THAT THE LEGISLATOR OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT IS ONE AND THE SAME; ALSO CONCERNING THE PRIESTLY VESTMENT, AND CONCERNING REPENTANCE.
1. The prophets preach the Gospel of the kingdom of Christ, the ministers of the new grace interpret it, and the hearers and lovers and praisers of the divine word receive it. A For it is not possible to delight in the word of truth without thirsting for the word of instruction. And as it is not possible for one who is not thirsty and hungry to enjoy food gladly, so it is not possible to delight in the word of truth without thirsting for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Savior says: *Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled* (Matt. 5. 6). The true food of souls, the true delight of the pious, the true wealth of the pious is the word of God, who speaks through the Davidic oracles: at one time he prides himself as one who is wealthy, at another as one who is delighted; and he says: *How sweet are thy words unto my throat! yea, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth* (Ps. 118. 103). Here he gave voice to one who is delighted. For the word of God was a delight to him; concerning which he often said: *Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the requests of thy heart* (Ps. 36. 4). But in other places, not merely as one enjoying a delight, but as one who is wealthy, he prides himself on the wealth of the law, saying: *The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver* (Ps. 118. 72). Do you see the delight of piety, and the wealth in righteousness? We must, therefore, thirst for divine things, and hunger for heavenly things, and have abundant enjoyment from the royal table of Christ, and hold fast to the Gospel of salvation, which did not begin now, but was founded in the prophets and built up by the holy apostles. For the Gospel did not begin from the time that Christ appeared in the flesh; but it was rooted indeed in the books of the prophets, and flourished in the preaching of the apostles. Therefore Paul, wishing to show that the Gospel did not begin from the incarnation, but shone forth from the prophets, declares it through the dispensation: *Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in B the holy scriptures, concerning his Son who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh* (Rom. 1. 1-3).
Paul knows the Old and New Testament to be indivisible; for this reason he sometimes calls it the New Testament, to demonstrate how the ends of the earth were renewed (I know that I have practiced this discourse before; but I repeat it for the sake of reminder); he calls it the New Testament in contrast to the one that has grown old; better, in distinction to the lesser; eternal, in contrast to the temporal. He also calls it a second Testament. Why second? So that he may join it in understanding. For that which has been separated from another is not called second. But since God spoke both in the first and in the second, He himself calls it the first and the second, producing harmony C by the number. For this reason Paul, preaching the indivisible kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, sometimes calls the Gospel the Gospel of God the Father, and sometimes that of the Son, saying: *Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God*. But lest anyone, hearing "Gospel of God," might think the Son does not have authority over the preaching, in the same Epistle, a little further down, he says: *For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of his Son* (Rom. 1. 9). Do you see the miracle of the herald, and the complete mind? Lest it be thought that in the law he served one God, and in the Gospel passed to another, he says: *I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience* (2 Tim. 1. 3). For he says: I did not run from one to another; but what I possessed in ignorance, I have now received in knowledge. And again, the same man, wishing to show that the words of the Old Testament and the New are of one mouth, and of one Master, produced one testimony from Scripture, joining the Old to the evangelical word, and says: *It is written: Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn; and, The laborer is worthy of his reward* (1 Tim. 5. 18). For Moses said "Thou shalt not muzzle," but Christ in the Gospels said "The laborer is worthy of his reward." But to show that one mouth spoke both these and those, he joined what was separated by times to the harmony of truth, saying: *It is written: Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn; and, The laborer is worthy of his reward*. D Of this Gospel—
harmony, those nets of Peter which today have been let down before your eyes are an image. Nor indeed did Peter let down his nets only once; but if you look at the history, only once, yet many times in power and efficacy. For as often as the Gospel is preached, I see nothing else than Peter, and Andrew, and that whole apostolic choir letting down that evangelical net. And it was a strange spectacle to see the Savior in the sea, B and the hearers standing on the shore; a wonderful thing: the fish were on the land, and the fisherman was in the sea. The casting of that net was an image of the evangelical doctrine. He found, he says, the fishermen washing their nets (Luke 5:2); for a fisherman, unless he despairs of being able to catch any fish, does not wash his nets. And so the Savior found them washing their nets, as men who believed they could catch no fish; and the Lord of the fishing stands by, and what does He do? First, indeed, He proposes to them the doctrine of the truth; thence He orders the net to be cast. C For since words were lacking the demonstration of deeds, it was necessary to confirm the doctrine by actions; for when God commands, you shall find what is nowhere to be found, and you shall catch what is not. *Let down*, He says, *your nets* (Luke 5:4, 5). To whom Peter: *Master, we have labored all the night, and have taken nothing; but at Thy word I will let down the net*. I admire Peter’s faith; who, having the first things as hopeless, yet believed the new: *At Thy word I will let down the net*. Why, he says, *at Thy word*? Because by His word the heavens were established, and the earth was founded, the sea was separated (Ps. 32:6 and 101:26); man was crowned with his own flowers, and all things have stood fast by Thy word; as Paul says: *Who upholdeth all things by the word of His power* (Hebr. 1:3). D *At Thy word I will let down the net*. And that word indeed went before the net; nor were the fish there. For even if they had been present, they would have been driven away by the tumult of those who were fishing. But His word descended, *Who calleth those things which be not as though they were* (Rom. 4:17); it went down into the depth; and a great multitude of fish was gathered. This was an image of the universal Church. The net was breaking: they beckoned to their partners, who were in another boat, that they should come and help them (Luke 5:6, 7). For it was necessary that two boats should run together to that fishing. For unless the choir of prophets stands by the apostolic hand, and helps and assists, and unless the event of the apostles responds to the oracles of the prophets, we do not catch what we are hunting. [399/400] Therefore, when the Savior wished to demonstrate that this fishing was an image of the Church, in order to instruct Peter, He sharpens and incites him by this example to fortitude, and says to him: *Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men* (Luke 5:10). From this time, in which the trial of My power has been made before you; and this has been known and plainly perceived by you, that even brute creatures obey My word, and all things follow My beck. Having placed this suitable example before your eyes, henceforth devote your work to catching men. Nor does He say, you shall fish for men, but *thou shalt be catching living men*. For fish are caught for death, but men are caught that they may pass from death to life; and so He says: *From henceforth thou shalt be catching men*. But why does He say to him: *Fear not*? Be it that the promise was splendid; why does He say: *Fear not*? Because the memory of his former sins came into his mind, the Lord says: *Fear not* thyself, as a sinner; but henceforth consider thyself as an apostle, who art ordered by the dominical command to B encompass the world as with a dragnet. Let everyone who hears this voice, *Fear not*, from Christ, hear it: Fear not, provided that from this time he does penance. Therefore that net, to follow the order of the things to be explained, was an image of the evangelical doctrine of the Savior. C This Gospel, however, Paul sometimes calls the Gospel of righteousness, sometimes the Gospel of peace, at other times the Gospel of power. For because that grace of preaching was able to take away wars, and to dissipate the seditions of men not agreeing about piety, because it invites all to salvation, it is called the Gospel of righteousness; but because it settles the wars of demons, it is called the Gospel of peace; and because it promulgates the knowledge of God in humble words, it is called the Gospel of power. Hear Paul saying: *I am not ashamed of the Gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth* (Rom. 1:16). Power, indeed, then at last truly shines forth, when he who preaches, not having used a human series of arguments, obtains the ends of the earth; as the Savior says to Paul: *My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in infirmity* (2 Cor. 12:9). D For it would not have been any great thing, if Christ had illuminated the world by His naked divinity; but this is the wonder, that He showed impassible and incorporeal glory through His body. Nor is that admirable, if, living and resplendent with vivifying glory, He had restored life to the world; but it is the power of the Word that He should take away death by death, and through insults shine forth with immortal glory. Elsewhere also Paul calls it the Gospel of peace: *Prepare, he says, your feet in the preparation of the Gospel of peace* (Ephes. 6:15). Elsewhere he names it the Gospel of righteousness, when he says: *For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: for the righteousness of God is revealed therein* (Rom. 1:16, 17). What is the *righteousness of God*? After the first law was given to the Jews alone, but the Gospel to all, he calls it the Gospel of righteousness. For God is righteous who created all equally, illuminated all equally: and that was of righteousness, not to save these, but others by no means; and to call these, but others otherwise. In the Old Testament, indeed, the calling was not righteous, but economical, which prepared the way of righteousness. Yet I would not call this righteous and that unjust; but that the former opened the entrance to the latter, and was a certain preparation for this. He gave the Law to Israel. Hence David says: *He declareth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation, and His judgments He hath not...*
A manifested unto them. Since, therefore, He revealed that to one nation, but here He has weighed the word of truth in the balance, He has dispensed it equally to all. Attend, I pray: Justice is to save all alike, and that there be no distinction between slave and free, barbarian or Greek, woman or man; but as Paul says: *In Christ Jesus there is no barbarian, no Scythian, no male, no female, no slave, no free* (Coloss. 3. 11). Do you see equality? For since nature is equal in honor, even if we are divided in our opinions, He gathers nature back into its ancient beauty. When Adam was fashioned, he was not of another race: no Scythian, no barbarian, no Greek, no slave, no free man, no male, no female; for from the one He brought forth the two. Nature did not beget slavery, but choice gave birth to it. Slavery also comes from necessity, or through the hardship of famine, or the compulsion of captivity. There is also another B voluntary slavery, which for the sake of marriage sells its own freedom, and comes under the yoke of servitude. But the first type of slavery was established by an evil will. And from where is the root of slavery found? Listen: After the flood, Noah having drunk wine, and not having mixed it with the proper mixture, through inexperience became drunk, showing not a corruption of will, but of ignorance; and he was drunk, and being drunk, he was uncovered. And one of his sons entered, saw the nakedness of his father, and laughed. What then does the father say when he is sober? *Cursed be Canaan, a servant he shall be to his brothers* (Gen. 9. 25). Do you see how sin gave birth to slavery? For this reason the Savior says: *Every one that doeth sin is the slave of sin* (John 8. 34). Since, therefore, the Liberator of the human race came and pardoned sin, or rather, took it away (for having cut off the root, He cut away the fruits together with it), He calls it the Gospel of justice because it illuminates all C equally. The Jews therefore supposed that the Gospel being preached through Him was given to them alone. But the expectation turned out differently than they hoped. Therefore David says: *We have accepted, O God, Thy mercy in the midst of Thy people; according to Thy name, O God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth* (Ps. 47. 10. 11). And in order to show that to show mercy to the ends of the earth is justice, he added: *Thy right hand is full of justice*. Whenever a deep and prophetic question arises, draw near to the word—not applauding, but understanding; not simply receiving the applause of the words, but examining the meaning of the thoughts. For if you sing the things of God with truth, and especially this voice which David spoke: *We have accepted, O God, Thy mercy in the midst of Thy people; according to Thy name, O God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth; Thy right hand is full of justice*; you find that both D singing the things of God, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. For the one who sings genuinely, renewing his soul, is made a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not think that psalmody is a small thing. For it seems to charm the hearing, but in truth, it awakens the soul. So also the blessed Elisha the prophet, being asked by certain kings to prophesy the things to come, says: *Bring me a man who knows how to psalm*; the one skilled in music came, and in the *psalming* of that man, he says, the Holy Spirit came upon Elisha. What then? Does the Holy Spirit charm the voice, and is He drawn down by incantations, if He rested upon the prophetic soul? The purity of the prophet was sufficient to invite the Holy Spirit. Why then does he say, *Bring me a man who knows how to psalm*? Not so that the Spirit would be charmed by the psalmody, but so that, while that man was psalming, the mind of the prophet, being renewed, might become worthy of the visitation of the Holy Spirit. For this reason He calls the Spirit, in order to show that He was not charmed by the psalmody, but by the soul which was stirred by the psalmody. He did not come upon the one singing, but upon the one listening. One must therefore examine the powers of the psalms in general, and especially the holy psalm which has been spoken to us today: *The Lord has reigned, let the earth rejoice, let many islands be glad* (Ps. 96. 1). This, *The Lord has reigned*, how do you understand it? As if He had received the dignity of kingship just recently? For if He had said, *The Lord reigns*, he was interpreting His eternal worth; but now he says, *The Lord has reigned*. It has been said to us before, and will be said now. Before the coming of Christ, before the evangelical preaching, our nature was ruled by the devil, by sin, by death. Whence this? Paul says: *For just as sin reigned in our mortal body, so also grace shall reign through Christ* (Rom. 5. 14). Behold the kingdom of sin. Where that of the devil? Hear the Savior saying: *If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand?* (Matt. 12. 26). Behold the kingdom of the devil. Where that of death? Hear Paul saying: *Death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin* (Rom. 5. 14). Since therefore the diabolical triad which reigned over against the holy and immaculate Trinity held sway—that is, the devil, sin, and death; and the devil indeed deceived, sin slaughtered, and death buried—David brings good news to those oppressed by the tyranny, and says, so that they might abandon the yoke of slavery and receive the Lordship of Christ being preached: *The Lord has reigned*. The kingdom of death has ceased, the power of sin has ceased, the authority of the devil has ceased. *The Lord has reigned, let the earth rejoice*. For it is the duty of the earth to rejoice, which was once enslaved and is now liberated; which was once led astray and is now glorified; which was once in graves, and is now on the throne.
A The Lord has reigned. The same is said elsewhere (for it is necessary to bring forward thoughts that are in agreement): *The Lord has reigned, he has clothed himself with beauty* (Ps. XCII, 1). We are clothed with a garment so that whatever in our nature is less becoming may be covered. Why then does God cover his immaterial nature, which is full of light, or rather, which flashes forth more than light? But He calls that body of Christ his garment: *The Lord has reigned, he has clothed himself with beauty.* He calls the flesh of Christ "beauty." For truly it was beautiful, and stained by no foulness of sin. *For he never did sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth* (Isai. LIII, 9). *The Lord has clothed himself with power, and has girded himself* (Ps. XCII, 1). Since the belt is the mark of a king and a judge, it introduces Him as both king and judge; for Isaiah says: *There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise out of its root, and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him; and justice shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins* (Isai. XI, 1, 2, 5).
B This same garment of the Savior, I mean the flesh, the high priest in the law carried the latent figure of. And mark carefully how those shadows interpreted the truth for us, and how the figures of the Gospel shone forth before them. I speak gently, and as much as I am able, I accommodate myself to the grasp of the simple and the unlearned, so that they may not be led astray hither and thither. The high priest, therefore, entering into the Holy of Holies, wore the talaric garment—that is, the garment let down from head to feet—the ephod, the girdle, the breeches, the golden plate, the tiara—that is, the corybantion—and the breastplate upon his chest, and whatever else the Scripture explains there, which may be seen. These are other figures, other meanings. For God does not at all rest in jacinth, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen; for God demands the purity of souls, but in those corporeal flowers He depicts the images of virtues. For if God truly delighted in that most ornate apparel, why did He not clothe Moses before Aaron with it? But Moses indeed lacked that garment, yet he clothed the priests with it. Moses was not washed with water, and yet he washed; he was not anointed with oil, and yet he anointed; he wore no priestly garment, but he clothed the priests, so that you might perceive from that, that for a perfect man virtue suffices for ornament. C Contemplate the priest, therefore, from the head. For the very name of the garment is ambiguous, and it is a matter of dispute; but it has been translated into the Greek tongue. Begin, therefore, from the head. What then was first? The tiara, or what does it name first? What is after that tiara, as a conciliator? Therefore, the habit of that whole garment is in place of the tiara. Since the high priest was the head of the people, it was right that he who was the head of all should exhibit the symbol of that thing on his head. For a finished and unfettered authority cannot be borne; but that which wears the symbol of its power imposed upon it is subjected to the law and obeys. Therefore, He commands the head not to be bare at all, but covered, so that the head of the people may learn that he has a head. For this reason, also, in the Church, when priests are ordained, the Gospel of Christ is placed upon their head, so that he who is being ordained may learn that he is receiving the true tiara of the Gospel; and that he may learn that, although he is the head of all, he is nevertheless subjected to these laws: that he who commands all is subject to the command of the law; and he who gives mandates to all receives a mandate from the laws. Therefore, a certain noble man among the ancients, whose name was Ignatius, and who was adorned with both priesthood and martyrdom, writing to a certain priest, said: "Let nothing be done without your will, nor yet do you do anything without the will of God." That the high priest therefore had the Gospel imposed upon him is a sign that he is established under authority. Therefore, Paul says concerning the woman who had a veil: *A woman ought to have a veil upon her head, which was the image of power* (I Cor. XI, 10). The tiara, therefore, was a figure of power; there was a golden plate, on which was inscribed the writing that expressed the name of God, and it indicates first that the power is the name of God. After the tiara and the plate there were two emerald stones above the shoulders, the one of which contained six tribes from here, the other as many from the other side. D This, moreover, is a sign of the priestly aspect; it attributes to the priest the emerald, in which there is a double beauty: for it has both a becoming manliness and a purity shining like a mirror. Since, therefore, it behooves a priest to be sober through pious exercise and to exhibit his life to the common people like a mirror, He wishes the priest to bear the image of virtue on his shoulders. But why on the shoulders? Because the name of God was above the head, joint upon joint. But why on the shoulders? Because it is a sign of actions. For the power of action depends upon the shoulders. He wishes, therefore, the beauty of truth to shine forth in actions. Therefore, the Lord thus addresses Jerusalem sometimes: *Place your heart upon your shoulders, O despised daughter,*
A for not in the hands is understanding, but in the understanding of the actions themselves. And upon his breast the priest used to receive the oracle, bearing the twelve stones engraved: that is, the sardius, topaz, emerald, carbuncle, sapphire, jasper, hyacinth, agate, amethyst, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx. By these twelve stones the twelve tribes were divided; a grave saying. Above, upon the shoulders, the nature of the stones was one, denoting the emerald; but upon the breast below, the stones were diverse. What does this signify? Since one nature gave us birth, but diverse intentions divided us, it attributes one to the intention and the other to nature. Therefore, the name of God was the practical virtue, which consists through word and truth. And under the hem of the priest, the so-called fringe, were flowers, pomegranates, and golden bells. What did these mean in the priest? Was God resting in these flowers? Did He desire earthly flowers to be around the priest? No, but in the figure of the priest He depicts the virtues. Above upon the head is the name of God; upon the breast is the oracle, and below are the flowers and fruits, the achievements of the virtues, which are almsgiving, justice, and kindness. 5. Therefore we must possess both the blossoming beauties and the completed fruits. And the flowers of the priest are: meeting, conversation, good character, wholesome speech, faith, glory, truth, justice; and between these are the bells, the harmony of good works. For every virtue produces a sound. B Therefore Paul says: *For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth*. And whence did the sound begin? And he says, *Jesus went about teaching in every city and every village, and healing every sickness and every infirmity*. And a sound went forth concerning Him into all the earth. Attend closely: Have you seen the order of the virtues? That priest was a type of Christ. We are not allegorizing here, except that we have received grounds from Paul. Unless Paul had interpreted the power of justice, we could not have known these things. For this reason Paul makes that priest a type of Christ, and says: *For Christ has not entered into holy places made with hands, which are antitypes of the true, but into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us*. Therefore, there was an insurrection among the Jews of that time, and a strange question. For since the apostles were preaching the Savior to be both King, and Priest, and Prophet, the Jews fought back, and spoke according to the law. Another tribe, they say, is of the kingdom, and another of the priesthood. The Levitical tribe is of the priesthood, but that of Judah is of the kingdom, they say. If, therefore, Christ is a King, He is no longer a Priest; but if He is a Priest, He is no longer a King. Paul, fighting against this and adapting his argument to their suspicion, says: C Was it not according to the order of your priesthood that Christ arose? Among you, kingship and priesthood are divided; in Christ, joined. *For You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek*. For this reason he reasons and says: If the first priesthood were blameless, what need was there for a priest to be spoken of as arising according to the order of Melchizedek, and not according to the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of law. Our Savior, therefore, is High Priest, not according to the word of His divinity, but according to the figure of the flesh: He is above, co-enthroned with God for our sake, and High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Of whom there is much to say, but not for this present time. Attend, I pray: There were in the law burnt offerings, sacrifice for sin, and offerings; but the Savior came and stopped the typical offerings, and made His own body in place of every sacrifice. Paul says concerning the Savior: *Therefore, entering into the world, He says: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; but a body You have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and for sin You took no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me*. Paul, having stated this prophecy, and having said that He did not desire sacrifice and offering and for sin, *then I said, Behold, I come*, he removes D the first that He may establish the second. And where is the sacrifice and the offering found in the body of Christ? As the apostle Paul says: *I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that as beloved children you walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling aroma*. For your sake He is High Priest, for His own sake He is God. Do not alter the footsteps of the living God. You were baptized into the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; why do you destroy the living names, and introduce names which are the fruits of reasonings, saying: "Unbegotten and begotten, created and uncreated, eternally existing and not eternally existing"? Does God endure these vain words? To change one word, a prophet once stood in danger of perishing; and observe the precision of a small step: the steps of the prophets some, out of ignorance, used to call "the burden of the Lord." God says through Jeremiah: *If the people, or the priest, or the prophet asks you, and says to you, "What is the burden?" say to them, "You are the burden of the Lord." For I will take you as a burden and will break you, that you may not say "burden."* If one word is to be altered, God threatens; and you, do you distort the whole precision of dogmas, erasing the name of the Father, denying the worth of the Son, setting aside the glory of the Holy Spirit? Will you escape the hands of God? It is grave and dreadful to distort the word of the living God, the Lord our God. God is indignant when words are distorted; shall He not be indignant when dogmas are distorted? Are you wiser than the Savior? Are you more precise than the Gospel? Fear the judgment of God.
A Tremble at that fearsome name, turn away from malice, set repentance before yourself, and faith will pledge salvation to you. For repentance produces salvation, both for those who are caught in heresy, and for those who are wallowing in other sins. Repentance is the root of piety. Let us, therefore, repent and entreat God through repentance, so that He may remove wars, extinguish the barbarians, and reduce the incursions of the enemy to nothing; and grant to us all to enjoy good things freely. When someone turns himself toward God repenting from the heart, repentance greatly placates God. For example, the people sinned at one time, they repented, they wept, God says: «Listening, I have heard the groaning B of Ephraim lamenting and saying: You have chastised me, O Lord, and I have not been emended, but I have become like an unruly calf: convert me, and I shall be converted» (Jer. 31:18). And what does God say to him? «Because my words are in him, I shall in no way remember him, and I will have mercy on him» (Ibid. v. 20). Let no one deter you, not reputation, not the wedge of the barbarians, and thick mist; even if our enemies are innumerable in multitude, our defender is far stronger. If, suspecting the multitude, you fear, Elisha the prophet says to you: «Fear not, for there are more with us than with them» (4 Kings 6:16). There indeed is the multitude of the barbarians, but here is the phalanx of the angels. For an angelic army fights on behalf of devout men, and the chorus of the prophets, and the power of the apostles, and the prayers of the martyrs. Do not think that the martyrs alone pray for us; for even the angels, in our adversities, intercede for us; and they do not only intercede, but they also receive an answer from the C bountiful Lord. The prophet Zechariah says: «And the angel who speaks in me answered and said to the Lord» (Zech. 1:12). This, then, was the prayer of the angel: «O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, which you have despised? This is now the seventy-second year.» What then? Did God reject the prayer of the angel? By no means indeed. What answer, therefore, did He give? «The Lord,» he says, «answered the angel who spoke in me with comfortable words and consoling speeches» (Ibid. v. 13). Let us, therefore, also entreat the Lord of angels, and He will send one of the angels who will disperse the whole phalanx of the enemy. And I have loved an image made of wax, filled with piety. In the picture I saw an angel, routing that cloud of barbarians, I saw the barbarian nations being trampled, and David truly crying out: «O Lord, in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing» (Ps. 72:20). But let the blessed David D also say for us now: «Let their way be darkness and a slippery path, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them» (Ps. 34:6). God knows how to procure various occasions so that the enemies may perish. That army of Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, was vast, and one angel sent as a messenger prostrated one hundred eighty-five thousand enemies (4 Kings 19). We men measure all events by human reasonings, and we say to ourselves: "What if no soldier is found in our parts? What if, before the leader of the army comes, they all devastate us? What shall we do?" Do you think, therefore, that because you are forestalled, God will be forestalled? Because you are not everywhere, is God not everywhere? Do you think, therefore, that God can do this but cannot do that? The inanimate sea obeyed Him and drowned them; the brute fish offered themselves to be caught by Peter; and will the angel, if God commands, not utterly destroy all the enemies of the truth? Let us only live soberly and modestly; let us only ask God and supplicate Him. A most excellent leader commanded among the ancients, whom I designate by a common name so that he may be known to all: he was, I say, the leader of the foreign enemies, Sisera (Judg. 4), of whom David also makes mention: «Do to them as to Midian and Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook Kishon» (Ps. 82:10). Jabin was indeed king of the foreign enemies; Sisera, however, was the leader of the army. And they had eight hundred iron chariots and an infinite force of men. The people of the Jews therefore feared, beheld those vast forces, and shuddered. What then does the most loving God of men indicate through the prophetess Deborah to the defender of piety? «Fear not,» she says, «behold the Lord delivers him into your hands» (Judg. 4:14), and that deed will not be of your hand, but of a woman's hand. Observe how God restrained arrogance. Men had not stood firm, and a woman led the army. Sisera entered in to the woman who was called Jael, and since he was laboring with heat, he asked for water from her; she, however, offered him milk. See the wisdom of the woman. Since milk possesses the power of cooling and induces sleep, she brought him milk, as Scripture truly pronounces, which says: «He asked water of her, and she gave him milk» (Ibid. v. 19), so that at once she might quench his thirst and lull him to sleep. Then, while the foreigner was sleeping, that woman seized a nail and a hammer, and ran to the enemy. Observe the wisdom of the woman. Why did she not rather seize a sword or a dagger, but a tent-peg? She feared, of course, as a woman, lest he awaken and catch her holding a sword in her hand. For this reason, she took no masculine weapon but assumed a feminine implement. For women are accustomed to being girded to drive a peg into the wall, and thus to undertake and approach their own work. She therefore conducted the matter by another path, so as to be above all suspicion. Since, however, God was assisting, it was also God's to bring that oracle to an end; for this was not the stratagem of a woman, but the oracle of God: «In the hand of a woman will be your death» (Judg. 4:9). Therefore, when God...