Commentary on Revelation & Paul 19

1. The dignity of the book sealed with seven seals, its reception when opened, is recorded, and the vision. 2. At the first seal, the sight of a white horse is related. 3. At the second, a red horse; and at the third, a black one is recorded. 4. At the fourth seal, a pale horse. 5. At the fifth seal, beneath the altar of God, the souls of the slain. 6. Earthquake, the darkening of the sun, its light turned to blood, and the stars about to fall. 7. Four angels are said to hold the four corners of the earth. 8. The number of the sealed out of each tribe is recorded. 9. An innumerable multitude to come from the nations is foretold. 10. The Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall rule them. The law of God.

can be understood in three ways, and even in manifold ways, though it is to be known only by a right exposition; this is fully taught by its own testimonies. For as we read in Solomon (Prov. 7 [22:20]): Write these things for yourself in a threefold manner; so in the book of Job (ch. 11) we remember it is written: And would that God might speak with you, and show you the secrets of wisdom, and that his law is manifold! But since things proved by one Spirit can in no way contradict one another, it is easily demonstrated by probable reasoning that both hold good. This alone must be preserved with chief care, that in expounding the sacred volumes we take heed to apply those meanings which neither recoil from the truth of the passages themselves:

but rather, penetrating the mind of the author with sober intention, may bring forth wholesome meanings, and which, being fitted to the rules of faith, always answer in harmony with the truth. For neither is this to be thought self-contradictory, that while the Spirit of God is lawfully described (Wisd. 7) as single or simple, he is presently declared also to be manifold or multiple, as the diversity of translations has it. Simple indeed by the singular property of his nature, manifold by the distributions of grace; or, likewise, the remission of sins is read to be accomplished in three ways: by baptism, by penitence, and by martyrdom, according to the psalm which we sing (Ps. 31 [32]): Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;

blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin: so that they may be believed to be remitted by baptism, covered by penitence, not imputed by martyrdom. Yet other Fathers said that they are loosed in seven ways, adding almsgiving to the acquiring of the debt's remission, a neighbour restrained from error, and the abundance of charity, through which we read that an abundance of sins is covered over (Prov. 10). But these too can remain comprised within those three ways, and, being set forth, may shine forth more broadly. To what end I have set down these things, the course of the next reading will presently show; for hastening to expound difficult passages, we would not be marked for a rash advance, nor, forgetful of the paternal tradition, be judged by anyone. Chapter 5.

And I saw in the right hand of God who sat upon the throne a book written within and without, sealed with seven seals. 'In the right hand'—he means in Christ, for he is the arm of God, he is the right hand of the Father; or in the highest blessedness. A book written within and without: both Testaments. Without, the Old, which was seen; within, the New, which lay hidden within the Old. Hence the Apostle addresses the Hebrews, saying (Heb. 12): For you are not come to a fire that may be touched, and a whirlwind, and darkness, and storm, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which they that heard excused themselves, that the word might not be spoken to them; for they could not bear that which was said, etc.

But now, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we look not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And it is called one book for this reason, because neither is the New without the Old, nor the Old without the New. For the Old is the herald and the veil of the New, and the New is the fulfilment and revelation of the Old; because the Old also, although it was without, did not wholly appear, did not wholly lie hidden. Or, to express it more clearly, the whole dispensation of the Saviour is here often signified by the name of the book, which is read in both Testaments as either promised or accomplished. Sealed with seven seals: covered with the manifold fullness of hidden mysteries, whence it is also called a shady and dense mountain.

And although the number seven carefully embraces universality, yet I think that seven ways, as it were seven seals, ought to be openly sought in the exercises of the divine Scriptures, and are necessarily to be found for their sake—not only of the modes of speech, which even worldly authors were able to observe regularly in their diction, God revealing it, but also of the saving understanding, which alone are said to have remained laid up, to be unlocked specially for Christ. For as long as the same Lord had not turned the water in those six waterpots, as it were the six ages, into wine—that is, had not fully taught that the Old Testament is to be understood spiritually—the law could inebriate no one with the fervour of the Spirit. And those seals hitherto remained closed:

wherefore, when the sacred pages have been diligently searched, we see that seven modes of expression can readily be comprehended first, that is, the indicative, the declarative, the imperative, the optative, the subjunctive, the infinitive, and the impersonal. So that, for example, there is the indicative in that which we read (Micah 6): I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: namely, to love judgment, and to do mercy, and to walk solicitously with your God. And, I am the Lord your God who teaches you profitable things, who governs you in the way in which you walk (Isa. 48). And likewise, when it is asked: Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah (Isa. 63)? it is answered by way of indicating:

It is I who speak justice, and am a defender to save (ibid.). The declarative: Hear me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I call; I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God (Isa. 48). And likewise: Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Do you not know, or have you not heard: the Lord is the everlasting God, who created the ends of the earth; he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom, who gives strength to the weary (Isa. 40). Or, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will accomplish over the house of Israel and over the house of Judah a New Testament (Jer. 31). The imperative: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain;

and, You shall not have strange gods before me (Exod. 20), or the like. And, Cry aloud, cease not, lift up your voice like a trumpet (Isa. 58). The optative: Would that you had attended to my commandments, and your peace had been made as light, and your justice as the waves of the sea (Isa. 48); and, Would that my ways were directed to keep your justifications (Ps. 118 [119]); and: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest (Ps. 54 [55])? The subjunctive: If you will hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be to me a peculiar possession above all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation (Exod. 19). Elsewhere also:

I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Lev. 26). Or, If they had stood in my counsel, I would surely have turned them from their evil thoughts (Jer. 23). The infinitive mode, moreover, which is also sixth in order: To know and understand the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in the midst of the earth (Jer. 9). And likewise, To refrain from evil is understanding (Micah 6). The impersonal: Who has aided the Spirit of the Lord? or with whom has he taken counsel, and who has instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and shown him the way of prudence (Job 28)? Or in this which is written: Who is there among you that will hear this, attend and hearken to things to come (Isa. 40)?

And, Who is the man that fears the Lord? He appoints him a law in the way that he has chosen (Ps. 24 [25])? Or, To understand the law is the sense of the best; and, Who shall utter the mighty acts of the Lord (Ps. 105 [106])? and other things like these, which can be fittingly and more copiously applied to the several modes. These things, I say, we readily find in the words; but now just order demands this, that in the very realities themselves, as it were in seven seals, we fit the regular forms of understanding to congruous testimonies, or rather teach probably that these testimonies serve those same rules. For the aforesaid modes of speech, although they seem somehow congruous, yet with respect to what we seek are judged slight. For this reason indeed the book...

...is said to be a book sealed with seven seals, because another, more secret mode—which it asserts lay hidden there before, but was laid open by the very dispensation of Christ—warns that it must be pointed out. As we search the Scripture, then, the first thing to meet us is the text of historical action; the second, the manner of allegory; the third, the mode of both is recognized; the fourth, concerning the unchangeable essence of the divine Trinity, when it is properly, when figuratively, insinuated by the sacred oracles; the fifth, of parables, because it is made up as much of narration as of action, so that when one thing is said and another is found in the writing, the mind may be raised to the food of spiritual understanding;

the sixth, concerning the twofold coming of the Saviour, or the things pertaining to them, lest either the first be understood for the second, or the second for the first—where the rule of discretion must be applied with great attention. For hence the minds of the Jews were darkened at the Lord's coming, and even now they labour under the same blindness of ignorance, so far that sometimes even from the very sins of men and the transgressions of certain persons there is put forth a prophecy of works to come, or of the secret meanings of spiritual things.

That mode, moreover, that is, the seventh, whereby we are so instructed by the divine precepts that a fixed form of the life to be lived becomes regularly known, but to others a figure signifying life, must be handled with careful attention; in these it is discreetly recognized both what is written without and what is within. But now it is fitting that we teach the aforesaid modes by examples. The historical, which is the first, indicates to us that God is one, in this manner: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God (Deut. 6), and that all things were made by him, or the like. The second, of allegory, as is that which Abraham exacts of his servant by a new and unusual oath, saying: Put your hand under my thigh, and swear to me by the Lord God of heaven (Gen.

24). This is recognized as figurative for the reason that it is not commonly practised by all in general, save only by Abraham and Jacob, the specially prophetic patriarchs, from whose loins Christ was hoped to be born bodily. For as to the fact that from among all the faithful of Israel a maiden is sought for king David, and one is found so warm that, cherishing with fitting heat the limbs of the aged, cold man, she soothed them (III [I] Kings 1), yet so chaste that she did not provoke him warmed to lust; or that the people, scourged in the desert by fiery serpents, was delivered from the serpents' bite by the sight of a bronze serpent (Num. 21): typically David changed his countenance before Abimelech, and he sent him away, and he departed; whereas in the book of Kings (I, ch.

21) it is read that David changed his countenance before Achish the king, when, drumming at the gates of the city, and bearing his own body in his own hands, and letting his spittle run down upon his beard, or performing the rest after the manner of a madman, he expressed a type of the Lord's Passion. Since therefore he is changed in name, Abimelech for Achish, it admonished the reader, from the very interpretations of the names, to penetrate the mystery lying more deeply hidden. For Abimelech, being interpreted, is said to mean 'my father's kingdom.' Then therefore the Son of God, Jesus Christ, changed his countenance before the kingdom of his Father, that is, before the Jews, when, coming in the humble form of a servant, and being made obedient even to the death of the cross (Phil.

2)—which is properly figured in the drumming—he willed, the unbelief of the Jews being despised, to preach the Gospel to the nations, from whom he gained for himself a Church. For this is: He sent him away and he departed—which the Apostle Paul openly declares (Acts 13): To you indeed was this word sent, but since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations; or that in the parable of the vineyard (Matt. 21): He will miserably destroy the wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen. From nearly this same rule I think descends the pattern of that expression also, whereby we read: The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock (Ps. 113 [114]); and, The rivers shall clap their hands (Ps. 97 [98]);

and likewise, The trees went forth to anoint a king over them (Judges [9]). But by these modes it is not intimated that what happened actually took place, since natural impossibility altogether denies it to them, but something is described metaphorically by a fitting signification. By these modes too I think parables of things are distinguished from parables of words. The sixth mode indeed, whereby the coming of Christ is discerned—that is, which things are to be referred to the first coming, which locally to the second—it is one thing to discern; that is, the first claims for itself the places of humiliation, such as that which Moses says (Deut. 18): God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brethren; him you shall hear, as me; and likewise, Afterward he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men (Baruch [3:38]).

And again, There is no beauty in him nor comeliness; and we saw him, and there was no sightliness in him; despised and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows (Isa. 53). And a little after, He himself bore our infirmities (ibid.), etc. And again, He shall be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearer he was dumb, so he opened not his mouth (ibid.). But of the second coming we read: God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence (Ps. 49 [50]). And, They shall look upon me whom they have pierced (Zech. 12). Malachi also says: I will come near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, and those who wrong the hire of the hireling (Mal. 3), etc.

But as to what we said, that the sins of certain men often figure something prophetic, there most of all do the indications of the signs seem to flash forth within and without. For the public sin of David (II [Sam.] 11, 12) concerning the wife of Uriah the Hittite was open, yet from that very evil deed the prophecy figured for us something good. For Bathsheba is interpreted 'the well of satiety,' or 'the seventh well,' by which the Church is properly signified. Whom Christ, having separated the devil from her and slain him—by whose unlawful consort she was held—joined to himself out of the nations. Of her also we read in the Canticle of Canticles (Cant. 4): A well of living water; to which number this one is joined, on account of the sevenfold operation of the Holy Spirit.

For in the name of Uriah the Hittite also, the person of the devil is evidently shown to be signified. For Uriah, being interpreted, is said to mean 'my light is of God'; and the Hittite, 'cut off,' either because he did not stand in the truth, but was deservedly cut off by his pride from his own supernal light which he had from God; or because, falling and losing his true powers, he transfigures himself as an angel of light (II Cor. 11), daring still to say: My light is of God. So David the king, mighty of hand, saw with a wanton eye the woman washing herself upon the roof of the house, and coveted and took her away (II [Sam.] 11).

Christ indeed, the King of kings, foreseeing the Church cleansed by the laver and in the word, treading upon earthly things, gaping after heavenly things, predestined and beheld her; the provident bridegroom loved her when called, that as a lawful husband he might join her, justified, to himself in spiritual wedlock—just as Moses too (Exod. 2), in the person of Christ, taken up from the water, laid low with a blow of his heel the Egyptian who lay in wait for the Hebrew, that is, the devil hostile to the Israelites, and hid the slain man under the sand. For all of you, says the Apostle (Gal. 3), who have been baptized, have put on Christ. In whom we shall do valiantly, so that we may confidently say: Into Idumaea I will stretch out my shoe; the strangers are made subject to me (Ps. 59 [60]).

He who, crushing Satan beneath our feet, permits his carrion to lie hidden only in those whom, knowing them not to be steadfast, he has truly compared to the instability of sand. This too we know was accomplished in Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah (Gen. 38), and in very many others, so that, while those persons fell into guilt before God—who knows well how to use even our evils—something else was wrought concerning them by way of mystery. For the Apostle teaches that all the deeds of that time among that same people are a prophecy of things to come, saying (I Cor. 10): For all these things happened to them in figure. And although those persons either paid purgatorial penalties for what they had committed, or obtained pardon by the remedies of penitence, yet for us the divine clemency prepared the effect of the dispensation of Christ.

Outwardly, then, the sins appeared, but inwardly the mysteries lay hidden. These things concerning the daughter-in-law of Judah I chose rather to pass over, lest I should draw out this work at greater length with a much more copious discourse. Finally, concerning the deed of one man, that is, of Lot and his wife (Gen. 19), what blessed Augustine said in his discourse against Faustus the Manichaean, I have thought fit to insert into this work, for the general understanding of similar passages. For he says: But just as another kind of men was figured in his wife, namely of those who, called by the grace of God, look back—not like Paul, who forgets the things that are behind, and stretches forth to the things that are before (Phil. 3). Whence the Lord himself:

No man, he says, putting his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven (Luke 9). Nor did he pass over that example, whereby he might season us as with salt, that we should not, as fools, neglect, but, as prudent, beware of this evil (Luke 17). Whence she too, that I might be admonished of this, was turned into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19). So too in Lot himself, when his daughters lay with him, not that which happened when he was delivered from Sodom, but something else was figured; for then Lot himself is seen to have borne the person of the future law: which certain ones begotten of it and placed under the law, by understanding it ill—as it were by the intoxicating water, using it unlawfully—bring forth the works of unbelief; for the law is good, says the Apostle (I Tim. 1),

if one use it lawfully. Nor yet do we for this reason justify this deed either of Lot himself or of his daughters, because it signified something else which foretold the future perversity of certain persons; for the women intended one thing in doing this, and God, who permitted this to be done that he might thereby demonstrate something, intended another—while his upright judgment remained upon the sins of the men then present, and his providence kept watch for the signification of things to come. Accordingly, one deed, when it is narrated in holy Scripture, is prophecy; but when it is considered in the life of those who committed it, it is a disgrace. And these things indeed St. Augustine set forth as thus to be understood, so that he teaches this is to be thought concerning the daughter-in-law of Judah or the like.

The seventh mode, therefore, which retains a twofold quality of precepts, is that of the life to be lived, as, for example: You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Lev. 19); for he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the law, as the Apostle more fully argues (Rom. 13); and of the life figuring circumcision and the sabbath, or the carnal victims. And although this mode seems to be similar to the second, yet it is distinguished by this consideration, that this is to be reduced only to morals, but that also to faith. Therefore the Apostle James too distinguishes both from each other, saying (James 2): Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself;

for by circumcision is understood the cutting off of vices, but by the sabbath that rest of souls, of which it is said (Ps. 45 [46]): Be still, and see that I am the Lord; and by the victims, that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God (Rom. 12). And there were other precepts which were in the Old Testament, some to be fulfilled by the acts of life, others foreshadowed by significations of life. For the fulfilling of the former Christ willed his grace to be extended; for the removal of the latter he willed himself, foretold, to be presented in his own time. For the law was given by Moses (John 1), as it were outwardly, in part without, that is, You shall not covet (Exod. 20), or rather that: You shall not go after your concupiscences (Ecclus. 18).

But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1), as it were in the part within, hidden, revealed at the coming of the fullness of the times. For in those things which were more openly commanded for the love of God and neighbour, although the plain and changeable form of the precept thence remained, yet the weak people needed grace, groaning as they laboured under the weight of the law; but in those figurative victims of beasts to be offered, that Lamb to come was awaited, for whom they were foretold to have been truly laid up in store—so that when he came, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2), the precepts of the life to be lived might be fulfilled by the grace given, while the figures, as it were shadows (Heb. 8), the truth being made manifest, should straightway be put to flight.

For there was one thing in the Old Testament which was so commanded by the killing letter that by the quickening Spirit one could fulfil it, such as: You shall not go after your concupiscences (Ecclus. 18). Whence Paul says (Rom. 4): For the law works wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression. Which, although it shone clear without covering to the hearer, yet human weakness could not fulfil it by its own powers. There was another thing which, covered within by a mystical veil, demanded the coming of the Lord, for which the shadows served as copies (Heb. 8). For in that consists for us the form of the heavenly life, by whose faith the just man lives (Heb. 2 [Rom. 1]). By the plain precepts the law convicted the guilty (Rom. 1), betrayed the weak, that salvation might be sought.

But by those signifying things, as it were within the veil, they travailed that Christ was to come; and when he came, the observance of the figures, which had been a shadow of things to come, ceased and was removed. Nor is it any longer to be sought, from the moment that the truth of his own living body shone forth manifest (Heb. 8). For Christ is the end of the law unto justice to everyone that believes (Rom. 10). To this I think pertains that twofold distribution of the precepts, of which the Apostle, treating and duly enumerating, says (I Tim. 1): The law is good, if one use it lawfully. For he had said (ibid.): The end of the commandment is charity, from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.

By which saying, evidently insinuating the law of faith, he presently followed it up by expressing also the law of deeds, saying: The law is not made for the just, but for the unjust, the impious and sinners, and the rest that are contrary to sound doctrine. Whence it may be asked, since the law is not set for the just man, how the just man is said to use it lawfully—since we do not need to be terrified by the penalty of penalizing precepts, we who through grace now freely enjoy the perfection of the virtues. For faith has already obtained for him that which, lest anyone should ascribe it to his own powers, the Apostle says (Rom. 3): For all have sinned, and need the glory of God. For there is shown in us first a firm will through the law, but grace healed the will, and the will fulfilled the law.

Therefore the law is imposed upon the impious who are unwilling to fear, so that it may not be permitted them to sin with impunity. But it is not imposed upon the just, because, being commanded by the charity of the Holy Spirit, they are no longer permitted to sin further. But the just use the law either for instructing others by the admonitions of the precepts, or for forming them by the pattern of imitable virtues. Thus the Apostle distinguishes both, when he says (Rom. 8): For you have received the spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry, Abba, Father. Delighting in this counsel of the praying Apostle, he also says, setting those things after, we have loved the better things. Whence the same (I Cor. 7):

'Concerning virgins,' he says, 'I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give counsel' (1 Cor. 7), doing this by exhortation, not compelling by precept, following the teaching of the Lord who admonishes, when he said (Matt. 19): 'He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.' Hence, because he is now a laborer, the intent of the work undertaken does not permit him to treat of it. Let it suffice that we have said this species is enclosed within this measure as under its own genus, being written within and without. Rightly, moreover, it is asked concerning these seven modes which we set forth above, which ought to be reckoned within, and which without. The first is the historical, without. The second is the allegorical, wholly within.

The third retains in itself a twofold form of both, so as both to supply the fitting office of the then present time and to convey something figuratively of things to come. The fourth concerns God, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of the vicissitude of a moment (cf. James 1). Both senses ought to be received within, for it cannot be comprehended by the understanding. 'For the peace of God,' says the Apostle (Phil. 4), 'surpasses all understanding,' because both his essence exceeds the bounds of our capacity, and no one adequately attains his clemency, of which he has related many things figuratively concerning himself. The fifth indeed, where something other than what is read is found, or is often diffused in parables, is so suspect through a certain hidden ambiguity that it must by all means be reckoned within.

The sixth, concerning the twofold coming of Christ, shines forth with sure testimonies, set plainly without, yet lies hidden within in sure secrets, so that by things made open it may take away doubt, and by things concealed may exercise the faithful and wipe away weariness. The seventh, in the precepts of the life to be lived, as we have already premised, appears without, but in the precepts of the life to be figured it lies hidden within. Hence we read that it was said also to Daniel (Dan. 12): 'Shut up the words and seal the book until the appointed time. Many shall pass over, and knowledge shall be manifold': sealed with seven seals. Our fathers also perceived seven ages of the interior man, by which through the grace of God we are wholesomely renewed in the spirit of the mind. Concerning these blessed Augustine speaks thus in the book On True Religion:

The first is at the breasts of profitable history, by which it nourishes with examples; the second, like Jacob forgetting things human and stretching toward things divine, in which one is not held within the bound of human authority, but leans by the steps of reason toward the highest and unchangeable law. The third, now more confident, wedding carnal appetite by the strength of reason, and rejoicing inwardly in a certain conjugal sweetness, when the soul is joined to the mind and veiled by the covering of modesty, so that now it is not constrained to live rightly: even if all should grant it license, it takes no pleasure in sinning.

The fourth now doing this same thing far more firmly and orderly, and shining forth into the perfect man, and apt and fit to sustain and break all persecutions and the storms and waves of the world. The fifth living peaceable and on every side tranquil, and enjoying the abundance of the unchangeable kingdom of the highest and ineffable wisdom. The sixth passing over entirely from change into eternal life, and even unto the total forgetting of the temporal life, a perfect form which was made to the image and likeness of God. The seventh indeed is eternal rest and perpetual blessedness, to be distinguished by no ages. For as the end of the old man is death, so the end of the new man is eternal life.

For that man is of sin, this one of righteousness. These seven steps also, by which we are said to advance and to do battle, that same most ample teacher Augustine recounts in many places; writing at length to Maximus, he says: Thus by the precepts of God—which we have received that we might act well—you establish your life and morals, beginning from a religious fear. 'For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' (Ps. 110), where human pride is broken and weakened; then, being gentle and meek through piety, so that even the things you do not yet understand, and which seem absurd to the unskilled and self-contradictory (Prov. 1),

you do not struggle against in the holy Scriptures with your spirit and contention, nor impose your own meaning upon the meanings of the divine books, but rather yield, and gently defer your understanding, rather than harshly accuse the hidden thing. The third, when human weakness begins to open itself to you for the knowledge of yourself, and you know where you lie, and what penal bonds of mortality, propagated from Adam, you drag with you, and how far you are a pilgrim from the Lord, and you perceive another law in your members warring against the law of your mind, and leading you captive in the law of sin which is in your members, you cry out (Rom. 7): 'Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?'

so that, as you mourn, the grace of God may console you, promising that very deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly, now to desire to fulfill righteousness far more vehemently and fervently than the pleasures of the flesh are wont to be desired by the most wicked men—save that here there is hope of divine help. In this appetite there is a tranquil ardor and a more secure flame.

In this fourth step of life, one perseveres earnestly in prayers, that to those who hunger and thirst the fullness of righteousness may be granted, so that it may be not only not burdensome, but even delightful, to abstain from the pleasure of all corruption, whether one's own or another's, or by wrestling against it; and that this may be easily bestowed from above, there is joined in the fifth the counsel of showing mercy, that in what you can you may help the needy, because in what he is not yet able he desires to be helped by the Almighty. Now the gift of mercy is twofold: when vengeance is remitted, and when kindness is shown. These two the Lord briefly embraced thus (Luke 6): 'Forgive, and you shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given to you.'

This work avails also for the cleansing of the heart, that as far as is permitted in this life we may be able to behold the unchangeable substance of God with pure understanding. For something is held against us which must be released, that our gaze may break forth into the light; whence the Lord himself says (Luke 11): 'Truly give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you.' Wherefore the sixth follows: the very cleansing of the heart. And that our sight may be directed rightly and purely into the true light, neither the things we do well and laudably, nor the things we cautiously and shrewdly despise, are to be referred to the end of pleasing men or of relieving the necessities of the body.

For God wills to be worshiped freely, since there is nothing beyond himself that ought to be sought; so that when by the steps of the good life we have come to this purity of understanding—whether more slowly or more quickly—then we may dare to say that we somewhat avail with the mind to touch the unity of the highest and ineffable Trinity, where there will be the highest peace, beyond which there is nothing to be awaited, when, reformed to the image of their kind, the sons of God, made out of men, enjoy the paternal unchangeableness. For first, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit' (Matt. 5), where the fear of God is; then, 'Blessed are the meek,' where docile piety is; third, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' where the knowledge of one's own infirmity is;

fourth, 'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,' where there is the fortitude of striving to hold the passions tamed; fifth, 'Blessed are the merciful, for God shall have mercy on them,' where there is the counsel of helping, that you may deserve to be helped; then one arrives at the sixth step, in which it is said: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,' where there is pure understanding and a disposition fit for understanding. We cannot preserve the Trinity even in the smallest part, unless we also do not seek human praise, although we do praiseworthy things (John 14).

Accordingly, at the seventh step we arrive at the tranquility of that peace which the world cannot give; for even those four virtues which I mentioned before, the diligence of philosophers too was able to judge of, that is, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice. If, joining these three to the perfect worship of religion, we add them—that is, faith, hope, and charity—we assuredly find the sevenfold number. For rightly are these three not omitted, without which we know that no one can worship God, nor be pleasing to him.

Since these things are so, whether the saving sciences and the secrets set within the sacred volumes, lying hidden in those seven modes as under seven seals, are more darkly obscured; or whether the whole sum and perfection of the virtues, by which man advances through inner increases—not indiscriminately confused, but ordered step by step in particular fashion; or whether the promised aid of eternal salvation—Christ the Lord mercifully suffering, truly rising, wondrously ascending, and ever working in each—it is known that all could and can be revealed, known, acquired, and perfected. Those seals are truly proclaimed to be revealed and perfected in him and through him.

I judge that this must be thoroughly taught by testimonies; for among other things the Apostle says thus (Col. 1): 'The mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God willed to make known the riches of the glory of this sacrament among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; whom we preach, admonishing every man and teaching in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; whereat also I labor, striving according to his working which he works in me in power.' And in the Old Testament he says: 'The Lord created me the beginning of his ways' (Prov. 8).

Since therefore he himself is principally the way in which we must wholesomely walk, we know that from him no less the ways—that is, the steps of progress and the ordinances of living and the secrets of the legal mysteries—are opened and conferred. 'And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book and to loose its seven seals?' By the strong angel he means the herald of the law, since we recall that the same law was given in the words of angels—as Saint Stephen relates—and received, yet not kept by all the people. Its herald now, demanding by right its custody, testifies that he has found no one worthy to open it.

But since first the seals are loosed, then the book is opened, by a sure reasoning he inverted the usual order, because Christ then opened the book when he fulfilled the work of his voluntary passion, 'loosing enmities in his flesh, abolishing the law of commandments in decrees' (Eph. 2); he proved that the proclamations of both Testaments are perfected in himself, and the veil of the temple withdrew at his passion, as if, the veil of the legal figures being removed, he is by affection made to suffer and by act proven to have revealed the seven seals—that is, all the deep mysteries of the divine law.

No one, accordingly, is said to have been found worthy—neither in heaven, that is, signifying that it exceeded the angelic faculty; not that the angels were ignorant of the future mystery of the Lord's incarnation and dispensation, but that it was not to be fulfilled through the angelic creature. For the Son of God, about to redeem men, having taken true humanity, willed that all things be fulfilled through himself. Hence Isaiah says (Isa. 63, according to the Septuagint): 'Not an angel, not a legate, but the Lord himself saved them'; nor upon the earth, that is, no one even of the perfectly just abiding in this life. For man, needing to be remade, required the aid of the Creator alone; nor under the earth.

No one of the saints, even of the departed, was found worthy to open the book, nor even to look into it. By 'to look into' he means to comprehend. Whence Paul says (Eph. 3) that he preaches to the Gentiles the incomprehensible riches of Christ, concerning which the Lord speaks—that is, the charity of the New Testament, because it lay hidden in the law, and which Christ reserved for his own presence; no one could behold it with sight so fit as to be able also to accomplish it in act, because Christ alone could fulfill it by his dispensation; for by them it could only be foreseen, not also perfected. 'And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to loose its seals.'

The Church wept in John, weighed down by the works of sinners, imploring her own redemption—which she showed to consist in the Redeemer's aid, in that opening of the book. 'And one of the elders said to me: Weep not; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose its seven seals.' By 'one of the elders' we recognize the whole body of the prophets, by whose sure oracles the Church was consoled that Christ, of the tribe of Judah, would redeem the world by his blood. Of whom we read it foretold (Gen. 49): 'Judah is a lion's whelp; to the prey, my son, you have gone up; resting, you have couched as a lion, and as a lioness—who shall rouse him up?'

For the same one is called both Lamb and Lion, who, innocent, received a devoted death, and slew the power that he had taken up—against which he had of old truly directed just threats, saying through Hosea (Hos. 13): 'O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite.' And Isaiah (Isa. 11): 'Behold, the Root of Jesse shall arise unto the salvation of the peoples; him shall the Gentiles beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.' For each of the faithful individually also, when he strives to weep for his own sins and remembers the promised redemption through the consolation of the Scriptures, is known to have hope of eternal salvation, and is confirmed by a like response, so to speak, from one of the elders.

Moreover, he foreknew both the past and promised the future, because the Spirit subtly relates in the past, and demonstrates future things by past ones (Rom. 15). 'And I saw, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders.' What is the throne, this are the living creatures, this also the elders—that is, the Church. For the Church is in the midst, which follows and describes when it says: 'A Lamb standing as though slain.' For as often as Christ is preached as slain in the midst of the Church, so often the same Lamb seems to be immolated for the sin of the world. These things, unknown to the untaught, are laid open, and are graven in the memory of the faithful by the devoted worshiper.

For even when the Church, which Christ has put on, mortifies herself to the world that she may live to God, the Lamb is said to be immolated, as it were the head for the body. Finally there follows: 'Having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth through all the earth.' The diversity of terms taught that one understanding is set forth, signifying by the horns the most excellent gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which throughout the world Christ reigns in his Church. There follows: 'Which are the seven Spirits of God.' For there is nothing that, justly eminent, holds princedom over all the earth and, enlarged by the gift of the Holy Spirit, glories in a special manner, except the Church of Christ. We recall that it is said that seven is put for the universal whole.

But because the horns are above the head, rightly the singular exaltation of the Church is placed above Christ. On account of which he says, 'Upon this rock I will build my Church' (Matt. 16), as if he said, 'Upon myself I will build you' (cf. Wis. 1). 'But the Spirit of the Lord has filled the round world' (Ps. 74). And that this might come to pass, the horns of sinners being broken, the horns of the just are said to be exalted. Concerning which Isaiah had foretold (Isa. 24): 'From the ends of the earth we have heard praises announcing the glory of the Just One.'

To have seven horns, therefore, is understood as, as it were, to possess the whole world, in which the sevenfold Spirit of grace holds princedom, on account of his memorable sevenfold operation, which here, on account of the illumination of the eyes, he mentions—of which I think Zechariah spoke (Zech. 4): 'These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which run through the whole earth.' But also the dignity of his very excellence seems not incongruously to be expressed by the horns. For natural horns are born as though by breaking the boundaries of their places, nor, content with the level of the flesh, do they rest, but by growing they seek ever higher and higher. 'For the spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one' (1 Cor. 2).

Nor could he judge anyone, unless, no longer carnal in the body, raised up as by a more excellent watchtower, he presided over the rest. Hence also the Apostle (Rom. 8): 'You,' he says, 'are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.' 'And he came and received the book from the right hand of him that sat on the throne.' The Son of Man is said to have received the book from the right hand of God—that very dispensation ordained by the Father and by himself—because each dwells with his Spirit on the throne. Here too we must take the right hand for the felicity of victory, nor ought it be understood carnally, as if he is said to receive the book from some other right hand of the Father, since the same Son is himself the right hand of the Father. But since he always conquers in his own, he who says (John 16):

'Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world,' and made his Church to exist victorious, it is declared that from her he receives the book. 'And when he had received the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one harps and golden vials full of odors of supplications, which are the prayers of the saints.' The living creatures and the elders—that is, the whole Church—fall before the Lamb, not without a narration of the virtues accomplished. Therefore, having every one golden harps and golden vials: by the harps, in which the strings are stretched taut over the wood, the passion of Christ is figured, which for Christ the Church continually imitates, that according to the Apostle she may 'fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in her flesh' (Col. 1).

By the vials, the pious confession accepted by God, where it is closed by no double heart, but opened with plain effect. These are also the golden vessels in the great house (2 Tim. 2), fragrant with the good odor of Christ's sweetness. Moreover, the prayers of the saints are the thanksgivings of those rejoicing together for the salvation of the world, and the intercessions for the stability of the little ones. 'Christ,' he says, 'suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps' (1 Pet. 2). When therefore those who are Christ's crucify their flesh with its vices and concupiscences (Gal. 5), they sing to Christ as with harps, so that what he suffered for them, they, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of faith (Heb. 12), suffer for him:

who, when he willed to reveal himself to be recognized by those seven distinguished titles, is proven to have accomplished the secrets of the seven seals, when he taught himself to be God coeternal with the Father, who, born of a virgin, bore manhood, having also suffered, rose again, ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, acquired the Church also out of the Gentiles, and announced himself to be the future judge. Let us hear, finally, what Isaiah said to the Jews (Isa. 24, according to the Septuagint): 'All these words shall be to you as the words of a sealed book.' Here he says that both the one skilled in letters and the one ignorant of them are alike cheated of the fruit of knowledge, since the former is forbidden by the seals to penetrate the inner secrets, and the latter is hindered by ignorance.

The Lord rebukes the chief men of the Jews for having taken away this key of knowledge, saying (Matt. 23): 'Woe to you, teachers of the law, who have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered in, and those entering in you have not suffered to enter.' For, denying Christ, whose coming is the work of the prophets, they were taking away the key of knowledge. For faith, being denied, closes off the knowledge of the law, which contains Christ. 'And they sang a new song.'

In harmony with the truth of both Testaments, Christ renders a new song, when the same Word, remaining in the beginning, begotten in a new birth through a virgin, God clothed in a new manner with manhood, delivered up by his own power to those who slew him, wondrously raised from death, exalted above the heavens when he willed, sending down the Holy Spirit from above and acquiring the Gentiles, left to the whole Church, thus acquired, a new song to be continually sung, whereby she might securely hope for the judge to come, that we may 'walk in newness of life' (cf. Rom. 6), saying: 'If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me' (Luke 9). Saying:

'Worthy are you, O Lord, to receive the book and to open its seals, because you were slain and have redeemed us to God in your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us a kingdom to our God, and priests, and we shall reign over the earth.' They follow up with praises that very dispensation of Christ, designated by the name of the book, which they confess to belong to Christ alone. Here it is further declared that the living creatures and the elders are the Church, since they say: 'You have redeemed us in your blood.' For this is fitting for none but the Church to say. He also shows in what heaven the living creatures and elders are, when they say:

'You have made us a kingdom and priests to our God, and we have reigned over the earth'; and even if, the understanding of the higher parts remaining, some virtues in heaven too are believed to congratulate in this manner, he also shows that the Church receives the book in Christ, when the redeemed out of every people and tribe and nation and tongue confess that they have received power and a kingdom. 'For he who cleaves to God is one spirit.' 'They shall be,' he says, 'two in one flesh' (1 Cor. 6). 'But I speak in Christ and in the Church' (Eph. 5). He therefore received in her what he gave; he himself is crowned whom he crowns. Therefore Isaiah says: 'As a bridegroom he has adorned me with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels.'

'And I saw and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and round about the living creatures and the elders.' He shows who is the throne, the living creatures, the elders, in whose midst he heard the voice. For if the just are called sons of God, why are they not called angels? Yet both are by grace, not by nature—although the heavenly host of angels too can, in united proclamation of praise, sing these things together with the living creatures and elders, congratulating over so great a gift of our redemption. 'And their number was thousands of thousands'—assuredly of innumerable ones—'saying with a loud voice:'

'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength, and honor and glory and blessing; and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that are in them.' Although these things justly belong to our Head, Christ, they can nevertheless be understood, not inappropriately, also of his Church—so far, at least, that some things belong to the Head alone, and certain things also to the body (Col. 2). 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches,' etc. For he is the treasure of all good things and the wisdom of God. For he himself makes her to have dominion over all nations, saying (Ps. 59): 'The strangers are made subject to me;'

and, 'You have subjected all things under his feet' (Ps. 8); and, 'To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 16). And then he passes to the Head, saying: 'And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that are in them.' Nor let it be hard that the Church has received together with him, with whom she rose again—if it is not hard that the member has what the Head has. Nor can that seem unjust which says the Church is worthy of every creature, because even though each member in religious humility judges itself unworthy of this, yet we say that the whole body is a partaker of its Head, of whom we read: 'He has given us all things with him.' And likewise, 'And he has made us to sit in the heavenly places' (Eph. 2).

Otherwise, we know that 'creature' frequently signifies men, as the Apostle: 'For the creature itself also,' he says, 'shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God' (Rom. 8). And the Lord (Mark 16): 'Preach the Gospel to every creature.' For all things that belong to all creatures are found in man: to be, to live, to move, to feel, to understand. Therefore here too by 'every creature' he means the whole human race, that is, of the whole world. Hence he himself says (Matt. 28): 'All power is given to me in heaven and on earth.' Nor did he wish to signify that he received his power in time, but rather the dignity of the Church in men.

He assuredly, who teaches himself to be in all things equal to the Father—so that even what he says, 'who is in heaven,' the very human nature in Christ, preferred above the angels, may have dominion in heaven; preached to men, reigning, may have dominion on the earth; and, prevailing over the loosed groanings of the lower regions, is taught to hold dominion also under the earth. 'I heard all saying: To him that sits on the throne and to the Lamb'—that is, to the Father and to the Son—'blessing and honor and dignity and power for ever and ever. And the four living creatures said: Amen.' The Church assuredly says: 'Amen,' that is, 'true,' 'faithfully.' 'And the twenty-four elders fell on their faces and adored him that lives for ever and ever.' The same living creatures are the elders, who bore witness, saying: 'Amen.'

The Church having been described with her offices and the works of due praise, it was necessary to hasten on, so that the things intimated might shine clear by the opening of each seal. For nothing could be wanting to these seven seals, so that in their secret the whole perfection might be taught to be present—in affection and in understanding and in act. Finally he describes, and sometimes taking the end from the beginning, he runs through the contents of each seal in his own manner, both concerning the triumph of Christ and concerning the future assaults upon the Church, so that he might both give consolation over the prosperity of victory, and stir up solicitude over the future struggle, and give warning of the stupendous examination. Chapter 6. 'And when the Lamb had opened one of the seven seals.' The opening of the seal is the revelation of the mystery.

But since there is not one, but many sacraments; nor of one kind, but, as the apostle Paul says (Heb. 1): 'In many portions and in many manners of old God spoke to the fathers in the prophets, last of all in these days he has spoken to us in his Son,' etc.; and it is a long matter to treat of the diversity of the sacraments by which the future dispensation of Christ, and the coming salvation of the Church, were prepared, in these three modes at least, which we set forth above—of speech, of understanding, of action—all things can be briefly restrained; while the utterance encloses in itself all the precepts of the whole heavenly oracle. Therefore, 'In many portions,' he says, 'and in many manners he spoke,' that knowledge may intimate the forms of the understanding to be applied according to rule.

Hence in the Gospel the Lord is said (Luke 24), after the resurrection, to have opened the understanding of the disciples, that they might comprehend the Scriptures; and to have kindled their hearts unto salvation, that they might preach to others the things revealed, filling up nonetheless (according to the Apostle) those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in their own flesh (Colossians 1), and saying truly: 'We were made a pattern to all that believe' (1 Thessalonians 1). And likewise: 'That we might give ourselves as a pattern to you, for you to imitate us' (2 Thessalonians 3). For if they had not done so, in vain would they chant the Scriptures held in memory, which they could neither penetrate with understanding nor fulfil in deed.

And since in the foregoing discussion we have set forth the hidden modes of the utterance and of the saving understanding, now let us more attentively hear those things which lay hidden in the deed, through the opening of the several signs. For if the opening of a sign is believed to be the revelation of a mystery, and we say that its mystery consists in word, in understanding, and in deed, let us see how these three together can also be found, in the fixed sayings of the light, both said, understood, and accomplished with probability, so that the same sayings may be grasped by a sober understanding, and the things understood may be proved by work. For example, 'Behold, I come (Psalm 39); in the head of the book it is written of me'; by saying 'I come,' He still foretells that He is to come.

But when it is asked who this One is, He is understood to be the Desired of all nations, Christ, especially because both at the head of the book of the Psalter, and at the head of the book of Genesis, He Himself is read to be written of: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth.' 'For all things,' He says (Psalm 104), 'Thou hast made in wisdom,' who, to those inquiring who He was, answered that He was the Beginning (John 8). But when it is asked wherefore He came, there follows: 'That I may do Thy will, O my God, I have willed it' (Psalm 39). Concerning which He says the same in the Gospel (John 4): 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.' Concerning which we understand it expressed by Him about the hour of the Passion (John 14):

'That the world may know that I do the will of the Father, arise, let us go hence.' Wherefore He is known to have then revealed the deeds of this sealed book, when He taught that He remained one Beginning with the Father: and, born of the Virgin, He bore true manhood; also taking upon Himself an undeserved suffering for the salvation of the world, rising by a triumphant death He opened the tomb after He had shattered hell; and when, as it were revisiting heaven, He sent to the disciples the promised Holy Spirit, by whose filling of the whole earth He acquired a multitude of the nations, and taught that He would be the awaited future Judge. And when He had opened one of the seven seals, I heard one of the four living creatures, saying as it were with a voice of thunder: 'Come and see.'

And behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him held a bow (an arrow), and a crown was given to him, and he went forth to conquer, and he went forth conqueror. First, as we have premised, it is set in the utterance, to which understanding being joined, it soon supplies the inner recesses of the action itself; and what proceeds in deed agrees with the word, and with the report of understanding—which in the other signs I wish the reader attentively to observe. For it said: 'I heard one of the four living creatures, saying: Come and see.' What is one living creature, this is the whole Church, which thunders with the great voice of preaching, inviting the succeeding Church to the faith: 'Come and see' (John 1); 'If any man thirst, let him come and drink' (John 7); 'Come ye to Him and be enlightened' (Psalm 34):

'Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee' (Ephesians 5). And behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him held an arrow, and a crown was given to him, and he went forth to conquer, and he went forth conqueror. This horse can be understood as the apostles and preachers of the Church's truth, whitened above snow by grace (Psalm 51), whose Rider is Christ. Therefore it is said to Him through the prophet (Habakkuk 3): 'Because Thou didst ascend upon Thy horses, and Thy horsemanship is salvation.' On which account He is also said to hold an arrow, which is more fitly compared to the preaching of the word of God, by which the inward parts of men, being pierced through, can bring forth the fruit of faith. Hence we read (Psalm 45): 'Thy arrows are sharp, O most mighty; the peoples shall fall under Thee.'

It signifies that a crown is truly owed to the preachers. And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying: 'Come and see.' That the same words of exhortation, of coming and seeing, are repeated in an unlike cause—since the white horse is set in good, but the red in evil—I think to be this: that just as from the good He promises joy for the victory of the Church, so from the evil He announces a warning out of the foreknowledge of things to come. For there follows: 'And there went out another horse that was red, and to him that sat thereon it was given that he should take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another; and a great sword was given to him.'

This red horse, as it were bloodied with another's blood, not its own, is proclaimed to fight against the victorious Church, when it is intimated to take away from the earth the peace which surpasses all knowledge—which is taught both by deed and by the sword. And when He had opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying: 'Come and see.' And I saw a black horse, and he that sat upon him had a balance in his hand. In which balance is signified a feigned weighing, by which they weigh out the merits of each. For whatsoever befits a just judge, transgressors also usurp. Thence is that saying: 'I will set my throne toward the north' (Isaiah 14). And because, God permitting, they were able to prevail for a time, He teaches in this manner: 'Hurt not the wine and the oil.'

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying: 'Two pounds of wheat for a penny, and thrice two pounds of barley for a penny, and hurt not the wine and the oil.' By wheat and barley He has spoken of the Church, whether in the great and the least, or in prelates and peoples. Now one pair of pounds is not less than three. For the same perfection is both in singularity and in Trinity. Thus the Lord (Matthew 13; Luke 13) says the leaven is hidden in three measures of meal, showing that from a little, the whole people is consecrated to wisdom and doctrine by the mystical number of the undivided Trinity. But He also teaches that the price of wheat and barley is one, even though one deservedly surpasses the other, yet by one price both were redeemed.

Otherwise, on account of the diversity of professions, I think the unequal number of one and three is set down. And by the penny is signified eternal life, which among the many mansions is common to all; so that even though, through the difference of merits, one there may be more exalted than another, enriched with a superior reward, yet none is more long-lived in comparison with another; where there will be one immortality for each, a common eternity remains for all. In the wine and the oil, therefore, He forbids the power of the sacraments to be violated, namely the anointing and the precious blood. Hence we read (Zechariah 9): 'What is His good, and what is His beautiful, but the corn of the elect and the wine springing forth virgins?' And in the psalm: 'Wine maketh glad the heart of man...'