文集（CSEL） 第 9 章

The life of the saints is a rule of living for the rest, and therefore we receive the more fully digested sequence of the Scriptures, so that while by reading we come to know Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the other righteous men, we may pursue with eager footsteps a certain path of innocence opened up for us by their virtue. Although I have often treated of these men, today the history of holy Joseph presents itself. In him, though there were very many kinds of virtues, yet above all the mark of chastity shone forth conspicuously. It is right, therefore, that, since in Abraham you have learned the unwearied devotion of faith, in Isaac the purity of a sincere mind, in Jacob the singular patience of soul and in labours, from that general view of the virtues you should direct your mind to the particular kinds of disciplines.

For although the former are more diffuse, yet the latter are more distinct, and penetrate the mind the more easily the more they are circumscribed and defined. Let holy Joseph, then, be set before us as a mirror of chastity. For in his character, in his deeds, modesty shines forth, and a certain brightness of grace, the companion of chastity, gleams. Hence too he was loved by his parents more than the other sons. But that very thing was an occasion of envy—which ought not to be passed over in silence. From this, then, the argument of the whole history proceeded, that at the same time we might learn that the perfect man is not moved by the wrong of an avenging grief, nor returns evil for evils. Whence also David says: 'If I have repaid those who requited me evil.'

But what was it whereby Joseph deserved to be preferred to the others, if he had either injured those who hurt him or loved only those who loved him? For this most people do. But that is the wonderful thing—if you love your enemy, which the Saviour teaches. Rightly, then, is he to be admired who did this before the Gospel: that when injured he spared, when assailed he forgave, when sold he did not requite the wrong, but rendered grace in return for insult—which after the Gospel we have all learned, and yet cannot keep. Let us, then, learn the envy directed even at the saints, that we may imitate their patience, and let us recognize that they were not of a more excellent nature, but of a watchful observance; that they were not ignorant of vices, but corrected them. But if envy scorched even the saints, how much more must we beware lest it inflame sinners?

We are taught, therefore, what ought to be the affection between parents and the grace of children. To love one's children is sweet, and to love them more dearly is most sweet; but often paternal love itself, unless it keeps moderation, harms the children—if it either dissolves the beloved by excessive indulgence, or by the preference of one turns the others away from the affection of brotherhood. More is acquired for the son for whom the love of his brothers is acquired. This is the more glorious bounty of fathers; this the richer inheritance of children. Let an equal grace join the children whom an equal nature has joined. Piety knows no gain of money where there is loss of piety. Why do you wonder if quarrels arise among brothers over a field or a house, when over a tunic envy blazed up among the sons of holy Jacob?

What then? Is Jacob to be blamed because he preferred one to the others? But we cannot take away from parents the liberty of loving more those whom they believe to deserve more; nor ought we to cut off from children the zeal of striving to please more. In short, Jacob loved that one the more, in whom he foresaw the greater marks of virtues, so that the father seems not so much to have preferred a son as the prophet a mystery; and deservedly he made him a coat of many colours, whereby he might signify that he was to be preferred to his brothers by the mantle of diverse virtues.

In short, while he was still a boy the divine grace shone forth in him, since he dreamed that, when he had bound—as it seemed to him in the vision—sheaves together with his brothers, his own sheaf rose up and stood erect, but the sheaves of his brothers, turning round, adored his sheaf. In this assuredly was revealed the future resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Whom also, when they had seen Him at Jerusalem, the eleven disciples adored, and all the saints, when they shall have risen again, shall adore Him, bringing forward the fruits of honourable works, as it is written: 'But coming they shall come with exultation, carrying their sheaves.' Whence the brothers, although through envy they disparaged the credit of the dream, yet, expressing its interpretation in their own words, answered him:

'Are you indeed to reign as king over us, or to lord it as master over us?' For that vision signified the King who was to come, before whom every flesh of the human race should adore with bended knee. And he saw another dream and told it to his father and his brothers, namely that the sun and the moon and eleven stars adored him. Whence his father rebuked him, saying: 'What then shall this be that you have dreamed? Shall we indeed, coming, I and your mother and your brothers, adore you upon the earth?' Who is He whom parents and brothers adored upon the earth, save Christ Jesus, when Joseph and His mother with the disciples adored Him, confessing the true God in that body, of whom alone it was said: 'Praise Him, sun and moon;'

'praise Him, all you stars and light.' But what does the rebuke of the father signify, except the hardness of the people of Israel, from whom Christ is according to the flesh, whom even to this day they do not believe to be God nor are willing to adore as Lord, because they know He was born from among themselves? And so they hear His answers, and do not understand; they themselves read that the sun and moon praise Him, but they will not believe that it was said of Christ. And so Jacob is deceived by another's figure, but is not deceived by his own love. Paternal piety in him does not go astray, but the affection of the people who were to err is expressed.

Not, therefore, did the patriarch fail to believe so great a dream—he who in a twofold oracle prophesied both things alike, so as to represent both the person of the righteous man and that of the people: namely, that the Son of God was to come upon the earth, who would both be loved by the righteous and denied by the perfidious. He saw, then, the mysteries of the future incarnation, who sent his son to his brothers to see whether the sheep were rightly faring. What sheep was God then already seeking in that zeal of the patriarch, save those of whom the Lord Jesus Himself said in the Gospel: 'I am not come save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel'?

