1219:1
25. Portas mortis, hoc est potestates adversas superavit. — Portce enirn morUs sunt potestates adversæ. Quas descendens Dominus aperuit, quia earum fortitudinemmoriendo superavit. Quæ appellatione quoqne alia tenebrosa ostia vocantur, quia dum per occultationis suæ insidias non videntur, deceptis mentibus viam mortis aperiunt. Quæ tenebrosa ostia Dominus videt, quia immundorum spirituum Irauduletam rnalitiam et res pic t et premit. Quos nisi ipse nobis nescientibus videndo prohiberet, et nil de insidiis eorum mens nostra cognosceret, et eisdem insidiis capta deperiret. Quae tenebrosa etiam nos ostia cernimus quando supernæ lucis radiis illustramur. Unde et per prophetam dicitur:
25. The gates of death, that is, the adverse powers, He overcame. — For the gates of death are the adverse powers. These the Lord, descending, opened, because by dying He overcame their strength. These are also called by another name the gates of darkness, because, while through the snares of their concealment they are not seen, they open the way of death to deceived minds. These dark gates the Lord sees, because He both perceives and presses down the deceitful malice of the unclean spirits. And unless He, by seeing them, prohibited them for us who know it not, our mind would neither know anything of their snares, and, taken by those same snares, would perish. These dark gates even we discern when we are enlightened by the rays of the supernal light. Whence it is also said through the prophet:
二十五。死亡的門，即敵對的權勢，祂已戰勝。——因為死亡的門就是敵對的權勢。主降臨時打開了這些門，因祂藉死亡勝過了它們的力量。這些門又以別名稱作黑暗的門戶，因它們藉隱匿的詭計不被看見，卻向受騙的心思打開死亡之路。這些黑暗的門戶主都看見，因祂既察覺又壓制汙穢之靈欺詐的惡毒。若非祂藉看見它們為不知情的我們攔阻它們，我們的心思既無從知曉它們的詭計，就必被同樣的詭計擒獲而滅亡。連我們也能辨識這些黑暗的門戶，當我們被上天之光的光芒照亮時。因此也藉先知說：
1219:2
Dominus milei adjutor est, et ego videbo inimicos meos (Psal. CXVII, 7). Hostes igitur nostros ipse videt, qui suo eos munere nobis visibiles facit. Vel certa tenebrosa tunc ostia Domninus vidit, cum claustr inferni penetrans, crudeles spiritus perculit, et mortis præpositos moriendo damnavit. Quod idcirco hic non adhuc de futuro, sed jam de praeterito dicitur, quia hoc quod facturus erat in opere, nimirum jam fecerat in prædestinatione.Quia vero post niortem resurrectionemque ejus crevit Ecclesia, atque in cunctis est gemitus dilatata, apte subjungitur:
The Lord is my helper, and I shall look upon my enemies (Psalm 118:7). Therefore He Himself sees our foes, who by His own gift makes them visible to us. Or certainly the Lord then saw the dark gates, when, penetrating the prisons of hell, He struck the cruel spirits, and by dying condemned those set over death. And this is here said not still of the future, but already of the past, because what He was going to do in deed, He had assuredly already done in predestination. But because after His death and resurrection the Church grew, and was spread abroad amid the groanings in all nations, it is fittingly added:
主是我的幫助，我必看見我的仇敵（詩篇一一八篇7節）。所以祂親自看見我們的仇敵，並藉自己的恩賜使他們對我們可見。或者確實，主那時看見了黑暗的門戶，當祂洞穿陰間的牢獄，擊打殘忍的諸靈，並藉死亡定罪那些掌管死亡者。這裡如此說，並非仍論將來，而是已論過去，因為祂將要行的事，祂確已在預定中成就。但因祂死而復活之後，教會增長，並在萬民的哀嘆中傳揚開來，故恰當地補充說：