36. In the doubled herds and flocks of Job, the gathered universality of the faithful is designated: of the innocent, of those who once were proud in their vices, of those subject to the yoke of the law, of the Gentiles. — That before the trial of the blow he had seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, the very preface of that same history shows; which things, lost through the scourge, are now restored double. But the sons are given back just as many as were lost. For he had seven sons and three daughters, and now is described to have received seven sons and three daughters, so that even those who had been extinguished may be shown to live. For while it is said:
The Lord added double all that had been Job's (Job 42), and yet He restored to him just as many sons as he had lost, and doubly added children—to whom He afterwards restored ten in the flesh, but ten who had been lost He reserved in the hidden life of souls. But if anyone, setting aside the stalk of the history, as a rational animal, that is, desires to be fed on the grain of the mysteries in these aforesaid animals, it is necessary that he recognize the things we perceive. For we can understand that in these animals the gathered universality of the faithful is designated. For hence it is that through the Psalmist it is said by the Father concerning the Son: Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, moreover the beasts also of the field (Ps. 8:8).
Hence it is that the same prophet, beholding all the simple to inhabit holy Church, says: Thy animals shall dwell therein (Ps. 67:11). 37. What then do we understand by the sheep but the innocent, what by the camels but those who pass over the evils of others while overflowing with the twisted mass of their vices, what by the yoked oxen but the Israelites subject to the law, what by the she-asses but the simple minds of the Gentiles? For that the innocent are designated by the name of sheep, the Psalmist testifies, who says: But we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture (Ps. 94:7). For those who neglect to keep innocence are not satisfied with the refreshment of that inner pasture.
But by the name of camel sometimes in sacred utterance the Lord, sometimes the pride of the Gentiles is expressed, twisted as it were with a swelling growing on top. For because the camel of its own accord humbles itself to take up burdens, not undeservedly does it designate the grace of our Redeemer, who, in that He deigned to take up the burdens of our infirmity, of His own accord descended from the loftiness of His power. Whence also through the Gospel He says: I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again (John 10:18), and no one takes it from me. And whence again He says: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 19:24).
For what does He signify by the name of the rich man but any exalted person, what by the appellation of camel but His own condescension? For the camel passed through the eye of the needle, when this same our Redeemer entered even unto the taking up of death through the straits of the passion. Which passion existed as it were as a needle, because it pricked the body with pain. But it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, because, unless He Himself first, taking up the burdens of our infirmity through His passion, had shown us the needle's eye of humility, our proud rigidity would in no wise incline itself to the humility of Him.
Again, by the name of camel is designated the twisted Gentile world, full of vices, as it is said through Moses that, when the day was now declining, Rebecca, going out into the field and sitting on a camel, beheld Isaac, and immediately came down from the camel, and covered herself, abashed, with her cloak at the sight of him (Gen. 24:64-65). For whom else did that Isaac designate, in that when the day was now declining he had gone out into the field, but Him who, coming as it were at the day's end in the last time of this world, went forth as it were into the field, because, though He is invisible, He showed Himself visible in this world?
Whom Rebecca, sitting on a camel, beheld, because the Church, coming from the Gentiles, while she still leaned on vices, and clung not yet to spiritual but to animal masses, gave heed to Him. But immediately she came down from the camel, because she forsook the vices by which before she had been proudly exalted, and took care also to cover herself with a cloak, because, the Lord having been seen, she blushed at the infirmity of her action, and she who before had been carried freely on the camel is afterwards read to have descended abashed. Whence to the same Church, converted from her former exaltation, it is said through the apostolic voice, as though to Rebecca descending from the camel and drawing a cloak over herself: What fruit therefore had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed (Rom. 6:21)?
38. But in the oxen is expressed sometimes the madness of the lustful, sometimes the laborious fortitude of preachers, sometimes the humility of the Israelites. For that by the name of ox, through comparison, the madness of the lustful is designated, Solomon indicates, who, when he had prefaced the wantonness of the woman who counsels evil, added: And straightway he follows her, as an ox led to the sacrifice (Prov. 7:22). Again, that by the name of ox the labor of the preacher is expressed, the words of the law testify, which say: Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain (Deut. 25:4). As if it were openly said: Thou shalt not prohibit the preachers of the word from the receiving of their wages. Again, that by the name of ox the Israelite people is expressed.
The prophet affirms this figure when, announcing the coming of the Redeemer, he says: 'The ox hath known his owner, and the ass his master's crib' (Isa. 1:3); by the ox signifying the people of Israel, subdued under the yoke of the Law, and by the ass indicating the Gentile people, given over to pleasures and the more grievously brutish. 40. By the name of asses and she-asses is sometimes designated the wantonness of the lustful, sometimes the gentleness of the simple, and sometimes, as we have said before, the folly of the Gentiles. For that the wantonness of the lustful is expressed by the appellation of asses through comparison is plainly declared when it is said through the prophet: 'Whose flesh is as the flesh of asses' (Ezek. 23:20).
Again, since by the name of she-asses the life of the simple is figured, our Redeemer, when He went to Jerusalem, is recorded to have sat upon a she-ass. For Jerusalem is called 'the vision of peace.' What then does it signify that the Lord, sitting upon a she-ass, leads it to Jerusalem, save that, while by presiding He possesses the simple minds, He leads them by His sacred sitting even unto the vision of peace? Again, that by the name of asses the folly of the Gentiles is designated, the prophet testifies, saying: 'Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send thither the foot of the ox and the ass' (Isa. 32:20). To sow beside all waters is to preach the fruitful words of life to all peoples.
To send in the foot of the ox and the ass is to bind together the ways of the Israelite and the Gentile people by the bonds of the heavenly precepts. 41. In the letter of Holy Scripture things past are related and things future are foretold. — The truth of the letter therefore being preserved, we not without reason believe that by all these animals under the name of blessed Job the peoples of the Holy Church are designated, so that the things which are written, by the dispensation of the Holy Spirit ordering all things wondrously, may both report to us things transacted and foretell things to come. Let us therefore recognize in the birds the faithful and innocent peoples from Judea, long since filled with the pastures of the Law.
Let us recognize in the camels those coming to the faith in simplicity out of heathenism, who formerly under sacrilegious rites were shown to be exceedingly base, as by a certain deformity of limbs, that is, by the foulness of vices. And because, as we have said before, the sacred words are wont to repeat what they affirm, again the Israelites can be understood in the oxen, as worn down by the yoke of the Law; while by the asses, as has been said, the Gentile peoples are designated, who, while they bowed themselves down to worship stones, with mind not resisting, as it were with back foolishly submitted, served whatever idols with brutish sense.
Holy Church therefore, which in its beginnings, oppressed by countless temptations, lost either the Israelite people or many from among the Gentiles — namely those whom it could not gain — receives back a twofold portion for one, because in her the number of the faithful from both nations grows more manifold. Also by the yoked oxen preachers may be understood. Whence, when the Lord sent them to announce, as the Gospel bears witness (Mark 6:7), He is described as having sent them two by two, so that — whether because there are two precepts of charity, or because fellowship cannot be had among fewer than two — the holy preachers might recognize from the very nature of their mission how greatly they should love the concord of fellowship. By the she-asses, as we have said before, the minds of the simple may be designated.
But Holy Church receives the oxen and she-asses doubled, because the holy preachers, who, pressed by fear, had long kept silence in her time of temptation, and the minds of the simple, who, overcome by terrors, dreaded to confess her truth, now bring forth their voices, so much the more robust in the confession of the truth as they were before the more feebly hushed. 42. The mysteries hidden in various numbers, and in the names of Job's three daughters. — These things we have said briefly regarding the signification of the Church; how they serve the head of that same holy Church, we recall having stated more fully at the beginning of this work (Preface, no. 14). Whoever therefore strives to have himself more fully satisfied concerning these matters, let him deign to read the second book of this work.
Now indeed, if it is asked of us that we should also discourse concerning the very number of the animals — why a thousand yoke of oxen, or a thousand she-asses, and six thousand camels, and fourteen thousand sheep are numbered — we can say briefly that, according to secular science, the number ten is held to be perfect, because it renders a solid square of the number one. For ten times ten make a hundred, which is now a square figure, but a flat one. But that it may rise into height, and become solid, again a hundred is multiplied by ten, and they are a thousand.
But the number six is perfect for this reason, that it is the first among numbers to be completed by its own parts, that is, by its sixth part, and its third, and its half, which are one, and two, and three, which added together make six. Nor is any number found before six which, while it is divided into its parts, has its whole sum completed thereby. But because we transcend all these by advancing through the sublimity of Holy Scripture, there we find whence the six, the seven, the ten, the thousand are perfect. For the number six is perfect in Holy Scripture, because at the origin of the world the Lord fulfilled on the sixth day the works which He began on the first day (Gen. 2:2).
The number seven is perfect in it, because every good work is wrought through the seven virtues of the Spirit, so that both faith and works may be consummated together. The number ten is perfect in it, because the Law is comprised in ten precepts, and every fault is restrained by no more than ten words; and, as the Truth relates, the labourers in the vineyard are rewarded with a penny (Matt. 20:9). For in the penny three are joined to seven. Now man, who consists of soul and body, is contained in seven qualities. For he flourishes spiritually in three and bodily in four. For in the love of God he is stirred spiritually by three qualities, when it is said to him through the Law: 'Thou shalt love.'
'The Lord thy God with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength' (Matt. 22:37). But bodily he is contained in four qualities, namely because he is composed of hot matter and cold, moist and dry. Man therefore, who consists of seven qualities, is said to be rewarded with a penny, because in that receiving of the heavenly country our seven are joined to the eternal three, so that man may receive the contemplation of the Trinity, and, as though perfected by a certain penny, may live from the reward of his work. Or certainly, because there are seven virtues by which one labours in this life, and since in the reward the contemplation of the Trinity is rendered, the life of him that labours is rewarded with a penny.
But every perfect man receives the penny even in this life, when to those same seven virtues he joins hope, faith, and charity. The number one thousand also is taken as perfect in the sacred word, because by its appellation universality is designated. Whence it is written: 'The word which He commanded to a thousand generations' (Ps. 105:8). For since it is by no means to be believed that the world is extended to a hundred generations, what else is figured by a thousand generations save the universality of generations? Blessed Job therefore received fourteen thousand sheep. For because in the Holy Church the perfection of virtues is brought to both sexes, the number seven is doubled in her.
And six thousand camels, because they receive fulness of work in her who long ago perished by that same foulness of their vices. He also received a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-asses, because He takes up Israelites and Gentiles, the learned and the simple, after the falls of temptations, into the summit of perfection. He received also seven sons and three daughters, because to the minds of those whom He had begotten in the seven virtues He joins hope, faith, and charity unto the height of perfection, so that He may rejoice the more truly in His offspring, the more He judges that no virtue is lacking to His faithful ones. But because we run through these things briefly, now let us attend also to the names of the daughters themselves that are to be investigated. There follows:
These names, because they are taken from virtues, the translator took care not to set them down as they are found in the Arabic tongue, but, turned into the Latin idiom, to display them more openly. For who does not know that 'Day' and 'Cassia' are Latin words? But in 'Cornustibii' (Horn of the pipe) — although it is not said 'cornus' but 'cornu,' nor is the flute of the singers called 'tibium' but 'tibia' — yet, the proper grammatical gender of the Latin language being by no means preserved, he preferred, I believe, to bring forth the thing, and to abide in the property of that language from which he was translating. Or because from horn and pipe he composed one word out of both, that one word, transfused into the Latin tongue through one part of speech, he lawfully named in whatever gender he willed.
What then is it that the first daughter of blessed Job is called 'Day,' the second 'Cassia,' and the third is recorded as named 'Horn of the pipe,' save that the whole human race, which is chosen by the kindness of the Creator and by the mercy of the same Redeemer, is designated by these names? For man shone forth as it were a day by his condition, because his Author sprinkled him with the splendour of inborn innocence. But, of his own will fallen to the darkness of sin, because he forsook the light of truth, he hid himself as it were in the night of error, because elsewhere he is said to have followed a shadow.
But because to our Author the bounty of His goodness was not lacking, even against the darkness of our iniquity He recalled him whom He had at first powerfully created unto righteousness, more powerfully afterward redeeming him from error. And because, after his fall, that former firmness of his condition was lacking to him, He shone upon him against the inward wars of resisting corruption with the manifold virtues of His gifts. Which virtues indeed of those who advance are fragrant, as it were, in the knowledge of other men, with the sweetness of perfumes. For hence it is that it is said through Paul: 'We are the good odour of Christ unto God' (2 Cor. 2:15). Hence it is that Holy Church, having smelled a certain fragrance of sweetness in her elect, speaks in the Song of Songs, saying:
'While the king was in his repose, my spikenard gave forth its odour' (Song 1:12). As if she openly said: So long as the king is hidden from my gaze in the rest of the heavenly secret with Himself, the life of the elect is exercised in wondrous odours of virtues, that, since it does not yet see Him whom it longs for, it may burn the more ardently through desire. For the king being placed in his repose, the spikenard gives its odour, while, the Lord resting in His own blessedness, the virtue of the saints in the Church ministers to us the grace of great sweetness. Because therefore the human race both shone forth created in the light of innocence, and, being redeemed, sprinkled the odour of sweetness by the exercise of good works, the first daughter is rightly named 'Day,' and the second not incongruously 'Cassia.'
Well is she called 'Cassia,' who is spread abroad in so great an odour of sublime life. For in that very origin in which righteous man was created, he needed not such great virtues as are now necessary, because, if he had willed to stand as he was created, he could without difficulty have conquered the enemy placed without. But after, through the consent of man, the adversary broke in to the inmost parts, now the conqueror is cast out more laboriously, who while still assailing would have been repelled without labour. 44. We need many virtues which would not have been necessary in paradise. — For many things must now be exhibited which were not necessary in paradise.
For now there is need of the virtue of patience, of laborious instruction in doctrine, of chastisement of the body, of assiduity of prayer, of confession of faults, of a flood of tears; of all which things assuredly he that was created in good had no need, because he received the good of salvation from his very condition. For to the sick a bitter cup is offered, that, the disease being removed, he may be recalled to the state of health. But to the healthy it is by no means prescribed what he should take that he may recover, but from what he should beware lest he grow faint. Now therefore we use greater efforts, since we by no means keep salvation possessed, but strive to repair it when lost.
And because all these endeavours of our reparation are strong with great repute within the Holy Church, the name of the second daughter, as it were 'Cassia,' is fragrant by merit; so that, whereas the first daughter existed as it were 'Day' through the dignity of creation, the second becomes 'Cassia' through the fragrance of fortitude from the grace of redemption. Whence also to the same Redeemer at His coming it is said through the prophet: 'Myrrh and stacte and cassia perfume thy garments, out of the ivory palaces, whereby the daughters of kings have delighted thee in thy honour' (Ps. 45:8-9). For what is designated by the name of myrrh, stacte, and cassia, save the sweetness of virtues? What is expressed by the ivory steps, save the ascent of those advancing, gleaming with great fortitude?
The Redeemer therefore at His coming uses myrrh, stacte, and cassia in His garment, because from His elect, with whom He mercifully clothes Himself, He sprinkles the fragrance of the virtue of myrrh. In whom this odour is led up by ivory steps, because in them the repute of virtues is generated not from the display of pretence, but from the ascent of true and solid work. And well is it added: 'Whereby the daughters of kings have delighted thee in thy honour.' For the holy souls brought forth by the ancient fathers unto the knowledge of truth delight their Redeemer in His honour, because from that which they do well they claim nothing for their own praise.
But because in a third order the human race, renewed also by the resurrection of the flesh, is taken up into that harmony of eternal praise, the third daughter is called 'Horn of the pipe.' For what is expressed by 'Horn of the pipe' save the song of them that rejoice? For there is truly fulfilled that which is now said through the prophet: 'Sing unto the Lord a new song' (Ps. 149:1). There is it truly fulfilled, where the song of the praise of God shall be sung no longer from faith, but from the appearance contemplated. There our Creator receives from us the true songs of His praises, He who made the human race both by creating it 'Day,' and by redeeming it 'Cassia,' and by taking it up 'Horn of the pipe.'
For we who were created light, and are now redeemed cassia, shall one day be horn of the pipe, taken up in the exultation of eternal praise. But before the bride comes to the bridal chamber, she spurns from herself all foulness of life, and, preparing herself for the love of the Bridegroom, adorns and arrays herself with the appearances of virtues. For she is eager to please in the judgment of the inward Judge, and, uplifted by inmost desires, to transcend the foul manners of human converse. Whence well is it also added concerning those same daughters of blessed Job: