約伯倫理 第 1193 章

VERSE 6. — 'Whereupon are its bases made fast?' 17. The bases of the Church are the holy doctors and prophets. — What else do we take the bases of this earth to be but the doctors of the holy Church? For upon the bases the columns, but upon the columns the weight of the whole fabric is raised up. Not without reason therefore are the holy doctors designated by the name of bases, because while they preach right things and by living accord with their own preaching, they sustain the whole weight of the Church by the gravity of the thread of their conduct. They bear the harsh temptations from the infidels; and whatever things in the precepts of God are dreaded by the faithful as it were difficult, they show by the examples of their works to be easy. Whence also, when the tabernacle was set up as a type of the Church, it is said to Moses: 'Thou shalt make columns'

'four, and their bases thou shalt overlay with silver' (Exod. XXVI, 32). For in silver what else is taken but the brightness of the divine word? as it is written: 'The words of the Lord are chaste words, silver tried by the fire, proved of the earth, purified seven times' (Ps. XI, 7). The bases therefore, overlaid with silver, sustain the four columns of the tabernacle, because the preachers of the Church, adorned with the divine word, so that they may present themselves an example to all, bear the sayings of the four evangelists both in mouth and in works. 18. By the bases also the prophets can be signified, who, since they first spoke openly of the Lord's incarnation, we behold as it were certain bases rising up from the foundation, and sustaining the weights of the superimposed fabric.

Whence again the Lord, to Moses, when He commanded the boards of the tabernacle to be raised up, orders their sockets to be founded of silver bases (Exod. XXVI, 25). For what is signified by the boards but the apostles, spread abroad by their preaching extended into the world; what by the silver bases but the prophets? who, being themselves firm and molten, sustain the boards set upon them, because the life of the apostles, while it is instructed by their preaching, is also made solid by their authority. Whence also two joined bases are placed under single boards, because while the holy prophets agree in their words concerning the incarnation of the Mediator, they undoubtedly build up the succeeding preachers of the Church; and when they do not disagree among themselves, they fix those preachers more robustly upon themselves.

And not without reason is it commanded that the bases by which the prophets are signified should be molten of silver. For the brightness of silver is preserved by use, but without use it turns to blackness. The sayings also of the prophets before the coming of the Mediator, because they were not in the use of spiritual understanding, while they could not be beheld by reason of their obscurity, remained as it were black. But after the Mediator, coming, wiped them before our eyes with the hand of His incarnation, whatever of light lay hidden in them shone forth, and He gave the meaning of the preceding fathers into use, because He expounded the words by the realities. Whether therefore He signifies the prophets, or the doctors following in the last times, by the appellation of bases, let it say: 'Whereupon are its bases made fast?'

understand, none other but upon Me, who hold all things wondrously, and inwardly and principally furnish the origin to outward goods. For he who attributes to himself what is good is not a solid base, because while he leans not upon a foundation, by his own very weight he is cast down into the depths. But since already many things concerning the construction of the holy Church are related, the mind desires to hear by what virtue the hostile nations were joined together, that is, by what art the diverse buildings of this house accord with one another. There follows: