In Librum Primum Regum Variarum Expositionum Libri Sex

But what is it that is said of the same cows, that they went forward, proceeding and lowing? They are said to proceed, because holy men do good things without ceasing; but they low, because they cannot extinguish carnal desires within themselves without great daily tribulation. For to low belongs to the labor of subduing the flesh; but to proceed belongs to perseverance of good will. For when the flesh is compelled to suppress carnal motions against nature, it lowing as it were as it proceeds, because it is forbidden to fulfill its own desires. Rightly indeed are these two things described in the advance of the saints, namely to proceed and to low. Because even if for those hastening to the heavenly fatherland there is a great and urgent desire, there is nonetheless invincible patience of labor. For concerning the cows proceeding, it is said through Ezekiel: They did not turn back when they went. And Paul also expresses the lowing of the cows, and the reason, saying: I see another law contradicting the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Therefore the cows low, but they proceed; because holy men, even if the temptations they endure are great, still do not abandon the way of the heavenly fatherland. Again they proceed, but they low: because even if with great desires they hasten to heavenly things, they nonetheless obtain the progress of the heavenly journey not from the quiet of peace, but from the triumph of temptation. It follows:

12. But the satraps of the Philistines also followed as far as the borders of Bethsames.

18. What are these borders, as far as which it is necessary for prelates to follow the advancing ark of God, and beyond which it is not fitting to proceed in the company of the ark of God? If we take these borders to mean instruction in sacred eloquence and good action, it does not seem contrary. But these are truly the borders of Bethsames, the borders of the princes who follow, when each one according to his measure is perfect over his subjects in the teaching of sacred eloquence and in the practice of good action. For by this the pastor is now made secure concerning it, in that he both cautiously beholds spiritual things and grasps by the strength of good work those things which he has learned by reason. These borders are said to be the borders of Bethsames: because, namely, when they worthily receive the learned workers of God, they lead them to the contemplation of the heavenly fatherland. For they are borders: because they both receive the worthy for contemplation and drive out the unworthy. For the unlearned, if they presume to raise themselves to contemplate heavenly things too subtly, wander astray by erring rather than apprehend the light of truth. And unless one first sends good works ahead, he brings it about that he never finds that clarity of inner vision which he desires.

Hence the Lord also in the Gospel, as though sending the lovers of the contemplative life to the borders of Bethsames, says: He who hears my words and does them, this is the one who loves me; but he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him (John 14:21). For in saying that he will manifest himself only to those who love him, he plainly teaches that he loves those who keep his commandments, because he does not grant the light of his hidden vision except as the reward of good works. It follows: (Verse 13.) Now the Bethsamites were reaping wheat in the valley.

For who can be more rightly understood as the Bethsamites than those who are already perfect men in the height of contemplation? For they are, as it were, from the house of the sun, who, having despised all earthly things, are illumined by the splendors of the true light. They are indeed from the house of the sun who, already buried to the whole world, burn with the flame of wondrous love to see the brightness of their Creator. For they ascend to his city in two ways: those who are led to the brightness of the heavenly fatherland both now through contemplation and at the end through the truth of glory; now they fly to the house of the sun by contemplating, but what they now behold by purity of mind, they then apprehend through the present joy of eternal recompense as the truth. Therefore the ark of God is brought to Bethsames when the elect mind is raised to eternal joys, either through the height of contemplation or through the receiving of recompense.

Since, then, we cannot know that eternal and ineffable location of the ark, let us hear what is said concerning this one that we do know. What is it, then, that the Bethsamites reap wheat in the valley, except that those devoted to the contemplative life gather the delights of inner refreshment in the strength of humility? For "valley" in the sacred eloquence designates the estimation of the humble, as the Psalmist testifies, who, speaking of the Lord, says: You send forth springs in the valleys. For he pours the infusion of supernal grace into minds disposed through humility. The Bethsamites, therefore, reap wheat in the valley: because those devoted to contemplation, while by the merit of humility they behold heavenly things more clearly, bind up sheaves of joys for the sweeter refreshment of minds. For wheaten bread, as it is more radiant in appearance, so is it more delightful in taste.

But perhaps, placed as we still are in this life, we do not yet eat the bread, but reap the ears; in that supernal life of blessedness, however, we eat not ears but bread. For in this life, when we are lifted up to contemplate eternal things, we strive to grasp the likenesses of supernal realities from these lowest and visible things: so that, according to the voice of the excellent teacher, we may know the invisible things of God from the creation of the world, through those things which are visible. Wherefore also that true Bethsamite, and the household servant of the Sun of justice, exulting, says: You have delighted me, O Lord, in your works, and in the works of your hands I will exult.

How magnificent are your works, Lord; your thoughts have become exceedingly deep. But while we receive the joys of invisible things in visible things, we still hold the wheat, as it were, among the chaff. Then, however, the wheat will be pure for us, or the bread from the wheat. For when death has already been swallowed up, in eternal life, with face unveiled, we shall see the Redeemer more clearly, and we shall not need the chests of similitudes for the knowledge of him. Well, therefore, is it said of the Bethsamites that they were reaping wheat in the valley: because perfect men, even if by the merit of humility they receive the sublimity of heavenly contemplation, cannot reach so far as to contemplate that pure substance of almighty God, but reap the refreshment of their mind still, as it were, among the chaff. The good of this humility is indeed designated when it is added: (Verse 13.) And lifting up their eyes they saw the ark of God.

They lift up their eyes, surely, because while they do not think highly of themselves, they are, in their own estimation, as it were on level ground. They lift up their eyes because those whom they see to be worthy by divine grace, they contemplate as placed on high on the summit of merits. But lifting up their eyes they see the ark: because the more humbly they cast themselves down in their own estimation, the better they can know the good things of their neighbors.

For that truth which by itself abandons the hearts of the proud also hides from them those gifts which it bestows on the humble, so that, as it were utterly blinded, they do not even see the sun now spread over the earth—they who have ceased to see the rays of its brightness in heaven. But since we have referred the return of the ark of God to the purpose of the contemplative life, the lifting up of the eyes as well can fittingly be referred to the study of discerning spirits. For the Bethsamites lift up their eyes when, by the purpose of a more hidden life, they consider with subtle inspection the gifts of those who flock to them; when with an intent mind they examine whether those who seek the purpose of a higher life by drawing near pursue it with a right and strong intention. To lift up their eyes, then, is for them to consider more deeply the spirit of the newcomers. But those who lift up their eyes look upon the threshing floor of God, because while they examine his turnings more subtly, they perceive that they shine with the grace of spiritual virtues. And because through the affection of love they rejoice over the good things of these that they have come to know, it is fittingly added: (Verse 13.) And they rejoiced when they had come.

It follows: (Verse 14.) And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and stood there.

If Beth-shemesh is interpreted as "house of the sun," the house of the sun is the heavenly city. This Joshua the Beth-shemite signifies the Redeemer of the human race, not so much by a figure as by the very name and dignity. For Joshua, in our speech, is called "savior." And the Lord says of himself: The Son of man came to seek and to save what had perished (Luke 19:10). Hence it is also that Joseph is promised in a dream through the angel: He will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). He also shows himself to be a Beth-shemite through himself, saying: I am the living bread that came down from heaven (John 6:41). Hence John the Baptist says: He who comes from heaven is above all (John 3:31). What, then, is the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite but the pleasantness of the contemplative life? For there the greenness of grasses, the fragrances of spices, and the varied beauty of flowers are seen; because, surely, the more clearly that heavenly fellowship is beheld, the more pleasingly is it shown to the eyes of those who contemplate—what blossoms incorruptibly for the angels, what grows green unfadingly for the saints, what gives forth fragrance inviolably in virgins. And well is that field said to be the Savior's; because the lovers of the contemplative life, the more secretly they dwell, the more pleasing and intimate they are to our Redeemer.

The cart also came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, when the mind chosen and separated from the world's intent strains toward the things of heaven, when it already enjoys heavenly things in the pleasantness of vision, because it deigns not to look upon earthly things through love. And it is to be noted that it was not stated very clearly above that this cart was new; because, surely, a mind dissolved by the oldness of sins does not deserve to be received into such great glory.

But the more hidden life has its delights in the pleasantness of vision, and has its great labor in the vigor of struggle; because, surely, just as we obtain divine rewards from triumph, so too we keep them by striving vigorously in battle. Well, then, is it added concerning the cart coming into the field of Joshua: And it stood there. For to stand belongs to the guarding of battle, not to the quiet of peace. The cart surely stood in the field, because although the mind, now delighting in the things of that heavenly and ever-green fatherland, dwells there by seeing and loving, yet what it delightfully possesses in the love of vision it by no means keeps without the anxiety of ceaseless care. But surely, placed in such a great struggle, the human mind would fail, if he who strengthened human weakness in his divinity did not offer it the aid of his presence. Therefore, also explaining the cause by which the cart was able to stand in the field, he added, saying: (Verse 14.) For there was a great stone there.

The great stone is understood to be the Redeemer of the human race. Of this stone it is said through the Psalmist: The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner (Ps. 117:22). Hence the distinguished teacher, praising them, says: Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20), in whom you also, as living stones, are being built up (1 Pet. 2:5). And it is called a great stone because it is proclaimed with incomparable strength. When, therefore, the cart is said to have come and stood in the field, it is added: There was a great stone there, so that by hidden mysteries it might signify that those devoted to the contemplative life are able to keep such great gifts because they are near, through grace, to the one from whom they received those same gifts. It follows: (v. 14) And they cut up the wood of the cart, and laid the cows upon it as a holocaust to the Lord.

What are the woods of the cart of the ark of God but the holy sentences of Scripture and the examples of the righteous? For the Bethshemites cut the wood when the superiors of the more hidden life open the sense of the Scriptures more subtly to the minds of their subjects, when they bring forth the more excellent examples of the Fathers for their imitation, so that in their hearts the flame of heavenly love burns the more fervently the more quickly they supply the kindling of the fire, as it were cut wood. For they are the wood of the cart because the mind renewed by God's grace retains them through memory. Concerning these woods indeed the holy lawgiver decrees, saying: Fire must always be on my altar, which the priest shall feed, supplying wood every morning throughout each day (Lev. 6:12). But that the wood is said to be cut indicates more plainly that to those seeking the purity of the contemplative life, not the common things of the sacred word but the deeper and more excellent things are to be disclosed, so that they may raise themselves up the more strongly by living on high, the more the nobler goods they hear please them. Hence it is well added: Because they placed the cows upon it for a burnt offering to the Lord. For a burnt offering is called a whole burnt offering. When, then, the wood is cut, burnt offerings are made from the cows placed upon it, because those who receive the most excellent things from the Scriptures with a devoted mind, the more deeply they stretch themselves out into heavenly desires, the more nothing in them is left behind that is not consumed by the flame of divine love.

And then indeed it is necessary for the teacher to take care that his religious subjects consider lofty things, and yet not hold lofty thoughts about themselves through self-estimation; lest, the higher they advance by seeing the heights, they be dashed down more perilously by falling through elation. Hence this too is added here: (1 Kings 6:15.) But the Levites took down the ark of God, and the little box that was beside it, in which were the golden vessels, and set them upon a great stone.

Levites is interpreted as "taken up." Who then are the Levites but those who have been so confirmed by divine grace that they can never be deserted by the Holy Spirit? For the Levites set down the ark when perfect preachers admonish their subjects that spiritual knowledge must by no means puff them up. They set down the little box too with the golden vessels when they also instruct them concerning the splendor of their life, so that they think more humbly of themselves in proportion as each one has learned that our Redeemer too has already attained the reward of his exaltation, because he did not think vainly lofty things about himself. Well then are the ark set down and the golden vessels placed upon a great stone recorded: because amid sublime gifts those can more truly think humbly of themselves who have often learned to recall the greatness and the humility of the Redeemer. For he wished to set down the ark of God and to place it upon a great stone who said: Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard being equal with God as something to be grasped; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man; he humbled himself, becoming obedient even to the death of the cross (Phil. 2:5). But those who, by the ministry of preaching, sacrifice the victim of love to God from the hearts of their subjects, present from their own minds as well gifts of offerings that are far more excellent. Hence it is added: (Verse 15.) But the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed victims to the Lord on that day.

On what day, if not on that day when they placed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord upon the wood of the cart? What then is that day, if not the illumination of divine preaching? For on that day the men of Beth-shemesh offer burnt offerings to the Lord, on that day they sacrifice victims when they cut the wood, when they place the cows upon it as a burnt offering to the Lord; because the holy preachers, by that light of the word with which they shine forth to their subjects, also furnish for themselves, unto the rectitude of the heavenly journey, the office of vision, and, having despised the lowest things, through the power of love they present themselves to almighty God all the more freely, the more they see that even their hearers are now joined to him in great familiarity. But because the men of Beth-shemesh are reported not only to have offered burnt offerings but also to have sacrificed victims, the spiritual offering of perfect men is signified.

For they offer holocausts when, through the ascent of contemplation, they join themselves to God Almighty with ineffable affection. But they join victims to the holocausts, because surely they refer the good of such great delight not to their own merits but to the divine goodness. Indeed, he offers a holocaust without victims who is joined to the highest things in great delight, and yet by the virtue of humility in no way masters the rising motions of hidden elation. In the offerings of the perfect, therefore, holocausts and victims are described as having come together, because they are worthy both to enjoy divine sweetness and, in all that already makes them wholly heavenly, to be ignorant of elation.

(Vers. 16.) And the five satraps of the Philistines saw, and they returned to Accaron on that day.

The satraps of the Philistines, as I already said above, are the chosen preachers of the Gentiles. They are surely contained in the number five, because they preside over the restraining of the five senses of the body, either for the faithful still unlearned or for the carnal. These indeed accompany the cart with the ark of God, because, passing over to the zeal of the spiritual life, they now follow after their instructed disciples with the care of their solicitude. But when Joshua drives the cart into the field and the cows are sacrificed, they return to Accaron, because when they have now considered their perfection, they no longer explore the paths of their conduct. But they return to Accaron because they turn back to convert others. For Accaron is called "sterile" in our speech.

They are also barren who either lack faith or good conduct. But when the princes are said to have returned, it is well added: In that day: because unless they recognized in them the brightness of such great perfection, they would not return from their anxiety to the certainty of security. It follows: (Vers. 17, 18.) These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for their trespass: for Azotus one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, and for Ekron one. And the golden mice, according to the number of the cities of the Philistines, of the five provinces, from the walled city to the village that was without a wall, and up to Abel the Great, upon which they set the ark of the Lord, which was until that day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.

What all these things signify has been set forth at length above. But what is it that, when the debt owed for the sin is commanded to be returned to the ark, five golden tumors and five mice are named together; yet when it is stated that what was owed has now been returned, the individual cities are reported to have returned one each separately? But they are named together above: because together the adornment of all the members was being shown, in the exchange of good works; here, however, when the debt returned to the ark is described, it is carefully shown: that the individual cities offered individual golden tumors and mice: so that, surely, it may be suggested to the converted sinner, that he should once for all abandon his sins, which through habitual depravity he should no longer seek.

For each city returns one emeroid and one mouse when converted sinners, having once wiped away their sins with the tears of penitence, do not repeat them. Whence also sacred Scripture admonishes, saying: Do not repeat a word in prayer (Sir 7:15). For he repeats a word in prayer who, having attempted to purge his sins by entreaties, nevertheless does not cease to commit other things for which he must pray. Such a one assuredly does not offer to God one emeroid and one mouse for his offense: because even if he is pricked by penitence, he multiplies the foulnesses which, confessing to God, he presents to him. When, therefore, the cities or provinces of the Philistines are described as having each returned one emeroid and one mouse, what else does this designate but the perfection of true conversion? For he is perfectly converted who, when he once bewails what he has done wickedly, does not repeat it again so as to bewail it a second time. Therefore he offers one emeroid and one mouse for his sin who so mourns past transgressions that he perfectly guards against future ones. And because this form of conversion is to be observed in the holy Church by the wise as well as the unlearned, by the strong as well as the weak, this discharge of debt is well said to be extended from a walled city even to a village without a wall. For no one established within the holy Church is free to sin, no one is innocent in committing wicked things. Wherefore the Lord threatens through the prophet, saying: The soul that has sinned, it shall die (Ezek 18:4). For walled cities are minds surrounded by the instruction of the holy Scriptures.

But the villages without a wall are simple minds. Therefore not only do individual cities return one golden emeroid, but villages do as well: so that whoever is converted to the religious life, with God as author, having already washed away his foulness, may not be defiled any further. And because no one is so holy that he does not have within himself something foul to lament, the payment of this debt is extended all the way to Abel the Great, upon whom they had placed the ark of God. For Abel is interpreted as mourning. It was, to be sure, by this name that the stone on which they had placed the ark of God was called. But this name truly befits our Redeemer: because, although he had no sins of his own to weep for, he nevertheless purged our sins by daily prayers and tears. There are also in the holy Church perfect men, and they are joined to that highest stone by the consummation of charity. For he was united to this stone who said: Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Let us hear how he pays the debt of the ark: First, he says, I was a blasphemer and a persecutor. Hence again, confessing, he says: I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. It is to be noted also that the debt of the ark is read to have run all the way to the stone which is remembered to have remained in the field of Joshua until that day, and on which the ark of God was placed.

In this matter what else do we hold but what we see in the holy Church: that those also make satisfaction to God for their guilt who, having been rescued from sins not only through God's grace, but also through the great heights of holy virtues, have been taken up into his tabernacle? It follows: (Ver. 19.) But the Lord struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had seen the ark of the Lord, and he struck down seventy men of the people and fifty thousand of the common folk.

Who are the struck-down Beth-shemites but heretics deceived by false contemplation? For the Beth-shemites were not of truth, but of presumption. Therefore, when they presumed to look upon the ark upon the stone, they were struck down: because when the unworthy examined the sacraments of our Lord and Redeemer, they were sunk into the snares of eternal damnation through the deceit of their own error. But what is it that seventy men were struck down from the people and fifty thousand from the common folk? But since by the designation "people" the nobles of cities are also included, while the "common folk" is the remaining rabble without the nobles, this can be gathered: that some of the heretics stood out among others, as it were nobles, who perished in the purity of their works by error alone; but the rest, as it were following the rusticity of the common folk, were darkened in the error of faith and in the filth of depraved action.

Hence some are expressed by the number fifty, others by the number seventy: because the former completed the sins they conceived through the five senses of the body; the latter, when they falsely ascribed to themselves the gifts of the sevenfold Spirit, were overwhelmed by the eternal darkness of blindness. And because the true faithful grieved over their being struck down, it follows: (Verse 20.) And the men of Beth-shemesh said: Who will be able to stand in the sight of this holy Lord God?

As if indeed the true faithful, but simple, were saying: If men so wise and such philosophers are deceived in the knowledge of the highest truth, when can the unlearned and simple come to the knowledge of it? But even if they distrust their own measure, they do not distrust that the gift of divine knowledge is present to the Church. Wherefore it is also added: (Verse 20.) And to whom will it ascend from us?

For the Lord ascends from us when that which is hidden from us concerning the knowledge of him is preached through the voice of the elect faithful. For it is as if he ascends from us when what he has concealed from the simpler, or the weaker, concerning eternal contemplation, he reveals to sublime hearts through humility. What then is it to say: To whom will it ascend from us: except to seek a worthy teacher, who so preaches divine things that he does not stray from the way of truth? In these words too, if we seek the historical sense, we clearly recognize: that those who died because they saw the ark of the Lord did not, we understand, deserve that vision.

Therefore rightly do those who see them struck down say: Who will be able to stand in the sight of the Lord, this holy God? For if those who are unworthy even to look die, how do those who handle [the sacred things] live? The Bethsamites indeed in the holy Church are dead priests and reprobate ministers of the sacred altar: because they are from the house of the sun of justice by the dignity of their ministry, not by the virtue and grace of holiness. They are indeed Bethsamites: because through the office of the sacred oblation they dwell in the house of God; but they are to be struck with a sharper condemnation the more they dare not only to see the sacred mysteries but to handle them, the more they no longer look upon the ark of the Old Testament, but—what surpasses all things—thrust themselves into the body and blood of the Redeemer: whom Paul indicates as struck down, saying: He who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself (1 Cor. 11:29). Truly the faithful say: Who will be able to stand in the sight of the Lord, this holy God? For they consider the height of so great an administration, and they dread the dignity of so great a sacrament. But while those who are able to perform it fear to undertake the office of so great a matter, they seek more worthy men. Hence it also follows: And to whom shall he ascend from us?

As if humbly fleeing the sacred mysteries, therefore, let them say: Because we are struck down for our weak manner of life, ministers must be sought from a higher life, whom, while their lofty conduct raises them to the highest sanctification of virtues, they may be able to stand before God through the office of so great an offering. It follows: (Ver. 21.) They sent therefore messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying: The Philistines have sent back the ark of the Lord; come down and bring it back to yourselves.

Kiriath-jearim is called their city. What is the city of the saints but that Jerusalem which is above? Who, then, are its inhabitants but perfect men, separated from the love of the world by a lofty manner of life? One of these, indeed, more effective than the rest, says: Our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). For messengers must be sent to such as these, that they may receive the ark of God, because for the election of priests the holy are not only to be received but also to be invited. And it is to be noted that to more exalted men it is said through messengers: Come down and bring it back. For they come down because they obey; for they would by no means come down if, with a proud mind, they refused to bestow what brotherly love seeks from them. Then indeed are they truly exalted, when they do not withdraw themselves from Christ; when they do not reject what is imposed on them by the judgment of their brethren. Hence it is fittingly added.

CHAPTER V.

(1 Samuel 7:1. Therefore the men of Kiriath-jearim came, and brought back the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Aminadab in Gibeah. But they sanctified Eleazar his son, that he might keep the ark of the Lord.)

Aminadab is interpreted as "my willing people"; Gibeah, "high." And surely the ark of God is to be entrusted to such people. For the willing people is the one whom good will alone draws to the performance of the works of the virtues, whom no necessity compels to fulfill the commandments of God. And blessed Paul indeed proclaims these under the description of one man, saying: God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). What is the house of the willing people, if not the stronghold of holy love? For in the service of the virtues one could not be willing, if he did not build for himself a dwelling of love. And this house is known to be situated in Gibeah, that is, in the high place: because by the height of charity we are raised up to heavenly things. Or certainly the house is in the high place because charity is preferred to all the virtues. For Paul, intimating the height of this sublimity, says: I show you yet a more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not charity, I have become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal (1 Corinthians 12:31; 13:1).

But what is it that they sanctify Eleazar to keep the ark of God? This, surely, we know from the practice of holy Church, that the chosen minister first receives the blessing of consecration from men of the highest rank before he undertakes the service of offering. But since Eleazar is called the helper of God, it is plainly shown that the ministers of God must not only be sanctified, but also be examined as to what sort they are before they are promoted to the order of that same consecration. For who are the helpers of God, if not those who, with divine grace, come together for ministry, and whom the condescension of almighty God visits within, while they themselves confirm it outwardly through ministry by living and teaching well? Whence also with Paul they say, not vainly boasting: For we are God's helpers (1 Cor. 3:9). These, surely, most strong in conduct, learned in knowledge, fervent in love, robust in constancy, not only do not need another's aid, but wherever they betake themselves, they can come to the aid of others. Well, then, is it said: They sanctified Eleazar, that he might keep the ark. Because those who still need the aid of others are not to be promoted to come to the aid of others. Well also is the same Eleazar said to be the son of Aminadab: because certainly he who is chosen for the ministry of preaching, placed in the imitation of the saints, ought to have all the aid he exhibits from love.

But since we said above that the cart is sacred Scripture and the ark the spiritual knowledge of it, and the cows the chosen souls, the fear of the Beth-shemites, which we showed to be in the elect at the offering of the sacrament, can also be referred to the burden of prelacy. For no less holiness is required for instructing souls than for offering the sacred mysteries. And therefore the Beth-shemites are said to have been struck down: because many live as subjects who die as prelates. For the ark of God has beauty even on the outside, and if a weak minister looks upon it not for spiritual veneration but for secular covetousness, he by no means lives. So the cause of their being struck down is well declared when it is said: Because they saw the ark of God. For what is "they saw" but that by seeing they coveted its glory? But now, by God's doing, throughout the whole world the glory of holy Church is abundant. And this glory, because it is sought in a secular way by reprobate priests, the men of Beth-shemesh die by seeing the ark of God on the outside. For they do not desire its spiritual honor for the inner glory of virtues, but to snatch the splendor of the ark of God and to bear the brightness of ecclesiastical prelacy in their own adornments amid the flower of the world. The ark of God is also wrongly looked upon from outside, to their being struck down, when shameful superiors, conquered by the outward appearance of the persons under them, are drawn away to carnal concupiscence.

Seeing the great multitude struck down by the weapon of desire, the men say in fear: Who will be able to stand in the sight of the Lord, this holy God? For he stands in the sight of God who is strong in the order of divine ministry. To stand is a matter of strength; to minister is a matter of service. Therefore he is said to stand in the sight of God who orders the rank of heavenly office in the height of worthy conduct; who in the ministry he performs is deceived by no appetite for ecclesiastical honor, overcome by no carnal desire. But because such fit ministers are rarely found, they rightly say: Who will be able to stand in the sight of the Lord, this holy God? And because they leave so great a burden to the stronger men, the little ones of Christ add: And to whom will he ascend from us? But how they sent to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, how they brought the ark of God into the house of Abinadab, how they sanctified Eleazar, as was explained above, we do not change.

(Verse 2.) And it came to pass, from the time that the ark of God remained in Kiriath-jearim, the days were multiplied.

If we look to the history, the days of the ark's dwelling were multiplied, because it was there for a long time. Hence it is also added: (Verse 2.) For it was the twentieth year.

And to what end he introduces this multiplication of days, he adds, saying: (Verse 2.) And all Israel rested after the Lord.

But this rest in that old people is to be understood not of good works, but of good devotion. For it follows: (Verse 3.) But Samuel spoke to the whole house of Israel, saying: If you return to God with your whole heart, put away the foreign gods from among you, the Baalim and the Astaroth; and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve him alone, and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.

How were those who had not put away the foreign gods from among them, except by good will, resting after the Lord? All these things, if they are examined spiritually, the days of the ark's dwelling are multiplied. But when it remains in Gahaa, when it remains in the custody of Eleazar; because when the care of faithful souls is laid up with religious preachers, the perfection of religion, which is bestowed by sublime teaching, is fulfilled by the zeal of good works. Hence the twentieth year is also reported to have been at hand then. For if the number ten designates the perfection of the old Law, what does the number twenty signify, except the more splendid religion of the new life? For the number twenty is the number ten doubled.

What indeed is completed by number in the conduct of the elect, when through love they avoid the things forbidden by the Law and fulfill the sublime commandments of the Gospel.

But since we have referred the ark's departure to the perfection of the contemplative life, the ark of God remains in Kiriath-jearim when the learned minds of contemplatives perfect, in the delight of the heavenly brightness revealed to them, the gift of their own learning. For the ark of God remains there now for twenty years, because chosen souls, raised to the summit of intimate exaltation, have the number ten in the perfection of knowledge, but twenty in heavenly delight. The multiplication of days can also be referred to the increase of spiritual virtues. Therefore, when the cause by which the days are multiplied is stated more expressly, the twentieth year is said to be: because, namely, the chosen minds of contemplatives, the more richly they are fed by heavenly contemplation, the more fully they are illumined by the splendors of spiritual virtues.

For what is it that all Israel is said to rest after the Lord in the twentieth year, except that the sublimity of the elect's perfection does not consist in the strength of good work, but in the power of contemplation? For to rest after the Lord is to hold fast, with unconquerable love, to the imitation of our Redeemer. And whoever has not learned, by contemplating, to love mightily the ineffable joys of that heavenly city, since he can quite often be cast down into love of the world, by no means rests after the Lord. When, therefore, the ark remains in Kiriath-jearim and the days are multiplied, all Israel rests after the Lord: because, indeed, while the knowledge of the chosen mind is raised up into the experience of heavenly delight, while the splendors of spiritual virtues gather themselves together for it from that outpoured glory, it is able to hold to the Lord's imitation the more perseveringly the more, illumined by immense splendors, it cannot perceive those darknesses by which it is divided from the true light. Hence also, well is he who is said to rest after the Lord called Israel, that is, one seeing God: because the more deeply the contemplative is caught up into divine things, the more he is by no means overcome by those human things which he mightily restrains.

But since, by God's authoring, we have brought his ark in its journeying all the way to the height of his sublimity, let us see with what zeal the preacher must be vigilant for the correction of those under him. For it follows: And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel: If you return to the Lord with your whole heart, put away the foreign gods from among you. But whom has sacred Scripture been accustomed to call foreign gods, if not the demons that dwell in handmade idols? We have said that in Samuel the new preachers of holy Church are designated. Rightly, therefore, he commanded the whole house of Israel to put away the foreign gods from among them: because among the Gentiles who were coming to the faith, the order of preachers sought not only the truth of right progress, but also the condemnation of the old superstition. For it would profit them nothing to worship the truth by professing it, or by obeying it, unless they had first abandoned and detested what was false. Whoever even now is placed within holy Church through faith, but is rebellious against God through wicked action, must be admonished to put away the foreign gods from among himself. For even if he detests handmade idols, he is nonetheless subjected to the commands of demons by his depraved action. But he casts the foreign gods away from among himself who is so converted to God that through evil works he never venerates unclean spirits.

The zeal of a more cautious life can also be signified by these words of exhortation. For what is "in the midst of us" but our heart? Yet there are some who are defiled by the practice of the world but, through weakness of heart, are stained by the use of wicked thought. They indeed do good unceasingly, but they never cease to think reprobate things. But because as many demons rest in their hearts as there are impure desires, they are urgently admonished to take away the foreign gods from their midst, so that they may render to almighty God not only the rectitude of the work but also the glory of inner purity. Hence it is also aptly added: And prepare your hearts for the Lord. For he prepares his heart for the Lord who not only separates his mind from impure thought but also illumines it with the splendors of holy thoughts and virtues, so that, as if the idols had been cast out and shattered, he may make himself a temple of God, while he erects there the seat of divine grace where he has not permitted reprobate spirits to remain through wicked desires subject to them. Well, then, does he first admonish the Israelites to take away the foreign gods from their midst, and then to prepare their hearts for God, because it is the right order of begun religion that each one first reject wicked things, and then approach almighty God with the zeal of a good intention. Finally, however, it is necessary that he who has already offered to God the purpose of a good will and the purity of a clean heart should set forth in the rectitude of good work what he deliberates within by living well. Wherefore it is also added: And serve God alone.

For he serves the Lord alone who does not insert wicked things into good works. For he who so does good things that he does not forsake evil things by no means serves God alone, because he exhibits obedience to an evil spirit, whose will he does not fear to fulfill. Hence it comes about that even when doing good things he does not serve God, because he who is believed to have created the whole man is not deemed to have him in common with the adversary. For hence it is that Truth itself declares through itself, saying: No one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Hence Paul, inquiring, says: What participation does righteousness have with iniquity, or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement moreover does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever, or what consent does the temple of God have with idols (2 Corinthians 6:14-15)? We are commanded, therefore, to serve the Lord alone, so that we who, with God already inspiring us, have begun to do good things for obtaining the remission of our sins, may mix no wicked things with those same good things. For we are then loosed from the bond of our sins, when the good things which we expend for their absolution are not mixed with evils. For the preacher, speaking to devout penitents, says: If you return to the Lord with your whole heart, put away the foreign gods from your midst, and serve God alone. As if he should say: Then will you be able to be loosed from your sins, when you do not defile the good things of heart and work, which you expend to God for your absolution, with other crimes coming upon them.

Therefore he also promises, saying: And he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.

Who in this place are designated as the Philistines but the malignant spirits? These, surely, when they were inebriated in a moment from the cup of their pride, fell from their state of glory by swelling up. What, then, is the hand of the Philistines but that power of demons by which they lead souls dead in sin to eternal torments? From this hand of the Philistines he alone was free who said: The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in me (John 14:30). Hence Paul says: All have sinned, and need the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Hence again he says: We were also ourselves children of wrath, even as the rest (Eph 2:3). How great a gift is this promise by which it is said: He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. For he alone was free from this hand who did not commit sin. From it, surely, we are all delivered contrary to our merit. Whence Paul also says: Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption of his righteousness, for the redemption of the former transgressions, in the forbearance of God, to the showing of his righteousness in this time, that he himself may be just, and the justifier of him who is of the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 3:24-26). Hence again he says: By grace you are saved (Eph 2:8). This is as if he were saying: He will deliver you from the power of the malignant spirits, so that, with the cruel enemies driven as it were from the path, when the death of the flesh comes, you may more securely attain the eternal joys you desire.

Great things, therefore, did he promise, who taught great things by his commanding, so that the greatness of the gift might stir them to the strength of labor. For it is worthy to serve the Lord alone—namely, to do good things earnestly, not to mix evil deeds with good deeds. But oh, how very great it is, in the passage of this life, not to fall into the power of the bloody spirits, to see no horrors along the way, to encounter no opposing accusations, to escape eternal punishments, to feel the protection of our deliverer, to lose the momentary light of the world, and suddenly to find the ineffable brightness of eternity. Let them hear, then, let them hear—those who desire to be delivered from the hand of the Philistines: Prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve him alone; so that each one may strive to gather here what will keep him there from falling into the hand of such great enemies, and may pass over to life secure, who among the treasures of his salvation, which he gathers here by living well, carries no works of death. But the customs of the elect are set forth in what is added: (Verse 4.) Therefore the children of Israel took away Baalim and Astaroth from among them, and served the Lord alone.

For it is the custom of the elect that, when they receive the encouragements of divine preaching, they are kindled to the zeal of good action which they have heard. For the reprobate both frequently hear the words of God and yet set before themselves no good works by those same words. They remain slothful in their actions, because, cast out from the divine light, they do not see with inward contemplation the glory of almighty God, whose words they hear. Rightly, therefore, those who obey are called children of Israel, because insofar as they behold his majesty with a more open manifestation, they are recognized as obeying his precepts more devoutly. But because he speaks to the converted, let us hear what he sees is still lacking in them. For it follows: (Vers. 5, 6.) And Samuel said: Gather all Israel at Masphath, that I may pray for you to the Lord. And they gathered at Masphath.

ii. Masphath is called speculation or contemplation. This speculation the blessed Paul indeed sets forth, saying: We see now through a mirror in an enigma (1 Cor. 13:12). For to speculate for us is to contemplate eternal goods from the height of the Scriptures. For we as it were speculate what we already know by the truth of faith, and yet do not see with face revealed. But for converted sinners to convene at Masphath is to trust in the mercy of almighty God through the intention of the mind. But let them presume so concerning God's mercy that nevertheless they do not neglect to destroy through penitence what they recall they have been unable to do. Hence also there it is suddenly added: (Vers.

6.) And they drew water, and poured it out in the sight of the Lord.

For what is it to draw water, if not to bring forth streams of tears from the deep confusion of a penitent soul? For we draw water, as it were, when, considering in how deep iniquity we have fallen, we lament. And this water we truly pour out in the sight of the Lord if, when we are pricked with compunction in repenting, we do not seek from the weeping of that same compunction the favor of the world, but only the fruit of divine appeasement. But also, when the mind is pricked by weeping, it is necessary that the flesh too, which has been subject to pleasures, be afflicted. Whence it is also added: (Verse 6.) And they fasted on that day.

The day of the sinful soul is the hope of obtaining indulgence in the promise of the divine word. Whence the Lord also promises through the prophet, saying: I do not will the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live (Ezek. XVIII, 32, 33, 11). On that day, therefore, they fast who for this reason wear down the flesh by repenting: because in the light of hope they believe without doubt that they will attain to indulgence. Yet that affliction of penitence is then finally fit for wiping out sins, when it has been enjoined by the judgment of the priest, when, the deeds of those confessing having been examined by him, the burden of affliction is appointed for them according to the measure of the crime. Well, therefore, does it follow: (Verse 6.) And they said: We have sinned against you, Lord, and Samuel judged the children of Israel in Masphath.

In Mizpah, indeed, the priest judges when he follows not human judgment but divine; when in everything that must be arranged he raises himself up in high contemplation, and arranges it in the judgment of his subjects according to what he knows to be just in the heavenly vision. Hence it is that in almost every matter Moses consults the Lord in the tabernacle of the covenant (Exod. 33:8): because, to be sure, the preacher of holy Church ought to see into the inmost contemplation of truth, so that he may be able to order the life of his subjects outwardly without reproach. For then he can both retain sins and truly forgive them, when in the secret of contemplation, with the Lord speaking, he hears what he speaks. Whence also the Lord, rising from the dead, first breathed upon the face of his disciples, and afterwards gave them authority to forgive and retain sins (John 20:21, 23): so as to show, undoubtedly, that he who does not have that contemplation of mind ought not to be a judge of souls. For the Lord to breathe upon the face of the chosen preachers is to reveal to them through the Holy Spirit the inmost and secret ways of spiritual examination. Hence Paul says: The spiritual man judges all things (1 Cor. 2:15). Hence again, commending the bounty of divine grace, he says: We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may know the things that have been given to us by God (Ibid., 2:12).

But one who has the spirit of this world cannot judge his subjects in Mizpah, that is, in contemplation, because while through the spirit he does not penetrate inner things, in the cases of examination which he investigates he wanders outside through the worldly spirit. Well, therefore, is Samuel said to have judged the sons of Israel in Mizpah, because undoubtedly the holy preachers, in the judgments of their subjects, define nothing at all outside except what is revealed to them within by divine inspiration. But while good subjects submit themselves to the judgment of their superiors, they more strongly kindle the anger of the spiritual enemies against themselves. Whence it is also added: (Verse 7.) And the satraps of the Philistines went up against Israel.

For when the foreign gods have been taken away, the fast completed, and the scrutiny of examination shown forth by the preacher, the princes of the Philistines go up against Israel, because when we advance to a higher life, the malignant spirits, who always envy those who do good, are more hostile to us. And because they desire to cast us down from the sublimity of an innocent life, they are said to go up. For to go up belongs to malignant spirits, that is, to raise themselves up through heavenly desire to assault hearts that are high. Because also against the more perfect soldiers of Christ, battles are stirred up not of any evil spirits whatsoever, but of the stronger demons; not the Philistines are said to go up against Israel, but the satraps of the Philistines. For princes also preside over many.

By this, therefore, that the satraps are said to have come up against Israel, it can reasonably be gathered that for testing the patience of the elect, not one evil spirit is assigned to each of the elect, but innumerable ones; so that from the victory that follows, the glory of the faithful may be all the more abundant, the more grievous the battles inflicted upon them. Yet amid these battles those recently converted are wont to be greatly afraid: for suddenly they find themselves in the field of labor, beyond the experience of custom. On one side they see desires armed against them, which formerly served them in peace; on the other, supreme love invites them not to abandon the good they have begun. Here the spirit lifts the mind, there the flesh weighs it down; and while they cannot know the measure of their end, they are greatly terrified by the uncertainty of their election. Hence it is also aptly added here: (Verse 7) And when the children of Israel heard this, they feared before the face of the Philistines.

For they fear the face of the Philistines, so that they do not fear their rear parts. For what is the face of the evil spirits but worldly concupiscence? For whoever is composed in this appearance is conformed to their image. But because it is said that Israel feared not the face of the Philistines but from their face, he thus insinuates the minds of the elect, that he may also reprove the folly of the reprobate by a hidden reason. For they feared not the face, but from the face: because, namely, in holy men it is one thing that they look upon outwardly, and another that they dread inwardly. For even if at some time they consider the flourishing world by human reason, suddenly turning back the eyes of the mind to those evils which follow the joys of the world, they lift them up, and as it were they tremble from the face, who by the things that follow avoid present delights. But on the contrary, the reprobate, who by no means fear this face of the Philistines, do not escape following the impulses of their ferocity. For while they receive the vain joys of the world with all their strength, they are seized by the power of the demons for perpetual afflictions. To whom indeed the Truth threatens, saying: Woe to you, rich men, because you have received your consolation in your life (Luke 6:24). Hence again declaring, he says: Woe to you who laugh, because you shall weep (Ibid., 25). As if he said otherwise: Because you by no means dread the face of the Philistines, when following their forces they rush in, you cannot find a refuge of salvation. Then indeed fear is present, but there is no one to help.

Vengeance is given for the offense without hope of deliverance; and they feel how horrible the rear parts of the Philistines are, who wished their flatteries to be in the love of the world. Well, therefore, is it said of the Israelites, in the type of the elect: They feared before the face of the Philistines; because, namely, while they diligently order for themselves a manner of living, they do not arrange to fear eternal evils when they come, but they tremble at temporal concupiscence, by whose merit they are inflicted. And because they believe that this can be obtained not so much by their own merits as by the intercession of their ancestors, it follows: (Verse 8.) And they said to Samuel: Cease not to cry out for us to the Lord God of Israel, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.

But good shepherds also confer upon their tried subjects not only the protections of prayers, but also of sacrifices. Whence it is added: (Verse 9.) And Samuel took one suckling lamb, and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord, and Samuel cried out.

What is the cry of Samuel, if not the great power of desire in the high priest's supplication? Hence to Moses, silent with his lips yet with fervent devotion desiring the welfare of the subject people, the Lord says: Why do you cry to me (Exod. 14:15)? But who is the suckling lamb, if not he whom his forerunner pointed out, saying: Behold the lamb of God, behold the one who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29)? And he is called suckling because in his innocence true humanity is proclaimed. But one lamb is offered, because besides him no one at all is found who takes away the sins of the world. This lamb he certainly offered whole. For the wholeness of the lamb pertains to the solidity of the catholic profession. For he divides the lamb, as it were, who is separated from the canon of the faith by the sword of error. The lamb, then, is spoken of for innocence, suckling for the assumption of nature, one for the singularity of power, whole for the most firm solidity of our faith.

But if anyone wishes to refer these things not to him but to his imitator, he can. For we offer a lamb when through the good of chastity and innocence we are conformed to our Redeemer; and when we are fed by the teaching of the innocent fathers, we suck, as it were, at the breasts by which we are nourished unto eternal life. We offer one lamb also if, after the beginnings of religious conversation, we are polluted by no stain of depravity. For he offers one lamb who does not flow away from the purpose of innocence into the stains of a polluted life, from which he may return through the offering of good works. To offer a whole lamb is also to prepare for eternal life not only continence of the flesh but integrity of mind. But he does not offer a whole lamb to the Lord who consecrates his flesh to God through continence but does not restrain the secrets of his mind from the wantonness of impure thoughts. For he steals, as it were, a part of the lamb from the sacrifice who does not join purity of heart to continence of body. Hence the same lamb, instructing his disciples to offer a whole lamb, says: You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not commit adultery; but I say to you, that whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28). Hence also the foolish virgins are noted in the Gospel, who prepared their lamps but did not prepare oil (Matthew 25:3).

For they have lamps prepared who preserve the good of chastity in the body; they also have oil who maintain the brightness of purity in the circumspection of their mind. Let it be said, then, of Samuel: He offered a whole lamb to the Lord; because, in order that the good of chastity may suffice for divine appeasement, it must be preserved not only in the whiteness of the body but in the splendor of inner purity. Rightly, therefore, it is added: (Verse 9.) — And the Lord heard her.

For that man can be heard by the Lord when he prays for others, who in some respect is not silent to the Lord for the one whom he entreats. For if he is still weighed down by his own weakness, he is by no means heard for obtaining the strength of his neighbors; and he does not lift up his desire to the citadel of divine height to the extent that he himself does not care to ascend from the depth in which he lies through a fall, by the effort of more fervent zeal. But the manner of the hearing is also set forth, when it is added: (Verses 10–11.) It came to pass, while Samuel was offering the burnt offering, that the Philistines began battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great crash on that day upon the Philistines, and terrified them, and they were struck down by the children of Israel. And the children of Israel, going out from Masphath, pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as the place which was below Bethehar.

When Samuel offered the burnt offering, the Philistines joined battle against Israel: because the malignant spirits then stir up graver temptations against the faithful subjects when they see the Pastors standing more insistently against them. But the Lord thunders over the Philistines: because, while the teachers pray and the faithful subjects pray, divine grace supplies strength. For thunders are wont to be made through the clouds. But the high clouds are understood as the soul's desire for heavenly things. Whence also the prophet, marveling at the minds of the elect raised up in the love of heavenly things, said: Who are these, who fly like clouds (Isa. 60:8)? But what are the thunders of the clouds, unless those fervent and supernal desires of the elect: by which, while their mind is set aflame through divine grace, everything that the malignant spirits suggest in order to deceive is utterly expelled from it? Well, then, is it said: The Lord thundered over the Philistines, and terrified them. For while through his grace he pours supernal desires into the elect minds, because he also makes them despise all earthly things, he turns to flight even those wicked spirits who suggest that they desire them. For as if terrified by thunder they flee, when in the elect minds, which they had assailed by tempting, they dread the mighty sound of divine power. But because the Lord is said to have thundered with a great crash, what is this other than that the imperfect desires of Christians are not terrible to demons?

For the great crash of thunder is the perfected desire of each of the elect. Therefore, when the Lord thunders with a great crash upon the Philistines, then they are cut down by the children of Israel: because while the perfect devotion of the elect lifts their mind to heavenly joys, it utterly cuts off from itself everything that fights for the adverse side. It is well also that the Philistines are first terrified and then recorded as being cut down by the children of Israel: for they are terrified by the devotion of the elect, and cut down by their deed. And because devotion in deed is prior, they are rightly said to be terrified first and afterward cut down. For first we receive from the Lord the gift of good will, so that afterward we may be able to confute the counsels of evil spirits. It is well also that the Lord is said to thunder upon the Philistines and to terrify them, while the children of Israel are said to cut them down: because good desires are supplied to us through divine grace, but we advance the gifts of grace to victories of the virtues through the effort of free will. The order, then, of the heavenly warfare is that God be heard first thundering with a great crash, and afterward the soldier advance to cut down the ranks of the enemy: so that, namely, he first see within himself the gifts of grace, then burst forth more strongly onto the field of battle, and, secure, hope for the outcome of victory, he who beforehand, in the very strengths by which he is to be crowned, was supported before the time of engagement.

But those who strike down the Philistines are rightly said to have gone out from Masphath. For in Masphath, which is called "watchtower," abide those who persist in the contemplation of divine things. But they go out to strike down the Philistines when, having come forth as men well-advised from the secret place of inner meditation, they restrain the forces of the adverse dominion. For within, hiddenly, they arrange how, outside, in manifest deed, they may break through the ranks of the enemy. Indeed, the more they remain quiet within themselves while they think on inner things, the more grievous battles do those who come forth present to them. And because the malignant spirits must always be restrained by the elect of God, the Philistines are recorded to have been struck down as far as the place below Bethchar. For Bethchar is interpreted as "the house of the lamb." Isaiah, intimating this lamb to us, says: He shall be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearer is silent (Isa. 53:7). What, then, was the house of the lamb, if not that sublime and singularly fortified manner of life of the Redeemer, which, since it was free from fault, stood inaccessible to all wicked spirits? No one can reach Bethchar, that is, the house of the lamb, because whoever makes great progress is still inferior to the holiness of the Redeemer.

Hence the distinguished preacher also, insisting on the praises of the same Redeemer, says: Such a one it was fitting should be a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who has no need, as the priests do, first to offer victims for his own sins (Hebr. 7:26-27). What, then, is the place beneath Bethchar, to which we must strike down and pursue the Philistines? But if Bethchar signifies the perfection of the Lord's manner of life, the place beneath Bethchar expresses the common sum of the saints' holiness. These both humble themselves in obedience to the same Redeemer and draw near to his glory through the pursuit of an innocent life. For the place that is shown to be situated beneath Bethchar is known both to be lower than and near to the place to which it is subject, because holy men, by as much as they are near to God through the height of their life, by so much are they made subject in lowlier thought. Therefore, while the triumph of new believers is shown in the deeds of the Israelites, the foreigners are said to be struck down as far as the place beneath the house of the slain lamb, because indeed through unceasing effort of struggle we must strive toward the citadel of perfection, where we are all the more terrible to our enemies the nearer we are to our Redeemer. For there is already a certain security there that cannot be disturbed by the fear of enemies.

For the Lord, disclosing to such people the gifts of the power granted them, says: Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy. Hence also he who had come to the place near the house of the lamb says: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or other such things? The house of the lamb can also designate the heavenly fatherland. Hence John also says: I saw the lamb standing upon Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his father written on their foreheads. What, then, is the place that is beneath the house of the lamb, if not the boundary of this temporal life, from which the elect are taken up to the joys of the heavenly fatherland? For we who are led up to the appointed boundary, which we cannot pass beyond by living, come as it were to a place from which we may be transferred elsewhere. But the boundary of the elect man's life is shown to be situated beneath the house of the lamb, because from the point where he is sunk down through the straits of mortality, from that same point he is raised up to the joys of life that knows no end. For the lamb himself also, who dwells in gladness in his house of harp-players harping and singing, was beneath the house before he was brought to the joy of this house. Hence it is that at the time of his sacrifice he says: My soul is sorrowful even unto death.

Therefore, when the end of each of the elect is shown by a place, it is recorded that it is beneath Bethchar, that is, in the house of the lamb; because holy men, when through the penalty of death they leave temporal things, ascend from nearby to the heavenly fatherland that stands out above them. For Paul, confidently asserting, says: We know that if our earthly house is dissolved, we have a dwelling from God, not made with hands, in heaven (2 Cor. 5:1). Therefore, up to the place that is beneath the house of the lamb, the Philistines are said to be struck down, if, as long as we are in this life, we triumph over malignant spirits. It follows: (Verse 12.) But Samuel took one stone, and placed it between Masphath and Sen; and he called its name the Stone of Help, and said: Hitherto the Lord has helped us.

A stone in sacred eloquence signifies the Lord and our Redeemer. But one stone is taken by Samuel when the strength of the Redeemer is preached singularly by the preacher of holy Church. And indeed it is set up between Masphath and Sen: because at the departure of life it protects the elect and shatters the reprobate. For Sen is said to be a shaking off. But the reprobate are shaken off, that is, separated from the fellowship of the faithful. Therefore, while the Philistines are reported to be struck down up to the place beneath Bethchar, the stone is asserted to be set up between Sen and Masphath: because while the elect of God receive the title of their victory at the end, they are separated by the judgment of the Redeemer from the fellowship of the wicked.

But now we are, as it were, wheat and chaff together on the threshing floor; yet when we are brought to the end of life, the elect are separated from the reprobate by the Lord's power, and they have, as it were, a stone between them, while the latter bear the weight of the Redeemer as the judgment of their own condemnation, and the former hold the palms of eternal glory in his strength. By Sen (that is, "tooth") the malignant spirits can also be designated. For they have been cast out, because through pride they were thrown down from the heavenly secret place. And because now in this life they do battle with us, rightly, when the time of our victory is asserted, a stone is said to be placed between us and them; because when we receive the gifts of our warfare, their battles are by no means renewed against us any further. But Samuel places this stone in the middle, because the teacher of holy Church shows us the goodness of our Redeemer. And because everything that is prosperously done by us in our whole life is ascribed to divine grace, that stone which is set in the middle is aptly called by him the Stone of Help. For he himself is the Stone of Help, who, if he is unwilling to come to our aid, we can be conquered, but we cannot conquer. Of him, now placed in the middle, it is said: Hitherto the Lord has helped us; because his protections follow his elect even to the times of eternal recompense. And because, as we have said, once we have been received into eternal rest, no battles are stirred up by defeated enemies against us, it follows: (Verse 13).

And the Philistines were humbled, and they did not again attempt to come any more into the borders of Israel.

These things indeed so express what was done for each of the elect, that they also suggest both the array of battle of the holy catholic Church and the joys of her reward. For the blessed Paul shows that this victory of the universal Church is to come after the glory of our resurrection; he, as though present to the future incorruption, mocked death, saying: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where is thy victory, O death? where is thy sting, O death? He also saw the Philistines humbled: for, recalling the apostate angels, he kindled the elect to the love of future dignity, saying: Know ye not that we shall judge angels? For then truly are the Philistines humbled, when the demons are sent into the fires of eternal fire prepared for them from the beginning of the world. And they do not again attempt to come into the borders of Israel: because they do not go forth to tempt the hearts of the elect. But what are the borders of Israel, if not heaven? How then shall evil spirits come into the borders of Israel, who are so condemned in the depth of hell that they never rise again from the submersion of their punishments? Therefore, because they are cast down by eternal oppression, it is fittingly added.

(Verse 13). The hand of the Lord, he says, was upon the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

For what are the days of the good teacher, if not those budding rays of shining eternity? These are rightly said to belong to Samuel, because although they are common to all the elect, by a certain special grace they shine forth for the joys of preachers. Or indeed they belong to the preachers, because they shine more especially in the minds of those by whose preaching they are now made known to the holy Church. But the hand of the Lord is declared to have been made upon the Philistines all the days of Samuel, because divine power always oppresses the evil spirits, and that power never ceases even to gladden the elect in the glory of eternal brightness. For then the losses of the angels are repaired, when whatever of the order of created spirits had been removed from blessedness by their pride is filled up from among elect men. Wherefore it follows: (Verse 14.) And the cities which the Philistines had taken were restored to Israel.

Those lost multitudes of angels are the cities that were taken away. But then they are restored, when from the elect human nature something is assumed by which what perished from the angels may be made up. This can also be fittingly understood in the conversion of sinful men. For they take away the cities of the Philistines when by tempting they deceive the minds of the faithful and subject them to themselves by plunging them into sins. But the cities that were taken away are restored to Israel: because in this life penitents make satisfaction in such a way that in eternal glory they are presented radiant for the joy of the elect. And because not only those who neglect to do good, but also those who abound in doing iniquity, are saved by repenting, it is added:

(Verse 14.) From Accaron to Geth.

Accaron means "barren," Geth means "winepress." Barren indeed are those who do not perform good works. But in the winepress the grape is pressed and wine is brought forth. What, then, is worldly concupiscence but the grape of a reprobate mind? And what is the fervor of sinning but the liquid of wine, which makes the mind of the sinner forgetful of eternal goods? For while sin is generated from the concupiscence of the heart, it is as if wine is produced from the grape in the winepress. From Accaron, therefore, to Geth the cities that were taken away are restored to Israel: because the minds of those who neglect to do good and of those who boldly perpetrate evil, which now return to the Lord by repenting, are then shown radiant in the common glory of the elect.

For their evils by no means come into God's memory, which they have not forgotten to blot out by the affliction of penitence. It follows: (Ver. 14.) And there was peace between Israel and the Amorite.

What is this peace, except that which the prophet Micah asserts, saying: And this one shall be peace in the land, when he comes (Mic. 5:5). Hence Paul says: He himself is our peace, who makes both one (Eph. 2:14). But what is it that peace is shown between Israel and the Amorite? For what is designated by the Amorite, except the reprobate part of mankind? And who are figured by Israel, except the elect? And because the elect will be at God's right hand, but the reprobate at the left (Matth. 25:33), when peace is asserted to be between the two, the glorious blessedness of the saints is demonstrated; who so agree with the justice of their Creator in such equity that they are moved by no compassion at the punishment of the reprobate which they behold. When, therefore, peace is shown to be between Israel and the Amorite, it is not demonstrated what good the reprobate have in common with the saints, but what the elect are fortified by. Hence also under the figure of Israel it is promised to the holy Church through the prophet: Who has placed your borders in peace, and satisfies you with the fat of wheat (Ps. 147:14). For he places the Church's borders in peace: because while the Redeemer's power raises her into the height of inmost equity, through the grief of compassion she is not afflicted by the misery of the lost. But by what zeal of the shepherds good subjects are advanced to such great blessedness, he sets forth, saying: (Ver.

15.) And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

What are the days of the life of any teacher but the brightness of spiritual virtues? For he judges Israel all the days of his life who, by the progress of good conduct, sets before his faithful subjects as an example the light of righteousness that he asserts in his speech. But he who does not have the light of spiritual virtues, because he takes up the good of another's conduct for the purpose of teaching, surely judges in the days of another's life. Of such men the Lord indeed says through the prophet: Behold, I am against the prophets who steal my words, each from his neighbor (Jer. 23:30). For they steal words who do not follow in action the good that they preach in teaching, because as if secretly they take it from another, and by paying no price of their own labor they by no means make it their own. Therefore, after the future blessedness has been announced, it is shown what sort of shepherd of the faithful he ought meanwhile to be, because Samuel is reported to have judged Israel all the days of his life. For he points out the way of perfection badly if, wishing to open the path of light with his voice, he grows dark in his action. For he who had devoted all the days of his life to judging Israel says: I dare not speak of any of those things which God has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, for the obedience of the Gentiles (Rom. 15:18).

Let the teacher therefore judge, but one who has illustrious days of his life: so that, namely, he may foster in himself by living well the right of spiritual virtues' rays, which he administers in speech for providing the paths of subjects: because a lamp is then shown usefully to those who are in the house, if it is itself first well filled with the light it is about to scatter. It follows: (Verse 46.) And he went around year by year to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in the aforementioned places.

Bethel is called the house of God; Gilgal, a wheel; Mizpah, as has already been recounted above, is interpreted as watchtower. What therefore does Bethel signify, if not men appointed to the office of the sacred altar; who while they cling to spiritual pursuits, are as it were household members of Almighty God? And what does Gilgal, which is called a wheel, designate, if not the order of the married? For they go around as it were in a wheel, while they cannot be entirely free from the cares of the rolling world. And what is expressed through Mizpah, which is interpreted as watchtower, if not those who, free for divine contemplation, burn only for heavenly joys? What then is it that Samuel is said to go around Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpah, and to judge Israel in those same places, if not that the chosen preacher follows the examples of all the orders of the elect, so that he may be a learned censor of faithful subjects? For he cannot be of fair examination, if he disdains to take up from the examples of preceding elect what he decides.

But let him also go around through each individual year, so that the provident teacher may look at the perfection of each order one by one: so that, the more subtly he has seen the good things of those preceding, the more fittingly he can arrange the present. There, then, there let him judge Israel, so that he may correct the faithful subjects whom he instructs toward the vision of God by their uprightness—those whom he believes without doubt to have pleased God. Through Bethel also, which is called the house of God, the whole Church of the elect can be designated; through Galgal, which is interpreted as wheel, sacred Scripture. But whatever the teacher displays in the progress of his subjects, he receives either from the example of the elect, or from the teaching of the sacred word, or from the revelation of inner and secret contemplation.

And so Samuel goes around Bethel when the preacher of the Church seeks the authority for arranging works from the examples of those who came before. He goes around Galgal, that is, the wheel, when he grasps the authority of his teaching from the teaching of holy Scripture. He also goes around Masphath when through the meditation of secret contemplation he merits to receive the revelation of truth. For there he judges Israel: because whatever he sets before his subjects as the standard of uprightness, he receives either from the examples of the elect, or from the teaching of the sacred word, or from the revelation of inner contemplation. By these words, then, it is shown not only what a perfect teacher does, but also that he is not perfect if he cannot do these things.

For if one knows only the examples of the good, or even if one is learned in sacred Scripture, yet lacks the revelation of contemplation, he will not be perfect in the order of preaching. For contemplation is a virtue through which not only is the Scripture itself, already composed, recognized, but through which what is not yet composed would be composed, and through which what is composed is daily ordered according to God's will. Well, then, is it said: And he judged Israel in the aforementioned places. For not only in Bethel and Galgal, but also in Masphath: so that he who relies on the perfection of preaching—while through humility he follows the examples of his elders, while through the study of sacred eloquence he is supported by learning—must by all means take care that by purity of mind he may know through contemplation the things that are to be ordered. For he ought to be teachable of God, who, having undertaken the office of preaching, desires to teach men. Yet let him so presume of him who is instructed by the learning of secret contemplation, that he neither disdain the Scriptures given through the Holy Spirit, nor deem it unworthy to follow the examples of the elect.

For Samuel is described as going around Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, so that the one may in no way be divided from the other by discord: namely, that he may both receive the examples which sacred Scripture approves, and recognize those sacred Scriptures which chosen men had written, and perceive those revelations of contemplation shown to him by God, which are not at variance either with the works of the elect or with the authority of sacred Scripture. But also let him direct everything he does to the rectitude of a heavenly intention. Whence it is added: (Verse 17.) He returned to Ramah: for there he judged Israel, and there was his house.

As we have already said far above, Ramah is interpreted as "consummated vision," and it signifies that blessed and perfect fellowship of the heavenly citizens, to which Samuel returns, lest he be weighed down by the burden of his labor. For Samuel returns to Ramah when the mind of the preacher is lifted up through love of heavenly things. For amid such immense burdens of his office he would collapse, if he did not return to the love of heavenly things through the desire of his hope. For to return is, for preachers, to bring back the intention of their mind to the joys of the heavenly homeland. And there they judge Israel: because they strive by preaching to make faithful subjects conformed to the beauty of the heavenly homeland, which they hold in their mind.

There they judge Israel: because from that now perfect city they draw the form they see, which by speaking they impress upon the minds of the sons; and whatever they perceive to be unworthy of that beauty, they strive to cut away from their minds. And because they rest with whole love in the glory of that blessed homeland, there his house is said to be. For it is recognized to be his house in which he is kept by loving. Hence also that distinguished preacher glories, saying: Our conversation is in heaven. For he goes around Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and in none of them has a house, but in Ramah he has a house: because the teachers of holy Church, whatever they now receive from the examples of the elect, whatever from the instruction of the sacred volumes, whatever from the height of supernal revelation they search out in passing, they have as a help for the journey, not as a love of reward. But that which they love in the supernal city is not for the progress of the journey, but for the sufficient, indeed for the abundant largeness of reward. And because all good things are gathered there, it follows: (Verse 17.) There he also built an altar to the Lord.

3t. For what is the altar of the Lord, if not the heart of a righteous man? And by the judgment of truth it is said: Where your treasure is, there also is your heart (Matt. 6:21). But he who does good for the love of the heavenly fatherland, while he ardently desires to reach those things which he gathers above, truly builds an altar, upon which he may burn the sacrifices of daily desire. Well indeed is it said: He built there an altar to the Lord; because from the increase of heavenly zeal, just as a flame grows in the heart of good desire, so too, as if with stones added, the altar is built upward, where holocausts of love may be offered to God. This can also fittingly be referred to the gain of souls. For the teacher builds an altar to the Lord in Ramah when he places the merits of his subjects in heaven, and while by his daily zeal chosen souls ascend to the heavenly kingdoms, they are, as it were, sent as stones for the structure of the altar above. Let it be said, then, of Samuel, let it be said: He built there an altar to the Lord: because surely the teacher's zeal would be greatly idle if by what is done by him on earth the heavenly building were not increased.

BOOK FOUR

CHAPTER ONE

The deeds of holy men of old are often consolations to the elect who come after. For by the wondrous dispensation of the divine counsel they were so raised up to the height of the most exalted conduct that they did mighty deeds for themselves and provided right things for those under them; yet at times they were so left to themselves that the things they arranged with right intention were not right according to God's providence—so that their weakness might become the strength of the elect who follow. For even if, as men, they can be deceived in arranging the affairs of holy Church, those same arrangements of the Church are not therefore to be abandoned. For behold, it is said: (1 Sam. 8:1-3) And it came to pass, when Samuel had grown old, that he appointed his sons as judges over Israel; and the name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of the second, Abijah, judges in Beersheba. And his sons did not walk in his ways.

1. Behold, he who was full of the spirit of prophecy did not know that those whom he appointed as judges over Israel would afterward turn aside after greed, and take bribes, and pervert judgment. What wonder, then, if those who do not receive the grace of prophecy can be deceived in arranging ranks—if those who have the spirit of prophecy do not have that same spirit for arranging all things? But who would doubt concerning so great a man that, had he foreknown the future wickedness of his sons, he would certainly not have preferred them to public honors?

Those, therefore, who knowingly advance the wicked cannot at all flatter themselves with the prophet's example, since a matter is then only handled innocently when, in those who were promoted, no signs of the iniquity that followed appeared at the time of their promotion. And so aptly were those who were set as judges of Israel by Samuel, when they were appointed, called his sons, so that from this they might be believed not only to have been begotten according to the flesh, but also adorned with the splendors of his conduct. And so their names are carefully assigned, so that from the title of the name the form of virtue that was then in them might be known. The name, he says, of the one was Joel, of the other Abijah, judges in Beersheba. But also concerning those who are said to have declined to avarice after receiving their dignity, it is openly shown that before they reached the summit of that same dignity, no signs of future depravity were seen in them. But behold, while we attend to the consolations of shepherds, we perceive no small dangers of the Lord's flock. For the subjects stood, but the sons of the prophet, placed on the height of prelacy, fell, so that if, placed under the care of our elders, either the unceasing zeal of a holy life or the security of a great manner of conduct smiles upon us, we should nevertheless not hold the office of presiding over others in the appetite of desire, but in the greatness of fear. But carnal persons, while they attend only to visible things, do not deserve to know the spiritual conduct of the saints.

Indeed they look upon the height of the holy Church of the pastors, but they do not know how unwillingly those men within take away the beauty that she holds outwardly in the splendor of her height; that they endure the sublimity of honor as an oppression of a great burden; that they flee it with great desire, yet pursue it in outward ministry. For we have learned by the testimony of the excellent teacher that the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14). Hence, the more he follows carnal things, the more senselessly he goes astray, inasmuch as through the virtue of discretion he no longer penetrates any spiritual things. And some such men advance so far in the evil of madness that they do not even fear to disturb the very estate of the ecclesiastical height. Hence it also follows: (Vers. 4, 5.) Therefore all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Ramah, and they said to him: Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Appoint a king over us, that he may judge us as all the nations have.

But for those who were living under a spiritual rule to seek a king—what else is this than to desire to transfer that same spiritual prelacy into secular domination? Yet holy men, when they see themselves despised by their subjects, are not so much displeased that they are despised as that their despisers do not please God. For they see that by their contempt the increase of their own inner glory is given, but they groan that their own merits are augmented by the failings of their subjects—subjects whom they would wish so to advance in merits that, in the eternal recompense of merits, they might have them with themselves over whom they preside. Wherefore it is also added: (1 Sam. 8:6) The word was displeasing in the eyes of Samuel, because they had said: Give us a king to judge us.

For that was displeasing to him through which he judged that those who spoke were displeasing to God. But because it is not said simply, "The word of Samuel was displeasing," but "in the eyes of Samuel," it is immediately added: (verse 6) And Samuel prayed to the Lord for the people.

We ought to consider these things with somewhat greater subtlety. Holy men, who fear to displease almighty God greatly, are not easygoing in their judgments, but first they order all things rationally within, so that they may arrange them blamelessly without in deed. For they accept no judgment of election if it is not approved by the contemplation of reason. The Lord certainly wished to open these eyes of the prophet when he said: See with your eyes, and hear with your ears (Ezek. 40:4). Hence in the Gospel he said to his disciples: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see (Luke 10:2). For the eyes of the saints are the understanding of reason, opened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And therefore they are said to be Samuel's: because all carnal men, even if they seem rational through human wisdom, are all the more blind to this light of reason the more they see with those eyes alone which the serpent opened. For if they beheld the splendor of spiritual virtues, they would surely desire to have it in the adornment of their mind. So great indeed is the beauty of these virtues that, once seen, it can never fail to be desired by the longing of the one who sees. Therefore the wise of this world, when they think they have the eyes of reason, can recognize from this how madly they rave: because they are not enticed by the beauty of the holy virtues, and it is certain that they not only do not perceive their glory, but do not even dream of it.

Holy men, therefore, who are already bound by the love of inner things through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, have the eyes of their mind clearer for seeing the glory of intimate brightness in proportion as they hold nothing of the world's darkness in their desire; and they can discern carnal things more rightly in proportion as, taken far from carnal things, they have advanced more deeply in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Hence also the apostle Paul, from the experience of so great a vision, brought forth a judgment, saying: The spiritual man judges all things (1 Cor. 2:15). Well, then, is it said: The word displeased Samuel in his eyes. For by spiritual men nothing is despised before it is judged by the spiritual insight of the mind to be worthy of despising. And because the more abundantly they are filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, the less they presume on the height of their own virtue, it follows: And Samuel prayed to the Lord. For what did he pray to the Lord, except that he might deign to show him whether he ought to give assent to the petition of the tumultuous people?

(verses 7, 8.) But the Lord said to Samuel: Hear the voice of the people in all things that they speak to you. For they have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them, according to all their works which they have done from the day that I brought them out of Egypt until this day.

Because it is said to the prophet who prays: Set a king over them; it is plainly shown that he asked to be revealed to himself whether this ought to be done. And because he adds, it says: They have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them, it is aptly shown how greatly the speech displeases him, which is reported to have been displeasing in the eyes of Samuel. And this agreement of judgment arises in the saints from the power of charity: because while they love the Creator with their whole mind, and devoutly strive to obey his will, they receive from the reward of heavenly recompense that they do not disagree by thinking otherwise from the same will of almighty God, which they always hold in good works. For it is written: He who cleaves to God is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). For he cleaves to the Lord who always strives to do the precepts of his will. But he becomes one spirit with him: because from the long-continued devotion of pious work he is assumed into such grace of divine knowledge that he can no longer dissent through the error of the worldly spirit from the equity of his inner judgment.

But it is very difficult to answer if one asks why almighty God both complains that he has been rejected in the request for a king, and yet decrees that what was requested be done; and again, if the royal dignity was to be ordained, why was it permitted as though the majesty of God were indignant; and when a king is decreed to be chosen with provision made, why is one to be reprobated... chosen? What else can we answer to these things except what the apostle Paul answered to those who dared to search into the ineffable abyss of the judgments of God: Man, he says, who are you, that you should answer God (Rom. 9:20)? But if we cannot define this effectively, we can touch it by inquiring. Or perhaps does he complain that he has been rejected in the request for a king? For the reprobate will of the people asking wrongly, the king who was requested is granted as a punishment. But if this is said reasonably, while he has set forth both, he shows both the guilt and the vengeance equally. For by a reprobate will he is convicted of having unjustly demanded, who by requesting is shown to have rejected the Creator. Therefore the guilt of the evil request was followed by the punishment of strict equity. For it is a great vengeance which proceeds from the strictness of the inner examination, when the reprobate mind is so cast off that it is permitted to do what it wrongly deliberates. Therefore those who were convicted of having rejected the Lord in requesting a king, while it was permitted them to do that by which they would reject the Lord from themselves, what heavier punishment was there by which they ought to have been struck here?

In this place it must be noted that the Lord makes the prophet's rejection his own. For he does not simply say, "They have rejected me, that I should not reign over them," but "they have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them"—so as plainly to show that in the person of the chosen prelate he himself presides over his subjects; and when a fleshly ruler is taken up to the spiritual summit of the elect, he himself is seen to be rejected, whose commandments are scattered. How reverend, then, the best shepherds of the holy church ought to be is clear. For behold, while they serve God faithfully, they are joined to him by such a bond of love that whatever is done against them is ascribed to injury against God. Hence also in the Gospel he says to the first pastors of the church: "He who despises you despises me" (Luke 10:16). Here too something more serious is discerned: because when he complains that the pastor has been rejected, all the sins of those who reject him are recalled, and even the evils of their fathers. "According to all their works," he says, "which they have done from the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt." For that is recognized as the highest crime for the discussion of which all past sins are brought back into God's memory. And so the Lord complains that he has been rejected, and yet he grants that what is rejected be ordained: because when he executes the power of his strict equity, the desires of carnal men are by no means prevented by his mercy from being fulfilled by him. But even the dignity that could be granted as a punishment ought not to have been granted with the tranquil majesty of divinity, but as if in indignation.

But we do not assert that the majesty of God is indignant in itself, since it is not subject to passion; rather, because when it examines sins, it speaks words of indignation through the Scriptures. Likewise, because this is taken as a type of carnal prelates, a king who is to be rejected is chosen, not one who has been chosen. Or perhaps for this reason a reprobate king is chosen, so that the chosen successor, King David, might recognize in him what he ought to guard against. So indeed we also read concerning that court of angels, for it is written of the first apostate angel: He is the beginning of the ways of God (Job 11:14); but he who was created before all things fell through pride, and in his ruin the holy angels learned by what virtue they could have stood. Indeed, whoever can gaze upon this with the open eyes of right faith also attends to this: that almighty God bestows great gifts of mercy even then, when he inflicts vengeance; for while he punishes the reprobate, he instructs the saints, so that where the former fail, the latter may be aided in their progress.

By a strict judgment, indeed, He permits evils to be done, but in mercy He provides, out of those evils which He inflicts through judgment, for the good that He intends to bring about. For what greater fault is there than that through which we all die? And what greater goodness is there than that through which we are freed from death? And indeed, had Adam not sinned, it would not have been necessary for our Redeemer to take up our flesh. For He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). If, therefore, He came for sinners, then if sins were absent, it would not have been necessary for Him to come. If the sins which He is believed to have come to blot out are understood to have been permitted by the justice of God—since God was to be born as man for sinners—then out of that evil by which we were to die, almighty God had foreseen that He would make a good that would conquer that evil. And who among the faithful does not see how wonderfully the greatness of that good excels? Great indeed are the evils that we suffer through the merit of the first fault, but who among the elect would not rather endure worse things than to lack so great a Redeemer? Let a king therefore be chosen, but one to be rejected; let him be chosen, as it were, by the indignation, not by the will, of God. Let a king after God's own heart therefore follow, so that from the strictness of His judgment the evil of vengeance may proceed upon the reprobate, and the good that He was to bring out of that evil may overflow upon the pious through the generosity of divine grace, while those are permitted to fall into the evil that they desire. But by the very means through which they cast themselves down, it is brought about that others do not fall at all.

But because by these words the judgment of divine severity is asserted, let us now see with how great a dispensation He acts, lest those deliberating wrongly do that for which they are punished. For it follows: (Verse 9.) Now therefore hear their voice; yet testify to them, and proclaim to them the right of the king who is to reign over them.

As if by an open display of clemency He were saying: Hear their voices in such a way that they themselves first hear, concerning the right of the king whom they seek, that which may terrify them; and so that they may abandon their badly begun undertaking when it is recognized how burdensome the matter is, which was being made plain. It follows: (Verses 10-17.) So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked a king of him, and said: This will be the right of the king who will rule over you. He will take your sons and place them in his chariots, and make them his horsemen and the forerunners of his four-horse chariots; and he will appoint for himself tribunes and centurions, and plowmen of his fields, and reapers of his crops, and makers of his weapons and chariots; your daughters also he will make his perfumers, and cooks, and bakers. Your fields also, and vineyards, and the best olive groves he will take and give to his servants. But even your crops and the revenues of your vineyards he will tithe, so that he may give to his eunuchs and servants. Your servants also, and maidservants, the best young men, and asses he will take away, and put them to his work. Your flocks also he will tithe, and you will be his servants.

When subjection is demanded of carnal men, surely whatever is commanded them is burdensome, even if it is not difficult; for since from the swelling of pride they have it in them to follow the judgment of their own will, whatever opposes their deliberation they reckon most burdensome. But indeed when harsh and contrary things are commanded, what a mass of burden is this? What a swelling of the heart? Since they could scarcely bear even pleasant and light things unwillingly, which, if they had been willing, they would have borne most easily. Let us see, then, how worthily the pious dispensation of the Creator answers the audacity of the foolish man. The laws of men are set before those who despise the laws of God; and to those who had spurned the gentle and healthful counsels of the Godhead, the harsh and unbearable burdens of human servitude are foretold: so that from these they might reckon with themselves how intolerable the commands of man would be for those who had refused to obey the counsels of God, not so much commanding as warning, that they should not seek this. But the hearts of carnal men have rashness from the increase of audacity, and they have hardness from the reasoning of pretense. From rashness indeed they deliberate easily what is to be done; but because they do not understand what they wickedly propose, they cannot be helped by the counsels of better men. Wherefore here also it is added: (Verse 19.) The people would not hear the voice of Samuel. And they said: By no means: for a king shall be over us, and we also shall be like all the nations, and our king shall judge us, and shall go out before us, and shall fight our battles for us.

It was indeed an act of great rashness to ask for a king against God's will; of great stubbornness, not to be overcome by the prophet's counsels. It was of great rashness to set reasons before him whom they knew foreknew all things he was about to do by the Lord's revelation. Of great stubbornness, not to submit to him whom they knew to command only what he had learned by the Lord's revealing. For what is it that they say in answer: By no means, but a king shall be over us? But those who say "By no means" surely deny what they hear. Openly, then, in this word it is shown that the prophet set forth the heavy right of the king for this purpose, that he might by no means be asked for. But they hear the right of the king, and they detest that for which it is set forth; so that the progress of reprobate hearts is expressed, in which there is the consummation of an evil purpose and the unconvertibility of the will. But we reprehend ancient times, who do not care to see our own. And these times, surely, as the world grows old, are the more ancient, and so also in more respects more slack through the vice of time and negligence. For we propose evils now all the more boldly, as with the robust youth of the world the strength of the human condition has dried up; and we recall an evil purpose all the more difficultly, as, with the vigor of the spirit relaxed, our mind is made carnal. For human lapses are such that what it loses in spiritual virtue is strengthened in carnal life. All these things indeed according to the excellent...

The voice of the Creator: These things happened to them in figure; but they are written for our sake (1 Cor. 10:11). We now indeed clearly recognize the audacity of these Israelites, which the judgments of divine indignation followed; and yet we do not fear to propose acting against the will of God, against the counsel of the prelates of holy Church. When reproved, we also resist in an evil purpose, and we strive to overcome the wholesome counsels of our elders by the insuperable evil of obstinacy. We see how great an increase of evil it is to look upon those who are perishing, and not to fear to follow their footsteps to their destruction; to behold the penal snares of death as we run into them, and in no way to dread being entangled in those same snares. And they indeed, against the will of the Lord, endured a king; but by the royal dignity it was afterward brought about that the people, who had rejected God, worshiped idols and adored graven images. We therefore see how reverend the counsels of our elders ought to be, if we consider this with care: that those who dared to despise them did not foresee that they were doing this, whereby they might be plunged into so deep a sea of error. Justly, therefore, does the Lord complain that he is rejected in the petition for a king; justly, being indignant, he grants the royal dignity. So great indeed was the iniquity of those who demanded it, that when they sought that by which they would depart from God, by the judgment of God it could be permitted, it could not be forbidden. But since we have spoken these things according to the letter, let us see what those things also signify spiritually which are contained in the law of the king.

CHAPTER II.

i. For when Samuel is rejected, a king is demanded: when the reprobate multitude of the people despises the spiritual pastor, and seeks a carnal man to rule over them. And often it is dealt with them by the strictness of divine equity, that by the very fact that they despise the chosen preacher, they are permitted to be subject to a reprobate one: by whose imitation they perish so much the more grievously, as with greater pride they more boldly contemned that by which they could live forever. When therefore the right of the king is foretold, it is surely shown in the conduct of one carnal ruler what the other carnal men will do out of tyranny, not what the chosen ought to imitate. For in the same history of Kings it is read: that when King Ahab took away Naboth's vineyard, he incurred the wrath of God Almighty. But here, when the right of the king is foretold, fields, vineyards, and the best olive groves are mentioned as to be taken away (3 Kings 21, seq.). When therefore it is foretold here what was punished there when committed, it shows that it is not commanded by divine judgment. Wherefore also the chosen king David, when he sought the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite to build an altar to the Lord, was unwilling to use that royal right of tyrants (1 Par. 21:24): since he would by no means consent to receive it, unless he had first given a worthy price for it.

Therefore, because the things contained in the law of the king are foretold as to be avoided rather than imitated, they must be considered all the more carefully the less they can be avoided if they are unknown. He says therefore: He will take your sons and place them in his chariots. The sons of the elect are those who imitate their virtues. Chariots also are the pride of worldly elation of carnal prelates. For while they glory that they are more exalted than others, as if carried in chariots, they walk through high places. In chariots, therefore, the sons of the faithful are placed, when they follow reprobate pastors through the appetite of worldly glory: when, having abandoned spiritual pursuits, they seek the advantages of the carnal life: and having set aside that lofty intention of heavenly things, they strive to attain the high things of the world. Rightly, therefore, the sons of the Israelites are said to be placed not in a chariot but in chariots: because from every height of prelates that excels, they advance in elation: and as it were they raise themselves upon as many lofty chariots as they behold high things in which they think themselves superior to others. Therefore the king places the sons of the good in chariots, when the carnal ruler draws the imitators of the elect by the example of his own depravity to the vices of elation; so that they set heavenly things after, desire earthly things, and rejoice in this alone, if from that which is borne on high in temporal fashion, they are preferred to others.

Yes. And because they are not only erect against lesser men but also strong, it follows: And he will make for himself horsemen. For they rage as it were on horses, who are both lofty in dignity and fierce in power. They are also horsemen, because while they direct the fierce motions of their heart against the powerless, they are swift for everything they desire to carry out through tyranny. They pant indeed with impulse, they foam with rage, and those whom they attack in the course of their tyranny they crush. But while in reprobate pastors some emulate the arrogance of worldly elation, others by their example oppress those whom they can; there are also some who, for carrying out evils which they cannot by themselves inflict on the good, introduce others worse than themselves. Hence it also follows: And the forerunners of his chariots.

For what are the king's chariots if not the perverse minds of evil subjects, in whose counsels the reprobate prelate rests? For they are chariots which carry kings, when through the iniquitous counsels of the wicked the deeds of rulers are assisted. For in them, as it were, the king is led on high, when through those who favor them for temporal honors, carnal prelates accomplish in desire whatever they wish from the height of the world. And these are rightly designated by the name of chariots. For a chariot stands from that by which it is rolled: because the reprobate mind has as the end of its intention the rolling changeableness of the world. From that indeed it rests, from which through countless outward things it does not cease to fan the affairs of the revolving world with its mind. Therefore they are the chariots of kings.

while in everything that they think over by turning it about in lofty fashion, they carry the commands of carnal superiors upon themselves. But those who have a place of familiarity beside carnal prelates have lesser men whom they may command. They themselves, then, are as it were the king's four-horse chariots, and those others are the forerunners of the chariots; because in the same way that they carry a carnal superior forward to oppress the humble, they too are led on through the ministry of others to do harm to those they can. For he is as it were a forerunner of the chariots who devises by the wicked cunning of his mind an art by which he may bring that man in to inflict evils on the gentle. But if, as most manuscripts have it, we read not "forerunners" but "persecutors of the chariots," then surely these are they who imitate the reprobate rushing toward evil. A four-horse chariot is also customarily carried before kings for the sake of honor. As if, then, a king were set in a chariot, when a carnal ruler glories in the flatteries of great men who appear to be beside him. But those who go before or follow these men in their praises are a forerunner or a persecutor of the chariots, because these utter flatteries either after or before, which those men scattered in the ears of the people by going before or by following after.

It follows: And he will appoint for himself tribunes and centurions. They become tribunes and centurions when they advance so far in evil that, to carry out a tyrant's commands, they rule over impious attendants, when they draw up ranks of worldly forces which they lead out to wars against the innocent. Tribunes, indeed, are those who through many supporters of their own lay snares for those who live rightly. Centurions, however, are those who leave no kind of harm undone. For they attain the perfection of iniquity in this, that they always strive to bring in many and immense evils, which they can. For a centurion is named from the number one hundred. And inasmuch as the number one hundred signifies perfection, it is brought to perfection on the side of evil when the sum of wickedness is reached by the impious. These, surely, are made gentle by cunning, violent to terrify. They flatter others gently, so that with their help they may fiercely terrify others. Well, therefore, is it added: And plowmen of their fields, and reapers of their crops.

The carnal overseers of the field are the minds of their subjects; but the plowmen of these fields are those who, by the craft of worldly wit, persuade them to commit deeds of wickedness. For they open, as it were, the solidity of the fields by speaking, who corrupt the hearts of the simple through depraved counsels. And they reap the crops when hearts deceived by the seed of evil counsel yield the fruit of wicked action in those of lesser station. These works are indeed designated by the name of crops, because the perversity of a reprobate subject, while it is joyfully received by carnal rulers, is, as it were, the chosen food of their mind. And in this perversity, because they advance little by little, it follows: And makers of arms, and of their chariots. What are the arms and chariots of tyrants but all those instruments of harming that are prepared to overturn the hearts of those of lesser station? But because one reaches by chariot the place where he may strike with arms, the makers of arms and chariots of the king are made when, by the most wicked contrivance of their hearts, they devise both the evils they are to do and how, once those evils are devised, they may inflict them. For to forge arms is to gather in a reprobate mind the kinds of harming. And to forge chariots is to find the art by which one may draw near to inflicting those same evils.

It follows: Your daughters also he will make perfumers, and cooks, and bakers. By the name of daughters are designated the minds of the weak placed within the holy Church. These become the king's perfumers, because when they see carnal overseers in the height of passing glory, they try to soothe them with flatteries. The Psalmist, disapproving the use of these perfumes, says: The oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head (Psalm 113:5). The daughters, then, become perfumers, because while the weak fear to displease carnal overseers, they soften their fierceness, to which they are subject through fear, with flattery. And it must be noted that sons are first said to be taken away by the king, and thus to be made horsemen, and centurions, or makers of weapons; but daughters are said to be made not taken away, but simply perfumers and bakers. For to be taken away belongs to violence. Sons, therefore, are taken away, because the strong are with difficulty overthrown. Since, then, daughters are said not to be taken away but to be made perfumers, what is this but that those who are weak in good are most easily scattered by the examples of the wicked? These also become the king's cooks and bakers, because those who serve tyrants by flattering them, while they please them by favoring them, furnish, as it were, food. For cooks are those who cook at the hearths what kings eat. Cooks, then, are those who through the services of favor kindle the swelling of the heart in a carnal overseer, so that they may receive favors the more boldly, the more delicately, as it were, they prepare the foods of the fire of stirred-up devotion.

These also become bakers, because while they praise a reprobate life, they strengthen the carnal mind of the tyrant to practice wickedness.

It follows: Your fields also he will take, and vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his servants. What are the fields of the good, if not the devoted minds of subjects? For when they gladly hear their words, they yield an abundant fruit of good works. And what are their vineyards, if not the minds of those advancing by imitation, so that they even offer the word of life to others, and those whom by speaking they kindle to love of the Creator, they make drunk as it were with drink? But what are the olive groves, if not the hearts of hearers, who by the example and exhortation of the good advance in the work of mercy? But when the king is appointed, the fields are taken away, because when carnal men come to the summit of rule, some hearers of the good take up examples of wickedness. The fields, then, are taken away when hearts lately devoted are seduced, when from the seed of wickedness they yield fruit in evil conduct. The olive groves and vineyards are taken away when, by the example of a wicked superior, the works of mercy and the words of holy preaching are abandoned, both to be shown and to be spoken. Well, moreover, are the fields, vineyards, and olive groves said to be given to the king's servants. For they are servants who, always subject to the authority of masters, cannot escape the yoke of domination. They are, then, servants of the king who through abundant iniquity so bind themselves to the wills of tyrants that they never afterward withdraw from them.

The fields, then, and the vineyards, and the olive groves, taken away, the servants receive, because the reprobate supporters of carnal prelates, when they turn deceived hearts to the purpose of wicked work, impose the title of tyrannical power upon the fields, vineyards, and olive groves of the elect, as it were. It follows: But also your crops and the revenues of your vineyards he will tithe, to give to his eunuchs and servants. When evil men preside, it is very difficult for one who is subject to them to suffer no losses of religion. For the minds of some perish utterly; but those whom they cannot wholly pervert, while they continually behold their evil words and deeds, are stained by some defilement or other. Well, then, is it said: Your crops and the revenues of your vineyards he will tithe. As if he should say: Under a reprobate shepherd, even the goods of the elect are not whole. But what is taken away from the good is given to the eunuchs and servants of the king. The eunuchs and servants of carnal prelates are their hypocritical hearers. They are eunuchs indeed, because they show that they have cast off worldly pleasure; but they are the king's servants, because through everything in which they pretend to themselves to have virtues, they bear in themselves the yoke of reprobate overseers. Well, moreover, is the tithe of the crops and vineyards said to belong to the eunuchs, because the appearance of hypocrites is not easily recognized. In this, since even holy men can be deceived, what they lose is ascribed to those by whose fraud they are caught. It follows: Your male and female servants also, and your best young men, and your asses he will take away, and put them to his work.

They are the servants and maidservants of the saints who supply them with temporal necessities. They are servants and maidservants because, while they give the necessities of the body, in this same work of mercy some are stronger than others. And the choicest young men: because both those who can do much and those who can do little, while they spend all that they are able in the work of mercy, labor mightily at the divine service like chosen young men. The asses of the elect are also those on whom the burdens of obedience are laid, that they may aid their weakness by carrying with them what they could by no means carry without them. But what is it that they are foretold to be placed in the king's work? Yet those who are placed in the king's work pay the debt of forced labor on appointed days, by the right of public authority. What is it, then, that servants and maidservants and the choicest young men are foretold to be placed in the king's work, except that by carnal prelates both the ministers of the elect and the hearts of the devoutly obedient are often defiled? For while they look unceasingly upon their reprobate life, they gradually fall away to the point of imitating something of their deeds. Indeed, from long habit they serve the elect; but while they often see the eminence of their high station, they sometimes desire, by the impulse of pride, to be served by others. They also give their own goods mercifully, but often, by the example of tyrants, they take what belongs to others. But because they are the servants of the saints, they cannot depart from their jurisdiction.

For a time they can indeed be abandoned, but by divine mercy they are easily lifted up from the error into which they fall. Since, then, they fall through the examples of the wicked, those who quickly recover their senses are, as it were, put to forced labor in the king's work, in which they do not remain long through continuous service.

It follows: He will also tithe your flocks, and you will be servants. As if he were saying: While a carnal shepherd is set over you, plunder is inflicted not only on your possessions but on yourselves as well. For the flocks of the elect are the multitudes of spiritual virtues. But when these spiritual virtues themselves are scattered by the example of the wicked, the king takes the tithes of the flock, when one who presides in a carnal way destroys certain virtues in the hearts of the saints. He takes the tithes, because while he scatters the integrity of the mind, he leaves the number of virtues imperfect. For perfection is designated by the number ten. Hence also, when the Lord wished to show by an open comparison the loss of our fallen humanity, he brings forward the woman who had lost one of ten drachmas (Luke 15 and following), so that by this—that the number ten is shown to have perished—that heavenly fellowship, which remained in the angels in the number nine, may be taught to be imperfect without the restoration of our condition. And because tithes are exacted year by year, those who do not cease to offer tithes are fittingly said to be the king's servants. For they serve him year by year, by whose example they often become worse.

Through this too—that after the tithes have been given, this servitude is asserted—the evil progress of the wicked can be shown. For those who gradually fail do daily things by which they are led down into the depths of iniquity. He says therefore: He will tithe your flocks, and you will be his servants. As if he were saying: By the example of the wicked you will gradually fall away, but by falling you bring it about that you never withdraw from imitating them. For it is written: By whatever a man is overcome, of that he is made a servant (2 Peter 2:19). For because the reprobate fall into the servitude of sin through imitation of their shepherd, they cannot be released even from his yoke when they wish. Hence it is also added: (Verse 18.) And you will cry out in that day because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day, because you asked for a king for yourselves.

As if he were saying: You slip gradually into acquaintance with his depraved imitation, but the examples of his wickedness, to which you submit yourselves willingly, you are by no means able to abandon willingly. For everyone who commits sin is a servant of sin (John 8:34). Therefore those whom sins dominate cannot by themselves be freed from their yoke. For often they come to the Lord with prayers, they ask to be freed, but they cannot be heard. By divine judgment, indeed, it is dealt with them thus: that those who were unwilling to avoid evils when they could, cannot avoid them when they wish; and those who willingly run into foreseen evils cannot flee from them once experienced. Wherefore, also intimating the cause by which they are prevented from being heard, he says: Because you asked for a king for yourselves.

As if he were saying openly: Because you have asked that that be given to you, in which, while I was foretelling it, you came to know all these things that were to come. These things, as I said above, are foretold in the type of carnal prelates concerning the future conduct of the king: so that they might rest from their petition for him, in whom they had come to know such great evils. But the reprobate have hearts such that they quickly propose evil, and do not quickly repent of the evil they have proposed. Therefore it is also added: (Vers. 19, 20.) But the people was unwilling to hear the voice of Samuel, but they said: By no means. For a king shall be over us, and we also shall be like all the nations, and our king shall judge us, and shall go out before us, and shall fight our battles for us.

i. By these words indeed the customs of carnal subjects are openly described: because while they desire outward things, they do not attend even to the inner losses that have been set before them. But those who preside in a carnal way, by the very display of temporal power, give great hope of protection to the lesser subjects under them. Therefore, when they say: A king shall be over us, and he shall fight our battles for us, what else do they suggest but the customs of reprobate subjects, who despise humble and spiritual preachers, so that they may be helped in temporal matters by carnal men? Which they would certainly never do, unless they had first lost the light of the heart.

For if they despise the humility of spiritual men outwardly, but do not consider with what sublimity of power those men shine inwardly, they do not deserve to perceive it; in those men too they see the outward tyranny of power, but they do not see with what weakness it is pressed down within. These men, because they cling to God, are powerful even in outward things whenever they will; those who withdraw from the Lord cannot, by the strength of action, make good the hope they promise from worldly power. For, to take an example from what is near at hand, Saul, when they were demanding a king to fight wars, was chosen strong and mighty, so that, as this sacred history testifies, he stood out above the whole people from the shoulder upward. Therefore, chosen by God for the governance of the kingdom, since he was good and none of the sons of Israel was better than he, yet when so great and such a man is left to carnal strength, he lost the wars he had received to fight, and likewise lost his life. But Samuel, who was not exalted by the power of the world, who served humbly not only God but also men, powerfully displayed trophies from outward wars as well. For it was said of him not long above: Samuel took one suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord, and Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And it came to pass, when Samuel was offering the burnt offering to the Lord, that the Philistines joined battle against Israel.

But the Lord thundered with a great crash on that day over the Philistines, and he terrified them, and the Philistines were struck down by the children of Israel (1 Kings 7:9-10). Let him therefore say: The people refused to hear the voice of Samuel, so that in their disobedience we may be shown the hearts of the proud, cast down by the judgment of divine equity in such a way that great evils hang over them which they are about to incur, yet they cannot see them. It follows: (Verse 21.) And Samuel heard all the words of the people.

This, surely, is what Samuel heard—what the people spoke—but the people did not hear him. For it was the part of a reprobate people to speak and not to hear: to utter words against God's will, but in no way to foresee the punishment of their wicked speech. But Samuel heard the words of the people, because spiritual men, when they hear the voices of proud speech, recognize in them the coming desert of divine vengeance. Let him therefore say: Samuel heard all the words of the people, because the saints and spiritual men weigh inwardly, in the divine judgment, whatever carnal men proudly sound forth outwardly. But because, when they find the damnable life of carnal subjects, they intercede for the blotting out of their sins, it follows: (Verse 21.) And he spoke them in the ears of the Lord.

We speak in their ears with whom we have the grace of great familiarity. But holy men, because they are joined to almighty God in the bond of great love, speak in his ears, because they expose their hearing to his divine propitiation with as much greater confidence as they have received a more exalted place of obtaining favor with his mercy. But they speak the sins of the people out of the humility of confession, yet they speak in the ears of the Lord, because with great affection they knock at the door of the Lord's propitiation. But perhaps it is said that he speaks in the ears of the Lord because, while holy men intercede for sinners, they do not reveal to men the prayers that they bring to God on their behalf. Hence also in the Gospel the Lord forbids the disciples, saying: When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, sad, who love to pray in the synagogues and standing at the corners of the streets, so that they may be seen by men (Matthew 6:5). Therefore they speak the words, or the works, of the people when they set before the Lord the sins of speech and of deed to be blotted out by prayers. But they speak them in the ears of the Lord so that, while those who pray shun the testimonies of men, they may be heard more swiftly by him who looks upon hidden things. Therefore, when Samuel is said to speak in the ears of the people, he surely indicates the measure by which one merits the hearing of divine condescension.

For prayer cannot reach God at all if it is uttered with the intention of being recognized by men. Hence he who is said to have spoken in the ears of the Lord is also reported to have received his answers. For it follows: (Verse 22.) And the Lord said to Samuel: Hear the voice of the people, and set a king over them.

In this matter it must be noted that Samuel spoke in the ears of the Lord the words of the people with which they had asked for a king, and the Lord declares himself rejected in that the people ask for a king. Therefore, when he answers the one praying and commands the one praying to make a king, what else does he suggest but that the devout prayer of a chosen man is never unfruitful? For if he did not obtain the correction of the people, he obtained the good of his own instruction, since he recognized the people as rejected because of their evil request, and yet nonetheless knew what he himself ought to do for the rejected. The prophet, then, could be heard and not heard: because by praying he knew what he ought to be, but he did not take away the hardness of heart from the people wickedly demanding. But this he who spoke in the ears of the Lord was able to obtain: because holy men, in the very act by which they devoutly entreat the Lord for sinners, are strengthened by the aid of divine propitiation, so that they are in no way polluted by the crimes of those whose filth they cannot wipe away by their prayers. But what is it that the Lord says: Hear their voices, when it was said above: Samuel heard all the words of the people.

But he had heard the words of the people, so as to know what was being said, not so as to grant what was being asked. Therefore, when it is said to him by the Lord, "Hear the voice of the people, and set a king over them," the prophet was commanded to favor the will of the people. And behold, as is plainly seen, the prophet praying is not heard; the people, rejecting God and seeking a king, were heard. What shall we say this is, except that by the wondrous and fearful judgment of the divine incomprehensibility, holy men praying on behalf of the reprobate cannot be heard, while the reprobate themselves, sinning, can be heard in the fulfilling of their own depravities: so that for the former, free iniquity may increase the merit of eternal vengeance, and for the latter, from the disposition of compassion, the reward of perpetual retribution may grow? And immediately, beginning to show the order by which it came about to the appointment of that same king, he says: (Verse 22.) And Samuel said to all the children of Israel: Let each one go into his own city.

When we wish to discuss spiritual things, it is necessary that we remove carnal things from our intention, because the mind does not penetrate inner things when the dust of outward acts blinds it. Therefore, when the prophet of the Lord commands all the people to depart to their own places, he surely drives away from himself the tumult of carnal things, so that he may see more clearly the spiritual things that are to be arranged, inasmuch as the intention of earthly acts does not obscure the sharpness of his mind. But showing what sort of man he is who is foreseen by divine judgment, he says:

CHAPTER III

(1 Samuel 9:1-2) There was a man from Benjamin, named Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of a man of Gemini, mighty in strength. And he had a son named Saul, chosen and good, and there was no man among the sons of Israel better than he; from the shoulder and upward he stood out above all the people.

When the person of the king to be ordained is set forth, why are the names of his ancestors described, unless it is so that his kingdom may not be perceived as lasting? For concerning the kingdom that Moses foresaw would come, he says: The scepter shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thigh, until he comes who is to be sent, and he himself will be the expectation of the nations (Genesis 49:10). Therefore, because the tribe of Judah had been foreseen for the long duration of the kingdom, the generation of Kish is mentioned, so that the royal dignity, which was being established in the son, might be openly known to be dispensational, not to endure. But he who begets the carnal king is Kish, that is, in our speech he is called a snare, and he is proclaimed mighty in strength.

Now also there are many carnal people within the holy Church who seem to do great things, but they are carnal because they do not have the grace of the Holy Spirit. They are therefore strong in might, because everything they seem to do that is great is bodily. For even Cis, the father of Saul, is called strong in might for this reason, that he is understood to have had great bodily strength. Strong in might, then, he is hard, because one who displays great things carnally does not have a soft heart through compassion in brotherly love. He acts powerfully in ways that men cannot imitate outwardly, but inwardly he does not know how to be joined to brotherly minds through the affection of love. He does things that are strong, which God rejects; and he does not care to show the affection of love, which God approves. He is therefore hard, because while with a proud heart he does bodily things, the grace of the Holy Spirit does not soften his mind. Against this the holy man glories, saying: God has softened my heart, and the Almighty has troubled me (Job 23:16). And often those who imitate the ways of such men are made into things by the righteous judgment of God. Hence Saul is also fittingly recorded to have been the son of Cis.

But it must be asked why the same Saul is said to be chosen and good, who is reported to be the son of a harsh man? But he is called chosen not according to grace, but according to judgment. He is also called good, so that the disposition of divine equity may be commended. For even the evils which we often suffer for our sins, because they are inflicted on us through divine justice, are good. Indeed, whatever is just is good. For through the justice of God, reprobate pastors are permitted to ascend to the governance of the holy Church, but those who are evil through iniquity are good by divine disposition; and by God's hidden ordination they are now chosen, who at the last will be reprobated in the universal judgment. Therefore a reprobate pastor, because it is decreed by God's indignation that he should be, is called chosen; and because he is justly permitted, he is called good. Likewise, because he is provided as more useful than others for carrying out divine judgments, no one among the sons of Israel is said to be better than he. He is also remembered to have stood out above all the people from the shoulder and upward: because one who follows the customs of carnal men in his living strives greatly to do those things which another cannot do. For a carnal ruler stands out above all the people from the shoulder and upward, since he is strong in outward things without comparison.

All these words of praise can also be understood in this way: while the person of the king who is to be ordained is extolled, the intention of those requesting a king is confounded. For they say: He will be over us, and he will judge us, and he will fight our battles for us (1 Samuel 8). He is called chosen and good, and because there is no one among the sons of Israel better than he, so that all good things may stand out in the person of the requested king; but when human presumption does not measure up to the things the people had proposed, it is confounded, so that, defeated, it may waste away. And indeed, as I said above, the king who is chosen to go before the people and fight their battles, when he is abandoned by divine aid, is laid low in battle and dies, and to the people whom he led into those same battles he was then the cause not of salvation but of death. Finally, the people would attribute this to God, if he who had been chosen king by God's judgment had not proved sufficiently fit to do the things the people wanted. He can also be understood as chosen and good in the sense that he is asserted to be such, not as he was foreseen to be in the future. He is called chosen and good, then, so that the Lord may be understood to have chosen him as one who was afterward rejected through disobedience. Therefore reason itself demands that the things said of the chosen and good man up to the time of his rejection we also understand in a good sense.

CHAPTER IV.

i. Therefore, summing up all things again, let us see what edification they contain in themselves according to another signification. Since we have said that a new priesthood is designated in Samuel, what is it that grew old, except that, while the holy Church is led through the courses of passing times, in some priests the beauty of conduct grows old? But Samuel grew old, because the vigor of authority withered. For Samuel was, as it were, young when the order of priests, breathing only after heavenly desires, while it sought no earthly things, by that very fact inflamed the minds of subjects to those things no less by words and examples, by which it could more effectively preach heavenly things. For he was strong in vigor and shone with youthful beauty, while he showed the power of the heavenly word in the splendor of holy conduct, because whatever he could preach as strong in speaking, he strove also to show sublimely by living. For he gave life to dead souls by his word; but shining with the wondrous flower of youth, he raised dead bodies by his command. Since he gave sight to the blind, steps to the lame, and healing to all diseases, and shone so brightly with the beauty of most holy conduct that it was a matter of greater virtue to be able to live in this way than to succor others in that way. As if in youth, therefore, Samuel flourished, when in the order of priests both the wondrous virtue of his work and the immense beauty of holy conduct shone forth together. But it is already long since Samuel grew old.

For many ages have passed, during which many follow the love of the world, though by their virtue the joys of the world ought to be driven from the hearts of others. Yet we do not say this in order that the holy Church may have no religious men at all, but because they are few who at the summit of preaching have perfectly learned to despise the world and to cling to the highest desires. Wherefore aptly is Samuel both called old and said to prophesy. He is old indeed, because he has lost in many the rigor of a harsh manner of life; yet he does not cease to prophesy, because while he has some spiritual powers, he mightily displays the virtue of a provident spirit. This can fittingly be understood in one and the same preacher. They are old, and they prophesy, who are so dissolved through negligence that they teach well but live badly. These set their sons as judges when they establish in the dignity of the priesthood those who look to the times of their more remiss life. Yet by the old men the young are ordained, because those who come to be promoted promise strong things. For they pledge the most valiant profession of the priestly life, whose virtue they do not have in their future manner of life. The young, then, are promoted, because those who ordain them do not assume them to the height of so great an order before they receive from them a profession of virtue.

For first they instill into them both how sublimely they ought to live and how subtly they ought to teach; and this for the reason that they ought to live sublimely in order to be able to preach profitably, that they should always direct the purpose of their life toward things above, that they should not seek temporal rewards from the labor of preaching, that they should not show partiality to persons in judgment, but should order all things according to the balance of equity; so that they may hear the difficulties of the ways of God, and may say whether they are willing to undergo their labors.

i. These difficult ways, indeed, many, while they seek sacred orders, profess that they walk: but when they arrive at that which they seek, they neglect to hold fast the strength of their promise. Hence also the sons of Samuel are fittingly reported not to have walked in his ways, but to have accepted gifts and perverted judgment. For the ways of Samuel are those which are set forth by the office of the preacher. Therefore the sons do not walk in the ways of their father when those who ambitiously attain to sacred orders abandon the steep paths of religion shown to them by their elders and, with a perverse intention, are plunged more deeply into the appetite for earthly things. Hence also they are openly said to have turned aside after avarice, to accept gifts, and to pervert judgment. For those who neglect heavenly things through sloth must necessarily be bound more closely in the appetite for earthly things. To turn aside after avarice is, indeed, to flow down with the whole intention of ambition for earthly things.