37. It abandoned the apostles it had begotten, afterward made alive by the grace of Christ. In eggs one thing is what is seen, another what is hoped for; and hope cannot be seen, as Paul testifies, who says: For what a man seeth, why doth he hope for? (Rom. 8:24). What, then, is designated by the ostrich's eggs, if not the apostles brought forth from the flesh of the Synagogue, who, while they show themselves despised and humble in the world, teach men to hope for glory in the heights? For, cast off and held as of no account among the proud, they lay upon the earth like eggs; but within them lay hidden that whereby they might live, and, lifted up on the wings of hope, might fly to heavenly things.
These eggs the ostrich leaves upon the earth, because the Synagogue, disdaining to hear the apostles whom she had begotten in the flesh, forsook them to the calling of the Gentiles. But with wondrous power the Lord warmed these same eggs in the dust, because He raised up living offspring of the apostles among that Gentile world lately cast off; and those whom the Synagogue had despised as though senseless and lifeless, they themselves now, living through the mastery of doctrine, fly in the veneration of the nations. The ostrich leaves her eggs in the dust, because all whom the Synagogue begot by preaching she in no way lifted up from earthly desires. Because indeed the ancient enemy finds such desires conceived in the heart, he snatches the beset minds even into crimes. Whence it is also added: