which the blessed apostles did after the Ascension, persevering in fastings and prayers, as it is written that they were counted worthy to obtain at Pentecost the fullness of the divine Spirit and the perfection of power, so that, with the watering of the divine Spirit flowing abundantly, now armed with heavenly weapons, every doubt being laid aside in which they had been before, afterward they hastened daily to become unconquered teachers and glorious martyrs of the Lord himself, instructing Jews and pagans, and proving to them everywhere from the Law and the Prophets that Christ is God, eternal together with the Father, by the testimonies of the prophets, and announcing to the whole world his most saving bodily presence.
Others, however, think that Scripture spoke according to the four seasons of each year; others even assert that it spoke of Noah—first, when he heard and believed; then when he completed the ark; afterward when he entered into it; fourth when he went out of the ark. Others again suppose that Scripture spoke of Israel of the Jews: namely, that when the people first heard in Egypt through Moses, then at that time it also believed, being delivered from Pharaoh and the Egyptians; then because it went out of Egypt; third because it went up the mountain and received the Law from the Lord the Savior; fourth because it entered into the land of promise—but not all entered in, as it is written, except two only, Joshua and Caleb, as the Scripture said.
Others, however, said that these four fasts are enjoined upon the Church in the four books of Moses: because first God made all things in Genesis, and man, as it is written; second in Exodus, that every man believing in Christ God shall come forth delivered from darkness; third because in Leviticus he offers diverse sacrifices, which are all the mysteries of Christianity there; fourth because, after the offering of spiritual gifts, in the book of Numbers every faithful one is counted worthy to be enrolled, as the Lord also said: 'Rejoice, because your names are written in the book of the heavens.' Therefore also David says of the Jews: 'Let them be blotted out of the book, and let them not be written with the righteous.' And again the same: 'And in your book those who believe in you shall be enrolled.'
These fasts too we ought to receive as referring to the four Gospels, concerning the patriarchs, prophets, priests, and apostles, which are to be fulfilled in us: namely, that first the faith of the patriarchs, then the virtue of the prophets, third the labor of the priests, fourth the perfection of the apostles in unconquered combat are announced—which diverse virtues flourish in turn, joined together with their own seasons, and, teaching men, supply diverse joys of gladness to those who desire and receive them. There are heretics who, when they read in Solomon: 'Sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and young maidens whose number there is none,' think that he declared the number of women and maidens and concubines.
And while they think thus, they are judged unfruitful—nay rather, as impious pagans and uninstructed and unlearned Jews—being ignorant that these things are rational and intelligible, announced by the same one, namely that in the majesty and power of Christ diverse gifts of grace were shown to be coming to the human race and were imparted by the same one at diverse times according to the will and capacity of those desiring; not because God denies equal grace, but, according as the will of men was known to be able to receive, the Lord himself bestowing and conferring it upon those who diligently seek—as the blessed apostle Peter says: 'In truth I have perceived that God is no respecter of persons.' And the apostle Paul likewise: 'God,' he says, 'does not accept the person of a man.'
Therefore, according to the will and according as each one is capable and desires, so also it is bestowed and imparted to him by God Christ daily. Diverse dignities therefore and diverse glories have been announced to us by Solomon: namely in the commandment, the Law, and the grace of Christ, and in every time, that is, the first, the second, and the last, the diverse gifts of the dignity of merits have been conferred upon the peoples—as upon the former people, then upon that of the Jews, third upon that of the Christians; for, since we are taught by those former ones who were before the Jews, in the presence of Christ and of God Christ we perceive the diverse grace poured out daily to be poured upon those who receive and seek.
For that some souls were called to government, others to union, others to the increase of the perfection of age into the union of the future faith of Christ the Lord, is manifest, the apostle saying: 'He who cleaves to Christ the Lord is one body.' For where the name 'queen' is spoken, the surpassing height of the nobility of the heavenly kingdom is manifested; which the Lord also, proclaiming the calling of many, announces that the election of few is to come, in whom a threefold dignity of virtue shines forth. And in the Gospel, the Lord saying to that man: 'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me, and you shall have treasure in heaven'—but he, it says, was saddened, as it is written.
Therefore, although before it was done generally according to the division of time and of peoples, nevertheless in the presence of Christ a threefold grace and dignity shines forth, so that some were shown to be perfect, others following, others to follow afterward—not in one mode of dignity, that is, of finding the heavenly kingdom, but according to their faith and labor and their diverse combats they shall obtain a fitting reward, as the Lord says: 'There are many mansions with my Father.' Therefore David also in every way praises the soul called to government, teaching: 'The queen stood at your right hand.' He also exhorts another to follow: 'Hear, O daughter, and see, and forget the house of your father, and the king shall desire your beauty.'
As therefore is reasonable, it is fitting to know that some are to be assigned in the kingdom, others in paradise, others to life and the remission of sins in the future; which is not denied to those who run and are willing even now as is fitting; but to those who dissemble and do not run rightly, these things shall not be conferred by the Lord. There is a heresy which thinks that Joshua the son of Nun circumcised the people of the Jews with stone knives; which neither the nature of things admits, nor virtue or reason persuades. For the Jews could more easily have been endangered than healed; although indeed according to the power of God nothing is impossible, yet the nature of things does not allow it, nor does reason persuade it.
Therefore it does not say that the Jews were circumcised with stone knives, but with the very hard and stony minds of the pagans, which had formerly been given over to impiety, but afterward, believing in the Lord, having lost their stony mind, were counted worthy, themselves being circumcised by the word of God, and now powerful in heavenly mind and doctrine, to circumcise the Jews—that is, to instill in them the saving knowledge of Christ, announcing and proving it from every side out of the Law and the Prophets. For although the Jews too are daily circumcised by those who were formerly Gentiles—that is, are taught from the Law and the Prophets concerning the faith of Christ the Lord, namely the Savior—who, if they shall believe, they too shall receive the remedy of salvation:
but those who persevere in the hardness of a stony mind shall be held back for eternal judgment. And therefore the Lord also, amid their obstinate contradiction, said that their sons—that is, the pagans themselves—shall be their judges and teachers, that is, the people of the Gentiles, who before dwelt in a stony mind, but afterward through the faith of Christ were counted worthy to come to saving knowledge. But Israel, running according to the Law, as it is written, could not attain to the virtue of the Law, because it hastened to run not from faith but from works. For Jacob says that he himself shall be the hope of the Gentiles, not of the Jews.
It is necessary therefore that all the nations first believe, and only then that the Jews learn from those very nations and hear the doctrine of Christ the Lord from the Law and the Prophets, and so acquiesce, that it may be fulfilled: 'Until the fullness of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel shall be saved,' as it is written. And another prophet says: 'Take away from them the stony heart, O Lord, and give to it a heart of flesh.' And the Lord: 'If these shall be silent, the stones shall cry out.' There is another heresy which thinks that the breath which Adam received is as great as that granted to the apostles by Christ after the resurrection, being ignorant that the breath is some grace of small virtue, proper to many in the hearing of the law of God, whereas the spirit is the fullness of perfection.
The breath, therefore, is given from infancy and to catechumens, but the spirit is, in the increase of doctrine and faith, the full grace of God in saving baptism, so that you may be able to understand and to come now to greater knowledge. And therefore after baptism one receives the spirit, as the apostles did—now no longer the breath—whoever is baptized into the Trinity. For the breath is common to all, but the spirit belongs to few faithful and believing and learning, and as it were passing from honor to honor and from glory to a greater and heavenly glory, knowledge, and grace—as the apostle says, that we proceed from faith to faith, and hasten to go forth from glory to glory. Therefore he himself says:
'The first man was of the earth, earthy; the second man from heaven, heavenly,' so that the nature too may be found not without share in the gift of Christ, nor utterly alien—that is, not a catechumen—and so that faith and doctrine and zeal and an illustrious life may be discerned overflowing in the will of few faithful and desiring ones, as the Lord says: 'To him that has shall be given, and more shall be added to him; but from him that has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken away from him.' Which befell the Jew, and likewise very many others.
There is a heresy which, when it hears in the prophet Zechariah of the surveyor's measuring line—of which the blessed prophet David also had spoken—that an angel went holding it to measure Jerusalem, supposes that Scripture spoke thus according to the letter; whereas it was not Jerusalem, which was to be handed over to enemies, that was being measured, but the election of those believing rightly and of the few perfect ones was announced through the angel as about to come, as it was said: 'Many are called, but few are chosen.' Jerusalem therefore was being measured with the surveyor's line—that is, both before under the few, and after the faith of Christ, the election of the few of the catholic faith was proclaimed as to be brought forth in the world. Which the apostle also says:
'There must be heresies, that those who are approved may be made manifest.' Since therefore the line of inheritance is bound together with a threefold virtue—that is, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—this conjunction, when it is received in one and the same faith and belief, is known by the catholic Church as a unity to be joined and a power to be venerated, namely of equality and of truth; it is not preached as to be believed in a diverse substance of majesty or of quality, as certain heretics suppose. Which the Lord also deigned to say: 'Do you think the Son of Man, when he comes, will find faith upon the earth?' Because both before, the prophet, that there was faith then in few, and after the presence of Christ, his Passion and resurrection...
...and by the divine sentence it was thus announced that they would prove transgressors—just as there are heretics today who, departing from the Holy Spirit or from the Son, daily preach in their wandering a diverse inequality of majesty and power. In this, therefore, we ought to recognize that the line, as Solomon says, threefold, shall not be broken; which also ought to be believed by us, namely that the Son too is of the divine substance and proper, and likewise the Spirit is holy, joined indeed to the Father in all things, who also ought to be known and worshiped by all. In this conjunction of baptism, then, the Savior also deigned to confirm us, commanding: 'Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.'
In which, joining the Son to the Father, and the Spirit with the Son and the Father, we are known to be about to obtain this salvation, because we know that from no other source than from this faith shall the remedy of salvation come to the human race. Whence also in this conjunction of the holy and adorable Trinity we rejoice, in which before, our father Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, priests, judges, apostles, together with the evangelists who preached, were counted worthy to obtain angelic dignity; in which also the catholic Church exults, preaching and teaching this daily, and destroying daily this whole pagan impiety and Jewish iniquity, it exults wholly in joy.
For even if the threefold line is to be received—first of the commandment, then of the law in the middle time, then of the grace of the Savior—it is of no small usefulness; or if, of faith, hope, and love, as the blessed apostle said, anyone should wish to receive it, in this too there is no small understanding for the more prudent and for the very many who desire spiritual things. There are certain heretics who suppose, concerning the blessed Elijah, that the ravens brought him flesh for food in the evening and bread in the morning, not attending to the fact that the holy and most blessed prophet by no means ever ate flesh, who had despised all such food by abstaining of his own will;
by reason of which great dignity he merited to obtain honor from God, so as to be caught up on high into paradise, where he might be placed together with all the saints. For if anyone should say something of the bread, it is sometimes reasonable that the ravens brought it to him; but concerning the flesh it is found unfitting.
For in this the beastly cruelty of the men persecuting the most blessed prophet was shown, while in the birds—that is, in the ravens—so great a gentleness and mildness was displayed, that in those birds, from which human reason was absent, which were not rational images of God but birds created merely sensible like cattle, in those birds, to the reproach of the men—of the Jews and of the king who persecuted the prophet out of a most wicked will—a recognition and gentleness of senses, implanted, was shown in the work of so great a ministry, which was daily ministered to the blessed prophet, so that in those birds there might rather be found a certain reason of gentleness, granted by God through a certain movement as it were rational.
For all things of this kind, created by the Lord, are made subject to man as to a king and a rational being, and lord of the world—of the whole multitude of cattle, of birds, and indeed of serpents, as it is written and shown in the book of Genesis. There is a heresy which, when it reads in the prophet Isaiah that the Cherubim and Seraphim—two living creatures endowed with six wings—covered the face of God with two, covered the feet with two, and with two cried out with a lofty voice, praising God, are exceedingly troubled, and now seeking the history, now scrutinizing the intelligible reason, are wearied with diverse ambiguity—whereas both according to the letter the usefulness is not small, and according to the intelligible reason the heavenly knowledge of Christ resounds.
For according to the letter first: that Scripture, teaching God to be invisible, condemned everywhere the pagan impiety, in which their impious scriptures preach him visible and composite; then also that of the Jews: for lest they too, covered with like blindness, should perish corrupted in their senses like the impious Gentiles, it thus taught this. But here too there was to be announced the unbelief of the Jews in the future time at the presence of Christ, and the veiling of the mystery, because, covered with too great a blindness, they would afterward believe neither the prophet nor the Lord himself, when, sent to the people, he preaches openly: 'With the ear you shall hear, and with the eye you shall see, and you shall not understand';
for, covered with darkness, they would not recognize the light of eternal salvation—that is, the bodily presence of Christ—as indeed came to pass. Which the apostle, teaching that there is a veil placed even to this day upon their hearts, affirmed that it shall not be revealed until they have believed Christ to be the Savior. But when they shall be converted—that is, shall have believed in Christ the Lord—the veil shall be taken away from their hearts. But that the two living creatures announced are the Cherubim and Seraphim—namely the Law and the Prophets, witnesses of Christ and teachers of the age—is not ambiguous. They covered the face and feet of the Lord with two wings, because in parables and similitudes and enigmas the mystery was taught, as it is written: 'I will open my mouth in a parable';
and David: 'Reveal my eyes, and I shall consider the wondrous things of your law'; and the apostle: 'His Son,' he says, 'the Father revealed to me,' that is, showing him from the Law and the Prophets. But they had six wings, and with two indeed they covered the face and with two the feet, but with two they cried out—lest perhaps, when one says the face and feet of the Lord were covered, what is above and below, and the length and the breadth, should be reckoned of God; because neither the height nor the depth nor the breadth nor the length of God can be known or found worthily by any creature, and most of all by man, or comprehended by the human senses of any:
he who, by creating, brought to perfection so immense a nature of the elements—how much more does he who is known to have made such things excel in every way? But he is known only through faith; because, 'Virtue,' it says, 'is perfected and found in infirmity, in likeness and in enigmas.' And when so great an immensity of God is spoken of and announced, with two wings—that is, by the Cherubim and Seraphim, by the Law and the Prophets—it is sung and proclaimed. The crying of the two wings also, day and night—that is, both here and in the future—namely the heart's belief of men and the confession of the mouth, is found ceaseless, daily resounding what was then also sung by the angels and proclaimed by men in the world;
so that what they could not see in the height, the depth, the breadth, and the length, believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth, singing with unceasing voice, they might rejoice at all times. For that the divine substance of God's quality and nature is invisible and incapable of being contained is shown in the Law and the Prophets, John saying: 'No one has ever seen God.' He did not say 'no one has believed,' but 'no one has seen.' Therefore the Lord granted only the power of believing and the confidence of confessing, so that his unutterable virtue, manifested in carnal frailty, might be known—which the Lord also everywhere held out his faith to men, which he had also given before, and afterward had confirmed in his own presence.
But the Cherubim and Seraphim, four-formed—that is, of the lion, the ox, the man, and the eagle—are the diverse and stronger combats of the saints and of the virtues, surpassing in their dignity, varied: namely of the patriarchs and the prophets, of the priests and the apostles, joined likewise with the martyrs, so that, in those in whom before so great a faith and love of Christ was known to abound, but afterward in certain ones an unequal doctrine was discerned because the circumstance of the time compelled it, nevertheless the glory of faith and of combat, not unequal, might be shown granted and bestowed by Christ in the conjunction of diverse virtue, and might be known in the whole people of Christians;
so that what we cannot see, nor worthily define by human senses, believing with the heart and confiding with the mouth, by these virtues of the two wings we may not cease to preach this joy to Jews and Gentiles and to fly aloft by these virtues, hoping for heavenly things, where Christ is the Lord, as the apostle says, and not doubting that in this sentence we can obtain perpetual salvation, the same one teaching: 'For if you shall believe in your heart and shall confess that Christ the Lord and Savior, crucified in the body, has risen, you shall be saved: for with the heart it is believed unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'
Whence he says of Christ the Lord that the divine substance of his quality consists not in any vision and measure or composition, but is consummated, overflowing, in the faith of virtue and of our confession. What is the breadth and the length, the height and the depth, to know, he says, the most eminent and incomprehensible grace and power of Christ God—it is not for human frailty to expound it powerfully, but he taught that in faith and through faith one can easily attain what the mind of men is not strong enough to recount. There are certain ones who suppose...
...that the blessed Isaiah, after the confession of the sinful people and the prayer which he had poured out as a suppliant to God, one of the Cherubim came, sent by the Lord to the prophet, and took a coal from the tongs, and touched his lips, and said to him: 'Behold, now you are cleansed'; and they think either that one of the angels came to him, or one of the living creatures, and took fire from the tongs and cleansed the most blessed prophet:
which is not greatly of saving knowledge, since here, when it says 'one living creature of the Cherubim or Seraphim,' that is, it speaks of the two testaments, whence the patriarchs, priests, prophets, and apostles flowed forth, who showed to the whole world the grace about to come, ministering with four-formed virtue gifts shining for the heavenly combats to those who receive them. For when it says 'of the Cherubim or of the Seraphim,' the fullness of knowledge is meant and the fiery virtue traversing about is named. These therefore, having the fullness of spiritual knowledge and holding the riches of the mystery of Christ, by the command of the Lord transmit and convey to us diverse doctrines, announcing them likewise to every age without any intermission;
of which one was sent to the prophet Isaiah, announcing this very doctrine of Christ, the Savior, that he was about to come in the flesh and to bring to believers the abundant grace of the divine Spirit. Isaiah therefore had received from the patriarchs and the Law and his earlier prophets a stronger grace—that is, a greater power of the divine Spirit—from his predecessors, namely, that he might announce the mystery of Christ, that is, of his incarnation, to the world as grace. Therefore the Lord also said to certain ones: 'O hard of heart and imprudent of mind, why do you not perceive that the Law and the Prophets, which had foretold of old that they would come to pass concerning the Son of Man, all needed to be consummated?'
For he was saying that the blessed Isaiah received from the patriarchs and the Law, so that, taught by them, he might with a strong spirit preach the bodily presence of Christ. And as for the fire which he said the angel received and purged his lips, it was certainly showing the grace of the divine Spirit granted to him by the Lord, as he says: 'I came to send fire into the world: which I will that it be kindled the more quickly.' But of the tongs—that is, of the iron—of its unconquered nature and indeed divine power he was speaking, namely that the body of Christ was created and consummated by the divine Spirit and divine power in the womb of the holy Virgin, as it is written:
'The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of God shall overshadow you,' and appearing in that body he would conquer all things, but be overcome by none. For just as by iron all things are tamed and subjected—from which also the sword is produced—so, as it was said, the word of the Lord is as a twice-sharpened sword, which can tame all things, but cannot be tamed by anyone. And he was about to give them, after the Passion, in the resurrection, the unconquered power of the divine Spirit to the blessed apostles, as it is written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,' and the rest. And the blessed Peter, concerning the promise received from the Father, says to the Jews: 'He has poured out,' he says, 'this grace, which you see and hear today.'
And just as we know that the tongs are formed by fire, so also we know that the body of the Lord was formed by the divine Spirit, and that thus he gave to his own, in the body, that promised grace and unconquered power, as he says: 'I have given you power to tread upon all the strength of the enemy.' And the apostle: 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?' Through which, to all those now believing in this age, as was said, by the laying on of the hands of the apostles the divine Spirit was given to those believing in Christ the Lord and Savior.
And just as the two living creatures are taken as these two testaments of the Law and the Prophets, standing by the Lord, as the apostles saw on the mountain, nevertheless it will be reasonable that the two living creatures are also to be understood as: first the commandment, which was given, which can also be understood spiritually, as it is written, which the Savior too did not abolish but rather confirmed; but the second living creature contained the doctrine of Christ—that is, faith in him and the grace of the incarnation and the mystery of his testament and of his Passion and resurrection. Whence that letter is placed in the middle, between the commandment and the grace; which, if it is understood, is received as consistent with Christ in many things:
But if anyone supposes that he may be saved by carnal justification, it is decreed that this notion must be cast aside; for concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, before the Law—that is, three thousand seven hundred years before—those former righteous men, living under the commandment and worshipping the blessed Trinity, handed it down to their own sons and kinsfolk, and preached it to the world, and proclaimed the mystery of Christ the Lord out of that most ancient commandment itself. The Law, then, is a reminder of the commandment, which both is joined together according to the faith of worshipping the Trinity, and again certain parts of it are set apart on account of the Jewish and carnal justification, since the prophets long before had abolished those things, and the Saviour cast them away, and the apostles forbade that men be circumcised.
The Law, therefore, on account of the commandment, by carnal necessity came down for a season; but the grace of Christ—that is, the mystery of the incarnation, of the passion and resurrection, of faith in Him, and of the ascension into heaven—was, before the Law, known to all the righteous, and was not hidden from those who sought and grasped it, such as Enoch and Noah and Melchizedek, such as Jacob and the other righteous and most blessed patriarchs, and the rest who lived before the Law of Moses—being, namely, established under the commandment and in all things justified by the Lord. The Law is also called the faith of Christ, as the apostle says: 'Bring in the law of the faith of Christ'; the carnal law is the justification of the Jews.