Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 64 part 14/15

Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it is plucked up. Likewise in the prophet Hosea: He shall blossom as the lily, and shall cast forth his roots as the frankincense tree. His branches shall spread, and he shall be as a fruitful olive tree, and his fragrance as that of frankincense. And I will strengthen him as a ripening juniper: from me is your fruit found. Likewise in the prophet Daniel: Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar: The tree which you saw made strong and great, whose height reached even to heaven and its breadth to all the earth, and its leaves broad, and its fruit abundant, and food for all in it, and beneath which the beasts of the earth dwelt, and in whose branches were the birds of the sky — it is you, O king:

for you have grown great and received power, and your greatness has increased and reached even to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth. Likewise there: I saw a ram butting with his horns toward the sea and the north and the south; and all the beasts could not stand before him, and there was none that could rescue from his hand. Likewise in the prophet Ezekiel: Her princes in the midst of her are like roaring lions ready to seize, devouring the souls of men in their power. Likewise there: Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves seizing prey, to shed blood, that they may be possessed by covetousness. Likewise in Ecclesiasticus: Be not as a lion in your house, overthrowing your household and oppressing those subject to you. Likewise in Psalm 21:

Many young bulls have compassed me; fat bulls have besieged me. They have opened their mouth against me, like a lion ravening and roaring. Likewise in the Gospel according to Matthew, John the Baptist: But seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: Brood of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. And do not say: We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For now the axe is laid to the root of the tree. Every tree therefore that does not bring forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire. Likewise there: Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Be therefore prudent as serpents and simple as doves. Likewise there: Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. Brood of serpents, how can you speak good things, being evil? Likewise in the prophet Isaiah: In tribulation and distress, the lion and the lion's whelp, thence also the asps and the brood of asps, who carried their riches upon asses and camels to a nation that shall not profit them. Likewise in the prophet Jeremiah: Israel is a wandering sheep; the lions have driven him out. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and last the king of Babylon has broken his bones. Likewise there: Like lions they have risen up, and like lions' whelps.

In their heat I will give them a cup and make them drunk, that they may be lulled asleep, that they may sleep an everlasting sleep and not rise, says the Lord. 115. THAT ONE MUST NOT MURMUR. In Exodus: Because the Lord has heard your murmuring, wherewith you murmured against us. For your murmuring is not against us, but against God. 116. THAT MEN ARE CALLED IN THE LIKENESS OF STARS. In Genesis: And he brought Abraham forth abroad and said to him: Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them; so shall your seed be. Likewise in Psalm 146: He that numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by their names. Likewise in the prophet Jeremiah: The stars gave their light in their watches and rejoiced; you shall call them, and they said:

Here we are, and they shone with gladness. Likewise in the prophet Daniel: And those who have understanding shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and many of the just shall shine like the stars for ever. Likewise in the book of Judges: The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. Likewise in the prophet Nahum: You have multiplied your merchants like the stars of heaven. Likewise the Apostle to the Corinthians, the first epistle: For star differs from star in brightness; so also is the resurrection of the dead. Likewise to the Philippians: Among whom you shine as lights in this world, holding forth the word of life. Then shall the just shine forth. 117. THAT WICKED MEN ARE CALLED DOGS. In Kingdoms, the second book: And Abishai the son of Zeruiah, hearing Shimei cursing King David, said to the king:

Why does this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray, and take off his head. Likewise in Psalm 21: For many dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the malicious has besieged me. Likewise in Psalm 58: They shall return at evening and shall suffer hunger like dogs, and shall go round about the city. They shall be scattered abroad to devour; but if they be not satisfied, they will also murmur. Likewise in Ecclesiasticus: What fellowship has a holy man with a dog? Likewise in Isaiah: See that all are blinded; they have not known how to understand. All are dumb dogs that cannot bark, dreaming in their bed. And they are dogs of shameless soul, knowing no fullness; and they are worthless, knowing no understanding.

They have all followed their own ways, each one to his own gain. Likewise in the Gospel according to Matthew: Do not give what is holy to dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest perchance they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. Likewise there: It is not right to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. Likewise Paul the Apostle to the Philippians: Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Likewise in the Apocalypse: Without are dogs and sorcerers and adulterers and those who serve idols. 118. THAT THE HOUSE OR TEMPLE OUGHT TO BE UNDERSTOOD AS MAN HIMSELF. In Leviticus:

But if the plague come again and break out in the house, after the stones have been pulled out and after the house has been scraped and after it has been rubbed down, the priest shall enter and look: if the plague of the stone be spread in the house, and it be persisting in that house, it is unclean. And they shall pull down the house itself, and its timber and its stones and all the dust of the house they shall cast outside the city into an unclean place. Likewise in Proverbs: The Lord will destroy the house of the proud. Likewise there: He that makes his house high seeks ruin. Likewise there: By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is set up. By knowledge the storerooms are filled full of all precious and good riches. Likewise there:

Prepare your works for going out, and make ready in the field, and come after me, and you shall build your house. Likewise in Ecclesiasticus: He that builds his house with other men's money is like one who gathers his stones in winter. Likewise there: If you do not hold fast the fear of the Lord earnestly, your house shall be quickly overthrown. Likewise there: Do not bring every man into your house, for many are the snares of the deceitful. Likewise in Job: Does he not know that death will wear down the earthly house, and all that is mortal shall be dissolved? Likewise in Jeremiah: Woe to him that builds his house not with righteousness, and its upper chambers not with judgment! Likewise in the Gospel according to Matthew:

And everyone who hears these my words and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds came and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these my words and does them not is like a foolish man who builds his house upon the sand. The rain descended, the floods came and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the ruin of that house. Likewise according to John: Destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will raise it up without hands. The Jews therefore said:

This temple was forty-six years in building, and will you raise it up in three days? But Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body. Likewise the Apostle to the Corinthians, the first epistle: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, God will destroy him: for the temple of God is holy, which you are. Likewise there: Or do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body. Likewise to the Corinthians, the second epistle:

For we know that if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our dwelling which is from heaven: if so be that, being clothed, we shall not be found naked. 119. THAT MAN OUGHT TO BE GIRDED IN HIS SPIRITUAL LOINS. In Exodus, concerning the paschal lamb: Thus shall you eat it: with your loins girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staves in your hands, and you shall eat it in haste. Likewise in Kingdoms, the fourth book: And Elisha said to Gehazi: Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go:

and if you meet anyone, do not salute him; and if anyone salute you, do not answer him; and when you come, lay my staff upon the face of the boy. Likewise there: Elisha called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him: Gird up your loins, and take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. And when you come there, behold, there is Jehu the son of Nimshi. And going in, you shall single him out from the midst of his brethren, and lead him from chamber to chamber. And you shall take the vial and pour it upon his head, and say: Thus says the Lord: I have anointed you king over Israel. And you shall open the door and flee, and not tarry there. Likewise in Proverbs:

She has strongly girded her loins and has made firm her arms for work. Likewise in the prophet Isaiah: And so he shall lift up a sign to the nations, to those that are far off and to those that are near; and he shall draw them from the end of the earth, and behold, swiftly and lightly shall they come. They shall not hunger, nor labour, nor slumber, nor sleep, nor shall they loose the girdles from their loins, nor shall the latchets of their shoes be broken. Likewise to the prophet Jeremiah: And you, gird up your loins, and arise, and speak all things whatsoever I shall command you; fear not their face, neither be dismayed before them. Likewise in the prophet Nahum: Consider the way, hold fast the loins, act manfully in exceeding strength. Likewise in the Gospel according to Luke:

But let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and you yourselves like men waiting for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks, you may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the lord, when he comes, shall find watching. Likewise Peter the Apostle: Gird up the loins of your mind, be perfectly sober, and hope for the grace that is offered to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As children, do not fashion yourselves according to the former desires of your ignorance; but according to him who called you as holy, be you yourselves also holy in all your conduct, because it is written: Be holy, for I also am holy. 120. THAT MEN, WHETHER HOLY OR UNGODLY, ARE CALLED MOUNTAINS.

In Psalm 64: And your fields shall be filled with plenty; the borders of the desert shall grow fat, and the hills shall be girded with exultation. The rams of the flock are clothed, and the valleys shall abound with corn; indeed they shall shout and sing a hymn. Likewise in Psalm 86: Its foundations are in the holy mountains; the Lord loves the gates of Zion above all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Likewise in Psalm 113: The mountains shall leap like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock. Likewise in Proverbs: Wisdom is proclaimed upon the tops of the mountains, and stands at the gates of the mighty. Likewise in the prophet Isaiah: And I will not forsake them, but I will open rivers in the mountains, and fountains in the midst of the plains:

I will make the desert into pools and the thirsty land into streams of waters. Likewise the prophet Micah: Draw near to the everlasting mountains. Likewise the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in that day, the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk. Likewise in Nahum: Thus says the Lord, the prince of many waters: I will destroy your carved images and your molten images and consign them to the grave; for behold, swift upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings and proclaims peace. Likewise in the prophet Ezekiel: Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy to them, and you shall say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. Likewise there: But you, mountains of Israel, shall bring forth your grapes and your fruit, which you shall eat, O my people, who draw near to come.

Likewise in the prophet Isaiah: Behold, cry out gladness, O mountains, and hills and all the trees that are upon them. Likewise there: Let the mountains break forth into joy, for God has had mercy on his people. Likewise there: For the mountains and the hills shall leap, awaiting you in gladness, and all the trees of the field shall clap their branches. Chapter 121: THAT UNCLEAN SPIRITS OR VICES ARE CALLED MOUNTAINS, HILLS, BEASTS, BIRDS, ROCKS, NATIONS, STONES, AND THORNS. In Psalm 45: Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be troubled and the mountains be carried into the heart of the sea. Their waters roared and were troubled, the mountains were shaken by his might. Likewise in Psalm 73: For the enemy has reproached the Lord, and a foolish people has provoked your name.

Do not deliver up to the beasts the souls that confess to you; forget not to the end the souls of your poor. Likewise in Ecclesiasticus: Flee from sins as from the face of a serpent; if you draw near to them, they will seize you like the teeth of a lion, slaying while they devour, like a two-edged sword avenging iniquities. Likewise in the prophet Isaiah: And it shall come to pass in that day, the Lord will draw away the flies that hold sway over the regions of the river of Egypt, and the bees that are in their country. Likewise there: Cleanse the ways before his face, and take away the stumbling-blocks from the road of my people. Likewise there: Enter in through my gates and make a way for my people, and cast the stones out of the road. Likewise in the prophet Jeremiah:

Give glory to the Lord your God before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble upon the shadowy mountains. Likewise in the prophet Nahum: The mountains were shaken by him, and the hills trembled, and the whole earth was dismayed before his face, and the rocks were shattered before him. Likewise in the prophet Habakkuk: The nations flowed away, the mountains were violently shaken, the everlasting hills were melted. Likewise in the prophet Ezekiel: That great eagle with great wings, of long extent, full of talons, which has leadership to enter into Lebanon and to take the choice of the cedar; it plucked off the topmost of its tenderness and carried it into the land of Canaan, in a walled city it set them. Likewise in Job: And dissolve that covenant of yours which is with the stones of the field.

Likewise in the prophet Amos: And I took away the Amorite from before their face, whose height was like the height of the cedar and whose strength was like the holm-oak; and I took away his fruit from above and his roots from below. Likewise the prophet Joel: For a nation has come up upon the land, a mighty nation and innumerable; its teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and its molars like the whelps of lions. It has laid my vineyard to waste and my fig trees to breaking. Likewise according to Matthew: Jesus commanded, and that demon went out, and the boy was made whole from that hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said: Why could we not cast it out? He said to them: Because of your unbelief. Amen I say to you:

if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mountain: Move from here to there, and it would move, and nothing would be impossible for you. Chapter 122: THAT NO HOLY ONE IS EQUAL TO GOD. In Exodus: Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? Likewise in Psalm 88: For who among the clouds shall be compared to the Lord? Or who among the sons of God shall be like God? God, who is glorified in the council of the saints, great and to be feared above all who are round about him. O Lord God of hosts, who is like you? You are mighty, O Lord, and your truth is round about you. Chapter 123: THAT WE ARE GUARDED BY THE PROTECTION OF ANGELS. In Deuteronomy: He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. Likewise in Tobit the angel Raphael:

And when you and Sarah your daughter-in-law prayed, I offered up the memorial of your prayer before the Lord. Likewise according to Matthew: See that you despise not one of these little ones who believe in me; for I say to you that their angels always behold in heaven the face of my Father who is in heaven. Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles: She announced that Peter was standing at the door. They said: It is not so, but it is his angel. Likewise in the Apocalypse of John: And to the angel of the church of Ephesus write. Chapter 124: THAT A MAN IS CALLED A WALL. In Psalm 61: How long do you rush upon men, slaying them all as upon a wall that is leaning and a bulwark that is thrust down? But indeed they took thought to cast down my honor. Likewise in Psalm 79:

Why have you broken down its hedge? Likewise in the prophet Ezekiel: And they build a wall, and they themselves daub it over. If it shall fall, say to those who daub it. And it shall fall, and there shall be an overflowing rain, and I will give stones like clods of rock among their bonds, and they shall fall; and a lifting wind, and it shall be broken. And behold, the wall has fallen, and they will say to you: Where is your daubing with which you daubed it? Therefore thus says the Lord: I will break the lifting wind in wrath, and there shall be an overflowing rain in my wrath, and stones of rock and clods I will bring over in my fury unto their consuming. And I will dig out the wall which you daubed, and it shall fall; and I will set it to the ground and its foundations shall be laid bare, and it shall collapse, and you shall be consumed together with rebukes:

and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I will accomplish my wrath upon the wall and upon those who daub it, and it shall fall. And I said to you: There is no wall, nor those who daub it—that is, the prophets of Israel who prophesy in Jerusalem and who see peace for it, and there is no peace, says the Lord. Likewise in the Gospel according to Matthew: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful to men from without, but within are full of human bones and all filthiness. Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles: God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall. Likewise to the Ephesians: And he abolished the law of commandments with its decrees, that he might make the two into one new man in himself:

and breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmity, in his own flesh. Likewise in the prophet Isaiah: And the bricks shall flow away, and the wall shall fall, because the Lord has reigned in Zion and in Jerusalem. Likewise there: The loftiness of the refuge of your wall he shall humble, and it shall come down even to the pavement. Likewise there: And the fortified cities you shall cast down and bring even to the pavement, and the feet of the meek and lowly shall trample them. Likewise there: And from the pavement your voice shall be made feeble. Likewise there: This people who provoke me to my face continually—these sacrifice in gardens and burn incense upon bricks to demons that are nothing, and they sleep in tombs and caves because of dreams, who eat swine's flesh and the broth of sacrifices:

all their vessels are defiled. Chapter 125: THAT THE SAINTS ARE SATISFIED WITH SPIRITUAL FOOD OR DRINK. In Deuteronomy: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Likewise in the prophet Habakkuk: But the just shall live by my faith. Likewise in the Gospel according to John: Jesus answered and said to her: Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall not thirst forever, but it shall become in him a fountain of living water springing up into eternal life. Meanwhile the disciples were asking him, saying: Rabbi, eat. But Jesus said to them: I have food to eat that you do not know of. Therefore the disciples said among themselves: Has anyone brought him something to eat?

Jesus says to them: My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Likewise there: And he said to them: Amen I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to this world. They said: Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said: I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Likewise there: But the Jews murmured about him because he said: I am the bread that came down from heaven, and they said: Is this not Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say: I came down from heaven? Again he said:

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died. But this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that whoever eats of it may not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I shall give for the life of this world is my flesh. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. For he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is truly food and my blood is truly drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me shall also live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and died. He who eats this bread shall live forever. Chapter 126: THAT WATER AND FIRE ARE CALLED PEOPLES OR VICES. In Psalm 17: The groanings of death encompassed me, and the torrents of iniquity troubled me. The sorrows of hell found me; the snares of death forestalled me. He took me up out of the multitude of waters; he delivered me from my mighty enemies. Likewise in Psalm 136:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, while we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our instruments. Likewise in the prophet Isaiah: I will set rivers in the islands and I will dry up the pools. And I will lead the blind in a way they knew not, and I will make them tread paths they did not know; and I will make darkness into light before them and the crooked things I will make straight. These words I will do and I will not forsake them. Likewise there: You are mine. Even if you pass through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Even if you pass through water, I am with you and the rivers shall not overwhelm you; for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, who saves you. Likewise in the prophet Jeremiah:

And now what have you to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the water of the Gihon? And what have you to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the waters of the rivers? Likewise there: The water of Egypt said: I will rise up and cover the land. Chapter 127: THAT ONE CALLED TO THE FAITH OUGHT NOT TO TURN BACK. In the prophet Isaiah: Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Likewise according to Matthew: But when Jesus saw a very great crowd about him, he gave orders to go across the region. And one of the scribes approached him and said to him: Master, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him: The foxes have dens and the birds of the air have where to rest, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And behold, another of his disciples said to him:

Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus answered him: Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead; but you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Likewise according to Luke: And another said: I will follow you, Lord, but first permit me to bid farewell to those who are at my house. Jesus said to him: No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Chapter 128: THAT THE DEVIL WAS MADE AN ANGEL BY THE LORD AND WAS AFTERWARDS CHANGED BY HIS TRANSGRESSION. In Psalm 81: I said: You are gods and all of you sons of the Most High; but you shall die like men, and you shall fall like one of the princes. Likewise in Psalm 103: This dragon, which you formed to make sport of him. Likewise in Job:

But by his command he slew the deserter dragon. Likewise in the prophet Isaiah: How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who rose in the morning? Likewise in the prophet Ezekiel: You are the seal of likeness and the crown of comeliness, and you were in the delights of the paradise of God. With the cherub I placed you on the holy mountain of God, and you sinned and were wounded by the mountain of the Lord. Your teaching was corrupted along with your comeliness. Because of the multitude of your sins I cast you down to the earth; in the sight of kings I gave you up as a spectacle because of the multitude of your sins. And you said: I am God, I have dwelt in the dwelling of God. Chapter 129: ON THE LIKENESS OF THE STAG. In Psalm 17:

God, who girded me with strength and made my way spotless, who made my feet like the feet of a stag and set me upon the heights. Likewise in Psalm 41: As the stag longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Likewise in Proverbs: Let the stag of friendship and the fawn of your favors converse with you. Likewise in the Song of Songs: Behold, here he comes, leaping upon the mountains and springing over the hills. My beloved is like a hind or a young stag upon the mountains of shadows. Likewise in the prophet Isaiah: There the stags shall meet and shall behold each other's faces.