Tractatus mysteriorum

Saint Hilary, Bishop, Treatise on the Mysteries. Book One. The manifold ∗∗∗∗∗ ∗∗∗∗∗ * ∗∗∗∗∗ let us understand those very things in the deeds. For those others, it is enough that they have fitted some appearance of empty likeness, since comparison is to be fulfilled entirely from what follows and is to be sought solidly from what is present. Moreover, every work that is contained in the sacred volumes announces the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which he was sent from the Father, born man from the Virgin through the Spirit, and proclaims it by words, expresses it by deeds, and confirms it by examples. For here, throughout the entire time of this established age, by true and absolute prefigurations in the patriarchs, he either generates, or washes, or sanctifies, or chooses, or separates, or redeems the Church: by the sleep of Adam, the flood of Noah, the blessing of Melchisedech, the justification of Abraham, the birth of Isaac, the servitude of Jacob. Finally, throughout the whole time, all prophecy, the working of the sacrament, was granted for the knowledge of the flesh to be assumed by him. And because it seemed good in this little book to show that everything in each and every man, time, and thing bears the image, as in a mirror, of his coming, preaching, passion, resurrection, and of our gathering together, I will not recall some things cursorily. But I will treat everything in its own times, beginning from Adam, from whom the knowledge of the human race is permitted, so that what was completed in the Lord may be known to have been prefigured from the beginning of the world in very many things.

Concerning Adam. Adam, by his very name, prefigures the birth of the Lord; for according to the Hebrew language, 'Adam', which in Greek is 'gepyrra', is in Latin 'flaming earth', and Scripture is accustomed to call the flesh of the human body 'earth'. This flesh, through the Spirit born in the Lord from the Virgin, changed into a new and alien form from itself, was made conformable to spiritual glory according to the Apostle: the second man from heaven and the heavenly Adam, because the earthly Adam is an image of the future one. Safely, therefore, with so great an author, we also take up the name of Adam not without some meditation on the future. It follows that, with Adam put to sleep, Eve is born from his side and bone. When he awakens, a prophecy of this kind also follows: This now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, this woman shall be called, because she was taken from her man, and the two shall be in one flesh. Here there is no labor for me; for the Apostle, when he had recalled this very prophecy, says:

This is a great mystery, but I say it is in Christ and in the Church. However, we read that only Adam's bone was taken; and how is it said, 'flesh of my flesh'? This matter can indeed be referred to the credibility of the events then present, because the bone, which from his side was turned into a female body by Him who can do all things, was clothed with flesh from God, because it was taken from flesh and, again clothed with flesh, came into being as a body, so that, as bone from bone, so also flesh is from flesh. But the Lord in the Gospels, when He was tempted by the Jews with the giving of a bill of divorce, shows that this was said through Himself rather than through Adam, saying: 'Have you not read that He who made from the beginning made male and female, as He said: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and they will be two in one flesh?' For this follows after what was said, 'flesh of my flesh'. Therefore, the prophecy followed the thing which was being accomplished in Adam. For when the Lord, who made male and female, said this, that from his bone is bone and from his flesh is flesh, He Himself spoke through Adam that which was entirely done in Adam, and He neither detracted from the credibility of the events nor showed that what was being carried out in another was prefigured from Himself.

For when the Word has become flesh and the Church is a member of Christ, which was born from his side and through water and vivified by blood, and again the flesh, in which the Word, remaining before the ages, which is the Son of God, was born, remains in us through the sacrament, he taught absolutely that in Adam and Eve his own form and that of the Church are contained, which, after the sleep of his death, he signifies is sanctified by the communion of his flesh. Likewise, the same speaks through the apostle: that Adam did not sin, but the sinning woman was the transgression. She will be saved, however, on account of the procreation of children, if they remain in faith. Therefore, the Church is from publicans and sinners and gentiles: with her second and heavenly Adam not sinning, she herself, a sinner through the generation of children remaining in faith, will be saved. Moreover, it is fitting to be understood that the woman is not redeemed from her sin by the Lord, and she will be baptized superfluously, if she is to be freed rather by the merit of childbirth. But not even through the generation of children herself will she be safe, since she is not saved unless those who are born have persisted as faithful. And I do not know how it is just that one is made guilty by another’s sin or innocent by another’s merit.

But when we compare spiritual things with spiritual things safely, we will understand that the apostle, in relating the deeds of the great mystery in Adam and Eve, is already referring to himself as proclaiming Christ and the Church. And indeed it is fitting for us to consider that these things were spoken by him spiritually, so that the discourse is no less to be referred to the present teaching and to the instruction of those whom he was admonishing. For, proclaiming the manifold mercy of God in that which is the first to the Corinthians, in sanctifying unbelievers through the marriages of the faithful, he also here taught that such sanctification is to be granted through the procreation of believing children, so that, just as the union of one faithful person would benefit an unbeliever through marriage, so the procreation of the faithful would assist unbelievers. We must also consider that in the sleep of Adam and the formation of Eve, the sacrament of the mystery hidden in Christ and in the Church is contained: for in it the faith and rationale of bodily resurrection are contained. For in the creation of the woman, mud is no longer taken, nor is earth shaped into a form, nor is inanimate matter stirred into a living soul by the inspiration of God, but flesh grows onto bone, and through

A portion of the body is given, and spiritual vigor follows the perfection of the body. God spoke this order of resurrection through Ezekiel, teaching in these things which were to be done the power of his own might. For there all things concur: the flesh is present, the spirit flies to it, nothing of his works perishes for God, to whom for the making of his own body those things which were not were present. But this sacrament, according to the apostle, has been hidden from the ages in God: that the Gentiles are co-heirs and co-corporeal and co-participants in his promise in Christ, who, according to the same apostle, is able to make the body of our humility conformable to the body of his glory. Therefore, after the sleep of his passion, with the celestial Adam rising, the church recognizes its own mouth, its own flesh no longer created from mud nor animated by breath, but growing to the bone and perfected into a body from a body with the spirit flying to it. For those who are in Christ will rise according to Christ, in whom the resurrection of all flesh has already been consummated, by his very self being born in our flesh with the power of God, in which he was begotten from the Father before the ages.

the Jew and the Greek, the barbarian and the Scythian, the slave and the free, the male and the female, are all one in Christ, since the flesh recognized is from the flesh, and the Church is the body of Christ, and the mystery which is in Adam and Eve is proclaimed in Christ and in the Church. Whatever is prepared for the Church by Christ at the consummation of the times is already perfect under Adam and Eve at the beginning of the world. ON CAIN AND ABEL. The first prefiguration of Christ and the Church is followed by the deeds of Cain and Abel, two peoples prefiguring in themselves a diversity, and by their very names and offices signifying the customs and pursuits of each. For Cain was a tiller of the soil, and Abel a shepherd of sheep. Each, from his own produce, offered a gift of mystery to God: but the gifts of Abel are looked upon, while those of Cain are not seen. Yet the day of sacrifice is undivided, and the place is the same, and God, who beholds all things—how is it that this is in his sight and that is outside his sight? But through this signification it is taught that the sight of God is of things that please.

be a sign, and, although all things are subject to him, yet his contemplation is approached only in those things which are worthy. But nothing had been said before about Cain’s character, so that his offering might displease. Yet in what followed, the providence of God is understood as not receiving the sacrifices of one who would rage against his brother. For the knowledge of the future with God is the faith of the deed; for he who was about to kill, as if he had already killed, is not worthy of God’s sight. In the cultivation of the earth, however, is contained the signification of carnal works, and every fruit of the flesh is in vices, which, as God abhors them, drive his sight away from themselves. Therefore, no regard is given to an offering which comes from the works of the earth. And only the firstfruits of sheep, that is, the internal fruits and the sacrifices of our own conscience, please in the fats, and those which, pleasing in the firstfruits of sheep, invite the sight of divine will upon themselves.

For Christ is the first fruits, the firstborn of creation, the firstborn from the dead, and also the chief of priests, so that he holds the primacy in all things; he himself is also the sheep, and according to bodily birth one of the sheep. Abel’s sacrifice is already acceptable under the sacrament of the Church, which was afterwards to offer the host from the first fruits of the sheep of the holy body. Therefore, the acceptable one, displeasing to the envious one, and contrary to God’s command, who warned him to be still, is killed by the unacceptable one. The guilty one is questioned for the penance of confession, but denies, to the increase of his crime; despairing of resurrection, he thinks himself dead, but groaning and trembling, he is reserved for the judgment of sevenfold vengeance and is cursed by the whole earth, which receives the blood of his brother. Now the interpretation of the name Cain is ‘laughter,’ but Abel is ‘weeping.’ Are not those things which are above fulfilled among the peoples? The offering of the younger is pleasing; the Jew envies the Christian, and, warned in vain by the prophets, he has blazed forth to his slaughter.

Since not even through the confession itself does he pursue penance, but, bold, he denies the crime committed against God. Despairing of the glory of resurrection and subjected to the power of the rulers of captured Jerusalem, groaning and trembling, he is reserved for the judgment of vengeance, distinguished by the very interpretations of names from the saints, the Lord saying: Woe to those who laugh, for they will weep! And: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted! And so that the Lord might teach that everything corresponds to the prefiguration of both peoples, he said: Therefore behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes, and from among them you will kill in the synagogues and persecute them from city to city, so that all the just blood that has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of the just Abel to the blood of Zacharias, son of Barrachihel, whom you killed between the temple and the altar, may come upon you. Thus the blood of Abel is demanded from him who, according to the prefiguration of Cain, has persecuted the just and has been cursed by the earth, which opened its mouth and received the blood of his brother. For in the body of Christ, in which both the apostles and the Church are, all the blood of everyone, their entire flesh and posterity, has been received, with them proclaiming: His blood upon us and upon our sons.

Therefore, the prefiguration of events accomplished in Cain has been followed by the faith of the outcomes, nor can those upon whom the punishment of the same guilt has fallen be separated from the pattern of the prefiguration. But also in what was said: "If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, have you not sinned?"—beyond the effect of the present matter, a species of the future is also contained; for God is pleased only by things that are common, shared, and friendly. Therefore, the people awaiting God's promises through the law, even if they offer rightly to God with observance of the precepts, nevertheless, unless they share this very law of God—which is a shadow of future things—with the congregation of the nations, they have sinned. Therefore, one who does not divide rightly will be held in crime. For Cain, envying his brother, had not shared with him the grace of the sacrifice seen by God, and he was established as a sinner because he did not divide rightly. By this example, unless those who are under the law divide the sacrifices of the faithful from among the Gentiles that are approved by God, even if they use the law rightly, they are in crime.

CONCERNING LAMECH. But not even in Lamech are things done without a figure of a future reality. He is reported to have been the husband of two wives, to whose names the name of a third woman, free from his marriage, is also added; and this same Lamech is recorded to have spoken these words. Now Lamech said to his wives Adah and Zillah: “Hear my voice, wives of Lamech, behold my words, for I have killed a man for a wound to me, and a young man for my bruise, because vengeance has been taken sevenfold for Cain, but for Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” And who is this man more righteous than that righteous Abel, whose death is now to be avenged by so much greater a punishment? The name of the slain man is kept silent; the wound is referred not to the slain man but to the slayer, and the bruise is taught to be that of the striker rather than of the stricken. The killing of the young man is announced to the wives; although the names of three women are contained, the speech is addressed only to two. The impious man prophesies, and he heaps up vengeance for the murder committed by him beyond the punishment of Cain.

These things are not to be heard cursorily, but the figuring of future realities is to be examined in them. Lamech has the appearance of the chief of the priests, who, with the Jews and the Gentiles agreeing with him, fastens the Lord to the cross; for from the court of the chief of the priests the same Lord was led to Herod, the people of believers having been separated from the communion of the crime, and therefore he boasts of the slaughter of the young man to two women, as if they were his associates and wives. And because there is no sense of punishment concerning him, he himself received both the wounds and the bruising of the injury and the slaughter. He also spoke by prophetic instinct; for even then the chief of the priests, not knowing, prophesied, as it is written in the Gospels: "But one of them, Caiaphas by name, since he was the high priest of that year, said to them: You know nothing and perceive nothing, because it is expedient for us that one man die for the people and not the whole nation perish." This, however, he did not say from himself, but since he was the high priest of that year, he prophesied. Therefore, all things concur with one another in persons, matters, effect, and the truth of the deeds embraces the appearance of future things.

The number also of the punishment in Cain and Lamech is recorded not without some signification. For since, according to the prophets, a sevenfold punishment is established against the unjust, Peter, upon whom the Lord was building the Church as upon a living foundation, asks whether he is to forgive seven times one sinning against him according to the law; to whom the Lord responded that he should forgive seventy times seven, teaching through this signification that the punishment of his own passion was to be remitted to those who would believe, inasmuch as, to the extent that his vengeance was multiplied, so again pardon would abound. Then Seth is born, and in the place of the slain Abel another seed is roused in him, Eve speaking thus: God has roused for me another seed for Abel, whom Cain killed. Now the interpretation of the name Seth is 'foundation of faith,' and since Abel was just and since Seth was begotten in the place of the just man, the generation of saints always preserved by God and renewed through successions is understood to sustain the Church, with faith founded in Peter for the faithful.

CONCERNING NOAH. That which was done with respect to Noah cannot be denied to be full both of the powers of God and of examples of future things. For however dull the intellect may be, or however averse the will from understanding the truth, yet those things are said and done there which draw forth the sense of truth even from the unwilling. And, so that the prophetic power may be understood in each individual effect of things, what is to be compared to what must be briefly set forth. For Noah, whom the Lord took up from the virgin, prefigures a man; and, so that this very thing may become known from the words of the scripture itself, what kind of prophecy of his father Lamech concerning him was, it must be known: and Lamech begot a son and called his name Noah, saying: this one will make us rest from our works and from the sorrows of our hands and from the earth, which the Lord God cursed. But these things, as I think, cannot perfectly apply to that Noah of whom the speech is. For what rest did he bring to the human race, or from what works did he cause them to desist? Indeed, under him the whole of mankind is destroyed, the flood is poured forth; the earth is restored to the sight of that man, and afterwards life is lived in even more grievous labors. And where will rest be restored through Noah? In him, however, who is to make rest, the power of making it is designated.

Moreover, it is not in keeping with human nature, nor is it read in Scripture, nor is it understood from the matter itself, that Noah did any of these things; rather, Scripture has most plainly set forth what was proper to Noah: that he is acceptable to God, that he is found to be just, that he is commanded to build an ark, that he enters into it, that he sends out a raven, that he both receives and sends out a dove, that he comes out of the ark, that he plants a vine, that he is made drunk and uncovered by its fruit, that he is mocked by Ham, that he is covered by Shem and Japheth, that he establishes a curse upon one and a blessing upon two, in order and manner. These things, as they were done by him, are to be understood. But a great mystery of the future is contained in these things, and we will treat each one in its proper place, when it is fitting to compare things and persons with one another. Therefore, this Noah will be compared to our Lord, who is the Word made flesh, and who says in the Gospels: "Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn that I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden is light.

Therefore he makes [the ark] come to rest, and grants rest to souls, and, on account of the impending judgment, he stores away in the ark of his teaching and his Church his sons, both those begotten and those named, and he bestows the Holy Spirit, and he dies, and is mocked, and rises again, and establishes for the human race the penalty or sanctification of deeds rightly or wrongly done. And in that passage, indeed, when Noah is commanded to enter or leave the ark, the rationale of the Church’s sanctification is to be observed. For it is written: “You will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and the wives of your sons”; and again: “The Lord God said to Noah: ‘Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and the wives of your sons.’” It joins together the sexes of those entering the ark, men with men, women with women, signifying that those who are to enter the Church ought to be continent. Afterwards, each one is to receive the union of his own marriage, when it has been sent out three times.

And the subsequent sending forth is not uncertain as to what it prefigures. For it returns with the fruitful leaves of the olive, no longer to be received by hand, but flying back. And this was fulfilled when, having received the Holy Spirit, the seventy disciples sent out to preach the gospel returned with the glory of the unclean spirits subjected to them, the fruit of God’s mercy, which is signified in the olive, the Holy Spirit bringing it back, and because after these departed from the Lord he would have no rest at all. Yet the dove flew back to Noah with fruit, signifying by this, in the second return and the demons subdued, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and that after the disciples departed from the Lord there was still no rest for him to abide. But the third sending forth and flight prefigures his dwelling, which is in the believer, with the Holy Spirit sent forth to remain eternally in the souls of the faithful.

Now concerning the fruit of the planted vine: the drunkenness is a figure of the Passion. For the Lord brought a vine from Egypt and planted it, and again: the vine of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel. For from the works of His transplanted and planted people arises the cause of the Passion. If perhaps someone should think that this drunkenness of Noah does not pertain to the figure of the Lord’s death, he will be refuted by what follows, although the cup drunk in the Gospels signifies the death of the Passion. Now there were three sons; the father’s nakedness is laughed at by one and covered again by two; but when the two have covered it with one mind, although the third is cursed, yet in the two there is a diverse blessing for one work. Under these three sons the whole of mankind is shown, that is, those living under the Law, those justified under Grace, and the Gentiles. Among these, the Gentiles mock the death of the Lord and the naked body of God, while in the two who cover the nakedness, the Law and Grace are contained.

That Japheth is placed in the dwellings of Shem shows the figure of the Gentiles, who have been led into the faith; Shem, however, bears the person of the Israelite people. . . . ON ABRAHAM. . . . Sarah also signifies the Church, Hagar the synagogue . . . But the seed called in Isaac shows that he is Christ; in him also a prefiguration of the Passion is set forth, when he is called by his father to be a sacrifice, when he takes up the wood of the sacrifice, when a ram attends for the consummation of the sacrifice. . . . In the letter of Abra, one number is added; in that which accrues to Sarah, one hundred are held, and the savior, having left the ninety-nine in the mountains, went to seek the one that had strayed. Therefore one number is added to the letter of Abra. For the Lord Jesus Christ is one, born of a virgin, and by that one all the sins of believers are cleansed. And what was to be fulfilled through him is prefigured in Abraham: he, by the addition of one, is called father of the nations; he himself, by the assumption of the one, is constituted father and redeemer of the nations, the hundredth sheep having been restored to Sarah, that is, to the primitive Church of heavenly Jerusalem. . . .

Just as the father of that household in the Gospel visited the barren fig tree three times, so holy mother Church marked for herself the Savior's advent by the annual recurrence of a secret period of three weeks. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what had perished. He came before the Law, because through natural understanding it became known what each one should do and what he should follow. He came under the Law, because through the examples of the patriarchs and the proclamations of the prophets he confirmed the legal decrees for the seed of Abraham. He came a third time after the Law through grace for the calling of the Gentiles, so that from the rising of the sun to its setting the children might learn to praise the name of the Lord, whom he does not cease to exhort to the worship of his majesty until the end of the world. ON ISAAC. Rebecca has a twofold figure of marriage and childbirth, and in marriage she bears the type of the Church: she waters the camels, that is, the Gentiles subject to Christ; she teaches the hearing of faith through earrings; she shows the bracelets of the hands, the ornaments of good work; when asked about marriage, she responds in the manner of those to be joined to Christ, so that she may come to the sight; she goes out from her father's house, showing that unless one renounces vices and lusts, he cannot be a servant of Christ; she signifies two nations, two peoples.

Concerning Jacob. * * * * * by the interpreter of Scripture concerning the property of this name. And Esau said to Jacob: give me to taste of this red stew, because I am fainting. For this reason his name was called Edom. Then he sold his birthright for food, saying: behold, I am dying, and what are these birthrights to me? Now among the ancients this was the dignity in birthrights, that the firstborn would obtain the inheritance of the paternal household, with the brothers who came after being subject to him. Therefore, since among the living the dignity of the firstborn depends on life, which Esau, under the prefiguration of the unbelieving people, was selling for carnal desires, he certainly does not despair of the present honor of the firstborn by saying: behold, I am dying, and what are these birthrights to me? — for before death that primacy, which is of men, was received — but because, bearing the form of the people in himself, the firstborn himself according to the law — for this people had been chosen first into the inheritance of God — fell from the hope of resurrection and the glory of God, and, occupied by bodily desires, he professed to have despaired of his own honor, which as firstborn he ought to have hoped for after death.

Esau, therefore, despairing of his firstborn rights, the rest is carried out both according to the truth of the deed and according to the power of the prefiguration. Isaac, then, since his eyes were dim, according to custom urges Esau to prepare food for him from the hunt and to be blessed by him before the time of his death. And when Rebecca learned of this, she urges Jacob to quickly prepare foods for his father from two goats and to put on Esau’s garment; his hands, because they are smooth, and his neck, with the skins of the goats bound to him, he should counterfeit. With these things done, he snatched away the blessing which had been prepared for Esau. Then he is blessed with these words: “Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a full field, which the Lord has blessed. And may the Lord give you the dew of heaven from above and from the abundance of the earth an abundance of grain and wine. And may the nations serve you, and princes adore you, and be lord of your brother, and the sons of your father will adore you; and he who curses you will be cursed, and he who blesses you will be blessed.

The deed is indeed carried out according to the present effect in Esau and Jacob, but the spiritual prefiguration maintains its own order. The elder had sold his birthrights through the desires of the body, despairing of the honor of future things for the sake of the luxury of present things, and the younger bought them against the loss of present things. Do not things to be done spiritually succeed those done corporeally? The unbelievers consider every good to be placed in pleasure, and the former people lost the honor of the resurrection through the desires of the flesh; but believers renounce present joys, placing all their hope in future things, and, restraining themselves in mind and body for its sake, they snatch away what was destined for the elder. Now Jacob is clothed in Esau's garment, which is accustomed to be mentioned as a garment of immortality even in the Gospel, where the younger brother and the same squanderer of the received patrimony received the first garment. And because he was to be transferred from sins into the luster of innocence, therefore Jacob is covered with the skins of goats, about to imitate the appearance of his brother in the deed itself. But because he was to have the dignity of the seized blessing from being a sinner, he assumes in the skins of dead animals the form of a sinner.

The very meaning of the blessing and the force of the words demonstrate that nothing there is to be understood according to the present events. For Jacob is blessed that he may abound in wine and grain from the dew of heaven and the fertility of the earth. Yet, on the contrary, he was endangered by famine and bought grain from Egypt. Nations are subjected to him in servitude; rather, he himself with all his family gave himself into the power of Pharaoh. He is said to be worshipped by princes, but he endured servitude of long duration under the dominating Laban. He is appointed lord over his brother; yet how did he worship his brother as a lord? Therefore, because Scripture does not risk falsehood, although these things are said concerning Jacob, they are nevertheless signified and enacted concerning the people whom he prefigured. For all these things are reserved for the faithful according to the prophetic and evangelical promises, who are destined to judge the world and the angels and to be admitted into the fellowship of the heavenly kingdom.

Finally, that very beginning of the blessing does not encompass present realities, but future and perfect ones. For it says: Behold, the scent of my son is like the scent of a field full [of fruit], when God blessed. Scent is foreknowledge of the spirit; a full field is the perfection of fruits. And "field," as the Gospels teach, is used to denote the world; but a blessed world is to be understood as signifying not that which will be dissolved and will not be, but that which is eternal and full of perfect fruits. Therefore, since the scent of Jacob is the same as that of a full field, and scent, according to the nature of things, is foreknowledge of the spirit—since what each thing is, is perceived by smelling—that he smells this, that is, foreknows by the spirit, signifies the blessing of the younger people of Isaac and the future eternal world in both of those, that is, both the world and the one who will use it, being eternal. And so that we might perceive the abundant mercy of God in prefiguring future effects under present realities, everything is so carefully

The mysteries are set forth and written in such a way that one and the same order of history runs together both into the actual event and into future hope. For Isaac, about to bless, is anxious for Jacob concerning Esau, lest he be deceived in any way; for Esau was saying that he was Jacob. Therefore blind Isaac said: Come to me and I will feel you, son, to see if you are my son Esau or not. And although he was that one, and Esau was clothed in the stole and had feigned his appearance by the assumption of skins, yet he was not touched by the blind man without suspicion. For he said, when he felt him: The voice indeed is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. Therefore through these things Isaac is taught an affection anxious for Esau. When the latter later returned from the field and from hunting and thrust himself upon his father as the firstborn, so that he might bless him, and when the preemption of the blessing was discovered, Isaac is not disturbed; rather, he persists in the confirmation of that very blessing, saying: If I have made him your lord and have made all his brothers servants to him, if I have confirmed him with grain and wine, what shall I do for you, son?

but rather, weeping and shedding tears, as he begged him to bless him, he spoke thus: "Behold, from the abundance of the land will be your dwelling, and from the dew of heaven from above, and you will live by your sword and serve your brother. But it will be when you have removed his yoke from your neck." Whence, then, is this change of will? And why does a man's feeling disagree with itself, unless because the language of Scripture is tempered both to the accomplishment of events and to the expectation of hope? The anxiety of the one asking arose from paternal affection; the alteration of the blessing he denied from spiritual knowledge. There he acted according to nature; here he maintained the order of prefiguration. There, as a father, he is anxious for the sanctification of the firstborn; here, in the blessing of the younger people, he persists with the spirit of a prophet. And the history speaks of the event that was done, and the hope prefigured does not abandon its own order. But even in that, the prophetic reasoning did not cease; indeed, the sinner and the earlier people could hope for the blessing of the younger people, if they believed.

For the way to salvation lies open to all, and the path of life is difficult not because of its own hardships—which are, of course, none—but by the right of our own free will. For the attainment of God’s mercy depends on the delay of human will, as is made known from this very fact, because it concerns Esau. For he had asked to be blessed, but his father, moved by a spiritual impulse, left him to the world, consigned him to the sword, and condemned him to the servitude of his brother. But lest these decrees be thought perpetual and without the possibility of repentance, he deferred the blessing that Esau sought to the time when he would have removed the yoke of his ruling brother from his own neck. Therefore, it is left to his own right to lay down the yoke, because for each person the right of his own will is free with regard to faith, and he is worthy of blessing when he has transferred himself from the servitude of irreligion into the freedom of faith. CONCERNING MOSES. The account of the deeds performed in Moses also maintained the order of the prefiguration already begun from Adam. And this is worthy of the mercy of God, that the deeds of all his patriarchs are, to some extent,

the completion of those things that were to be accomplished in our Lord. For those things that were fulfilled in that one and through that one are prefigured in some way through kinds and times and generations. For the imitation of so many ages could not attain what is of truth in that one, yet nothing was done in individuals or through individuals in such a way that those things that were subsequently accomplished either through him or in him did not speak almost in imitation of the present deeds. For Moses was born at the time when Pharaoh had ordered all male infants to be killed, and he was preserved for the people as a leader by floating on wood upon the water. Did not the hatred and fear of the king burn at the same time, at the time when our Lord was born according to man, against that same man for us, whom he assumed through the sacrament of wood and water in himself, and who was appointed for himself to heavenly glory and established as king of the nations? Then Pharaoh's daughter, when she was about to wash, took up Moses from the river. When his sister was present, she offered a nurse from among the Hebrews. Then she presented the mother; she took him up to be raised, and Pharaoh reported to his daughter, who received him and adopted him as a son.

Join the persons, compare the effects, consider the deeds, and you will find in the imitation of the present the truth of what follows. For under Moses' sister the law pursued Christ as far as the sacrament of wood and water. But in Pharaoh's daughter there is a form of the gentiles, which, although according to the historical truth she saw the little child, nevertheless by the very effect retained the power of prophecy. For the law of the church, like Pharaoh's daughter, displayed the synagogue as both nurse and mother of the infant, and thus the spiritual order was preserved in the events. For it was fitting that Christ be nourished according to the flesh by this law teaching him, and that he be adopted by that one. Moses, having become great, seeks out his brothers held in servitude. Then he strikes down the Egyptian who was dominating and inflicting injury on one of them, and afterwards he is accused by the very one whom he had avenged against the Egyptian. Was not Christ, when he was of full and perfect age, visiting his own people, who are his brothers according to the flesh? For he came to the lost sheep of the mode of Israel. Did he not strike down and conquer their dominating devil?

No one will plunder the vessels of a strong man unless he has first bound the strong man. Is she not accused by those very ones to whom she was restoring both vengeance against the devil and freedom from servitude? Thus the consummation of grace in God is attained by that which is an imitation in the bearer of the law. A bush burns in the sight of Moses yet is not consumed: that is, the church is set on fire by the flames of the sins of persecutions and temptations, the apostle saying: enduring distress, bearing poverty, but we are not abandoned. We are cast down, but we do not perish, always bearing the passions of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus Christ may be manifested in our body. Thus the fires of all iniquities rage against us but do not burn us. Then is placed the sign of faith: a rod changed into a serpent and the serpent changed back into a rod. But this change is for the confirmation of faith, not for the conversion of nature. And because in the rod there is the power of the kingdom and in the serpent there is the designation of the devil, we are admonished to believe in him who was thought to be Beelzebul from the God of the ages, then from Beelzebul, so called and thought, through

the change of the resurrection the God of the ages was recognized as what he was. The following sign fulfilled the faith of this matter by the appearance of imitation, both satisfying hope and the time. For when the hand that had been inserted took on the whiteness of snow, it signifies that we who rest in the paternal bosom—that is, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—are to be illuminated, our body’s nature being absorbed into the appearance of glory and honor. But when the hand that had been inserted is recalled again to what it had been, it teaches that what had been prefigured in the sign does not yet exist in time. And when, by a third sign, water taken from the river and poured onto the ground became blood, the rationale of the sacrament is mingled with these things, since those who are washed by water are to pass over into the knowledge of blood. It is great in these things that were done under the patriarchs that the outcome of events is so contained that nothing in those things that were later fulfilled in the Lord disagrees in place, time, or rationale. For in that

of the clay truth the imitation sent ahead follows and is compared as the image of that form whose rival it is. For the deeds themselves are indeed truth—since they were carried out according to bodily efficiencies—but that very truth of human actions was an imitation of divine operation, and this was done for the true instruction of our hope and faith, since nothing was found in the things of God that was not seen as if premeditated beforehand in the very ages, customs, and effects of men. For although in all the preceding discourse it has been shown that the deeds of Moses up to the departure of the people from Egypt agree with the deeds either in the Lord or through the Lord, yet even now a spiritual imitation is attached to the bodily truth. For in the desert the people thirsted, the water was bitter, there was murmuring against the leader, a piece of wood was shown, and by its dipping the water became sweet, and in this both justification and judgments and trial are determined.

And from there one comes to the twelve springs of water and the seventy palm trees, and one sits down by the waters. Although the efforts of those who resist and the error of the unbelieving may turn minds away and bar the sense of their understanding with the obstacle of disobedience, they will not, however, be able to ignore the power of so great a work. For what weight did the wood have in itself, or what efficacy did the inanimate material contain, that it could abolish bitterness, generate sweetness, and both introduce and remove a nature, while that which was harshly repulsive is perceived as sweet? And because in what was being carried out at the present moment there is the efficacy of the power of God, who transfers one nature from another, yet He is not to be thought to have needed the service of the wood, so as to bestow the change upon the waters only through its intervention. But because God could do all things, He works in the present the secret of His operation, reserved for the times. For the people dwelling in the desert, the water was unusable, and indeed we find peoples often called waters, when it is said: "The waters saw you, God, and feared," and again: "All waters, clap your hands.

Therefore, whether the waters themselves are bitter by their own nature, or the entire people remaining in the desert and not yet about to obtain the land of promise become bitter through murmuring, which arises from obstinacy, they are made sweet by the sacrament of the wood. And it not only departs from what it was, but is changed into something better and beyond necessary use; for it not only ceased to be bitter, but was rendered sweet. Thus the wood works both upon the present water and is beneficial to the peoples named under the name of water by the sacrament of its power. In this wood, according to the same Moses, the life of all hangs, when he says: “You will see your life hanging before your eyes night and day, and you will fear and will not believe in your life.” This wood is cast into the bread in Jeremiah, as follows: “They devised a plan concerning me, saying: ‘Come, let us cast wood into his bread.’” From this material comes the rod that conquers magicians, terrifies Pharaoh, crushes Egypt, divides the sea, drives back the ocean, draws forth a spring, removes bitterness, bestows sweetness; for by its sacrament the bitter are mollified.

the hearts of the unbelievers and from the bitterness of sinners and impiety are transferred into the sweetness of faith. And so that not all things might fail to accord with the effects of the hidden mystery in those things which were then being done, the scripture added, saying: "There he set forth ordinances and judgments, and there he tested him." When "there" is said, it is not a designation of place, but of the deed. For we do not find in that place any arrangements of ordinances, judgments, and trials existing. On the contrary, in the sacrament of the wood, on which the Lord hung, in which he fixed with himself all things that were opposed to the salvation of the human race, there is justification, because the just man is from faith; there are judgments, because he who does not believe is already judged; and there is a trial, because through the scandal of the cross there is salvation; for the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but the power of God for the salvation of believers. Therefore, since the reproach of the cross is a trial of faith, since unbelief is the cause of judgment, since faith is the reward of justification, the sacrament of the wood, which transfers water from bitterness into sweetness, rightly contains both justification, judgments, and trial. 37. And they came to Elim, and there were there twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. And they encamped there by the waters. Therefore, the spiritual arrangement is completed in the things that are being done; for from Marah, the place of bitterness, one comes to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.

after the knowledge of the sacrament of the wood—that is, of the apostolic and evangelical proclamation—a seat is sought for the seventy preachers, who cast a shadow for a time, and for the twelve apostles, who flow eternally. And because the seventy preachers of the gospel, though chosen, were later found to be unfaithful, even though they had brought back the fruit of faith from the unclean spirits subjected to them, while the apostles endured in the preaching of the faith, mention is made of the seventy trees and the twelve springs, yet according to the trustworthiness of scripture, rest is taken only at the seat of the waters. Now, in the flesh of the quails and the food of the manna, how great and how clear is the rationale of the spiritual reality! The people who had been led out of Egypt murmur against their leaders; they desire the flesh which they were accustomed to use in Egypt. At evening, a flock of quails, flying in, covers the camp; the people are fed on their flesh. In the morning, manna is found.

without distinction of age or sex, the same measure is decreed for each: one who gathers more does not abound, one who stores less does not lack. In those things that were beyond necessity, a worm boiled forth. And what was left of the manna left behind in the field, as the sun grew hot, decayed. On the sixth day, a double portion is stored and does not spoil; on the seventh day, manna is withheld, though some wait for it in vain. Finally, a gomor destined for each individual, stored in a golden vessel, is reserved for a future generation as a testimony. And this too is to be observed: that manna is given as a test; through its observance each one is to prove whether he is fit for the commandments of God. For it is written thus: The Lord said to Moses: Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you, and the people will go out and gather one day's portion each day, so that I may test them, whether they will enter into my law or not. Concerning the meats, it is said thus: In the evening you eat meat, and in the morning you are filled.

...the eating of bread in the evening pertains to the flesh, but its fulfillment in the morning is signified in the manna. Therefore, what pertains to the flesh is this: that the people, while remaining in the desert, are held back by the desire for custom; for they long for the fleshpots of Egypt. He takes it in the evening, being unfaithful to God and impatient of his promises until the end of the world, which is signified in the evening, by the desires of the world, which is frequently signified by Egypt. Finally, the people had this flesh only once, so that it might be taught that it was given not for necessary use, but for the significance of prefiguration. In the manna, however, there is a temptation; for through it the people are tempted whether they will be obedient to God, that is, whether they will be worthy to take the true bread from heaven, and the reason for this temptation is to be sought from what follows. It is found in the morning; for this is the time of the heavenly food in the resurrection of the Lord. The same measure is prescribed for every age and sex; contrary to human nature—for when is the same amount of food necessary for a child and a man?—but according to spiritual prefiguration it is most fitting that the heavenly food be imparted equally to all, with no distinction of parts in virtue—for we speak the sacrament to those who know—with no one abounding from the greater ones, nor...

...e in need of the smallest things, that is, equally for all from what was taken in separate portions, they were satisfied. But in those things which were gathered beyond measure and overflowed in the morning, which have both worm and rot, it is not ambiguous that those who have gathered beyond the heavenly gift and spiritual doctrine things that are not necessary, these things are both foul in sense, that is, corrupted from the truth, and seething with the vices of demons, that is, restless with worms, when the sun grows hot, that is, Christ, who is the sun of justice, returning to judgment, they will one day be dissolved from the liquid. But in the double sixth day, on account of the rest of the seventh, the preparation accumulated by the gathering of spiritual works in the manna is admonished, so that when rest is at hand, the prepared goods may be enjoyed. Finally, what remains from the sixth day is not corrupted, while what is beyond the measure of the other days becomes foul. Thus also for those things which are beyond the prescribed, there is a presumption of corruption. Therefore, in this time of our age we must work, so that we may be able to use it in rest. But the time of this sixth thousandth year is signified under the number of the sixth day, the prophet saying: "Because a thousand years in the sight of the Lord are as one day.

The people are therefore fed on the seventh day, that is, the Lord's rest, with foods prepared the day before, and they use what he had prepared, not about to find on the seventh day anything by which they might be fed, with many going out into the plain and finding nothing—the ages of the world being concluded, that is, they will find nothing else for the use of our rest than what has been prepared and stored by us beforehand. Then it is ordered that a gomor of manna be kept in a golden vessel for future generations, in the sight of the Lord. But where, finally, is this vessel, and where is the manna that was stored, after the frequent captivities of the people? After the twin destructions of the city and the temple, what was stored up does not survive. And what then? Do we therefore suppose that God was ignorant that manna could not be preserved for posterity? He is certainly not to be believed ignorant, since he foresees the future plans of men; but through the image of the golden vessel and the manna stored in the sight of God and preserved for future generations, he shows that the one who would preserve the manna, having received it in his own body as in a golden vessel, would be precious and eternal, with God beholding the uncontaminated custody of this spiritual food taken up by us.

BOOK TWO. ON HOSEA. And in the book of the prophets to Hosea another word of the Lord is read: Go, take for yourself a wife of fornication, because the earth will fornicate, fornicating away from the Lord. And after many things, which are in the middle full of curse against her, and after the birth of Israel and of Not-Beloved and of Not-My-People, these are recognized: But I will arrange for them on that day a covenant with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky and the serpents of the earth, and I will break the bow and the sword and war from the earth, and I will place you in hope (and I will betroth you to myself) to myself in eternity. I will betroth you to myself in justice and faith, and you will know the Lord. And it will be on that day, says the Lord: I will hear the heaven, and the heaven (will hear) the earth, and the earth will hear the grain and the wine and the oil, and these will hear Israel. And I will sow her for myself upon the earth, and I will love Not-Beloved, and I will say to Not-My-People: You are my people. And as far as I think, there is no place for hesitation, that we understand here a prefiguration of the church prefigured, since when the apostle judged that what was said above about the sons of this fornicatress to Hosea was to be referred to the people of the faithful, saying to the Corinthians: He called us not only from the Jews, but also from the nations, just as he says in Hosea: I will call him who is Not-My-People. My people and Not-Beloved Beloved. And it will be in the place wherever Not-My-People are called, there the sons of the living God will be called.

What therefore was carried out physically in the prophet—that is, the marriage and the generation—for from the fornicating wife three were born, of whom the first, by command of God, was named Israel, the next born was called Beloved, the third was named Not-My-People—that is both confirmed and carried out by God for spiritual understanding. For this fornicating woman, joined to the prophet as a wife, the Lord made his own bride in righteousness and faith, establishing a covenant with the beasts of the field, that is, with men savage by the law of the world, and with the birds of the air, namely those living under the emptiness and vanity of this world, and with the serpents of the earth, that is, those constituted in a poisonous and deceiving mind within the body—an arrow against the serpents, a javelin against the birds, war to crush against the beasts, subduing into peace the diverse impulses of the human mind, named from the kinds of weapons and living creatures: the wars of beasts, the darts of flying things, the poisons of serpents.

He who hears from heaven, and heaven from earth, signifies in the one who hears and the one who is heard a diversity in number, yet demonstrates that the very act of hearing and being heard is the same, when heaven hears from heaven and earth from earth, the signification being of divinity in heaven and of corporeality in earth. And because the Lord was born man from God, and we are from man, destined to be conformed to God, therefore heaven will hear from heaven, and earth from earth. But in the grain, the wine, and the oil, which he will hear—since, of course, these insensible things have no sense of hearing—yet under the sacrament of anointing and of the body, he shows that it is he who will be the hearer in these things. Through which, while Israel was hearing, he sowed the fornicating woman betrothed to him in hope, passing over the one who was named Israel, imparting the honor of change to the others, so that one who was not his people became his people, and one who was not beloved became Beloved.

For Israel, indeed, was chosen from among the Gentiles in its father Abraham, as it is said in the Psalms: the house of Jacob from a barbarous people. But lingering in sins and devoted to vain religions, and unfaithful to the promises of God, it did not merit to grasp what was promised, and being first chosen as the people of God, it lost the honor of its election. For silence is kept concerning Israel first born from a harlot, and all the discourse of God is about those later born, who were previously rejected and removed from affection and ownership, born not to be loved, begotten not to be used. But first the harlot is chosen as a bride for God, for faith and righteousness; then those who were not loved, who were not his own, who are from the harlot’s offspring, are called the living sons of God. And this discourse of God, by which the prophet is ordered to take a harlot as a wife, had to be recalled for this reason: because we are taught that all things are prefigured through the deeds of the Old Testament and are to be carried out in the Lord and through the Lord, by this very fact—that the prophet is joined to a harlot—we would understand that Gentile ignorance is shown to be coupled with prophetic teachings, from which those born from the unloved become loved, from the non-people become a people, from a harlot mother are called sons of God.

ON JOSHUA. And although it was indeed useful to have treated this for the purpose of understanding the significance of spiritual deeds, yet this passage has been recalled by us especially for this reason: because we were about to speak of Rahab, through whom we would show the Church to be prefigured, we might safely set forth this comparison of the Church and the harlot according to the understanding of our own mind, since when the prophet's harlot was joined to the prefiguration of the Church, she was found to be betrothed to the eternal hope of righteousness, faith, and knowledge of God. And in this, indeed, that all things were done under Joshua in her, there is the greatest power of prophecy. For in Joshua, who was named so, the absolute rationale of the future sacrament was shown. For after God's long discourse to Moses, when it was said to him that he should make everything on earth according to the form which he had seen on the mountain, he named Joshua, who was previously called Hosea, as the future leader for the people going to the Promised Land. At the form of the heavenly vision, Moses was ordered to arrange everything, and he added to the future leader that name which had already been prepared for the eternal leader in the heavens.

For just as here the prince of the synagogue, so he of the church. As here the leader for obtaining the promised land, so he the leader of the land to be inherited, concerning which the Lord says: Blessed are the meek, for they themselves will inherit the land. As here after Moses, so he after the law. As for this one a repeated circumcision with a stone knife was commanded, so by the Lord, who is both the Word, sharp, penetrating to the division of the soul, and the cornerstone, the circumcision of the heart was spiritually renewed. As here dividing the waters, so he dividing the peoples; for he says: I have not come to bring peace, but division. As here he brought up twelve stones from the deep into the land as an eternal testimony and placed them from the land into the deep, so he brought forth apostolic doctrine from the synagogue and left it in the synagogue, even now, if she wished, to use it, since for an eternal testimony in twelve stones the apostolic doctrine had been brought forth from the law and yet was found in the law.

The division itself of the waters, how evident and how absolute it is, when the whole and full part stood still, the other, with its channel dried up, flowed entirely into the sea; yet the middle area of the Lord was established with the priests! By which signification it is understood that a part of the people, at the arrival of the ark of God—that is, at the bodily advent—would be abandoned from the course of their sins and their death, while the rest flow into the sea, that is, into the condemnation and fellowship of this world. Under this Joshua, therefore, what was done by and with Rahab is to be considered. For two spies, to reconnoiter the land, turned aside into the city of Jericho, to the house of this harlot. She receives and conceals them; when the king demands their surrender from her, she lies that they have returned. Then, with them hidden in the house, she says that she knows that their God has delivered all the city to them, and that their God is above in heaven and below on earth. She prays that she and her whole household be preserved at the time the city is taken. The spies promise that whatever is found within her house will remain unharmed, but that anyone who goes out of the house will be guilty; and that the sign is a scarlet

They set up a scarlet cord hanging from the window and report the whole matter to Joshua. Then the city is approached. The priests, with the ark of the Lord, go around it for six days; but on the seventh day, when they had gone around it seven times, at the sound of the trumpet the walls of the city fell, and with all who were in the city slain, only Rahab is preserved by Joshua with her entire household. This order of events is connected with the great sacraments of things to be accomplished spiritually. The two spies sent by Joshua were received into the house of the harlot: the law and prophecy, sent to explore the faith of men, were received by the sinful Church, through which God is confessed both in heaven above and on earth below. After her spiritual generation, she learned that his birth was attested in the flesh; for in these things: after this he was seen on earth and dwelt among men. From these same men she also received the sign of salvation in the scarlet, a color royal by its dignity and bloody by its incarnation, both of which are fitting in the passion, when the Lord was clothed in such a garment and blood flowed from his side.

this scarlet thread, and Manasses received it as a sign; by this blood, the houses marked in Egypt are safe, and the book of the covenant is sprinkled, and the people are sanctified. But whoever of the family was found outside the house is held liable for himself, teaching that those who were outside the church would be the cause of their own death. Now Jericho, placed as a type of this world, is circled for six days; on the seventh, at the sound of the trumpet, it falls, and the house of Rahab is preserved intact through Joshua. For the time of six thousand years is shown in the six days, during which the world has been wandered around and traversed in a certain circle of generations, the world itself being dissolved at the sound of the trumpet in the seventh thousandth year, only the church, through the reception of the spies, through the confession of God in the body, through the sign of scarlet decreed by Joshua, is to be preserved with her entire family.

We have frequently advised that the diligence which ought to be applied to the reading of the divine Scriptures is that which, with careful examination and not empty judgment, can discern when the commemoration of events is to be understood simply or typically, lest by intemperately and unskillfully abusing both, we render both useless to hearers—if either the knowledge of simple things is corrupted by a vain assertion of prefigurations, or the power of prefigurations is ignored under the opinion of simple things—although the language of the divine Scriptures is such that nothing there is found to be empty, nothing outside the cause of some necessity, nothing published without the distinction of an understanding to be pursued by us. For while the creation of the world is related, God is known in creating; while Enoch is heard to have been translated, man is understood to be capable of being made eternal; while Lot is preserved when five cities are burned, we learn that God has care for the innocent; while his wife, looking back contrary to God's command, is changed into a pillar of salt, we are instructed by the fear of example toward obedience to God's ordinances; while the sins of the Amorites are awaited to be fulfilled, we recognize both the mercy and the justice of God—since by the expectation of his ceasing, time is prolonged for us to desist from sins, and in the consummation of crimes, delayed vengeance is decreed.

Now the order of generations, the election of Abraham, the begetting of the patriarchs, the servitude of the people, the plagues of the Egyptians, the division of the sea, the raining down of manna, the establishment of the law, the distinction of sacrifices, the time of the judges, the knowledge of the kingdoms, the migration of the people into captivity, the vision of the saints, the admonition of the prophets—how necessary it is for understanding! For in all the things mentioned above, God the Father and God the Son, and from God the Father, God the Son, God and man Jesus Christ, is recognized: while in the creation of the world God commands and God accomplishes, while man is formed to the likeness of a common image, while the Lord from the Lord rains down sulphur and fire—for no one would command himself to do something, nor would he alone extend his communion to another, nor would one give to himself and receive from himself—, while man is seen by Abraham and God is adored, while in Jacob’s wrestling God is seen by man, while holding a man he asks to be blessed by the Lord, while by Nebuchadnezzar, when only three youths are cast into the furnace, a fourth is seen like the Son of God, while a virgin gives birth to Emmanuel, who is God with us.

Therefore, it is fitting that all these things, signified by all and known and fulfilled in that one, be preserved in memory through writings and sealed volumes, so that posterity of successions, instructed by the deeds of an earlier time, might contemplate the present also in the past and venerate the past now as well in the present. For indeed, the same is the perfect knowledge of truth, if truth is understood through reason—for all things are written for our understanding and for the most firm faith of our judgment—nor did these things, which were brought into books by the decree of God, require the knowledge of posterity. But posterity needed the knowledge of the scriptures, so that it might learn the truth, so that it might receive the teaching of truth through reason, so that it might follow the knowledge of life as if advanced from the very cradle, that is, it would not doubt God from God, when the Lord rained from the Lord; it would not be ignorant of the one unbegotten God, when God commanded; it would not be unaware of the only-begotten God, when God acted; it would not doubt that the two are one, when the example of a common image was established in man; it would not deny that God into man ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ . ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗

∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ born of the fathers. And it is easy to hear Paul boasting that he is an Israelite from the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin. Therefore, since it is the office of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers toward the sons, the mystery of perfect preaching is reserved for him, so that he may convert the fathers to that faith which the prophecy of the same spirit has already confirmed in the sons.