The Acts of the Apostles are so entitled, just as among the gentiles in former times the 'public Acts' were so called, by which the account and record of the empire's administration and the management of the commonwealth were established. For there is scarcely any book of our religion that so clearly sets forth the doctrine of truth by irrefutable examples and by the trustworthiness of the history that ensued. And certainly, apart from the Epistles of the apostles, which combine these two, there is none. The Romans had such records, which were entitled 'Acts of the City,' by which evidently posterity preserved, as in a public repository, the testimony of their forefathers. When Judea, polluted with the blood of her own crime and having dared an abomination, completed her work;
the Creator of all things gave for the human race that which he had taken from human limbs without sin, deigning that, as one, he should touch the things of hell, while not leaving the heights of heaven. The day that entered to the shades loosed the darkness condemned to eternal night; the fleeting stars left the heaven, accompanying God; terrified by the cross of Christ, Nature too willed to suffer alike, and the power of death, by conquering itself, perished, for it, sunk under the weight of the triumph as the Holy One snatched away his own, has no right at all; and divine power, binding the limbs together again, set the now-quickened corpses in motion. The tombs lie open unto life, and the ashes of the holy renew their birthday after the grave.
The third light arises; Majesty returns with the flesh, and brings back a gleaming form from the seat of shadows, that from the exiled clay, long shut out, the origin of the fatherland might be sought again. The Almighty himself prepares the ways, and bids the bodies to reign with him after the tomb; the seed of the poison dying, he restored its own shoots to the flower-bearing garden. And now through forty days the Lord had imparted manifest faith by signs, while they beheld, even unto the utmost world spread to its boundary, whom he bids to be his witnesses. The miracles of things could not hide God; what could one add to the proofs which, rising again, he gave so sure? Hence human bodies prove the life.
About to seek heaven, he goes forth to survey the grove of the olive, because by its sacred shoot it is a place of light and of peace; from there he wills to return, whence the divine fragrance commends the creature shining with sealed brow, when from above the chrism washes the anointed inwardly with the name of Christ. He is taken up, the victor about to return into the star-bearing height, and he has with him what he took on—a new pomp of triumph! God sought the fields, man the stars; what crash is given to him from the ethereal region? and how greatly do the heavenly choirs resound in praise, when the Ruler of Olympus bears up to the heights whatever he took up from the depths? And entering heaven, with the trophy of the flesh attending him, he places in the citadel of light the spoils snatched from the jaws of the black abyss, and raises up earthly limbs;
by the same mercy with which he takes them, he went for the sake of that for which he had come. Deep amazement drives the disciples, to whom with shining countenance the radiant men spoke; the things that sound to us both known and wondrous, let us now contemplate, rejoicing, and let us prove the manner of his empire through the laws made subject to him. Born of a virgin mother, rising again with death trodden underfoot, seeking the scepters of heaven, he announces these deeds to his ministers. Nor do the elements cease to serve their own Thunderer; the star, the companion that went before the Magi, serves the honor of his coming; the cloud waits in attendance upon him as he ascends.
Therefore, after it had received angelic words, the chosen band, venerable, left the summits of the olive-bearing mount for the harvest, who by a swift path seek the familiar walls, whither on the sabbath one may go a thousand paces, where then in that station sat the Gate—Mary, the untouched Mother of God the Creator, formed by her own Son. The second Virgin puts to flight the evils of Eve's sin; there is no reproach to her sex: she restores what the first took away. Let not grief, for the old law's sake, stir up complaints by the voice, or weary the mourning hearts with groaning; the very crimes and the abomination please rather at this price, and, the world being redeemed, a better lot comes out of the disaster: the person, not the nature, gave the ruin;
then a woman with child swelled unto peril, now she swelled about to bear God, begetting mortal things and bearing divine, through whom the Mediator came forth into the world and bore true flesh up to the heavens. First in the apostolic company, called from a little boat, was Peter, by whose fishing the scaly throng used to be caught; suddenly seen from the shore, while he draws his net he himself deserved to be drawn; the fishing of Christ, deeming him worthy, seizes the disciple, that he might let down nets to catch the human race:
the hand that had wielded the hook is transferred to the key, and he who burned to turn the wet spoils of the deep sea toward the shores and to fill his boat with plunder, now in better waters lifts them from another quarter, nor does he abandon his art, pursuing his gains through the waves—to whom the Lamb handed over the sheep whom by suffering he saved, and throughout the whole world increases the flock with this shepherd; by which office he rises supreme, and, broaching divine matters, thus venerable he speaks before them: 'You know that the mad traitor paid himself the wages of his crime;'
he himself shuddered at the loathing of his own guilt, choking the voice in his throat, and—the example now failing—reconsidering his guilty crime, he, who deserved to be slain in the very part where the fault lay, by such a judgment gave over his limbs to madness, so that, in the midst of the air, due punishment might appoint a place for the common enemy; hated by heaven and earth, he perishes between the two; his burst entrails fall, to be laid in no tomb, and the ash, slipping out into the thin air, flees from his mouth: this vengeance upon Judas is not without purpose, which denies him burial, and the requital of his wicked wages thus comes, destined to please as just;
for, when he had just purchased fields from the price of his death—the turf bought with the name of blood, composing tombs for the ashes of strangers, making the ground fruitful out of graves—the impious man lacks the fruitfulness of his own field, and salvation is shut out from the lands which bear those tombs, whose savage trumpet first sounded forth the bloody crime, who as standard-bearer, feigning kisses of peace, a wolf, by a sign brought war upon the lamb. Now there is need of prayers, as the prophetic words proclaim, and need to fill the vacant place. Then, praying for the highest things, they appointed two, Joseph surnamed Justus, and Matthias—which name, as they say, sounds 'little of God' in the Hebrew tongue, and by its very meaning marks him as humble. O how far do human things stand from the judgments above!
By the merit of the lowly one, that man is passed over who was just by the praise of men. The twelve signs of the choir shine, and Olympus hurls its ordinances upon the earth. What this light of the work too sets forth, I shall proceed to declare. The world is divided into the four parts of its quarters; a threefold faith calls upon it, by which name it is washed in the font. Therefore, taking the four three times over, the twelvefold order reckons the whole figure which it has carried round. And to the pious disciples, to whom this baptism is enjoined, the mystic cause granted that the former number should return. The Holy Spirit, descending from the ethereal hall, irradiates with its splendor the place where was the blessed garland of the newborn Church, in whom, with fire as their master, warmth steeped their mouths, and with flowing words there comes forth a teeming harvest of tongues.
No letter performed the office, no vein of native talent dripped from the mouth, nor did the wax stylus mark out the excellent utterances; faith alone was their learning, and the rich material of the word—a heavenly gift, a new origin of speech which came forth manifold, so that one alone suffices to address the eloquent of the whole world. Long ago, when the old expanse of the sea had overcome the waters, the malicious willed to thrust their tower up into heaven, for whom impious hearts severed the modes of speech, and among the proud companions feeling perished together with voice: there was then a confusion of tongue among one like people; now among many there is one, since it rejoices in the image of the coming Church, which is to have concordant sounds; and, returning, it becomes fruitful in peace for the modest, and the humble order gathers up again what the swollen men had scattered.
A very great matter compels me not to leave long unspoken what it is that the gracious Spirit is given twice in flame, and from the height of the Jordan as a dove; this I shall then duly sing, and pay the debts I promised, if he but bring his gifts. These are two signs of a single figure: that there be the simplicity which the fitting bird loves, and—lest it bear slow lukewarmness without the fire of doctrine—that faith be kindled withal; there at the Jordan he destines the like-minded to the waters, here he bids the teachers blaze with their utterance. Love presses upon the minds, ardor seethes in the words. A true 'error' says that these too were moved, in figurative fashion, by new wine—they whom the teaching of heaven, drunk with a fresh fountain, has filled;
new vessels received the new liquor, nor are they corrupted by the bitter draught with which the old vats were drenched, drinking from the vine which, with Christ as its dresser, gave banquets to words, whence the waters which he changed grow red, and he made the thin savor of the Law grow warm in the books of the Church. The third hour grew bright with starry speech. This number the one God possesses, a simple substance distinct in three persons; very many proofs lie open to us, and the times together show this. But Peter first, who fixes his steps upon the sea, now longing to cast the nets for the salvation of men, that as a rejoicing fisher he might lift these throngs from the font, recounted—while the people marveled—the heavenly triumphs.
He came to the western shores, brought forth in the flesh under human law—God, who, free of time, took a beginning from a mother, nor, mighty in majesty, did he deem it base to take on the form of an earthly body, and, the maker of men, to become a part of them, and to call us back to himself at his own price—after the gifts of healing, and after so many sick ones raised up, their languors driven out, when he restored even bewept and life-spent bodies to the light, and granted them again the upper air; permitting himself also, poured forth from his mother's womb, to suffer the laws of the flesh, lest the world should lose life, he himself chose to die; but that which is born of the pregnant virgin, that it is which dies; the innocent one is hung upon the wood, and the burden of the tree is emptied: thus the wound of the wicked one becomes the medicine of God;
he shone forth amid the fearful shadows, seeking the pale realms—him, gleaming with his own light, chaos could not darken, nor could pains make him flee; then the underworld is afraid to exist, and its punishment, holding no one, recoils upon itself; the new tormentor languishes into idleness. Mournful Tartarus groans, because all its chains are at rest. What could death do there, whither the bringer of life was passing? Him almighty God, to whom no end ever threatens, raises up after the holy grave; we beheld Jesus radiant in body, and saw him returned to his own stars. But flee, O wretches, the deadly atonements of the nation, for which, when God came to turn away its old sins, the wounds of sacrilegious guilt only grew greater. Why, Judea, do you, a parricide, drag your own sons through vows of blood?
Why, the blood of Christ being shed, do you, condemned, press these together with yourself, and hasten to bring forth as guilty those not yet even created, and your homicidal tongue has struck at the course of nature?—for whom a birth later than the crime feeds the peril, and the offshoot of the crimes perishes from its very nativity, which, wounded by the voice of its parents, comes into the light already punished. If you have a care to dissolve the increases of the fruitful evil, restore by the blessed waters the extinguished race; the one hope of having the owed punishment remitted is, after the crimes, to be willing to be born again. Now the shepherd multiplies the sheep; no fewer than three thousand of the throng did that day wash in the river of the Lamb. Here for the first time, after God's commands, the use of baptism arises, ratifying the ordinances given; for a threefold power, I declare, gathers this number, having divided it in equal parts.
Perfect is that which 'a thousand' signifies: so at last we set ages to the centuries, when we speak of the times of the world. A thing made perfect once is joined thrice, and the mystic power of number makes the company. It is the holy figure of the new flock. Meanwhile grace is poured through every sense, and the will, made wealthy, reaps riches in love. And, that the pious may come together into covenants by a sure pledge, they appraise their goods, and their wealth binds their hearts without limit, by shared affection; new ordinances flowed for the blessed from a bountiful hand, by which divided wealth is doubled in joyful abundance, and that which they make common to themselves grows for all, and they take possession of the whole, who wish nothing to be their own. From what fountain this uprightness ran, or what was that origin of goodness, here I shall begin to sing:
Twice was the gracious Spirit granted to the holy disciples: once breathed into them by Christ as he rose again; afterward, sent from the stars, the eloquent fire brought down unknown words to the men. Lest we meditate anything untried with vain effort, come, gracious Spirit; without you, you are never spoken of; give the gifts of the tongue, you who give tongues as your gift. These repeated gifts, I judge, confirm the just, that they may keep the two commands inscribed on two tablets: 'Love God with your mind, full of fervent love'; and again it says: 'Let your neighbor too be dear to you, as you are.' This covenant holds all law, which the gracious Spirit, coming twice, creates through hearts: once the Author gave it on earth, that man might be loved; afterward he sent it from the stars, that human hearts might burn for God:
love of God is first, which loves the Lord vehemently; to which there is then a second, which unites the mortal race; yet the later in order aptly begins, and that which is prior follows, accompanying the second; thus the sacred form teaches: 'unless you love the brother whom you are able to see,' it says, 'you do not know how to love God, whom you are not able to see.' Therefore let concord grow warm with equal vow, and let love of the brother store up the Lord within the breast; let it have for itself one substance from a twofold cause. There was a lame man, to whom the first day gave the beginnings of life together with a ruin of his limbs, passing his years in idleness with a weakness coeval with him, to whom, with John accompanying, Peter says, 'Look at us': hope shed light on his greedy wish, and while it denies, it prepares better things.
How often do desperate things aid the burdened, and prosperity born of a sinister seed—hiding glad borders amid sad beginnings—come to fulfill their wishes? The needy man will rejoice to have earned a blessing with a pious empty hand, who, while begging for gifts, was himself given to himself. 'I have here no vein of metal,' he answered, 'to pour forth wealth; I, though poor, shall be richer than the sick man; go forward, depart!' From the voice of him who commanded, a mighty healing leaped out, and with a stranger's gait his feet lived together again; leaving behind his long cradle, the veteran trod the ground, and on new soles the old substance moves itself, for whom, with swift course, his walking brought forth whatever his birth had not produced. The manifest proof of the deed stands firm; but another matter too opens to us what the cause signifies:
the nation holds its name 'Israel' from him who, ailing, had abandoned the wars that strove to contend with God; he himself bore beforehand a figure of the body, grievous, which afterward lame Israel holds in a wound of the mind, which, slipping through its own crimes, is feeble more in heart than in flesh, and in those very spaces, removed for forty years from the border of Egypt, it limps, longing for Egypt and seeking idols. The feeble man is set at the Beautiful Gate; further the wretch cannot go, nor touch the threshold of the gate; guilt denied him the way. Who are they who are wont to bear lame Israel in their heart, and strive to bring him to the gate—which, beautiful, brings forth Jesus from its own name? Isaiah, Daniel, and whatever prophets like them, sing in obscure words the manifest miracles of Christ.
And he who bears the name of the gate himself thus admonishes: 'I am the gate for you; he who refuses to enter through me, that one will be a harmful thief.' The prophets are able to carry men to the gate, speaking of things to be seen rather than things seen; into the temple they cannot bring them; this door was entrusted to Peter, who, having confessed Christ, shows forth things known, not sounding things yet to come. O old one, you will lie forever, unless now, lame man, you entreat Peter!—who, driving off harmful things, shuns the burden of gold, for whom the Author of all decreed that he should not carry a purse for himself: seek the gifts of salvation, do not pursue frail riches, which he who would be truly rich ought to spurn together with the Lord. After the temple's thresholds, the Portico of Solomon holds him, who is rightly called the Peaceable; with faith reigning, who in the world will ever be the Peaceable, except Christ?
He protects every one who, with Peter as leader, is pleasing, by whose presiding the Church rises up. Now with a snow-white throng, through five thousand men, the summit of the Church was growing; Judea labors to keep this from being honored, from whose gift flowed what the working power bestowed, but Peter's love knows not how to forsake Christ: 'We will not keep silent about him,' he says, 'by whose granting salvation returns, who by the right of the Creator supplied the unfinished work; and a part restores the solid beauty which his commands renew; here the Redeemer restores the wounded limbs, here he grants the dead to rise.' Their mind is bent on perpetrating wickedness, and on inflicting sacrilegious slaughter upon the holy reverend ones. O ever wicked! They see the gifts, and stir up wars;
but they abandon what they began, lest they harm those whom the crowd cherishes—for whom, with the lame man as proof, there was a witness of the merit—and by this they were lifting up their own hearts. For the step gave no small miracles to the people, the step which the home-born servant, both untrained and old, now under no laws of age, took up from the ground; with whom nature itself, which long lay still, is amazed to be moved, and lately made firm, by its own walking now marks new footprints which had been foreign to it; yet the wicked brood still rages, and forbids to utter what the joys proclaim. Why, Judea, do you fall so often? You buy that the resurrection of Christ be hidden by theft, but, mad, you seek empty proofs out of sleep with a perishing spite: the things which you perceive to be wrought by power, you wish to be denied by fraud.
When the Lord drew near to destroy hell, He brought back thence His own flesh, death being despoiled. As victor from the citadel of the Cross He dispenses His radiant standards. The sun rushes into darkness, while you (O Judaea) rebel with a blackened heart. The fields tremble, shaken to their depths; the rocks crack open, yet you remain hard. Now the rending of the veil laid bare the mystic things of the temple that had long lain hidden. Your Light came to us; with you alone the night remained. Death without end presses upon him for whom life never rises again. O ancient stock, be joined to the new and be planted in the new books, lest, bereft of food, you perish; without whose gift you will be a withered fig tree, because at no time do you wish to bear fruit to the hand of Christ, nor to behold how greatly the uncertain wild olive flourished, producing olives, while the grape sprouts in fullness among the nations out of thorns.
The wrath of the axe threatens the exhausted roots, that you, cut down, may fall, unless now, transplanted, you grow green again. After the wondrous salvation, born in the ancient body, is heard by the disciples and becomes clear, and the proud nation has learned its threats, they celebrate a hymn with these words: You who, as God, by a craftsman's word make all things alive in their own forms, and who, beholding the things produced, see them beforehand, and create the shapes of things by their names: when You command, the voice was seed, nor did nature, following, delay the rising of Your command; soon the Spirit of Your mouth bent the heavens, bound fast the dry land, poured out the seas, and Your will alone bestowed the material of the work. Lest a like image should bear a deforming yoke, the Ruler of Olympus hid beneath a servile covering, so that the gentiles might fulfill the furies they had begun.
What was Herod's guile, when he stirred up grievous wars by ordering the infants to slaughter? Those snatched from the breast the wounds receive, straying over their little limbs that scarcely find a place; and at the savage tyrant's command, to be born was their punishment, whose onset took away their life, which he who destroyed them knew not was being lived. O new condition of death! to undergo life only for an ending, and, since the first day and the last are at once one and the same, to be able to die rather than to know how to die. Who, with dry eye or with ceasing groan, could recount the crime of Pilate, which the very elements bewail? Under whom as judge Christ willed to subject His own members to perils for the world, that flesh might dissolve the carnal evil, and the fierce enemy, from whose cunning flowed the darts of poison, might lose the tearful expiations of the ancient war.
Since an equal substance prevailed, lest the burden of guilt should further pass on through offspring, the condemnation of the Just One became liberty for the guilty. Grant that the seeds of the word be cultivated through Your gifts, and may this hand, no longer sluggish, using the fallow ground, gather sheaves while You make them fruitful, from which You Yourself may build the granaries of Your heaven, and crown the wheaten faith while the tares perish. Where the holy feet shone, the earth seemed to run together under a heavy weight; the kindly Spirit shone upon them, and eloquence grew in the tongues that arose. The prayers, once heard, prevailed: we, the human stock, are earthly matter, and man by his very name betrays his clay parent. The force of the apostolic voice bent and drove the fields, which made those created from the earth to have faith: but why does one place leap up the more and is shaken?
Scripture sang that the feet which bring peace are comely; therefore under their steps the joyful earth is moved, to whom by the word of the holy Master peace was committed, which, carried abroad through them, went out into all lands by a swift gift. Behold, among so many excellent throngs one heart begins to be, and the people obtains one soul. Who could doubt the mysteries of the teaching, that one God is three Persons? when thousands of the multitude come together with one accord, and the souls of the thronging number are as one man; which crowd, destined to bear the everlasting cross, and having followed the faithful Lord, spurned the fields, destined to possess the heavens: this indeed is the power.
It is a stronger thing to gain the whole out of a part, and to weigh things abiding against things that perish, and to pursue gain through losses. You do not do this, O prodigal seller of goods, but you, ambitious one, who desire to keep your rights, and in a little time leave behind what you always wish to be yours. Thus to scatter the fields was to be unwilling to lack them; for what does substance profit which, when kept, perishes? which, placed in the citadel of the stars, he who yields holds more conveniently. Seek thence, O creditor, the help of greater interest, and store up your treasures where they cannot suffer adversity; no chance wears down perpetual riches there.
You shall hold without end what you make the Lord to owe you. Now look, learned reader, upon the pious portions, and turn over with your shrewd mind what you should suppose it to be, that the pomp of ruddy metal is laid before the feet, not owed to sacred hands; they prove it ought to be cast aside, since they shun to touch it, and they teach that the gold which they set beneath their steps is to be trodden down; from which earthly cares come to the heart, like a boaster scattering similar soil. Learn, O greedy one, in what place your mind should stand; what you guard panting, what you press by your watch, what you more often burn to behold, into whose embrace through dreams you ever run back, the pious shudder to handle, nor even then do they carry it when they prepare good deeds: how greatly do they observe it to be wickedness to rest in it, and the gold one bears as a gift is despised!
Unhappy Ananias fell by the wound of his guilt, a thief of his own assessment under his own fraud; the impious wife falls, struck by like punishment, because from one crime a common wickedness is made, whenever consent makes a crime already done its own: for that sentence was the avenger of the greedy mind. In short, when does the love of gold cease? It ever burns the breast; by it the mortal race is captured; from this root every evil sprouts, whose ambition burns the more violently as its measure grows, and the gains added to plunder feign a hunger. But, since a changed will holds the crime of falsehood, and since a precaution of vow has already been made, it is fitting to stand firm, and not to wish to violate it afterward; it is more lawful to retain one's own right than to take it away.
The vengeance upon the two sanctioned an example for all, lest anyone call those things gifts which a debt once pledged demands. Look, true faith, and, bright in blessed doctrine, seek the words of Peter: Who persuaded you to deceive, and shut you in by proving it? You do not, by speaking such things, delude men; you lie to God. The doctrine which condemns the wicked edifies the pious. That the kindly Spirit is God, full instruction is from many books. And yet from this faith takes its arms: whither do we strive further? Who would doubt what Peter says? You who rightly come to the waters, stand in this place; it sufficiently withstands the enemies, that which the form of the Church proclaims.
Fear the judgment concerning your end, you who are the author of your crime and of your error: Arius, unhappy, rushed forth with his belly poured out, falling the more in mind, and, slain by death, bore a death in common with Judas, who, hanging by the throat, emptied of his bowels, died; nor does punishment set apart those whom equal guilt binds, who prepare a wound from their mouth against the honor of the Majesty: this one betrayed, that one tore apart, both guilty by sacrilegious speech. God, the arbiter of the world, is in three Persons, in whom there is at once one power. He took away from these the appearances of works, created by His goodness, who looked not upon the beauty of the Maker, and, erring, suppose that He who made all things is Himself made.
Fame stirs the peoples to hasten from all places to the mystic signs of salvation, and to bring down upon their beds the sick afflicted with plagues, whom they set in that part of the city where Peter holds his sacred footsteps. O if a more eloquent course should move my mouth, and an iron voice, an eloquent tongue, gave a hundred sounds in this praise, how much more splendid would be the compass of my speech! to open each thing with varied figures, and not to enclose great things in scanty words—what would be the face of things, when in a little time the flocks of diseases fell, and unforeseen salvation flowed to all, which the shadow of light, poured from his serene body, creates, and, removed from doubtful death, they raised their head.
But they could not catch sight of the Author of the good, whose lofty power hides the help it bestows, and the thing is prepared before any hope could be, and the hidden medicine gives stealthy rewards of life, and snatches away the fever of the panting body while the sick man knows it not—a help which he who proves it has come does not know to be present, and the power of the deed grows lacking recognition; whose image of splendor, flitting over all things and cleansing harmful things by its touch, stands by its gifts, fleeting to the eyes, and everywhere leaves the couches full of its bounty, and casts the dark foes out from the senses, and strips the limbs of their ghostly mists. Go swift, Peter, and, treading the path of men's cares, shake out your steps; with you the medicine of salvation walks; press on the way.
Hope is swift toward joys, that there be no delay in the feet; your pathway is life; if you hasten, now no one lies sick; you by the motions of your shadow lift up all bodies; and this at once the silent crowd, unaware of its own wish, receives, which, when one asks, one alone receives. [Therefore to all came salvation, at the asking of one.] Seek, you whom reverence for so great a deed stirs, what typological meaning this thing bears, and, with the books unrolled, learn that this glory was granted to Peter alone; and behold what lessons lie hidden beneath this appearance; which I will attempt to speak, although such ability is granted only as that a dry rivulet should drive great waves.