But that God punishes through the ministries of souls serving his laws, and requites fitting punishments fittingly, while he himself remains most tranquil, is written most plainly thus: 「You even count it foreign to your power to condemn one who does not deserve to be punished. For your power is the beginning of justice; and because of this, that you are Lord of all, you cause yourself to spare all. For you show your power when you are not believed to be perfect in power, and among those who know it you expose their boldness. But you, Lord of powers, judge with tranquility, and dispose us with great reverence」 (Wis. 12:15–18).
Likewise, that a first step is made in earthly things toward heavenly justice, which is now commanded to the stronger, the Lord shows when he says: If you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give you what is your own? (Luke 16:12). And that souls are taught according to their degrees, the Lord himself also demonstrates, saying: I have many things to say to you, but now you cannot bear them (John 16:12). And the Apostle, when he says: I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not able; nor indeed are you yet able, for you are still carnal (1 Cor. 3:1–2).
For what was done in these matters according to their degrees, we recognize is done in the whole human race, so that some things were commanded to the carnal people, others to the spiritual, according to the fitness of the times. It is therefore no wonder if those who were still worthy to deceive an enemy were commanded to deceive an enemy worthy of deception. For they were not yet fit persons to whom it should be said, Love your enemies; but they were such that it was fitting to say to them only, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy (Matt. 5:44, 43). For it was not yet the time to hand down how broadly that 'neighbor' was to be understood. A certain beginning, therefore, was made under the pedagogue, so that perfection might be reserved for the master:
since nevertheless the same God both gave a pedagogue to the little ones—namely that law, through his servant—and a master to the greater ones, that is, the Gospel, through his Only-begotten. LIV. On what is written: But for me to cling to God is good (Ps. 72:28). Everything that is, either always is in the same manner, or is not. And every soul is better than every body. For everything that gives life is better than that which is given life; and no one doubts that the body is given life by the soul, not the soul by the body. But that which is not a body, and yet is something, is either a soul or something better than it. For nothing is worse than every body; because even if someone should call it matter, from which the body itself is made,
rightly, since it lacks all form, it is called nothing. Again, between body and soul, nothing is found that is better than body yet worse than soul. For if there were something intermediate, it would either be given life by the soul, or give life to the soul, or neither; either give life to a body, or be given life by a body, or neither. But whatever is given life by the soul is a body; and if anything gives life to the soul, it is better than the soul. Again, that by which the body is given life is soul; what is given life by the body is nothing. But the 'neither'—that is, needing no life and bestowing no life—is either altogether nothing, or something better than both body and soul. But whether any such thing exists in the nature of things is another question.
Now, meanwhile, reason discovers that there is nothing between body and soul that is better than body and worse than soul. But what is better than every soul, that we call God; to whom whoever understands him is joined. For what is understood is true, yet not everything that is believed is true. But whatever is true, and is separated from the senses and from the mind, can only be believed, not however perceived or understood. Therefore, what understands God is joined to God. Now the rational soul understands God. For it understands what is always of such a kind and undergoes no change. But both the body, through time and places, and the rational soul itself—in that it is at one time wise, at another foolish—undergo change.
But what is always in the same manner is assuredly better than that which is not so. And nothing is better than the rational soul except God. When, therefore, it understands something that always holds itself in the same manner, it doubtless understands him. But this is Truth itself; and because by understanding the rational soul is joined to it, and this is the good of the soul, it is rightly understood that this is what was said: But for me to cling to God is good. LV. On what is written: There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and maidens without number (Cant. 6:8). The number ten can signify the knowledge of the whole.
which, if it is referred to interior and intelligible things—which are signified by the number six—becomes as it were ten times six, which is sixty; if to earthly and sensible things, they become ten times eight, which is eighty. The queens, therefore, are the souls reigning in intelligible and spiritual things. The concubines are those who receive the wage of earthly things, of whom it is said: They have received their reward (Matt. 6:2). The maidens without number are those who have no determined knowledge and can be endangered by diverse teachings; so that number, as was said, signifies the sure and undoubted confirmation of knowledge. LVI. On the forty-six years of the temple's building.
Six, nine, twelve, eighteen—these into one make forty-five. Add therefore the one itself, and they make forty-six; this taken six times makes two hundred seventy-six. Now human conception is said to proceed and be perfected thus: that in the first six days it has, as it were, a likeness of milk; in the following nine days it is converted into blood; then in twelve days it is solidified; in the remaining eighteen days it is formed up to the perfect outlines of all the members; and thence, in the remaining time up to the time of birth, it grows in size. To the forty-five days, therefore, one is added, which signifies the sum; because six and nine and twelve and eighteen brought into one make forty-five:
therefore, with one added, as was said, they make forty-six. And when these have been multiplied by the number six itself, which holds the head of this ordering, they make two hundred seventy-six; that is, nine months and six days, which are reckoned from the eighth day before the Kalends of April (March 25), on which day the Lord is believed to have been conceived—because on the same day he also suffered—up to the eighth day before the Kalends of January (December 25), on which day he was born. Therefore, not absurdly is the temple said to have been built in forty-six years, which signified his body (John 2:20–21): so that as many years as there were in the building of the temple, so many days there were in the perfecting of the Lord's body. LVII. On the one hundred fifty-three fishes.
All things are yours, but you are Christ's, and Christ is God's (1 Cor. 3:22–23). If they are numbered from the head, there are found one, two, three, four. Likewise: The head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God (1 Cor. 11:3). If they are numbered in the same way, there are likewise found one, two, three, and four. Now one and two and three and four brought together make ten. Wherefore the number ten rightly signifies the teaching which conveys God the founder and the created creature. And when the perfect and imperishable body is made subject to the soul,
—the perfect and imperishable soul—and this soul in turn is made subject to Christ, and he to God, not as unlike or of another nature, but as the Son to the Father, this whole is rightly signified by the same number ten, which after the resurrection of the body is hoped to be forever. And perhaps for this reason those who are hired for the vineyard receive a denarius as good wage (Matt. 20:2). But just as one and two and three and four together make ten, so one and two and three and four multiplied by four make forty. 2. But if the number four rightly signifies the body, on account of the four most well-known natures of which it consists—dry and moist, cold and hot;
and because the progression from a point to length, from length to breadth, from breadth to height, makes the solidity of a body—which again is contained by the number four: not absurdly is the number forty understood to signify the temporal dispensation which was carried out for our salvation, when the Lord took on a body and deigned to appear visibly to men. For one and two and three and four, which signify the Creator and the creature, multiplied by four—that is, demonstrated temporally through a body—make forty. For between 'four' and 'four times' there is this difference, that 'four' is in a state of rest, 'four times' in motion. Therefore, as 'four' is referred to the body, so 'four times' to time:
and there is conveyed the mystery carried out bodily and temporally, on account of those who were entangled in the love of bodies and subjected to times. The number forty, therefore, as was said, is believed, not incongruously, to signify the temporal dispensation itself. And perhaps this is why the Lord fasted forty days (Matt. 4:2), showing the poverty of this world, which is driven by the motion of bodies and by times; and he was forty days with the disciples after the resurrection, conveying to them, I believe, this very temporal dispensation which he carried out for our salvation.
Now the number forty, when its parts that measure it are reckoned, reaches up to the number fifty, commending this very thing, since the parts themselves that measure it are equal among themselves; because a bodily and visible action, administered temporally with equity, procures perfection for man. This perfection, as was said, is signified by the number ten; just as the number forty, its equal parts being reduced into a sum, produces the number ten, since it reaches to fifty, as was said above. For the one which forty has forty times, and the two which it has twenty times, and the four which it has ten times, and the five which it has eight times,
and the eight which they have five times, and the ten which they have four times, and the twenty which they have twice, brought together make fifty. For no other number can measure the number forty by equal parts except those which we have enumerated and, when reckoned up, have brought to the number fifty. Therefore, having completed forty days with his disciples after the resurrection—that is, commending to them what was carried out temporally for us—the Lord ascended into heaven; and after another ten days he sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3, 9; 2:1–4), by whom those who had believed in visible and temporal things might be perfected spiritually for grasping invisible things.
namely by those ten days after which he sent the Holy Spirit, indicating by the number ten the same perfection which is conferred through the Holy Spirit—the ten which the number forty produces when its equal parts are reckoned, and, added to it, becomes fifty; just as by the temporal dispensation administered with equity one arrives at the perfection which the number ten signifies, which ten together with forty makes fifty.
Therefore, since the perfection which comes about through the Holy Spirit—as long as we still walk in the flesh, although we do not live carnally—is coupled with the temporal dispensation itself, the number fifty rightly seems to pertain to the Church, but now purified and perfected, which embraces with charity the faith of the temporal dispensation and the hope of future eternity, that is, as it were coupling the number forty with the number ten. But this Church, to which the number fifty pertains—whether because it is chosen from three kinds of men, Jews and Gentiles and carnal Christians, or because it is imbued with the sacrament of the Trinity—with the number by which it is signified multiplied by three, reaches to one hundred and fifty.
For fifty multiplied by three makes one hundred fifty. And when you have added the three themselves—because that which is washed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in the laver of regeneration ought to be distinguished and eminent (Matt. 28:19)—they make one hundred fifty-three. This is found to be the number of the fishes, because the nets were cast to the right side; and therefore it holds great ones (John 21:6, 11)—that is, perfect ones, fit for the kingdom of heaven. For that likeness of the net not cast to the right caught good and bad together, which are separated on the shore (Matt. 13:48). For now, within the nets of God's precepts and sacraments, in the Church which now is, the good and the bad dwell together.
But the separation takes place at the end of the age, as it were at the end of the sea, that is, on the shore; when the just reign first temporally, as is written in the Apocalypse, then forever in that city which is there described (Rev. 21), where, the temporal dispensation now coming to rest—which is signified by the number forty—the ten remains, which the saints who work in the vineyard are to receive as their wage. 3. It can also, if this number is considered, be applied to the holiness of the Church, which was made through our Lord Jesus Christ: so that, since the creature consists of the number seven—when three is assigned to the soul and four to the body—the very assumption of the man may be led to three times seven.
Because both the Father sent the Son, and the Father is in the Son, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit he was born of a virgin. And these are three: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And seven times: the man himself, assumed by the temporal dispensation, that he might become everlasting. There comes about, therefore, the sum of the number twenty-one, that is, three times seven. And this assumption of the man availed for the liberation of the Church, of which he is the head (Eph. 5:23); so that the Church itself, on account of soul and body, might be restored in the same number seven. And so twenty-one is multiplied by seven, on account of those who are liberated through the Lord's manhood, and they make together one hundred forty-seven.
To which is added the number six, a sign of perfection, because it consists of its parts that measure it, so that nothing less and nothing more is found. For the one measures it, which it has six times; and the two, which it has three times; and the three, which it has twice: which, brought together—one and two and three—make six. This perhaps pertains also to that mystery, that God on the sixth day perfected all his works (Gen. 2:2). Therefore, when you have added six to one hundred forty-seven—which is a sign of perfection—they make one hundred fifty-three: which is found to be the number of the fishes, after, at the Lord's command, the nets were cast to the right side, where the sinners who belong to the left are not found. LVIII.
On John the Baptist. 1. John the Baptist, considering the Scripture which is read about him in the Gospel, is not absurdly believed, by many probable proofs, to bear the person of prophecy, and this especially because the Lord says of him, More than a prophet (Matt. 11:9). For he bears the image of the whole prophecy which, from the beginning of the human race up to the coming of the Lord, was made concerning the Lord. Now the person of the Gospel is in the Lord himself, who was foretold through prophecy, whose preaching is increased throughout the whole world from the very coming of the Lord; but prophecy is diminished after that which it foretold has come. And so the Lord says: The Law and the Prophets were until John the Baptist;
from that time the kingdom of God is preached (Luke 16:16). And John himself says: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30). Which was figured both in the days on which they were born and in the deaths by which they suffered. For John is born from the point when the days begin to shorten; the Lord is born from the point when the days begin to lengthen. He is diminished at his head, when he is slain; but the other is raised up on the cross. After, therefore, prophecy itself, established in John, showed present with its finger him whom it had sung would come from the beginning of the human race, it begins to diminish, and thence the preaching of the kingdom of God to increase. And therefore John baptized unto repentance (Matt. 3:11):
for the old life is ended, up to repentance, and thence the new begins. 2. But not only in those who are properly called Prophets, but in the very history of the Old Testament, prophecy is gathered not to be silent, by those who seek piously and are divinely helped to investigate these things. Yet it appears most of all in those more evident figures of things: that the just Abel is killed by his brother (Gen. 4:8), and the Lord by the Jews; that the ark of Noah, as it were the Church, is governed in the flood of the world (Gen. 7:4); that Isaac is led to be sacrificed to God, and a ram in place of him is recognized in the thorns, as it were crucified (Gen. 22:3–13);
that in the two sons of Abraham—one from the slave-woman, the other from the free-woman—the two Testaments are understood (Gal. 4:22–24); that two peoples are prefigured in the twins, namely Esau and Jacob (Gen. 25:23); that Joseph, having suffered persecution from his brothers, is honored by strangers (Gen. 37; 41)—just as the Lord, while the Jews persecuted him, was glorified among the Gentiles. It would be long to recount each one, since the Apostle so concludes and says: But these things happened to them in figure, and they were written for our sake, upon whom the end of the ages has come (1 Cor. 10:11).
But the end of the ages, as it were the old age of the old man—when you have constituted the whole human race as one man—is marked by the sixth age, in which the Lord came. For there are six ages even in one man: infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, maturity, and old age. And so the first age of the human race is from Adam up to Noah. The second, from Noah to Abraham—which junctures are most evident and well-known. The third, from Abraham up to David: for so the evangelist Matthew divides it (Matt. 1:17). The fourth, from David up to the migration into Babylon. The fifth, from the migration into Babylon up to the coming of the Lord. The sixth, from the coming of the Lord up to the end of the world, is to be hoped for:
in which the outer man, as it were, is corrupted by old age—he who is also called the old man—and the inner is renewed from day to day (2 Cor. 4:16). Thence is everlasting rest, which is signified by the Sabbath. To this it accords that man was made on the sixth day in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27). Now no one is unaware that the life of men, when it is already administering something, is supported by knowledge and action. For action without knowledge is rash, and knowledge without action is idle. But the first life of man, to which no administration is rightly attributed, is given over to the five senses of the body, which are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
And therefore the two first ages of the human race are defined by ten generations each, as it were infancy and childhood; namely by five doubled, since generation is propagated by both sexes. There are, therefore, ten generations from Adam up to Noah, and from there up to Abraham another ten—which two ages we have said to be the infancy and childhood of the human race. But adolescence and youth and maturity—that is, from Abraham up to David, and thence up to the migration into Babylon, and thence up to the coming of the Lord—are figured by four sets of ten generations; the number seven being doubled for the same generation of both sexes, when to the five which is in the senses of the body, action and knowledge have been added.
But old age is wont to occupy as much time as all the remaining ages together. For since old age is said to begin from the sixtieth year, and human life can reach up to one hundred twenty years, it is manifest that old age alone can be as long as all the other former ages before it. Therefore, by what generations the last age of the human race—which begins from the coming of the Lord up to the end of the world—is to be reckoned is uncertain; and God usefully willed this to be hidden, as is written in the Gospel (Matt. 24:36), and the Apostle attests, saying that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:2). 3.
But nevertheless, that the human race was visited in the sixth age by the humble coming of the Lord is taught by the generations distinguished above. By which visitation the prophecy began to be made manifest, which had lain hidden in the preceding five ages; and because John bore the person of this prophecy, as was said above, therefore he is born of aged parents, as if, the world growing old, that prophecy begins to become known; and his mother hides herself for five months, as it is written: Elizabeth hid herself for five months. But in the sixth month she is visited by Mary the mother of the Lord; and the infant leaps in the womb, as if, at the first coming of the Lord—in which he deigned to appear in humility—prophecy begins to be made manifest:
but as it were in the womb, that is, not yet so evidently that all confess it to be manifest as in the light—which we believe will be at the second coming of the Lord, in which he will come in glory; of whose coming Elijah is hoped to be the precursor, as John was of this one. And therefore it is said by the Lord: Elijah has already come, and men did many things to him; and if you will to know, he himself is John the Baptist, who is to come (Matt. 17:12; 11:14). Because in the same spirit and in the same power—as by the office of a preceding herald—both this one has already come, and that one is to come. For this reason it is said that this John also, through the spirit with which his father the seer was filled, would be the precursor of the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah.
But Mary, having spent three months with Elizabeth, departs (Luke 1). By which number there seems to me to be signified the faith of the Trinity, and Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, by which, through the humble coming of the Lord, the human race is imbued, and at the future coming of his glory is exalted. LIX. On the ten virgins. 1. Among the parables spoken by the Lord, this one which is set forth about the ten virgins is wont to exercise inquirers greatly. And many indeed have thought many things about it which are not contrary to the faith; but how the exposition may fit all its parts, that is what must be worked out. I have also read, in a certain writing of the kind that are called apocryphal—not that it is against the catholic faith;
but when I considered all the parts of this parable, it seemed to me to fit this place less well. Yet concerning that exposition I dare rashly to judge nothing, lest perhaps it was not its unsuitability that caused me difficulties, but my own slowness that did not find the fittingness in it. But what seems to me to be understood, not absurdly, in this place, I will expound as briefly and carefully as I can. 2. Therefore our Lord, being asked privately by the disciples about the consummation of the age, among many other things which he spoke, said this also: Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. But five of them were foolish, and five wise.
But the five foolish ones, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them; but the wise took oil with them in their vessels along with the lamps. And while the bridegroom delayed, they all grew drowsy and slept. But at midnight a cry was made: Behold, the bridegroom comes; go out to meet him. Then those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish ones said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut.
But last of all the other virgins also come, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. But he, answering, says: Amen I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour (Matt. 25:1–13). That, of the ten virgins, five are admitted and five excluded signifies the distinction of the good and the bad. Wherefore, if the name of virginity is honorable, why is it common to both the received and the excluded? Then, what does the number five in each part mean? And what the oil signifies seems a wonder. Likewise, that the wise do not share with those who ask:
since it is not lawful to envy those who are so perfect that they are received by the bridegroom—by which name our Lord Jesus Christ is without doubt signified—and one ought to be merciful in providing from what one has, that sentence of the same Lord prescribing: To everyone who asks of you, give (Luke 6:30). But what is it that, in giving, could not suffice for both? These especially increase the difficulty of the question; although, when the other things too are carefully considered, so that all may concur in one reasoning and nothing be said on the one side that impedes the other, great caution must be applied. 3. And so the five virgins seem to me to signify the fivefold continence from the enticements of the flesh.