1. The four holy living creatures, which are foreseen through the spirit of prophecy as things to come, are described with subtle narration when it is said: Ezekiel 1:6. 'Four faces to one, and four wings to one.' What is expressed by the face if not knowledge, and what by the wings if not flight? For by the face each one is recognized, but by the wings the bodies of birds are lifted on high. The face therefore pertains to faith, the wing to contemplation. For by faith we are known by almighty God, as He Himself says of His sheep: 'I am the good shepherd, and I know mine, and mine know me' (John 10:14). Who again says: 'I know whom I have chosen' (John 13:18).
But through contemplation, because we are lifted above ourselves, we are as it were raised into the air. Therefore there are four faces to one, because if you should ask what Matthew thinks concerning the incarnation of the Lord, he thinks assuredly that which Mark, Luke, and John think. If you should ask what John thinks, it is without doubt that which Luke, Mark, and Matthew think. If you should ask what Mark thinks, it is that which Matthew, John, and Luke think. If you should ask what Luke thinks, it is that which John, Matthew, and Mark think. Therefore there are four faces to one, because the knowledge of faith, whereby they are known by God, is itself in one what is at the same time in four. For whatever you find in one, this you rightly recognize in all four together.
'And four wings to one,' because they all together with one accord proclaim the Son of almighty God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and, lifting the eyes of the mind to His divinity, they fly with the wing of contemplation. The faces of the evangelists therefore pertain to the humanity of the Lord, the wing to His divinity, because in Him whom they behold as corporeal, they direct as it were their faces. But while they announce Him, from His divinity, to be uncircumscribed and incorporeal, they are as it were lifted into the air through the wing of contemplation. Since, therefore, there is both one faith of His incarnation in all, and equal contemplation of His divinity in each, it is now rightly said: 'Four faces to one, and four wings to one.'
But what virtue would it be, if those preachers, having faith and contemplation of the Lord, did not have holy works? There follows: Verse 7. 'And their feet were straight feet.' 3. What is designated by the feet if not the steps of actions? The feet of the four living creatures, therefore, are described as being straight, because the works of the holy evangelists and of all the perfect are not twisted back to the following of iniquity. But those do not have straight feet who are bent back to the evils of the world which they had forsaken. Of whom it is written: 'The dog returned to his vomit, and the washed sow to her wallowing in the mire' (Proverbs 26:11; 2 Peter 2:22). The excellent teacher grieved over certain persons because they had twisted back the straightness of their feet, to whom by way of rebuke he said:
'How turn you again to the weak and needy elements, which you desire to serve again? You observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest perhaps I have laboured in vain among you' (Galatians 4:9). Who admonishes others, saying: 'Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight steps for your feet' (Hebrews 12:12). But that in these same holy preachers the gravity, fortitude, and discretion of life might be shown, it is rightly subjoined: Ibid. 'The sole of their foot was like the sole of a calf's foot.' 4. That the holy preachers are designated by the name of oxen, Paul the apostle teaches, expounding the testimony of the law: 'Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn' (1 Corinthians 9:9; Deuteronomy 25:4).
In the holy preachers, therefore, there is the sole of a calf's foot, namely one that treads maturely, and is strong, and divided, because each preacher has both veneration in maturity, and fortitude in work, and the division of the hoof in discretion. For his preaching is not easily received, if he be seen to be light in conduct. And there will be no showing of maturity, if the fortitude of work be not present against all adversities. But the fortitude of work itself admits the merit of virtue only if it be discerning in understanding. For behold, we read holy Scripture: if we understand everything according to the letter, we have lost the virtue of discretion; if we lead everything to spiritual allegory, we are likewise bound by the folly of indiscretion.
For the holy preachers read the sacred words, and sometimes they take up the letter in the history, but sometimes through the signification of the letter they seek the spirit. And at one time they imitate the good deeds of the fathers who went before, just as they find them according to the letter; at another time certain things which according to the history are not to be imitated, they understand spiritually, and tend toward advancement. What else, therefore, do the holy preachers do in their work but cleave the hoof in the foot? Concerning whom it is still fitly added: Ibid. 'And sparks like the appearance of glowing brass.' 5. The metal of brass is exceedingly sonorous. And the voices of preachers are rightly compared to brass, because 'their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world' (Psalm 18:5).
Well is it called glowing brass, because the life of preachers both sounds and burns. For it burns with desire, it sounds in word. Glowing brass, therefore, is preaching kindled. But from the glowing brass sparks come forth, because from their exhortations flaming words proceed to the ears of the hearers. And rightly are the words of preachers called sparks, because they set on fire those whom they touch in the heart. It is also to be considered that sparks are exceedingly subtle and slight, because when the holy preachers speak of the heavenly country, they are not so able to open it in word as they are able to burn with desire.
From their tongue, therefore, certain sparks as it were come to us, because concerning the heavenly country only some slight thing is scarcely made known in their voice, which nevertheless is loved by them not slightly. For neither can they suffice to see the heavenly glory as much as it is, nor do they prevail to speak as much as they see. The glowing brass therefore casts forth sparks when the preacher scarcely suffices to speak slightly of that whereby he himself strongly catches fire. But by divine mercy it is brought to pass that from these slightest sparks the mind of the hearer is inflamed, because there are some who, while they hear small things, are filled with greater desire; and thence they burn perfectly in the love of God, whence they have received only the slightest sparks of words. 6.
For the word of preaching is a seed in the heart of the hearer. And the good hearer thereafter brings forth a great harvest of knowledge from that whence he had at first received the small seed of the tongue. To this matter that miracle well accords which was wrought upon the widow by the prophet Elisha: she, lest she should lose her two sons to the creditor who was taking them away, obeyed the words of the prophet, and from the little oil she had, poured it out through empty vessels, all of which were afterward filled to the brim, and by their filling the woman was released from the debt of her creditor (2 Kings 4:2ff). What other woman does this woman signify but holy Church, the mother as it were of two sons, namely of two peoples, the Jewish and the Gentile?
She had first, from a perverse work through the persuasion of the crafty spirit, received as it were a certain coin of sin from the creditor, and feared to lose the two sons whom she had begotten in faith. But obeying the words of the prophet, that is, the precepts of holy Scripture, from the little she had she poured into the empty oil-vessels, because while from the mouth of one teacher the empty minds of many hear something small concerning the love of the Godhead, by overflowing grace they are filled to the brim with the ointment of divine love. And the hearts of many even now, which were before empty vessels, are full of the ointment of the Spirit, which seemed to have been filled only from the smallness of the oil.
Which, while it is given to some and yet others, and faith is received by the hearers, the woman of Sarepta, namely holy Church, is no longer held under the debt of her creditor. There follows: Verse 8. 'And the hands of a man were under their wings on the four sides.' 7. In this place the four sides can be taken as the four regions of the world, namely East, West, South, and North, because the preaching of the saints, by God the author, has gone forth into all the parts of the world. 8. We can also take, by the four principal sides, the four virtues from which the remaining virtues arise, namely prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance. Which virtues indeed we truly receive when we keep their order.
For the first is prudence, the second fortitude, the third justice, the fourth temperance. For what can prudence profit, if fortitude be lacking? For to know what one cannot do is a punishment rather than a virtue. But he who prudently understands what he is to do, and bravely does what he has understood, is now without doubt just; but temperance ought to follow his justice, because for the most part justice, if it has no measure, falls into cruelty. Justice itself, therefore, is truly justice which moderates itself with the bridle of temperance, so that in the zeal wherewith each one burns, he may also be temperate; lest, if he should burn more, he lose the justice whose moderation he knows not how to keep. 9.
But there are two lives of the holy preachers, namely the active and the contemplative; but the active is prior in time to the contemplative, because from good work one tends toward contemplation. But the contemplative is greater in merit than the active, because this labours in the use of the present work, but that already tastes with inmost savour the rest that is to come. What, therefore, is signified by the hands but the active life, and what by the wings but the contemplative life? The hand of a man, therefore, is under their wings, that is, the virtue of work under the flight of contemplation. Which those two women in the Gospel well designate, namely Martha and Mary. For Martha was busy about frequent ministration;
but Mary sat at the feet of the Lord, and heard His words (Luke 10:39-40). The one, therefore, was intent on work, the other on contemplation. The one served the active life through outward ministration, the other the contemplative through the suspension of the heart upon the Word. And although the active is good, yet the contemplative is better, because the former fails with mortal life, but the latter grows more fully in immortal life. Whence it is said: 'Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her' (ibid. 42). Since therefore the active is less in merit than the contemplative, it is now rightly said: 'The hands of a man under their wings.' For although through the active life we do some good, yet we fly to heavenly desire through the contemplative.
Whence also in Moses the active is called servitude, but the contemplative is called liberty. 10. And although each life is from the gift of grace, yet so long as we live among our neighbours, the one is for us of necessity, the other of will. For who, knowing God, enters into His kingdom, unless he first work well? Without the contemplative life, therefore, they can enter into the heavenly country who do not neglect the good things they are able to do; but without the active they cannot enter, if they neglect to do the good works which they can. The one, therefore, is of necessity, the other of will. The one is in servitude, the other in liberty. Hence it is that it is said to Moses: 'If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee; in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.'
'With what garment he came in, with such let him go out. If he had a wife, his wife also shall go out together. But if his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons and daughters, the woman and her children shall be her master's; but he himself shall go out with his own clothing. But if the servant shall say, I love my master, and my wife and children, I will not go out free, let his master offer him to the gods, and he shall be brought to the door and the door-posts, and his master shall bore through his ear with an awl, and he shall be his servant for ever' (Exodus 21:2ff). We have given the testimony somewhat at length, that we might show the distinction of servitude and liberty in each life. But it ought not to be burdensome if in expounding we pursue this, whence we may affirm these very things which we have said. 11.
For 'Hebrew' is interpreted 'one passing over.' And a Hebrew servant is bought when each one who now passes over in mind from this world is made subject to the service of the almighty Lord. For he desires to serve the true God, who has learned to pass over in mind from this world. Thus Moses passed over, that he might see the vision (Exodus 3:3). Thus David, when he saw the wicked man exalted and lifted up above the cedars of Lebanon, passed over, and behold, he was not (Psalm 36:35). For perhaps we believe the powers of the wicked to be something great, unless we pass over in mind to the abiding world. But the bought Hebrew servant is commanded to serve six years, so that in the seventh he may go out free for nothing. For what is designated by the number six but the perfection of the active life?
What by the seventh but the contemplative is expressed? Six years, therefore, he serves, and in the seventh he goes out free, who through the active life which he has exhibited perfectly passes over to the liberty of the contemplative life. And it is to be noted that he goes out free for nothing, because to those who, after they have done all things, say that they are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10), without doubt, just as the active life itself was of gift, so also the contemplative shall be of grace. 'With what garment he came in, with such let him go out,' because it is altogether necessary that each of us persevere in that which he begins, and continue even unto the end of the work in the same intention wherein he began.
For he indeed passes over well to the contemplative life, who in the active life has not changed the garment of his intention for the worse. And there are some who, before they are joined to the service of almighty God in holy conduct, already love to work good things. But there are others who learn good works after they have come to the service of almighty God. He, therefore, who studied to have good work even before he came to God's service, was bought as a Hebrew servant with a wife. 12. And for the most part he who is such is able to pass over to the contemplative life, and yet not to desert the active. Whence also it is there subjoined: 'If he had a wife, his wife also shall go out together.'
For his wife also goes out with him to liberty, when he who has attained to contemplation does not, even outwardly, relinquish the action of good work whereby he can profit others. 'But if the master gave him a wife, and she bore sons and daughters, the woman and her children shall be her master's, but he himself shall go out with his own clothing.' The master gives a wife to the bought servant, when each preacher joins to good action the one whom he has bound over to the right of almighty God. For preachers also are called masters, as it is said to the prophet Elisha concerning his preacher: 'Knowest thou that thy master shall be taken from thee?' (2 Kings 2:5). But the wife of the bought servant bears sons and daughters, when good action generates strong or tender fruits.
But the woman who was given by the master remains with the same master together with the children, while the servant himself goes out with his own clothing, because good action, or the fruit of that same good action, are reckoned to the preachers as their reward. But he himself, persevering in the intention of his desire, goes out free to contemplation through supernal grace: 'But if the servant shall say, I love my master, and my wife and children; I will not go out free' (Exodus 21:5). The servant loves his master, when he guards the words of the preacher with a solicitous mind.
Loving also his wife and children, he refuses to go out free, when, loving the active life and its fruits, he is unwilling to pass over to the contemplative, because, considering that he has good works in the servitude of his ministry, he refuses to withdraw to the quiet of liberty. 'But let his master offer him to the gods, and let him be brought to the door and door-posts, and let his master bore through his ear with an awl, that he may be his servant for ever.' For he who has resolved to persevere in the active life is offered by his master to the gods, when he is instructed by his preacher in the sayings of the ancient fathers, who were priests to us in the way of the almighty Lord. And he is led to the door and door-posts of the tabernacle, that...
At the entrance of the heavenly dwelling let him hear something loftier, and subtly acknowledge the day of the fearful judgment, lest through the good works he performs he should seek to please men. And so his ear is pierced with an awl, when the mind is struck by the fineness of the fear of God, so that, transfixed by the sharpness of the word, in all that he does he may know how ever to attend to the entrance of the kingdom, and to bear, as it were, an ear pierced at the door and post of the tabernacle. 13. He shall be a servant in this world, that he may be free after this world. For he is a servant in the world who has resolved through the active life to serve men, that after the present age he may be able to attain to true liberty. Of which it is said through Paul:
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For then shall there be true liberty in us, when our adoption shall have come to the glory of the children of God. But now not only is the active life in servitude, but even contemplation itself, by which we are caught up on high, does not yet perfectly obtain the liberty of the mind, but only imitates it, because that innermost repose is seen as in an enigma. Yet however great may be the narrowness of that contemplation, the active life is now far broader and more sublime, for it passes over into a certain liberty of the mind, thinking not of things temporal but of things eternal.
Since therefore the contemplative life soars to the things above, and by a certain dignity of its security (so to speak) far surpasses the active life, it is fittingly now said: And the hand of a man was under their wings. 14. But if in this place man be taken to mean our Redeemer, the hand of a man is under their wings, because unless God had become man, who might lift up the minds of preachers to heavenly things, those creatures that appear would not fly. And not without reason is the hand of a man said to be under their wings, because of that same Redeemer of ours it is written: Who being the brightness of glory and the figure of his substance, and upholding all things (Heb. 1:3). His hand therefore bears our hearts; his hand raises us up in contemplation.
For unless, as has been said, the almighty Word had become man for the sake of men, human hearts would not fly to the contemplation of the Word's excellence. Thence therefore were the striving of men made lofty, whence a humble God appeared among men. Let it then be said of the holy living creatures, let it be said: And the hand of a man was under their wings. Concerning whom it is further added: Verses 8, 9. — And they had faces and wings on the four sides, and the wings of the one were joined to the other. 15. On the four sides they have faces and wings, because in all the regions of the world the preachers set forth whatever they perceive concerning the humanity, whatever concerning the divinity of our Redeemer.
For while they everywhere preach God incarnate, they display his face in the four parts of the world. And while they announce that he is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, everywhere they fly with the wing of contemplation. Their wings are joined the one to the other, because all their virtue and all their wisdom, whereby they transcend other men by the flight of their contemplation, is in turn joined together in peace and unanimity. Whence it is written: The wisdom that is from above is first indeed chaste, then peaceable (James 3:17). Whence also to these his own preachers the Truth says: Have salt in yourselves, and have peace among yourselves (Mark 9:49).
The wing therefore of the living creatures is joined the one to the other, because the virtue and wisdom of the holy preachers is in turn bound together in the peace of charity and concord. But the wing would be divided the one from the other, if in this, that each one soars into wisdom, he refused to have peace with another. There follows: Verse 9. — They turned not back as they went, but every one went straight forward before his face. 16. The winged living creatures, that is, the holy preachers, when they go forward turn not back, because they so pass from earthly deeds to spiritual things that they in no way turn again to what they have left behind.
For to go forward, as it were by a certain path, is to journey ever in mind toward what is better. On the contrary, of the reprobate it is said that they turned back in heart into Egypt (Num. 14:3, 4). And through himself the Truth says: No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). For to put the hand to the plough is, as it were by a certain ploughshare of compunction, to open the earth of one's own heart to bring forth fruit. But he looks back behind the plough who, after the beginnings of a good work, returns to the evils he had forsaken. And because this in no way befalls the elect of God, it is rightly now said through the prophet: They turned not back as they went. 17. Why they turn not back he indicates when he adds:
Every one walked before thy face. For before us are things eternal, behind us things temporal, because the former we find as we press on, and the latter we leave as it were behind our back as we depart. Whence also that great winged living creature, who had flown even to the secrets of the third heaven, used to say: But one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to those that are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the supernal vocation (Phil. 3:13, 14). For reaching forth to the things before, he had forgotten those that were behind, because, despising things temporal, he sought only those things that are eternal.
The holy living creatures therefore walk before their face, because both they no longer regard with any desire the things they have left behind, and in the eternal things which they desire they set the foot of good work beneath the eyes of their contemplation. 18. Whosoever therefore has resolved now to walk before his own face, must with great consideration weigh that in one way one is looked back upon in respect of deed, and in another way in respect of thought. For there are some who deliberate great things, and, conscious of their sins, intend to distribute much of what they possess to the needy, that they may redeem their faults before the eyes of God through the bowels of mercy.
And now they begin to perform these things, and for the most part while they are doing them the fear of poverty shakes their soul, and, fearing lest they should be in want, they become tight-fisted toward the needy, and hold themselves back from the good work they had begun. These indeed, though they went forward, turned back, because they were unwilling to walk before their own face. Against whom it is rightly said through Solomon: Because of the cold the sluggard would not plough; therefore shall he beg in summer, and it shall not be given him (Prov. 20:4). For he who now, through fear and torpor of mind, neglects to do good, when the Sun of justice shall have shone forth in the judgment as in summer, shall beg for life, but shall not receive it, because for the sake of it he scorned to do good works.
Another, despising the desires of the flesh, ponders forsaking all things and subjecting himself to the service of almighty God, and resolves to restrain himself under the bridle of continence and chastity; but when he beholds others fall even after chastity, he grows afraid to do that very thing he had resolved. And it comes to pass that he returns backward through thought, who by looking to the things before had already lifted himself on high by the steps of the mind. Of whom it is well said through Solomon: He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that considereth the clouds shall never reap (Eccles. 11:4). For by the name of wind the malignant spirit is signified, who drives the mind with temptations; but by the appellation of cloud the sinner is expressed, who is stirred by the assault of temptation.
He therefore who observes the wind sows not, and he who considers the clouds never reaps, because he who, fearing the temptations of the malignant spirit and beholding the falls of the wicked, despairs of himself, is neither now exercised in the good seed of work, nor afterward refreshed by the harvest of just retribution. But there are some who indeed perform the good deeds they know, and while performing these deliberate better things; but reconsidering the better things they had deliberated, they change; and though they do the good things they had begun, they fall short of the better things they had deliberated. These indeed seem to stand in their work before human judgments, but before the eyes of almighty God they have fallen in their deliberation.
Whence it comes to pass for the most part that even their good work pleases God the less, because when the foot of the mind is inconstantly set on the better step of deliberation, this very inconstancy of thought accuses it. But because all the perfect regard themselves with a great subtlety of discretion, lest they should ever slip down to worse things either in deed or in thought, they ceaselessly weigh how much they daily advance, and of these it is said: They turned not back as they went, but every one walked before his face. 19. Amid these things then it pleases us to consider who we are that are set to treat of these matters, and whence we come, and to how great mysteries of the sacred eloquence we are raised to search out.
Certainly in our ancient forefathers we were worshippers of idols, but behold, through the words of the Spirit of grace we now search out heavenly things. Whence is this to us? But the Redeemer of the human race has fulfilled what he said through the prophet: And the deserts turned into fruitfulness the strangers shall eat (Isa. 5:17). For these sayings of the prophets were deserts among the Jews, because through the mystic understanding they were unwilling to cultivate them by inquiry. But to us they are turned into fruitfulness, because, God bestowing it, the sayings of the vision according to the history are spiritually savoury to our mind, and now we strangers eat what the citizens of the law were unwilling to feed upon.
May these things be pleasing to the Only-begotten, may there be praise to the eternal Wisdom, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, throughout all ages of ages. Amen.