That understanding is given by God to preachers, figured by the cock announcing the day by his crowing. Why the loins of this cock are girded. — Who else are here designated by the name of cock, but the same holy preachers, taken up again under another figure, who amid the darkness of the present life are eager to announce the coming light by preaching, as it were by crowing? For they say: 'The night is far spent, but the day is at hand.' It is they who by their cries shake off the sleep of our torpor, crying: 'It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep.' And again: 'Awake, ye righteous, and sin not.' Concerning this cock it is again written: 'There be three things which go well, and a fourth which is comely in going:'
'a lion, strongest among beasts, which turneth not away for any; a cock girded about the loins; and a ram; and there is no king that shall withstand him.' The lion indeed is set in this place, of whom it is written: 'The Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed.' Who is called strongest among beasts, because in him that which is the weakness of God is stronger than men. Who is not afraid at the coming of any; for he says: 'The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.' 'The cock girded about the loins,' that is, the holy preachers announcing the true morning amid the darkness of this night. They are girded about the loins, because they restrain the flowings of lust from their members. For lust is in the loins.
Whence it is also said to them by the Lord: 'Let your loins be girded.' 'And a ram; and there is no king that shall withstand him.' What other ram do we take in this place but the foremost order of priests within the Church? Concerning whom it is written: 'Bring unto the Lord the offspring of rams'; who by their examples draw the advancing people as a following flock of sheep. And to these, living spiritually and rightly, no king can at all withstand, because whatever persecutor may oppose them, he cannot hinder their intent. For they know how both eagerly to run toward Him whom they desire, and to attain Him by dying. So then the lion is set first, the cock second, the ram third.
For Christ appeared first, then the holy preachers, the apostles, and then at last the spiritual fathers set over the Churches, namely the leaders of the flocks, since they are the teachers of the peoples that follow. Antichrist, lifted up on high, will appear a fool. In this life, not everything that is done well is done happily, nor everything that is done happily is done well. — But we affirm these things yet better if we subjoin also the rest of the same passage by expounding it. For because after these Antichrist too will appear, there he added this as a fourth thing, saying: 'And one who appeared a fool, after he was lifted up on high. For if he had understood, he would have laid his hand upon his mouth.' For he himself will be lifted up on high, when he shall falsely claim to be God.
But lifted up on high he will appear a fool, because in that very lifting up of his he will fail at the coming of the true Judge. And 'if he had understood, he would have laid his hand upon his mouth'; that is, if he had foreseen the punishment on which he began by his pride, he, once well created, would never have been elevated into the boasting of so great a pride. And let it in no way disturb us that it was said above: 'A fourth thing which goeth happily.' For he said that three go well, and a fourth happily. For not everything that is done happily is done well; nor in this life is everything that is done well done happily. For the lion, the cock, and the ram go well, but not here happily, because they suffer the wars of persecution.
But the fourth goes happily and not well, because in his deceit Antichrist will walk, yet for the brief time of the present life that very deceit will prosper for him, just as was said of him under the figure of Antiochus through Daniel: 'Strength was given him against the continual sacrifice, because of sins; and truth shall be cast down to the ground, and he shall act, and shall prosper.' What Solomon says, 'It goeth happily,' Daniel says, 'shall prosper.' According, therefore, to this testimony which is spoken through Solomon, 'A cock girded about the loins,' fitly also in this place do we take the cock to be the holy preachers. Therefore, referring all things to himself, the Lord says: 'Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts of man?'
'or who hath given understanding to the cock?' As if He said: Who hath poured into the heart of man's human wisdom the grace of heavenly wisdom? Or to the holy preachers themselves, who but I hath given understanding, that they may know when and to whom they ought to announce the coming morning? For therefore they perceive when and what they are to do, because they know this by my revealing it within. And it is to be noted that the divinely inspired wisdom is placed in the inward parts of man, because assuredly, as regards the number of the elect, it is given not in words alone but also in the affections, so that as the tongue speaks, the conscience may live, and its light may shine forth so much the more clearly on the surface as it burns the more truly in the heart.
How greatly the rulers of souls have need of discernment. — But of great labour is that which is added, 'Or who hath given understanding to the cock,' to examine by a still subtler exposition. For the understanding of teachers ought to be so much the subtler, the more it exercises itself upon penetrating things invisible, the more it discusses nothing material, and the more, even while speaking through a bodily voice, it passes beyond all that is of the body. Which assuredly would in no way be suited to the highest things, unless the very Maker of the highest ministered it to the crowing cock, that is, to the preaching teacher.
The cock has also received understanding, that it may first examine the hours of the nocturnal time, and then at last send forth the voice of arousal; because, namely, every holy preacher first considers the quality of life in his hearers, and then at last forms a fitting voice of preaching for their instruction. For to discern, as it were, the hours of the night is to judge the merits of sinners; to discern, as it were, the hours of the night is to rebuke the darkness of deeds with a fitting voice of reproof. So then understanding is bestowed from above upon the cock, because to the teacher of truth the power of discernment is divinely ministered, that he may know to whom, what, when, and how he should bring his word. An exhortation which profits some, harms others.
— For not one and the same exhortation suits all, because one and the same quality of character does not bind them all. For often the things that profit some hinder others. For very often even the herbs which nourish these animals kill others; and a gentle hiss soothes horses, but incites puppies; and the medicine which lessens this disease adds strength to another; and the bread which strengthens the life of the strong destroys that of little ones. According, therefore, to the quality of the hearers ought the discourse of teachers to be fashioned, so that it may suit each in his own case, and yet never depart from the art of common edification. For what are the intent minds of hearers but, as it were, certain strings of strung chords upon a lyre?
which the skilled artist, that they may not make a discordant song, strikes differently. And therefore the chords render a consonant modulation, because they are struck indeed with one quill, but not with one and the same stroke. Whence every teacher too, that he may edify all in the one virtue of charity, ought to touch the hearts of his hearers out of one doctrine, but not with one and the same exhortation. According to the quality of individuals, varied admonitions are to be given. For men are to be admonished in one way, women in another; young men in one way, old men in another; the poor in one way, the wealthy in another; the joyful in one way, the sad in another; subjects in one way, prelates in another; servants in one way, masters in another; the wise of this world in one way, the dull in another; the shameless in one way, the bashful in another;
the insolent in one way, the faint-hearted in another; the impatient in one way, the patient in another; the benevolent in one way, the envious in another; the simple in one way, the impure in another; the healthy in one way, the sick in another; those who fear scourges, and therefore live innocently, in one way; those who have so hardened in iniquity that they are not corrected even by scourges, in another; the too-silent in one way, those given to much talking in another; the timid in one way, the bold in another; the slothful in one way, the headlong in another; the meek in one way, the wrathful in another; the humble in one way, the proud in another; the obstinate in one way, the inconstant in another; those given to gluttony in one way, the abstinent in another; those who mercifully give of their own in one way, those who strive to seize what belongs to others in another;
those who neither seize what belongs to others nor bestow their own in one way, those who both give of their own and cease not to seize what belongs to others in another; the discordant in one way, the peaceable in another; those who sow strifes in one way, the peacemakers in another; those are to be admonished in one way who do not rightly understand the words of the sacred law, and in another those who indeed understand rightly, but do not speak them humbly; in one way those who, though able to preach worthily, are afraid through too great humility, and in another those whom imperfection or age forbids from preaching, and yet rashness impels; in one way those who prosper in what they temporally desire, in another those who indeed covet the things of the world, but yet are wearied by the toil of adversity;
those bound by marriage in one way, those free from the bonds of marriage in another; those who have experienced the union of the flesh in one way, those ignorant of it in another; those who bewail the sins of deeds in one way, those who bewail the sins of thoughts in another; those who lament what they have committed, yet do not forsake it, in one way; those who forsake it, yet do not lament it, in another; those who even praise the unlawful things they do in one way, those who accuse depraved things yet do not shun them in another; those who are overcome by sudden concupiscence in one way, those who are bound in fault by deliberation in another; those who, though small, yet frequently commit unlawful things in one way, and in another those who guard themselves from small sins, yet are sometimes plunged into grave ones; those who neither begin good works in one way, those who by no means complete what they have begun in another;
those who do evil secretly and good publicly in one way, those who hide the good they do, and yet by certain deeds allow evil to be thought of them publicly, in another. Indeed we ought to have subtly set forth concerning each what the order of admonition should be, but we are hindered by dread of the prolixity of the discourse. But by God's authorship the mind desires to fulfil this in another work, if yet some little time of this laborious life shall remain. The wicked are to be rebuked with high and great voices; those who have withdrawn from iniquity are to be admonished with gentle and soothing ones.
— But we have something else which we ought to consider concerning the understanding of this cock, namely, that at the deeper hours of the night he is wont to utter stronger and more prolonged crowings, but when the morning time is now approaching, he forms altogether gentler and slighter voices. In which the considered discretion of preachers demonstrates what the understanding of this cock may intimate to us. For they, when they preach to minds still wicked, sound forth the terrors of eternal judgement with high and great voices, because, namely, they cry as it were amid the darkness of deep night.
But when they now perceive that the light of truth is present to the hearts of their hearers, they turn the greatness of their cry into the gentleness of sweetness, and set forth not so much those things which are terrible concerning punishments as those which are soothing concerning rewards. They then sing with slight voices too, because, as the morning approaches, they preach whatever is subtle concerning the mysteries, so that their followers may hear whatever is finer concerning heavenly things the nearer they approach the place of truth; and that those whom the long crowing of the cock had aroused while sleeping, a shorter one may delight while watching; so that whoever has been corrected may gladly come to know subtly the sweet things concerning the kingdom, who before dreaded the adverse things concerning judgement.
This is well expressed through Moses, when for leading forth the army we are bidden to blow a broken blast of the trumpet. For it is written: 'Make thee two trumpets of beaten silver.' And a little after: 'When the broken blast shall have sounded, the camps shall be moved.' For by two trumpets the army is led, because by the two precepts of charity the people is called to the array of faith. Which are therefore commanded to be made of silver, that the words of preachers may be evident with the brightness of light, and may not confound the mind of the hearers by any obscurity of theirs. And therefore of beaten metal, because it is necessary that those who preach the coming life should grow by the hammerings of present tribulations. But it is well said:
'When the broken blast shall have sounded, the camps shall be moved,' because assuredly, when the word of preaching is handled more subtly and minutely, the hearts of the hearers are more ardently aroused against the assured battle of temptations. Those who exhort others by office should first exercise themselves in good works. — There is yet another thing to be shrewdly observed in the cock, that when he is now preparing to utter his crowings, he first shakes his wings, and, striking himself, renders himself more vigilant. Which we plainly discern if we watchfully behold the life of the holy preachers. For they, when they set in motion the words of preaching, first exercise themselves in holy actions, lest, being torpid in work within themselves, they should arouse others by voice;
but they first shake themselves out by lofty deeds, and then render others solicitous to act well. They first strike themselves with the wings of their thoughts, because whatever in themselves is uselessly torpid, they detect by careful searching and correct by strict animadversion. They first take care to punish their own with tears, and then denounce what is to be punished in others. Therefore they first sound with their wings before they send forth their crowings; because before they set forth the words of exhortation, they proclaim by their works all that they are about to speak; and when they perfectly keep watch within themselves, then they call others who are sleeping to their vigils. That preachers and teachers may rightly discharge their office, they have from God.
— But whence has the teacher such great understanding, that he may both watch perfectly for himself, and call the sleeping to their vigils under certain increases of crowing; that he may both first cautiously examine the darkness of sinners, and afterward discreetly show forth the light of preaching; that he may suit each according to measure and times, and at once show to all the things that are to follow them? Whence does he reach to such great and so subtle things, unless he be inwardly taught by Him from whom he was created? Because, therefore, the praise of so great an understanding is not the virtue of the preacher, but of the Author, it is rightly said by the same Author: 'Or who hath given understanding to the cock?' As if He said:
'None but I, who created the minds of teachers marvellously out of nothing, have yet more marvellously instructed them to understand the things that are hidden.' Whence well, that He may show Himself in the sayings of preachers not only as the inspirer of understanding, but also as the Author of their speech, He adds: — Whose words, however, because when He shall have shown Himself to us through vision He withdraws them, He immediately subjoined: