VERSE 8. — 'Who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as issuing from the womb?' 36. The world, raging against the saints, was shut up by God. Earthly princes being humbled, the Lord through them raised the Church above the summit of the world. — For what do we take the sea to be but the world, what the womb but the conception of carnal thought? For by this name of womb the malicious thought of carnal men is designated. Which womb conceives not the substance of a body to bring forth offspring, but a cause of grief to fulfill iniquity. Concerning this womb of the heart it is said elsewhere: 'He hath conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity' (Ps. 7:15 [14]). By this womb the wicked conceive, when they think evil things.
By this womb they bring forth, when they work out the evil things which they have conceived. The sea, therefore, was breaking forth as issuing from the womb, when the waves of secular threats, conceived from the iniquity of carnal thought, raged unto the destruction of the holy Church. But, God being the Author, this sea was shut up with doors, because against the swellings of the persecutors holy men were set as it were certain doors, that by their miracles and reverence the wraths of the persecutors might be broken. For the Lord, earthly princes being humbled, through them raised the holy Church above the summit of the world, and, the power of that same Church being erected, restrained the assaults of the raging sea. But let us hear what the Lord did to this raging sea. There follows: