let him who used to seize others' goods begin even to give out his own to the poor; let him who used to curse, bless; let him who used to swear falsely abstain even from oaths; let him who was accustomed to slander, be zealous always to speak what is good; let him who was envious strive to be kind; let him who was proud be humble. And in this order let us always be eager to heal contraries by contraries, and, the vices being destroyed, let us hasten to build up the virtues. And in this order let those who are on the left endeavor to pass over to the right, so that before the tribunal of the eternal Judge whoever has willed to be such may deserve to hear: 'Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord' (Matt. 25:21).
To which may the Lord deign to bring you, to whom is honor with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 18. On Moses, I. 1. Christ prefigured in Moses; the Church in Pharaoh's daughter. In the divine reading, dearly beloved brethren, which has been recited to us, we heard that after holy Moses was born, for fear of Pharaoh he was placed in a basket of rushes and cast out into the sedge of the river. If we attend diligently, dearly beloved brethren, we recognize that, just as blessed Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, so Moses also bore the type of Christ. So then, consider more carefully, and you will see how many mysteries were figured in him.
Moses is born of a Jewish woman, and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. For Pharaoh's daughter prefigured the Church, which had gone out from her father's house and was coming to be washed at the water. Pharaoh is taken as a type of the devil; his daughter, as I said, is understood as the Church. But that her father was formerly the devil, the Lord, rebuking the Jews in the Gospel, says: 'You,' he says, 'are of your father the devil' (John 8:44). We therefore had the devil as father, not by being born of him, but by imitating his wickedness. Pharaoh's daughter had gone out from her father's house; though she had an impious father, yet it is said to her through the prophet: 'Hear, O daughter, and see; and forget your people and the house of your father' (Ps. 44:11).
He who says, 'Hear, O daughter,' is the father. And he who is to be forgotten and admonished is nonetheless named father: as if God the Father admonishes her that she ought to forsake the devil as father. This, then, is the Church, which went out from the house of her father the devil, and hastened to the water — that is, to the water of Baptism — to be washed from the sins which she had contracted in her father's house. Thereupon she at once deserved to receive the bowels of mercy, and gathered up Moses, cast out by his parents into the river. Moses therefore is cast out by his mother, and is found and gathered up by Pharaoh's daughter; and Christ the Lord is rejected by the Synagogue, from which he was born, and is found and received by the Church.
The Church again figured in the Ethiopian woman, Moses' wife. Now after Moses had grown up, he went away into a distant region, and took an Ethiopian woman to wife. Recognize, brethren, that this is no small mystery. That Ethiopian woman was of the Gentiles, whom blessed Moses took as wife; because Christ too was to join to himself a Church out of the Gentiles. Moses forsook his own people in distant regions, and is joined to the Ethiopian woman; and Christ, having forsaken the Jewish people, is joined from the farthest regions to the Church — to her, indeed, who says in the Psalms: 'From the ends of the earth I cried to you' (Ps. 60:3). Hear, in the person of the Church, what the Church says in the Song of Songs: 'I am black and beautiful' (Song 1:4).
What is 'I am black and beautiful,' unless black by nature, beautiful by grace; black by original sin, beautiful by the sacrament of Baptism? 3. The Synagogue in the bush. While Moses, then, was pasturing the sheep of his father-in-law in the desert, the Lord appeared to him in a bush; and Moses said, 'I will go and see why the bush burns and is not consumed.' And to him as he drew near the Lord said: 'Do not draw near here, but loose the strap of your sandal; for the place on which you stand is holy ground' (Exod. 3:3, 5). That bush is a kind of thorn. For it was burning and was not being consumed. In the bush was signified the Synagogue of the Jews. For a long time the fervor and flame of the Holy Spirit was in them;
and yet, so rebellious against the grace of God, they always resisted the Holy Spirit, so that their sins and sacrileges could not be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit. 4. Good words are from God, evil words from the devil. Now the Lord said to Moses: 'Come, and I will send you into Egypt.' And Moses, answering, said: 'Lord, I am not learned, and I am slow of speech.' And the Lord said to him: 'I will open your mouth, and instruct you what you ought to speak' (Exod. 3:10 and 4:10). Blessed are they whose mouth the Lord opens, that they may speak. For to all who speak on behalf of truth, of justice, of chastity, of humility, of mercy — without any doubt it is none but the Lord who opens their mouth.
Just as, on the contrary, of those who talk incessantly of luxury, of avarice, of pride, of robberies, of buffoonery or wickedness, there is no need to say who opens their mouth: everyone can recognize this without any difficulty. And therefore, dearly beloved brethren, with the Lord's help let us continually think good thoughts, so that it may be not our cruel adversary, but the merciful God, who opens our mouth. 'For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks' (Luke 6:45). Each one of us is wont to bring forth from his mouth the words of him whose presence he has received in his heart. Let our heart, then, be opened to Christ and closed to the devil, so that there may be fulfilled in us what is written concerning the Lord and the holy people:
'And I will dwell in them, and walk about among them' (Lev. 26:12); and again, 'I and the Father will come, and make our abode with him' (John 14:23). Whoever always speaks what is just, both God dwells in him, and he in God. 5. The rod of Moses, the mystery of the Cross. The Lord therefore said to Moses: 'What is this,' he said, 'that you hold in your hand?' And he said: 'A rod.' 'Cast it,' he said, 'onto the ground.' And when he had cast it, it was turned into a serpent, so that Moses fled (Exod. 4:2-3). That rod, dearly beloved brethren, prefigured the mystery of the Cross. For just as Egypt is struck with ten plagues through the rod, so also through the Cross the whole world is humbled and conquered;
and just as Pharaoh and his people are afflicted through the sacrament of the rod, that he might let go the Jewish people to serve God, so also the devil and his angels are wearied and pressed down through the mystery of the Cross, so that they cannot recall the Christian people from the service of God. 6. The hand of Moses. Now the fact that Moses put his hand into his bosom, and brought it out leprous; and again put it in, and brought it out sound, and like the rest of his flesh (Exod. 4:6-7), we ought not to take idly. In that hand was borne the type of the Synagogue and of the Church. As the Jewish people was first, and the Gentile people later; there the Synagogue existed before the Church. But because the Church is chosen and the Synagogue rejected,
therefore first the hand of Moses is made leprous, and afterward is rendered like the rest of the flesh: and thus the Synagogue, on account of its unbelief, is left leprous; the Church, like a sound hand fit for every work, is chosen out. 7. Moses is forbidden to take his wife with him into Egypt. Moses therefore took up Sephora his wife, and was coming into Egypt; and the Lord stood against him, and wished to kill him (Exod. 4:20, 24). Perhaps in this place we can understand that it displeased God that Moses, who was to work such great wonders, wished to take the hindrance of a wife with him into Egypt. Whence it is given to be understood that from that place he sent his wife back to her father-in-law.
For to such a degree did he go down into Egypt without her, that afterward, when Moses was already settled in the wilderness, Jethro his kinsman brought that very wife of his to him, as we read (Exod. 18:5, 8). 8. The serpent from the rod. Now let us see what it signifies that the rod, cast onto the ground, was turned into a serpent. The serpent is reckoned for wisdom; as the Lord says in the Gospel: 'Be,' he says, 'wise as serpents' (Matt. 10:16). We said that the rod figured the Cross. The Cross therefore, which is believed to be foolishness to the unbelieving — as the Apostle says, 'to the Gentiles foolishness' (1 Cor. 1:23) — after it was cast onto the ground, that is, prepared for the Passion of the Lord, was turned into a serpent, that is, into wisdom;
and into so great a wisdom as would devour all the wisdom of this world; indeed, it swallowed up all the serpents which the magicians had made by their enchantments. Through the rod, then, Egypt is scourged; and through the Cross the world is conquered, and the devil is overcome. Let us pray therefore, dearly beloved brethren, that Christ the Lord, in his mercy, may grant us also to conquer the concupiscence of this world, and to bring back from the devil and his angels a happy victory before his tribunal: to whom is honor and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 19. On Moses, II. 1. The flame signifies the Holy Spirit, the bush the Jews. Great indeed, dearly beloved brethren, and as it were involved, are the sacraments of the mysteries of God;
and although we cannot unfold them all, yet we briefly suggest to your Charity what we can. It was not without cause, dearly beloved brethren, nor without some signification of a secret, that in the bush there was flame, and yet the bush was not being burned up (Exod. 3:2). For the bush is a kind of thorn; nor can it be placed to any praise, that the earth produced it for sinful man. For to man when he first sinned it was said: 'The earth shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you' (Gen. 3:18). Now the fact that the bush was not being burned up — that is, was not being caught by the flame — is recognized to signify nothing good. For in the flame is understood the Holy Spirit; in the bush and thorn is signified the people of the Jews, hard and proud.
For that flame, without doubt, signified something good, in which either an angel or the Lord appeared. Indeed, when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles, there appeared to them tongues divided, as it were of fire (Acts 2:3). Would that this fire might seize us too; that it may not find us hard, and be unable to burn us up together. Let us pray rather that this fire may blaze in us, and may destroy and consume the thorns of our sins. 2. Two fires, of charity and of concupiscence. For there are two fires: there is the fire of charity, from the Holy Spirit; and there is the fire of concupiscence. The former burns up everything that is evil; the latter consumes everything that is good. For in the soul where the fire of charity has blazed, it consumes every evil;
just as, on the contrary, in the one in whom the fire of concupiscence has been kindled, nothing that is good will remain. And therefore let each one run to his own conscience; and if he feels within himself any little spark of compunction kindled by good works, let him guard within himself the grace of the divine mercy, and kindle the fire of compunction — that fire of which the Lord said: 'I came to send fire upon the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?' (Luke 12:49). But whoever recognizes the flame of concupiscence burning in himself, let him labor with God's help, with all his strength, to extinguish concupiscence and to kindle charity. For whatever good a man does in whom concupiscence burns, is destined to perish without any delay;
just as, on the contrary, if he in whom the fire of charity is has admitted any negligences, it will consume them without delay, and will not permit them to gain the mastery at all. For the people of the Jews was burning with the fire of zeal or of concupiscence; and therefore that bush signified the people who resisted God — the thorny people of the Jews, of whom it is written: 'I waited that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth thorns' (Isa. 5:2). For to that very people Moses was being sent; and therefore the bush was burning and was not being consumed, because the hardness of the Jews, as I said, was resisting the Law; for if that people had not been allied with thorns, Christ would not have been crowned by it with thorns. 5. Moses and Joshua are commanded to loose the strap of their sandal.
The Lord therefore cried out to Moses: 'Loose the strap of your sandal; for the place on which you stand is holy ground' (Exod. 3:5). This is what we read to have been commanded to blessed Moses, and also to his successor Joshua, when the Lord appeared to him. For when Joshua saw a man standing against him with drawn sword, and while he was inquiring who he was, he answered him: 'I am the prince of the army of the Lord, and now I am come.' And adding, he said: 'Loose the strap of your sandal; for the place on which you stand is holy ground' (Josh. 5:13-16). I beg you, dearly beloved brethren, that according to your holy custom you would attentively give heed to hear what we have learned about this matter from the revelation of the ancient Fathers.
And because the matter is difficult and obscure to understand, receive it patiently: for it is necessary for us to repeat some things frequently, that we may the more easily instill them into your understanding. 4. Why that command was given to both. What is signified by the holy ground. It had been commanded to the Jews from the Law that, if anyone should depart from this light without children, his brother should take his wife; and however many sons should be born of them, they should be reckoned under the name of the deceased brother, and the sons should not be ascribed to him who begot them, but to him whose widow he had taken. For which reason many of the people, unwilling that their sons should be called by another's name, would not consent to take the widows of their brothers;
and whoever wished to excuse himself was led to the gate, and the widow of his brother, coming, would unshoe him, and spit in his face, and it was called 'the House of the Unshod'; and thus for him who was not to be the bridegroom, the straps of his sandal were loosed; for whoever had consented, they were not loosed at all (Deut. 25:5-10). This I have said, dearly beloved brethren, so that, if we cannot understand the whole, we may endeavor to understand what the cause was that the Lord should say to Moses and Joshua: 'Loose the strap of your sandal; for the place on which you stand is holy ground.' Why was this said to them, unless because they were not the lawful bridegrooms?
For the lawful bridegroom of the catholic Church could be none other than Christ, of whom the Apostle says: 'I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ' (2 Cor. 11:2); and of whom the Psalm had foretold long before: 'And he himself, as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber' (Ps. 18:6). Blessed John the Baptist too spoke most plainly of him, saying: 'He who has the bride is the bridegroom.' This indeed he said of Christ; but of himself what did he say? 'The friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him, and rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom's voice' (John 3:29). And, that he might more plainly show Christ the Lord to be the lawful bridegroom, he said: 'This is he whose sandal-strap I am not worthy to loose' (John 1:27).
Why did he not presume to loose the strap of his sandal? Because he knew him to be the lawful bridegroom of the Church. For Moses and Joshua are bidden to loose their sandals, because they figured the bridegroom, and were not themselves the bridegroom. Consider then what the Lord said to Moses and Joshua: 'Loose the strap of your sandal; for the place on which you stand is holy ground.' Can this, dearly beloved brethren, be understood according to the letter? For how could that ground which they trod be holy, seeing it was without doubt like the rest of the earth? But attend diligently to what was said: 'For the place on which you stand is holy ground.'
That is to say, Christ, whose figure you bear and whose type you are seen to hold, is the holy ground. Truly the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ is holy ground, through whom all things heavenly and earthly have been sanctified, of whom the Apostle says: 'Making peace through his blood, both the things that are in heaven and the things that are on earth' (Col. 1:20). 5. The Apostles received the wife of their deceased brother, Christ. Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, as I said above, whoever refused to take the wife of his deceased brother was unshod, and spat upon in the face; but whoever consented to take the widow of his dead brother, the sons who were born were called by the name, not of him who begot them, but of him who had died:
which matter we see fulfilled in the Apostles. For when the brother had died—that is, when Christ had died, who had said: 'Go, tell my brethren' (Matt. 28:10)—the Apostles took up his wife, that is, the Church. For thus the Apostle Paul says: 'In Christ Jesus, through the Gospel, I have begotten you' (1 Cor. 4:15). Yet whoever were born of the Church through the teaching of the Apostles were called neither Petrine nor Pauline, but Christian: so that the figure might be completed which had been laid down beforehand in the Law concerning the wife of the deceased brother. But the wretched heretics did not do so;
but like most cruel invaders, seizing the wife of their deceased brother, and tearing and rending the Church in pieces, they willed with most shameless brow that all who were begotten through the sacrament of Baptism should be called peoples not by Christ's name, but by their own. In short, in the Catholic Church all who are born are called Christians by the name of the deceased, that is, of Christ. But among the heretics some are called Donatists, others Manichaeans, others Arians, others Fortians. But because the leaders of the heretics were not lawful bridegrooms, they imposed upon the peoples not Christ's name, but their own. 6. Let hearers scrutinize more attentively whatever the preacher sets before them.
And therefore I ask, brethren, that your holy Charity may pardon me, because while from that which was said to Moses, 'Loose the strap of your sandal,' I have tried to convey to you some understanding, such as it is, I seem perhaps to have wearied you with a discourse longer than I ought. And although there be nothing in this sermon that can please, yet I believe that our vow and desire ought not to displease your Charity, since I have not been able to unfold the exposition of so great a matter as it deserves: nevertheless I strive to convey to your holy minds, as it were, certain outlines and slight indications of whatever kind, which you, examining more attentively, may—by Christ's inspiration—be able to meditate upon even better than we suggest. SERMON XX.
On the ten plagues of the Egyptians. Exodus, chapters VII-XII. 1. Moses is understood as the Law. The rod is the cross of Christ. Moses, coming to Egypt, dearly beloved brethren, carries also the rod with which he chastises and scourges Egypt with ten plagues. Moses is understood as the Law, which was given to this world, that it might correct and amend it with ten plagues, that is, with the ten commandments which are contained in the Decalogue. And that the Law can be understood as Moses, the Lord said in the Gospel: 'They have Moses and the Prophets' (Luke 16:29); that is, the Law and the Prophets.
But the rod by which Egypt is subdued and Pharaoh is overcome bore beforehand the image of Christ's cross, through which this world is bound, and the prince of this world with his principalities and powers is triumphed over. And that the rod, when cast down, becomes a dragon or serpent, and devours the serpents of the Egyptians—the serpent is put for wisdom, as it is written: 'Be prudent as serpents' (Matt. 10:16). For this reason the rod of Moses, that is, the cross of Christ, after it descended to the earth—that is, after it came to the belief and faith of men—was turned into wisdom, and into such great wisdom as would devour all the wisdom of the Egyptians, that is, of this world. 2. The plagues of the Egyptians. Blood. Frogs. The dog-fly. The death of animals.
Boils and blisters. Thunders. Locusts. Darkness. The death of the firstborn. As to the fact that the waters of the river are turned into blood, it is quite fittingly arranged that the river, into which they had cruelly delivered the little ones of the Hebrews, should render a cup of blood to the authors of the crime, and that they should feel, in drinking, the gore of the polluted stream which they had stained with parricidal slaughter. But the second plague, in which frogs are brought in, I think figuratively signifies the songs of the poets, who, with a certain empty and inflated modulation, like the sounds and croakings of frogs, brought into this world the fables of deception. For that animal is useful for nothing, except that it gives forth the sound of its voice with wicked and importunate clamors. After this the gnats are produced.
This little animal is indeed suspended through the air, flitting about; but it is so subtle and minute that it eludes the sight of the eye, unless one perceives keenly: yet the body on which it settles it bores with a most bitter sting; so that one who cannot see it flying feels its stinging. This kind of animal, therefore, I think most fittingly compared to the art of philosophy or to the cunning of the heretics, which bores souls with minute and subtle stings of words, and circumvents them with such craft that anyone who is deceived neither sees nor understands whence he has been deceived. In the fourth place also the dog-fly is brought in, that is, the canine fly, which is deservedly compared to the sect of the Cynics, who, in addition to the rest of the wickednesses of their deception,
even proclaim pleasure and lust to be the highest good. Since, therefore, through each of these things the world was first deceived, the coming word and Law reproves it with corrections of this kind, so that from the quality of the punishments it may recognize the qualities of its own error. In the fifth place Egypt is scourged by the killing of animals or cattle. In this is reproved the folly and stupidity of mortals, who, like irrational cattle, imposed the worship and name of God upon the figures not only of men, but also of cattle. Whence by a just judgment it came about that in those things in which they believed the divine worship to reside, in these they should see their pitiable punishments. After this, boils and blisters with burning are produced in the sixth scourging:
and it seems to me that in the boils is reproved deceitful and festering malice, in the blisters swelling and inflated pride, in the burning the madness of wrath and fury. Thus far punishments are meted out to the world through the figures of its errors. But after these scourgings there come from on high voices and thunders, and hail, and fire running amid the hail. See the measured restraint of the divine correction. He does not scourge in silence; but he gives voices, and sends teaching from heaven, through which the chastened world may recognize its own fault: he gives also hail, through which the tender first growths of vices may be laid waste: he gives also fire, knowing that there are thorns and thistles of sins, which that fire ought to consume, of which the Lord says:
'I have come to send fire upon the earth' (Luke 12:49). For through this fire the incentives of pleasure and lust are consumed. As for the fact that mention is made of locusts in the eighth place, I think that through this kind of plague is designated the inconstancy of the human race, which either detracts or is always at variance with itself. For the locust, though it has no king, as Scripture says, leads its army marshalled in one line (Prov. 30:27): but men, though made rational by God, have neither been able to govern themselves in orderly fashion, nor have they patiently borne the rule of God their king. The ninth plague is darkness: either that the blindness of their mind may be reproved, or that we may understand that the reasons of divine dispensation and providence are most obscure.
For God has set, as the Psalmist says, darkness as his hiding place (Ps. 17:12): which the proud, desiring boldly and rashly to search out, and asserting one thing from another, have been rolled down into the thick and palpable darkness of errors. Lastly, the destruction of the firstborn is brought in. The firstborn of the Egyptians are not incongruously understood as the principalities and powers of this world—that is, the devil and his angels—whom Christ is said to have destroyed at his coming, that is, to have led captive, and to have triumphed over on the wood of his cross. We can also take the firstborn of the Egyptians to be all the authors and inventors of the false religions which are in this world, which the truth of Christ extinguishes together with their authors. 3.
A recapitulation of what has been said. And in order that these things which have been said may cling more tenaciously to your memory, and that you may be able to turn them over in the mouth of the heart like clean animals, and to ruminate on them spiritually, we make a brief recapitulation. As to the fact that in the first plague the waters are turned into blood: are signified the teachings of the philosophers, which deceive the little ones in understanding. But as to the fact that in the second plague there is a multitude of frogs: are understood in them the songs of the poets, which could never profit anyone. In the third plague gnats, that is, most minute flies, are produced, pricking bodies with a most grievous sting; and in them are designated the craftiness of the art of philosophy, and the poisons or most subtle contrivances of the wretched heretics.
In the fourth plague the canine fly is brought in; and it is deservedly compared to the teaching of the Cynics, who, among their other evils, proclaim lust to be the highest good. In the fifth place the animals are killed; and in this is signified the folly or stupidity of men. In the sixth place boils, pustules, and blisters with burning are sent: in the boils is reproved deceitful and festering malice; in the blisters, swelling and inflated pride; in the burning, the madness of wrath and fury. Afterward, in the seventh place, thunders and voices are sent from heaven, together with hail or fire: in the voices and thunders is recognized heavenly teaching; in the hail, the discipline which sinners receive;