A And I shall deliver Midian into your hand. In all things, the mysteries of the ancients are almost all prefigured by their deeds, just as we see happens here. For they who come to the water, that is to the grace of baptism, must not fall to the ground, nor bend their knees, nor yield to temptations that are to come, but stand firmly and constantly, just as the prophet said: "Strengthen the weak hands and the feeble knees; make straight the path for your feet." You came to the water of baptism; that is the beginning of the contest and the spiritual fight. From here, the beginning of the fight against the Devil is born for you. Therefore, if you are weak, if you can easily be bent, how will you fight? How will you stand against the wiles of the Devil? Therefore the Apostle cries out: "Stand fast, and do not be held again by the yoke of slavery." And he says elsewhere: "Stand in the Lord." And thirdly he says: "For then we live, if you stand in the Lord." That one, therefore, is probable; he is the elect, who, after reaching the waters of baptism, does not know how to be bent by earthly and bodily necessities, who does not indulge in vices, nor is he exhausted by the thirst of sin. But that which he says, about lapping water with the hand and with the tongue, does not seem to me to be written without the significance of a sacrament, namely that soldiers of Christ must work with hand and tongue, that is, in work and in word; for "he who teaches and does, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." And because he also posited the likeness of this animal in this place, it seems to me that this animal is named because the animal is said to keep love for its own master above all others, and is not carried [away] by affection for it either by time or by injuries. Only three hundred, who prefigured the image of this sacrament, these elect, these proven, these consecrated to victory, who from this number can obtain the adversaries. The three hundred, indeed, who multiply the hundred by three, and bear the number of the perfect Trinity, under which number the whole army of Christ is reckoned. In which we pr B ay that we also may merit to be inscribed. How, however, do they fight? They carry, he says, in their hands, jars and torches and trumpets of horn, and thus, he says, they come to those countless multitudes of the enemy, in which were camels as the sand of the sea. And when they had come to the battle, they sounded, he says, with the horns. And they lowered, he says, the jars from their hands, and they were broken. Then, indeed, with the torches snatched up, they rushed forward, and at the same time they made the trumpets resound. See that the elect soldiers of God fight with torches. For so Christ had armed them, saying: "Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning." And again: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." With such lamps kindled, therefore, it behooves the soldiers of Christ to fight, shining with the light of works, and the splendor of deeds. But what are the trumpets of horn, from which they play? For he speaks of heavenly things, who discourses of spiritual things, he who reveals the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, he speaks with the trumpet, he speaks of great and C maximum things, who spreads the knowledge of Christ to human ears. But why the trumpet of horn? Because it is said of the holy one: "His horn shall be exalted in glory." Whence every one's trumpet is called a horn, in that it designates the manifold knowledge of Christ, and of his cross, which [is contained] in the horn as in symbols. Since, therefore, we fighting with these, and fighting with these, overcome the aliens, and put the hosts to flight, even if their multitude should be as sand. For the multitude of demons is compared to a locust, for which there is a seat neither in heaven nor on earth. Therefore the light goes before us, and in this war, the science of virtue, the preaching of the divine word. Let us also fight with hymns and psalms and spiritual canticles, resounding and crying out to God, that we may merit to obtain victory in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and empire unto ages of ages. Amen.
RUTH
(89) And the name of the second was Ruth. Ruth bears the type of the Gentiles, who left her ancestral things, and was united to the Israelite state. But it must be sought how, the law forbidding a Moabite to enter into the Church of God, Ruth, being a Moabites, entered. And seeking this, use this: "The law is not laid down for the just, but for the unjust and the disobedient." D And the name of the second Ruth. She bears the figure of the Gentiles; who, having left behind her ancestral things, has been joined to the Israelite race. It must, however, be sought why, the law forbidding that a Moabite enter into the Church of God, Ruth the Moabite entered. Use these words in this inquiry: "Because the law is not provided for the just, but for the unjust and the disobedient."