約伯倫理 第 1282 章

50. The rhinoceros drawn from among the Jews: Saul tamed by Christ. As if it were said more plainly: Do you bend beneath the authority of your preaching that very people whom, in their foolish arrogance, you observe swelling with pride in the slaughter of the faithful? Understand it thus: as I do, who behold that people exalting itself against me with its single horn, and yet whom, whenever I will, I forthwith subject to myself. But we shall show this better if we pass from the general to the particular. Let then that Paul be brought forward into our midst, sprung from this very people—first in his pride, and afterward a foremost witness in humility—who, while he exalted himself against God as though out of an ignorant zeal for guarding the Law, bore a horn upon his nostril. Whence, bowing down this very horn of the nostril afterward through humility, he says:

I who was formerly a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly (1 Tim. 1:13). He bore a horn upon his nostril who trusted that he would please God by his cruelty, even as he himself afterward, reproaching his own self, says: And I advanced in Judaism above many of my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers (Gal. 1:14). But the strength of this rhinoceros every hunter dreaded, because every preacher trembled at the savagery of Saul. For it is written:

Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he should find any men and women of this way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem (Acts 9:1–2). When the breath that is to be given back through the nostril is drawn in, it is called breathing; and often we detect through the nostril by smell that which we do not see with our eyes. This rhinoceros, then, bore upon his nostril the horn with which he would strike, because, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, after he had slain those present he sought out those absent. But behold, every hunter hides himself before him—that is, every man of rational understanding is put to flight by the report of the fear of him.

In order, therefore, to capture this rhinoceros, let the Virgin spread out her bosom—that is, let the Wisdom of God, inviolate in the flesh, disclose of herself her own secret. For it is written that when he was journeying to Damascus, suddenly at midday a light from heaven shone round about him, and a voice was made, saying: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he, prostrate on the ground, answered: Who art thou, Lord? To whom it is at once said: I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest (Acts 9:4–5, and following). Surely the Virgin opened her bosom to the rhinoceros, when the incorrupt Wisdom of God, by speaking from heaven, laid bare to Saul the mystery of her incarnation; and the rhinoceros lost his strength, because, cast down upon the earth, he let go all that had swelled up in pride.

When, with the light of his eyes taken away, he is led by the hand to Ananias, it is now made plain by what cords of God this rhinoceros is bound—namely, because at one and the same time he is bound by blindness, by preaching, and by baptism. He also tarried at the manger of God, because he did not disdain to ruminate upon the words of the Gospel. For he says: I went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also. And I went up according to revelation, and conferred with them the Gospel (Gal. 2:1–2). And he who, fasting, had first heard: It is hard for thee to kick against the goad (Acts 9:5)—afterward, pressed by the wondrous power of Him who presides, obtained strength from the fodder of the Word, and lost the heel of pride. 31. This rhinoceros bound to plough the field of the Lord.

By the cords of God he is not only restrained from ferocity, but—what is more wonderful—he is bound to ploughing, so that not only does he not assail men with the horn of cruelty, but, serving even their refreshment, he draws the plough of preaching. For he himself, speaking of those who evangelize as of those who plough, says: For he that plougheth ought to plough in hope; and he that thresheth, in hope of receiving fruit (1 Cor. 9:10). He therefore who had first inflicted torments upon the faithful, and afterward for the faith willingly bears scourgings; who, humble and despised, preaches in written epistles that which he lately assailed as terrible—assuredly, well bound beneath the plough, he sweats toward the harvest, who once lived in the field, evilly free from fear. Of whom it is rightly said: