let the apple of thine eye be silent. That is a word of mercy. The apple, he says — let the storm of tears bursting in darken not only the rim of the eyes, but the very ray of vision itself, so that, while even that which is tender is afflicted, the tenderness of the judge may the more quickly be moved to mercy.

308ABring down thy tears like a torrent. ALLEGORICAL. The prophetic discourse exhorts holy Church to offer tears to the Lord for her ailing members. Which tears he compares to a torrent. For a torrent is a stream gathered out of winter waters, which indeed runs down with a rush, but quickly dries up and passes away. And what is the present life, unless a winter, in which, before the brightness of eternal life appears, the clouds of error still enfold the hearts of men? Rightly therefore is holy Church commanded to bring down tears like a torrent, because, namely, all the elect who gape after the joys of the heavenly country sigh without ceasing over the misery of the present life. But then without doubt will this torrent of tears be dried up by the heat of the summer to come, when, the eternal brightness shining forth, 308Ball grief will be turned into joy, so that there can then be neither any grief over those who are lost, nor fear over those who are to perish. There follows: By day and by night. By the day prosperity is signified, by the night adversity. Because therefore holy Church beholds some deceived by the prosperity of this life, some broken by adversity, lamenting the ruin of both she brings forth tears as it were by day and by night. There follows: Give thyself no rest. All the elect, while they lament others, give no rest to themselves either; because while they behold the falls of others, they become the more solicitous about their own salvation. There follows: Neither let the apple of thine eye be silent. The apple of the eye, by which the sight is directed, fittingly designates all spiritual men in holy Church, by whose word and example the whole body of the Church is enlightened. Who 308Cassuredly ought by no means to be silent in the peril of their neighbors, but, as far as they can, both to relieve them with prayers and to raise them up with preaching. For because they can better foresee their peril than they themselves can, they truly sin if they are not even more solicitous about their salvation than they themselves are. Which that singular apple of the eye, through whom all are enlightened, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, well showed, when, foreseeing the ruin of the faithless city, he wept while she herself exulted, and, set in his passion and praying for his persecutors, was solicitous about their salvation. The apple of the eye therefore ought not to have silent tears; because all spiritual men must, with the affection of compassion, also show forth the word of preaching.

308DLead down thy tears like a torrent. MORAL. Here a perfect form of repenting is set forth. For true repentance begins from compunction, which by the water of tears washes away also the filth of sins, and by watering the soul makes it fruitful for the shoots of the virtues. Whence it is said to the sinful soul that she first lead down her tears, that is, lead them downward. For we lead the streams of tears upward, as it were, when we sigh with longing for the heavenly fatherland. But when, pricked with compunction at the remembrance of our sins, we weep, we lead the streams of our tears down to the lower places. Yet it comes first that each man wash away the stains of his sins in the fountain of tears, and then, his conscience cleansed, turn the channel of his compunction to the love of things eternal. In this too, that the sinner is bidden to lead his tears 309Adownward, humility together with compunction is shown to be necessary for the penitent, according to the saying of the Psalmist, who says: A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (Psal. I). We may note something yet more subtle in the term "leading down." For what is led is indeed moved of itself, and yet its motion is directed by another's will. But there are some who, when they have seen others weeping, blush to have dry eyes, and wringing out tears by a kind of violence, deceive the eyes of men with a feigned compunction. These, assuredly, we more rightly say to drag tears out than to lead them down. There are likewise others who, through impatience of heart at some trouble befalling from without, pour forth tears — tears which nevertheless they by no means themselves lead out, 309Bsince they do not go before with reason tears that flow of their own accord from the motion of the heart. But those who truly repent do lead out their tears, because, as these rise of themselves from the very fountain of compunction, they direct them with reason going before, so that they neither burst forth through impatience, nor spread themselves too loosely out of the secret of their own channel into the open field of human praise. But in what manner tears are to be led out is beautifully suggested when it is said: Lead down thy tears like a torrent. For a torrent runs down with great force; but the more violently it flows away, the more quickly it passes by. Rightly therefore is the fervor of compunction compared to a torrent, because the greater the force of grief has been in the compunction, the more quickly it passes by, divine consolation coming upon it. But because to begin a good thing profits little unless it be held 309Cperseveringly, rightly he added what follows: By day and night. For there are some who after their tears dissolve the mind in empty gladness, and because they neglect to hold their heart perseveringly in mourning, they lose whatever they had been able to obtain in the time of compunction. For a sinful conscience, just as before the ardor of compunction it is often afflicted with a heavy weariness of mourning at the remembrance of its sins, so sometimes after the consolation of tears, if a diligent strictness does not keep it down, is scattered abroad through unfitting gladness. And therefore it is exceedingly necessary that, after the grace of compunction has raised the mind up out of mourning, lest afterward its own softness dissolve it through immoderate gladness, the guard of the former 309Dmourning never leave it. Rightly therefore is the sinner admonished to lead down his tears by day and night. For the weariness of mourning is, as it were, a kind of night of the mind; but the day of the mind is the joy of compunction. As it were by night, then, he leads down his tears who in the weariness of mourning lifts up his spirit through compunction. By day he leads down his tears who after the gladness of compunction keeps his mind in mourning. Let it therefore be said to the penitent: Lead down thy tears like a torrent by day and night. As if it were said: Thou who considerest that thou hast sinned much, it is needful that thou spare thyself neither in the greatness nor in the length of thy grief. But because many do not indeed forsake the zeal of repenting once begun, yet nevertheless grow lukewarm little by little, as the time comes on, from that fervor of theirs with which they had begun. He adds, 310Asaying: Give thyself no rest, because likewise the devotion of humility renders the persistence of labor commendable to God. Lastly he subjoins and says: Neither let the apple of thine eye be silent. For what ought we to understand by the apple of the eye but the humble devotion of the mind? When therefore no rest is given, the apple of the eye also cries out: if, while the flesh is afflicted without, within the devotion of the mind prays.

Arise, give praise in the night, in the beginning of the watches. LITERAL. As far as concerns the letter, there are three watches of the night, each marked off by the space of three hours. And by a wonderful dispensation enough the prophet, inviting sinners to repentance, does not at once set forth the very perfection of repenting, but advances his exhortation by little and little, so that what perhaps a weak mind 310Bcould not take in all at once it may more easily bear when divided. Above he had enjoined sinners to pour forth tears in repentance for their sins; here he now enjoins that in their tribulation they praise also the justice of God; there he bids them weep in the night, here even to rise up to weeping in the beginning of the watches. It is more, then, to rise up to weeping than only to weep; more in the beginning of the watches than in the night. There follows:

Pour out thy heart like water. He pours out his heart like water who brings forth tears from the inmost affection of the heart; and suggesting this yet more plainly, he adds:

Lift up thy hands to him. For the lifting up of hands expresses the affection of the heart. Or certainly those who lift up their hands show that they are in need and desire help. And therefore rightly does the people set in tribulation 310Clift its hands to him, that it may show that it has hope not in its own strength, but in the help of God alone. There follows:

For the soul, that is, for the life, of thy little ones: who perish with hunger at the head of all the crossways. The heads of the crossways are where several roads coming from different quarters run together into one. Which places are wont to be more frequented by men, so that the greater shame of those wasting away there may be suggested. And see how it is set in a narrow strait: where the case at issue is of obtaining life, when parents are bidden to entreat for the soul of their little ones. And therefore parents are bidden to entreat for the soul of their little ones; and therefore parents ought to make supplication for their little ones, 310Dbecause for the fault of the parents the little ones bear the punishment, so that the remedy may come from that quarter whence the peril came.

Arise, give praise in the night, etc. ALLEGORICAL. What is signified by the night but the life of sinners? Such as those once were to whom Paul speaks, saying: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Ephes. V). The prophetic word therefore admonishes holy Church to arise and give praise in the night. For she arises when, for the salvation of her neighbors whom she sees to be in peril, she raises herself from the quiet of contemplation to the work of preaching. She gives praise in the night when, calling sinners to repentance, she makes manifest to them the mighty works of God. But there are many sinners who even scorn to hear the word of truth, and who so much the more do not incline the ear of the heart to the praise of the Creator as they are the less awake in considering their own sins. 311AOf whom it is read in the psalm: On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments (Psal. CXXXVI). And in the Gospel: Cast not your pearls before swine (Matth. VII). And therefore, when he had said: Give praise in the night, rightly he added what follows, in the beginning of the watches. As if he were saying: Those sinners are able to hear the praise of God who have begun to keep watch in considering their own sins. There follows:

Pour out thy heart like water. What is figured by the heart but deep understanding? and what by water but easy teaching? He therefore pours out his heart like water who suggests to weak hearers, by an easy instruction without, that which he tastes as solid within. As the Psalmist says: Day unto day uttereth speech, 311Band night unto night sheweth knowledge (Psal. XVIII). But he who for the love of God willingly condescends to weak hearers, he beyond doubt pours out his heart like water before the Lord. There follows:

Lift up thy hands to him for the soul of thy little ones. By the lifting up of hands we may understand the affection of the heart; by the little ones, those weak in faith and not yet having a mature understanding. Holy Church therefore lifts up her hands to God for the soul of her little ones, because for the salvation of those who are as yet small in faith she not only exercises herself in the word of preaching, but also with humble devotion continually entreats the divine mercy. Or by the hands we may understand works, because he assuredly lifts up his hands to God for the soul of the little ones, because, pressing on with spiritual pursuits to rouse 311Cthe minds of carnal men, he avoids even certain lawful occupations of human intercourse. As Paul did, who, that he might take away from the false apostles their occasion of receiving, altogether refused to accept the stipends of preaching — which by custom, nay rather by divine institution, it was lawful to accept — seeking his living with his own hands. Concerning which little ones it is further subjoined:

Who have fainted with hunger at the head of all the crossways. What are we to understand by the crossways but human actions? and what by the head of the crossways but the concupiscence of the flesh, which is the cause and origin of all human actions? The little ones therefore faint with hunger at the head of the crossways, because all carnal men, 311Dthe more they gape after earthly desires, so much the more do they fast from the pasture of spiritual nourishment.

Arise, give praise. MORAL. A certain new life seems here to rise upon me. Arise, give praise. How beautiful an order: first to wipe away past evils with weeping, afterward to rise up to the doing of good things, and then to give praise! For praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner (Eccli. XV); nor can he truly do good things who has not first striven effectually to amend the evils that are past. Give praise, he says, in the night, in the beginning of the watches. A sinner set under the scourge offers a sacrifice pleasing to God if he praises God even out of his own tribulation. Whence rightly, when the prophet had said, give praise in the night — that is, in tribulation — he at once added: In the beginning of the watches. For a sinner first keeps watch when 312Ahe begins to acknowledge his own evils. He keeps watch a second time when he corrects by repentance the evils he has acknowledged. He keeps watch a third time when he turns himself to the doing of good things. He keeps watch a fourth time when he guards his good works. These four watches we ought to keep in the night of the present life: that is, that ignorance may not deceive us in the consideration of our sins, nor negligence or contempt hinder us in their correction; that sloth may not render us sluggish for the doing of good things, nor presumption make us less wary for the keeping of them. He therefore praises God in the night, in the beginning of the watches, who confesses that the evils he suffers he endures by the just judgment of God, out of the consideration of his own iniquity. There follows: Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord. Other liquids, when they are poured out, 312Bleave the vessels either smeared over with a kind of greasiness or tainted with a savor; water alone is so poured out that the cleanness of the vessel is stained by no remnants of it. Those, therefore, who in confessing their sins are afraid to pour out some of them, whether by reason of negligence or of shame, retain, as it were, in the vessel of the heart the remnants of a thick liquid. But those who do indeed cast out all their sins by confession, and yet still do not forsake the affection for sinning — from these, though the harmful liquid has been wholly cast out, the vessels have nevertheless remained tainted with the savor. But whoever, by a pure confession and contrition revealing the secrets of his heart, retains nothing by affection nor covers anything by silence, he pours out his heart like waters before the face of the Lord. We may yet in the pouring out of water 312Cattend to something of edification, because as water poured out washes away filth, so confession, casting out sins, renders the conscience clean. And well is the heart said to be poured out like water before the face of the Lord, because unless a man shut out from his heart, along with the evil deed, the affection also for sinning, he is not fully excused before God, his conscience bearing witness. There follows: Lift up thy hands to him. By the hands is signified working. The penitent therefore lifts up his hands to God when by the showing forth of good works he excuses his past offenses before God. Whereof it is further subjoined: For the soul of thy little ones, who have fainted with hunger at the head of all the crossways. By the little ones we not unfittingly understand the weak thoughts of the soul; by the head of all 312Dthe crossways, the concupiscence of the flesh, which is, as it were, the head and origin of all earthly desires and actions, as of many roads. At the head of the crossways, then, our little ones faint with hunger, because our tender thoughts, while they cleave to carnal desires, lose the pasture of spiritual nourishment. But we lift up our hands to God for the soul of our little ones when, through zeal for good works, we beg that the grace of spiritual desire be renewed in us for the nourishing of the soul's thoughts. And these our little ones do indeed faint with hunger at the head of the crossways, because the tender thoughts of the mind, which good desires do not feed within, being soon softened by the concupiscence of the flesh (which is the head of all evil desires), lose all the strength 313Aof virtue. Or the concupiscence itself is the hunger in which they faint with hunger, because they always hunger and cannot be filled.

See, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast gathered thus as a vintage. LITERAL. This man does not desist from his purpose until he brings what he has begun to its end. For hitherto he has dealt with sinners, that he might bend them to repentance; now, taking up the cause of the penitent, he turns his speech to God, that he may entreat him on behalf of sinners. And at the same time he gives to penitents a form of praying, plainly showing how greatly a sinner ought to humble himself in his prayers, since he himself, praying for the sins of others, prostrates himself with so humble a devotion before the divine goodness. For because he considers that he has taken up a difficult cause, he by no means presumes to knock at the ears of the divine 313Bmajesty with an open demand; but with great reverence and trembling he shows the affection of his petition by suggestion, saying: See, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast gleaned videmiaveris thus. As if he were saying: Thy people, whom thou hast so greatly loved, who had no other protector beside thee alone — dost thou so gather them as a vintage, so oppress them, so lay them waste? Consider, I pray, our present calamity; call back to memory thy former love; that if thou art not bent by our prayers, thou mayest at least be moved to compassion and mercy by thine own benefits. Thou hast gathered as a vintage, he says. That people, then, was not a woodland, but a vineyard having a keeper and bearing fruit. And yet the wood of the vine, without cultivation and fruit, is useless, and cheaper than all other woods. Why then dost thou lay waste him whom by tending thou makest precious, and by laying waste 313Ccheap and useless? Whom thou hast gathered as a vintage, he says, thus. How thus? So horribly, so monstrously, that the vineyard itself devours its own clusters, and women eat their own sons. Therefore he cries out and says:

Shall the women then, O Lord, eat their own fruit. That is, their own sons, little ones namely of a span's measure, that is, tender ones, scarcely yet having the measure of a span; so that a monstrous cruelty, nay rather a cruel necessity, may be shown. And well does he say women, not mothers: because they are not to be called by the name of mother who were not mindful of a mother's love. Their own fruit, he says, they shall eat. As if he were saying: Other growing things bear fruit for this reason, that the nature of the kind, 313Dwhich is consumed in the parent, may be repaired in the offspring of its own seed; but man, forgetful of his own nature, consumes the very fruit by which he ought to have been repaired. But lest by thus magnifying the misery he should seem not to be entreating God but provoking him, and as it were charging with injustice one who had so cruelly punished his own people, after the punishment has been recalled he subjoins the fault also, using a certain shrewd concession — namely, that while in confessing the fault he does not differ from the justice of God, in seeking mercy he may the more quickly bring his petition to effect, saying:

If the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord. As if he were saying: Because they slew thy prophets and thy priests in thy sanctuary — as is read of Zacharias the son of Joiada the priest, whom Joas 314Athe king killed: because, I say, they slew them, therefore the women ate the fruit of their own womb, as is read of Mary the daughter of Eleazar; and it is written in the book of Kings (II Par. XXVI), and Josephus also bears witness to it. But in that he says, if he be slain, it is as though it were said: Although they had sinned so greatly, ought they nevertheless to have been punished with so monstrous a vengeance? Yet in this he does not reprehend the judgment of God, but conceding the fault and aggravating the punishment, he seeks mercy. As if he were saying: There is no people whom thou hast so greatly loved, on whom thou hast bestowed so great benefits; there is no people that has so greatly sinned against thee; there is no people whom thou hast so greatly cast down, so greatly gathered as a vintage and destroyed: and therefore, I pray, see — not in passing, but consider diligently — our misery, 314Bthat thou mayest again bestow upon us thy wonted mercy.

See, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast gathered thus as a vintage. ALLEGORICAL. That holy Church is called a vineyard is proved by very many testimonies of the Scriptures. Among which is that word of the Gospel, where the householder is said to have sent laborers into his vineyard (Matth. XX): because, namely, God the Father, when he sends preachers to instruct the Church, sends laborers as it were to cultivate his vineyard. For just as the vine is cultivated with great zeal indeed and labor, so assuredly the life of the faithful is formed to virtue only with great zeal and labor. And just as a vineyard, if it has been fruitful, makes good by the abundance of its fruits whatever labor is spent upon it, so assuredly 314Cthe life of the faithful, if by the zeal of discipline and instruction it has advanced to virtue, repays with precious fruit all the diligence bestowed upon it. Again, as the wood of the vine without fruit is useless and cheaper than all other woods, so surely those who are cultivated by the teaching of faith and yet do not bring forth the fruit of good work are worse than those who have never come to the knowledge of the truth. And it sometimes happens that God, withdrawing his grace, forsakes such men so much the more deeply as he had the longer borne with them, ungrateful after grace bestowed. Yet the fall of these all perfect men bewail out of the compassion of charity; and they who rejoiced that these were already through faith members with them of the same body cannot bear their cutting off without grief. 314DIt is in their voice that this is here said: See, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast gathered thus as a vintage. God is said to gather the wicked as a vintage when those whom he himself first cultivated through his preachers he forsakes, his grace withdrawn, barren and empty. The vintaging itself can also be referred to the elect: because assuredly, when certain men are withdrawn through unbelief from the unity of the Church, holy Church herself seems to have been left bare and as it were despoiled. Whence with great affection of devotion this must be pronounced which is said: See, O Lord, and consider whom — namely, thy people, thy little flock — thou hast gathered thus as a vintage. How? He subjoins: Shall the women then eat their own fruit, little ones of a span's measure? By the women we rightly understand evil prelates, softened with a carnal understanding and loose 315Amorals: who eat their own fruit, because they receive in the present life the reward of the labor of their ministry. To good teachers, on the contrary, it was said: I have appointed you that you should go and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain (Joan. XV). For the fruit of the elect is said to remain, because in them there is kept for their labor no passing wages, but an eternal reward. The women therefore eat their own fruit, because all carnal men, while in this life they receive the wages of their labor, do not, as it were, keep their fruit, but consume it. But what this fruit is, is declared when it is said: Little ones of a span's measure. Here we ought to understand the little ones not in respect of age, but of faith. And by the span we not unfittingly understand the beginning of a good work. What is it then that the fruit 315Bof the women is called little ones, but that the faith of believers is reckoned to their teachers for a reward? And these carnal prelates eat: because assuredly, while they gape after earthly things, they drag down to destruction, by the example of their evil work, the weak in faith and the beginners whom they had first begotten in faith through the word of preaching. Or certainly the women then eat their own little ones when evil prelates in the Church afflict with want those subjects whom they ought to have fed with the food of heavenly nourishment, bitterly despoiling them of their goods. There follows: If the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? By the priest and the prophet we ought here to understand the same men whom a little before we understood to be signified by the women: namely, prelates, who are both prophets by the word and priests by the ministry. 315CAnd by the sanctuary is expressed divine worship: as if it were said: If prelates perish by administering spiritual things unworthily, why then do their crimes entangle their innocent subjects?

See, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast gathered thus as a vintage. MORAL. By a fitting likeness the soul is said to be gathered as a vintage by God when, its own evil deserts requiring it, it is despoiled of the gifts of the virtues by the just judgment of God. But there is a certain vintaging more destructive than the rest. For it is less perilous to lose virtue than to be proud of virtue. For he who loses virtue at least acknowledges his own loss; but he who is proud of virtue bears a loss and does not know it. The prophet, bewailing a soul not only sinful but also emptily glorying in a false virtue — See, he says, O Lord, 315Dand consider whom thou hast gathered thus as a vintage. And as though asking, How thus? he subjoins with a cry and says: Shall the women then eat their own fruit? For the women eat their own fruit when carnal souls feed themselves through empty glory upon the work of virtue. They eat the fruit, because the virtue itself is consumed from that very thing wherein the mind is delighted with an unlawful refreshment. Their own fruit, he says. What manner of fruit? Little ones of a span's measure. By the little ones we may understand tender virtues, not yet advanced to a manly strength; but by the span, the beginning of a good work. Little ones of a span's measure, then, are tender virtues, newly brought forth at the beginning of good working. What is it then that the women are said to eat little ones of a 316Aspan's measure, but that carnal minds glory even in the beginning of a good work? There follows: If the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? The mind of a just man, which is the sanctuary of God, ought to have two things in itself: namely prudence and devotion — prudence, whereby it may trample down impending evils by foreseeing them; devotion, whereby it may wipe away past evils by supplication. What then do we understand by devotion but a kind of priest of the soul continually offering the sacrifice of expiation in the sight of the Lord; and what by prudence but a prophet? Because therefore the priest and the prophet is slain in the sanctuary of the Lord, the women eat their own little ones: for never would the mind of man exalt itself over its own virtue, unless first, through negligence, both the memory of praeteritotorum 316Bevils and the wariness of things to come had grown lukewarm within it.

The child and the old men [senex] lay on the ground of fury: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword. LITERAL. Or it is to be distinguished thus: The child and the old man lay on the ground, the virgins and the young men fell by the sword. Or thus: The child and the old man and the virgins lay on the ground, and the young men fell by the sword. Which perhaps agrees better for this reason: because virgins are not wont to be slain by the sword in war, but to be led away for plunder and spoil — unless by this very thing the fierceness of the enemy be marked out, who spared not even virgins. He says, then, that the warrior people fell by the sword together with their kings and princes, and that the rest of the multitude, of either sex and every age, was dragged away into captivity. 316CThe child, he says, and the old man, and the virgins — the weak age, the weak sex — lay on the ground, cast down without mercy, without humanity, on the ground of fury. Not only on the ground, which of itself might suffice for such a punishment, but on the ground of fury. Either in their own land, which the Lord in his fury permitted to be laid waste and depopulated; or in a foreign land, to which the fury of the Lord drove them out. There follows:

Thou hast slain in the day of fury, thou hast struck, and thou hast no mercy [misertus es ]. As if he should say: To thee, O Lord, do we ascribe our calamity; concerning our misery we enter into a cansam with thee. For the blow which the fury of the raging enemy inflicted, thy wrath, provoked first by our sins, dictated. Thou hast slain those who fell by the sword; thou hast struck those who lay on the ground; and thou hast 316Dno mercy, in that, when thou seest so many already to have perished, thou dost not turn away the scourge of thy indignation at least from those who yet survive. I beseech thee, O Lord, I entreat thee, O Lord, have mercy: that the destruction into which we fell while thou wast angry, we may escape while thou art merciful.

The child and the old men lay on the ground. ALLEGORICAL. As the people, so also the priests. They lay on the ground: they took their rest in earthly desires. And not only did they rest (which was signified above, when it was said: The old men sat on the ground, they held their peace), but they also slept: for they lay down, so that now they know not their own selves; and, all reason being lulled asleep, they consider not whence they came or whither they tend. To whom it is said by Paul: Arise, thou that sleepest: and rise up from the dead, and 317Ashall enlighten thee illuminabi te Christ (Ephes. V). Alas! how ill do they lie who lie on the ground! how ill do they sleep who sleep on the ground! who take their rest on the ground, and when they awake find nothing of riches in their hands! For whatever is loved in time is like a dream, and vanishes away when a man has begun to awake in death. On the ground, he says, of fury they lay. What ought we to understand by the ground of fury but this world, in which the human race, for the punishment of the first guilt, was cast out from the happiness of paradise and condemned to exile? How great a madness, then, that a man should seek rest in this pilgrimage, into which he doubts not that he has been cast in the wrath of divine vengeance! There follows: My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword. By the sword 317Bin this place is signified the teaching of heretics, of whom it is said in the psalm: Their tongue is a sword aculus (Psal. LVI); because, while they drag some away from the unity of the catholic faith to their own errors, they cut off, as it were, members from the body. And by the virgins and the young men the faithful are signified, who are both virgins, because they corrupt the integrity of faith by depraved works; and are young men, because through constancy of mind they do not yield when adversities press upon them. What is it then that virgins are said to fall by the sword, but that — the Apostle bearing witness — evil communications corrupt good manners (I Cor. XV), and the doctrines of heretics, in which they prevail to violate the chastity of faith, afterward overthrow also the integrity of good works? Young men fall by the sword when those whose constancy could not be 317Covercome by adversities, cut down by the guiles of words, rush headlong into unbelief. Or if we follow the other distinction, the virgins lie on the ground when those men gape in mind after earthly desires who outwardly, by the showing forth of their work, feign a chastity of intention. By the young men, too, we may understand the proud and those presuming upon their own strength, because the life of man flourishes chiefly at this age both in heat and in vigor. Young men therefore fall by the sword, because since thou, O God, dost despise the proud, it is plain of those who are overthrown by the errors of heretics that they would by no means fall away from the knowledge of the truth had they not first been high-minded concerning themselves. There follows: Thou hast slain in the day of fury; thou hast struck, and thou hast no mercy. He slew those who fell headlong through unbelief; 317Dhe struck those who in the fall of the perishing were wounded through the suffering of charity. He has no mercy, because while he does not raise up the fallen, neither does he console the grief of those who stand.

The child and the old men lay on the ground of fury. MORAL. The ground of fury is our mortal flesh, which before the sin of the first man brought forth the shoots of the virtues; but afterward, by the sentence of the curse, began to bring forth the thorns and thistles of the vices But the little child is the sense of the flesh, because, so far as in it lies, it always seeks after certain childish and empty things. And as by the little child we understand the sense of the flesh, so by the old men we may not unfittingly understand the judgment and the appetite of the mind; because the mind ought both to be mature in discerning and not rash in desiring. 318AThe little child therefore lies with the old men on the ground of fury when that very portion of our corruption which the punishment of the transgression brought in, the carnal mind spreads beneath itself for its delight not only according to sense but also according to judgment and appetite, and thinks to take its rest there where it has been cast down to be beaten. There follows: My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword. By the virgins we may not unfittingly understand chaste thoughts; by the young men, the fortitude and constancy of the soul; by the sword, the temptation of the adversary. For because the age of youth flourishes with fuller vigor, what else are the fortitude of doing well and the constancy of persevering but a kind of young men in the rational soul? For they are both prompt to begin a work, and persist without failing 318Bin the work begun. Rightly therefore are the old men said first to have lain on the ground, and afterward the virgins and the young men are recorded to have fallen by the sword; because from the moment that the judgment and appetite of the mind is corrupted by earthly delight, a temptation coming upon it easily both violates the integrity of good thoughts and unstrings the fortitude and constancy of the soul. For because, as has often been said, thoughts proceed from affections, while thoughts are corrupted from corrupt ones, they draw bitterness as it were from an infected root. And when the carnal soul desires or discerns nothing outside the flesh, all its fortitude and constancy soon grows soft in the temptation of the flesh. Nor is this to be passed over, that when the old men sit on the ground, the virgins sprinkle their heads with ashes; when the old men are clothed 318Cwith haircloth, the virgins cast their heads down to the ground; when the old men lie on the ground, the virgins fall by the sword — because assuredly the corruption of thoughts grows according to the corruption of affections. There follows: Thou hast slain in the day of fury, thou hast struck, and thou hast no mercy. God sometimes permits certain virtues in the soul to be destroyed by temptation, and certain others to be wounded: so that while the tempted man sees that he has kept some good things still, he may not fall utterly into despair; and while he sees that he has lost certain things, he may not presume upon his own strength, and may the more truly recover what he has lost the more subtly, taught by his own loss, he now sees that the very thing he has kept is not of himself. But because many are permitted to be tempted not for their correction but for their overthrow, 318Dtherefore a man, who cannot always know the cause of his own temptation, ought always to fear peril; and on this account it is rightly subjoined in the voice of those who tremble: And thou hast no mercy. Which sentence assuredly is one of fear, not of assertion. For because he does not quickly deliver from temptation, the tempted man therefore thinks his scourge to be of wrath and not of mercy; which nevertheless belongs not to one despairing but to one fearing, as we have said.

Thou hast called as to a solemn day. LITERAL. As if he should say: Enemies indeed are always ready to do harm; but nevertheless, unless they are called, they cannot come. This man therefore does not accuse God but honors him, who attributes nothing to the strength of enemies, but extols the divine power even in his own oppression. Thou hast called, 319Ahe says. As if he were saying: Theirs it was to will, thine to grant; that from this very thing thou mayest consider that it is thine also to deliver. Thou hast called as to a solemn day, that is, to a day of gladness and joy: not that thy goodness was delighted in our misery, but because their malice exulted in this, so that this very thing may provoke thee to have mercy, and thou mayest more quickly have compassion on us, while thou beholdest them wickedly rejoicing over us.

Those that should terrify me round about. Those who should hem me in on every side, that I might not escape the hands of my pursuers, after the likeness of hunters who by shouting drive wild beasts into the nets. He marks that time when, as the Jews were fleeing the Babylonians, the neighboring nations on every side blocked against them all defense of flight, that they might not escape the hands of their enemies when Sedecias, fleeing with an army 319Bof warriors, was taken in the plain of Jericho, and brought back to Reblata to the king of Babylon, and there, his sons having been slain before him, was himself blinded and carried away to Babylon. Whence there follows:

And there was none in the day of the fury of the Lord that escaped and was left. Was left — that is, understood, alive; or was left in his own land, and not carried away captive.

Whom I brought up and nourished. I brought up unto discipline, and I nourished unto strength: who are the more to be bewailed.

The enemy hath consumed them. That is, he has blotted them out even to utter destruction.

Thou hast called as to a solemn day: those that should terrify me round about. ALLEGORICAL. It is not unfitting that 319Cin this place the time of the last examination should be signified: which day is called solemn either for this reason, that then the joys of the just shall begin, or because then all things shall be brought into the midst to be sifted. Which time assuredly no one awaits without terror, just as there is no one to whom it falls to pass through the course of the present life without fault. But the elect, while they afflict themselves with lamentations for the misery of the present life, also bring before the eyes of the mind the evils that remain; and by anxiously considering the terrors to come, they judge themselves here, that they may escape judgment there. They consider the most savage exactors, the demons, at whose presence even the elect shall be terrified: who shall press hard on every side upon those who are to be judged, so that no one would have room to escape, did not the mercy of the judge 319Dtemper the strictness of vengeance. When the enemy shall consume many who, brought up here in the discipline of the Church and nourished in the teaching of truth, seemed to be reckoned among the sons of God, and shall drag them with him to perdition. It can also be said of pagans and heretics, or of any unbelievers whatsoever, and chiefly in the time of Antichrist, when the devil shall be let loose on every side in his own members for the persecution of the faithful. Which day is called solemn for this reason, that then the wicked shall rejoice over the oppression of the good; because there is none that escapes and is left, while some who persist in the truth they punish bodily, and others who consent to them they slay spiritually. Whence there follows: Whom I brought up and nourished, the enemy hath consumed; because assuredly many shall then fall headlong into unbelief 320Awho were brought up in the discipline of the Church and nourished in her teaching. I brought up, he says, and I nourished — not only nourished, because the enemy has consumed even the strong, whom the weight of tribulation has overwhelmed. The enemy can indeed afflict the good by persecuting them, but he cannot consume them; but he who is overcome by tribulation, he is consumed by the enemy.

Thou hast called as to a solemn day, those that should terrify me round about. Human life is, as it were, a kind of circuit, which after the running out of temporal actions returns at last through death thither whence it came forth through birth. But in this circuit the faithful soul keeps a solemn day, because, while through inward joy it is fixed in the love of things eternal, it keeps holiday from every unlawful occupation without. But when the soul calls back to memory the evils 320Bdone before, and from the consideration of them is the more kindled through compunction, they are, as it were, invited from the circuit, as men about to celebrate, to the solemnity. As it is said by the Psalmist: The remainders of thought shall keep a festival day to thee (Psal. LXXV). But because before the ardor of compunction the remembrance of past evils shakes the mind of the sinner with a certain terror of its own guilt, rightly does he say that these are called from the circuit both to the solemnity alike and to terror. Yet it is to be known that he is terrified in one way who remembers that he has done no good thing, and in another way he who knows that with his good acts certain evils are mingled for which he should fear. When therefore a man looks around upon his own actions, and finds in them certain things wherein he may be confident, but certain things for which he should fear, he is indeed terrified, 320Cbut not from the circuit; because on the altar the sinful conscience is straitened by the memory of its own guilt, while on the other side it is enlarged in the confidence of good work. But when on every side his own deeds accuse the sinner's soul, then he is terrified as it were in a circuit; because seeing on this side and on that all things to be dreaded, he is hemmed in within himself by anguish alone. This also is fittingly said in the person of the sinful soul, when, going forth out of the body, it is troubled by the memory of its evils meeting it on every side. Whence also it is rightly said: Thou hast called. For a man, so long as he is in this life, ought assiduously to call back to memory the evils done before, that he may of his own accord terrify himself unto repentance, as the Psalmist testifies of himself, saying: 320DMy sin is before [contra] me always (Psal. L). And in another place the same man says: I will think for my sin (Psal. XXXVII). But whoever here has been unwilling to remember his own evils, there God will call them before the eyes of his mind in testimony of his damnation, so that from the memory of them he may be terrified there unto punishment who here was unwilling to be terrified wholesomely unto repentance. As the divine voice speaks by the same Psalmist, saying: I will reprove thee, and set myself against thy face (Psal. XLIX). And the manner of this calling is further shown when it is said: As to a solemn day. For a solemn day is a day of quiet, a day of calling, when it is not lawful to work, but each man then begins to enjoy with gladness those things which he had before prepared for himself with labor. What then is the day of death but 321Aa solemn day, on which there no longer remains any power of working, but each man begins to enjoy the wages and reward of his works and of his past labors? There follows:

And there was none in the day of the fury of the Lord that escaped and was left. The day of the fury of the Lord is the end of every man: when each is compelled with great strictness to render an account, who before, in his life, was kindly awaited unto repentance as it were in a day of mercy. Rightly therefore is it said of the day of fury: There was none that escaped and was left. That escaped, namely, his conscience; that was left unto repentance. Note what is said: That escaped, namely, his conscience. A bad conscience is a great torment. But sinners can here escape their 321Bconscience, while, given over to outward delights, they meanwhile in a manner hand over to forgetfulness the evils which they endure within. For the thorn of conscience now pricks the heart less when the swaddling-band (if I may so speak) of earthly delight covers it, wrapped about. But there they could not escape the torment of conscience: because when the sense of the flesh is shut without in death, the horror of past evils is laid open within to the soul. Then the unhappy soul, though pricked with compunction too late, would now amend by repentance what it cannot escape by conscience. But by the just judgment of God, since it neglected the times formerly granted to it as a penitent, it is now not left; because once the irrevocable sentence has gone forth, it is no longer deferred in this life unto repentance. Rightly therefore is it said. 322AThere was none in the day of the fury of the Lord that escaped and was left. Because when the hour of death has come upon him, then each is compelled to return to his own conscience, that with it accompanying him he may be carried over from this life without delay to receive the sentence of the judge. There follows: Whom I brought up and nourished, the enemy hath consumed them. Lest thou think that the punishment of conscience alone is prepared for sinners: whom I brought up, he says, and nourished, the enemy hath consumed them: because assuredly the strength and beauty of mortal bodies, which here is fed by unlawful desires, shall there be consumed in torments by the angels that torture. And it is said to be consumed, not because the punishment reduces the substance to nothing, but because the pain, running through even to the inmost parts of nature, leaves nothing untouched. Or by those brought up 322Band nourished we may understand the very desires belonging to the flesh: which are brought up by pride and nourished by luxury; and the more we feed them by fulfilling them, the more we inflame them to appetite. These, brought up and nourished, the enemy consumes — that is, death, of which the Apostle says: Last of all the enemy death shall be destroyed (I Cor. XV): because assuredly, when our flesh is cut down in death, all its desires are extinguished together, as it is said by the Psalmist: In that day all their thoughts shall perish (Psal. XLV). And consider how fittingly at the end of the lament the last punishment of the sinful soul is bewailed: that we may understand how great a misery follows upon those evils which have been foretold.