In Librum Primum Regum Variarum Expositionum Libri Sex

Paul also explains what this signifies spiritually, saying: Each one has his own gift from God, one indeed in this way, another in that (1 Cor. 7:7). Hence the Truth says: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they give into your bosom (Luke 6:38). Holy Scripture has commanded us to keep this measure for ourselves, saying: Do not lift a burden above you. But the chosen soul must take great care that it offer these three things to almighty God with the ardor of pious devotion and with the zeal of manifest truth. Hence also the son of this same Anna is said to have been offered to the priest. This indeed we also do, if when we make progress in holy conduct, when with now fruitful minds we bring forth the fruit of spiritual joys, we bring everything that is generated in us from heavenly contemplation to the examination of our prelates. And because chosen men among sublime gifts do not abandon the good of their humility, it follows: (Verse 28.) And they adored the Lord there.

18. In the house of the Lord they adore the Lord, who both raise themselves with a lofty mind to the contemplation of the heavenly fatherland, and yet through humility are placed beneath almighty God, and with their whole heart are lifted up so sublimely in the power of the Spirit. These things we have touched upon not in order, but summarily, by expounding them according to the historical or allegorical understanding, so that we may set forth a little more fully the words of the spiritual song that follows, according to the moral and typical explanation.

CHAPTER III

(2 Kings 2:1.) And Anna prayed, and said: My heart has exulted in the Lord.

We have already shown that in the person of Anna lies hidden the type of holy Church. She, surely, now that the child is born, declares that she exults in the Lord, because she did not swell with vainglory over the fact that she drew the gentile people to faith in the Redeemer, but kept the intent of her joy in him from whom she received the gifts of her fruitfulness. For in these words she so indicates the seat of her joy as at the same time to show the cause of that same exultation. The barren woman wept, the woman giving birth exulted, so as to foreshadow the ways of holy Church, who grieves that she has been cast down from the joys of paradise into this valley of tears, but patiently endures the hardships of her exile for the gaining of souls. She has been accustomed to exult only in this: if in the distress of the time in which she is pressed, through the glory of her fruitfulness, with the elect multiplied, the losses of the heavenly fatherland are repaired. She says therefore: My heart has exulted in the Lord, because she has attained the fruit of her purpose.

In this passage it must be noted what she is said to have prayed, who is reported to speak this boastfully. For it was said before: And Anna prayed, and said: My heart has exulted in the Lord. But since she is known to ask nothing of God by entreating, why is she reported to have prayed? But because the holy woman knew through the spirit of prophecy that this would come to pass, and she vehemently desires that it be done, she both speaks with exultation and prays. She was exulting, indeed, in the certainty of future things, vehemently longing that what she knew by the revelation of the mystery be fulfilled. The holy Church also, by loving and venerating, recalls, proclaims, and prays for divine benefits, because surely she carries out outwardly by speaking what she desires inwardly with wondrous longing to be done, and venerates with great devotion what has been done. She says therefore: My heart has exulted in the Lord, because she does not turn the gifts which she receives for the fruit of eternal joy into temporal gladness. It follows: (Verse 1.) And my horn has been exalted in my God.

What is the horn of Anna but the power of holy Church? And that horn truly lifted itself up wondrously when the Son of God, through the humanity he assumed, made himself a partaker of our nature. In that horn, therefore, of holy Church it was exalted, in that human nature now shines lifted up above the angels. But in this, that holy Church asserts this her God and Savior singularly, she secretly shows the rejection of the Synagogue. In our God and Savior, therefore, our horn is exalted, because the sublimity of ecclesiastical power has been raised up for us in his humanity. Whence also concerning the same Redeemer it is said through Zechariah: He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets, because he reports that his horn was exalted, he secretly indicates that before he had a horn that was not exalted. For holy Church before the Redeemer's advent had a horn, because in the patriarchs and prophets she received from God both the order of living rightly and the power of correcting those who do wrong. But yet she did not have an exalted horn, because although she could live justly, yet without the Redeemer's presence she could not return to the joys of Paradise.

But now the horn of holy Church has been exalted, we who already receive the Redeemer of the world as he comes, through whose grace we are able not only to live rightly but even to pass over to the joys of paradise, because he has already risen for us after death, in whose death death died and paradise opened itself to his faithful. Our horn has therefore been exalted in our God, because, with the grace of the Holy Spirit now poured out upon the multitude of the elect, we see the image of the Redeemer impressed upon them, while those who despise all earthly things, flee the pleasures of the flesh, and abandon their own possessions shine with so much the higher power as holy Church did not have these so great marks of virtue in the multitude of the ancients. Our horn has been exalted in God our Savior, because to as many of us as received him, he gave power to become sons of God (John 1:12). Our Savior wished to exalt this horn when he said: Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). Hence again, asserting it, he says: Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven (Matthew 16:19). Hence again he promises, saying: You shall sit upon seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Ibid., 19:28). Let Anna therefore say: My horn has been exalted in my God, so that indeed the glory of holy Church may be designated, which obtains the singular summit of power from the presence of the Redeemer.

And because she is now spread throughout the whole world, who once was pressed by persecutions within Judea only, it follows: (Verse 1.) My mouth is enlarged over my enemies.

For who else are to be understood as the enemies of the Church but the Jews? Over these indeed she has her mouth enlarged, because against their faithlessness she now moves the tongues of all the faithful of every nation. The mouth of holy Church, then, is enlarged, because she is spread through the whole world, and while she instructs all nations by the preaching of the truth, she reproves the folly of the Jews, as it were with an enlarged mouth. And because she was able to do this from the fact that she joyfully received the Redeemer of the world as he came in the flesh, she sets forth the reason for her enlarged mouth, saying: (Verse 1.) Because I have rejoiced in your salvation.

Now we have already learned who is the salvation of God. Of whom also Isaiah, prophesying, says: All flesh shall see the salvation of God; all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God (Isa. 52:10; Ps. 98:3). For Jesus is called in our speech Salvation. Of whom also Habakkuk promises himself joy, saying: I will rejoice in God my Jesus (Hab. 3:18). Behold, by the words of the ancient Jews the Lord Jesus is asserted to be God. But now the Jews await a Savior, whom they by no means believe to be God.

But perhaps the Jews strive to reject this with their own mouth, and while they interpret Jesus as Savior, they understand "God the Savior" not as the person of the Only-begotten, but of the Father; yet in the same place it is added something by which the person of the Only-begotten is shown more openly: "O Lord God," she says, "my strength, set my feet in perfection, and set me upon the high places, that I may conquer in His brightness" (Ibid. 19). Behold, she speaks to God, saying: "Set me upon the high places." But because she says, "I shall conquer in His brightness," it is certainly another of whom she speaks. Who, then, is He of whom she speaks, if not the Only-begotten Son of God, whom she believes to be not only true man but also God? Therefore, when she speaks to God, saying, "I shall rejoice in God my Jesus, and I shall conquer in His brightness," she shows not another God, but another person who is God. These are the reasonings of the holy Church, these are the invincible assertions spread throughout the whole world against the perfidy of the Jews. Therefore the holy Church has her mouth enlarged over her enemies, because now, with God as author, she is known everywhere, and from this the perfidy of the Jews is also convicted. So let those who deny the Salvation of God hear the cause of the enlarged mouth, and let them be struck by the argument of our joy in the Savior with their own confusion. But they can be struck, yet they refuse to cease from their blasphemies. Now the world has received the Salvation of God, all flesh has seen it, the Jew does not believe, because, as I said, he awaits a Savior who is not God.

Let them therefore hear the curse of the prophet, saying: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and whose heart departs from the Lord (Jeremiah 17:5). The Jews trust in man, who refuse to believe in the Redeemer, while they await Antichrist at the end of the world. To their confusion the Psalmist proclaims, saying: All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of God (Psalm 97:3). As if he confounds the faithlessness of the Jews, saying: Why do you put off visions for the future? He whom you await has already come; he who was promised to you has already appeared to all the ends of the earth; when you closed your eyes, he passed by; indeed, you have become so blind that such great light stood before you, and you did not see it. Therefore, shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth; sing, and exult and make melody; make melody to our God on the harp, and with the voice of a psalm, on trumpets of beaten metal, and with the voice of the horn; shout for joy in the sight of the Lord the King; let the sea be moved and its fullness, the world and all who dwell in it. The rivers shall clap their hands together, the mountains shall exult before the face of the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth (Ibid. 97:4 ff.). As if he were saying: Because they are weighed down by such immense blindness that they have not deserved to see at all, rejoice more abundantly, you who have seen. But how wonderfully and ineffably one must rejoice, heaping up the signs of joy, he says: Shout for joy, sing, and make melody.

Desiring to set forth the renown of that same festival, enumerating its instruments, he says: Sing to the Lord on the harp, and on the harp, and with the voice of a psalm, on the trumpets of beaten metal and with the voice of the horn, rejoice before the king, the Lord. What is "before the king" but in the knowledge of the Redeemer? But he explains by how many this solemnity of joys is to be celebrated, saying: Let the sea be moved, and its fullness, the circle of the earth, and all who dwell in it. Unhappy Judaea, the ends of the earth have seen the Salvation of God; the whole earth, being moved, rejoices, the entire world is glad, the rivers clap with their hands, the mountains exult; but the impious hearts of the Jews do not believe, and in the darkness of their blindness they are struck with the punishment of envy. But him whom they do not fear to blaspheme, holy Church commends more attentively, saying: There is none holy as the Lord is.

In the description of the Redeemer all things are designated as incomparable. For by this the true Redeemer is shown, that in everything which is said of his glory no one is compared to him. For he redeemed all who excels all. This is rightly said against Judaea, which despises the Redeemer all the more boldly because it recalls that it had many men who shone with great praise of holiness. Hence it is that, when the blind man had been enlightened, they say in reproach: Be thou his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses; but this man, we do not know whence he is.

Hence they also boast, and say: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been servants to anyone. But Moses was a man, Abraham was a man, Christ was a man. Yet the former were taken up for the speaking of God, but this one was taken up into divinity. The former were taken up for ministry, but this one was taken up as the only-begotten into kingship. Whence he also speaks, saying: All things that the Father has are mine. There is none holy as the Lord is. Sacred Scripture also testifies to this, saying: In whom all the fullness of divinity dwells bodily. Hence John says: Of his fullness we have all received. There is none holy as the Lord is. For in that he is declared to be Lord, the excellence of his holiness is commended. But the Jews assert that the Christ whom they await is a mere man, and yet they believe that he will be their Lord and uniquely holy. But the Psalmist, reproving them, urges us to the joy of faith, saying: Shout with joy to God, all the earth, serve the Lord in gladness. Enter into his sight with exultation, know that the Lord himself is God. They call Lord one who is not God. Therefore we must shout with joy, we must serve in gladness, who have such a Lord, because he is also truly believed to be God, who proved the majesty of divinity, which he asserted to be in himself, by incomparably greater miracles. Therefore let those who deny his invisible divinity believe by his manifest works.

But how wonderful is that holiness which sanctifies sinners? Hence also concerning the sinful woman he says: Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much (Luke 7:47). Knowing this excellence of holiness, she who was afflicted with the flow of blood said: If I touch but the fringe of his garment, I shall be saved (Matt. 9:21). But who would assert her faith, if the effect of faith did not appear? For as soon as she touched his garment, the blood stopped. He is not therefore holy as the Lord is holy, because whoever was able to be holy received it by his gift that he could be holy. For the holy Church, intimating this by the following word, turns to the same Redeemer out of exceeding love, saying: (Verse 2.) For there is no other besides you.

There is understood, holy. There would be some holy one besides him, if anyone could have the spirit of sanctification without the gift of the Only-begotten. But who would dare to assert this concerning men, which is by no means established concerning the angels? For it is written: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the spirit of his mouth (Ps. 32:6). The Word of the Lord is the Only-begotten of God. The evangelist John, certainly intimating him, says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). If therefore even the angels are believed to be sanctified in the Son, much more is it believed concerning men, who cannot find the grace of sanctification outside him.

This can also be understood without any implied qualification. When he says, then, "Nor is there any other besides you," what else is signified in the Redeemer than the immutability of the divine essence? Hence he also says to the blaspheming Jews: "Before Abraham was made, I am" (John 8:58). Intimating the very same thing to Moses in Genesis, he says: "I am who am" (Exod. 3:14). For to the only-begotten God, to be is never to be in a different way. And this state is as far removed from all mortal beings as it is more clearly known that they are changed at every moment in many ways. This can also pertain to the state of righteousness, because for the elect to be is to remain in God through righteousness. And because the only-begotten of God is God, there is no one besides him, because none of the elect is except in him. But if this is referred to his divinity in such a way as by no means to empty out the understanding of his humanity—since he cannot be righteous who does not have faith in the divine Incarnation—then the Jews are struck by these individual words, who, while they despise the Redeemer, await the Antichrist, who is clearly proved not to be God. Hence it is also said through blessed Job: "Let his companions dwell in his tabernacle who is not" (Job 18:15). The tabernacle of the Antichrist is the love of faithlessness, by which he contradicts the faith of the Redeemer. In this tabernacle the Jews now remain, because while they lovingly inhabit the place of their faithlessness, they fight against the Redeemer.

Those also are said to be companions of him who is not, because they aid the devil by their own purpose—he who, when he fell from love of that highest essence, straightway lost true being. For to him, surely, not to be is to be unable to return to that supreme blessed essence through participation in love. And because the people of the Jews had, not only the arduous conduct of the ancient fathers, but also the display of miracles, as an increase of their elation, it is added: (Verse 2.) And there is no strong one like our God.

As if he would restrain Judea glorying vainly, saying: Those whom you assert to have been magnified were mere men; he whom I proclaim was not only a holy man, but also a mighty God. When strength, then, is regarded, excellence is indicated, because surely every strength of man is altogether weak in comparison with the Godhead. Yet in this place the assertion of divinity does not prove the excellence of the work, but the incomparability of strength shows the truth of divinity. As if he should say: In this is he known who brought forth true things, because the divinity which he asserted in himself he proved by incomparable works. Hence he says through himself: If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they would not have sin (John 15:24). Now indeed those works themselves are to be discussed. Moses divided the sea (Exod. 14), Elijah the river (2 Kings 2); our Lord Jesus walked upon the sea (Matt. 14).

What then is more excellent: to provide a path for the people crossing through the dry bed of the deep, or to make a path of the very face of the sea? For they, because they were weighed down by the burden of humanity, sought a way in the solid depth by which they might journey; but he who is known to have taken up the weakness of human nature into the height of divinity was borne upon the waters by his own power. Moses obtained the splendor of his countenance from converse with the word of the Lord (Exod. 34:29); Joshua fixed the sun by his prayers (Josh. 10:12-13); but because Jesus is God, he shone before his disciples in the power of the sun. The children of Israel could not look upon that one's face; those who merited to behold this one's glory fell down, so that you might clearly recognize that what human weakness passed over was divine. To this one, as they stood on the mountain, it is said by the eternal Father: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him (Matt. 17:5-6). And therefore even Elijah, who shut up the heaven that it should not rain and opened it that it should rain (1 Kings 17:1), what is he in comparison with him who, with the heavens opened, presented the Father as witness of his divine generation? Therefore he is not strong as the Lord, because whatever power Moses could show, the Lord, not he himself, did. But Jesus displayed all the things he wondrously accomplished by his own power, because he was also the Lord of Moses. For it was not Moses but the Lord who rained manna upon the people walking through the deserts (Exod. 16:15 and following).

It was not Moses, but the Lord, who went before the people in a pillar of fire by night and of cloud by day. It was not Moses, but the word that was made to him, that brought water from the rock. It was not Moses, but the Lord, who provided birds for those who craved them. Hence the Lord also rebukes the Jews who boasted in the strength of their fathers, saying: Not Moses, but my Father gave you bread from heaven. Hence the Psalmist, not vainly exalting Moses but laudably extolling the Lord, says: He wrought wonders in the land of Egypt, in the field of Tanis; he divided the sea and led them through, and set the waters as in a wineskin. He led them out in a cloud by day, and all night in the light of fire. He brought water out of the rock, and led it forth like rivers of waters. And he commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and rained manna upon them to eat, and rained flesh upon them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea. But the Lord Jesus, mighty beyond comparison, appeared not in another's power but in his own. Hence, being powerful of himself, he commanded the paralytic, saying: I say to you, rise. Hence also it is written: As many as touched him were saved from whatever sickness held them. And again: Power went out from him, and healed all.

For neither Moses nor Elijah could possess this mark of strength, so that, while incomparable signs became known, they most openly signified the coming of the Only-begotten. Rightly, therefore, is it condemned to perpetual silence, when it is added: (Ver. 3.) Do not multiply to speak lofty things. Let the old things depart from your mouth.

As if he were saying: While you behold incomparably new things, you set forth the deeds of the ancients reprehensibly. For those things had gone before as a shadow, so to speak. But now the faithful of the truth openly adore these works of our Redeemer venerably, because what was shadowed there in the concealment of the sacrament lay open in the coming of the Redeemer, that the body of truth to be revealed had been awaited. Therefore, if they are referred to new things, they are not old, because, understood in the Holy Spirit, they receive no oldness. For of that Spirit who renews all things, the Psalmist prays, saying: Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth (Ps. 103:30). They are therefore old, if they are compared to the works of the Redeemer; but when we bring them forth spiritually to confirm these things, by the same Spirit by which we understand these things, those things are renewed. Therefore, when Holy Church reproves the Jews for the narration of old things, what else is she shown to mean than that they understand the spiritual deeds of the Fathers carnally?

For the synagogue lifts itself up against the holy Church all the more rashly, the more proudly it extols the knowledge of the law and the prophets, which it has learned was divinely inspired in its fathers, but was presented to itself only materially. Hence it follows: Do not multiply to speak lofty things, boasting. And so that they may cease from their rashness, he adds, saying: Let the old things depart from your mouth. For now those things are old to it, which, as I said, are not understood through the renewing Spirit. This is therefore as if he were saying: It is fitting that you be silent from the narration of those whose new and splendid meanings you do not know. And yet even if you understand these things subtly, they ought not to bestow upon you the swelling of arrogance, because God is the Lord of sciences. For the Redeemer of the human race, because he is the Word of the supreme Father, is indeed the Lord of all sciences. For Isaiah spoke lofty and great things, Jeremiah spoke great things; but assuredly they would say nothing, if this Word, the Lord of sciences, did not reveal the sciences to them before they spoke. Hence also it is frequently read in the books of the same prophet Isaiah: The Word that was made to Isaiah the prophet. Frequently also in the book of Jeremiah it is written: The Word that was made to Jeremiah the prophet. John, beholding this Word, the Lord of sciences, in the most high bosom of the supreme Father, says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word (John 1:1).

Hence Paul, intimating the Lord our Redeemer as the God of sciences, says: That in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead corporally (Col. 2:9). Therefore, when he says: Let old things depart from your mouth, because God is the Lord of sciences, what else is this but to show the synagogue by open reasoning that it ought to keep silent all the more carefully the more it does not know not only that these things exist, but also by whom they exist? As if he were saying: That knowledge which you assert belonged to your fathers ought not to have given you so much arrogance, inasmuch as it was not theirs but the only-begotten Son of God's, and you do not understand that very knowledge. He says therefore: Let old things depart from your mouth, so that the Jews may in no way pervert what they cannot rightly understand. God, he says, is the Lord of sciences, so that what they prove truly to be God's they may not falsely ascribe to men. But while Judea is reproved for words of boasting, because it is pricked by no fear, torments are announced to it also concerning the hidden motions of the faithless hearts. For it follows: (Verse 3) And their thoughts are prepared.

As if he were saying: Him whom you do not fear to blaspheme, you will have as judge not only of your tongue but also of your heart. Hence he also threatens through Isaiah, saying: I come to gather their works and their thoughts (Isa. 66:18). Hence the Lord, threatening through Moses, says: Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed in my treasuries (Deut. 32:34)? And because by these words silence is enjoined upon the Synagogue, let us now see with what fruitful praises holy Church glories in the voice of Anna. For adding, she says: (Verse 4.) The bow of the mighty is overcome.

What is the bow of the mighty if not the deceitful savagery of the Jews? For from concealment, as if from a bow, they inflicted a wound upon the Redeemer, whom they killed by the hands of the Gentiles. But the bow of the mighty is overcome, because he who died from their wound rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sent the promised Holy Spirit to his disciples. Hence it is added: (Verse 5.) And the weak are girded with strength.

By the term "strength," indeed, the power of the Holy Spirit is shown. Hence the Lord also, promising that same Spirit to his disciples, says: But sit in the city until you are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). But "strength" is rightly said of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which, when the elect receive it, they become strong against all the adversities of this world. But who are the "infirm" in this place, if not the apostles? Infirm indeed, when the bow of the strong is bent, they are not clothed with power from on high. For in the hour of the Lord's arrest it is written of them that, having left the Lord, they all fled (Matthew 26:56). Was not Peter then exceedingly infirm, when he feared the voice of a questioning maidservant and denied the Redeemer (Matthew 26:74)? The bow of the strong had already been overcome, the savagery of the Jews annihilated, because the Redeemer had risen, having conquered death; and yet the still-infirm apostles, with doors closed, feared the strong who had been overcome (John 20:19). But when strength clothed them, it is fitting to behold how strong it made them. For with a sudden sound the Holy Spirit came upon them, and changed their infirmity into the power of wondrous charity (Acts 2:2 ff.). For those who had not blushed to flee by hiding from the threats of persecutors, and who had feared the words of women, now clothed with strength began to preach Christ, and with freedom broke the authority of princes.

The strength conquered fear; it overcame errors, threats, and slaughters; and those whom it clothed by coming upon them, it made illustrious in the heavenly militia with the insignia of wondrous boldness, so that amid scourges, slaughters, and reproaches they did not fear, but exulted. For it is written of those already clothed with this strength: The apostles went from the presence of the council rejoicing, because they had been counted worthy to suffer contumely for the name of Jesus (Acts 5:41). Hence now, as they preach, they say: Count it all joy, brothers, when you fall into various temptations (James 1:2). Well, then, is it said: The bow of the strong has been overcome, and the weak have been girded with strength. Because the Redeemer first rose from the dead, and so went to heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit to his disciples. For first the bow of the strong had to be overcome, and afterward the weak had to be girded with strength. Hence also it is written: The Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:39).

In this passage it must be noted that this is said against Judaea, which despises the miracles of the Redeemer all the more proudly, the more it recognizes him as dead amid his punishments. It says therefore: The bow of the mighty has been overcome, and the weak have been girded with strength. As if it were answering the Synagogue that slanders the death of the Redeemer, saying: Do not despise what was able to die, but rather marvel that the dead one rose again, and by reviving overcame the savagery of your people. And because it shows this concerning the past, it speaks to her not only by denouncing but also by insulting. For as if it were reproaching her who insults in vain, it says: What did it profit you to have killed him whom the snare of death could not hold? You killed him so that the whole world would not go after him; but for this reason the whole world goes after him, because he proved himself the true Son of God, in that by teaching he redeemed the human race, and in that by rising he showed himself living, and ascended to heaven, and sent to his disciples the Holy Spirit as promised. And because by the merit of her unbelief the Synagogue has been driven away from participation in the promised grace, holy Church, reproaching her for this very thing, adds and says: (Verse 5.) Those who were formerly filled have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have been satisfied.

Who were previously filled, if not those who had knowledge of God before the other peoples? Who should be understood as filled first other than the Jews, who were instructed in faith in the Creator almost from the very beginning of the world? They indeed hired themselves out for bread. For what do breads signify in this place, if not the mysteries of the divine Incarnation? But the place where breads are to be found is the sacred Scripture. Hence also the bread that came down from heaven says to those ignorant of him, so that he may be found: Search the Scriptures, because they are they which testify of me (John 5:39). For breads, therefore, they hired themselves out, because they had received all the Scriptures, so that in them they ought to have found the sacraments of the divine Incarnation; but when the bread came, the Synagogue, which had hired itself out for bread, abandoned the place in which it ought to have found the bread it sought. It had the Scriptures, indeed, as I said, for knowing the Redeemer, but it confuted the one who had come according to the Scriptures. The hungry, therefore, were satisfied, because some from the Gentiles believed, while they reverently receive the mysteries of the divine Incarnation, they have heavenly food for the use of inner delight. They are indeed called hungry because, before the advent of the Redeemer, cast out by the famine of unbelief, they had no food of spiritual refreshment. Or certainly they are called hungry because they receive the sweetness of spiritual food with great eagerness.

But those who were filled, who hired themselves out for bread, let them hear the one whom they were awaiting: I am the living bread that came down from heaven. But because they did not deserve to recognize him, they answered: Is not this the son of Joseph? How does he say, "I came down from heaven"? But he himself, who knew all things, foretold to the hungry ones reclining at the banquet of his delight, saying: Amen I say to you, that many will come from the East and the West, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness. Therefore the filled ones hired themselves out for loaves, but the hungry ones were satisfied, because the children of the Synagogue had in the Holy Scriptures the pasture of faith concerning the future Incarnation of the Redeemer; but now, when those have been cast out, while the Gentiles truly believe in him, they receive the sacraments of his divinity and humanity in the innermost refreshment of delight.

But because it is said through the excellent Teacher: All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ), it can reasonably be gathered that those ate and were not satisfied, while these ate and were satisfied. And this is rightly said in contrast to the Synagogue, on the part of the holy Church, so that those who are under grace are shown to stand out by a wondrous height above those placed under the law. For what was it for them to hire themselves out for bread, if not to search the sacred Scripture for the sacraments of the Redeemer who was to come? And indeed each one of them ate and was not satisfied, because he believed in the future Incarnation of the highest only-begotten Son, but did not see it present. To eat was for him to hold the divine Incarnation sweetly in the desire of his mind, and not to be satisfied was for him not to see the presence he desired. But the weak, who were to be girded with strength, heard the proclamation of their satisfaction from the bread by which they were satisfied: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. Amen I say to you that many kings and prophets desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. For those who wished to see were already eating the bread of intimate delight through desire; but because they could not see, they had the joy of desire, but they did not have the satisfaction of enjoyment.

For even if Scripture says, "God gave them bread having all sweetness and all pleasantness" (Wisdom 16:20), it is said to be received by them in the same way as it is known—in the same way, that is, as it could be desired by them through the longing of charity, being known to them through faith. Therefore, to the synagogue glorying in the first fathers, these men girded with strength are preferred, so that when the new and exalted height of the elect is seen, it may no longer glory in vain. And because from the reclining of the holy Church the food of life is never taken away, indicating both things future and things past, he says: (Verse 6.) "Until the barren has borne many, and she who had many sons has become weak."

Who is the barren one, if not the holy Church, as we have already said more fully above in the type of Anna? What is it, then, for the hungry to be satisfied until the barren bears, if not to possess the bread of life even to the end of the world? Which he himself also promises, saying: "Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the world" (Matthew 28:20). For those whom the holy Church bears are none other than the hungry. Therefore, until she bears, the hungry are satisfied, because she generates sons to God even to the end of the world, who, when they believe that the Redeemer has come in the flesh, eat the bread of life which they desire, and are filled with fullness. But while the barren bears many, she who had many sons is weakened. To be weakened is for the synagogue to be unable to bear by the institution of the old law. For she who has lost the faith of her former husband now bears to the devil and not to God.

But it is well said: She who had many sons, because while in the truth of the Scriptures she instructed the people subject to her in ancient times to desire the coming of the future Redeemer, she bore sons from the embrace of the heavenly bridegroom. But now she who had sons has been weakened, and has no sons. She indeed presents the Scriptures to her hearers, but because she denies the Redeemer, she never generates sons for God. She is therefore said to be weakened, to whom spiritual fecundity is denied. And because both the rejection of the Synagogue and the election of the Gentiles were made by the incomprehensible judgment of God, it follows: (Vers. 6-8.) The Lord kills and makes alive, leads down to hell and brings back; the Lord makes poor and makes rich; he humbles and exalts. He raises the needy from the dust, and lifts the poor from the dung, that he may sit with princes and hold the throne of glory.

As if responding to someone astonished at the rejection of so chosen a people, he says: Why do you seek a reason in these things which the highest reason accomplishes incomprehensibly? The excellent teacher also reproves this very kind of questioning, saying: O man, who are you to answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to its maker: Why have you made me thus? Or does the potter not have power from the same clay to make one vessel indeed for honor, but another for dishonor (Rom. 9:20-21)!

This is therefore as if he were saying: Because the Lord of all is rightly recognized, let us perceive that His work, both in the rejection of Judea and in the election of the Gentiles, is to be venerated and not scrutinized. The Lord indeed puts to death, because by His incomprehensible judgment He separates the once-chosen people of the Jews from the knowledge of the truth and condemns them forever. He gives life, because He receives the Gentile world into the knowledge of His only-begotten Son through faith in time, and leads it eternally to contemplate His glory. He leads down to the underworld, because by His strict judgment He receives those who through the guilt of faithlessness separate themselves from the veneration of the Redeemer to be punished forever in avenging Gehenna. He brings back from the underworld, because He receives the Gentile people devoutly approaching the faith of His Son, for whom the immense darkness of error stood as a deep prison of the abyss. He makes poor and enriches, because He both strips rejected Judea of spiritual virtues and adorns the chosen Gentile world with the price of faith and the splendors of good works. He is also said to humble and to exalt. For the Synagogue, by withdrawing from the Redeemer, laid down the heights of its own sublimity, and the holy Church, by venerating the Redeemer, rose from the depths of infidelity, where it had lain cast down, to the height of right faith and the loftiness of Christian power. Therefore, because Judea despised the Son of God and the Gentile world merited Him, rightly is the one humbled and the other believed to be exalted. It follows: He raises up.

raising the needy man from the dust, and lifting the poor man from the dung, that he may sit with princes and hold the throne of glory.

The needy and poor man is understood as the Gentile people, who is said to be raised from the dust and lifted from the dung, because when he is received into faith in the Redeemer, both his least and his graver sins are forgiven him. For since dust is easily shaken off, and what dung defiles horribly fouls, dust signifies lighter sins, dung graver ones. Rightly also is the needy man said to be raised from the dust, and the poor man lifted from the dung. For he was sleeping in those whom a light touch of grace could rouse; but he was lying in those who, having fallen into graver sins, needed the hand of great aid. But now let us hear to what height the needy man who is raised from the dust, and the poor man who is lifted from the dung, is preferred.

That he may sit with princes, and hold the throne of glory. But who are the princes in this place, if not the holy apostles? Of these princes it is surely said to God through the Psalmist: You shall appoint them princes over all the earth; they shall remember your name, O Lord. What is it that the poor man sits with princes, if not that the order of preachers, chosen from the Gentiles, obtains in the holy Church the height of apostolic authority? With princes indeed he sits, because from the throne of heavenly teaching he displays the doctrine of salvation. And he holds the throne of glory, because he spreads the odor of good fame to those whom he surpasses in dignity.

Or certainly he holds the throne of glory, and sits with princes, because he both shines with the honor of sublimity and gleams with miracles. But how he who is raised up to such high dignity ought to use it, he indicates when he adds: (Verse 8.) For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them.

The pillars of the earth are the farthest parts of the earth. But by the name of pillars he wished the chosen preachers from the nations to be designated. They are indeed called the farthest parts of the earth, because they are produced, as it were, from the lowest and abject gentility. And these same are said to be the Lord's pillars because of the mortification of their own will. They are indeed the Lord's, because they do not seek their own things, but the things of Jesus Christ. But in that they are said to be the house of the Lord, a certain singular holiness in them is designated. But those who are the Lord's should see that the world is placed upon them, not under them. For what is designated by the name of the world except the full multitude of the faithful subject to holy Church? God indeed set the world upon the pillars of the earth, because preachers are set over holy Church for this purpose, that they may relieve her weakness, and bear the weak also to the heavenly fatherland as a burden placed upon them. Therefore they ought not always to look upon themselves as prelates, but sometimes as subjects, so that by discipline they may preside over vices to be restrained, yet by esteem and obedience of ministry they may often be subject to those whom they surpass by the care of prelacy. And because the burdens which preachers sustain are great, he adds and says: (Verse

9.) He will keep the feet of his saints.

As if he were saying: They would collapse under such immense burdens, if the Lord did not keep their feet. Indeed, the feet of his saints are the affections of their minds. These are truly kept by the Lord, because from him the grace of wondrous devotion is poured in, by which they bear so great a burden gladly. The Lord is said to keep the feet of his saints, because they would flee from the mass of such great weight, if that supervening grace did not lighten for them what is intolerably heavy. The standing of fortitude can also be signified by the name of feet. But the Lord keeps the feet of his saints, when he strengthens them with wondrous fortitude, so that amid such immense burdens they by no means fall. And because he is said to keep not a foot but feet, what do we understand in each foot of the saints, except fortitude and humility? For lest we fall, we stand on each foot. For whoever preside over the faithful flocks, on the way by which they tend toward the heavenly fatherland, find now prosperity, now adversity. For prosperity itself, because it stirs up elation in the mind, greatly assails it toward a fall; yet lest the elect mind fall, on this side it strives to stand by the foot of fortitude, on that side it stands firm by the foot of humility. Indeed it would retain a firm state amid both temptations, if it stood with humility so solid that no prosperity would lift it up, no adversity cast it down.

What then is meant by the statement, He will keep the feet of his saints, if not that all human strength is weak without the help of its Creator? For our humility is weak: when it is soothed by the favor of prosperity, it is cast down by the impulse of foolish gladness. Our fortitude is weak: when it is struck by adversity, it is easily overcome. But we are crushed by sorrows and enervated by joys when almighty God abandons us to ourselves, not when he bestows the aid of his protection. He says therefore: He will keep the feet of his saints, because almighty God helps our weakness in bearing the burdens of those subject to us, so that neither adversities may wear us down nor prosperities seduce us. Indeed, our feet are then kept by the Lord when, strengthened by divine aid, we despise the prosperities of the world that meet us, fear no adversities, gladly bear evils with steadfast patience, and with unshaken humility restrain a lofty spirit from vain delight.

But the feet of the saints can be understood as faith and love of the Redeemer. By these feet, surely, they walk when they follow in love the one whom the faithful believe in through faith. These feet, certainly, he was asking the Lord to keep for him, who prayed, saying, Set me upon the high places, that I may conquer in his brightness (Habakkuk 3:19). He is set upon the high places to whom the divinity of the Redeemer is revealed. And he conquers in his brightness, because while he is illuminated by the rays of his brightness, all the testimonies of the malignant spirit are destroyed. He holds his feet set on the mountain—which is steep through the contemplation of truth—and inflamed with love of the only-begotten of the Most High Father whom he believes. Peter, indeed, was set upon the high places, who when he confessed the Lord, saying, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, immediately heard, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 16:16-17). For being founded in faith and inflamed with charity, he even proclaimed the one whom he loved. Well, therefore, is it added concerning the reprobate: (Verse 9.) And the ungodly shall fall silent in darkness.

For who are understood as the impious in this place, if not the Jews, who are strangers to the piety of the true faith, and stained with the blood of the Redeemer? Of them it is rightly said: They shall be silent in darkness, because the saints, set on high, confess with eternal praises the Redeemer of the world, whom they behold in the brightness of the divine majesty. In darkness, therefore, the impious are silent, because the Jews do not proclaim the Redeemer for this reason, that that ineffable brightness of the Godhead does not enlighten them. For it is written: Let the impious be taken away, lest he see the glory of the Lord (Isaiah 26:10). For John, shedding light on them as condemned in these darknesses, says: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:5). Hence David says, not wishing but prophesying: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and let their back be always bowed down (Psalm 68:24). In darkness, therefore, the impious are silent, because even if the Jews bring forth the words of divine Scripture in the praises of God, while they deny the Son, they render no obedience of voices to God the Father. For he is silent to God, who, praising the Father, is silent about the praise of the Only-begotten. But the one whom they despise as crucified, when the judge shall come, they will be terrified. Whence it is also added: (Verses 9, 10.) Because a man shall not be strengthened in his own strength, his adversaries shall dread the Lord.

But now he is hard in unbelief, strong in error, and he who disdains to believe in God has not dared to blaspheme openly. For as a man he cannot now be conquered, but then he will by no means be strengthened as a man, when he who was crucified by their snares is seen in his majesty. Then his adversaries will fear, when they have seen all things moved by the power of the crucified one, when all things are subjected to his judgment, when through the high heavens they have heard the thundering judgments of their eternal damnation. Whence it is also added: (Verse 10.) And over them in the heavens he shall thunder.

For who in this place is designated by the name of the heavens, if not the holy apostles? To these heavens, surely, the Lord, promising the glory of his supreme sublimity, says: You shall sit upon seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). The Lord, surely intimating to the Jews the thunders of these heavens, says: They themselves shall be your judges (Luke 11:19). Over the impious Jews, therefore, he shall then thunder in the heavens, because from the holy apostles they shall then hear the terrible judgments of their damnation, so that by their examination they may receive the sentence of eternal death—those whom, as they preached, they afflicted with persecutions for the goods of eternal life. But because these things must be understood of the final judgment, it follows: (Verse 10.) The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth.

What are the ends of the earth, if not the last things of this world? But the Lord judges the ends of the earth, so that by the sentence of his equity nothing is left either unpunished or unrewarded, because when in judgment he concludes the outermost things, he does not abandon any matters to be examined. (Verse 10.) Then he will exalt the horn of his Christ.

When he receives all the elect into the eternal contemplation of his Only-begotten, so that he may preside over them in that eternal and ineffable Majesty—they who, while they lived in the pilgrimage of the present life, were not so. Then he will exalt the horn of his Christ, when in his highness the highness of the Redeemer is looked upon. Of this highness it is said through John: We shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). For the power or kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is always equal; but then he is said to be exalted, when we shall be such as to be able to behold his highness; for whatever the human mind can now fashion for itself concerning that highness is altogether nothing in comparison with the glory of that [highness]. For it is written of it: What the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, God has prepared for those who love him (Isaiah 64:4; 1 Corinthians 2:9). First, then, dominion is given to Christ, and afterward his horn will be exalted, because then the height of his highness is looked upon, when our nature too is lifted up from the lowest depth of its corruption, when by rising again it receives the integrity of its renewal, by which it may be able to contemplate the most exalted light of the Redeemer.

If, however, anyone wishes to understand “kingdom” here as referring to them, then by the kingdom of Christ the holy Church is designated. That horn will surely be exalted, because our lowest parts will be brought to the equality of the angels. Hence the Lord also says of the elect in the Gospel: They will be like the angels of God in heaven (Matt. 22:30). Again he speaks of this exaltation of his horn: The just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Ibid. 13:43). Therefore the horn of Christ will be exalted, because the holy Church will be raised up in the eternal contemplation of her Redeemer; and she who now in this valley of misery is pressed down by the penalty of her own disposition, having then swallowed up death and been renewed by the great gift of eternity, will be lifted up. But we have already set these things forth in their typical explanation; it remains for us to express them morally in the following volume.

BOOK TWO

CHAPTER ONE

In the preceding book, while we were discussing the text of sacred history morally, we placed Anna’s fruitfulness in the perfection of the highest contemplation, because to conceive in the mind is to rejoice ineffably in the highest contemplation of God the Almighty, while to give birth is to be unable to conceal the marks of the charity conceived in the mind. Now, however, for one giving birth to speak a song—what is this but to proclaim with true praises the Creator whom she loves ineffably? She says therefore: (1 Kings 2:1) My heart has exulted in the Lord.

I. But she who ate and drank, who had a bitter soul, who lifted up her voice abundantly, who made a vow—because that mind can worthily praise the almighty God which through worthy struggles has reached the summit of his charity—she has indeed learned by long practice to despise all things, and while she casts all created things away from her intention, she rejoices all the more in the vision of eternal majesty the less the appearance of any creature is able to hold her back in love of itself. She, then, says: My heart has exulted in the Lord—she who, having despised all things, loves him alone. He had truly come to this affection who said: What remains for me in heaven, and what have I desired from you upon the earth? Hence, exulting in God, she says: Your face, your face, Lord, will I seek. Hence the bride in the Song of Songs asks, saying: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. When, then, she says: My heart has exulted in the Lord, what else does she declare but that she has clung to the kisses of him whom she ardently loves? And therefore she alone says these things who, having experienced it, knows what the power of love is in the bridal chamber of the bridegroom. For she, made illustrious by all the victories over passions and set before others on the summit of virtues, has reached that sublimity from which, through the joy of wondrous devotion, she has placed her heart in God. And because she says "her heart," what else has she asserted but the freedom of her mind? The reprobate indeed do not have their own hearts, because the devil possesses them.

Hence it is also said of the betrayer: When the devil had already put it into his heart that Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, should betray him (John 13:2). For if Judas possessed his own heart, and not the devil, he himself would rather have placed good in it than the devil evil. Against this the chosen man speaks, saying: I carry my soul in my hands (Job 13:14). For what else is the hand of the chosen man but the power of inward freedom? What then is it for him to carry his soul in his hands, except to retain the glory of inward freedom in his power? Whenever, therefore, we gravely sin, we do not have our own heart. Wherefore Jeremiah also, reproaching the Jewish people who were gravely sinning, says: Hear, foolish people, and you who have no heart (Jeremiah 5:21). Hence again another prophet, when converted, confesses to God, saying: Your servant has found his heart (2 Samuel 7:27). He says therefore: My heart has exulted in the Lord, so as to assert the freedom of the mind, without which he could not worthily praise God. There follows: (Verse 1.) My horn has been exalted in my God.

In the horn of the elect mind the intention is designated, which is wonderfully lifted up when by rejoicing it comes to him who stands above all things. Hence he also asserts that his horn is exalted not in anything else, but in God. For whoever loves passing goods, his intention is surely pressed down, not exalted, because it is fixed in the depths where it is placed by desire. Hence it is that in the Gospel the Lord says: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6; Luke 12:34). The Lord therefore wished to exalt our horn when he said: Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven (Matt. 6:20, 33). Those had an exalted horn to whom Paul conformed himself, saying: Our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). But he who loves only heavenly things, if he does not know how to taste that sweetness of intimate delight, although he is greatly exalted, nevertheless does not reach the sublimity of this exaltation. Therefore he is sublime with this exaltation who, advancing through increases of virtues, has obtained the sublimity of the highest contemplation, not only so as to love heavenly things perfectly but also so as by the perfection of love to rest in the contemplation of almighty God alone. He has his horn exalted in God who enjoys the high vision of the inner light, in which he glories with a certain familiar singularity. Therefore he does not say, In our God, but in my God. For he says mine of him whom he loves familiarly and singularly.

To that dignity of divine familiarity he had certainly attained who said: "You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, and I will exalt you" (Ps. 117:28). Hence Isaiah, rebuking the unbelieving, says: "Is it a small thing for you to be troublesome to men, that you are troublesome also to my God?" (Isa. 7:13). Therefore the one who is lifted up by the exaltation of the horn in God confesses his God singularly, because that highest infusion of divine sweetness makes the exalted mind both capable of receiving it and greatly familiar with it. It follows: (Verse 1.) "My mouth is enlarged over my enemies."

Who are the enemies of the elect mind but the malignant spirits? What then is it to have the mouth enlarged over enemies but to reject all the persuasions of malignant spirits by the most ample largesse of grace infused into oneself? For he has a narrow mouth who cannot, through the consideration of reason, withstand all the deceits of the malignant spirits. For the mouth of the mind is its reason, and to speak is to deliberate. For the mouth is filled when the reason of the mind is raised by grace infused into it to the contemplation of the highest truth. To be filled, indeed, is for it to be imbued with the illumination of the highest truth. For there it learns both what it should desire eternally and what it should despise temporally. And because the highest truth is love, the elect soul is raised by the subtlety of truth, and is inflamed with the charity of that thing which it has learned, and keeps the master's teaching the more strictly the more fervently the power of love implants it within itself.

To this one, indeed, even if the malignant spirits suggest evil things, they are confounded by the opening of a widened mouth, because, instructed by the truth of the highest wisdom and inflamed by the torches of the highest love, she now has, against the suggestion of error, the immense light of wisdom; she has also, against the offered pomp of this world, an ineffable charity. In the immensity of light she sees what things to reprove, but through the power of the highest charity she loves to reprove the unfit things which she knows. Through wisdom she censures the evil things suggested, but in the strength of charity she refutes them once they are detected. She therefore widens her mouth over her enemies, because from the abundance of reason she deliberates many things against the demons, and she destroys their assaults all the more sharply the more she recognizes in the heights that by which she reproves the evils suggested. Hence, at once intimating the cause, she says: Because I have rejoiced in your salvation.

This is certainly as if she were to say: Because my horn has been exalted in my God. To rejoice in the salvation of God is assuredly this: to have a horn exalted in one's God. This is not understood of any sort of joy in salvation, but of that most perfect joy with which the chosen and perfect soul rejoices in the bridegroom after the manner of a bride. Concerning this joy, indeed, David prays, saying: Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and confirm me with the principal spirit (Ps. 50:14). She, therefore, who glories that she has a mouth widened over her enemies, is believed first to have rejoiced in the salvation of God, because that blessed mind strongly...

she can reject the suggestions of malignant spirits, she who, taken up sublimely into the divination of the Redeemer through contemplation, receives from him the greatness of wisdom and the fullness of charity. Him indeed she proclaims with worthy praises, saying: (Verse 2.) There is none holy as the Lord is; for there is none other besides thee, and there is none strong like our God.

For with these words of Anna, every chosen soul cries out this to the Redeemer in praise, which she believes from him in gift. But from this order of pious confession an order is hinted at, by which we may obtain the same good things of the gift which she has set forth in sequence. So the Lord is declared holy and strong, by whom we are sanctified, led to rest, and glorified. We receive sanctification from the Lord in the power of regeneration; but being, that is, rest from the mutability of this corruption, in the ending of exile; strength, in the triumph of the resurrection. The first of these gifts, then, we obtain in this life, when the soul of each chosen one is in the flesh, but both are still placed in the struggle of work; the second, however, in the soul alone apart from the flesh, after the life of the flesh, and now taken up from the labors of this life; the last, truly, in flesh and soul, but both now renewed through the glory of eternity.

First, then, she is called holy, because by the bath of salvation for the regenerate the love of God is poured into our hearts, and through its grace we are prepared for the goods of the eternal fatherland, so that while this life slips away in the course of its brief span, that life may receive us, whose joy the souls of the elect, departing from here, obtain without fear of death. Next, she is said to be secure, because we await the day of our consummation, namely the brightness of the final resurrection, while in that gift of accepted rest we learn not to fear the scrutiny of the last judgment, but to await the joy of the promised glory. In the last place, she is declared strong, because in the joy of the future resurrection our weak members are strengthened, when the flesh rises from the dust; but that same dust of our flesh, translated into the glory of everlasting incorruption, returns no more to the misery of its frailty. But it must also be noted that in these three we are led from one to another; yet when what is possessed begins to be a habit, the one who receives what he did not have does not lose what he had before. For when we are led from sanctification to rest, and from the soul's quiet we are led to the strength of eternal incorruption, the sanctification of love is increased for us in that rest, and rest and love grow greatly in the resurrection. For each soul, joined to its Creator through love, beholding him in such great gifts, may say with the words of Anna: how well she savors the gift of perfect regeneration and the power of love.

Let her say: "There is none holy as the Lord." Let her say how the promise of rest in the hour of her passing is a better gift to her: "Neither is there any besides thee." Let her say how the final renewal of herself is the best reward pleasing to her, in the joy of her perfected spirit and her glorified flesh. Let her say: "And there is none strong as our God." And it must be noted that Anna speaks this in the song of her prayer. For for the chosen mind, to ask these things in song is to desire such great gifts with joy. Indeed, for her to ask is to desire, and to rejoice is to sing. But she who so joyfully beholds the gifts of her own dignity, with what strength she reproaches the hidden enemies becomes known. For it follows, and she says: (Verse 3.) "Do not multiply to speak lofty things, boasting; let old things depart from your mouth."

For the malignant spirits speak lofty and old things when they suggest to the faithful the high things of this world that seem to be desired. Therefore, he who has already learned to exalt his horn in God, who knows how to be held in the joy of Majesty, despises by reproaching whatever is offered to him from the blandishment of this fleeting world, saying: "Do not multiply to speak lofty things, boasting; let old things depart from your mouth." As if he were speaking openly and saying: For this reason the things that are offered to me displease me, because through desire I see other things that greatly please.

Indeed, what is said here—since it applies to one who is already recognized as fit for the ministry of preaching—is aptly brought forward also against arrogant wise men and against negligent professors of a holy life. For he speaks lofty things while boasting, who through the knowledge he has received glories that he understands sublime matters. But he speaks old things, who, setting aside the utterances of holy Scripture, occupies himself with secular words. And so it is said to the arrogant: Do not speak, boasting of lofty things. By these words it is plainly shown that he does not forbid the manner of speech, but the disposition of intention. As if he were openly saying: Speak of lofty things, but refrain from glorying in what is called high. Hence Paul also piously admonishes his disciple, saying: Be not high-minded, but fear. He did not say, Do not speak high things, but, Be not high-minded; just as here it is not said, Do not speak lofty things, but, Do not speak while boasting—because the sacred utterances are to be searched out more deeply, but in whatever way one who searches profits, he ought to restrain himself from the pomp of vainglory through the guard of humility. He also says to those who speak idly: Let old things depart from your mouth. For the words of the world are old things, because while the mind of the speaker is fixed upon them through intention, it is stripped of the beauty of its devotion. Why, then, those who boast of lofty things ought not to speak, and why old things ought to depart from their mouth, the cause that is added below demonstrates: Because God is the Lord of knowledges.

Let the knowledgeable and arrogant man therefore hear that he is not himself the lord of knowledge, but God. For rightly, glorying, he would say these things are his, because he swells with knowledge—not Almighty God, but he himself would have been the lord. Let us too hear, when we speak words of the world, that God is the Lord of knowledge. For already the minds of the elect are renewed not only by the knowledge of the New Testament but also of the Old; for he came who would say: Behold, I make all things new (Isa. 43:19). Since, therefore, we have so many new things that we can speak, we are in no way able to speak old things without guilt. Let old things therefore depart from our mouth, so that, when the guilt of condemned oldness is restrained even from our speech, we may pass over into the beauty of the new man. And if we truly despise this, let us hear: (Verse 3.) And their thoughts are prepared.

As if by a lesser fault, with a comparison understood, let him terrify us, saying: Hence let those who speak idle things consider how much they ought to fear the guilt of speech, if he against whom one sins by speaking also keeps the excesses of thoughts for the examination of his judgment. Let the arrogant likewise hear what follows: (Verse 4.) The bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girded with strength.

For indeed we have already said in the allegorical exposition that the unclean spirits are designated by the name of these mighty men. And since they fell from heavenly glory by their pride, they are fittingly set before arrogant teachers as a terror, so that they may think humbly of themselves in proportion as they behold even angels fallen from supernal glory through the desire of vainglory. We recall that our Redeemer also did this in the case of his arrogant disciples, who when they boasted that demons were subject to them, immediately heard from him: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18). The bow of the mighty, therefore, is the pride of the malignant spirits. They are called mighty either because they thought great things of themselves, or because they overcome the human race by the assault of great temptations. And when an impure intention has bent this bow, it has striven to shoot the arrows of malice upward, as it were, against its Creator. I will set, said their prince, my throne in the north; I will be like the Most High (Isa. 14:13-14). But he was overcome by the bow of the mighty, because God resisted the pride of the apostate spirits, cast them down from heaven, and stripped them of the glory of virtue that was conditional, so that in the fallen angels man might learn what he should fear. For what will become of a vessel of clay, if God does not spare even golden vessels filled with the stench of pride? Hence Peter also speaks in his Epistle, saying: God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but dragged them down by the ropes of hell and delivered them to Tartarus, reserved for judgment (2 Pet. 2:4).

As if the chosen and humble preacher were therefore saying to the proud: "So that you may cease from your elation, look upon the punishments of the damnation you deserve in the angels who are like you, namely the fallen ones."

And setting before them those whom they ought to imitate, he says: "And the weak have been girded with strength." If evil angels are called strong on account of the presumption of their self-esteem, then the designation "of the weak" rightly befits the blessed spirits, who, presuming nothing of themselves, are subject to the power of their Maker in perpetual humility. "The weak have been girded with strength," because by the merit of voluntary subjection the holy angels are joined to their Creator by the bond of inward love. To them the name of girding aptly belongs, because anyone who is girded is held on every side by the belt with which he is girded—because, that is, those most blessed spirits are so solidified in eternity that they can never fall from it. Hence it is that an angel is sent to Daniel as he preaches in Babylon, who is said to be girded. Hence it is that John in the Apocalypse saw the angel with whom he held converse girded about the breasts with a golden belt. But because those same blessed spirits have risen from the merit of humility into the glory of love—yet because they possess that same glory in the embrace of eternity, and do not possess it in fear of losing it—they are indeed glorious ineffably, but that ineffable glory they can never lose. Therefore, so that the arrogant man may cease to boast, let him hear: "The bow of the mighty has been overcome.

And so that the condemned guilt of pride may advance in humility, it is said to him: The weak have been girded with strength. For strength is bestowed upon the weak when, by the merit of subjection, the power of supernal charity is poured into the gentle. We are also girded when we are prepared for the ministry of the word. Rightly, therefore, the weak girded with strength are set before those who boast in lofty speech, because those who are sent as spirits for ministry, for the sake of those who obtain the inheritance of salvation, were humble before they were girded for ministry. For weakness is mentioned first, but afterward the girding of strength. Paul indeed introduces these to us as girded, saying: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent for ministry for the sake of those who obtain the inheritance of salvation (Heb. 1:14)? Of whom the prophet also speaks, saying: Thousands of thousands ministered to him (Dan. 7:10). As if he were therefore saying: First recognize yourselves, and so prepare yourselves for the salvation of others, because the good of preaching is then well fulfilled when the preacher who strives to be sublime in word is humble in ministry. But because by speaking he rebukes the proud and arrogant preachers, he adds, saying: (Verse 5.) Having been filled first, they hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry were satisfied.

Those were filled first who, while they take the foods of swelling in the refreshment of the mind, cannot grasp the delights of the holy virtues, as if already full with food. Yet they hire themselves out for bread, because in the Scriptures which they understand, they think they receive spiritual gifts of the virtues according to the greatness of wisdom. But they cannot be saved, because they can by no means add the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the fullness of arrogance. For the Spirit of discipline himself flees from the feigned, and does not dwell in a body full of sins (Wis. 1:5). Hence it is also written: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5). In vain, therefore, do those desire to receive the things of God who, in that they are proud, make the giver of gifts an adversary to themselves. They cannot be saved, then, because they do not attain the gifts of spiritual graces. But who are the hungry, if not those empty of the foods of vices, those fasting from swelling? The hungry, therefore, are filled, because holy men, fortified by the citadel of humility, while they do not think highly of themselves, merit high gifts of the virtues. For through the good of humility, they become the seats of the Holy Spirit; and while they receive him remaining in themselves, they are more fully filled with his gifts. Hence the Lord also says through the Prophet: Upon whom does my spirit rest, except upon the humble and quiet and trembling at my words (Isa. 66:2)? Greatly, therefore, are the hungry filled, because in the fullness of gifts the Holy Spirit rests upon the humble.

Yet this can not unfittingly be said against negligent ministers of the sacred altar and presumptuous receivers of the Lord's body. But those were filled first, and with the satiating food of vices, who hire themselves out for bread, because they prepare the body for the reception of the Eucharist. These, to be sure, eat and cannot be satisfied, because even if they receive the sacrament with the mouth, they are by no means filled with the power of the sacrament. They therefore fast from that power of the sacrament because they had first been filled. For they do not receive the fruit of salvation in the eating of the saving victim, who bear in their mind the sins with which they had filled themselves. Therefore only the hungry are satisfied, because those who fast perfectly from vices receive the divine sacraments in the fullness of power. And because even chosen men cannot be without sin, what remains but that they strive daily to be emptied of the sins with which human frailty never ceases to stain them? For one who does not daily drain away what he commits—even if the sins he accumulates are very small—is gradually filled, and they rightly take away from him the fruit of inner satisfaction. Paul, suggesting that we empty ourselves of this filling, says: Let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of the cup (1 Cor 11:28). For what is it to prove oneself in this place, except, with the wickedness of sins emptied out, to show oneself proved and pure for the Lord's table? Concerning the filled he also added: For whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself.

Since we therefore sin daily, let us daily run to the remedies of penitence, because it alone is the virtue that empties out what guilt heaps up in the belly of the soul. And then the hungry are truly satisfied, because the more earnestly we are cleansed by the lament of penitence, the more abundant a fruit of divine grace we receive in spiritual refreshment. And this satiety of the elect, because it extends even to the end of the world, he set forth, saying: (Verse 5.) Until the barren has borne many, and she who had many sons has become weak.

And so by the name of this barren woman, who is signified but she of whom Paul speaks, saying: The Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother (Galatians 4:26-27)? Whence also a little later he applied the prophecy of Isaiah to her, saying: For it is written: Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear; break forth and cry out, you who do not travail, because many are the children of the desolate more than of her who has a husband (Isaiah 54:1). But how is Jerusalem understood as barren—that is, the holy fellowship of the blessed angels—when, according to the meaning of her name, she is eloquent with the eternal joy of the vision of peace? But if she is the mother of elect men, she was indeed barren as long as the human race perished in Adam. For she could not, as it were, give birth, when she lost him in whom she ought to extend the bosom of her fruitfulness, through the persuasions of the fallen spirit.

For so long are the weak girded until the barren woman gives birth, because we stand in need of the strong ministry of the humble angels until all who have been predestined to life from the human race are gathered together even to the end of the world. For he will send his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds. For they are then to be sent to gather those to whom they are sent daily for salvation, because they will not gather them into the kingdom unless they now provide help to them through the strength of their girding. Even to the end of the world, moreover, the hungry are satisfied. But rightly is this barren woman said to give birth to very many, through whom not all men but only the elect are led to eternal joys. Fittingly, then, is she also said to give birth, because through the ministry of angels we are taught to seek heavenly things, so that we may be able to attain to their goods. But when this barren woman gives birth, she who had many sons is weakened, because the more abundant gains of the elect are received into the heavenly kingdoms through the ministry of angels, the more the sons of this Babylon are diminished. For she is, as it were, weak in her childbirth, who through disordered love of passing things, as is her custom, can by no means bring forth sons. For now everywhere the heavenly kingdoms are proclaimed, and while the minds of the faithful love what they have heard, while they seek after them even by good conduct, Babylon is, as it were, constrained in her childbirth, because our mother Jerusalem brings forth for God throughout the world those whom she was accustomed to bring forth from the fallen womb of perdition into hell.

Yet the strength of those who are girded is ascribed not to themselves, but to the one by whom they are girded. Hence it is fittingly added: (Verse 6.) The Lord puts to death and gives life.

In these words, indeed, the order must also be noted. For first he is said to put to death, then to give life, because unless we cease to love the world, we cannot live to God through love, as John testifies, who says: Whoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). Hence also he who remembered himself as put to death and given life, as cast down and raised up, was speaking, saying: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14). But he lives, yet not the life of the world, because he was saying: I now live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me (Ibid., 2:20). Therefore not any one of those who are girded, but the Lord puts to death and gives life. For to have been put to death and given life is to desire nothing of the present, and to long for eternal things. To whom, then, thanks are to be rendered for these gifts he sets forth, saying: The Lord puts to death and gives life. Hence also the Lord of the nations often already says through the preacher: Neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:7). But in what order almighty God works these things in the elect, he sets forth, saying: (Verse 6.) He leads down to the underworld, and brings back.

For he puts to death when he leads down to hell, and he gives life when he brings back from hell. For to the almighty God, to lead down to hell is to terrify the hearts of sinners with the consideration of eternal torments. And for him to bring back from hell is to lift up the minds of the penitent, terrified and grieving over their sins, to the hope of life by the sweetness of his mercy. For then we cease to sin when, our hearts softened by supernal grace, we dread future torments. And we are brought back from hell when, by the inward consolation of visitation, we breathe again to the hope of pardon from the lamentation of penitence. Fittingly, therefore, the Lord is said to lead down to hell and to bring back, because human hardness, at the preaching of man alone, is neither shaken by terror nor raised up by love. For if it were the role of teachers to put to death as many as their preaching touched, they would cease to sin; and if it were their role to give life, whatever heavenly things they heard from them, the love of their inmost affection would straightway lift us up to seek those things with all effort. But now, since eternal punishments are often threatened to sinners, since heavenly goods, as far as they are able, are preached to them, and they neither fear the punishments nor desire the joys, let us cry out with the words of Anna in the praises of God, and let us say to him even that which some, attributing it to them, profit by: The Lord puts to death and gives life.

Therefore the Lord leads down to hell and brings back, because those whom God's loving-kindness works within through those words which man speaks outwardly are able to fear future torments and to love the joys above. But there is a way in which each person may recognize himself, whether he has already been led down to hell and brought back, whether he has died to the world and lives to the heavens; for if he is one of the elect, he makes progress. And by that same progress he is made subject to God. (Verse 7.) The Lord makes the poor and gives wealth.

The rich of this world boast of their abundant means for this reason, that by the high and incomprehensible judgment of God heavenly goods are hidden from them. Therefore the Lord makes men poor, because while he discloses eternal goods to the elect, they hold themselves the poorer the more they perceive themselves shut out from the true riches. Whence also that king who was most abundantly endowed with the possession of this world, because the Lord had shown him the true riches, cried out to him, saying: Look upon me and have mercy on me, because I am alone and poor (Ps. 24:16). Hence the prophet Jeremiah, expressing in himself the illumination of each of the elect, says: I am the man who sees my poverty (Lam. 3:1). Therefore to make a man poor for the Lord is, in the contemplation of everlasting goods, to stir up the minds of the elect to contempt of all visible things.

But to whom the highest things are revealed, He intimates that those same highest things are to be sought at the cost of long labor, when He says that He makes poor and also enriches, because, namely, while we receive from almighty God the knowledge of heavenly goods, we also obtain from Him the strength to strive for them with labor worthy of them. Rightly, then, it is added: (Verse 7.) He humbles and lifts up.

For in the contemplation of heavenly things they see how abject they are on earth, but in that same abjection of temporal want, through God's grace, they lift themselves up on the wings of merits to the joys of eternal life. They begin, then, with humility in the estimation of their exile, but with sublimity in the preparation of holy action. It follows: (Verse 8.) He raises up the needy from the dust, and lifts the poor from the dung heap, that he may sit with princes.

For the dust is the subtle deliberation of an illicit thought, which renders foul the mind in which it has settled. For what is designated in the dung heap but the foul and shameless perpetration of a crime? And the prophet, beholding the life of carnal men buried in the mire of foul deeds, says: The beasts have rotted in their own dung (Joel 1:17). In an apt sequence, therefore, the gifts of God are enumerated in the conversion of the wicked. For first the needy is raised from the dust, then the poor from the dung heap; because first the deliberation of an impure thought is cut away from the heart, and afterward the guilt is cut off from action.

Fittingly too is the needy one said to be raised from the dust, and the poor man lifted up from the dung heap, because he who inwardly deliberates on depraved things sleeps from the contemplation of justice; he who outwardly perpetrates unlawful things lies in iniquity through his deed. And because he now obtains trophies with the strong against the malignant spirits, the needy one raised up and the poor man lifted up sets forth what he deserves, saying: That he may sit with princes, and hold the throne of glory.

To sit is indeed the mark of the triumphant. Whence also in the Apocalypse of John the Lord shows the dignity of our victory, saying: He who overcomes, I will make him to sit on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat with my Father on his throne (Rev. 3:21). Paul too, beholding this, numbering among the praises of God the gift of our being raised up and of our sitting, says: He has raised us up together, and made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). With him, therefore, the princes sit, because those who by his aid restrain the powers of the malignant spirits have a dignity of sitting in the triumph of those whom they dominate by the virtue of him who presides over them. With him likewise the princes sit, because even if they are seen to stand in the body amid the hardship of this slipping life, yet they have a seat of merits with the Redeemer in the heights, from whose likeness of brightness they are not separated even in this valley of foulness. The needy in goods and the poor are also those who for the sake of the Gospel have abandoned all the things which they could have had in the world.

Indeed, to be able to sit with princes, they must be raised from the dust and lifted up from the dung heap. For what are the favors of the tongue—what are they but dust, these trappings of slipping dignities? For they blind the mind that they defile by flattering, cutting it off from true splendors. And what are perishing riches and transitory possessions but dung to those who love eternal things? They are truly dung, which holy souls hold in contempt through humility, not in the appetite of desire. Hence also Solomon, seeing the rich man of this world grieved at the loss of temporal goods, says: The sluggard is to be stoned with the dung of oxen (Sirach 22:2). As if he were saying: He suffers the lashes of grief from that which the one who desires to labor for eternal life despises as dung. Hence Paul says: I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as dung, that I may gain Christ. Therefore the needy one is raised from the dust, and the poor man is lifted up from the dung heap, when the mind, renouncing the world, tramples underfoot whatever used to please it—from the favors of the human tongue, from the honor of dignities, and from the abundance of things—while it looks only to eternal things, which alone it ardently loved. For to be raised and lifted up is, for such a one, to despise by the sublimity of the mind the things that he has left behind in the body. And to sit with princes is to be present among the citizens of the heavenly homeland through the joy of eternal rest. And indeed he then holds the throne of glory, because he who presides so sublimely never ceases from the praises of his Creator.

For the Psalmist, marveling at this seat of glory, speaks to the Lord, saying: Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord; they shall praise thee for ever and ever (Ps. 83:5). Isaiah proclaims this seat of glory, saying: Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of praise (Isa. 51:3). Saint Tobias likewise shows this, saying: And all thy streets shall be paved with precious and clean stone, and Alleluia shall be sung through all thy streets (Tob. 13:22). But let the poor man, once he has been lifted up, look upon the things that follow, because he is not brought at once, as soon as he has been raised, to the session of princes, to the throne of glory: The Lord's, he says, are the hinges of the earth, and he has set the world upon them (v. 8).

Since by the name of earth sinners are designated in sacred Scripture, the hinges of the earth can fittingly be understood as those on which the world turns through unseemly desires, and is led from one thing to another. When, therefore, we see sinners converted, let us burst forth in praise of the Creator with the words of Anna. For then we say, as it were, in other words: Now they have begun to be the Lord's through his grace, who for a long time were held on the wheel of passing things by the concupiscence of the world. And when, having now abandoned the allurements of the secular life, they bravely endure grievous temptations, let us say: He has set the world upon them. For he has set the world upon them who, before it was placed upon them, was beneath them.

For they already hold him in the burden of temptations—he who, by flattering them, served them as though subject—since by pursuing delights and pleasures they reclined in him. And because those who had great delights in him have great temptations from him, it is added: (Verse 9.) He will keep the feet of his saints.

By these words, indeed, the help of divine protection and propitiation is shown in such a way that grave dangers of temptations are designated. As if he were saying: They endure such great temptations from that world to which they had clung, that he alone suffices to help who cannot be absent from his faithful in tribulation. For to keep the feet of his saints is to strengthen by grace the shaken affections of the elect in temptation, lest they fall. Hence the prophet, who had wavered toward a fall and yet was preserved by the Lord, said: But my feet were almost moved, my steps had well nigh slipped (Ps. 72:2). Hence again: I was pushed and overturned so that I might fall, and the Lord took me up. The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he has become my salvation (Ps. 117:13-14). And concerning the weakness of the enemies he added, saying: (Verse 9.) And the ungodly shall be silent in darkness.

But what is it that, when the Lord is said to guard the feet of the saints, the silence of the wicked is mentioned, unless it is that we are never driven to the fall of sin except when the perverse temptations of evil spirits are suggested to us? When, therefore, the Lord guards our feet, the wicked are silent in the darkness, because while we are protected by divine grace, the unclean spirits can by no means give us the voice by which they would cast us down. They are silent, indeed, in the darkness, because they possess the darkened hearts of the reprobate, from whose obscurity they do not dare to advance to us. But why he guards the feet of the saints he explains, saying: (Verse 9.) For a man shall not be strengthened in his own strength.

As if he were saying: For this reason he holds them, because without him they could not stand. For even if a man is recognized as one of virtue, in his own strength he has the fear of falling, he does not have the firmness of standing, and he slips into unlawful desires as often as his inner footsteps are abandoned by the Lord who holds them. Or was he not a man in whose honor it was sung among the chorus of young women: Saul struck down a thousand, and David ten thousand (1 Kings 18:7)? He, surely, when he was left among the burdens of his own strength, was driven into the guilt of his flesh and fell, and learned by experience in himself that a man does not have in himself a state of strength, but a fall of weakness. Hence also, fearing to slip back, he begs him by whom he ought to be held to stand, saying: Do not forsake me utterly (Psalm 118:8).

Let no one therefore deceive himself, as though he finds in himself the strength to stand, because even if we often overcome the great wars of hidden enemies, if we worthily pursue them as put to flight by rejecting them in their persuasions, it is not we whom the spirits then flee, but the one whom they see in us they dread. Or certainly if they even fear us, for that reason they truly fear, because they see us taken up into the strength of divine grace. Aptly therefore it is added: (Verse 10.) His adversaries will dread the Lord, and he will thunder over them in the heavens.

For then we are heavens, when we are raised up into the height of the divine grace presiding over us. And we have thunders against his adversaries, when with the strong voices of holy desires we strike down whatever breathes upon us from their suggestion. For whatever a thunderbolt strikes, it kills. The thunders of the heavens, then, are the perfect desires of the elect. For as if from the height of the heavens they come forth sounding terribly, when they strike the malignant spirits from that summit of the mind, over which almighty God so presides that by the love of the one presiding it easily overcomes whatever the enemy's audacity, suggesting evil, could be stirred up for battle. But with the Redeemer forewarning we know that he who perseveres to the end, this one will be saved (Matthew 10:22). With the same Lord also promising, we have learned that in whatever hour the sinner is converted, he will be saved (Ezekiel 18:21). Therefore at the end of her song let Anna add, and say whereby she may terrify the sinner, let her say whereby she may make the just man more cautious. (Verse

10.) “The Lord,” he says, “will judge the ends of the earth.”

He did not say “the earth,” but “the ends of the earth.” For the ends of the earth are those who have closed off their own life with the final commission of a fault. For one who sins, and does not correct what he has done wrong, is “earth” through sin, and is not of the sons of earth, because by sinning he has cast down the heights of his redemption, but from the depth of his casting-down he has risen again before judgment. For he wept over what he did, and he awaits the coming judge the more joyfully in that, in the condemnation of his earthliness, through penitence he himself holds within himself the scourges of vengeance. Therefore, because the Lord judges the ends of the earth, let the sinner, converted to the Lord, not be afraid of his former or his middle deeds. And again, because the Lord judges the ends of the earth, let the just man not presume upon the righteousness he has begun. For if sudden death cuts him off while he is still slipping from that equity from which he can fall, because in his last moments he is closed in by fault, he is judged by the law of the ends of the earth. It follows: (Verse 10.) “And he will give empire to his king, and will exalt the horn of his Christ.

This indeed we established above, and since we have referred it to the Redeemer, we do not change it in the order of this explanation either. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one (Eph. 2:14). He Himself is also the cornerstone (1 Pet. 2:4, 5, 6), in which, while the two walls of the elect are joined together, the structure of the eternal city is arranged. Let our speech therefore keep its custom, so that, once the moral and allegorical understanding of the sacred song has been set forth, both may agree in Him whom we believe by faith and merit by our conduct.

CHAPTER II.

For the divine word follows and says: (Verse 11.) And Elkanah went to Ramah, to his own house.

1. We have shown that this man indeed designates the Redeemer of the human race; Hannah His wife, His Church; the boy Samuel, the people of the Gentiles who believe; and the city of Ramah, the heavenly fatherland. What then is it that after the song of his wife Elkanah is said to have gone to Ramah, his city, when Anna sang her song to God after the boy was born, and the Redeemer ascended to heaven before the holy Church had brought forth the Gentile people in faith? This is sought only by those who are known to know only the bodily presence of our Lord. For did Paul not then have with him the One who had ascended to the Father, when he said: Do you seek a proof of Him who speaks in me, Christ (2 Cor. 13:3)? He likewise confesses, saying: As from God, before God, and in Christ we speak (2 Cor. 2:17).

What then is it that at one time the holy Church had him present through the grace of his gift, and at another time he withdrew himself from her through the dispensation of testing? For he was present, so that in the gaining of the Gentiles he might pour out the words of life abundantly; but at times he hid himself from her as though absent, so that, with the gift of the word taken away, she might recognize what she was without his presence. Therefore after the end of the song it is said: Elkanah went away to his own house, because the holy Church, by his presence, proclaims lofty things—he who, when he withdraws himself from mortals through dispensation, continually presents himself to the eternal citizens. For his house is that eternal society of the citizens above, which the Lord inhabits by loving, filling, and joining it to himself. Into it, therefore, he goes when he forsakes Anna, because he who healthfully withdraws himself from us while we are still making progress, joins and presents himself unceasingly to the perfected and completed citizens of the eternal fatherland, since those already proved no longer need to be tested by his absence. Fittingly, therefore, after Anna's song it is said: Elkanah went away to his own house, because the holy Church, which teaches the elect such sublime things, just as she is always forsaken by the Lord's loving dispensation, so also she does not always have those lofty things which she may teach. But many hear the words, detest their past malice, and set before themselves the works of a corrected life; but when they have ceased to hear, as if they had never heard those same words of life, they return to iniquity.

The Gentile people, as a devoted hearer of the holy Church, was ready to hear and prompt to act. Fittingly, therefore, it is added: (Verse 11.) But the boy Samuel was a minister in the sight of the Lord, before the face of Eli the priest.

As if it were said plainly: From what he heard, he strove to please almighty God. He is fittingly called a boy, because although he had undertaken great things to be done for the defense of our faith, yet in that same generation of faith he was still new. And because he offered a pleasing ministry to almighty God, he was a minister in the sight of the Creator. For he is in the sight of the Lord whom the divine favor gladly looks upon in the offering of his services. And indeed, one who greatly fears being driven from that sight of the Lord prays, saying: Cast me not away from your face (Psalm 50:13). And again, one who earnestly desires to be received into it reckons with himself the delay of his postponement, saying: When shall I come and appear before the face of God? (Psalm 41:3). Hence Elijah boasts, and says: As the Lord lives, in whose sight I stand (1 Kings 17:1). Samuel, therefore, was a minister in the sight of the Lord, because in the services of the new religion the Gentile people was greatly acceptable to almighty God. By this same word the rejection of Judea is also hinted at in secret, since Samuel alone, in whom the faithful people of the Gentiles is expressed, is said to minister before the Lord. He alone, therefore, was in his sight, because surely the Jewish people had ceased to please him. The Lord speaks of both through Malachi.

For, intimating the rejection of Judea, he says: I have no will in you, and I will not accept a sacrifice from your hand (Mal. 1:10). But he who drove the Jewish faithlessness from his face, whom he gladly beholds, adds, saying: From the rising of the sun even to its setting, great is my name among the Gentiles, and in every place a clean offering is offered to my name (ibid., 11). But it must be carefully observed what is said: Before the face of Eli Samuel ministered to the Lord, because the order of the ancient teachers, seeing far in advance, knew and foretold in prophecy that the ministry of the holy Church of preachers would bring the conversion, love, and reverence of the Gentile people toward obedience to the Redeemer. For it knew him to be ready in the Lord's ministry, who said: All the kings of the earth shall adore him, all the Gentiles shall serve him (Ps. 71:11). Hence Haggai speaks, saying: The Desired of all the Gentiles shall come, and the house of the Lord shall be filled with glory (Hag. 2:8). Hence Isaiah says: There shall be a root of Jesse, who shall rise up to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope (Isa. 11:10; Rom. 15:12). Hence the Psalmist says: Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and praise him together, all you peoples (Ps. 116:1). Hence the patriarch Jacob says: He himself shall be the expectation of the Gentiles (Gen. 49:10). Before the face of Eli, therefore, the boy Samuel was a minister of the Lord, because what the Gentile people afterward had that was worthy of God, the order of the ancient teachers foresaw through the spirit of prophecy.

And immediately concerning those cast off it is added: (Vers. 12, 13.) Now the sons of Heli did not know the Lord, and the office of the priest toward the people.

You understand "they were." For who are the sons of Heli other than the Israelites according to the flesh, who knew the sacred Scripture produced by the fathers, and yet did not know him whom the Scripture had promised? Whom indeed the Truth himself rebukes in the Gospel, saying: Abraham rejoiced that he might see my day; he saw it, and was glad (John 8:56). And the same: If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also, for he wrote of me (Ibid. 5:46). They did not know the Lord, therefore, who despised the Redeemer coming in our flesh. Whence through Isaiah he complains, saying: The ox knows its owner, and the ass the manger of its lord; but Israel has not known me (Isa. 1:3). As if he should say: I opened the ways of my incarnation to him long beforehand through the prophets, and yet he did not accept what I had promised when it was shown. Therefore he also did not know the office of the priests toward the people. For he would have known the priestly office, if he had proclaimed that he who had been promised by the law and the prophets had already come for the redemption of the human race. And because he not only did not believe in him but even raged against him in persecution, he did not know the Lord, nor the office of the priests toward the people. Yet his malice would be less, if he who was unwilling to benefit the lesser by proclaiming the Redeemer's advent had feared to harm. It follows, therefore, and it says: (Vers.

(13, 14.) But whoever had sacrificed a victim, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was being cooked, and he had a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he cast it into the cauldron, or the pot, or the kettle, or the pan, and whatever the fork lifted up, he took for the priests.

For what is it to sacrifice a victim, if not to offer the confession of true faith to almighty God? And what are the vessels in which the flesh is cooked by sacrificing, if not the minds of the faithful? While they believe that the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is the true Only-begotten of the supreme Father, the flesh is surely cooked in them, which is sacrificed to God through the service of intimate devotion. Who is the priest's servant but the people subject in service to the faithless pastors of the Synagogue? He is aptly called a servant, because while he preferred to hold to the weak letter of the law, he refused to grow into a perfect man through the Gospel. But what is it that he is appointed to bring in by seizing foods? What is it again that in the violence brought in he is said to hold a three-pronged fork? But the food is the person of the Redeemer of the chosen soul. And this food is certainly cooked in the sacred vessels, when through the heat of the Holy Spirit it is prepared for the sweetness of refreshment in chosen minds. For the flesh is cooked, when through the grace of the Holy Spirit we both firmly believe and effectively confess that the Lord's humanity was assumed into the nature of divinity.

Hence he also indicates through Moses that the flesh of the paschal Lamb is to be eaten, saying: You shall not eat of it raw, or boiled in water (Exod. 12:9). For to eat of it raw is to believe our Redeemer to be a mere man without the grace of the Holy Spirit. But it is boiled in water when the essence of the Redeemer is sifted by human wisdom. The Jews, then, eat it raw, the heretics boiled in water, because the former deny his divinity, while the latter by human wisdom empty out the sacraments of his divinity and humanity. And so the priest's servant is sent to take away the food of the faithful, because the people of the Jews, driven out from faith in the Redeemer, strenuously strove to take away the love of faith in him from the heart of the faithful. He is fittingly said to have had a three-pronged fork in his hand, with which he might pierce whatever part of the flesh he could and, having drawn it out, prevent it from being cooked. For the fork brought in the hand of the servant is the persecution of the Jewish people against holy Church. And because it attempted to harm the faithful by flatteries, punishments, and terrors, the fork certainly had three prongs. And it is well said that whatever the fork lifted, the priest's servant took away, because it would have been a great banquet for the wicked prelates if, together with the crowd of flattering or raging attendants, he should overthrow one whom they had known by confession to stand in the height of our faith. It follows: (Vers. 14, 15.) Thus they did to all Israel who came to Shiloh, even before they burned the fat.

The fat is indeed the inner richness, in which is expressed that devotion of mind by which the minds of the elect are joined to their Creator in more perfect charity. Those who now sacrifice properly cooked flesh are those who cannot rise to the sublimity of charity unless they first love the mysteries of the incarnate Godhead which they believe. For to believe that the humanity of the Lord Jesus was assumed into the Godhead through the Holy Spirit—this is to cook the flesh that is to be offered to God. Therefore, before the fat was burned, the servant was eager to snatch the flesh in all Israel, because the attendants of the Synagogue thought to overthrow the new confessors of Christ before perfect charity could unite them to almighty God. The words of the sacred history themselves indicate this more plainly, where it is said: While the flesh was being cooked. By these words, to be sure, not the completion of the cooking but the preparation is indicated. But the order of this wicked exaction is shown by what follows: (Verse 15.) The servant of the priest would come and say to the one sacrificing: Give me flesh, that I may cook it for the priest; for I will not receive cooked flesh from you, but raw.

He would give raw flesh to the boy, who before persecutors asserted the pure humanity of Christ, and the boy would cook it for the priest, because through the fire of malice the Jewish people thought that this was what its prelates would gladly receive in the refreshment of their mind. The priest's boy therefore came and asked for raw flesh, when the Jewish people, serving the letter of the law, suggested to the faithful that they should deny the divinity of the Redeemer. Coming, then, he says: I will not accept cooked flesh from you, but raw. Because the one whom the faithful man compelled him to confess as a pure man, he was unwilling even to hear to be God. Indeed, the importunity of this people is shown when sacrilegious words are doubled in their shameless demand. For it follows: For I will not accept cooked flesh from you, but raw. Because Jesus the Lord, as our Redeemer—not as Lord and man, but only as a pure man—he greatly desired to hear. But those whom he tested as if imperfect in the flesh, he found perfect. For those who were compelled to deny the divinity of the Redeemer not only refused to deny the Redeemer, but strove to draw their compellers to life. Hence it also follows: And he said to him as he was sacrificing: Let the fat be burned first according to the custom today, and take for yourself as much as your soul desires.

For he strives to turn away the one demanding raw flesh with a bestial appetite, promising him cooked flesh according to his desire. It is as if holy Church were giving an answer to the badly hungry Jews, and in place of the simple humanity they long to devour with desire, she sends back the food of divinity, saying: "First let that be cooked which you may have for the refreshment of life—understanding in the Holy Spirit." Was it not then that the priest's boy sought raw flesh, when to him who had been born blind and was enlightened by the Lord it was said: "Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner" (John 9:24)? What is it to say "Give glory to God" but that you should not attribute the praises of your healing to this man, because he is not God? And he who is declared a sinner is denied not only to be God but even to be a just man. To him, indeed, she was unwilling to offer the raw flesh he sought; she offered cooked flesh, since she steadfastly proclaimed him the author of her salvation. By showing the sign of such great admiration, she demonstrated that he is not only a holy man but true God. But the people who had begun, with reason lost, to follow the beasts, was importunately demanding that raw flesh be set before them. For it follows: (Verse 16) "Now you shall give it, otherwise I will take it from you by force." It follows: (Verse 17) "For the sin of the boys was very great before the Lord.

And he adds the reason by which it is shown that this would be a great sin, saying: (Verse 17.) Because they drew men away from the sacrifice of the Lord.

A sin is recognized as exceedingly great when it is not wiped away by the tears of penitence. For the prophet, beholding this exceedingly great sin of the Synagogue, said: The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, in the nail of adamant (Jeremiah 17:1). Or certainly it was an exceedingly great sin before the Lord, because it drew others away to sin. Wherefore it is also added: Because they drew men away from the sacrifice of the Lord. For they drew men away from the sacrifice, because they prevented the hearts of the weak from advancing to the confession of right faith. And it is to be noted that those who are drawn away from the sacrifice are called men, because surely if they persisted in the true confession of our faith, the divine word would mark them with the name of sons of God. To whom indeed the Lord says through the Psalmist: I said, you are gods, and all sons of the Most High; but you shall die like men (Psalm 81:6-7). Then follows: (Verse 18.) But Samuel was a minister in the sight of the Lord, a boy girded with a linen ephod.

A linen garment is recognized as finer than a woolen one. And Samuel is fittingly said to have been clothed in a linen ephod, by whom the order of priests chosen from the nations is designated. For in comparison with the legal life, the new way of life of the Gospel is the fineness of linen. For there something animal was commanded; there everyone is cursed by whom no seed of offspring is left in Zion. But in the New Testament, because all things are finer, whoever makes use of its precepts is adorned as with a more delicate linen garment: for there abstinence from marriage is condemned, here it is honored with wondrous praises; there priests generate carnally, here they bring forth the fruit of spiritual offspring all the more abundantly in that even through the good of conjugal life they cannot experience losses of chastity. And well is it, when Samuel's garment is set forth, that it is stated to have been linen, so that it might openly show the glory of the new priesthood, because it shone with the brightness of new chastity. But when Samuel is said to be in the sight of the Lord as a minister, he is recorded as girded with a linen ephod, because divine services are then well performed when the person of the performer is not defiled by the filth of carnal pleasure; and then is the gift of ministry acceptable to God, when through the purity of holy conduct the person of the minister is pleasing to God. And because he was advancing among the first beginnings of his newness, it follows still: (Verse.

19. And his mother made him a small tunic, which she brought to him when she went up with her husband to offer a solemn sacrifice to the Lord.

To offer sacrifice to the holy Church is to kindle the hearts of her hearers into love of their Creator through the words of preaching. So then, a small garment is reported to have been brought to Samuel because, while he was advancing through the increases of his newness, he received from the Church marks of righteousness suited to his smallness, by whose splendor he might shine. It follows: (Verse 20.) And Heli blessed Helcana and his wife, saying: May the Lord give you offspring from this woman, for the thigh which you have dedicated to the Lord.

ii. Because in the person of Heli the priest the good teachers of the ancient people are also designated, he is known to have blessed Helcana and his wife, since indeed the order of those ancient teachers foresaw the spiritual union of Christ and the holy Church, and with devotion preached the future offspring of those elect, worthy of heaven. Although this was done long before, nevertheless he then made known that he had thus blessed them, when, with the grace of our redemption now revealed, every faithful person could believe that our ancient fathers foretold so many good things concerning this renewal. And so that the order in which it happened might be recognized, it is added: (Verse 20.) And they went away to their place.

To go to her place with her husband, for the holy Church, is sometimes to flee the troubles of the active life and to be free for the joys of the heavenly life through contemplation. That mother had, as it were, left the child for a time—she who said: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). Was she with the child when love's force had carried that same outstanding teacher all the way to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2-4)? Was she then with the child when, received into paradise, he heard words that it is not lawful for a man to speak, and was caught up to his place, because he declared, saying: We have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come (Heb. 13:14)? But she who went with her husband to her place—maternal affection compelled her to return to her son. For he spoke and said: To remain in the flesh is necessary for your sake (Phil. 1:24). It follows: (Verse 21.) Therefore the Lord visited Anna, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters.

In the three sons, all the more perfect members of the holy Church are designated, who are known always to have done mighty deeds for the faith of the Trinity. But if the holy Church bore only the perfect, our weakness could not attain to the rewards of eternal life. The frailty, then, of the two daughters follows the strength of the sons, because the holy Church, even though she has brought forth strong men against the proud enemy of the human race, nevertheless even her weak members are led to the joys of the eternal fatherland through the two precepts of charity. And because in the beginnings of his initiation, whoever had begun at that time to be instructed for the priestly ministry did not always remain, it follows: (Verse 21.) And the boy Samuel was magnified in the sight of the Lord.

In this place it must be very carefully noted that Samuel is called a boy and is magnified. But even when he is declared magnified, he is said to have this proclamation of his virtue not in the sight of men but in the sight of the Lord. Why then a boy, unless because he had been raised up to the height of perfection? Samuel, then, is called both a boy and magnified in the sight of the Lord, because the new order of preachers, even though it has reached the height of a great manner of life, has not lost the virtue of its humility. To be magnified before God would surely be of no profit if he ceased to be a boy, because, with humility lost, he could not please almighty God by the loftiness of his manner of life.

Finally, they had already been magnified, who were casting out demons from the possessed in the name of Jesus; but because they had lost the good of their childhood, the Truth reproves them, saying: I was seeing Satan falling like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18). Hence again, declaring, it says: Unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3). Therefore, because the life of new preachers is both sublime in merit and level through humility, Samuel is fittingly declared both magnified and a child. And because by both he was greatly accepted by God, he is reported to have been magnified not simply, but in the sight of the Lord. It follows: (Verse 22.) But Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing in all Israel, and how they were sleeping with the women who were watching at the door of the tabernacle.

In the person of Eli is figured not only the old priesthood, but also the teachings of the ancient fathers, because from the fact that he presided with spiritual dignity, he received this duty of office, that by saving preaching he might instruct those for whom he offered appeasable sacrifices to the Lord. What is it, then, that Eli is declared old, except that in the hearts of the reprobate Jews the strength of the heavenly commandments is weakened? Eli was indeed young as long as the sacred Scripture obtained the force of great authority in the elect of the Synagogue, because, namely, it had received the promises of the coming Redeemer, and was awaiting him with great desire.

Therefore Heli grew old at that time when Judaea lost its devotion to observing the promise, so that it might see before its eyes the Redeemer desired by its fathers proving himself by miracles, and yet, wholly blind in the midst of such great light, it doubted the presence of the truth. He is said also to have been very old, so that it may be shown that all the strength of faith in the Synagogue had withered away. But we say truly that if Heli was very old, he was living altogether weakly. For what was it then for the old man to live according to the Scripture, except to minister to the Synagogue a very feeble breath of faith? He could indeed be very old and live, when the hearts of the Jews wavered, so that they neither believed the Lord Jesus to be the true Redeemer, nor openly condemned him as a blasphemer. For the Evangelist John shows the weakness of this old age, saying: Some were saying, He is good; but others were saying, No, but he seduces the crowds (John 7:12). Hence the Jews themselves, putting forth the cunning of their craftiness, say: How long will you take away our souls? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly (John 10:24). Hence also they say: Master, we wish to see a sign from you (Matthew 12:38).

But Heli, very old, heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel. He certainly heard this, because he knew it. For what we have come to know, we keep shut within the chambers of memory. But the sacred utterances, when consulted, bring forth outwardly all the faithlessness of the Jews written within them, and display it as though long preserved in memory. This is truly the knowledge of his hearing. Amos, as though attributing it to Heli, says: The Lord will not do a word upon the earth, which he has not revealed to his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). Hence Habakkuk confesses to the only-begotten God, saying: Lord, I have heard your hearing, and I feared; I considered your works, and I trembled; in the midst of two living creatures you will be made known (Hab. 3:1, from the interpretation of the LXX). For the old teachers of the Synagogue to hear the crimes of the sons is to foreknow them. But he who has foreknown makes them known, for he says: All that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they slept with the women who watched at the door of the tabernacle. For to sleep with the women is for the Jews to be defiled by various heresies. Well, moreover, are those women said to watch at the door of the tabernacle. For what is the door of the tabernacle but the spiritual meaning of the letter of the law? But the Jews, while they understand the sacred Scripture according to the letter alone, have established heresies there, from which they could have entered into the secret of the true faith. For just as through the door one enters the inner parts of the tabernacle, so through the letter of sacred Scripture one enters into the spiritual knowledge of the Redeemer.

Therefore, because Judea is deceived by the observance of the letter, the women are said to keep watch at the door, not inside the tabernacle. And because in all the Scriptures the Jews contradict our Redeemer, it is not said that there was one woman, but many. These things the sons of Heli indeed do to themselves, because according to the voice of the prophet: The soul that has sinned, it shall die (Ezek. 18:4, 20); but they are said to do them to all Israel, because while the prelates perish in the night of their error, the lesser ones are wrapped in the blindness of their darkness. With the women, therefore, the sons of Heli sleep, because the reprobate Jews are polluted by the admixture of their heresies even to the end of the world. They sleep also because, although they are overwhelmed by the most grievous night of their error, through Elijah they are nonetheless to be roused to faith in the Redeemer at the end of the world (Matt. 17:11). It follows: (Verse 23.) And he said to them: Why do you do such things, which I hear to be most wicked from all the people?

Behold, Eli was old, and he spoke sharply, because the power of the sacred word, even if it fails in the heart of the reprobate, nevertheless before those who understand rightly searches out the faults of the Jews with subtlety. For examining strictly, he says: Why do you do such things, which I hear to be most wicked from all the people? But he who, inquiring, asks Why do you do? plainly shows that they rush into the night of heresy without the discernment of reason. But he says that they themselves have done the most wicked things which he heard, and he asserts that those very things are most wicked from all the people. What is this, except that the whole body of the Jewish people had fallen into the depths of heresies? But the cause of that ruin was reprobate priests. Whence also Hosea, prophesying, says: The cause of the ruin of the people is evil priests (Hosea 5:1). For the subject people fell for this reason, because they strove to imitate their leaders as they rushed headlong. When, therefore, he says: which I hear to be most wicked from all the people, those things ought to be understood as done by the people, not as reported. Which is as if he said: The most wicked things, which I hear are done by all the people, why do you do them? Whence also, immediately making clearer what he has said, he says: (v. 24) Do not, my sons; the report is not good, which I hear of you, that you make the people of the Lord transgress.

But in what way would the people transgress the Lord's commandments if they themselves slept with women? But because this was happening to them in figure, it was certainly prefiguring what was to happen at the time of the Lord's Incarnation. For when priests sleep with women, their subjects transgress the Lord's commandments, because while the prelates are defiled by the admixture of heresies, the reprobate multitude of the subject Synagogue is plunged into the same stench. He says therefore: Why do you do these things of this kind, which I hear, the worst things from all the people? Which is as if he were to say: You sin all the more gravely, the more foully you defile the whole people with your crime. Something similar is also said through the prophet: From Dan, he says, the rumbling of his chariots and horses has been heard (Jeremiah 8:16). In which place, to be sure, it is not to be understood that he reports a sound heard from Dan, but that he himself, raging with chariots and horses, produces the very sound that is heard. In this place it is also to be noted that he who reported that he had heard the worst things from all the people added words of gentle affection, saying: Do not, my sons; the report is not good which I hear about you, that you make the people of the Lord transgress. And indeed Eli reproved sharply and admonished gently, because Scripture, declaring both the error of the ancient fathers and of the Jewish people, rebukes, and from the night of that same error of theirs, with kindly affection, calls to the day of true faith.

He indeed calls them sons, so that they may recognize that they ought to be heirs of the paternal promise; and they should receive the Savior of the world all the more devoutly, the more they know that his promise was made to the fathers. But also, desiring to recall them from the audacity of sin, he adds the reason, saying: (Verse 25.) If a man has sinned against a man, God can be appeased for him; but if he has sinned against God, who will pray for him?

To sin man against man is for a human being to act perversely against a human being. What is it, then, that he says, God can be appeased for him, except that such sins were light in comparison with those which the Jews were thinking to commit against the Son of God? For they were sinning against God, because the one whom they were striving to kill had shown by the most manifest light of miracles that he himself was God. This indeed the Lord showed through himself, saying: If I had not done works among them which no one else did, they would not have sin (John 15:24). And to show the implacability of God the Father, he adds, saying: But now they have no excuse for their sin, because they have seen and hated both me and my Father (Ibid.). This is therefore as if he were saying: By whose prayer is that sin forgiven which is committed against the very one who forgives? Who will entreat the omnipotent Father for him who condemns the coeternal Only-begotten to death? For he would say nothing more plainly than if he were to confess, saying: This one, whom you persecute as a mere man, is also God.

The law of reason therefore demands that whoever persecutes the Creator be deprived of pardon. But divine mercy draws back the strictness of reason; for it shows the equity of the law, yet did not hold the force of its extended assertion in the execution of the promulgated right. For by the rigor of equity it was decreed that no one should attain the obtaining of indulgence by any prayer; but for those whom no human prayer sufficed, the mercy of the Redeemer did not fail. Every man who prays for his transgressions is taken away; but for those whom no man was sufficient, God himself made man became a merciful intercessor. For hanging on the cross he prayed, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. God was therefore appeased toward those who sinned against God, not by another's prayer, but by his own. But God was appeased not toward all, but toward certain ones. For some persecutors of the Lord were converted by the preaching apostles, but the rest perished. For Luke mentions these, saying: The number of them was made five thousand. But concerning the reprobate it is added: And they did not hear the voice of their father, because the Lord wished to kill them.

Through the prophet the Lord declares, saying: I do not wish the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (Ezek. 18:23; and 33:11). How then does it fit him to wish to kill the sinner, and not to wish the death of the sinner? But in the aforesaid testimony there follows that by which the truth may be recognized; for it says: But that he be converted and live. For he who wishes the sinner to live so that he may be converted, if divine foreknowledge knows him to be unconvertible, he kills him. The Lord therefore wishes to kill, but those whom he foreknows to be unwilling to be converted. For he is proclaimed merciful and just when the Prophet entreats him: O Lord, he says, deliver my soul; our God is merciful and just (Ps. 114:5). Through mercy, indeed, he awaits the conversion of sinners; through justice he condemns the unconverted. Through mercy he wishes sinners to be converted and to live, but through justice he wishes to punish those who were unwilling to be converted; in mercy he saves only the willing, in justice he condemns the unwilling. When he is therefore said to wish to kill, the greatest and incorrigible impiety of sinners is shown, which is punished by the voluntary execution of divine justice. Thus indeed we see even the most dutiful judges of secular affairs act, who would wish that no one offend, so that they themselves should have to punish no one; but when crimes are boldly committed by the wicked, they voluntarily punish those whom they would more gladly have willed not to have committed things deserving punishment. In contrast to this, that is seen in this place, because he does not say.

Because they were unwilling to hear the voice of the correcting father, but: They did not hear, because the Lord wished to kill them. But one who rightly considers the equity of the divine examination thinks it makes no difference whether someone is killed, or is left in that crime in which he is destroyed by eternal reprobation. It is as if he were saying: So great was the magnitude of the guilt that they both received the warnings of conversion and were in no way able to rise from the pit of their death; and those who had drunk the sea of God's wrath had, for the accumulation of their damnation, not only the punishment of the crime committed, but also the added vengeance of the preaching they despised. But why do we marvel at this concerning the past, which we see happening even now: namely, Eli admonishing his sons who despised him, and the Lord wishing to kill them? For what else does sacred Scripture daily instill into the Jews but the darkness of their own error? Indeed, it does not so proclaim the Redeemer through hidden and spiritual understandings as not to show plainly his incarnation, nativity, passion, resurrection, and ascension to the heavens. Nor are they so irrational as not to see that such excellent goods fit the Redeemer; but nevertheless they are blind, so that they hear that the signs promised to their fathers shone forth in the Redeemer, and they do not believe. Blind, therefore, they are not only in seeing the promises, but in not believing what was fulfilled. Why do they not hear the voice of Scripture admonishing them, except because the Lord wishes to kill them? Nor is it surprising, however, if they perish by his judgment whose Only-begotten they killed.

For by the strictness of deep equity it is dealt with the people of the Jews, that they may hear the warnings of life daily, with the Scriptures speaking, and yet by no means believe the Scriptures when they warn. But, the perfidy of the Jews being repelled, he sets forth by what successes the order of holy preachers prevails among the nations, saying: (Verse 26.) But the boy Samuel was advancing and growing, and was pleasing both to God and to men.

He was indeed advancing by the gain of preaching, he was growing by the number of ministers. For the Apostle glories concerning his advance, saying: From Jerusalem even to Illyricum I have filled up the Gospel of Christ (Rom. 15:19). Luke also records the manner of the growing, saying: As the number of the disciples was growing, there arose a murmuring of the Greeks against the Hebrews, because their widows were despised in the ministry (Acts 6:1). And a little after: They chose, he says, Stephen, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Prochorus, and the rest (Ibid., 5). These they set before the sight of the apostles, and praying they laid hands upon them. Likewise concerning this advance of the new preachers it is written: Their sound went forth into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the circle of the earth (Ps. 18:5).

But it must be carefully considered what is said: He was pleasing both to God and to men. A teacher pleases men when he presents himself to his subjects as venerable and adorned with good character; but he pleases God when he shuns glorying vainly in his good conduct and desires to obtain the praise of God alone. He says therefore: He was pleasing both to God and to men, because some preachers put forward a pretext of holiness which they do not possess. These, then, because they please men, displease God; but in the figure of the new and chosen preacher, it is now said of Samuel: He was pleasing both to God and to men. They indeed show themselves venerable to their subjects, and they offer to God the purity of their intention. He had striven to please men who said: We are the good odor of Christ in every place (2 Cor 2:15), and again: I became all things to all men, that I might save all (1 Cor 9:22). He also taught his hearers to please men, saying: Be without offense to the Jews and to the Gentiles, as I also please all men in all things, not seeking what is profitable to me, but what is profitable to many (2 Cor 10:32-33). But he who had suggested that he pleased men commends the purity of his heart, saying: This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor 1:12). HE WAS PLEASING both to God and to men. He who was the new order of preachers showed himself outwardly venerable to his hearers for imitation, and inwardly acceptable to God through the innocence of his will. It follows: (Verse 27.) The man of God came to Eli.

What is represented by this man of God, if not that venerable company of the holy apostles? He is certainly called a man of God for the excellence of his holiness, because the summit of rank that he had ascended in the prelacy of the whole world he ordered with an equal sublimity of virtue. He came to Eli then, when he came to announce the rejection of the Synagogue to its priests. It follows: And he said to him: Was I not openly revealed to the house of your father, when he was in Egypt in the house of Pharaoh, and I chose him from all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, that he might ascend to my altar, and burn incense to me, and carry the ephod before me, and I gave to the house of your father all things from the sacrifices of the children of Israel.

Because Judaea is rejected by divine judgment, it is shown how wonderfully the severity of that same judgment was brought about by a disposition of equity. For first the gifts conferred on Eli are enumerated, so that while the almighty God is shown to be so kind a giver, it may be known how justly he strikes the one who despises him. He declared that he had revealed himself to the house of his father, so that he might not have an excuse of ignorance. He taught that he had shown that same knowledge of his revelation to him in Egypt, so that Eli might by no means think that he had obtained it for himself by his own merits. As if he were saying openly: There I offered myself to be known to him, where he could forget me, and did not know how to remember me.

And lest the gifts of divine knowledge themselves should perhaps seem small to me, he is declared to have been taken from the other tribes of Israel to the summit of the priesthood. As if he were saying: I preferred him to those to whom he was not superior but equal.

But it must be noted that in the office of the priesthood itself three things are denoted. That he should ascend, he says, to my altar, and burn incense to me, and carry the ephod before me. But what is shown in this altar, if not that stone which the patriarch Jacob set up as a monument? And what other is this stone than that which Paul proclaims in praise of the faithful, saying: Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone? Therefore the father of Heli was chosen by the Lord into the priesthood so that he should ascend to the altar, because the order of the ancient teachers was set over the people subject to it for this purpose, that it might proclaim the reparation of the human race to come in the advent of the Redeemer. And he burned incense, because by desire he joined the hearts of his hearers to him whom he proclaimed as the future Redeemer. He also carried the ephod, because by the desire of so great an expectation he offered the ornament of a worthy manner of life. He would indeed burn incense and not carry the ephod, if he kindled the hearts of his hearers to desire of the Redeemer to come, from whom he himself differed by the unevenness of a foul manner of life.

And because almighty God was seeking the truth of religion, and not its outward pretense, before himself and not before the people, he declared that he had commanded him to wear the ephod before him. To wear the ephod before the Lord is indeed to seek the recompense of divine goodness alone from the innocence of one's life. But these things are plainly said as a reproach against Heli. For he does not ascend to the altar who did not at all preach to the people subject to him that priesthood which presided over the Synagogue in the time of manifested truth, when the Redeemer of the human race shone forth with so great a magnitude of signs. And he did not burn incense to God, because he stirred up the people to persecution of him, and not to love. He also despised wearing the ephod before the Lord, because he shone with no truth of religion. For even if that adornment of life displayed certain marks of honesty, it was from a pretense of deceit, not from an intention of charity. Hence the Lord also reproaches this very thing in them, saying: Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, because you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful to men; but inwardly they are full of the bones of the dead (Matthew 23:27). But to him to whom he provided so many spiritual things, he would seem to have given less, unless he also bestowed temporal things. Hence it is also added: And I gave to the house of your father all things from the sacrifices of the children of Israel.

As if reckoning it to him by open accusation, he says: In nothing did I fail him; I provided the heights of spiritual honor and power, and for his temporal needs I supplied an abundance of earthly plenty. But let us now hear, from the one who already enumerates in order the gifts conferred, the boldness of his transgression, which he seeks out by the urgency of his examination. For it follows: (Vers. 29.) Why do you spurn my victim with the heel, and my gifts, which I commanded to be offered in the temple?

For why does he not say "judge," except as one who examines urgently? And he who is reproved for having spurned God's victim with the heel and for his gifts is judged to have done injury either to him or to the counsel of reason. But it must be noted that he speaks in the plural number: Why have you spurned my victim with the heel, so that what is said appears to pertain not only to Heli but also to his sons. For wild animals are accustomed to repel with the heel those things that cling to them. For what other victims were there for the faithful than to persist in the praises of their Redeemer, to preach that Christ Jesus submitted to death for the salvation of the world, and by rising again restored the life of the human race? And what other gifts of theirs were there than, for such great benefits conferred on them, to offer ceaselessly to almighty God acts of thanksgiving? These indeed the sons of Heli repelled with the heel, because in their rejection of the new preaching they did not follow the counsel of reason through the sacred utterances, but the impulse of savagery.

For the Truth began to recall them from irrational savagery to the intent of rational counsel, saying: Search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness concerning me (John 5:39). Hence here too it is said: Which I commanded to be offered in the temple. For in the law, the psalms, and the prophets it had been written concerning the passion and resurrection of the Lord and the state of the universal Church. Therefore the leaders of the Synagogue, with a heel, rejected the victim and the gifts of the Lord that were commanded to be offered in the temple of the Lord, because they strove to reject and cast off the preaching of the holy Church, not by weighing it with the authority of holy Scripture, but by the mere impulse of their own ferocity. For if they had consulted the precepts of God in the sacred word with an enlightened mind, they would have received as sent to them from God the holy preachers whom they fiercely cast off. But he who reproves the sons of Eli, that is, the old teachers of the lesser order, for irrational ferocity, also accuses the father himself of negligence, saying: (v. 29) You have honored your sons more than me.

As if openly rebuking them, he says: They rejected me, and you honored those who rejected me. He honored the sons more than God, because while he despised their open deeds when they were exposed, he nonetheless provided them with temporal profits. Hence he also adds: (Ver. 19.) That you might eat the firstfruits of every sacrifice of mine.

By these words he clearly seems to rebuke the higher order of the teachers, who for this reason consented to the death of the Redeemer, because they feared to lose the profits of the ancient offerings. Hence also, having taken counsel with the Pharisees, they said: What do we do, because this man performs many signs? If we let him go on like this, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation (John 11:47-48). And again: See that we profit nothing; behold, the whole world has gone after him (Ibid. 12:19). Therefore he honored the sons so that they might eat, because he fell silent from the intention of preaching, lest, while he asserted the truth of the new offering, he should no longer be able to have the old ones for the luxury of his pleasure. Therefore, since he has set forth the magnitude and quality of the guilt, let us now see with what great equity of examination he intimates the manner of vengeance. For adding, he says: (Ver. 30.) Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: I spoke, speaking, that your house and the house of your father should minister in my sight, from now on and forever. But now let this be far from me.

As if striking them with an open and fitting sentence, he says: You honored your sons, so that you ate the firstfruits of every sacrifice; but for this reason the rights of the firstfruits are taken from you, because they were honored unworthily. For what is it to say: Far be it from me that your house should minister in my sight, except: I cast you down from that height to which the rights of the firstfruits were owed? By a wondrous execution of equity, therefore, he was caught, who, in that he eagerly desired to eat the firstfruits, in that same matter was made to fast from the receiving of the firstfruits. For he endured the Redeemer to die, lest he should lose the priestly profits, but he received from the triumph of death that whereby he destroyed the emoluments of the old sacrifice. But he says: Speaking I spoke, that your house and your father's should minister in my sight; now however far be this from me. As if he were saying in more open words: That you might stand on so great a height of dignity, I frequently admonished you, but now you are not such as I desired you to be. And because this is said in the reprobation of the Jewish people, there is subjoined concerning the order of the new preachers: (Verse 30.) But whoever has glorified me, I will glorify him.

Now indeed we see the glory of the one who glorifies, because the preachers of holy Church sing the praises of almighty God with the great splendor of their life, and rejoice in their preeminence over the whole world. Behold, already the whole Gentile world is laid low beneath the footsteps of priests, and those whom it rejoices to obey it boasts that it possesses as patrons in the heavens. Therefore the Lord glorifies the one who glorifies him, because those from whom he daily receives devoted praises he raises up to the honor of the whole world. Is it not the glory of the glorified to remain on earth and to open heaven? To live the life of men in common, and to exhibit the heavenly thrones of the heavens to those subject to his authority of power? Indeed, he was glorifying the Lord who said: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. But the Lord glorified the one who glorified him, because he answered him, saying: To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven. But concerning the reprobate cast off from among the Jews it is added: But those who despise me will be ignoble.