Homilies on Ezekiel

we shall trample the law, nor shall we trouble the waters by transgressing the evangelical law, nor the apostolic water, so that we may pasture as on good herb—not indeed choosing some things and rejecting others, as if we were selecting or rejecting apostolic things—but we shall observe all the Gospels; and, drinking the apostolic water as much as lies within us, we shall keep these waters and not allow those who do not know how to understand what is being said to be troubled by the unbelief of those who do not understand.

PROLOGUE OF ST. JEROME TO EZEKIEL

It is a great thing, my friend, that you ask, that I should make Origen Latin, and that I should give to Roman ears another magistrate of the Churches after the Apostle, according to the opinion of the learned Didymus: but my own ills, as you yourself know, the pain I suffer, which I have contracted from excessive and impatient reading, and the scarcity of shorthand writers, because my limited means have taken away even this support: what you rightly desire, I cannot so ardently fulfill. Therefore, after the fourteen homilies on Jeremiah, which I translated some time ago in a confused order, I have dictated these four on Ezekiel at intervals, taking great care that the idiom of the man mentioned above—from the simplicity of his discourse, which alone the Churches preserve—should be kept, while avoiding any display of rhetorical art, which we desire to praise, not by words; and I briefly admonish you that you should know that Origen's works on Scripture are threefold. The first are the excerpts, which are called scholia, in which he briefly and concisely touched upon those things that seemed to him obscure and to have some difficulty. The second is the homiletic kind, of which this present interpretation is one. The third is that which he himself entitled "Volumes," we can call them in this work, as he gave himself up on the wind of his own genius, and retreating, fled into the middle of the ocean. I know you wish that I should translate every kind of diction: I have set forth the reason why I cannot do so. This, however, I promise, that if Jesus restores my health at your prayer, I will not say all things—for to have said this would be reckless—but I will translate many, on the condition that I have often established with you: that I provide the voice, and you provide the shorthand writer.

ORIGEN ON EZEKIEL: DE PRIMA VISIONE EJUSDEM

HOMILY I

Not all ^A who were taken captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar came to Babylon through sin. The multitude of the people came through sin, but the just among them did not, such as Daniel, Ananias, Azarias, Misael, this Ezekiel here, Zechariah, Haggai, and those like them. Being good, God, while punishing sinners and delivering to captivity those who are not able to be in the Holy Land because of their sins—for opposites cannot coexist—sends prophets at the same time, so that the sinners who have become captives may not be left completely without help. For given the premise of the sin of the sinners who were taken to Babylon, and with no just men being among them, there would be no healing for the sinners. This, therefore, is of ineffable goodness. For He does not deliver sinners to utter abandonment, but visits them through His saints, concerning whom He said that "you are the light of this world, and the salt of the earth," not only of the Apostles, but also of those like them. The charioteer of these four living creatures was not entirely "fire," but "from the loins downwards," and "from the loins upwards, it was like electrum."

^A Ezechiel was one of them, and Zacharias, the son of Barachias, prophesied in the time of the captivity, under King Darius. We shall also find Aggæus, and many other prophets who prophesied in the same times, from whom it is indicated that God does not only punish sinners, but also mingles mercy with punishments. And if you doubt this, listen to the voices of those who endure torments, how they speak of the mercy of God in a holy manner even in their sufferings: "You will feed us with the bread of tears, and you will give us to drink of tears in measure." He does not say "in tears" indifferently, but "in tears and in measure." For the mercy of God is in balance. If it were not useful for the conversion of sinners to apply torments to those who have sinned, the merciful and kind God would never punish crimes with penalties; but as a most indulgent father chastises his son, so that he may instruct him, just as a most provident teacher punishes a wanton pupil with the severity of his countenance, so that he may not perish by feeling himself loved. Look at Solomon, wisest of all, regarding what he thinks of the corrections of God: "My son, do not be pusillanimous in the discipline of God, nor fail when you are corrected by him. For whom the Lord loves, he corrects, and he scourges every son whom he receives." For there is no son, says the Apostle, who, when he has sinned, is not scourged by his father. And to this he adds wonderfully, saying: "Persevere in discipline. As unto sons, God offers himself to you. For what son is there whom his father does not correct? But if you are without discipline, of which all are partakers, you are adulterers and not sons." ^B But perhaps there may be some one who, offended by the very name of wrath, blames it in God. To him we shall answer that it is not so much the wrath of God as a necessary dispensation. Hear what the work of the wrath of God is: that it may argue, that it may correct, that it may amend: "Lord, do not argue with me in your wrath, nor correct me in your fury." Who says these things knows that the fury of God is not useless for health, but is applied for this reason, that it may cure the sick, that it may amend those who have been contemptuous of hearing his word. Therefore, he does not even pray to be amended by such remedies, lest, with medicinal punishment, he receive his former health; just as if a servant, now placed among the scourges, were to pray to his master, promising him that he will do what was commanded, and say: "Lord, do not argue with me in your wrath, nor correct me in your fury." Everything that is of God is good, and we deserve to be corrected. Listen to him who says: "I will argue them in the hearing of their affliction." Therefore, we have heard those things that are of tribulation, in order that we may be amended. Also, in the cursings of Leviticus it is written: "If after these things they will not obey, nor have been converted to me, I will add seven plagues upon them according to their sins." If ^C anyone had been there, because they were held by sin, if the just had not been among them, there would have been no cure for the sinners. Therefore, this is the ineffable charity: for he does not hand sinners over to total abandonment, but visits them through his saints, of whom he said: "You are the light of the world and the salt of the earth"; which applies not only to the apostles, but also to those who are like them.

^A but if after these things they shall not have turned, I will correct them. All the things of God which appear to be bitter, redound to the benefit of instruction and healing. God is a physician, God is a father, and the Lord is not harsh, but the Lord is gentle. If you come to those who have been punished according to the pronouncements of the Scriptures, compare Scripture with Scripture, as the Apostle also teaches you, and you will see that things are most sweet there where they are thought to be most bitter. It is written in the prophet: "He shall not judge twice for the same thing." He judged once in the judgment through the flood, He judged once in the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, He judged once in the judgment upon Egypt, and the six hundred thousand of the Israelites. Do not think that this vengeance was only a punishment for the sinners, as if, after death and torments, they were to be taken again for punishment. They were punished in the present so that they might not be punished eternally in the future. Observe the poor man in the Gospel; he is pressed by squalor and poverty, and afterwards he rests in Abraham’s bosom. He received his evil things in his life. Whence do you know if those who were killed in the flood received their evil things in their life? Whence do you know if the evil things of Sodom and Gomorrah were not repaid in their life? Hear the testimony of the Scriptures; do you wish to learn the testimony of the Old Testament? Do you wish to be tutored by the New? "Sodom shall be restored to its former state," and do you still doubt whether the Lord who punishes the Sodomites is good? "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment," says the Lord, having mercy on the Sodomites. Therefore, God is kind, God is merciful. He truly makes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he rains upon the just and the unjust, not only this sun which we see with our eyes, but also that sun which is seen by the eyes of the mind. I was evil, and the sun of righteousness rose for me. I was evil, and the rain of righteousness came upon me. The goodness of God is present even in those things which are thought to be bitter.

3. Therefore, he is established in the city as a prophet, and he sees so that he may not experience the pains of captivity; he sees the labors below, but lifting his eyes upward, he looks upon the opened heavens; he perceives the celestial regions laid bare for him; he sees the likeness of the glory of God; he sees the four living creatures, concerning whom there is much discourse and interpretation is difficult. He perceives the charioteer of the four living creatures. He perceives the wheels holding one another. The charioteer of the four living creatures is not entirely fiery, but from the loins to the feet, and from there up to the top he glows with the brilliance of electrum. For God does not have only torments; there are also refreshments in Him. He punishes sinners, but through those ministries which are below. For the prophet did not perceive fire in the head or in those members which rise from the boundary of the loins to the top. The Lord is fiery, but from the loins to the feet, so as to demonstrate that those who are engaged in generation stand in need of fire. For "loin" is the sign of coitus. Levi was still in the loins of his father Abraham when Melchizedek met him. And in the psalm it is said: "Of the fruit of your loin I will set upon my seat." ^A He is fiery from the loins downward to the Lord. For the works of generation and lust are corrected by the punishments of Gehenna. ^B God is fiery, but He is not entirely fiery. His upper parts are electrum. Electrum is more precious not only than silver, but even than gold. Now Scripture used electrum for an example of brilliance, not that God is truly electrum. And as God is not such electrum as was seen, so He is not such fire as appeared from the loins to the end of the feet. This fire consumes, and it is not stated what it consumes, so that you, searching, might discover what that thing is which is consumed by the fire of God. "Our God is a consuming fire." What does this fire consume? Not the wood which we see, not the sensible hay, not the stubble that is seen, but if you have built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ the wood of the works of sin, the hay of the works of sin, the stubble of the lower works of sin, the fire comes and examines all these things. Who is this fire whom the law preaches and the gospel does not keep silent about? "The fire shall test the quality of each one's work." Who, O Apostle, is this fire that tests our works? Who is this fire so wise that it preserves my gold, that it shows my silver to be more shining, that it leaves unharmed that precious stone which is in me, and consumes only the evil things which I have done, the wood, the hay, the stubble which I have built upon? Who is this fire? "I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled." Jesus Christ says, how I wish that it were already kindled. For He is good, and He knows that if this fire is kindled, malice will be consumed. It is written in the prophets: "He sanctified him in burning fire, and it devoured the forest like hay." And again: "The Lord of Hosts sends contumely unto your glory, and a burning fire is kindled for your honor," that is, in order that you may be glorified, fire is sent into the works of your sins. Do you wish to learn further from the prophet that the torments of the good God are constituted for the use of those who endure them? Listen to the same prophet saying: "You have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them; they will be a help to you." It was proper to conceal these things and not to bring them into the middle, but heretics force us to bring into the public what should be hidden: because they are hidden usefully among those who are still little ones according to the age of the soul, who need the fear of masters, and must be corrected by threats and terrors so that ^C they may be able to attain goodness, so that through bitter remedies they might at some point cease from the wounds of their sins. For always the sacraments of God are covered by certain veils because of little ones who are listeners. "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you." The God of the Law and the prophets hides the multitude of His goodness not for those who do not love Him, but for those who fear Him. For they are little ones and are not able to learn with profit that they are loved by the Father, lest they be relaxed, lest they despise the goodness of God. Wherefore, when you hear about the captivity of the people, ^D

^A you should believe indeed that it truly happened according to historical faith, but that it preceded as a sign of another thing, and signified a subsequent mystery. For you too, who are called faithful, who behold peace—for Christ is our peace—you dwell in Jerusalem. But if you have sinned, the visitation of God will forsake you, and you will be delivered captive to Nebuchadnezzar, and being delivered, you will be led into Babylon. For when your soul has been confused by vices and perturbations, you will be led away into Babylon, since Babylon is interpreted as confusion. And if again you perform penance, and through conversion of a true heart obtain the mercy of God, Ezra is sent to you to lead you back and cause you to rebuild Jerusalem. For Ezra is interpreted as "helper," and the word is sent to you helping so that you may return to your homeland. And that which is spoken in enigma by Daniel, and is narrated by the Apostle as both concealing and revealing, is also a sacrament. "In Adam we all die, and in Christ we are all made alive." For Adam was indeed in paradise, but the serpent was the cause of his captivity, and caused him to be cast out either from Jerusalem or from paradise, and to come into this place of tears. The serpent is an enemy contrary to truth. But he was not created contrary from the beginning, nor did he immediately walk upon his chest and belly, nor was he accursed from the beginning. Just as Adam and Eve did not sin immediately when they were made, so too the serpent was at one time not a serpent, when he was dwelling in the paradise of delights. Whence, afterwards falling on account of sins, he deserved to hear: "You are the seal of likeness, the crown of beauty, you were born in the paradise of God, until iniquity was found in you, and you walked blameless in all your ways." Concerning whom Job also records that he grew proud in the sight of the omnipotent God. For Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fell from heaven; he was crushed upon the earth. Behold the consonance of the prophetic and evangelical discourse. The prophet says: "Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fell from heaven, he was crushed upon the earth." Jesus speaks: "I was seeing Satan falling like lightning from heaven." In what does it differ to say lightning, or Lucifer rushing from heaven? So far as the matter pertains, all the consonance is about the one falling. For God did not make death, nor did He perform malice. He permitted free will to man and angel for all things. Here it is now to be understood how, through the freedom of the will, some have ascended to the summit of goods, others have fallen into the depth of malice. But you, O man, why do you not want to be abandoned to your own will? Why do you take it ill to struggle, to labor, to contend, and through good works to make yourself the cause of your own salvation? Or will it delight you more, sleeping and established in idleness, to rest in eternal prosperity? "My Father," says the Lord Jesus Christ, "is working until now, and I am working," and does it displease you to work, for which you were born to works? Do you not want your work to become justice, wisdom, chastity? Do you not want your work to be fortitude, ^B and other virtues? Therefore they are led into captivity, who for their own sins have deserved the punishments of slavery. And Jesus Christ came to preach remission to the captives, and sight to the blind. He calls out to those who are in bonds: "Come forth"; and to those who are dwelling in darkness: "See." And we were in the bonds of sins, and we were sometimes dwelling in darkness, struggling against the rulers of the darkness of this world: Jesus came, preached by the voices of all the prophets, saying to those in shackles: "Come out," and to those established in darkness: "Look."

4. But if you wish to hear Ezekiel the son of man preaching in captivity, he too was a type of Christ. Therefore it happened, he says, in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, and I was in the midst of the captivity by the river Chebar, and the heavens were opened. Therefore, Ezekiel, being thirty years of age, saw the heavens opened by the river Chebar. And the Lord Jesus Christ was beginning to be about thirty years of age by the river Jordan, and the heavens were opened. And throughout the whole prophecy it is said to Ezekiel: "Son of man." But who is the son of man, if not my Lord Jesus Christ? Let the heretics who elude his nativity as a phantom answer me: Why is Christ called the son of man? I affirm that he was the son of man. For he who assumed human passions, it is necessary that he should have undergone nativity before the passion. For he could not have received human affects, words, customs, ^C the cross, and death, if he did not receive the beginning of humanity. And it was consequent that, removing his nativity, they should also remove the passion, and simply say, "Jesus was not crucified." But now you confess the cross, and you do not blush to preach the crucified one as a scandal to the Jews, and as foolishness to the Gentiles; and do you blush to confess his nativity, which is less of a scandal than passion or death? Indeed, it is less of a scandal that Jesus was born than that he died, or if the Christian faith does not fear the scandal, why do you fear to say the lesser things, you who have dared to confess the greater? Especially since his nativity is believed not to be from the seed of a man and the sleeping of a woman, but according to the eloquence of the prophet saying: "Behold a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." This which is called Emmanuel does not sound one name, but signifies a reality. For with Jesus coming, we say, "God is with us." Not in vain, therefore, does Ezekiel prophesy in the thirtieth year. For his name also is a figure of Christ. For Ezekiel is interpreted as "the empire of God"; now there is no empire of God except Christ Jesus. He is also written as the son of Buzi, which is interpreted as "contempt." If you come to the heretics, and hear them scorning and holding for nothing the Creator, and furthermore even accusing him, you will see according to them our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the most contemptible Creator. But if anyone objects, and does not ^D

^A accept what we have explained, as if it were a prophecy, I shall ask him why it is written that in the thirtieth year of Ezechiel's life the heavens were opened, and that he saw those visions which are contained in his book. What benefit does the number of years bring me, unless it be this: that I learn that in the thirtieth year the heavens were unsealed both for the Savior and for the prophet, and that by comparing spiritual things with spiritual ones, I recognize that all things which are written are the words of the same God? Indeed, the words of the wise are as stimuli, and as nails driven deep, because they have been given by one shepherd to those who are pricked. I, too, regarding that which is said, "in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month," searching according to the capability of my understanding, pray to God that I may be able to understand the very things that accord with the will of His Scriptures. A new year is already imminent for the Jews, and the first month among them is counted from the beginning of the new year. Now, the Passover is celebrated based on the number of the new year. "This shall be for you the beginning of months in the months of the year." Counting from this year, calculate for me the fourth month, and understand that Jesus was baptized in the fourth month of the new year. For we know that the baptism of the Lord took place in that month which is called January among the Romans, which is the fourth month from the new year according to the Hebrew calculation. And because He had assumed a body consisting of the four elements of the world, ^B while also receiving human senses, perhaps for that reason the vision was perceived in the fourth month, and on the fifth day of the month.

5. "And I was in the midst of the captivity." It seems to me that it is spoken irenically: "And I was in the midst of the captivity." And "I": as if the prophet were saying according to history, "And I, who was not held in the sins of the people, was in the midst of the captivity"; but according to the allegory, [it is] Christ, "And I came into the place of captivity, I came to those ends where the servants, where the captives were detained." You have such voices of our Savior in the prophets, who is indignant because we do not make men worthy of His dispensation, and especially we who are thought to believe in Him. For He says to His Father: "What profit is there in my blood, while I descend into corruption? Shall the dust confess to you, or will it tell of your truth?" I find also another voice of this kind, which is spoken from the person of our Savior through the prophet, seeking souls full of justice, full of divine senses, full of holy fruits, and seeking the true clusters of truth, but finding many sinners and those barren of goods, and for this reason saying: "Woe is me, for I have become as one who gathers stubble in the harvest, and as grapes in the vintage, to which there is no cluster left to eat [as] the firstfruits. Woe is me." That which is called "woe is me" is not the voice of the firstborn of all creation, it is not the voice of the divinity, but of the human soul which He assumed: whence He adds: "Woe is me, my soul, because the righteous one has perished from the earth, and there is no one who corrects among men." All are judged in blood, everyone ^C torments his own. These things have therefore been recorded because the prophet says: "And I was in the midst of the captivity by the river Chobar," which is interpreted as "heaviness." Now, the river of this world is heavy, as it is also said elsewhere in sacred [Scripture]. And according to the simple ones, it explains the history: but to those who hear the Scriptures spiritually, it signifies the soul, which has fallen into the whirlwinds of this life. "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept while we remembered Sion; upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our instruments, because there those who led us captive asked us for the words of songs." Such are the rivers of Babylon, beside which [people] sitting and remembering their heavenly country, mourn and deplore, where they hang their instruments upon the willows of the Law and the mysteries of God. It is written in a certain book that all believers receive a willow crown. And it is said in Isaiah: "It shall rise as hay in the midst of the water, and a willow upon the flowing water." And in the solemnity of God, when His tabernacles are constructed, they set up willow branches in the fixing of the tabernacles.

6. "By the river Chobar." By this river, which is the heaviest of the world. "And the heavens were opened." The heavens had been closed, and at the advent of Christ they were opened, so that with them unsealed, the Holy Spirit might come upon Him in the form of a dove. For He could not come to us ^D unless He had first descended to a partaker of His own nature. Jesus ascended on high, He led captivity captive, He gave gifts to men. He who descended is the same who ascended above all the heavens that He might fill all things. And He Himself gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfection of the saints.

7. "The heavens were opened." It is not sufficient for one heaven to be opened: many are opened, so that not from one [heaven], but from all the heavens, angels might descend to those who are to be saved. Angels who were ascending and descending upon the Son of man, and they approached Him, and were ministering to Him. But the angels descended because Christ had descended first, fearing to descend before the Lord of virtues and of all things commanded it. But when they saw the prince of the heavenly host dwelling in earthly places, then they entered through the opened way, following their Lord, and obeying the will of Him who distributed them as guardians of those who believe in His name. You were yesterday under a demon, today you are under an angel. "Do not," says the Lord, "despise one of these little ones who are in the Church. For I say to you, that their angels always see the face of the Father who is in heaven." Angels follow for your salvation, they have been granted for the ministry of the Son of God, and they say among themselves: "If He descended, and descended into a body, if He was clothed in mortal flesh, and endured the cross, and died for men, why are we at rest? Why do we spare ourselves? Come, let all we angels descend from heaven." Therefore also

^A a multitude of the heavenly host were praising and glorifying God when Christ was born. All things are full of angels; come, O angel, receive the one who has been converted from his former error, from the doctrine of demons, from the iniquity that speaks on high: and receive him as a good physician, cherish and instruct him; he is a little child, today is born an old man growing young again: and receive him, bestowing upon him the baptism of the second regeneration, and call to yourself other companions of your ministry, so that you all together may instruct those who were once deceived unto the faith. For there is greater joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance than over ninety-nine just men who have no need of penance. Every creature exults, rejoices, and applauds those who are to be saved. For the expectation of the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God. And although those who have interpolated the apostolic Scriptures may not wish for such sayings to be in their books by which the creator Christ can be approved, yet every creature awaits the sons of God, when they shall be freed from sin, when they shall be taken from the hand of the devil, when they shall be regenerated by Christ. But it is already time that we touch upon some things concerning the present passage. The prophet saw not a vision, but visions of God. Why did he see not one, but many visions? Hear the Lord promising and saying: I have multiplied visions.

8. The fifth month. This is the fifth year of the captivity of king Jehoiachin. In the thirtieth year of Ezekiel's age and the fifth of the captivity of Jehoiachin, the prophet is sent to the Jews. The most clement Father has not despised them, nor has He left the people unvisited for a long time. It is the fifth year. How much time has passed? Five years have flowed by since the captives have been serving. Immediately the Holy Spirit descended, opened the heavens, so that those who were pressed by the yoke of captivity might see those things which were being seen by the prophet. For since he says: And the heavens were opened, in a certain way they themselves also viewed with the eyes of the heart what he had looked upon even with the eyes of the flesh.

9. And the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the son of Buzi the priest. The word of the Lord, who in the beginning was with God the Father, the Word God, the word who makes believers gods. For if He called those gods to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, to whomsoever the word of God came, they became gods. Ezekiel also was a god, because the word of God came to him. I said: You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. But you as men shall die, and as one of the princes you shall fall. Where have you such a promise in the New Testament? If it is necessary to distinguish the instruments, and to speak of gods ^D dissenting among themselves—which is indeed a sin even to suspect, but we speak according to a catachresis—I shall surely say boldly that much greater humanity is shown in the Old Testament than in the New. I said: You are gods and all of you sons of the Most High. He does not say: ^A you are gods, and some you are not; truly, all of you are gods. But if you sin, listen to what follows: But you shall die as men. This is not the fault of the One calling to salvation, He Himself is not the cause of death who invites to divinity and to the adoption of the heavenly nature, but it consists in our sin and in our wickedness that it is said: But you shall die as men, and as one of the princes you shall fall. There were many princes, and one of them fell, of whom it is also written in Genesis: Behold Adam has become, not as we, but as one of us. Therefore when Adam sinned, then he became as one.

10. And the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the son of Buzi. Even if you wish to understand these things concerning the Savior, do not fear, the allegory has its meaning even so: the word of the Lord came to Him who was being born of the virgin, that is, to man, the word always remaining in the Father so that both might become one, and man might be associated, whom because of the sacrament and salvation of universal humanity He would clothe, with His divinity and the nature of the only-begotten Son of God. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the son of Buzi, the priest in the land of the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans dispute about heavenly things; the Chaldeans reason about the nativities of men. In the land of the Chaldeans. As if to say, of those who assert fate, of those who claim the causes of the universe through the circuit of the stars. This error, therefore, and this perversity of mind is signified figuratively in the land of the Chaldeans. In the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chobar. And the hand of the Lord was made there upon me. And the word of the Lord came to the prophet, and the hand that he might be adorned both in deeds and in words. And I saw visions. I shall touch upon some things, and although because of the scarcity of time what I have said might suffice, yet I shall cull ^C the sum of each thing from the whole body of the vision.

11. And I saw, and behold a spirit coming from the North. Diligently consider the number of the things which are spoken: the spirit rising or taking away was coming from the North, behold one thing. And a great cloud was in it, behold two. And brightness round about it, behold three. And fire flashing, behold four. And in the midst thereof as the appearance of electrum in the midst of the fire, behold five. And light in it, behold six. After these the likeness of four living creatures, and their vision, and the narration of the vision, behold seven. And in the midst of the living creatures as coals of fire, behold eight. Who can explain these things minutely? Who is so capable of the Spirit of God as to elucidate these sacraments? It was for the accusers of the Creator and of the God of the prophets to first understand what is said by the prophets, and afterwards to accuse. For he who truly accuses ought to accuse what he knows. But if the heretics are not even near to the divine understanding, how do they reasonably accuse that which we prove they do not know? Let them learn what the meaning is in this vision. First appears the spirit taking away. Secondly a great cloud in the spirit taking away. Thirdly

^A a glowing fire. Fourthly in the midst of it a vision like electrum, no doubt in the midst of the fire. Fifthly the splendor in that same electrum. I willingly confess a sentiment spoken by a wise and faithful man, which I often adopt: it is a danger to speak even truly about God. For not only are those things dangerous which are spoken falsely about Him, but even those which are true, if they are not brought forward at the right time, generate danger for the speaker. The pearl is true, but if it is offered perversely, there is a risk in what is said concerning their feet. And to place an example near to us, these collections do not only in Aelia, not only in Rome, nor in Alexandria, but throughout the whole world at once, bear a likeness to the net which catches from every kind of fish. It is not possible that all things that fall into it are good. For the Savior says: "When they have drawn it out, and sat down by the shore, they will choose the good into their vessels, but the bad they will cast out." It is necessary therefore that in the net of the whole Church there be both good and bad. If all things were already clean, what do we leave for the judgment of God? And according to another parable, both the wheat and the chaff are contained in the threshing floor, although only the wheat is to be gathered into the barns of Christ, and the chaff is to be separated from it, whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will cleanse his threshing floor, and he will gather the wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will consume with unquenchable fire. ^B For I do not assert that the threshing floor is the whole world, but I understand the threshing floor to be the assembly of the Christian people. Just as every threshing floor is circumscribed, and is full of wheat or chaff, and not the whole is wheat, nor is the whole again chaff: so in the terrestrial Churches one is wheat, another is chaff. But here it is not for their own cause, nor by their own will that they are chaff: for neither is it by their own volition that they are wheat: here however it is placed in your power, that you may be chaff or wheat. These things ought to teach us, that if at any time someone in our congregations sees a sinner, he should not be scandalized, nor say: "Lo, a sinner is in the holy assembly." If this is allowed, if this is granted, why should I not also sin? While we are in the present age, that is, in the threshing floor and in the net, both good and bad are contained in it. But when Christ comes, a separation will be made, and that which is said by the Apostle will be fulfilled: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, whether they be good or bad." These things in the prologue concerning the interpretation of the visions ^C which we said a little before, because our Lord is a consuming fire, we even now repeat and say that it conforms to this testimony. How is the spirit taking away posited? God is a spirit, and a spirit taking away is perceived. What does he take away from me, and from my soul, so that he may be deservedly called "taking away"? Certainly evils: and then I feel his goodness, if he has removed from me all that is most base. Nor indeed is it to be thought that the end of beatitude is if we are freed from evils; it is the beginning of happiness to be free from sin. And it is written in Jeremiah (for I attribute everything that is written in the prophets to the most merciful God): "Behold, I have given my words into thy mouth, lo, I have set thee over nations and kingdoms to root up, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant." God is kind in giving words for rooting up. But what is it that ought to be rooted up and destroyed? If any planting in the soul is evil, if any sect is wicked, the prophetic word roots this up, this it destroys. Would that it might happen that such a word be given to me, which might root up the seeds of the heretics, and the doctrine flowing from the fountain of the Devil, which might take away the planting of idolatry from the soul of him who now for the first time enters the Church. "I have given my words into thy mouth. Lo, I have set thee to root up and pull down." Clearly so that if any building is most base, it may be destroyed. How I would wish also to pull down whatever Marcion built up in the ears of the deceived, to root up, and to pull down, and to disperse, as Jacob dispersed the idols. Even to this day it is "to disperse and to build." The heretics have only heard of dispersing and pulling down, but in the word of building and planting they have turned deaf ears. For they do not wish to look, because all things that are said first are sad, and those that are second are joyful. Why do we now recall these things? Clearly so that it may be manifested that the word of God pulls down evils, and builds up the best things, and roots up vices, like a good farmer, so that in the cleaned field a most abundant harvest of virtues may arise. These things are on account of the spirit taking away. For he saw first the spirit taking away, then a great nebula in it. When you have been purified ^D by the spirit taking away, so much that every evil is taken away from you, and everything that dwells in your soul of iniquity, you will then enjoy the cloud which is in the spirit taking away. And this cloud is akin to that evangelical cloud, from which came a voice saying: "This is my beloved Son." Therefore, a spirit taking away; then a great cloud in him; then a shining splendor in his circuit. Indeed, the vice has been taken away from you, the cloud has been given to you; so that rain may fall upon the vineyard.

Then you shall begin to enjoy even the great cloud that consists in the spirit that takes away. This cloud is next to that cloud of which we read in the Gospel, from which came the voice: *This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.* ^A Indeed, the spirit that takes away, then the great cloud within it, afterwards the most shining light in its circuit. The evil has been taken away from you. A great cloud has been given to you, that it may rain a shower upon your vineyard, according to that which is said elsewhere: *I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it*, namely, upon a very bad vineyard. But if this is commanded concerning a bad one, there is no doubt that if you were a good vineyard, the cloud would rain upon you.

13.

And splendor in its circuit. Then shining fire, and in the midst of it as it were the vision of electrum.

14.

And the spirit that takes away was coming from the North.

15.

And in the midst of it as it were the likeness of four animals, this was their vision. The likeness of a man in them. And one had four faces, and one had four wings, and their legs were straight, and their feet were feathered.

to the Lord Jesus, are subject to him. And those that are subject, they say: "Is not my soul subject to God? For from him is my salvation." And: "He must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet." What then is the fourth? Things celestial, things terrestrial, and things infernal; there are only three. Indeed, it is that: "Praise the Lord, ye heavens of heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens, let them praise the name of the Lord." All these things are governed by God, and are led by his majesty.

These same animals have the likeness of a man upon them, since they are of four faces. Nor is it said in the beginning that there are four faces, but because among the four faces the human face stands out and holds the principality; the human face is described, and the face of the lion on the right of the four parts, and the face of the calf on the left of the four, and the face of the eagle on the four parts. Let us see therefore ^A if it signifies a tripartite soul, about which it is also necessary to argue from the opinions of others, so that a fourth, fortitude, may preside over the tripartite soul. What is the tripartition of the soul? By the man, its rational part is indicated; by the lion, the irascible; by the calf, the concupiscible. But the spirit which presides to assist is not on the right, like the man or the lion; it is not on the left, like the calf, but consists above all three faces. For in another place the eagle ^B is invoked, so that by the eagle it may signify the spirit presiding over the soul. And I speak of the spirit of man which is in him. And thus all things are led by the nod of God, things celestial, terrestrial, and infernal, and those things which are above the heavens, and we are all made cherubim, which are under the feet of God, to which wheels are joined, and it follows them. We do not occupy ourselves under the wheel, nor under the power of the age and its affairs, since we are now, through the passion of Christ, delivered from the business of the world. And a wheel ^C in the midst of a wheel. If you consider how the universality of things is resolved by contrary events, whether in those who are thought to err, or in those who are said to be alien from error, you will see how the wheel is in the midst of the wheel. Moreover, this governs all things, and whithersoever it wills, God turns the whole universe, in Christ Jesus, to whom is glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY II

Concerning what is said: "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy from their own heart," until: "I will stretch out my hand against the prophets, who see vain things and divine lies."

1. Scripture keeps silent about no species of sin from which it does not teach those who read. For it behooved the Word of God, sent to heal those who were listening, to scour every spirit of sins, and to speak to all men, so that no one might be defrauded of salutary remedies, and of these medicines that can be of benefit for healing wounds. How therefore is it said that some things concern the people, others the great priests, and certain things the presbyters, and some things the dispensers—indeed to the good dispensers praise is ascribed, but to the bad, blame—so that some may receive exhortation to better things, while others may not fall into worse? Thus it is necessary to be taught divine discipline concerning true and false prophets, so that those who minister by the words of God may be accepted as prophets; but by false prophets may be designated the masters of the churches, who do not rightly—whether in speech or in life—agree with the discipline that they preach. Therefore let us be glad if Scripture warns us, teaching us that we should depart from vices, but more so if the word of God scourges some of our order, being willing to be healed and converted from our sins.

2. The word of the Lord came to the prophet Ezekiel, saying to him: "Son of man, prophesy for me against the prophets of Israel." There were indeed also prophets of Israel by name rather than by truth. But there are also today in the true Israel, that is, the Church, certain false prophets and false teachers, to whom this speech is proclaimed. If the word of God argues with me, I will attempt to be converted; and because some things are said against me, who appear to be a doctor of the Church, I must not be silent; but sparing not myself, I will reveal all things that have been said, so that I may be converted from vices, so that I may be made not one of those whom Scripture now rebukes, but one of those who, most truthfully preaching the word of God, have existed as masters in the Church. "Prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to the prophets"—just as the work of the prophets was by the spirit to predict the things that were seen, so by the same spirit it is the work of him who desires to explain them.

COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW, TOME XV

^Apersuade him to sell his possessions and bestow them upon the poor. He who satisfies this opinion and has been found in such a place will say that a sinner is filled with spirits according to the proportion of his sins; for instance, if he be a fornicator, with the spirit of fornication spoken of in the prophets; if passionate, with the spirit of wrath; if a slanderer, with the spirit of slander. He who is evil possesses these goods, and by his communion with the darker spirits he is more complex than Typho. And just as he acquired them by purchasing them through a choice that yielded to evil things, so might he sell them to those poor—as this ^B discourse signifies—by yielding to Jesus. For just as the peace of the apostles returns to them if he who hears, “Peace be to you,” does not happen to be a son of peace; so, too, fornication and all sins would return to those poor who were the authors of the sins. Nor can it be doubted that he who has sold all the surrendered possessions so described and given them to the poor becomes perfect. But if the possessions are sold over a long time, and a long time is needed to give them to the paupers we have mentioned, there is nothing to prevent one who gives over time, in proportion to what is surrendered to the poor, from becoming perfect. And it is clear that he who acts thus will have a treasure in heaven, becoming himself ^C heavenly; for just as is the earthen man—the evil one, clearly—such are the earthen; and as is the heavenly, that is, Christ, such are the heavenly. Therefore, in his own portion, namely heaven, he will have a treasure who has willed to become perfect and has sold all his possessions and given to the poor. But do not suppose that such a man as this can be found among those who are rich in worldly goods; for which of them has sold the love of riches, and—if I may so call it—the love of ornamentation? Who has thoroughly sold the spirit of vainglory, so that he may hold a treasure in his own heaven, having given it away?

OLD INTERPRETATION

^D...the good acts of the just, but the evil ones of the wicked. Therefore, this passage calls him who has many possessions a “rich man,” in the mystery of one who possesses many evil works, in which there can be both a love of money, and a concupiscence of glory, and other earthly things filling his soul. Since, therefore, it is possible for one who is rich in this way to sometimes abstain from certain evils—for example, from homicide, from adultery, from theft, from false testimony, and to render with a certain honor what is due to parents—and also possible for someone to be merciful to his neighbors, though he is not yet perfect: for this reason, Christ, counseling such a man, commands him to sell all his evil substance, and, as it were, to hand it over to the virtues that are working it, which are poor in every good, and for this reason do not suffer threats, according to what is written: “The poor man does not suffer threats.” But I know that this exposition will seem very violent, solving honestly what was said about perfection, yet not very persuasive, so as to suggest that he who puts away the things of malice is understood to “sell his substance and give to the poor.” But being caught, as it were, in such a place, I shall speak: he who defends this exposition can say that a sinner is full of spirits according to the measure of his sins; for example, a fornicator, according to what is said in the Scriptures, with the spirit of fornication; a furious man, with the spirit of wrath; and a slanderer, with the spirit of accusation. He who was evil acquired this substance, and he became, by participation in evil spirits, more abundant and more multiplied in those very evils. But just as one acquired it by buying it with his own will by pleasing evil things, so he sells it and gives it to such poor people as the discourse speaks of, through the fact that he has believed the words of Christ and left it. For just as the peace of the apostles returns to them if there is no son of peace, so do fornication and all sins return to the poor who are the authors of the sins, when he is no longer using their evils. And thus there will be no doubt that he who has sold all his own faculties as we have handed down, and has given them to the poor, immediately becomes perfect. But if such faculties are sold over a long time, and much time is necessary for them to be handed over to the poor I have mentioned, there is nothing contrary; but according to the estimation of the evil things handed over to the poor over time, he who has done such things becomes perfect. It is manifest, moreover, that he who has done such things has a treasure in heaven, and...

it is ambiguous from the discourse what the meaning is. For either those things which are general—that is, the things which are not seen—exist, although they are perceived in some part; or, which I judge to be better, they are not seen at all, although to themselves they seem in some part to be seeing. For there are other eyes within us that are better than those which we have in the body. These eyes either see the Lord Jesus, who created them to gaze upon Himself, or else they are altogether blind. If I am a sinner, I see nothing, nor can I look upon the light of truth. For "for judgment," He says, "I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind"; but if I am just, I receive grace from God, and it is said of me also that I am seeing. For prophets were formerly called seers. "And you who see," He says, "go, descend into the land of Judah, and dwell there, and there you shall prophesy. But in Bethel you shall no longer add to prophesy." And again elsewhere: "The vision which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw." Blessed is he to whom the Lord will reveal his eyes to see the ^A wonders of the law of God, according to the prayer of the Prophet saying: "Reveal my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law."

4. Let us see also another discourse through which pseudoprophets and false teachers are rebuked: by whom, I ask, so that I may be found pure while you are praying. What, therefore, is this rebuke? "Like foxes in the desert, your prophets, O Israel." The animal, the fox, is wicked, crafty, untamable, it is wild. "Tell," says the Savior, "that fox: Behold, I perform healings today, and tomorrow, and on the third day I am perfected." Samson needed these foxes against the aliens, whose tails, when tied with fire (for he had caught three hundred), he sent into the destruction of the enemies' crops. Such are the false teachers, crafty, malicious, and like beasts. If I am such a one, I am a fox: but not simply a fox, but a fox in the deserts, a fox in the ruins, a fox in the rocks; for these things are contained in different senses. These are turncoats and wicked, and always dwell in deserts, always in solitudes. For wherever the soul is inhabited by God, and is full of the Holy Spirit, there the doctrine of heretics cannot penetrate, nor does their discourse have power to break through. But where the solitude of Christ is, where the desert of justice is, there the poisons of the most wicked discipline are poured out. Therefore, as foxes, He says, "in the deserts" of your prophet, O Israel. They have not stood in the firmament. If you wish to consider the teachers, you will see them as infirm, unstable, and not able to say: "He set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps." And because they are not such that they have stood, founded on a sturdy root, therefore they have not stood in the firmament, but have loved to move their feet. It is indeed a great sin, even to move the feet a little, as David the psalmist sings: "How good God is to Israel, to those who are of upright heart! But my feet had almost slipped." Blessed is he, and much ^B happy, to whom it is granted to have it, who is worthy to hear from God: “But you stand here with me.” Truly, not such are the pseudoprophets, not such are the false teachers: for they have not stood in the firmament in this way.

5. "And they gathered flocks over the house of Israel," whom they teach, whom they instruct, whether preaching an impious dogma as heretics, or whether false teachers deceiving them whose ears itch, they gather flocks of schisms against the Church of God, against the house of Israel. "They have not risen up who would say: In the day of the Lord, seeing false things." These have not risen up; but those rising up say: "We have been buried with Christ through baptism, and we have risen with him." For we have as a pledge the Holy Spirit, which we shall receive in full after that which is perfect has come, so too the pledge of the resurrection, because in the perfect resurrection no one of us has yet risen. Nevertheless, we have risen, with Paul saying: "We have been buried with Christ through baptism, and we have risen with him." Therefore, they have not risen, that is, they have not yet attained the baptism of the resurrection, the false prophets and false teachers: "Who would say in the day of the Lord, seeing what things are false," nor can they ever behold the truth. Take an example. He who reads Scripture, and takes it otherwise than it is written, sees the Scripture falsely. But he who hears the Scripture as the understanding of truth has it, and interprets it thus, sees the truth. And the saints indeed do not divine. "For there is no divination in Jacob." But sinners divine false things, saying: "Thus says the Lord, and the Lord did not send them." Hear the heretics, how they say that they possess the traditions of the apostles. Hear the false teachers, how they affirm that their doctrine is the doctrine of the Lord, that their sense conforms to the sense of the prophets, and they say: "Thus says the Lord, and the Lord did not send them." And they began to stir up the discourse. "Have you not seen a false vision?" And these indeed wish, in their own defense, to stir up some discourse for themselves, but the Lord rebukes them and says: "You have not seen a false vision, and you have spoken empty divinations, and have said: The Lord speaks, and I have not spoken?" Therefore say: "Thus says the Lord, because your speeches are lying." Pray for us that our speeches may not be false. Although some men, by ignorance, assert them to be false in the judgment of the Lord, the Lord does not say, and it will be dealt rightly with us. But if a thousand men said they were true, if in the further judgment of God they were found false, what will it profit me? The Marcionites also say that their teacher's words are true, the Valentinians also say the same of their most sturdy sect, who receive the inventions of his fables. What utility is there, because very many of the Church, deceived by heretical depravity, have conspired into their sentiment? This is what is sought, that the Lord may assist as witness of my discourse, that He Himself may prove what is said by the testimony of the holy Scriptures. For-

for these things, therefore, the Lord Adonai says to us: *I will stretch out my hand against the prophets who see falsehood.* These threats are against false teachers and those who speak lies. Let us see, however, what is threatened to them: *They shall not be in the assembly of my people.* Sinners are not corrected by the Lord in one way. The people of the Lord are reproved in one way, the stranger in another: *My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord, nor grow weary when you are rebuked by him. For the Lord disciplines whom he loves, and he scourges every son whom he receives.* Rebuke us, O Lord, but in judgment, and not in fury: this is the correction of the people. The correction of the sinner and the stranger is that which the just man refuses, saying: *O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your fury.* Therefore, concerning false teachers and false prophets it is said: *They shall not be in the assembly of my people, nor shall they be written in the Scripture of the house of Israel.* Just as it is elsewhere: *Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the just.* And now the Scripture says: *They shall not be written in the writing of the house of Israel, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel.* Outside the land of promise shall the heretics dwell, which is a land very good, and into which we pray to be introduced, having been inscribed beforehand in the book of the living by Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY III. Concerning that which is written: "Son of man, fix your face toward the daughters of your people who prophesy from their own heart"; up to: "I fix my face against that man, and I will make him a wasteland."

1. First, concerning what is said: *Fix your face*, it must be inquired into. Then, if the Lord grants, we must investigate the daughters of the people ^A prophesying from their own heart, and doing those things in which the word of God corrects them. And that there is another face ^B besides this face of our body, although it is manifest from many things, yet it is indicated by what the Apostle records: *But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.* We all have this bodily face unveiled, unless perhaps we are pressed by calamities and straits. But that countenance of which the Apostle speaks is in many hidden, and in few revealed. For he who has confidence in an immaculate life, in a sound mind, in true faith, he alone does not have the veil of confusion, fraud, and sin, but because of a pure conscience, with unveiled face, he contemplates ^C the glory of the Lord. But far be it from us to have this face veiled! These are a few words concerning the face, so that we may be able to understand what follows: *Fix your face toward the daughters of your people.* This face, that is, the principle of our heart, unless it has been fixed upon that which is to be understood, so that just as he sees he may announce to those who hear, that which is beheld is not seen. For it is impossible that someone, without the fixation of the countenance, wandering, fluctuating, carried about by every wind of doctrine, should see what he ought, and see as he ought. It behooves, therefore, one who wishes to understand to have his face fixed upon that which he strives to understand: and for this reason it is primarily commanded to those who are about to prophesy that they fix their faces; so that we, in turn, may be able to fix our face upon the Gospel, in the Law, in the Prophets, in the Apostles: fix it upon Christ, and not upon the affairs of the world. But when our soul is busied with worldly cares, when it always burns with a hunger for possessing, we do not fix our face upon the things that God has commanded, but upon those things of the world that are contrary to the precepts of God. Who among us, do you suppose, is clean from the fixation of the face upon those things which are forbidden? Who is so solicitous and cautious that day and night he fixes the face of his heart upon those things which are commanded?

2. Now also, if we are to understand the present Scripture, in what way it is said to the prophet: *Fix your face toward the daughters of your people, so that he may see those things which he is about to speak*, we must fix our understanding, and in the temptation of the heart have an inquiry as to what it is that is signified, so that we may at last, by reason, surpass the letter. And according to the common understanding, some daughters of the people prophesying are seen to have committed this sin ^D that follows. Taking up cushions, they were sewing them, and sewing them they were placing them not under their heads, but under the elbows of those who hear, and were covering the heads of those of every age with certain veils. These are the things which are accounted as great sins for the daughters of the people who prophesy. But who can say, resting in the word, that if anyone should sew cushions, and place the sewn things under the elbow of another, he sins and is corrected by God? Who can assert that if anyone makes veils to cover the head of a person of any age, he acts impiously? Necessity is imposed upon us by the Scripture itself, that, departing from the tips of the letter, we may seek the word, and the wisdom, and his will, to open the sins that are closed, to illuminate the things that are dark, so that we may be able to be delivered from the curse of the stranger.

3. *Every elbow of the hands, or of the arms.* Who contemplates the interior? There are, therefore, two faces: covering and covered, exterior and interior. We call the aspect the face, and the vision the aspect. We have, therefore, an exterior aspect and an interior one. The interior vision is the mind; the spiritual face is the mind, which must be fixed so that it may be able to serve the discourse.

^A Indeed, they are occupied [in the] life of the body, and not through sleep [but through waking intent] they see spiritual delights, which the divine Word does not wish them to have, saying: *Delight in the Lord, and he will give thee the petitions of thy heart*; they who have not known the will of the blessed, of which it is written: *Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure*; they seek, as lovers of luxury and not lovers of God, always to be in bodily delights. But to me, a cushion stitched under the elbow of the hands seems to be a sign of carnal pleasure. For since at the time of reclining for bodily benefits we appear to use certain things that are stitched and embroidered under the elbow of our hands, perhaps the divine Word, by such a figure and argument, blames those masters who, through vain speech and various blissful promises, permit the multitude of listeners to be given over to lust, vices, and pleasure. For the Word of God and God-man ought to put forward those things which are for the salvation of the listener, which urge him toward continence, toward the practice of healthy actions, toward all those things upon which a man studious of labor and not of lust ought to exert himself, so that he may be able to attain those things which are promised by God. Therefore, when someone, suited to the morals of the people so that he may please those whose ears itch, speaks the things which they receive gladly, speaks the things which are close to pleasure, such a master stitches cushions under every elbow of the hands. This follows [him] who has sin, that he makes also garments for covering the head of every age. But let us consider more cautiously of what thing this veil is a figure. He who has confidence, and is truly a man, ^B does not have a veil over his head, but with uncovered head prays to the Lord, with uncovered head prophesies, through the sign of a bodily thing also secretly showing the spiritual, that just as he does not have a veil over the head of his flesh, so he should not have a veil over the principal part of his heart. But if someone wears a veil of confusion and sin, he has, as it were, womanly veils over his head. Therefore, when someone has taught those things which soothe the ear of the people, and move the clamor of applauders rather than groans, if the bland enemy has stroked rather than cut the wounds, such a man puts a garment over his head. But when the sermon of the speaker has poured itself into luxurious speech, and has leaped into wanton eloquence, he puts a veil over the head of every age, not only of boys and youths, but even of old men. For how will he make ^C signs and wonders for deceiving, if it is possible, even the elect, [the] false Christ and false prophet? Similarly, they too who are deliberately given over to pleasure, and are always seeking those things which delight the listeners rather than turn them from vices, make veils over the head not only of boys and youths, but, if it is possible, of old men and fathers as well, to such an extent that they deceive even those who have progressed in spiritual age and seniority according to the labor of the soul. And the prophet could indeed say, *upon the sons of thy people who prophesy*: but as if all those who weave veils and stitch cushions under every elbow of the hands were women, and no one among them is considered worthy of the name of man, the prophet says: *Upon the daughters of thy people who prophesy from their own heart, and do those things which follow*. For the souls and wills of their masters are effeminate, who always compose sonorous and melodious things; and, to speak the truth, there is nothing manly, nothing strong, nothing worthy of God in those who preach according to the grace and will of the listeners; for this reason he called them all daughters rather than sons, stitching cushions. And observe the propriety of the word; he says "stitching," not "weaving." Are you ignorant that the tunic of your Lord Jesus has nothing stitched in it, but is woven from every part? Therefore these [people] stitch words to words ^D fraudulently and craftily, stitching rather than weaving; and they make cushions not upon which they rest their heads, but upon which the elbow, that is, so that their hands might not be in labor, might not grow weary in work, but might be in rest, might be in leisure, might be in those deeds which serve pleasures.

4. But that these things which we say are so, as we have understood them, the following word of the prophet shows more clearly, saying: *Thus saith Adonai the Lord: Behold, I am against your cushions, in which you turn souls there into dissolution*. He opened the enigma which was lying hidden, clearly showing that the cushions [that were] stitched come to be for the dissolution of souls. But who can [stand] over the discourse which is read, hearing God threatening, because He himself disrupts such stitching and such cushions? For He says: *Behold, I do not command, but I myself disrupt the cushions stitched under every elbow of the hands*. It is the work of God to refute every texture and to dissolve the entire most evil fiction, which harms those who do not wish to work with their hands, but to use them in idleness. *And I will disrupt them from your arms*, that is,

I was distributing the things of the building. ^A But those effeminate, weak souls were turning to strengthen the hands of the iniquitous, that is, so that the hand might become stronger in iniquity, so that he might not at all be turned from his evil way and be made alive—that is, that no one might be turned completely from his very wicked way and be made alive. Therefore, you who teach false things will not see false things. I will no longer let you progress with a prosperous effort, so that you can insinuate what you say. *And you shall divine no more*; and I will deliver my people out of your hand. We pray that God may also deliver us from the hand of such teachers who, wherever they may be, speaking to the pleasures of their listeners, tear and divide the Church, because more people are lovers of pleasures than lovers of God. *And you shall know that I am the Lord.* If I turn aside your divinations, if I make your lies fall silent, then you shall know that I am the Lord. This is the former prophecy.

7. *There follows also other things, which it prefixes*: ^B *And there came to me men of the elders of Israel, and sat before my face.* The Word of God touches upon all things, and it leaves intact no class of the orders that are established in the Church, but, running through everything, it desires to heal everyone, just as now it speaks certain things to the presbyters. For those things which preceded were said concerning teachers. Therefore let us also consider what is said about presbyters, examining ourselves, lest any one of us be such a presbyter as is explained below. *And there came to me men of the elders of Israel, and sat before my face. And the word of the Lord came to me saying: Son of man.* Let us look at the accusation, so that we may know whether we can detect it in ourselves. ^C *Have not these men set their own thoughts in their hearts, and set the punishment of their iniquities before their face? Shall I therefore respond and answer them?* "Blessed are the pure in heart." For those who have a pure heart do not set their thoughts in their hearts, but rather hold the Word of God. Those, however, who labor (8) in secular cares, and seek nothing else but how to pass the present life, these set their thoughts in their hearts; as for example, if you see a man thinking of nothing else but the business of the world, bodily gains, and an abundance of food: from these, of which he stands in need, in which he is anxious, in which he sighs, seeking with pain only the future nourishment, he has set the punishment of his ^D thoughts in his heart. Therefore, rebuking certain presbyters of this sort, the divine word says to the prophet: Men who strive greedily after the things of the world are indeed fixed on earthly things, and in no way care for the spiritual life and the contemplation of spiritual things, but only for those things which are of the age; these set their thoughts upon their heart, and not the words of God. And it is not fitting that they should themselves behave in such a way, especially the elders of Israel. Therefore, those who are of this sort set the punishment of their own crimes before their face. For indeed we are the authors of our own punishments, as is declared by Him who says: "Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled" (Isa. L, 11).

8. Therefore, he says to the presbyters—but may it be far from us!—"These men have set up their thoughts in their hearts, and have set the punishment of their iniquity before their face." But I, answering, will reply. Is it fitting for me to answer these men who have come to the prophet desiring to hear my words? Wherefore, speak to them, and say thus: "Thus says the Adonai Lord: Any man of the house of Israel..." ^A We are all born humans, but we are not all men, as I have often noted: that which is written in Leviticus, "A man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who are joined to us." Be men, that is to say, humans; for although all humans are humans, we show from the Scriptures how some humans are not men. "A human, being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts, and was assimilated to them" (Ps. XLVIII, 15). ^B This is not a man-man, but a man-beast. "O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matt. III, 7). Such a one is not a man-man, but a serpentine-man. They who have become insane for the wives of others, "each one neighed after his neighbor's wife" (Jer. v, 8); and this is not a man-man, but a man-horse. Far be it, therefore, from us that we should be such as to deserve to hear that we are not men, but something other than humans! For if we are good and gentle, we use the name of human so that there may be in us not simply a human, but a man-man. Consider that I wish to discover why that name of man is double. When this man who is exterior, a man, exists, with an interior serpent existing, he is not in us a man-man, but only a human. ^C But when the interior human, according to the image, has made himself a man-man, he has laid his sin and the punishment of his iniquity before his face, and he has come to the prophet: "Thus," says the Lord, "I will answer him in that in which his mind is detained." The present sermon teaches us that He can answer each one, neither applying improper medicines, but offering treatments congruent with the quality of the diseases. Notice what he says. They come to the doctor, having ten species of infirmity. He does not heal all in the same way, but one with this, ^D and another with that, as he might say, he heals with this plaster, another he treats with another medicine, applying to some what is called a cautery, and tempering bitter things with sweet for others, while he softens the wounds of others with thicker ointment. Thus also the word of God speaks according to the qualities of men, and does not indiscriminately distribute its mysteries. Therefore, it says: "I will answer him in those things in which his mind is detained, so that he may be cured in those things in which his mind is detained, so that he may not make the house of Israel turn away." Whoever does not exhibit himself as an example of good life, but walks perversely, this one, through his own wickedness, and because he does not incline toward that to which he ought, makes in a certain way even the people of God decline according to their hearts which are alienated from me. And because he does this according to the heart that is alienated from God, he does it in his thoughts. For which reason He replies to them in those things in which their heart is detained, and it is said: "Speak to the house of Israel. Thus says Adonai Lord: Repent, and turn yourselves from your studies." For he has promised that he will speak to them in those things in which their heart is detained, and now he speaks as if to sinners saying: "Repent, and turn yourselves from your studies, and turn your faces." Does it not seem to you to be doing this? Your faces are hardened against those things which they should not be; turn them and harden them against those things which are to your benefit. Because this man of the house of Israel, and of the proselytes who come into Israel, whoever has been alienated. It is possible, both for a man-man and for a creature-man, to be effectively alienated from his own perfection; if indeed even the just man, according to the same Ezekiel, ever turns away from his justice, and sins. And this kind of man has set his thoughts in his heart, and his punishment of iniquity before his face, and has come to the prophet to inquire of me: "I," says the Lord, "will answer him in that in which he is detained, and I will set my face against that man." Consider how in the beginning He spoke leniently; and then how afterward, because he had not been cured by the previous words, He said, "I will set my face against that man, and I will place him in the desert." For if he has not obeyed the words of admonition, but has persisted in the sin, I will place him in the desert, and into perdition, and I will take him out of the midst of my people. For may God Almighty, not take us from the midst of thy people, but may He preserve us in thy people. Justly, however, he is cast out, who is worthy of rejection, so that he may be taken away from the people of God, and be uprooted from it and handed over to Satan. And at present indeed it is possible for one who has departed from the people of God to return again through repentance; but if he had been uprooted from that people of which he came in a parable, and reclined, and entered as one who did not have a wedding garment, the paterfamilias saying to him (Matt. XXII, 12): "Friend, how did you enter here not having a wedding garment?" and so...

at the command of the ministers, so that, binding him hand and foot, they might cast him into the outer darkness: he will return to his former place with much difficulty. But we shall not be rooted out; rather, both in the present and in the future age, we shall be planted in our Lord, and in Him we shall bring forth the most abundant fruits, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

369 HOMILY IV

Concerning what is written: "The land when it shall have sinned against me in trespassing, I will stretch out my hand upon it"; up to that which is said: "And if there should be three men in its midst, Noah, Daniel, and Job, they themselves shall deliver their own souls."

^A It speaks of a sinful land, how on account of its transgressions it is tormented by various punishments: famine, evil beasts, sword, death, and indeed by sudden death, which is brought about either by the vice of corrupted air or by whatever event may happen; and it is said: "That if I also send my four vengeances upon a sinful land, yet if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, should be in the sinful land, they alone shall be saved." In the first threatening, in which he revealed the punishment of famine amidst the other punishments, he kept silent the names of sons and daughters. But in that discourse in which he threatened the land with evil beasts, he says: "If their sons and daughters be saved, yet they alone shall be saved, but the land..." And when he had been silent a little while, he added: "And it shall be in the entry." Again, in the threat of the sword: "They shall not deliver," he says, "sons or daughters." And he spoke similarly concerning death: "Neither sons nor daughters of theirs shall be left, but they themselves only, Noah, and Daniel, and Job, shall deliver their own souls." A great care for exposition therefore devolves upon us, and for this reason we must attend diligently, and we entreat our listeners, just as if they were congregating for some great spectacle, to fix the gaze of their mind, lest the obscurity slip by with relaxed senses. He did not say in the present "if the citizens or the farmers of any place have sinned," but "if the land shall have sinned." And I know that every rather simple person, when he hears "if the land shall have sinned," is immediately led to an easy understanding, so that he may say the land is named for those who dwell in the land, but the following parts of Scripture will immediately remove this exposition. For when the land has sinned and fallen into its sins, the hand is stretched out not over those who inhabit the land, but over the land itself, and it is crushed by the first correction, so that the sustenance of bread is taken away from it, namely: as if it were a punishment of the land if famine prevails in it, so that fruits are denied to the seed. For just as a sinful man is punished as being without offspring and sterile among the cursed, according to that which is written in a certain place, for from opposites one understands opposites: and of the righteous it is said: "There shall not be among you one without offspring, nor sterile," and sinners are condemned by their eternal infertility without children and posterity, as in the house of Abimelech it happened, and of those whose womb God closed on account of the sin that was committed in Isaac: so also the land is in a way left without offspring and sterile, once famine has been sent into it. Do you think it is true, what the discourse suggests by these premises, that it is said not of the inhabitants of the land, but of the land itself? ^B I can for a little while, ascending to higher things, prove by the testimonies of the Scriptures how a sinner is called land. For it is said to Adam: "You are earth, and to earth you shall go." We can say that even now, a sinning land is a sinner. But on the contrary, reviewing the vast forest of Scripture, I am constrained to suspect that this land which we see is endowed with soul. For if we wish to accept that which is written: "Who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble," according to what is written, we understand that earthquakes are stirred up toward the sight of God, not those which the Jews suspect. For they assert that the trembling of the earth is its agitation, which is far removed from the truth. And we indeed are anxious and trembling on account of our sins in the land, yet our trembling does not shake the body to tremble: just as it is said in another place: "Upon whom shall I look, says the Lord, except upon the humble, and the quiet, and him who trembles at my words?" From which it is manifest that he who serves God meekly and humbly trembles at His words with his mind rather than with his body. And these things indeed have been said in the midst for the satisfaction of that testimony which we brought forward: "Who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble." ^C But receive other sayings about the earth: "The earth is offended by those who reside upon it." How is the earth offended, and when does it turn away from those who dwell in it? When they are sinners. Receive another example. "The earth shall take pleasure in its sabbaths." Conversely, certain sabbaths of the earth are named, in which it takes pleasure and rejoices for itself. I do not yet say: "Hear, O heaven, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth"; nor the other: "Hear, O heaven, and perceive with your ears, O earth"; but not even the prophecy of Jeremiah: "Earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord, write this man as one cast away." Many things lie hidden from us on account of the poverty of our memory, on account of the slowness of our intellect. There are many things which God has created as rational, and they are capable, not only of those principalities and powers, and the rulers of these darknesses, but also in the better part ^D of thrones, dominations, and the rest which the Apostle left in our understanding, saying: "And above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the future." The air also is full of animals, according to the testimony of the same Apostle preaching: "In which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit which now works in the children of unbelief." There is, therefore, a land, and all animals, and varieties of animals in their parts. For when the earth is offended, and again takes pleasure in its

^A sabbaths, not everything is offended, and not everything exults. 370 For it is in some manner instructed along with its inhabitants, and has learned sabbaths—whether in shadow or in truth—to act according to the quality of its nature. Hence, through a certain more sacred intelligence, the sabbath-keeping of the holy land is performed after seven years, until it pleases God to dwell therein. But if sinners are in it, the land keeps its sabbath no longer for weeks of years, but for seventy years. We have the discourse concerning the seventy years consigned in the holy scriptures, both in Jeremiah and in Daniel; and it shall come to pass that on the day of judgment not only man, but the whole of creation will be judged. For every creature groans and travailles together. If every creature groans and travailles together, and the earth and the heaven are a part of created things, along with all the rest that are under heaven and above the heavens, and every creature shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God, who knows whether the earth is also held liable for some sin according to its own nature? For if it is an animal, if it is rational, if it requires the hearing of the prophetic word which says: "Attend, O heaven, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth," and: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth"—why should we not say that, just as among men there is one who hears and does the words which he is commanded to do, while another hates and does not fulfill what is enjoined, just like the prevaricating angel? For those angels who did not keep their principality, but left their own habitation, He will keep in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Since, therefore, angels prevaricate, and there are others who keep God's precepts and await judgment—not only of men, but also of God, as we have frequently said, both regarding those things written in the Apocalypse and countless others—why, I ask, should there not be a judgment of the earth and the air? ^B But if you do not think we should agree to this argument by which we assert that every creature is to be judged, hear another testimony concerning the earth. God questions Cain, who had killed his brother Abel; and after many words which we read in Genesis, He says at the end concerning the earth: "Cursed is the earth which opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand." I do not pass over that other [word]: "Cursed is the earth in your works"; and conversely, if it is ever blessed. We read of the earth being both cursed and blessed by the words of God. You see, therefore, why it is justly said: "Every creature groans." And to return to the preceding example, the earth is offended by those who settle upon it. I think that the earth, sustaining us as a mother, both rejoices over good sons and grieves over sinners. For thus a foolish son is a sorrow to a father, and to the mother who bore him. And not only to this father and mother, from whose seed we were born, but also to that mother who is truly our mother.

Homily IV

^A And God took dust from the earth and fashioned man. Therefore, the earth is our mother; it rejoices when it sustains a righteous child. The earth rejoiced, bearing Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The earth rejoiced at the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, deeming itself worthy to sustain the Son of God. What need is there to speak of the apostles and the prophets, when it is written concerning the Lord’s advent: "All the earth cries out with joy"? Even the miserable Jews confess that these things are preached concerning the presence of Christ, but they foolishly ignore the person, though they see what was spoken fulfilled. For when did the land of Britain consent to the religion of one God before the advent of Christ? When the land of the Moors? When the whole world at once? But now, because of the Churches, which hold the limits of the world, the entire earth cries out with joy to the Lord of Israel, and is capable of good things according to its ends. And He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the children of Israel, and Jacob became the Lord’s portion, Israel the cord of His inheritance. It is capable, I say, as an animal according to the qualities of its parts, and of good and evil deeds, in which it may deserve either praise or punishment. When, therefore, it is said: "The land that has sinned against me so that it commits a trespass," a certain mystery is signified. For it is said differently of the inhabitants, and differently of that which is inhabited: "Heaven and earth will pass away." Why does heaven pass away, why does earth pass away, unless it is because they did things worthy of their passing? And in another place: "All the earth," it says, "is corrupted." When was it corrupted? Before the flood, not because it was corrupted by the inundation of the flood. He says therefore: "The land which has sinned against me so that it commits a trespass, I will stretch out my hand and shatter the stay of its bread." ^B Stretching out His hand over the sinful land, God sends famine upon it. I can also interpret it in another way, that the earth sometimes commits a trespass. For the earth is our soul, as is signified in the parable of the Gospel. The soul is rock, the soul is good and fertile earth through great patience. This earth, therefore, often sins, often does not sin. And if indeed it has sinned, He stretches out His hand over it, and shatters the whole stay of its bread. Do not shatter, O omnipotent God, the stay of bread from this earth of ours, but rather grant us your seed, that it may yield in us fruit a hundredfold.

^C 2. And I will send into it famine, and I will take from it man and beast. How can I bring such hidden things into the public view? From where am I to be able to explain why famine, why fertility, why abundance, why poverty happen to the earth? "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God." Is it on account of men and the malice of souls that famine is sent? Or on account of the angels to whom earthly things are committed, if they have sinned, do those things happen which we see happening? But if there are certain ministers of the heavenly ^D dispensation who are in charge of the fruits, perhaps they too...

^A produce for those people the infertility of the earth. For the majority of His works are in secret; we cannot express the magnitude of His wisdom. Who will number the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of the age? Who will investigate the height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the depth of wisdom? Therefore, hunger is sent in various ways upon the sinful land.

3. *And I will take away*, he says, *from it man and cattle.* The land is one thing, man is another. For, as some think, He does not now name the inhabitants of the land as the land itself. For if one should wish to take "inhabitants of the land" as "the land," it would be superfluous to say, "I will take away from it man and cattle." For the land rejoices when it is full of inhabitants; it mourns when that which is spoken of happens. *I will take away from it man and cattle.* Concerning these, if the Lord provides understanding to you who pray (if at least we have become capable of the sense of the Lord), we wish to discuss a few things. Just as the punishment of a mother is to be deprived of her children when she is destined for exile, or certainly to see her children destined for another province: so, in a certain way, our mother the earth is scourged by God for its sins when man and cattle are taken away from it; it rejoices when it has men, but more so when it has the best men, and those living in the study of God, as we have explained above. It is said, therefore, when the ^B land has sinned, as if it were said: if a mother ever sins, I will take a son from her house; so also now, I will take man from it. For the land rejoices not over beasts and rabid wild animals, but over cattle, because it loves calm and gentle animals.

4. *And I will take away from it man and cattle. And if these three men were in the midst of it.* How can the number of these three dwell together in a sinful land? How can the life of those living in such diverse times be joined together? In the present text, we read that they exist together in a sinful land, that is, Noah who was in the flood, and Daniel who dwelt in the captivity of Babylon, and Job, who isとされる to have lived in the times of the patriarchs and Moses. For this is the time we find for the life of Job. What, then, can we say? We must remember, as we have often said, that just as man begets man, so Israel begets Israel. For when Israel was Jacob, he begat the people of Israel. And we find in the Scriptures the name "Israel" used for one man as well as for the whole people. Thus, not only does Israel beget Israel, but Ruben begets Ruben, and Simeon begets Simeon, and Levi begets Levi, and Judas begets Judas; and all the others who are in the tribe of Juda and who come from his lineage are called "Judas": and the Scriptures are repeated in the tribe of Juda with the names of Juda. Those things which are said in the blessings of Jacob by Moses concerning Ruben, and Simeon, and Levi, and Juda, do not apply to the other patriarchs in the same way as they do to those who existed as their namesakes because of the root of the family. *Benjamin is a ravening wolf; in the morning he shall eat, and in the evening he shall give food.* That Benjamin was never a ravening wolf; Benjamin he never gave food in the evening; but he who was born from the tribe of Benjamin, was preached a Hebrew, of the Hebrews according to the law a Pharisee, circumcised on the eighth day, Benjamin a ravening wolf eating in the morning, when he was a youth; and in the evening giving food, when as a believer he provided spiritual food instituted by him for the Churches. Therefore, Benjamin begets Benjamin. So just as man is born of man, Benjamin of Benjamin, so is Juda born of Juda, Ruben of Ruben. For let Ruben live and not die, and be many in number. The discourse was not so much about the patriarch, but about the people who were to descend from the patriarch. Why were these things said? Clearly, so that I might explain the present passage concerning Noah and Daniel and Job. For just as Israel begets Israel, and Job Job, and Ruben Ruben, and the rest the others, so Noah begets Noah. And I shall say that of the sons of Noah, Sem was Noah, but Cham was not Noah. For he did not possess the likeness of his father. And just as not all who are from Abraham are children of Abraham, although they are of his seed, they are not his children because they are sinners: so those who have the likeness of the deeds of Daniel, are Daniel; whoever imitates the patience of Job, becomes Job. Do not say, therefore, "Blessed is Noah because he was deemed worthy to be chosen alone by the Lord in the flood, and while the others perished in the inundation he was saved unharmed with his own": but consider that, if you also do the things which Noah did, you will be Noah. Listen to the Savior saying: *If you were the children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham.* Therefore, if anyone is a child of Abraham, he does the deeds of Abraham; if anyone is a child of Noah, he does the work of Noah; if anyone is a child of Daniel, he does that which Daniel did. If anyone follows that by which he was made glorious, for example everyone who loses his substance, and enduring patiently as well the loss of family belongings as the deaths of his children, says: *The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord for ever*; whoever is inflamed by bodily evils, and is scourged ^C by the various pains of his afflictions, and nonetheless in those very torments glorifies the Lord, who can answer divine things, and among torments send forth a prophetic voice, such as Job emitted, he is an imitator of Job. And thus, in this manner, Noah, and Daniel, and Job can be found in the same time.

5. But because now Ezechiel does not say these things of those whom we read in the Scriptures, namely those whom either translation or death from the present life has withdrawn, we shall attempt to prove this from another location as well. Daniel, who was delivered to the chief of the eunuchs with Ananias, Azarias, Misael, was a eunuch, and it is said in the present context: Noah, and Daniel, and Job shall not deliver sons and daughters, and the rest. Let us imagine, indeed, that Noah had sons; how will the children of Daniel be taught, whom the Jews relate to have been a eunuch? But because his soul was fertile and holy, and through prophetic and divine discourses he procre-

procreated all things, and being judged by no one, he speaks confidently. And we, therefore, can become Daniel, and—not to enumerate all the saints—I can be Paul, if I am an imitator of him who says: ^A Be imitators of me. If I have the branding iron with which Paul was marked, if I possess the same form with which he was fashioned in Christ, through which, as a good father, he said: My little children, of whom I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you. But if I am convicted by the dissimilarity of the seal, because Paul had a different form than I have in my soul, I deceive myself, saying: "You are my son, the seed of Paul." Do not wonder that you become a son of the Apostle. Have the virtues, and you will be a son of Christ. "Little children," he says, "yet a little while I am with you." But when you are of Christ, you will also be of the almighty Father, because they are one of the same nature. To this the righteous man labors; into this he turns all his study, that he may be shown to be a son of Daniel, and of Job, and of Noah, and of Abraham, unto the adoption of God, and no longer be called by the names of men, but by the appellations of the sons of God. If, therefore, there shall be these three men, the Holy Spirit will not need ^B that He should even now show Noah, and Daniel, and Job.

6. *These three men in the midst of it.* My learned auditor says to me: "Three are named in the present, but your discourse affirms many: Daniel, and Job, and Noah." To whom we will respond thus: Every likeness of the similar is one, and they are not many who are similar. We are not many bodies, but we are one body, according to that which is written: You, however, are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And our Savior came to seek and to save that which was lost, in the sacrament of the ninety-nine sheep that did not wander and the one that was lost. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. For just as many bodies are one body, and many sheep are one sheep which were lost, in this manner all, Noah, Daniel, and Job, are brought into one, Noah, and Job, and Daniel.

7. *They in their own righteousness shall be saved, says Adonai the Lord.* The former name of God is of four letters, which is interpreted naturally as God. Therefore, a famine is sent on account of the sins of the earth; but the earth, according to all the senses which we spoke of above, ^C and whatsoever we have left to the understanding of the auditors, so that from our words they might find for themselves other understandings. But let us look at another work of the divine anger which sends most evil beasts into the sinful earth. The Jews also say, if at any time wolves, making an attack upon houses, have devoured men, and other beasts—as history records that lions were once sent into the human race, and at another time bears—such devastations descend from the indignation of God. And let us, meanwhile, following this literal sense, turn away from the higher understanding, to see now the prophet following. Whoever is spiritual, judgeth all things and is judged by no one, he speaks confidently. ^D He says there are many beasts which God sends into the sinful earth, if, however, our earth has sinned. Our adversary the devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. That history also, which presents a plain understanding to those who diligently observe the Scriptures, has a significance of this kind, when two bears were sent to the little children who were offering insults to the prophet, saying: "Go up, bald-head, go up, bald-head." For those bears were in a sign of other beasts, which are truly wild, truly rabid, which are sent into this sinful earth. But far be it from us that beasts should be sent against us for the vengeance of God; but rather, in prayer, let us say: "Do not deliver the soul confessing to you to the beasts!" I know that the righteous, persevering in the faith, have been delivered to wild beasts and, torn by them, have completed their martyrdom, nor yet have they ceased to be blessed. For they had not been delivered to these spiritual and invisible beasts, which tear the souls of sinners and fix their teeth in the hearts of the ungodly. For just as if a shepherd were to wrench two legs of a sheep from the mouth of lions, or the tip of an ear, so will the sons of Israel be wrenched away. The earth is therefore sometimes delivered to beasts for destruction, so that man and cattle may be taken away from it.

8. And observe diligently the differences of the threat of famine. In the first threat of famine, He says: Themselves alone shall be saved, Noah, Daniel, and Job. But in the second, where He testifies that He is about to send beasts, sons and daughters are named. *Nevertheless, they alone shall be saved, says Adonai the Lord.* This passage is understood in a twofold way. And let us expound it first according to the common sense, because of the stupidity of some who assert that the sense of their own mind is the truth of God, and frequently say: "It will come to pass that each of us by his own prayers may snatch whomsoever he wishes from hell"; and they introduce iniquity to the Lord, not seeing that the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the iniquity of the wicked upon him, and each one shall die in his own sin and live in his own righteousness. It is of no profit to me that my father is a martyr, if I have not lived well and adorned the nobility of my lineage, that is, his testimony and the confession by which he is illuminated in Christ. It is of no profit to the Jews saying: We are not born of fornication; we have one father, the Lord, and after a little while: Abraham is our father. Whatsoever they may say, whatsoever they may wish to assume for themselves, if they have not the faith of Abraham, they glory in vain. For they will not be saved for this reason, that they are the sons of Abraham. Since, therefore, some opine incorrectly, we have necessarily also interposed the sense of the letter which says: "Noah, Daniel, and Job shall not deliver sons and daughters, but they themselves alone shall be saved." Let none of us trust in a righteous father, in a holy mother, in chaste brothers. Blessed is the man who has hope in himself, and in the straight way. But to those who are in

have confidence in the holy ones, we not incongruously bring forth the example: ^A *Cursed is the man who has hope in man.* And that: *Do not trust in men.* But also this: *It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes.* But if it is necessary to hope in something, leaving all else behind, let us hope in the Lord, saying: *If camps should stand against me, my heart will not fear.* Since these things are so, another question arises for us, which we must diligently examine, so that the truth of the Scriptures may shine forth. Why, when the righteous are many, are only three mentioned now: Noah, and Daniel, and Job? I once heard from a certain Hebrew who was expounding this passage he said that they were named for this reason, because each one of them saw three times: joyful, sad, and joyful again. Look at Noah before the flood, ^B consider the whole world; and the same man after Noah in the shipwreck of the entire world preserved alone with his sons and animals in the ark, consider how he came out after the flood and planted a vineyard, in a way becoming a second creator of the world again. Such is the righteous man: he saw the world before the flood, that is, before the consummation; he saw the world in the flood, in the corruption and in the destruction of sinners, which are to come to pass on the day of judgment; again he will see the world in the resurrection of all sinners. Someone says to me: I grant concerning Noah that he saw three times; what will you answer me concerning Daniel? This man also flourished before the captivity in the nobility of his homeland, and afterwards, having been carried off to Babylon, he was made a eunuch, as can be clearly understood from his own book; he also saw the return to Jerusalem. But to prove that he was in Jerusalem before the captivity and was made a eunuch after the captivity, let us take what was said to Hezekiah: *They shall take of your sons, and they shall make them eunuchs in the house of the king.* Then after seventy years he is found praying to God, that now that the time of the captivity is complete he might enter Jerusalem. We have his prayer written in his own volume, nor yet are we able to find where he died. He saw, therefore, three times: before the captivity, in the captivity, and after the captivity. Such is a righteous man. Let us see, however, whether Job also had three times. He was indeed wealthy: for he had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, ^D five hundred yoke of oxen, and very much property, seven sons, and three daughters. Then the devil received power against him. See the times changed. Rich in children, the father is suddenly made bereft: rich in possessions, the master is brought to the ultimate destitution. Behold two times. After these things the Lord appears to him and speaks to him from a cloud, and Job himself answers those things which are written in his book. Therefore, in the first time he is praised by the praises of God: in the second he is handed over to temptation, and struck by a most savage ulcer from his feet even to his head, he suffers sad and harsh things. At the end there were produced for him fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand grazing she-asses, and there were born to him seven sons and three daughters. And thus also in Job we find three times, which we find in just men. The righteous see three times: the present, and that of the change, when God is about to judge, and the future after the resurrection of the dead, that is, the perpetuity of the heavenly life in Christ Jesus: to whom be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY V

Regarding the fact that four worst vengeances, that is, the sword, famine, evil beasts and pestilence, are brought upon the sinful land; and concerning the parable in which it is said: Son of man, what will become of the wood of the vine?

1. Famine, which is brought upon the sinful land, has been discussed according to the possibility of our powers, and after the famine we spoke of the worst beasts which God will send upon sinners. For we proposed four vengeances in the beginning, of which the remaining two are concerning the sword and death. And in the first indeed the name of sons and daughters is only [mentioned], but in the second and third which we are now attempting to expound, the name of sons and daughters is annexed, that is, in the sword, by which they fall who have done things worthy of its slaughter. Who, therefore, is this sword, that is, the blade, which we must fear, lest at some time it be sent upon our land, upon the land which we have expounded figuratively, so that it might also be necessary for us to pass through the sword having something double in its punishment? For the form of the sword itself divides and cuts him into whom it is inserted: but if even the touch itself of its edge is penal, he who is to be punished by this sword is tormented doubly. For it is written: He set the flaming sword, and the cherubim to guard the way of the tree of life. And just as if a sharp and glowing sword were inserted into a body, it bestows a double torture, that of burning and of slaughter, so also the sword which is remembered to have been set for the guarding of paradise, which we have now taken up for the exposition of the present sword, inflicts double torments while it burns and divides. But so that we might interpose something necessary from [things] by which God illuminates our mind in the present place, take an example. Those learned in the medicinal discipline say that for certain treatments of bodies, not only is the cutting of iron necessary, but even burning. For to those who are rotting with the dormancy of a cancer, they apply either a glowing blade of a razor or whatever kind of sharpest iron, so that through the fire the roots of the cancer may be pulled out, but through the incision the putrid flesh may be cut away, and a way may be open for medicines to be injected. Who do you think has a sin similar to the cancer of our [flesh], so to speak, that either the simple edge of iron where it is burned and cut does not suffice for him, or only the burning of fire, but both are applied? Hear the Savior concerning reason.

In one place he says ^A: I came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword. In another indeed: I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled? Therefore, the Savior brings both, the sword and the fire, and he baptizes those who could not be purified by the purification of the Holy Spirit. Divine sacraments are ineffable, and known only to God, yet they consist more in the giving of graces than in the varieties of torments. For physicians, trained in the discipline of their art, do not rationally cut or burn those whom they heal, nor do they give a potion of the most bitter temperament, or do many other things as the cause demands, without a certain rational wisdom—and yet God, the Lord of the universe, without a certain rational wisdom and without a dispensation worthy of his majesty, would inflict such punishments upon sinners? Nor does he, as they suppose, apply punishments only to torment them, but as a father, he knows the wounds of us all; he knows from what cause the ulcer was born, from what beginning the putrefaction of the unhappy soul is drawn, and what species of pain comes from which sin. He knows also the forms, the modes, and the numbers of sins: who has sinned once, twice, or thrice; who has fallen often in one species of offenses; who has erred only single times in diverse species of vices. He wills that we should seek all these things according to the wisdom of God, according to that which is written ^B: God is the searcher of hearts and reins, and so to understand the punishments which are inflicted by him, as worthy of God and fitting to his dispensation, not merely that we should be tortured. For he created all things for this end, that they might exist, and he made the generations of the world wholesome, and there is no medicine of destruction in them. But because we have not done what he willed by our despising, and he has not exercised upon us what he desired, the discussion has compelled us to say something concerning the species of punishments which are inflicted upon the earth.

2. We ought, however, to know that hunger does not immediately follow with death. It can indeed happen that someone, enduring hunger, persists in life, even if he be tortured by starvation, squalor, and emaciation. It can happen that upon the sending of evil beasts, not all perish immediately, being reserved for the aid of flight. It can happen that when the sword strikes, the destruction ceases. At times, some are wounded and cut, and, so to speak, are pierced by frequent blows, and yet do not perish. Therefore, the latest punishment of death is now brought into the enumeration of punishments. The most sacred Apostle, feeling something of this kind, was speaking ^C: The last enemy shall be destroyed, death. I will dare to say, but the last enemy to be destroyed is death. There was someone before death an enemy, that is, the sword; there was someone before death an enemy, the evil beasts; there was someone before the evil beasts an enemy, hunger. All these things are enemies to those who are enemies to religion. For if you do not wish to become a friend to God, who invites you to reconciliation and says through the Apostle: We beseech you for Christ to be reconciled to God, why do you complain of God when you wished to be under the power of enemies in your causes? Or are you ignorant that God therefore sent into Egypt fury, and wrath, and anguish, an imposition by evil angels, because they were his enemies and were ruled by his adversary? But far be from us the four of these punishments of penalties: hunger, evil beasts, the sword, death! For whatever of these shall have been brought, it comes to those who are the enemies of God; it passes over his friends, nor has it dared to touch those who glory in their relationship with him. And how it is well believed concerning fire, the Scriptures testifying that the righteous shall pass through it and shall not be burned: For the work of every one, of what sort it is, fire shall try; so even in these punishments, if there be found some Daniel, Noah, and Job, he will sustain none of the penalties.

3. We have specifically expounded per each individual punishment, which the prophet joins together in the final part, saying: Thus saith the Lord Adonai: But if I shall send my four worst judgments, the sword, and the famine, and the evil beasts, and the death. Whither? Not upon the earth, but upon Jerusalem. For if the earth be punished, one correction suffices for it. But if Jerusalem be corrected, upon which the name of God is invoked, four torments are brought upon it alike. It would have been much more useful for us not to have believed the divine word than, after belief, to be turned back again to the sins we committed before. Consider indeed how the Scripture says that punishments are to be inflicted upon the earth bit by bit, and does not append which earth; when, however, it comes to Jerusalem: But if I shall send my four worst judgments, the sword, and the famine, and the evil beasts, and the death into Jerusalem; signaling Jerusalem to us, who, while sinning, are Jerusalem which is destroyed; but, while remaining in the precepts, are called Jerusalem which is saved. All the lamentations which we read in Jerusalem, all the complaints with which God bewails her, pertain to us who have tasted the word of God and afterwards have done things contrary to his commands. He is not judged who despises the laws of Solomon, nor is he thus punished who discards the decrees of Lycurgus. It is another punishment for him who tramples and despises the law of God delivered through Moses; the greatest of all is the punishment of him who has held the precepts of the Son of God as naught. For if one who makes the law of Moses void dies without any mercy upon two or three witnesses, how much more do you think that one merits worse punishments who has trampled upon the Son of God? These therefore whom we have enumerated have not trampled upon the Son of God, but have only transgressed the law of God, especially those who were before the coming of the Lord. But neither are those who crucified my Savior guilty of such a huge punishment, as those to whom the Apostle speaks: Trampling upon the Son of God, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace; and if it signifies anything else.

^C It was necessary, while more carefully retracting the things that were said about the four devastations of the land, to add this: that Jerusalem indeed was in the tribe of Benjamin; and the priests of the temple, and the Levites who served in the ministries of God, and the other orders which the discourse of Scripture comprehends, were dwelling in it. This city receives four most grievous punishments, which are not similar to those ^D that befall the ones who dwell in it. For the threat is not directed in the same way to the common people and to the Levites. For an Israelite who sins falls into an Israelitish transgression. But whoever is greater than the Israelite, the more noble he is in rank—the same being a Levite and a priest—the greater punishments he will sustain. But if the prince of priests has sinned, his fellow priest says to him: If a man sins by offending a man, they shall pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who shall pray for him? These things are for the exposition of that discourse, in which punishments were threatened, both individually and specifically against the sinful land, and likewise gathered together against the unhappy Jerusalem, in that place where He repeats the sins of those who sinned after their faith in God.

4. These are the four most grievous punishments brought upon Jerusalem. And we all, indeed, who have learned the divine Scriptures, whether we live well or ill, are Jerusalem. If we live ill, we are that Jerusalem which is punished with torments and undergoes four devastations; if well, we are that Jerusalem which rests in the bosom of God. And there is as great a distance in the rest of the land as there is in Jerusalem herself. For all who are sinners in the Church, who have tasted of the word of God and transgress it, deserve punishments, but each will be tormented according to the measure of his rank. He who presides over the Church and does wrong holds a greater punishment. Does not a faithful catechumen deserve more mercy by comparison? Is not a layman more worthy of pardon if he is compared to a deacon? And again, in comparison with a presbyter, does a deacon deserve more pardon? But you know what follows, even if I remain silent. Therefore, fearing the judgment of God, and setting before my eyes that order of judgment which is contained in the Scriptures, I recall that saying: *Do not lift a burden that is too heavy for you.* But also that [precept]: *Do not seek to become a judge, lest you be unable to remove iniquities.* What does it profit me that I sit first in the chair, reclining, and receive the honor of a superior, when I cannot have works worthy of my dignity? Shall I not be tormented with a greater punishment, because the honor of a just man is deferred to me by all, when I am a sinner?

5. But let us see what follows in Scripture. When the prophet hears these things in the parable, we ought only to explain the sense, leaving behind the order of the testimony itself, and sending the auditor to the book. The wood of the vine, as it is more honorable in fruit than all other woods—especially those which bear fruit in the forest—so it is the most useless of all woods for other works. And certain small vessels can be made, and some for various works of necessary use for ministering; but from the branches of the vine, not only can no vessel or anything useful for work be made, but not even a peg is useful. The divine word therefore says that, as the vine branch is more honorable than other woods if it bears fruit, so let it be judged inferior to all if it does not have that by which it excels. And in this way, those who have been imbued with the discourses of God are more honorable than all, and in whatever way they are placed in the vineyard as to dignity, when they bring forth fruits—the grapes of salvation, of which it is written: *I indeed planted thee as a fruitful vineyard, wholly true. And elsewhere: The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel. And again: Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt,* and the rest—if, however, they do not bring forth fruit, to the extent that it can be said by God: *How art thou turned into the bitterness of a foreign vine?*—then they are found to be much worse than those woods which, although they be more common, yet bring forth their own fruits. For just as forest woods excel barren vines, in the same way, within a certain dispensation of divine wisdom, some things necessary for the house are fashioned from more common woods. And do not be troubled, thinking that we affirm what we say outside the Scriptures: that it is to come to pass that something useful should be made from the wood of the forest—that is, from me myself, if I do not bring forth the proper fruits of my own nature. If indeed the Apostle also takes a certain image of those vessels which are in human conversation, saying: *But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earthenware—*note that he called them wooden vessels—*and some indeed unto honor, but some unto dishonor.* These wooden vessels which the Apostle declares to be in a great house are not made from vines, nor from the branches of vineyards, but from other woods, which bore fruit in the groves of a lower order. How great, then, is the evil, and what a distinction, that woods formerly common are found in the great house of the head of the family, and the branch of my vine is useless in the house, and is cast into the fire? For this is written: that the fire consumes its annual pruning. These things concerning Ezekiel. Our Savior, however, constricted the sense of this parable in the Gospel, saying: *I am the vine, you are the branches, my Father is the husbandman. Every branch that abideth in me and bringeth forth fruit, my Father purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit; but the branch that abideth in me and bringeth not forth fruit, my Father cutteth off and casteth into the fire.* Do you see the closeness of both discourses? Do you see how the Father cuts off and casts into the fire? We, senseless, as if Scripture were indeed to be neglected, unwilling to learn those things which strike fear into us, but desiring to hear those things which tickle itching ears, have gladly heard what might subvert us, what might deceive us. He who says to his neighbor: "God forgives us our sins," if indeed we even trifle in such sacraments, promising to one another that God will send a cloth [to wipe away sins]. And because He is good, and dissolves the sins of all, it was fitting...

as sitting and saying with a solicitous heart: if we sinned yesterday, let us do penance today. But to this branch (for he is a creature) who says: "God is powerful and a good husbandman, who does not cut me down and cast me into the fire," the husbandman will reply: "But if the branch is such that it is useless in the vine, can it be left? If it is let go, will it not obstruct the vine, so that it does not bring forth green and fruit-bearing branches instead of a dry one?" For just as it is the way of a good husbandman to cut away and prune what is dry, and to consign fruitless branches to be fodder for the fire, so it is the way of the good God to cut away fruitless branches from all the vines and to consign them to the fire for perdition. But we ourselves deceive ourselves, and being deceived as much as we are deceivers, we prefer to err with many rather than be converted from error, whereas we ought rather to seek that which builds up, that which increases the fear of God, that which recalls us to penance, that which leads to the confession of sin, and which makes us think by day and by night how we may please the Lord, so that we may become fruit-bearing branches in the true vine, Christ Jesus, and members clinging to His root—to whom be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY VI.

^ADe eo quod dicitur: "Fili hominis, notas fac Jerusalem abominationes suas;" usque: "Effudisti fornicationem tuam in omni transitu."

1. Considering the constancy of the prophets, I am struck with wonder at the miracle, and how those who believe in God more than in men have treated with contempt death, dangers, insults, and all that they suffered from those who were being reproved, while they were serving the will of God in prophesying. I used to admire Isaiah before I compared him with Ezekiel, and I was struck dumb by how he could say: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye princes of Sodom; attend to the law of the Lord, thou people of Gomorrah. To what purpose do you multiply your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord?" For he was saying these things when he could have spoken otherwise, or could have been silent. For the prophets did not, as ^B some suspect, lose their minds and speak from a necessity of the spirit. "If," says the Apostle, "it be revealed to another sitting by, let the first hold his peace." Whence it is shown that he who speaks has the power to speak when he wishes, and to be silent when he wishes. And to Balaam it is said: "Nevertheless the word that I shall put into thy mouth, that shalt thou speak"; as if he had the power, having received the word of God, to speak or to be silent. What then ^C is it that I marvel at in Ezekiel? Because when it had been commanded him that he should testify and make known to Jerusalem her iniquities, he did not place before his eyes the danger that was to follow from his preaching, but, that he might only keep the precepts of God, he spoke whatever He commanded. Be it so—let there be a mystery, let there be a revelation of sacred understanding concerning Jerusalem and whatever is said about her; yet as he prophesies, he reproves her fornication, because she has opened her feet to every passer-by; with a cursing voice he testifies, he chastises the city of sins. But because he trusted that he was doing the will of God, prepared both to die and to live, he spoke fearlessly.

2. Let us see, therefore, the prophecy itself, and first let us consider how it is placed in the power of the prophet whether he speaks or not. The word of the Lord came to him, saying: "Fili hominis, testificare Jerusalem iniquitatibus ejus, et dices: Hæc dicit Dominus." Not by necessity of constraint, but in ^D the will of the speaker, the Lord ordained that he should testify to Jerusalem her iniquities, and said: "Dices" (Thou shalt say). What shalt thou say? These things which follow. It was in the prophet who heard "Thou shalt say," whether he would say it or not, just as it was placed in Jonah. For it was in the power of him who heard the "Say: Yet three days and Nineveh shall be overthrown," whether he would speak or be silent. Because it was placed in his judgment, and he was unwilling to speak, see what great things subsequently befell him: the ship was endangered on his account, by lot he was found hiding, the whale devoured the outcast. Therefore, whatever prophets there were after Jonah, considering perhaps the things that had come upon him or other prophets, saw that from every side straits were impending over them: according to the world, persecution, if they spoke the truth; according to the Lord, offense, if, fearing men, they proffered false words for true.

3. Therefore Ezekiel testified, and made known to Jerusalem her iniquities, and said: "Thus saith the Lord: Thy root and thy generation are of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorrhite, and thy mother a Cethæan." What city was ever so exalted and ever thought so highly of itself in the world as the city of God? And yet this same city, promising itself great things, as if near to God and His city, because it sinned, is reproved by the Holy Spirit as degenerate and foreign. For her father, the Amorrhite, is no longer God. As long as she did not sin, her father was God; but when she sinned, her father was the Amorrhite.

^A Indeed, when she did not sin, her father was the Holy Spirit; when she sinned, her mother became the Hittite. As long as she did not sin, she had Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob as her root; when she sinned, her root became Canaan. I have often wondered at that which was said by Daniel to the sinful elder, to whom, imposing a name for his sin, he says, "Seed of Canaan and not of Judah." ^B Great indeed is Daniel, who most steadfastly calls the sinful elder seed of Canaan, and not of Judah; but greater still is Ezekiel in his comparison, directing his reproachful birth-cry not to one elder, nor to two men, but saying, "Your root and your generation are from the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorrhite, and your mother a Hittite." Because Jerusalem committed many sins, the prophet therefore, rebuking her, distinguished her not with one, nor with two, but with three names. Seven nations are enumerated by God in Genesis in one place, which He delivered to the children of Israel. These seven are these: "In the land," he says, "of the Canaanites, and the Amorrhites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." If it had been possible to gather these seven, and through them to reproach the ignobility of sinful Jerusalem, the prophet would surely have done so. But now, what did he do? He chose the Amorrhite from the seven, and the Canaanite, and says that sinful Jerusalem has communion with them, specifically the Canaanite according to her root and birth, specifically the Amorrhite according to her father, specifically the Hittite according to her mother. If such things are said of Jerusalem, concerning whom such great and wonderful things were written, and what was promised to her, what will become of miserable me if I have sinned? Who will be my father? Or what will be my mother? If the root and generation of such a great and such a kind of Jerusalem are called from the land of the Canaanites, her father the Amorrhite, and her mother the Hittite, if I have sinned, I who believe in Christ Jesus and have surrendered myself to such a Teacher, who is to be my father? ^C Not, certainly, the Amorrhite, but a father even more wicked. Who is he? "Whoever commits sin is born of the devil." And again: "You are of your father the devil." If, therefore, Jerusalem is said to be of the root and birth of the land of Canaan, what shall be said to us? Fathers are also found for us who beget us in sins. For just as if I were good and established in best action, Jesus says to me: "Son, your sins are forgiven you," and Paul, the disciple of Jesus, says to me: "For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel," so if I have become a sinner, the one begetting me is the devil, and taking to himself that voice by which Father God spoke to the Savior, he says to me: "You are my son; today I have begotten you." And others, however, many will be my fathers, to whom I am about to go. Everyone departs to his own fathers. If one is from Abraham, it is said to him: "But you shall go to your fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age." If, however, one departs from the world not with peace, but with the war of sins, and not in good old age, being aged in evil days, it is surely said to him: "But you shall go to your fathers with war, nourished in an evil old age." We are taught by God under other names what we ought to do.

4. "In the day you were born, the navel was not cut." In the Hebrew, indeed, it is held thus: "Your navel is not cut." Allegorically, He introduces Jerusalem as if a girl born from infancy. But let us know that the things which are said about Jerusalem pertain to all men who are in the Church. Her first time is such, the second is what is described; but far be it from us that we should have a third time, such as is said to Jerusalem! For all we who were at first sinners are called Jerusalem by God, and we have those things which are said first. But the second, if after the visitation and knowledge of God we have persevered in sins, pertains to us. But the third, the evil things which we utterly detest, we shall pursue according to order. Now, that I may return to the first, it is written as if about Jerusalem: "In the day you were born, your navel was not cut." We need the help of God, so that we may be able to find the uncut navel of sinful Jerusalem, or at least to explain the cut navel of him who has not sinned. Whether, therefore, I seek the navel of Jerusalem, or of any other from other Scripture, so that comparing spiritual things with spiritual, I may find how the navel of Jerusalem is not cut. It is written in Job concerning the dragon: "His power is in his navel, and his strength is about the navel of his belly." ^D I know from those things which divine grace has bestowed upon me, when I was explaining the present passage, that I said that the dragon is a contrary strength. For this is that dragon, the ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, deceiving the whole world. His strength is in his navel. And there is no doubt: for the beginning of all evils dwells in the loin. And therefore, he who was about to be born is referred to as being still constituted in the loin of the father, because human seeds are collected into the loins. Therefore, contrary strength is wherever there are seeds.

^A And observe how the Scripture has called the genitals of men and women by covered names, so that it might not signify foulness through those words which are readily available. If the example we brought forward regarding Job is understood, understand for me that just as the foreskin is circumcised in a man, so is the navel amputated in a woman. For when a woman was chaste and used the pure changes of women—that is, so that she might not fall into filthy things and the foulness of sin—then her navel was cut away. If, however, she has sinned, her navel is not cut away. Therefore, He rebukes Jerusalem as a woman whose navel has not been cut. The Septuagint have interpreted this in this place: *They have not bound up your breasts*, explaining the sense of the expression rather than translating word for word. Moreover, breasts ^B in the Song of Songs are taken in the place of your thoughts and mind. *Because your breasts are better than wine*. And he who was to have communion of His intellects reclined upon the breast of Jesus, where your breasts are. Therefore, when the sense is rigid, and the notion is constrained and solid, and the discourse does not flow, it is manifest that your breasts are bound. But when those things which are said are loose and flow forth, the breasts are not bound.

5. *And you were not washed unto salvation* 18. Let us see these things which are in Jerusalem, lest perhaps they be found in us also. Let it be said for the sake of argument: There is a certain woman who is now washed, but it is sought whether she is also washed *unto salvation*, so that we might also fear on account of that which He says, *unto salvation*. Not all are washed *unto salvation*. Those of us who have received the grace of baptism in the name of Christ, we are washed; but I do not know who is washed *unto salvation*. Simon was washed, and having obtained baptism, he continued in Philip’s company; but because he was not washed *unto salvation*, he was condemned by Him who said in the Holy Spirit to him: *Let your money be with you unto destruction*. It is of great difficulty for one who is washed, to be washed *unto salvation*. Attend, catechumens, listen, and from these things which are said, prepare yourselves while you are catechumens, while you are not yet baptized; and come to the bath, and be washed *unto salvation*, and not washed as some who are washed, but not *unto salvation*, like one who receives water, and does not receive the Holy Spirit. He who is washed *unto salvation*, receives both the water and the Holy Spirit. Because Simon was not washed *unto salvation*, he received the water, and did not receive the Holy Spirit, thinking that he could ^C acquire the gift of money by which he is not washed *unto salvation*. To every sinful soul that seems to believe, these things are said which we now read as spoken to Jerusalem, so that I may not ascend to greater things, and seek those that are beyond my strength and talent.

6. *Neither were you salted*. And this crime is Jerusalem’s, because she had not been worthy of the salt of God. If I believe in my Lord Jesus Christ, He Himself will make me salt, and will say to me 21: *You are the salt of the earth*. If I believe in the Spirit who spoke in the Apostle, I am seasoned with salt, and I am able to keep the commandment, saying 22: *Let your speech be always in grace, seasoned with salt*. It is a great work to be salted. He who is seasoned with salt is full of grace. For in common proverb also, one who is "salty" is called gracious, and on the contrary, one who is "insipid" is one who does not have grace. If, therefore, grace comes to us from God, and we are filled with His gift, we are salted with salt. Again, the sinful Jerusalem is not wrapped in swaddling clothes. Observe what we say: the soul that is reborn, and is brought forth first in the washing, is wrapped in swaddling clothes. My Lord Jesus Himself was wrapped in swaddling clothes, as it is recorded written in the Gospel according to Luke. Therefore, the one who is reborn—namely, the one who is born again in Christ—ought to desire rational and sincere milk: and before one desires the rational and guileless milk, he ought to be salted with salt, and be bound with the wrappings of swaddling clothes, lest it be said to him, "You are not salted with salt, and you are not wrapped in swaddling clothes." ^D That these things are crimes of Jerusalem—that she is not circumcised in the navel, and not salted with salt, and not wrapped in swaddling clothes, and not washed with water *unto salvation*—the rest of the discourse indicates, which is woven thus 23: *And your eye did not spare you, to do to you one of all these things. Therefore I have done nothing of these to you, that there might be some pity upon you, says the Lord.* I shall take an example from everyone; then if the Holy Spirit sees fit, I shall pass over to Jesus Christ and to God the Father. When I speak to a man, and I entreat him for some thing, that he might pity me: if he is without mercy, he suffers nothing from those things which are said by me; but if he is soft in mind, and nothing of the rigidity of the heart has hardened in him, he hears me, and pities me, and his womb is softened at my prayers. Understand something of this kind for me regarding the Savior. He descended to earth pitying the human race, He bore our sufferings before He suffered the cross and deigned to assume our flesh. For if He had not suffered, He would not have come into the conversation of human life. First He suffered, then He descended, and was seen. What is this passion which He suffered for us? Charity is a passion. The Father also... [alt-version omitted]

is not impassible. If He is entreated, He shows mercy and sympathy; He suffers something of charity, and becomes in those things which, according to the magnitude of His nature, He cannot be, and on account of us He sustains human passions.

7. *Thou did not spare thine eye*, He says, *to do unto thee one of all these things, that I might suffer something upon thee.* And because you became such, you were cast out upon the face of the field. God, do not suffer us to be such, that we be cast out by You and by Your Church upon the face of the field, but rather that we may go out from the straitness of the senses into the field. *And you were cast out upon the face of the field.* Why? *By the wickedness of thy soul in the day that you were born.* Can anyone, on the day he was born, have wickedness of soul? He describes our passions, and human vices, and accustomed wickednesses. For by our wickedness, if the heart is not right, we are cast out into the field on the day we are born. If after the regeneration of the washing, if after the word of God we have sinned again, on the day we are born, we are cast out. Such are found very often, washed by the washing of the second regeneration, yet not producing worthy fruits of repentance, nor exhilarated by the mystery of baptism with a greater fear than that which they had while they were catechumens, and with a greater charity than that which they exercised while they were listeners to the word, and with holier deeds than they had performed before. There follows for such men this which is said: *You were cast out upon the face of the field by the wickedness of your soul in the day that you were born.* But behold the mercy of God, behold the singular clemency. Although Jerusalem be cast out upon the face of the field, He does not so despise it that it should be cast out forever; He does not so abandon it to its wickedness that He should forget it entirely, or that He should not again lift up the one who lies prostrate. Attend to what follows: *And I passed by thee. You were cast out, yet I came again to thee; My visitation did not fail thee after the ruin.*

8. *And I saw thee polluted in thy blood.* As if to say, I saw thee guilty of murders, guilty of blood and of mortal sins. And I said unto thee: *In thy blood live. Arise from thy blood, and fill thyself with life.* As the growth of the field I gave thee. I had mercy on thee after you were cast out, I saw thee bespattered with blood and with sins, and I caused you to become like the growth of the field, and you were multiplied. Because I came to thee, and visited thee when you were cast out, I became the cause for thee that you should be multiplied. ^A And *you were multiplied, and you were made great.* I gave thee in multitude, and greatness, that is, I made thee to grow and to be multiplied. For by that which we grow, we are multiplied. *And you entered into the cities of cities.* Again He exposes the errors of Jerusalem entering into the cities of cities. But let us consider how she entered sinfully into the cities of cities. If into individual ^B cities, in which there are heresies and doctrines foreign to God, any ecclesiastic should enter, and should become a participant of such cities, he hears: *You entered into the cities of cities. Thy breasts are fashioned.* After so many crimes you flourished again, and the time for you came, and the time of those diverting. It is said to me: Do not allegorize, do not expound by figure. Let them answer, I pray: Jerusalem has breasts, and there is a time when they are not collected, there is a time when they are lifted up; and she has a navel, and because it is not cut it is argued against. How can these things be understood without allegorical exposition? *Thy breasts are fashioned, and thy hair is grown.* With all honesty the divine discourse describes the things which happen to the bodies of growing virgins. *And thy hair is grown: but thou wast naked and dishonored.* Whoever is not clothed with Jesus Christ, he is naked; whoever is not clothed with the bowels of mercy, of kindness, of humility, of gentleness, of long-suffering, to sustain his neighbor, he is dishonored. *But thou wast naked and dishonored, and I passed by thee.* A second time He came to her, saw her sinning, again He departs on account of sins; and yet He returns again, again the clement and benign God visits. *And I came to thee, and I saw thee, and behold thy time, and the time of those diverting.* What is this which He says, *thy time*? Time signifies adolescents, in whom by age they can now commit fornication. And again: *And the time*, He says, *of those diverting.* Who are these who divert? While we are little ones, those who do not wish to divert to those who strive to overturn, as are the worst Christians, unclean demons, the angels of the devil, have no place how they cannot divert. But when we are of greater age, and we can now sin, they seek an approach to us to divert, and this as much the angels of God as the angels of Satan. But it is impossible that both should divert to us. If we sin, the angels of the devil divert to us; if we stand with a fixed step, the angels of God divert to us. *Therefore thy time came, and the time of those diverting, and our Lord Jesus Christ our God again visits miserable Jerusalem, that is, our sinful soul. I spread my wings over thee.* Scripture is wont to call the edges of garments wings: as in Ruth who came secretly and with uncovered mantle to the feet of Boaz, ^D she slept under the part of his garment. God [index: entries preserved]

^A speaks as one who has put on a garment: "I spread out my wings over you, and covered your shame." Blessed is he whose shame God covers with His wings, if he only perseveres in the blessedness in which Jerusalem willed not to persevere. "And I swore to you in a covenant, and I entered into a covenant with you." After so many things, on account of which she again reverts and turns away: after so frequent a visitation, she now enters for the first time into a covenant with Him. I took you up, and I myself washed you unto salvation, and I washed your blood from you. Understanding these things, let us pray that the mercy of God may come upon us, and wash the blood from our souls. For if we have done anything worthy of death, that blood is our own. "I washed your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil." And God wishes to make us christs. "And I clothed you with variegated garments." How great is the kindness of God toward every one of the souls of Jerusalem: He bestows not a tunic of one color, but one of much variety upon those who believe in Him. This variegated tunic Jacob long ago made as a sign, clothing his son Joseph, and he dressed him in a variegated garment. If you consider the different understandings of scripture and good deeds, you will truly see the variegated tunic, which the visitation of God bestows upon those who have been called to salvation. I understand the Law, I comprehend the prophets, I recognize the Gospels, the Apostle does not escape me; I am cautious, I am just, I am merciful, and yet you seek another variegated tunic that the Lord put upon Jerusalem, saying: "And I clothed you with variegated garments, and I shod you with hyacinth!" He wishes our footwear to be blooming and well-dyed. What are the shoes? Hear Paul preaching more openly: "Shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace." ^B 381 718 and let there be even a great golden wheel about your hearing. For the golden wheel is that which is turned among sacred understandings. "And a crown of glorification upon your head." Almighty God, grant also to us to be made worthy of a crown of glorification upon our heads. "And you were adorned with gold, that is, with divine senses; and with silver, that is, with sacred words. And your coverings were of fine linen." This is the depth of understandings, the covering is of fine linen. "And blooming": for which word the Septuagint put *trichaptum*, signifying an extremely subtle garment, and one attenuated almost to the likeness of a hair. "And variegated." Behold, Jerusalem is entirely protected by wings, clothed in variegated garments, adorned with gems. What after these things does God, the great lover of man, do? He feeds her with delicate foods. "You have eaten fine flour, and honey, and oil." He does not say simply flour, nor barley bread—this which we speak to you now is fine flour. But unhappy Jerusalem, after the fine flour, after the honey, after the oil, is again rebuked as a harlot. Therefore, let us beware more attentively, lest perchance we, after the clean words of fine flour, after the most sweet words of the prophets, after the oil that gladdens the face—with which we wished to anoint our head so that our fast might be acceptable—should sin again. And we are not only anointed with this oil, but we consume it. "And you have become very beautiful." He praises her beauty, he praises her appearance, he proclaims her form. "And you were directed into a ^C kingdom." What progress, that she is also directed to a kingdom? "And your name went forth among the nations." These things are fitting for one who, after he has begun to be free from the world, progressing in his conduct toward a blessed life, has also attained a glorious name in the age; but far be it that which follows; for it is written for this reason, that it might strike fear into those who hear. After beauty, after a great name, miserable Jerusalem plays the harlot. Therefore, "Do not glory in tomorrow: for you do not know what the coming day may bring forth." And elsewhere: "Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, sustain such a one in the spirit of meekness. And again: Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted." ^D "...because it was perfected in the beauty of the appearance which I set upon you, says the Lord Adonai; and you trusted in your beauty." She thought great things, and in the consciousness of her own beauty, Jerusalem was puffed up and became beautiful. And because she thought high things, and neither humbled herself nor glorified God, hear what is said to her: "And you played the harlot in your name, and you poured out your fornication upon [every passerby]."

in every transit. What is this which he says: *You poured out your fornication in every transit?* A contrary power traverses our souls ^A and wanders about searching for a place through which it might break in. Anger in its own name wishes to commit fornication with me; according to the habits joined to me, sadness in its name wishes to make me mourning; for its part, avarice introduces the desire for gold and silver, and whatever things are similar to these. If I do not guard myself and close my door, but instead receive every suggestion of the enemy, it is said to me: *You poured out your fornication in every transit. And you took your garments, and you made for yourself embroidered idols.* Of these things with which I adorned you, with which you became beautiful, you made for yourself embroidered idols. I still wish to explain what the embroidered idols are, which were indeed stitched together from the garments. The garments are the divine Scriptures, and the sense which is in them. The heretics have cut up these garments, and they stitch word to word, joining words to words, but not with a fitting and suitable connection, and stitching them together they have made for themselves impious simulacra, by which they have enticed some to believe and to consent to their cult, and to receive a feigned discipline. But may God deliver us all from these and other simulacra, that we may be glorified in Christ Jesus, to whom is glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY VII

On that which is said:

1. May the catalogue of the sins of Jerusalem, however it is understood, edify the audience. For just as, if in his own house the Lord were to correct someone from his household and expose his sins, another servant, who was recently purchased, seeing the discipline of the master of the house—what he blames and what he praises—is instructed not to do what his fellow-servants did before, and labors with all his might to do those things through which others earned honor and freedom from their master; so also we, the audience, in those things where God blames either Jerusalem, or the whole of Judea, or any one of the tribes specifically offending, receive no small measure of utility, so that we do not collapse into these things into which the others ^B fell. But the beginning of today's reading is that Jerusalem received garments from God, and made from these for herself certain embroidered simulacra, and committed fornication upon them. Regarding these, I have discoursed according to my ability in the previous sermon, teaching that those who lacerate the Scriptures and tear words from words, stitching them together and composing counterfeit dogmas, serve the idols they have clothed in their garments. *You will not enter into my tabernacle, you are outside, and you will stay outside.* The Scripture knows that the saints are inside, and sinners are outside. Therefore, because Jerusalem committed such sins that she does not deserve to enter the promises of God, and it is said to her: *And you will not enter*; let us beware lest perhaps at some time it be said to us: *And you will not enter.* Nor will it come to pass. This which is said, *nor will it come to pass*, is not complete; and thus it must be understood extrinsically, ^C so that the sense may be fulfilled: The good things which were promised to you, and which you were about to receive, will not come to pass.

2. There follows another offense: *And you took your vessels of glorying of your silver and of your gold from which I gave to you, and you made for yourself masculine images.* According to the common sense, it can be understood thus: the vessels of glorying, about which Moses wrote in Numbers, the censers, the bowls, the golden lampstand, the ark gilded inside and outside, and the rest you took, and you melted them down, and you made masculine effigies, and you committed fornication in them. According to allegory, however, it will be explained thus: we have golden and silver vessels, that is, censers, bowls, and other things of this kind in the holy Scriptures. When, therefore, we twist the sense of Scripture into another sense which is contrary to truth, we melt down the divine words, and we change the things of God into other effigies. Doing which, we fall into the sin which Jerusalem had now committed. The vessels of our glorying are the law and the prophets: in these we exult, in these we are exalted. When we expound them otherwise than as the truth holds, we convert our vessels of glorying—of reasonable silver and of sensible gold which God gave to us—and we make for ourselves masculine images, and we commit fornication in them.

Homily VII

3. It follows: *Thou hast taken thy various garments, and thou hast covered them.* ^A The various garment is this one place from the Scriptures, by which we are clothed, taking on the bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and long-suffering to bear with one another. If we tear and rend these various garments—these beautiful coverings which God has bestowed upon us—and wrap them around false doctrine for the deception of men, there is no doubt that we are covering idols with various garments. But you will understand this which is said if we describe the matter more clearly. Look toward some Marcionite, or a disciple of Valentinus, or indeed the defender of any heresy whatever, and consider how he clothes his idols—that is, the figments he himself has composed—with gentleness and chastity, so that his discourse, adorned with the goodness of his life, may more easily creep into the ears of his listeners. ^B And when he has done this, understand that he has taken the various garment of good morals and conduct, and has subjected it to the idols he himself has constructed. Indeed, according to my own way of thinking, a heretic of good life is far more harmful, and has more authority in his doctrine, than one who stains his doctrine with his conduct. For he who is of the worst life does not easily solicit men to a false dogma, nor can he deceive the simplicity of his listeners through the shadow of sanctity. But he who is perverse in speech and contrary to saving disciplines, yet possesses composed and adorned manners, does nothing other than take the various garments of good conduct and quiet behavior, and wrap them around his own idols so as to deceive his listeners all the more. ^C Therefore, let us cautiously beware of heretics who are of excellent conduct, whose lives perhaps the devil has instructed as much as God. For just as fowlers set out certain enticements of food so that they may more easily catch birds through the pleasure of the throat, so, that I may speak more boldly, there is a certain chastity of the devil—that is, a snare for the human soul—so that through this kind of chastity, gentleness, and justice, he may more easily capture and ensnare men with false sermons. The devil fights with diverse traps so that he may destroy the wretched man; he confers a good life upon the evil to deceive those who see it, and he burns an evil conscience into the good. For me myself, who preach in the Church, he often stretches snares so that he may confound the whole Church through my conduct; and therefore those who are in the midst are attacked more by the enemy, so that through the ruin of one man, which cannot be hidden, a scandal may be made for all, and the faith may be hindered by the worst conduct of the clergy. All things, as we have said, the devil works, both those which are seen to be good but are not, and those which are by their own nature evil; he plots everything against the human soul. Whence he who has care for his own life is neither caught by the gentleness of heretics to consent to their doctrine, ^D nor will he be scandalized by my own delicts, even if I appear to preach in the Church; rather, considering the dogma itself and examining the faith of the Church, he will turn away from me indeed, but he will receive the doctrine according to the precept of the Lord, who says: *The scribes and Pharisees have sat upon the chair of Moses. All things whatsoever they say, hear ye and do; but do not ye according to their works; for they say and do not* (Matt. XXIII, 2). This statement is about me, who teach good things but do the contrary, and am sitting upon the chair of Moses as a Scribe and Pharisee. It is a precept for you, O people: if you have no accusation of the worst doctrine, and of dogmas alien from the Church, but you see my guilty life and sins, you are not to have them to institute your life according to the speaker, but to do those things which I speak. Let us imitate no one, and if we wish to imitate anyone, Christ Jesus is set before us for imitation. The acts of the apostles have been described, and we recognize the deeds of the prophets from the sacred volumes; that model is firm, that solid example is placed, which he who desires to follow enters upon a secure path. But if we seek out for ourselves guilty people to emulate, so that we say, "He teaches this, yet he himself does the contrary to what he teaches," we act against the precept of the Lord, who commanded that the doctrines of masters must be considered more than their lives. We say these things about that which is written: *Thou hast taken thy various garment, and hast covered it*—that is, the vessels of glorification, which thou hast changed into idols.

383 4. It follows69: *And thou hast set my oil and my incense before their faces.* We have learned from the teaching of Scripture that the prayer of the saints is incense. For it says70: *And the incense is the prayers of the saints.* If, therefore, when instituted for prayer, we ought to offer it to God—that is, to the God of the Law and the prophets, to the God of Abraham, to the God of Isaac, to the God of Jacob, and to the Father of Jesus Christ—we offer instead those things which we have ourselves constructed, to the extent that we set the incense of God before idols, we do that which is said in the present passage: *Thou hast set my oil and my incense before their faces.* But let this be the understanding concerning the incense. What shall we answer concerning the oil? The oil is that with which the holy man is anointed, the oil of Christ, the oil of holy doctrine. When therefore anyone has received this oil with which the holy man is anointed—that is, the sacred Scripture teaching how one ought to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—and changing a few things, he has anointed someone, and has in a way said, "Now you are no longer a catechumen, you have obtained the laver of the second generation," such a man receives the oil of God and the incense, and places it before the face of idols. *And my bread which I gave thee, fine flour, and honey, and oil I fed thee* (Ezech. XVI, 19). Behold, our bread is the most pure fine flour in the Scriptures, and the honey of the bees of the prophets. All these things God gave to us, and he fed us with the bread of the prophets and with the...

most pure fine flour in the Scriptures; yet we offer these same things to idols. For when we wish to provide a defense on account of false dogmas, we say: "It is written in the prophet," "Moses testifies," "The Apostle speaks." What else are we doing than taking the loaves of truth and setting them before the idols which we ourselves have fashioned? Marcion made an idol and set the loaves of the Scriptures before it; Valentinus, Basilides, and other heretics did the same. *And thou hast set them before their face for a savour of sweetness* (Ezech. XVI, 19). Naturally, those things which God has lavished upon us are of the sweetest savour. But he who either opposes or misunderstands the power of the Scriptures places this most sweet savour before idols.

5. *And it came to pass, saith the Lord God, and thou hast taken thy sons, and thy daughters whom thou hast borne, and hast sacrificed them to be devoured* (Ezech. XVI, 20-21). When the sinful Jerusalem has borne sons and daughters, the end of those who are born is slaughter. For salvation is not the end of the wicked. Therefore it is written: *Thou hast sacrificed them to be devoured.* How moderately hast thou played the harlot! Thou hast killed my children and given them up. He says specifically: *Thou hast taken thy sons*; and significantly adds: *Thou hast killed my children.* For whoever are born in the doctrines of heretics, and have taken the principles of their faith there, these are the children of the harlot and sinful Jerusalem. But he who was born in the Church and was afterwards deceived by heretical falsehood, this one, although he is a child of God, is seized by the sinful ^B Jerusalem and placed as a victim to her idols. This is above all thy fornication and thine abominations. To take the children of the Church and sacrifice them to idols—this is above every sin of thine. *And thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and put to shame,* working iniquity (Ezech. XVI, 22).

Homily VII

^A it was necessary, therefore, to remember in iniquity how I spread my wings over thee, and took thee out of thy blood, and washed thee. But thou hast forgotten all these things—things which befit one who is naked, and acting shamefully, and wallowing in her own blood. *Woe, woe unto thee, saith the Lord God; and thou hast built thee a harlot’s house, and hast made thee a setting in every street* (Ezech. XVI, 23-24). If you consider the soul [(20)] exposed to her lovers, you will see how she makes a harlot’s house and receives all those lovers of whom we have spoken. Understand well what we say from the following, that is, who are the lovers of Jerusalem. The human soul is very beautiful and possesses marvelous beauty. For its Architect, when He first created it, said: *Let us make man to our image and likeness* (Gen. I, 26). What is more beautiful than this beauty and likeness? Therefore, certain adulterous and filthy lovers, enticed by her grace, desire to corrupt it and commit fornication upon it. Wherefore the wise man Paul ^C says: *But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his subtilty, so your senses should be corrupted* (II Cor. XI, 3). Our senses are corrupted in carnal fornication; but in spiritual harlotry, the senses are corrupted and the soul itself is wounded.

7. *And thou hast defiled thy beauty* (Ezech. XVI, 25). Even if a man is not established in the greatest sins, yet because the beauty of the soul is immense, it is defiled also by the society of lesser things. Consider the virtues of the soul [(21)] which are implanted in it by God; observe its beauty, its invention, disposition, eloquence, memory, [and] concepts, keenness of mind, understandings, appetites, impulses, initiatives, assents, and aspirations toward God. These are all contained within its general powers: in the rational, in the concupiscible, and in the logical [faculties]. All these the impious soul corrupts with foreign dogmas and with foreign actions.

^A And your legs crossed in every passage, and you multiplied your fornication. And there is one fornication differing from another; and just as in the fornication of the flesh, one person is not polluted by excessive fornication, and yet is polluted by fornication, while another multiplies his own fornication; so also in that fornication which stains one's soul and sense, one is overwhelmed by a multitude of fornication, while another is not so much seduced by it. Therefore, by the measure with which we have measured, it shall be measured back to us.

8. And you have committed fornication with the children of Egypt, your neighbors. Filie Aegypti are contrary powers. And it is no wonder if our neighbors are called Egyptians; the boundaries of Egypt and Jerusalem are set within their own city. They are of great flesh, not because those Egyptians have huge bodies (and indeed it seems honestly to have signified their shameful parts by a changed word, that is, great flesh), but because they make us of the great flesh of a carnal intellect; just as on the contrary there is a certain deficient flesh, of which it is said: How my flesh [has appeared] in a desert land, and pathless, and waterless, so I have appeared to you in the sanctuary. Jerusalem, therefore, commits fornication, over the children of Egypt, her neighbors, and of great flesh. And manifoldly, he says, you have committed fornication to provoke me. You have committed many kinds of fornication to stir me up. But if I stretch out my hand over you, I will take away your lawful things, and I will deliver you into the souls of those who hate you, the children of the aliens. You see that she is delivered into the souls of the aliens, she who is unworthy of the use of the law and of the words of God. Who have turned you from your way. You have acted impiously, and have committed fornication over the children of Assur. First over the children of Egypt, then over the children of Assur. These are species of sins. For even when the Assyrians took captive the children of Israel, that which the Scripture reports did indeed happen, but it is written because of our frequent captivity, which is perpetrated by spiritual Assyrians: of whom the Apostle says: Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of wickedness.

9. And you are not satisfied, and you have committed fornication, and you are not satisfied. When someone is not filled while sinning, but always joins new sins to previous ones, binding them as if with a long rope, and as if with the yoke-strap of a heifer, ^B never turning himself to better things, nor doing penance for his evils, it is said to him: And you shall not be satisfied. And you multiplied your covenants to the land of Chanaan. When God makes covenants with us, and we consent to them, we are blessed; but when we commit fornication toward the spiritualities of wickedness, then we turn God's covenants to the land of Chanaan, and we establish a covenant with it. Understand this for me both in the Chaldeans and in the rest of the nations, when we are rebuked in any sin whatsoever. And the covenants to the Chaldeans, and you are not yet satisfied.

10. After the catalog of sins, and of the sinful Jerusalem, what shall I establish in you, says the Lord Adonai, when you do all these works of an impudent, whorish woman? Let us ascend a little in our discourse, because it is not always useful to speak of fornications, and far be it that there should be anyone in the Church who needs sermons exhorting him from fornication. For if anyone has a need to hear: You shall not commit fornication; or that: If anyone violates the temple of God, God will destroy him; he is similar to those whom the Apostle speaks of: The law is not set for the just, but for the unjust, and the insubordinate, the impious, and the sinners. How then is the law not set for the just, but truly for the unjust and the insubordinate; so this doctrine which warns one to move away from fornication is not set for the chaste, but for the unjust, and for fornicators, and for the disobedient. Therefore, we do not need to learn to depart from fornication: but rather let us tend toward more perfect things from the principles of the elements of Christ. For when you ought to be teachers because of the time, he says, you have need again for someone to teach you what are the elements of the beginning of the words of God, ^C and you have become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. Every word that commands: You shall not commit fornication, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, is not solid food, but is offered as milk to infants. The food of athletes is to perceive from the omnipotent God, from his mysteries which are hidden, and latently signified in the Scriptures. See how Paul speaks to the Corinthians: I gave you milk to drink, not food, for you were not yet able, and neither are you able even now. And because they still needed milk, they learn those things which children are accustomed to learn. It is good for a man not to touch a woman, because of fornication, ^D and so on. And again they are instructed not to eat things offered to idols. This whole doctrine is the milk of children, and of those still infants in Christ. But when it is written to the Ephesians, it offers them solid food. For there is not heard in Ephesus fornication, there is not heard in Ephesus idolatry, and—

fornication; idolatry is not heard of in Ephesus, nor is the eating of things offered to idols. From these we are taught what is solid food, and what is reasonable and guileless milk; the moral place is that solid food is mystical understanding. It is blessed, therefore, that we hasten toward those things ^A that are more imperfect, passing by the principles. And that the moral place is milk, the Apostle teaches, when, having already said something about milk, he adds: *Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works.* All those who are still fed with milk are such as these; but the perfect man has need of other teachings. Let these things be said in the meantime, because I had ascended in my discourse, lest from the exposition of one fornication I should immediately fall into another, which I shall now explain. For it is said to Jerusalem: *And thou hast played the harlot in threefold wise in thy daughters.* What is this that he says, that Jerusalem has played the harlot in threefold wise in her daughters? We have need of God’s help, so that He Himself may explain the obscurity of this place to us. And just as Moses used to hear God, and then would set forth to the people those things which he had heard from God; so we have need of the Holy Spirit speaking the mysteries in us, so that by our prayers we may be able to hear Scripture, and in turn to intimate to the people what we have heard. What is it, therefore: *Thou hast played the harlot in threefold wise in thy daughters?* If you understand [(25)] fornication of the flesh, and of the soul, and of the spirit, and see someone playing the harlot in all these, you will see Jerusalem playing the harlot in threefold wise. But he who is threefoldly accused, he deserves to hear from the Apostle: *And the God of peace sanctify you wholly, that your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,* to whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY VIII.

*On that which is written: "In what shall I satisfy thy heart, saith the Lord God, when thou doest all these ^B works of a shameless harlot?"* up to that point which says: *"Thou hast given gifts to all thy lovers."*

Let us take the beginning from that which is written: *In what shall I satisfy thy heart, saith Adonai the Lord, when thou doest all these works of a shameless harlot, and hast played the harlot in threefold wise in thy daughters?* Up to this point we have already spoken. It follows: *When thou hast built thy brothel at the head of every way, and hast made thy base in every street, and hast not been as a harlot gathering wages. The woman who commits adultery is like unto thee, who has received from her husband wages, and thou hast given wages; to all her lovers she has given wages, and thou hast given wages to all thy lovers, and thou didst honor them that they might come to thee in a circle in thy fornication.* And can a man constitute a man? The evil in the evil, the good in the good. *For evil communications corrupt good manners.* And there is no doubt that the speech of one who is speaking solicits the auditor to worse things, when a heretic speaking constitutes his auditor in heretical depravity. And that we may come to better things: if he who is speaking can be profitable, and his life agrees with his discourse, he constitutes his auditor in good things. We who are of the least standing, if we have heard the Word commanding chastity, we strive to be established upon it. If we ourselves speak of purity, we also establish ourselves as auditors in purity. If we preach about justice, we urge toward justice. If about faith, we insinuate faith, so that we may worthily obey the divine majesty ^C in the Lord. If, therefore, we men, since we are evil, are accustomed to constitute the heart of the hearer—whether in good things, if we are good; or in bad things, if we act badly—do you think that God does not have the power to constitute someone in better things? Or at least, in abandoning him, to become the occasion for him to be constituted in the worst things? Much, therefore, according to the present utterance, did wretched Jerusalem sin, whom God very often willed through the prophets

^D to stand. The soul plays the harlot in threefold wise according to its three general faculties: reason, anger, and desire; in spirit, in body, and in soul according to its three ages. The spirit is the very force of reason; the soul, the vital faculty; the body, the organ containing the force of reason and not encompassing. This soul, and that which the Apostle speaks of, is not a rational soul, nor is it taken as a nature endowed by reason (for it is not possible to say there are two things endowed with reason in the same man), but it is that of which it is written, that *He breathed into his face the breath of life* (Gen. ii, 7); and Paul calls this blast "soul," in which it is written that man was made: *And the first man was made into a living soul* (1 Cor. xv, 45). Not, therefore, is such a soul another man, but the animal status of the body, which every man acquires through carnal birth into this world, and which the Apostle prays may be preserved with little stain for the faithful: *And the God of peace sanctify you wholly, that your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved without stain unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ* (1 Thess. v, 23). As if he were to say: And the spirit, and the body, and that which is in it, the life. For he signified the wholeness of ourselves: the inner and outer man, and the intermediate life, namely, our conversation or status in this world.

^A [The Latin text continues from the previous page:] ...but because he refused to hear counsel, refused to receive the precepts, he doubts that God knows what he is doing. "To whom shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? ... What shall I do for thee?" Thou art constrained by many bonds of sins; thy transgressions forbid thy life, that thou mightest establish thyself by my words. I have often desired to establish thee, speaking to thee through my saints, and thou hast not heard. Now I know not what I should do, and I say: "To whom shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? ... what shall I do for thee?" when thou doest all these works of a bold harlot. We have often said that the virtues of the human soul are opposed to one another; and when the human soul receives the seeds of its lovers, it in a certain sense commits fornication with them. But since in common life there are some harlots who desire to hide their fornications with shame, while others not only do not cover their transgressions with modesty, but prostitute themselves with all boldness—for this reason I have taken the example of the harlot-soul in this Jerusalem of yours, and I say she has become like the harlot in her boldness in fornication. We are often offended by such things. For they who have not entirely retreated from religion, but are conquered by sin, and desire to hide their sinning, blush like the harlot. But those ^B who entirely turn away from religion, to such an extent that they do not care for bishop or presbyters, but sin with all boldness, become like the harlot who stands forth with confidence. Therefore, God laments in this place over the shameless Jerusalem, who acts like a harlot, and says to her: "And thou hast played the harlot in three ways among thy children." We have explained this when it was said to us: "Thou hast built thy harlot-house at the head of every way, and hast made thy base in every street."

2. But let us now also interpret what it is to build a harlot-house, not similarly in every way, but at the head of every way; so that it might not seem sufficient that she built a harlot-house at the head of every way, but that she also placed her base in every street. Two general sins she committed, when she built her harlot-house at the head of every way, and when she made a base and established it as the harlot Jerusalem. Which is this way? "Stand in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths of the Lord, and see what is the good way, and walk in it." There are many eternal ways. If you hold the exposition which I have frequently presented, you will know that it is necessary to possess with the way of Moses and all the prophets, as well as with him who is to come, to whom it is said: "I am the way." And what does it matter to the proposition what has been said? To whom I shall thus respond: "Thou hast built in every way a Jerusalem harlot-house." If you consider all heretics ^C who are building a house away from the truth from these words that are read in Moses, and from those that have come from Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the rest of the prophets, you understand that she is teaching new doctrines of fornication, this Jerusalem, which builds its brothel not for every way, but at the head of every way. For if the beginning is after the principle of Moses, the start of the prophets, and to reach its depth and the knowledge of all things, nothing can be done by this harlot building a brothel at the head of every way; when she seeks who first enters the Church, who receives the elements of faith, who is rude in the sacraments, who in the beginning of faith is established, she wants to introduce him into her brothel, building a harlot's house. And because fornication is frequently named in the Scriptures, to explain it is the cause of this discourse. The ecclesiastical [men] who are teachers in the Church, cleanse their own morals as well as those of others, and from this diligence build the house of God, and their work is the edification of God. Heretics build a brothel in every way; as, for example, the master of the workshop of Valentinus, the master of the assembly of Basilides, the master of the tabernacle of Marcion, and the rest of the heretics build a harlot-house. For the congregation of all evil men is a brothel. But what does Scripture say? "My son, do not be intent upon an evil woman, for honey distills from the lips of a harlot woman." Whence does it distill for me? For honey distills from the lips of a harlot woman. A person has come to Moses, and to Isaiah, and has gathered their honeys from these Scriptures. Go to the heretics speaking, these things Moses says, these Isaiah, these Jeremiah, and you shall see how from their lips honey does not flow, but distills from those who snatch very few words from the Scriptures. And therefore the honey distills from the lips of a harlot woman. "At the head of every way thou hast built a brothel." Therefore, let us interpret the understanding of this brothel, and the base which the harlot Jerusalem has placed in all the streets. It is written in another place, how the harlot openly calls the passers-by in the streets; for the sin verily hastens to draw us to itself, whether by heresy, or by gentile conversation. And indeed in the 387th [notion of] heresy, when she builds a brothel at the head of every way; but by gentile conversation, when she is placed in all the streets. For broad and open is the way that leads to perdition. When therefore she says what she says, and in what things she attempts to teach those who hear, she asserts from the Scriptures, she builds a brothel at the head of every way. But when the moral place is dissolute, and having made the auditor luxurious, what else has she done but placed a base in every way? ^D

3. "It is not done as a harlot who gathers payments." Let us see the harlot who gathers payments, and another in turn who does not gather them. For from this it is searched as if a harlot not gathering payments. When I see it is a harlot [24] who does not gather payments, and I read that [marginal note: [alt-version omitted]]...

...but because she has become like a harlot that does not gather her hire, I say that gathering hire is becoming rich by sinning, comparing oneself to glory in worldly things by sinning, and acting prosperously in the world by sinning. When these things originate through sin, as I have said, the soul plays the harlot and gathers the wages of her prostitution—the glory, the wealth, and the other things she has acquired for the destruction of her soul; but when she plays the harlot and does not prosper in worldly affairs, but because she has sinned she lives unhappily in this world, she is a harlot not gathering hire, but doing the opposite—that is, voluntarily giving the hire to fornicators. "And you gave hire to all your lovers." Sometimes the soul makes its lovers (25) rich, rejoicing in the fact that they have received payment from it. But the auditor says to me: "Explain more clearly how a soul plays the harlot by giving away the hire from the gifts of its own husband." For thus the divine word says, both here and in other places frequently, that the harlot "has taken away the things that belong to her husband and given them to her lovers." What is this that her husband bestowed upon her, which she, having subsequently become an adulteress, gives everything she received to her lovers? The husband of the soul is the Word of God, the true bridegroom-lover, who gave her chastity, gave her justice, and gave other good things. When, therefore, the soul wishes to follow opposing powers—that is, to speak more plainly, living chastely for ten years and then finally playing the harlot—she takes the goods of her husband, which she had sought with labor for a long time, and gives them to her lovers. And these bloodthirsty lovers ^C snatch to themselves the virtues of the miserable soul and walk about boasting over her riches, saying: "I have taken from her ten years of chastity; I have snatched from her five years of justice; I have claimed her strengths for myself." God has forgotten all the good things she once did because she has been caught in sin, and He has forgotten her because she has confessed to us, her friends, the secrets she had heard, and has handed over all our goods to us, her lovers. Learning these things, let us guard our heart with all vigilance, and let us take heed lest the things that belong to our Husband be handed over to her lovers; rather, let us invite the Husband, the Word and the Truth, so that He may make for us golden ornaments, expressed by various signs through various precepts, and, having been adorned, may we be prepared for our Husband, Jesus Christ: to whom is glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY IX

^A 1. He who reads at the beginning of the prophecy about Jerusalem how she is rebuked as though having a root and generation from the land of Canaan, a father an Amorite, and a mother a Hittite; if he reads also these things which we now strive to interpret, he will think that the same things are being repeated and that one sermon is being preached twice. But he who is a diligent reader, and for whom the meaning of Holy Scripture is a matter of concern, and who compares past things with present things and weighs word against word, will see that the difference is not accidental. For in that place the root, he says, "You and your generation are from the land of Canaan"; what is said in the present instance—"Your father an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite"—is not signified now. And again, there it is placed first: "Your father an Amorite"; second: "Your mother a Hittite"; but here: "Your mother a Hittite, and your father an Amorite." There the address is made as if to one, here as if to many. For it does not say, as it said above, "your mother," but "your mother" (plural in the Greek). When, therefore, sin is spread abroad and malice proceeds further, and sinners tear their sins among themselves, then it is not one sinner, but in the one there are many, just as in the beginning when it was the start of wrongdoing, and there were not yet the multitudes that exist now. Wherefore it seems useful to me, withdrawing a little from the present sermon, to consider the nature of sin and of virtues. Where there are sins, there is ^B multitude, there are schisms, there are heresies, there are dissensions; but where there is virtue, there is singularity, there is union, from which "all who believed were of one heart and one soul." And that I may speak more clearly, the principle of all evils is multitude, but the principle of good things is restriction, and the reduction from crowds into singularity: as, for example, if we are all to be saved, we must move toward union, that we may be made perfect in the same sense and in the same mind, and that we may be one body and one spirit. If, however, we are such that unity does not enclose us, but it can be said of us: "I indeed am of Paul, and I of Apollo, and I of Cephas," and we are still cut and divided by malice, we are not going to be where those are who are reduced into union. For as the Father and the Son are one, so those who have one spirit are constrained into union. For the Savior says: "I and the Father are one," and "Holy Father, I pray that as Thou and I are one, so they may be one in us." And it is read in the Apostle: "Until we all attain to a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fullness into the unity of Christ." And again: "Until we all arrive into the unity of the body and spirit of Christ." From which it is signified that virtue from many is one.

^A And it is necessary for us to be made one through it, and to flee the multitude. And these things have been said because it is written in the previous reading: "Your father, and your mother, and the root of your generation." In the present reading, however: "Your mother and your father." There we did not learn, although there was discourse regarding the Amorite father and the Hittite mother, of having sisters at Jerusalem; but here it added: "Your mother," it says, "is a Hittite, and your father an Amorite, and your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters who dwell at your left, and your younger sister who dwells at your right is Sodom." Just as virtue makes me a son of Abraham if I shall have lived according to it—for by doing the works of Abraham, one is a son of Abraham—so too do vices make me a son of the devil. "For everyone who commits sin is born of the devil." Virtue also makes me have Christ as a brother, so that when I shall have been good and well-behaved, He may say to His Father: "I will declare Your name to My brothers, in the midst of the Church I will sing of You." And He speaks to her who could proclaim His words: "Go and tell My brothers." But just as virtue makes the Lord Jesus a brother to me, so also does malice acquire many brothers, and these sinners; and she produces these same ones as brothers to me once he has grown. Indeed, when there was the beginning of sinful Jerusalem, she did not yet have the sister Samaria, nor was Sodom yet her own sister. But when she proceeded in wickedness, as the previous discourse showed, she was made the middle of two sisters, the elder, Samaria, and the younger, Sodom. Who are these two sisters of sinful Jerusalem? Schism and the separation of the people made Samaria. For at the time when the ten tribes withdrew, saying: "We have no part in David, nor inheritance in the son of Jesse," then two golden calves were established by Jeroboam, and the schism of Samaria was made; which grew even more after the captivity of the ten tribes when watchmen—who are called Samaritans—were sent by the Assyrians to the land of Israel. For "Somer" is interpreted as "watchman" in the language of the Hebrews. Therefore, as I had begun to say, Samaria is not yet my sister so long as I am far from sins; but when I shall have sinned, two sisters grow for me: the elder, Samaria, and the younger, Sodom. Let us consider whose figure they hold. Whoever promise divine words, and do not possess the truth of preaching in themselves as they promise, these are figuratively named Samaria in the Scriptures. "Woe," it says, "to those who spurn Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria," you have harvested the chief of the nations. As if he had said: woe to those who spurn the Church and trust in the arrogance and the swelling words of the heretics. For this is to spurn Zion and to trust in the mountain of Samaria. If, then, even we who are ecclesiastical sin, the heretics are not alien to us in the perversity of their dogmas. For anyone who sins believes wrongly. If we have a bad way of life, Sodom is our sister. For the Gentiles are indeed Sodom. And thus we are brothers of the heretics and of the Gentiles when we sin, because Samaria is accepted as heresy, and Sodom as gentility. Samaria dwells at the left of sinful Jerusalem, Sodom at the right. Indeed, sin which is committed in action is held in greater honor by her, and therefore Sodom is at her right. And again, Samaria is not far off, because she dwells at her left, and he is rebuked who has walked with his daughters and his sisters in all iniquities, and who has walked to such an extent that the comparison of his offenses has made their iniquities appear as righteousness. Hence it is necessary to recognize the iniquities of the people of Sodom, so that, having been taught, I may guard myself from them, lest I be caught by ignorance of what the iniquities of Sodom are. What is the iniquity? Pride. "In the fullness of bread, and in abundance, she and her daughters abounded, and they did not look upon the hand of the poor and needy." That sins are unequal, ^B to those using the Scriptures there is no doubt. For some are said to be great, others less than these. But when they are unequal, that is, small or greatest, perhaps someone might inquire what is the greatest among all sins; and it is readily accepted as the greatest of all sins, whether fornication, or uncleanness, or any defilement of lust. These are indeed truly abominable and polluted, but not such as this which is now condemned by Scripture as greater than all, from which we must observe ourselves. What, therefore, is the sin greater than all sins? It is certainly that on account of which even the devil fell. What is this sin in which such sublimity fell, so that, being puffed up, he might fall into the judgment of the devil? The Apostle says: "Infatuation, pride, arrogance is the sin of the devil," and because of these offenses he migrated from heaven to earth. Whence "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." And why does the earth and ashes pride itself, so that man may be lifted up by arrogance, forgetting what he will be, and in what a fragile vessel he is contained, and into what refuse he is immersed, and what kind of excrements he is always casting forth from his flesh? For what does Scripture say? Why does earth and ashes pride itself? And: "In his life he cast out his bowels." Pride is greater than all sins, and it is the principal sin of the devil himself. ^C If Scripture ever describes the sins of the devil, you will find them flowing from the fountain of pride: "For," it says, "By my power I will do it, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the boundaries of the nations, and I will plunder their strength, and I will move the cities that are inhabited, and I will embrace the whole world like a nest, and I will take away the eggs as if they were forsaken." See his words, how proud they are, how arrogant, and how he considers everything as nothing. Such are all who are inflated by boasting and pride. The material of pride: riches, dignity, secular glory. Frequently the cause of pride is for one who is ignorant of the fact that he possesses ecclesiastical dignity,

or the order of priesthood and the Levitical rank. How many presbyters, once ordained, have become forgetful of humility, as if on that account they had been ordained, so that they might cease to be humble! But they ought rather to have pursued humility, because they had attained dignity, as Scripture says: ^A *The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself.* And it makes you a beloved of the Synagogue, bow down your head more nobly; they have appointed you a leader, do not be exalted, do not become toward them as one of their own. One must be humble, one must be debased, one must flee pride—the head of all evils. Consider with what condemnation the Gospel strikes the pride and boasting of the Pharisee. The Pharisee stood and prayed such things within himself: *God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or as this publican. I fast twice in the week.* But the publican, standing far off humbly and meekly, dared not even raise his eyes, and said: *God, be merciful to me a sinner.* And the publican went down to his house justified. Not simply justified: but justified by comparison with the Pharisee. For every word, order, and connection of Scripture must be observed most diligently. It is one thing to be justified, another to be justified by another. It is similar that the publican was justified by the Pharisee, in the same way that Sodom and Samaria were justified by comparison to the sinful Jerusalem. And it is necessary for us to know this, because each one of us will, on the day of judgment, be justified by another, and by another be condemned. Even when we shall have been justified by another, that justice is set not so much in the place of praise as in the place of accusation. For instance, if I am found to have Sodomite sins, and another is brought forward into the middle who has committed double the crimes, I am indeed justified, but I am not justified as a just man, but rather I am judged just by comparison with him who has committed more, though I am far from justice. Woe to that man who is justified by many sinners; and on the contrary, much blessed is he who is shown to be just by comparison with the just. We find it laid down in the praises of Scripture that one is better than the good: for instance, *no one so did what was right before the face of the Lord as he, and he; no one celebrated the Passover as Josiah.* From which it is shown that a comparison of the just takes place, and that he is truly just who deserves to be justified thereby. Would that I, when compared with the wise, might be found wise, and when compared with the just, might be judged just. For I do not wish to be justified by the unjust, because such justice is criminal.

3. I have anticipated by saying these things, which are written: ^C *You have justified your sisters in all your iniquities which you have done.* For Samaria and Sodom have been justified by the iniquities of Jerusalem. *In all your iniquities which you have done, you have justified them over yourself.* Therefore, let us attend more diligently, so that we may be able to recognize that all of us on the day of judgment are to be justified by those who are worse than us, and again, others are to be justified by us. There is one alone who is justified by all, and he himself justifies no one. For instance, Sodom ^D is justified by Jerusalem, because it committed more wicked things, and perhaps Jerusalem is justified by some other city which is worse than itself. Thus there is someone to be justified by the Antichrist, who is compared to him and is found to be less in his iniquity and crimes. But he is a most evil demon, and, as they say, a wretch who is justified by him; perhaps even his father is not justified by him, having been found much more wicked than him. But my Lord Jesus Christ is justified, according to the dispensation of the flesh which he took on for our salvation, by Abraham, by Isaac, by Jacob, and by the remaining prophets. For when he is placed in comparison with all the saints and prophets and with all the blessed ones, and the contrary to what is said of Sodom and Jerusalem is found [in him], I glorify our Savior all the more. But what I say is of such a kind, and with God granting it, I will provide an explanation from Scripture to you who pray. Sodom committed a sin; Samaria also sinned; Jerusalem was overwhelmed with iniquities, but lesser sins are justified by greater ones, under the example by which Sodom is justified by its sister Jerusalem. How therefore does iniquity justify? In the same way that justice sometimes condemns. But, I beg you, wait a little while, until you are taught in what way it is said that justice condemns. My iniquity is justice by comparison with a greater iniquity. Thus also my justice is accounted as iniquity by comparison with a manifold justice. *Therefore, no living person will be justified in your sight.* Even if Abraham were just, and Moses just, and each one of the illustrious men were just: yet in comparison with Christ, they are not just. Their light, when compared with his light, is found to be darkness. And just as the light of a lamp is obscured by the rays of the sun, and as it were another certain blind mass becomes dark, so although the light of all the just shines before men, yet it does not shine before Christ. For *let your light shine*, it is not said simply, but *let it shine before men*. Before Christ, the light of the just cannot shine. Just as the splendor of the moon and the shining stars of heaven glitter in their stations before the sun rises, but once the sun has risen they are hidden; so the light of the Church, like the light of the moon, before that true light of the sun of justice rises, shines and is bright before men; but when Christ has come, it will darken before him. It is said also elsewhere: *The light shines in the darkness.* What is that light which shines in the darkness? The light of the just shines in the darkness. In what darkness? Where there is for us a struggle against the rulers of this darkness. He who has discussed these things more diligently and at greater length will not be able to be puffed up, seeing his own light accounted as darkness by comparison with a greater light. What is my justice, even if I should become the Apostle Paul? What is my chastity, even if I should become Joseph? What is my fortitude, even if I should exist as Judas Maccabeus? What is the other virtue of wisdom, even if I should appear as Solomon, by comparison with God and with those who are better?

COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW, BOOK XVI

^A descending to the pursuit of minute details. Concerning Timaeus, which is a name of honor and glory, and concerning his son Bartimaeus, which signifies "son of Timaeus," we shall have a question. But see whether, because of the dignity and honor of the patriarch Jacob and Israel, Timaeus himself is a trope: but those who derived their nobility from him, like the blind Bartimaeus, sitting in like manner by the road and begging, are represented on account of the matters spoken of by us above.

Further, since many were rebuking him as he cried out, "Son of David, have mercy on me," that he should be silent, I ask whether you can say that those many who rebuke him—the man who is an Ebionite and impoverished in faith concerning Jesus—are Gentiles, who, if you except a few, have had the persuasion that he was born of a virgin; and they rebuke him to be silent, who imagine that he was born from the seed of a man and a woman, tracing his lineage from David. But although the many were rebuking him, he cried out much more, believing in Jesus, but believing with too human a faith; and crying out, he says: "Son of David, have mercy on me."

But the Savior, who loves mankind, standing still, no longer calls him himself according to Matthew, but ordered him to be called. Those to whom this command was given said to him: "Be of good courage: arise; for they say to him who is sitting and recumbent: Arise," and they add: "He calls you." ^B Mark then adds that he, having cast off his garment, leaping up, came to Jesus. Did he, therefore, write that he came to Jesus having cast off his garment and leaping up without having reflected on anything, and shall we dare to declare that these things were thrust into the Gospel in vain? For my part, I do not believe that even one iota or one tittle is empty of divine teaching; but I consider that to attain to the interpretation of them requires much discourse, because of the obscurity of the matters.

Consider, therefore, whether the coverings, as it were, of a blind man and a beggar, with which Bartimaeus was clothed, are being signified: which the blind man cast off when he had heard: "Be of good courage, arise, he calls you." And having cast off the coverings and vestments of his mendicancy, he sprang up and arose, that he might come to Jesus; and having obtained the response given to his request, namely this: "What do you want me to do?" he spoke words greater than those: "Son of David, have mercy on me." ^C For he devised something greater than "Son of David," for he who says: "Rabboni," and who presented the form of the grace and benefit... [alt-version omitted] was covered: which he, casting off, came to Jesus, and confessed with a more worthy voice, saying: "Rabboni." For it is more worthy to say: "Rabboni," or as it is said in other places: "Lord," than: "Son of David." Whence the Lord did not grant health on account of that which he said: "Son of David, have mercy on me," nor when he was clothed in the garment of his mendicancy, nor when he was sitting by the road begging; ^D but on account of: "Rabboni, that I may receive my sight," he said to him: "Go, your faith has saved you." And the Savior said to him: "Go," but he who was the recipient of this command has done something better; for having risen, he leaped up and rose.

For fullness of bread and abundance of resource is the material of arrogance. Often, too, the sin of pride arises from spiritual gifts, and there is no difference in either case. So great a man as the apostle Paul found it necessary to have a thorn of the angel of Satan, that it might buffet him ^A lest he should be exalted overmuch; for though he prayed and besought God, he often obtained what he asked, yet when he prayed for this, and did not obtain what he sought, it was said to him: *My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in infirmity.* One must therefore fear Him who is still in the human race and dwells in this present light, not only with regard to those things that are thought to be good in the world, but even those that are truly good; for we cannot endure great things. As proof of this present opinion, I offer the history of David, in which it is written that he committed sin with Uriah. Before Uriah, no transgression is found in David; he was a blessed man, and without reproach in the sight of God. But because he was conscious of his own immaculate life, he spoke what he should not have, saying: *Hear, O Lord, my justice; attend to my supplication. Give ear unto my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips. Let my judgment come forth from thy countenance; let thy eyes behold the things that are equitable. Thou hast proved my heart, and visited it by night; thou hast tried me by fire, and iniquity hath not been found in me.* And he said these things because the visitation of God was granted to him on account of his conscience and the blessedness of his life; he was tempted, he was stripped of help, that he might see what human infirmity can do. For when the protection of God withdrew, that most chaste man, that man admirable in purity, who had heard, "If the children are clean, much more from a woman," and had received the Eucharist as one who was clean, could not persevere, but was found in that crime in which he was applauding himself as if continent. If, therefore, anyone, conscious of his own purity, glorifies himself, not remembering that saying: *What hast thou that thou hast not received? And if it were given thee, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?* he is abandoned, and once abandoned, he learns from experience that in those goods of which he was conscious, he himself was not so much the cause as He ^B who is the Source of all virtues. From this it appears that both the fullness of bread and spiritual gifts, to one who cannot endure them, generate pride. Therefore let us flee from Sodom and its sins; let us flee from Samaria and the crimes by which miserable Jerusalem is chastised, so that, with God ministering strength to us in all things, we may attain humility and justice in Christ Jesus, to whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily X

1. The first thing is to do no work of confusion, but all such things as can enable one to look upon God with a free countenance. But because, as men, we often sin, we must know the second, if I may so call it, ship of confusion, and to blush ^C for the works of confusion, and to cast down one’s bashful eyes for one’s own crimes, and not to walk with a brazen face as if one had committed no fault at all. For it is good to be confounded after the works of confusion; because often the artificer of malice himself works to prevent the sinner from returning to repentance, so that he acts as if he still persevered in justice. We can see and learn from daily life that many men, after their sins, not only do not weep for what they have done, but even defend their own ruins with a brazen forehead. A great benefit, therefore, is preserved in Jerusalem, if only it believes the Lord who says: *And thou, be confounded.* And do not think that these things were said only to Jerusalem, and not to each one of us who are held liable for our faults. For let each one consider himself, what he has done that is worthy of confusion, what shameful thing he has said, regarding which he has no boldness as if it were a good word, what he has thought ^D that seems worthy of blushing from Him who considers the secrets of the heart and mind; and when one diligently perceives one’s thoughts, deeds, and words, then he will hear the prophet saying: *And thou, be confounded.* After which the prophet adds: *And receive thy ignominy in that thou hast justified thy sisters.* Ignominy follows confusion, and God gives him who has done things worthy of confusion, ignominy also, and said to him: *And receive thy ignominy.* You will be able to understand what is said, if you consider what happens every day in cities. It is a dishonor for a citizen to be exiled from his country, and it is an infamy for a decurion to be erased from the white-table of the curia, and for a man of any other condition to be left, indeed, in life, but to live with ignominy, whether in public works, or in some island of solitude. But understand for me the just judge saying to him who has done things worthy of infamy: "O you who are liable to punishment, do not receive your exile with sorrow; for you will not deserve mercy if you are angry at the punishment; but rather understand that you suffer justly what you suffer; and when you have humbled yourself, and have said that the judgment passed against you was just, perhaps you will obtain mercy from Him who can, after condemnation, recall you to your former state." For how a great prince is allowed to set free someone from an island, and from exile, and from public chains; so much the more is it allowed to the God of the universe to restore to his former honor one who is dishonored, if only, sensing his transgression, he has confessed that he justly sustained what he suffered. I will give another example from ecclesiastical custom. It is an infamy to be separated from the people of God and the Church. It is a disgrace to rise in the Church from the seat of the presbytery, to be cast out from the rank of the diaconate. And indeed, of those who are cast out, some stir up seditions, while others receive the judgment passed upon themselves with all humility. Whoever, therefore, are cast out, and in the sorrow of their deposition gather [e] the people to create a schism, and solicit a multitude of wicked men, they do not receive the inhonoratio [index: entries preserved]

in the present, but treasure up for themselves ^A wrath against the day of wrath. But those who with all humility, whether they have been justly or unjustly deposed, leave their judgment to God and patiently endure what has been judged concerning them, these shall obtain mercy from God, and frequently they are even recalled by men to their former rank and to the glory which they had lost. The doctrine, therefore, is an excellent one, as is how that which is said: "And be ashamed," and likewise that which follows: "And receive thy dishonor." And I say this in order to interpose a deeper meaning concerning our future dishonor. And there indeed there will be some dishonor for those who have done work worthy of dishonor, seeing that "some shall rise unto eternal life, and others unto reproach and eternal confusion." What else is this but to endure the penalty of infamy? ^B Since, therefore, it is still permitted to us, we ought to bear our diminution patiently, so that when we have endured sorrow here for a time, we may, if I may say so, move the bowels of God's mercy and His benignity, that He may recall us to our former state from dishonor and confusion; just as, on the contrary, it is impossible for someone of a stony heart, someone who does not deeply feel his own transgression and who acts proudly before the face of the almighty God, to obtain mercy. For we see some, who are indeed good, willingly bearing the sentence passed upon them, and for the sake of their own salvation justifying the judgment of God; but the wicked blaspheme against the providence of God and say: "I have not been rightly judged to this infamy; I suffer these things unjustly." Thus do we justify Providence, and we resolve our own infamy. But if we do not accept the judgments of God, we multiply our infamy. And just as with infamy, so also with punishments, and the rest. For what things are these? They are such as are wont to befall those who have been condemned by God for their own offenses. ^C First of the Sodomites, then of Samaria, and third, indeed, of Jerusalem. But when He says: "When I shall turn back the captivity of Sodom, and Samaria, and Jerusalem, then they shall be restored to their ancient state," first Sodom, whose previous captivates He turns back; second, Samaria, which He turns back second; third, Jerusalem, to whom third captivities are assigned. Therefore, healings for sinners in the turning back of Sodom and her daughters, and in the turning back of Jerusalem herself, are granted to those who are more loved by God, yet more tardily. For Sodom, being justified by Jerusalem, obtains mercy first, that is, the Gentiles. But Samaria, that is, the heretics, obtain healing in the second place. But in the third place, as if unworthy of swifter remedies, those who were of Jerusalem are restored to their former state. Therefore, the Gentiles and the heretics will obtain clemency before us, if we have been ungodly, if sins weigh us down. For the closer we have been to God, and the nearer to blessedness, the further away we become from it when we have sinned, and the closer we are to terrible and greatest punishments. For just is the judgment of God, and "the mighty shall mightily suffer torments." But he who is least deserves mercy more quickly. Sodom is the least, and after her, compared to Jerusalem, [Samaria is] the least; yet it is not the same as Sodom, [Samaria is]; and therefore He turns back the captivities of those first, and afterward Jerusalem, saying: "I will turn back thy captivity." For in the third degree this is said to Jerusalem. One, when He turns back my captivity, if I am found to be Jerusalem, and a sinner in the midst of my sisters. When I hear: "That thou mayest bear thy torment." Therefore, in the third place He says: "I will turn back thy captivity"; and after everything: "That thou mayest bear thy torment, and be ashamed of all that thou hast done." There is a certain measure of sin, which each one will receive for that which he has sinned. If I have fifty sins, I have fifty dishonors; if a hundred, my punishment will be doubled for my deeds, and according to the magnitude of the transgressions, dishonor will be meted out to me. To the greatest sins, a great torture is added. But God alone, the true Judge, can discern the magnitudes of sins, the qualities of dishonor, and the number of sins. ^D Therefore it is said to Jerusalem: "That thou mayest bear thy torment and be ashamed of all that thou hast done in provoking me." See here, on the contrary, God satisfying, and in a certain way through these words testifying that He Himself does not have wrath, but that the sinner provokes God to wrath against himself. Whence the Apostle also says: "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and patience and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to penance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath." This discourse separated irascibility from God. For truly, irascibility is something other than God, nor is it joined to Him as if it were innate. Whence it is also said concerning sinners: "Thou hast sent forth thy wrath, and it hath consumed them."

Homily X

tribes; and after a long time she is hardly cured. Thus also pleasure, which cuts the nerves of the soul, and luxury, and in a word all sins, although they have lured the wretched soul and drawn it to vices in a short time, they merit a great time afterward in punishments and torments. For which reason the Lord says this: "And I will do to thee as thou hast done, as thou hast despised these things by violating my testament, and I will be mindful." First, I will do to thee as thou hast done; then, I will be mindful of my testament which I made with thee in the days of thy infancy. For he made a testament in the days of her infancy. But we said above how he made a testament with her. "And I will raise up for thee a testament unto eternity. I kill, and I will make to live," he says. He, who while he promises these things, inflicts pains, and will again restore. He has struck, and his hands will heal. It is said in Micah: "I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned to him, until he himself justify my cause." How is my cause justified? When I shall have borne the wrath of the Lord, I who have despised the riches of his goodness and patience and long-suffering, and according to my hardness and impenitent heart have treasured up to myself wrath, "in the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God." ^C "Sodom thy sister, and her daughters shall be restored as they were from the beginning." I come to images and figures, and I see in how long a time the tortured Sodom is restored to her ancient state. But if that which was said by figure is so, what will become of him who has truly been Sodom? Immediately after the flood, in the tenth generation, Sodom suffered those things which are read in Genesis. For before, it was like the paradise of God, and like the land of Egypt; nevertheless, that which happened to Sodom is still clearly visible even now in the traces of its region. Behold how many circles of times have now passed: behold there are three thousand years, and Sodom is not yet restored; not that Sodom which is placed in a sign and in an enigma, but that which is perceived in the reason of truth. The Hebrews say that Sodom is to be restored to the same state in which it stood before, so that it may again be compared to the paradise of God and the land of Egypt. If this is so, and whether it is going to be or not—for such things are to be inquired into among those who are most learned—but that what is said may come to pass, three thousand years will be completed for me, and then Sodom, having been tortured for three thousand years, will be restored—that is, my soul: Sodom, the punishment for my sins. A great interval of time is placed between restoration and ruin. Even if thou be restored as thou wast of old, see how great evils thou exhaurest, by how great calamities thou art first oppressed. But this which we have said about Sodom, we ought also to understand about Samaria. And it also, indeed, is not yet restored, but from that time when the ten tribes were cast out from Judea and from Samaria, it has both sustained captivity and received a name, not having its inhabitants. But it too will be restored as it was in the beginning when the ten tribes shall have returned, so that that which is written may be solved: "The people was led captive into the Assyrians until this day." But if that which preceded in a sign will be restored after so long a time, when willest thou be restored, if indeed thou shalt be restored, O Samaritan and heretical soul, who hast believed in idols and not true feasts, and in figments coming from the heart of Jeroboam? When shalt thou be restored, O wretched soul, when its example is restored after so many ages? But if this is done over Sodom and Samaria, which have been justified by Jerusalem, what is to be said about Jerusalem itself which has justified the crimes of the aforementioned? "And you shall be restored as you were from the beginning. And thou and thy daughters shall be restored as you were in the beginning." It knows this which it says "As you were in the beginning"; and Isaiah saying: "And I will establish thy judges as before and thy counselors as at the beginning." ^D

But thou shalt be ashamed in that thou hast taken thy sisters the elder with the younger; and I will give them to thee for edification.

it might happen to me that my mouth is no longer free from the appearance of shame, and when it happens, in that which ^A you are propitiated. Nor, even when He is propitiated to me, a great sinner, can I open my mouth, nor when He forgives my wicked deeds am I free from shame; but, sensing my wicked deeds, I am perpetually tortured by the fire of my conscience. Therefore, because eternal shame and confusion are reserved for us if we have sinned, let us pray to God with all our heart that He may grant us, even to the end, the exertion of both soul and body to strive for the truth; so that, even if some time should arise that tests our faith (for just as gold is tested in the furnace, so our faith is examined in danger and persecutions), and even if persecution should erupt, it may find us prepared, lest our house fall in winter, lest a structure built as if on sand be dissipated by storms; so that when the winds of the devil have blown, that is, the evil spirits, our works may persist, which have persisted even until this day, if indeed they have not been secretly undermined, and so that in the readiness of our expedition we may manifest the charity that we have toward God in Christ Jesus, to whom is glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY XI.

Of that which is said: "Son of man, propose an enigma and tell a parable to the house of Israel, and you shall say: The eagle of great wings," etc.

1. The exercise of bodies, and strength in general, is compared to those who practice, and it makes each individual member and the senses of the members more vigorous for suffering something or for perceiving: for example, the keenness of the eyes, if it is exercised in vision, becomes sharper for seeing; the ears, if they hear more frequently, can better grasp the dissonances of voices. This, moreover, one may observe in the other members, which we show in a few words. But what does it profit me for blessedness and for eternal life if the body is strengthened by exercises? What is the gain to me, even if I should become very strong in body, even if I should walk with all my members vigorous? On the contrary, however, if I have had the senses of the soul exercised for perceiving something, and if I have spent days and nights learning, it is not only profitable to me in this life, but it will also follow me when I depart from the body. Therefore God has spoken in parables and in enigmas, so that our mind might be stretched, or rather, while gathering into one the sharpness of what is said, it might look upon it and, retreating from the vices of the body, while it understands the truth, might direct the course of its life according to it. We have said these things in the preamble, because the word of God came to Ezekiel, saying: "Son of man, tell a narration, and speak a parable to the house of Israel." For what the Septuagint ^B translators have placed as "narration," another of the interpreters translated as "propose a problem"; another, "bring forth a problem"; another "signify an enigma." Therefore, what has been read is both a problem and an enigma and a parable. If we ever required the illumination of the knowledge of God, now ^C we need it most of all, so that not so much I as, through the grace of God in me, those who are praying may expound the solution to the problem and the enigma, or parable.

2. What, then, is the parable of the eagle which the Holy Spirit shows at this time? Which is written down not only as "eagle," but also, by comparison with other eagles, as a "great eagle," and of "huge wings," and "long in extent," and "full of claws," or, as someone has interpreted it, "full of feathers." Not only is it greater than the other eagles in these things which we have said, but it is actually preeminent in this, that it has the impulse to enter into Lebanon. For entering there, it plucked the tender things and all the highest parts from the cedar tree which was situated in Lebanon, and brought them into the land of Canaan, into the city, whether of the merchants, or a city of trade, or of the translators, or certainly, as the Septuagint understood it, "the fortified"; and it placed this which it had taken from the cedar of Lebanon, so that it might be planted and grow in the land of Canaan. After this, the same eagle, from the seed of the land, from whence it had taken the tops of the cedar, received from outside a seed for itself, and planted it in a leafy field over much water. But this very thing, which had been taken from the land of Canaan by that which had plucked all the highest things of Lebanon—that is, what it had received the second time—became a vine, not strong, but weak, and indeed tiny in stature; and ^D the branches of this weak vine were inclined, because it had been taken from Lebanon and the cedar, so much so that it had its roots planted under its own trunk. And indeed it became a vine, and it made offshoots, and spread out its branches. And after this came another eagle, and it too was great, with great wings and abundant feathers or claws; and behold, this vine of which we have now spoken, upon the coming of the second eagle, turned its covenant toward it, spurning that covenant which it had previously made with the tree, in which it had been made a reclining vine, and having been made into offshoots, had spread its branches more widely, and it embraced the second eagle, and transferred its roots from the former to the latter. Then it sent out branches to the second eagle, that it might irrigate it with the soil of its planting in a good field and with much water. And indeed this very vine was irrigated, and transferred to the second eagle, so that it might make increments, that it might bear fruit, that it might become a great vine. Therefore it is commanded to the prophet to say that, because the vine transgressed the covenant it had made with the former eagle, and established it with the second, it may not be directed, nor may the roots of its tenderness flourish; but rather, because of its transgression, its fruits should rot, and all things that were emerging from it should dry up, and it should no longer have a great bough and many people; but it should be plucked up by the roots, and although it be irrigated, nevertheless it should not persist, and it should not be directed to fertility; and as soon as the burning wind hits it, it should dry up, and it should wither with the soil of its planting. This the proposition of the history itself demands, so that we may explain more clearly the things which were said more obscurely, by some added discourses.

^A And if there is such labor in understanding what is said, why is it necessary to speak of the obscurity of the question itself—what is the first eagle, what is the cedar, what is the top of the cedar, what is the second eagle, what is the transplanting of the vine from the former to the latter? If at any time we have stood in need of God’s help (and we always stand in need of the Holy Spirit for the understanding of the Scriptures), now is certainly the time for Him to grant us aid and unfold what He has said. Just as our Savior in the Gospels interprets certain parables Himself, so now the prophet, in the second prophecy which is read among the rest, signifies that the first eagle ^B is Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, who entered into Libanus, that is, Jerusalem; and he took of the topmost parts of the cedar, that is, the king of Jerusalem and its princes; and he brought them into the land of the Chaldeans, namely, to Babylon. For, taking the sons of Israel into captivity, he planted them, and from the royal seed and from the lineage of princes he established them in that same land. But after this, and after the royal lineage, another multitude also was captured by him, and it became a vine, not as robust as it had been when it was in the vineyard of God and in the holy land, where the sacrifices of God are celebrated, but it was a weak vine transplanted to Babylon. These things having been done, a war arose between Pharaoh ^C, king of Egypt, and Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon. Therefore, the people who, with their kings and the stock of the nobles, had been afflicted by the Assyrians, having found an opportunity by which they might cast off the yoke of Nabuchodonosor and be liberated from his empire, betook themselves to the second great eagle with long wings, that is, Pharaoh. Then, as the order of events proceeded, because God had delivered them not to Pharaoh but to Nabuchodonosor, and they, not bearing his judgment and imperial power, had shaken off the yoke of Nabuchodonosor from their necks and had crossed over to Pharaoh, the wrath of God fell upon them, and the result was the opposite of what they had thought. For it is necessary that he who is condemned by God should not flee His sentence, nor wish to change the will of the One judging, but most patiently endure it until God Himself, who condemned, sets him free. Therefore, because the people transferred themselves to Pharaoh, it is left ^D to the help of God, and they suffer worse things than they had endured before from Nabuchodonosor. We have stated the solution of the parable according to the letter, and that which is written: a harder, and more difficult to be understood, interpretation follows, according to the true Nabuchodonosor and the true Pharaoh, and those words which were predicted concerning the eagles. Therefore, before the interposition of the following reading, we have declared this exposition summarily and strictly, so that the present passage may be more easily understood, and nevertheless a fuller exposition may be kept in its own place, and the following parable may also be discussed most widely according to allegory.

5. But now...

5. But now we must take up the matter, and as it were prepare the way for the future interpretation by means of a certain armament regarding those things which are granted to us by the grace of God, knowing what we shall explain more fully in the following. And first, indeed, it must be seen why Nabuchodonosor and Pharaoh are called eagles. Perhaps someone who does not read the Scriptures idly and transiently asks: Nabuchodonosor is a great eagle with great wings, and this Pharaoh is another great eagle similarly having huge wings, and in the Law the eagle is placed among the unclean animals; why then does the righteous man, having become rich, prepare for himself the wings of an eagle, so that he may be able to turn toward the house of his prince? Why also is there a certain promise in Isaiah the prophet saying: *The just shall receive wings as eagles; they shall run and not labor, they shall walk and not faint*? For if the eagle is unclean, we ought not to receive wings like an eagle when we have become just; nor, when riches have grown for us, ought we to prepare for ourselves the wings of an eagle. To which it must first be answered that certain names of animals in the Scripture are placed in both kinds, that is, in both the bad and in the good: as, for example, the lion is accepted both in a good sense and in a bad sense. In a good sense, thus: *Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the germination, my son, thou hast gone up; resting, thou hast slept as a lion, and as a lion’s whelp; who shall raise him up?* But in the bad sense, thus: *Our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking to devour, whom it behooves us to resist firm in the faith.* But also the wicked man, wishing to supplant, lies in wait in secret, as a lion in his cave lies in wait to snatch the poor.

^A Since therefore the lion is spoken of both in a bad sense and in a good sense, it is not inconsistent that the eagle should also be taken in either sense. But I suspect that a just man is not an eagle, but "like" an eagle, for he is indeed emulating the eagle. And just as the brazen serpent was a type of the Savior—for it was not truly a serpent, but imitated a serpent, the Lord saying: *As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up*—in the same way, the just man is not so much an eagle as he is like an eagle, because it is useful for him to imitate the image of the eagle. According to this understanding, the just man has received a commandment in another place, that he should be *wise as serpents*, not that he should become a serpent, but that he might not be caught by the craftiness of the true serpent. But if the Word of God, carefully searching the Scriptures, and the Spirit of whom it is written: *The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God*, should come into anyone's soul, it will manifest most clearly from the Scriptures that both the eagle and the lion are placed in the category of living beings: that the cherubim of God have the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right of the four parts, and the face of a calf and the face of an eagle on the left of the four parts; and these which are seen in the cherubim, that is, the eagle and the lion, are clean. For there is nothing unclean in the chariot of God. And just as you, believing from among the Gentiles, have been made clean—*What God hath cleansed, do not thou call common*—it is said concerning all things that were shown to Peter hanging from heaven; thus the lion and the eagle which appeared in the cherubim have been cleansed. Nor is there anything else that is preached as about to happen at Christ's coming: He knows the clean lion, and the clean eagle, which is called unclean: *For the wolf and the lamb shall feed together*. For the wolf that feeds harmlessly with the sheep is no longer to be watched. It is not said to me of such a wolf: *Beware of them which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves*. ^C He spoke significantly, saying: *But inwardly they are ravening wolves*. For there are others who are not ravening when wolves and lambs feed together, and the calf, and the bull, and the lion will eat likewise. But when such a partnership of natures so diverse among themselves has been made in the faith of Christ, the lion will no longer be unclean, but will forget his ferocity, and all animals that are called unclean in the Law of God will receive the purity of their ancient condition. But this has already happened in part, and it will be fulfilled most fully in the second coming. The sacrament, therefore, which was shown in the cherubim, foretells the reality; and the faces of the lion and the eagle are so akin to the other faces that the thing which appeared in the cherubim seems to us greater than the calf, the bull, and the lion feeding together. For nothing of those things which were predicted is promised by Isaiah as being mutually coherent and connected. In the cherubim, however, every animal is akin to another: the face of the calf to the face of the lion, and the countenance of the man to the countenance of the eagle. Do not therefore wonder greatly when Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar who preceded him are called eagles; but the just man is said to take on wings ^D like an eagle, and in God's part he becomes rich, preparing his wings for flying.

4. But to return to the subject, something special is signified about Nebuchadnezzar, because of his greatness and his great wings, and his extremely long reach, so much so that he dared to say: *By my strength I will do it, and by my wisdom I will take away the boundaries of nations, and I will devour their power, and I will stir up the cities that are inhabited, and I will take the whole earth in my hand as a nest, and as eggs that are left will I take them up*. Behold, this is the extension of his wings. Nor does this suffice for him, but he is full of claws, and many feathers, and he has a pathway to enter into Lebanon, so that he might pluck its highest cedars. As long as those who dwelt in Lebanon did not sin—that is, as long as they were not found in wickedness while positioned in Jerusalem—this great eagle did not receive power to enter into Lebanon, nor did it take to itself the chosen ones, and the royal seed of the cedar, and the stock of the princes. For these are the things of his tenderness, which at one time were not of a hard heart: yet he snatched them, because they sinned against the Lord. This great eagle transplanted the tops of the whole tree into Canaan, because figuratively the land of the Babylonians is called the cursed Canaan, concerning whom Noah says: *Cursed be the boy Canaan, he shall be a servant unto his brethren*. Also in the city of the merchants, or the trading city, or the city of those who transfer, or certainly the walled city, he placed that which he had taken from the cedar, and he took for himself of the seed of the land, no longer of the higher ones alone, but even of the lesser, and from the people of the Jews, and he gave it into a leafy field, and set it to be looked after upon much water; and it sprouted, and it became a firm vine. Truly the people of God were weakened in Babylon, and therefore they could not sing the song of the Lord, saying: *How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?* In truth, it could not but be weak, having been planted in Babylon. In what way could it preserve its original strength, having begun to be a Babylonian vine? And because it had not produced fruit in the holy land, it was therefore transplanted by the eagle, and placed in the land of Canaan, and it became a weak and small-statured vine. As long as it was in the holy land, it was a huge vine; but when it was transplanted into the ends of sinners, it became both weak and small. And do you, therefore, O vine who listen to me, if you wish to be great, do not exit from the boundaries of the Church; remain in the holy land of Jerusalem. But if because of sins you fall into worse things, you will be transplanted into another land, and you will become a small vine, and your branches will fall away, and your roots will dry up, so much so that you will later desire to rest upon another eagle, as is now said, of great wings and many claws. It is good for the condemned one to remain in the sentence of condemnation as long as it pleases him who condemned. Let us not run willingly to Pharaoh. For if we run to him, we act against God who said: *I*