'And he sent him,' it says, 'to Shechem,' which by interpretation is called 'shoulder' or 'back'—that is, to those who would not turn to the Lord, but fleeing from His face would turn themselves away, which is properly of a sinner; for Cain went out from the face of God, and the prophet says: 'You shall make them turn their back.' But the righteous man does not turn away from the Lord, but runs to meet Him, saying: 'My eyes are ever toward the Lord.' And Isaiah, when the Lord said, 'Whom shall I send?' offered himself of his own accord, saying: 'Behold, I.' And Simeon waited that he might see Christ the Lord, and after he had seen Him—since he had seen the Remitter of sins and the Redeemer of the whole world—as though relieved of sin, he begged to be released from the use of this flesh, saying:

'Now, Lord, let Your servant depart, for my eyes have seen Your salvation.' And Zacchaeus from this first found the prerogative of his own commendation, in that he climbed up into a tree to see Christ. So then Joseph was sent by his father to his brothers—by that greater Father, who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; by that Father of whom it is written: 'God sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.' 'And Joseph,' it says, 'was wandering, because he could not find his brothers.' Not without cause was he wandering, who sought those who were wandering; for the Lord knows those who are His own. In short, Jesus also, wearied from His journey, was sitting upon the well. He was wearied, who could not find the people of God whom He sought;

for it had gone out from the face of the Lord. For he who follows after fault goes out from Christ. The sinner goes out; the righteous man enters in. In short, Adam the sinner hid himself, but the righteous man says: 'Let my reasoning enter into Your sight.' But Joseph found his brothers in Dothan, which signifies 'defection.' For where is he, save in defection, who deserts God? Nor is it any wonder if those were failing who did not hear Him saying: 'Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.' Joseph, then, came into Dothan, and they saw him coming from afar, before he drew near to them. And they raged to kill him. Truly they were far off who were in defection, and therefore they raged, because Christ had not drawn near to them.

For if the type of Christ had drawn near to them, they would certainly have loved their brother; but they could not be near who were plotting fratricide. 'Behold,' it says, 'that dreamer comes. Now therefore come, let us kill him.' Did they not say these very words who were plotting a parricidal sacrilege, just as Solomon says of them: 'Let us take away the righteous man, because he is unprofitable to us'? And they added in Genesis: 'And we shall see what his dreams will be.' This was written of Joseph, fulfilled in Christ, when the Jews said in His passion: 'If He is the king of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusts in God: let Him now deliver Him, if He will have Him.' Were even those brothers themselves so impious as to kill their brother?

And whence the merits of so great patriarchs, that the Law should designate the tribes of the whole people by their names? How do the names of piety and the marks of crime agree? Thus these too were labouring under the type of the people, not under the vice of their own mind. Hence all the envy, hence the meditation of parricide: the envy was by figure, the piety by affection. In short, Reuben and Judah, keeping the holy rights of brotherhood, desired to free him from their hands; and deservedly Judah is preferred in the paternal blessing, when it is said to him: 'The sons of your father shall adore you. A lion's whelp is Judah,' and he himself 'the expectation of the nations.'

Which assuredly suits Christ alone, for whom it was reserved to be adored by His brothers and awaited by the nations, who washed His robe in wine by the passion of His own body, because He stained His own flesh with no spot of sin. Asher too—Asher did not believe it suited himself: 'his bread is fat, and Asher himself is with princes.' But what of Joseph himself, to whom it was said:

'My son Joseph is to be enlarged, my son to be enlarged, my envied son, my younger son: return to me'—against whom, taking counsel together, they spoke evil, in whom the blessing prevailed above the blessings of the abiding mountains and the desires of the everlasting hills—whom he understood to be signified in himself as none other than Him who, surpassing the merits of all, holds above the desires of all the saints the summit of immeasurable power, whom no one could equal in vow? In the patriarchs, then, envy is compensated by grace, who are both excused from fault and consecrated by the gift of revelation. For it is not so blameworthy to have spoken the things that are of the people, as it is blessed to have seen the things that are of Christ.

They took on the person of the sinful people, that they might receive the grace of the redeeming Lord. Certainly grace abolished the fault, and the fault did not lessen the grace. And that we may recognize all this to be a mystery concerning the people and the Lord Jesus, 'Come,' it says, 'let us sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites.' What interpretation has the name of Joseph, save that it signifies the divine grace and the manifestation of the Most High God? Who, then, is sold, save He who, when He was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant? For neither should we have bought Him, had not His own men sold Him. They sold Him wickedly, they bought Him worse. They sold Him to the merchants; the buyers gained a good odour from the betrayers;

for Judas sold Him, the Ishmaelites bought Him—who are signified by the Latin interpretation as 'those who hate their God.' Therefore in one place we find Joseph bought for twenty, in another for twenty-five gold pieces, in another for thirty, because Christ is not worth to all the estimation of one price. To some less, to others more. The faith of the buyer is the increase of the merchandise. To the more religious God is more precious; to the sinner the Redeemer is more precious. He is worth more to him also who has more grace.

But also to him to whom much has been given He is worth more, because he to whom more is forgiven loves more, as the Lord Himself declared in the Gospel concerning that woman who poured ointment upon His feet and washed them with tears and wiped them with her hair and dried them with kisses, of whom He said to Simon: 'Wherefore I say to you: her many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much.' But to whom less is forgiven, he loves less. Sometimes the diversities of price have not only the expression of quantity, but also of number, as you have concerning the ointment which the Lord recorded was poured out for His burial, as it is written, Judas saying:

'This might have been sold for three hundred pence'—by which number not of quantity but the signification of the cross seems to be expressed. So here too the diversity, whether of twenty or of thirty, of gold pieces or of silver, has the token either of a twofold or of a threefold perfection. For the twenty-five gold pieces of the jubilee, which is the number of remission, signify the most precious portion. Here too, that you may observe the figure of the Lord's passion, Judah the patriarch says: 'Let us hand Joseph over to the Ishmaelites; but let not our hands be laid upon him.' And well had he said above: 'But lay not your hands upon him,' which the Jews said in the Lord's passion: 'It is not lawful for us to put any man to death,' that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, signifying by what death He was to die.

Already then, therefore, the emblem of the cross to come was being prefigured; and at the same time, because he was stripped of his tunic, that is, of the flesh which he assumed, he was stripped also of the comely diversity of the virtues. Therefore his tunic, that is, his flesh, and not his divinity, was made bloody; and the garment of his flesh could not take away from him the immortality of his life. This tunic the Jewish beasts made bloody, those of whom he says: 'Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.' But as for the cistern being dry, what wonder is it if the cistern of the Jews has no water, who forsook the fountain of living water and made for themselves broken cisterns? And that you may know this to be a true mystery, the Lord himself says concerning himself: 'They laid me in the lower pit, in darkness and in the shadow of death.'

They, therefore, buy Christ who bring sweet odors, the incense with which they perfume the altars of a devout mind; whence also David says in Greek: 'Let my prayer be set forth as incense in your sight.' They bring also resin, with which broken marbles are joined together. There is a spiritual resin which may make solid the fracture of your soul, and bind together what has been torn apart, and draw tight what has come loose. For this spiritual resin strengthens and sets in order certain shattered members of the soul, so that they may be joined together without injury. And so Jeremiah seeks it, that he might heal Babylon, if it could be done, saying: 'Take resin for her corruption, if perhaps she may be healed. We treated Babylon, and she was not healed.' The synagogue was not healed, because that resin has passed over to the Church.

For this reason the merchants came from Gilead, that is, from the possession or sojourn of testimony, transferring their wares to the Church, so that this resin might heal the sins of the nations. Of these it is said: 'Be strengthened, you slackened hands and feeble knees.' Sincere faith is resin. This Peter applied when he said to the lame man: 'In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk.' And deservedly he rose and walked. This he had when he said to the paralytic: 'Aeneas, the Lord Jesus heals you: rise and make your bed.' And he rose and made his bed. This he had when he said to the dead woman: 'Rise in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.' And she who had died rose up.

By the tempering of this resin those stones, of which God is able to raise up sons of Abraham, are fitted together. By the remedy of this resin the lame man is set upright, the paralytic is restored, the dead woman is raised. That, too, in which they sprinkled his tunic with the blood of a kid seems to signify this: that by false testimonies, in their assault upon him, they brought into the odium of sin the one who forgives the sins of all. To us he is a lamb, to them a kid. To us the Lamb of God was slain, from whom he took away the sins of the world; to them a kid, whose errors he heaped up, whose offenses he piled high. And therefore he says:

'Fill up the measure of your fathers.' And deservedly Jacob, lamenting the losses of his posterity, wept as a father over a son he had lost, as a prophet mourned over the destruction of the Jews. Then he even rent his garment, which we read was done in the Passion of the Lord Jesus by the chief priest, in whom there was not a private person but the function of a public office. And the veil of the temple was rent, that it might be made manifest by such signs that the mysteries were profaned, the people stripped of their saving garments, the kingdom divided and destined to be destroyed; for every kingdom divided against itself will easily be destroyed. And truly divided, when that which was Christ's began now to be the devil's. For neither could they remain undivided who were separating the Son from the Father.

Joseph, therefore, was sold, led into Egypt, bought by the chief of the cooks. Not an idle figure is one who would cook the raw materials of food, so that minds might feast on the sweetness of faith; for no food is sweeter than knowledge and doctrine. Before this there was in Egypt a raw faithlessness, which no ardor of divine knowledge and no desire for true knowledge had softened, nor had the fiery words of the Lord boiled it down. And Joseph was sold into Egypt, because Christ was to come to those to whom it was said: 'You were sold for your sins'; and therefore by his own blood he redeemed those whom their own sins had sold. But Christ, sold by his taking on of our condition, not by the price of the guilt of sin, is not held bound, because he himself committed no sin.

Therefore by a price he contracted our debt, not his own; he took away the bond of indebtedness, removed the moneylender, freed the debtor: one paid off what was owed by all. It was not lawful for us to go out from servitude. He took this upon himself on our behalf, that he might drive back the servitude of the world, restore the liberty of paradise, and bestow a new grace by the honor of fellowship with himself. So much concerning the mystery.

For the rest, as it pertains to the moral sense: because the Lord our God wills that all be saved, he gave through Joseph also a consolation to those who are in servitude, and bestowed instruction, that they might learn that even in the lowest condition manners can be superior, and that no state is immune from virtue, if a man's spirit recognizes that of each one it is the flesh which is subject to servitude, not the mind; and that many a little slave is freer than his masters, if those placed in servitude reckon that they must abstain from servile deeds. Every sin is servile, innocence is free. Whence also the Lord says: 'Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.' For how is not every miser a slave, who auctions off his very self for a paltry gain of money?

He who has heaped up what is not to be used fears everything, lest he lose what he has gathered, and must guard it with all the greater peril the greater the things he has sought. How is he not a beggar, to whom the things he possesses are small? For even if he seem rich to me, he is in want to himself, nor does he comfort his desires with any sure proof, who knows not how to trust in what he wishes for. And how, too, is not that man a slave who is subjected to lust? First he burns with his own fires and is consumed by the torches of his own breast. To these the prophet rightly says: 'Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled.' He takes on every fear, lies in wait for each man's sleep, that he may gain possession of the object of his desire for one thing; he becomes the slave of all. He serves, then, and a wretched servitude indeed, who makes masters for his own self, who himself wishes to have those whom he must fear;

for nothing is so peculiar to servitude as always to be afraid. But that man, in whatever condition of servitude, is ever free who is not captured by desire, who is not held by the chains of avarice, who is not bound by the fear of an accusation, who looks securely upon present things, whom things to come do not terrify. Does it not seem to you that this man lords it in servitude, while that other serves in liberty? Joseph was a slave, Pharaoh reigned: more blessed was the servitude of the one than the kingdom of the other. In the end all Egypt would have collapsed in famine, had it not subjected its own kingdom to the counsel of a little slave. So they who are slaves by origin have wherein to glory: Joseph too was a slave. They have wherein to console themselves who have come from freedom into servitude by some necessity.

They have something to imitate, that they may learn that they can change their condition but not their manners, and that there can be both liberty in home-born slaves and steadfastness in servitude. Masters too have reason to hope through good little slaves. Abraham found a wife for his son through a home-born servant. The Lord blessed the house of the Egyptian on account of Joseph, and the blessing of the Lord came upon all his substance, both in his house and in his fields. 'And he turned over,' it says, 'all things whatsoever he had into Joseph's hands.' We notice that the slaves governed those things which the masters could not govern. But why should I bring forward the dispositions of his master's private household by this little slave, who governed an empire?

Yet greater is the fact that he first governed himself; and though he was comely in appearance and exceedingly fair of face, he did not turn the loveliness of his countenance to another's injury, but kept it for his own grace, reckoning himself the more beautiful for this, if he should be proved more comely not by the loss of chastity but by the cultivation of modesty. That, he held, is true beauty which would not captivate others' eyes nor wound fragile minds, but would win the favorable judgment of all, being a snare to none, a credit to himself. And if any woman looked upon him with wanton eyes, the crime is hers alone who saw amiss, not his who would not be seen amiss; nor is there any fault in his being seen. It was not in the slave's power not to be seen: the husband ought to have guarded his wife's eyes.

If the husband feared nothing concerning his wife, Joseph reckoned this to be a testimony of his chastity, not a relaxation through carelessness. Yet let men too learn to guard the eyes of women; even those who do not wish to be loved are loved. And so Joseph was loved, who would scorn the one who loved him. And well did Scripture excuse him, saying: 'The wife of his master cast her eyes upon Joseph'; that is, he did not display himself nor catch her off her guard, but she cast her own nets and was caught in her own snare, spread her own toils and was held in her own bonds. And she said to him: 'Lie with me.' The eyes are the adulteress's first weapons, words the second; but he who is not captured by the eyes can resist a word. A defense is at hand while the affection is still free. Therefore it is written that he refused.

First, then, by the encounter of his mind he overcame, repelling, as with the shield of his soul, the one rushing upon him; then he brandished his word like a spear, that she might call herself back. 'And he said to the wife of his master.' Rightly is she called the wife of the master, not herself the mistress, who could not extort what she wished to obtain. For how could she be mistress who did not have the effect of ruling, who did not keep the discipline of a mistress, who furnished to slaves the incitements of lust? He was the master, who did not receive the torches of the woman who loved him, who did not feel the chains of her seduction, whom no dread of death utterly terrified, who chose rather to die free of crime than to choose partnership in a criminal power. He is free who held it base not to repay grace with grace.

In short, he does not make excuse like a fearful man, nor take precaution as one timid of danger, but as a debtor to his master's kindness and to his own innocence he flees the crime of ingratitude and the stain of sin, and as a just man shudders at the contagion of guilt. The adulteress brandished a third dart by the persistence of her solicitation. But Joseph did not listen to her. You have, after the first words, what you should beware of. Not only slippery, but also bold, importunate, and wanton is lust, nor does the adulteress have anything to revere. She who did not first grieve over the losses of her modesty lies in wait, that she may capture. At last, with her ushers and household removed, she seized him at the entrance of his office and entrusted duty, saying: 'Lie with me.'

Joseph is excused by the testimony of Scripture, because he could not desert the service entrusted to him by his master. For it is not enough that, secure of himself, he had entered the inner parts of the house as one who could not be caught: a just man ought to have provided that he might not give opportunity to one raging, and that she might perish by his sin. But he who saw his master's wife setting herself against him ought also to beware of offense against the master through neglected duty. At the same time he reckoned it still a matter of speech, not of seizure. He is excused for having entered, he is praised for having escaped, and he valued the garments of the body no more than the chastity of the mind. He left behind, as if not his own, the things the adulteress held in her hands, and judged to be another's the things that could be seized by the touch of an unchaste woman.

A great man, indeed, who, though sold into slavery, knew nothing of a servile nature; though loved, did not love in return; though entreated, did not yield; though seized, fled away; who, when he was assailed by his master's wife, could be held by his garment but could not be captured in mind; and who, not enduring even her words for long, judged it to be contagion if he should delay longer, lest through the hands of the adulteress the incitements of lust should pass over. And so he stripped off his garment, shook off the crime, and, leaving behind the spoils by which he was held, he fled away despoiled indeed, yet not naked, because he was the more covered by the garment of modesty; for no one is naked save him whom guilt has stripped. So in earlier passages we have that Adam, after he deserted the commandments of God by his transgression and contracted the debt of grievous sin, was naked. Whence he himself says:

'I heard your voice in paradise and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself.' For he understood that he was naked, who had lost the bands of divine protection. And therefore he lay hidden, because he did not have the garment of faith, which indeed he laid aside by transgressing. You see a great thing. He was naked who did not lose his tunic; this one was not naked who stripped himself of the garments which he left in the hands of the adulteress. The same Scripture has asserted the one to be naked, and has denied it of the other. And therefore this one rather despoiled himself than stripped himself bare, who kept the uncorrupted garments of the virtues, stripping off the old man with his deeds, that he might put on the new, who according to the image of the Creator is renewed in knowledge:

but the other remained naked, who could not clothe himself again, having been stripped of the singular spoil of virtue. Whence he received a tunic of skins, because, as a sinner, he could not have a spiritual one. Joseph, therefore, left behind his garments and laid bare the shamelessness of the adulteress, which afterward could not lie hidden. For she went out of doors and herself published the very temptations of her adultery, raising her voice, on the ground that the Hebrew had fled away, leaving his garments behind. She, therefore, was making known what she ought to have concealed, that by a fabricated charge she might injure the innocent. But the just man knows not how to accuse, and therefore the shameless woman did this with impunity. I would call her, then, truly stripped, even while keeping another's garments; she who had lost all the veils of chastity, and him sufficiently adorned.

sufficiently defended, whose voice was not heard, yet whose innocence spoke. So Susanna afterward, while she kept silence in the judgment, spoke better by the oracle, and therefore deserved the prophet's defense, she who did not seek the aid of her own voice. That man, then, I would call the more blessed, when he was being cast into prison, because he was undergoing martyrdom for the sake of chastity. For chastity is a good gift, but of lesser merit when it incurs no danger; but where it is defended even at the peril of one's life, there it is more fully crowned. With his cause unheard and the truth of his faith unexamined, Joseph is cast into prison as though guilty of a crime, but the Lord did not desert him even in prison. Let not the innocent be troubled when they are assailed by false charges, when justice is oppressed and they are thrust into prison.

God visits his own even in prison, and therefore there is more of his help where there is more peril. But what wonder is it if Christ visits those placed in prison, who recorded that he himself was shut up in prison in his own people, as you have it written: 'I was in prison, and you did not come to me'? Whither does the divine mercy not penetrate? Joseph found such grace that he who had been shut up in prison should himself rather keep the bars of the prison, that the keeper of the keys should yield his office to him, and entrust to his power all the prisoners. And so not only did Joseph not feel the prison, but he even relieved others of the prison's hardship. The authors of this injury, then, are a woman and eunuchs:

but the woman is one of the Egyptians, who are wont to mingle wanton words with men, to provoke the modest, to pursue those who flee, to press hard upon the bashful. Since she could not defend her own vices, she falsely accused the innocent, mixing treachery with treachery, holding another's goods, herself condemning others, setting no limit to her fury. For what cause was there for cruelty, except that she saw herself opposed in her desires and her forbidden longings cheated of their consent? See on what account a prison is opened, that it may receive the innocent; chains are loosed for the guilty, that they may be laid upon the faithful; the adulterers of truth are released, that he may be shut in who refused adultery of the faith. But of these eunuchs what shall I say?

who ought to be an example to other eunuchs, that their status is fragile and slight, and that all their hope rests in the royal will, for whom a slight offense is the greatest peril, while their favorable fortunes are a cheap service. The one boasted that he was set over the wine, the other that he was set over the bakers. Each gave offense, and they were sent into prison and committed to holy Joseph by the prison-keeper himself; and when they had been there many days, they saw a dream. And when Joseph visited them again, he found them sad and troubled in mind, because they were disturbed by a dream whose interpreter they could not find. 'Is not the interpretation of a dream from God?' he says. 'Tell it to me, then.' And the chief of the wine told his dream:

'There was a vine before my sight, and in the vine three roots, and it was blossoming, bearing buds, ripe clusters of grapes; and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. And I took it and pressed it into the cup and gave the cup into Pharaoh's hands.' And Joseph said to him: 'The three roots are three days. Yet three days, and Pharaoh will call to mind your office and will restore you to your former post, and you will give the cup into Pharaoh's hands. But remember me through your own self, when it shall be well with you, and you will show mercy to me and will remember me before Pharaoh and will bring me out of this prison, because I was stolen away by theft from the land of the Hebrews, and here I have done nothing evil, but they put me into the pit of this prison.' The other's dream it is not pleasant to relate.

You surely remember my words, that even then I shrank from interpreting it for the man whose outcome I shrink from, whose death I dread. Let us first speak of the one who seemed blessed to himself when he was set over the wine, and reckoned this the highest summit of all power, that he gave the cup to the king. This was his glory, this his magnificence in this world: deprived of it he grieved, restored to it he rejoiced. But this is a dream, and all the power of the world is a dream, not the truth. In the end, through a dream he saw his office restored to him. And Isaiah says that men of this kind are such, who in this world are delighted with prosperous things.

'As one who eats and drinks in dreams seems to himself to be filled with food or drink while he sleeps, but when he has awakened he begins to hunger the more' — then he understands how empty was that food and drink of the dreamer — 'so he who sleeps in this world and does not open his eyes to the divine mysteries, as long as he is weighed down by the sleep of the body, thinks this worldly power to be of some moment' — as though he sees it in dreams — but when he has awakened, he detects how empty is the pleasure of this world.

Consider now that true Hebrew, that interpreter not of a dream but of truth and of a glorious vision, who came from that fullness of divinity and the freedom of heavenly grace into this bodily prison; whom the allurement of this world could not change, whom no corruption of worldly pleasure could overturn; who, being tempted, did not fall; being assailed, did not assail; and at last, seized by the garment of the body, as it were by a certain adulterous hand of the synagogue, stripped off the flesh and ascended free of death. The harlot brought false accusation when she could not hold him whom the prison did not terrify, whom the powers below did not detain. Nay rather, the very place to which he had descended as one to be punished, thence he set others free:

where the chains of death bound them, there he himself loosed the chains of the dead. Consider, then, this Hebrew saying to that chief of the eunuchs, who had incurred the royal offense and whom he had restored to his office: 'Remember me through your own self, when it shall be well with you, and you will show mercy to me and will remember me.' Therefore he repeated it a second time, because he knew that, once he had received back his power, the man would not recall from what injury he had escaped. Therefore he admonished him a second time, because he had freed him a second time, so that, if the memory of the former benefit did not hold him, at least that of the later might come over him, and he might not despise the author of his own salvation, nor violate him by treacherous transgression. But what is worse, the forgetfulness of a benefit quickly creeps in amid prosperous circumstances.

Restored to his office, he was not mindful, but became forgetful of his interpreter; he forgot him. Yet even though that man forgot, Christ did not forget, but spoke to him, and through the little slave spoke, saying to him: 'Remember me through your own self,' that is, recall, by the contemplation of your office, what you heard. But even though you have now forgotten, you will remember me, that you may escape the peril, you who have forgotten the benefit. Yet, lifted up by power, he did not recall. And how great was this power — a service of wine? Lo, whence comes all this boasting! Because he was the chief of the eunuchs who served wine in the royal cups. 'And it came to pass,' it says, 'after two years.'

I would lie about the time of our eunuch here, were the very days not to agree: for after two years he received back his office, nor did he remember, but was reminded. For he learned that even the kingdom itself in this world was a dream, he who did not believe his own dream. He learned, too, that even kings' .... are dreams, and that their own powers are not perpetual. But let sorrow quickly pass over this place, lest by the very recollection it grow raw; nor does it delight me to remember even my own speech, which at that time either grief poured forth or the affront to the Church wrung out. Admonished, then, of himself by the king's dream, he says: 'I remember my sin.' That confession is indeed late, but would that it were true. After sin you confess what before sin you ought to have guarded against.

How quickly you had forgotten 'Remember me'! You surely know that this was the word at that time, but you had dulled ears through the pride of power, and, drunk with wine, you did not hear the words of sobriety. At least now remember me, you who confess your sin too late. You who entreat a little slave, why do you deny the Master? Be inebriated now, not with wine, but with the Holy Spirit. Recall what he suffered, with whom you slept your sleep and dreamed your dream. The other, too, was a chief, and the chief of the king's banquets, the things that pertained to the work of the bakers. He believed himself exalted, because he had the royal bread in his power: he did not know that there were many windings to this power.

He who was himself soon to be given over to the ultimate punishment threatened others, nor did he listen to the one who, though a little slave of the Lord, yet spoke an oracle: that by the very command of the king — about whom he greatly flattered himself — he was to lose his head, and to be left as food for the birds. This example at least ought to have called you back, that you should not trust in treachery. There are other examples too of the pride and frailty of the royal ministers, which the history of a later time contains. Doeg too was a chief, and the chief of the king's animals, for the training of mules, that is, of gelded animals. He too betrayed the priest of the Lord and stirred up the king by fraud to the peril of the priest; and he too was a Syrian. Do I lie at all, when both homeland and deeds agree?

Haman too, set over the king's chamber and himself a chief, while with wicked rashness he strove to invade the churches of the Lord and to despoil and persecute the faithful people, paid for his sacrileges with grievous punishments. But let us return to that chief of the wine, who, as it were heavy with much unmixed wine, long forgot the author of his benefit, yet at length, to provide an interpreter for the king, brought to mind the course of the matter — not as one grateful, but as one shrewd. When the king learned of this, he too ordered him to be summoned, and, drawn out of prison, asked him whether he could interpret the dream for him. Delighted by his explanation, the king removed the wrong and conferred honor upon him. So see whether these things too do not fit the present.

The wrong was inflicted before he was known to the king, and grace was rendered when he became known to the king. Thus the king is free of fault, because both that which the holy man suffered was unconnected with the king's wrong, and that which he received is proper to the king's grace. Now the dream and its interpretation are of this sort: 'Whatsoever God does,' he says, 'he has shown to Pharaoh. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dream of Pharaoh is one. And the seven lean cows, which came up after them, are seven years, and the seven lean ears, corrupted by the wind, are seven years. There will be a famine for seven years.'

'But the word which I have said — "Whatsoever God does he has shown to Pharaoh" — behold, seven years are coming of great abundance in the whole land of Egypt; but after these will come seven years of famine, and they will forget the abundance in all Egypt, and the famine will consume the whole land, and the abundance of the land will not be recognized because of the famine which is to be after these; for it will be exceedingly severe. And as for Pharaoh's dreaming the dream twice, it is because the word will be true from God, and God will hasten to do it.' An old dream, recent realities. By the latter the former were consumed, and where before was a plenty of abundance, there was made a want of all things.

But if anyone had given the king such counsel, that he should reserve something of the earlier abundance for the later period of his rule, the lavish overflow of his bestowing would have abounded for the remaining time as well. But the immoderate prodigality of the earlier age left the later destitute too, and men plundering everything were unwilling to bring in any Joseph. And though I am no Joseph — for who is equal to this? — yet I cried out that those fat cows signify not only wantonness but also a neglect of divine reverence — for of the faithless it is said: 'Fat bulls have beset me,' and of the people of the Jews it is written:

'He grew fat and gross and became sleek, and he forsook God who made him' — and therefore that dream of worldly superabundance cannot be perpetual: there will be a time in which a harsh famine would succeed it. Nor do I think this dream was shown to one or two, but set before all, in that the seven years of this world, fat and rich with worldly abundance, are swallowed up by those ages which are to come, in which there will be perpetual rest and a spiritual observance of the law, which Ephraim, that tribe of the fathers fruitful to God, may keep — a good cow, not she who is distended with a bodily udder, but she who abounds with spiritual milk and grace, upon the beauty of whose neck God says he sits, as it is written:

'Ephraim is a heifer taught to love victory. But I have passed over the beauty of her neck.' Let not, therefore, the oil of the sinner make fat our head, nor ought false fruits to delight us, lest it be said of us too: 'You have sown impiety, and you have reaped its iniquities. You have eaten false fruit, because you have trusted in your chariots.' Nor does it move me that he has lean ears corrupted by the wind, because David too was the better at the time when he wasted away like a spider, and a contrite spirit is the sacrifice of God, and those come forth more excellent whom in this world the malignant spirit has plagued with grievous wrongs. Whence I reckon that Joseph the rather deserved mystical rewards, because he spoke of mystical things.

For what does the ring inserted on his finger mean, except that we may understand the pontificate of the faith was conferred upon him, that he himself might seal others? What does the robe, which is the garment of wisdom, mean, except the headship of prudence assigned to him by that heavenly King? The golden necklace seems to express a good understanding; the chariot also signifies the lofty summit of his merits. And who is he who received a wife from among the nations, except him who gathered to himself a Church out of the nations and received from her a son, Manasseh, through whom he forgot all his sorrows, which he had over the sacrileges of the Jews? He received also another son, Ephraim, through whose increase it was made clear that the humility assumed in the flesh both did not humble the divinity and heaped up its glory.

Finally, whoever suffered famine was sent to Joseph. Who are these, except those of whom it is said: 'They will return at evening and will suffer famine like dogs'? But the famine was not of one place, but of the whole earth, because there was none who did good. Therefore the Lord Jesus, pitying the world's fasts, opened his storehouses and laid open the hidden treasures of heavenly mysteries, of knowledge and of wisdom, so that nourishment might be lacking to none. For Wisdom said: 'Come, eat my bread'; and therefore by him alone it is said: 'The Lord feeds me, and I shall lack nothing,' who is filled by Christ. Christ, then, opened his storehouses and sold, seeking not the coin of money, but the price of faith and the wage of devotion.

Now he sold not to a few in Judaea only, but he sold to all, that he might be believed on by all the nations. And all the regions came into Egypt to Joseph to buy, for the famine had prevailed. For all are hungry whom Christ has not fed. Let us therefore buy the foods by which we may drive away hunger. Let no one be turned back by the contemplation of his own poverty; let no one who has no silver be afraid. Christ seeks not silver, but faith, which is more precious than silver. In short, Peter, who had no silver, bought him. 'Silver and gold,' he says, 'I have none, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Christ Jesus, rise up and walk.' And the prophet Isaiah says:

You who thirst, go to the water; and whoever of you has no silver, go, buy and drink and eat without silver and without the price of wine. For he sought no price from us who paid the price of his own blood for us, since he redeemed us not with gold and silver, but with his precious blood. Therefore you owe that price by which you were bought. Even if he does not always exact it, you nevertheless owe it. Buy Christ for yourself, then, not with that which few possess, but with that which all possess by nature, though few offer it through fear. What Christ demands back from you is his own. He himself gave life to all; he himself offered his death for all. Pay back to your maker that which by the law you are bound to pay. This is no ordinary contract; not all easily perceive it.

In short, those virgins in the Gospel, whom the bridegroom shut out at his coming, were left outside for this reason: because they had not bought the oil that was for sale. Wherefore it is said to them: 'Go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.' And that merchant is not without reason commended who sold all that he had and bought the pearl. And Jacob said to his sons: 'Why are you slothful? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy us food.' Not once only did Jacob say this; daily he says it to all his sons who come too late to the grace of Christ: 'Why are you slothful? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.' From this grain comes the kernel that rises again. He, therefore, who endures hunger must ascribe it to his own sloth.

'Behold,' he says, 'I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.' The younger are accustomed to hear something sooner than the elder, while many, placed outside, go about. But this trafficking the old man hears first—yet that old man in whom is the long-lived hoariness of faith; the old man perceives it first, the old man in whom old age is venerable and the years of old age a spotless life. Nor do all undertake this trafficking, save the sons of Jacob, and they of more advanced age. Therefore ten go forth; the younger does not go. The father did not send him, lest, he says, weakness befall him. Benjamin the younger was still subject to weakness. Benjamin indeed is read as a patriarch, but in that Benjamin Paul, of the tribe of Benjamin, was prefigured.

Rightly did Jacob doubt concerning his weakness. In short, he was made weak that he might be healed; he suffered blindness, but this weakness was unto salvation. In short, that blindness brought light. We have received the history; let us come to know the mystery. Without Benjamin the patriarchs had first gone forth, without Paul the apostles. Neither of the two came first, but, summoned by the first, each by his coming made the merchandise of his predecessors more abundant. 'There is grain in Egypt,' he says—that is: where the famine is greater, there the abundance is greater. Great is the grain in Egypt. In short, God the Father also says: 'Out of Egypt I called my son.' From that kernel comes that fruitfulness; for there could have been no harvest unless the Egyptians had first sown the kernel.

There is therefore grain, which no one before believed to exist; in this grain the patriarchs traffic. And they indeed had brought silver, but the good Joseph gave grain and gave back the silver; for Christ is not bought with money, but with grace: your price is faith, with this the divine mysteries are bought. And this grain is carried by that ass, before unclean under the law, but now clean in grace. Yet Benjamin the younger was held back and still clung to his father's affection. The bonds of the law held him, his father's custom. The famine grew stronger because he came late. Two intercede for him, Reuben and Judah—that is, humility and confession. By these as sureties Joseph deals with the father, to these he is entrusted, of whom one is the firstborn, the other one raised up again.

The law belongs to the firstborn, the Gospel to the one raised up. By these Benjamin the younger is led down, and accompanied by sweet odours he arrives, bearing with him resin, by which the stones of marble are joined together, because by his own preaching, as by a spiritual resin, he too would join together living stones; bearing also honey, by which the harmful matter of a wound is consumed within without any bitterness of cutting. For such was Paul's preaching, that he might abolish corrupt affection and empty out tainted humour by the sting of his discourse, desiring rather to cauterize than to lance the diseased inwards of the mind. That incense of prayer and cassia and the drop, the marks of burial, the prophet David taught us to be, saying: 'Myrrh and the drop and cassia from your garments.'

For Paul came to preach the cross of the Lord—the ever-green holm-oak and the nuts, whose shell is harder, whose fruit is more tender (and rightly was Aaron's priestly rod of nut-wood, and Jeremiah's staff of this same kind)—and also double silver. Who would doubt that these gifts are not idle, since both the patriarch's life and the apostle's word ever flourish in the hearts of individuals, and the eloquence of the saints, like silver tried in the fire, shines forth with the brightness of wholesome precept? Nor without reason do they bring double silver, in whom Paul's coming was prefigured, who gave double honour to the presbyters who labour in word and doctrine. And Joseph saw them and Benjamin his brother by the same mother.

Now the Hebrews are seen and are seen by Christ, who is the true Joseph, when they come with the type of Paul, and he speaks to them gentle and mild things, that they may take food together. But before, because they came without Benjamin, he recognized them indeed, but turned himself away from them, as it is written: 'And he spoke harsh things to them,' because they did not recognize him by whom they were recognized. By the merit of Paul, therefore, they advanced, whom the Lord Jesus loved more than the rest of the brothers, as a younger brother begotten of the same mother. Let the Jews mark him whom they denied as Lord—him who, though crucified, loves more those sprung from their synagogue, as from the same parent, if even late they should come to know the author of their salvation.

But conscious of their own offences, they do not believe that Christ's mercy is so great that he should forgive sin and remit wrong. And therefore it was prefigured in the patriarchs what manner of men they would be. They were invited to grace, called to the banquet of the saving table, and they suspected that a calumny was being prepared against them, that a snare was being laid. And they began to wish to plead their cause before the man who was over the house, at the door of the house. Still they hesitate to enter, and prefer to be justified by their own works—they who wish to build up their case rather than receive grace—and therefore in the gates they are refuted.

But he who awaits the fruit of the virginal womb and the Lord's inheritance, who traffics in the merchandise of the Son, is not ashamed in the gate, but at the departure of this life drives off the enemy, lest, conscious of grave guilt, he obstruct one hastening to higher things. Whence mystically the steward of the house answered them. And understand who this is, when you read of Moses 'faithful in all his house.' For the stewards of the house are Moses, Peter, Paul, and the other saints, but Christ alone is Lord. For it is written that 'Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be said, but Christ as a son in his own house, which house we are, if we hold fast the freedom and the glory of hope.' This steward of the house, then, answered them:

'Peace be to you, fear not. For your God and the God of your fathers has given you treasures in your sacks; your silver I have received as approved.' For they had said: 'We found each man's silver in our sacks; we returned our silver by weight.' O great mysteries, and clearly expressed! This is to say: Why are you puffed up? Do you so often claim to have your own silver in your sacks? For what do you have that you did not receive? But if you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it? Already you are filled, you are made rich. You who believe you have silver—but it is the God of your fathers who gave you the silver. He is your God, he is the God of your fathers, whom you denied.

But he pardons. He is indulgent, he receives you back, if you return. He it is who seeks not your silver, but gives his own. He gave you the silver in your sacks. Now your sacks have silver, which once had mud; and therefore he is yours who says: 'You have torn my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.' Christ is the gift of gladness. He himself is your silver, he himself is your price. The Lord Jesus does not exact from you the price of his grain, he does not seek the weight of your silver. Your silver is reprobate, the silver of the sack is not good. 'Your silver I have received as approved'—that is:

It is not that material silver, but your spiritual silver, this is the approved kind, which you brought with faithful devotion like the sons of Jacob, which is given without loss and reckoned without any expenditure, since by such a price the harm of death is shut out and the gain of life is acquired. Now they prepared their gifts until Joseph should enter at midday. The faith of Paul hastened the midday. Before, he was blind; afterward he began to see the light of righteousness, since 'he who reveals his way to the Lord and hopes in him—the Lord also will bring forth his righteousness as the light, and his judgment as the noonday.' And to Abraham, when God appeared at the oak of Mamre, it was midday, for whom from the presence of the Lord the eternal light shone.

It is midday when the true Joseph enters into his house to dine. For then the day shines more, when we celebrate the sacraments. 'And they brought him,' it says, 'their gifts.' We bring the gifts, he sets out the banquet. He says: 'Set out the bread loaves, which only the Hebrews eat, the Egyptians cannot eat.' But before the banquet, how great the condescension! What a moral lesson of his practice, of his diligence and grace! The brothers were still suspicious about the calumny which they thought was being made against them by Joseph. He invited them to the meal; their affection wavered, his grace persevered. He is first to address them, first to ask: 'How are you?' And again he says: 'Is your aged father well?'

It belongs to the superior to invite the inferior to conversation, to give confidence to speak, to inquire not only about themselves but also about their parents. They answered him: 'Your servant our father is well.' He called him 'aged' to honour him; they named him 'servant' to render the homage of humility, because old age is of honoured dignity, while childhood seems subject and nearer to modesty than to pride. And looking up with his eyes he saw Benjamin his brother by the same mother. It is a moral lesson, that those whom we love we should see before the rest, and that those whom the intention of our mind holds dear, the gaze of our eyes should first meet, since for the most part, distracted by the occupation of our mind upon other things, we do not see those whom we have before our eyes.

Thus our gaze is directed by the mind as its guide. Holy Joseph therefore saw Benjamin his brother, whom he held in his mind, whom he sought with his eyes, in whose absence he had almost not seen his brothers, because to see was of no profit. And not content merely to have seen him, as though he did not know, he asked: 'Is this your younger brother?' It is the custom and grace of charity, that we should hold those dear to us not only with our eyes but also with our speech. Joseph had recognized his beloved, but he asked for this reason: that the voice might sound forth the one whom his mind held. Indeed he did not wait for an answer, but immediately blessed him, and was troubled by the fruit of his own longing. And his inward parts were wrung, because the freedom of embracing the one he had longed for was deferred.

In short, having gone into the storeroom he wept and washed his face and restrained himself. The stings of great love quickly prick the heart, unless the reins of longing be loosened. Joseph was overcome by affection, restrained by counsel: reason contended with love. He wept, that he might temper the heat of pious love with tears. So far morally; but mystically, the Lord Jesus saw Paul—for 'the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous'—and said: 'Is this your younger brother?' He is called still younger who did not yet bear the mature age of hoary faith, who had not yet grown into the perfect man, into that, as he himself says, 'measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.' In short, he is read as a young man only there, where he kept the garments of those stoning Stephen.

And therefore he desired Philemon to be like, not his own youth, but his old age, as he wrote: 'I rather beseech you, since you are such a one as Paul the aged.' Therefore he preaches that the younger widows are to be avoided, not on account of age, but on account of a certain wantonness of budding faults and the immaturity of virtue. Otherwise, the praise of chastity is greater in a young man than in an old one. But I think it would not be foreign to the truth, if we should understand this: that since Paul had this and shrank back in alarm—namely that blindness had befallen him—he nevertheless began to draw near, saying, 'Lord, what would you have me do?' Therefore he was called the younger by Christ, so that he who was being called to grace might be excused from blame, because it had been of a slippery age.

In short, Christ saw him, when the light shone round about him; and because young men are recalled from vice more by fear than by reason, he applied a goad and, taking pity, admonished him not to kick against the goad. And he was troubled, just as you have it in the Gospel that 'he troubled himself in spirit' when he was about to raise Lazarus, and there he wept, that he might first wash away with his tears the offences of the dead. But within he wept and washed his face. The blindness of Paul is the weeping of Christ; he washes his face, where the lost light is restored to him. Christ washed his face, where Paul was baptized, through whom the Lord Jesus might be seen by many.

And therefore at the banquet his portion was made fivefold greater, because he had to be preferred to those above him not only by prudence of mind, but also by warfare of body and the grace of chastity. 'And they drank and were made drunk together with him.' From the beginning of faith a greater prerogative is granted to Paul, of whom it was said to Ananias: 'Go, for he is a vessel of election to me, to bear my name before the gentiles.' From the beginning he is made drunk with drunkenness, but a sober one, so that he too might say with the saints: 'And your cup that makes drunk, how excellent it is!' And the silver cup is put into his sack alone. Benjamin did not know this; Paul was deceived, but he was being called. One is sent after him in the morning;

for the night of blindness had advanced, the day of faith was drawing near. In order, the sacks of each are first inspected. The divine Scripture teaches you a moral lesson. In order they had reclined beforehand at the banquet opposite him, the firstborn according to age. You see that that place is to be yielded to the elder. In order again the sacks of each are searched, that you may know that Paul was chosen by heavenly judgment. He examined the rest, and preferred this one. In no other's sack was the silver cup found except in his. What does it mean that it was put into his sack? Joseph indeed made them drunk that he might deceive, he sent the cup that by a pious deceit he might recall the brother whom he loved—but the divine mysteries shine forth.