LI, 9. We have cured Babylon. A Babylon is termed Jerusalem in this passage, inasmuch as it imitated it, and differed in no respect from the lands of the Gentiles, in so far as concerns the perfect state of the soul and the will that does not honor the law, or the profitable instruction of the prophecy.
IN THE BOOK OF BARUCH
(From the same catena of Ghisleri on Jeremiah, vol. III, p. 235.)III, 5. Because you sit forever. B For created nature is always, and at any time, subject to corruption, and such things as are made have reached their measure in these things. But the Artificer and Creator, Wisdom, sits; that is, she possesses an unshaken permanence in the same state. And again: For our sitting in these things signifies the unshaken and established nature of existence, and the permanence of the Substance that is preeminent over all; but the expression, that we perish for the age, signifies that we are corruptible at all times, in that we were created: if indeed it is true that everything which comes into being, and has been brought from non-being into being, is entirely and altogether subject to corruption.
ON EZECHIEL
(Ang. Mai, Nova Bibliotheca Patrum, II, 467, Rome 1844, in-4.)I, 6. And four wings to one. C The intellectual and supernal powers always stand in some way, not stumbling toward shameful things, but because they rather traverse the straight and blameless path of the life befitting them.
VII, 16. And they shall be upon the mountains as doves. The blessed disciples; for they traveled throughout the whole world under heaven, preaching the mystery of Christ, and having it as a song and a lyre.
XIV, 14. And if these three men were in the midst of it, Noah, and Daniel, and Job. Since I am of the opinion that we ought not to pass over the words of the prophet without examination, come, let us say why, with Noah and Job, and perhaps even Daniel himself, now dead D
A nevertheless he says they would be saved on account of their righteousness, although the entire rest of the earth, against which the decree of death was being inflicted, was corrupt. He appears to compare to Noah those who, on account of their faith, had deserved well of God: to Daniel, the wise and contemplative: and finally to Job, those who, on account of their patience, were in every good thing pleasing to Him.
XVII, 22. And I will take from the elect part of the cedar, from the top. He compares the Israelites to lofty and most beautiful cedars, of whom the elect part, and in a way the heart, was the blessed David, from whom God the Father, taking [the shoot], planted Immanuel, who grew into a tall cedar and received all under his shadow: and soon the whole world recognized the power and authority of the omnipotent God. For He humbled the green wood, but commanded the dry wood (that is, the Church of the nations, which previously had been withered by the violence of the devil) B to spring up and germinate.
XX, 25. And I gave them statutes that were not good. As far as spiritual doctrine of divine things is concerned, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. But as far as the triviality of actions and a merely shadowy worship are concerned, the statutes were not good, nor were they about to grant eternal life. For no one, as it is written, is justified by the law.
XXXIV, 3. Behold, you eat the milk. For when the (Levites) were exacting legal tithes, first-fruits, and offerings for thanksgiving, and were luxuriously enjoying other gifts of the people, they nevertheless took no care for their salvation.
XXXIV, 18. Was it not enough for you that you have fed on the good pasture? Since the Levites were experts in the Law, and had obtained the best pasture as it were, and having clear and limpid water, namely the teaching of Moses, from which they could easily draw the truth, they were in a way trampling that pasture underfoot, C and were even muddying the water, setting before those who followed them like sheep, as if they were rams, a thick and muddy doctrine, full of earthy filth.
XXXIV, 23. And I will raise up for them one shepherd... my servant David. That the prophet says such things about Christ is not difficult to recognize: for the blessed Ezekiel was prophesying while the blessed David had long been dead and lying in his tomb. Moreover, God the Father was promising a future thing throughout time, not a thing already accomplished; for promises are made regarding future things, not past ones. D