Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues the fatherly providence of Wisdom toward the Hebrews after the departure from Egypt, and by antithesis compares it with the vengeance that the same Wisdom inflicted on the Egyptians. Whence first, he celebrates the miracle of the waters gushing from the rock at God's command, to relieve the thirst of the Hebrews, and contrasts it with the miracle by which God turned the waters of Egypt into blood, to afflict and punish the Egyptians who had killed the children of the Hebrews. Second, at verse 19, he teaches that God punished the Egyptians through vile beasts -- such as frogs, flies, and serpents -- which they had previously worshiped as gods, in order to chastise their pride and to show His power. Finally, at verse 21, he shows the marvelous clemency of God, who, although by His omnipotence He could have blown away and annihilated the Egyptians with a mere nod, nevertheless chastised them moderately through small and lowly animals, so that they might be converted to repentance and obtain pardon. For, he says, "You have disposed all things in measure, and number, and weight."
Vulgate Text: Wisdom 11:1-27
1. She directed their works through the hands of the holy prophet. 2. They journeyed through deserts that were uninhabited, and in desolate places they pitched their tents. 3. They stood against their enemies and avenged themselves on their foes. 4. They thirsted, and called upon You, and water was given them from a very high rock, and relief from thirst from a hard stone. 5. For by the very things through which their enemies suffered punishment -- the failure of their drink -- and in which, when the children of Israel abounded, they rejoiced: 6. by these same things, when they were in need, it went well with them. 7. For instead of a fountain of an ever-flowing river, You gave human blood to the unjust. 8. And when these were diminished as a rebuke for the killing of infants, You gave the others abundant water unexpectedly. 9. Showing through the thirst that then occurred how You exalted Your own and slew their adversaries. 10. For when they were tried, receiving discipline with mercy indeed, they understood how the impious, judged with wrath, suffered torments. 11. For You tested these as a father admonishing, but You condemned those as a stern king interrogating. 12. For whether absent or present, they were tormented alike. 13. For a double weariness seized them, and groaning with the memory of past things. 14. For when they heard that through their own torments it went well with the others, they remembered the Lord, marveling at the final outcome. 15. For him whom they had mocked when he was wickedly cast out, at the end of events they marveled at, not thirsting in the same manner as the just. 16. But for the senseless thoughts of their iniquity, because some in their error worshiped mute serpents and worthless beasts, You sent upon them a multitude of mute animals for vengeance: 17. that they might know that by those things through which a man sins, by these also he is punished. 18. For Your almighty hand, which created the world from formless matter, was not unable to send upon them a multitude of bears or bold lions, 19. or beasts of a new kind, full of rage, unknown, either breathing out a fiery vapor, or emitting foul smoke, or flashing terrible sparks from their eyes: 20. whose very injury could have destroyed them, and whose mere appearance could have killed them through fear. 21. But even without these, they could have been killed by a single breath, being pursued by their own deeds, and scattered by the breath of Your power: but You have disposed all things in measure, and number, and weight. 22. For to be exceedingly powerful belongs to You alone always: and who shall resist the strength of Your arm? 23. For the whole world before You is like a grain upon a balance, and like a drop of morning dew that falls upon the earth. 24. But You have mercy on all, because You can do all things, and You overlook the sins of men for the sake of repentance. 25. For You love all things that are, and hate nothing of those things which You have made: for You did not establish or make anything out of hatred. 26. And how could anything endure, unless You willed it? Or how would that which was not called by You be preserved? 27. But You spare all things, because they are Yours, O Lord, who loves souls.
1. "She directed their works through the hands of the holy prophet" -- that is, Moses. For "directed," the Greek is euodose, that is, she directed well, led by a good way, prospered them, and caused the works and journeys of the Hebrews in the desert over a span of forty years to have happy outcomes. "In the hands," that is, through the guidance, action, direction, and governance of Moses, and, in a word, through Moses as God's minister and instrument: for the hand is the instrument of instruments. Hence in Scripture it designates the instrumental cause; so in the Prophets it is often said: "The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, of Isaiah, of Zechariah," etc., that is, through Haggai, Isaiah, and Zechariah, who were the hand, that is the instrument, namely the mouth of God: for prophecy is properly made by the mouth, not the hand. "In the hand," therefore, means that by the work and ministry of Moses, God happily governed the Hebrews and led them through the vast wildernesses of Arabia, so that in the arid desert they abounded in food, drink, clothing, and all other necessities.
Thus in 1 Maccabees 3:6, through the hand of Judas Maccabeus "salvation was directed," that is, by the work and leadership of Judas, victory was won for the Hebrews: for the salvation of a people depends on a good and wise leader, king, or prince. Thus the salvation of the Hebrews rested on Moses, as a prophet and a holy one at that. Happy are the republics and kingdoms that have holy and wise kings, of which we have many in our age, through whom God providently blesses the peoples subject to them, overthrows heresies, restores the orthodox faith, and extends the rights and boundaries of the Church: to Him be praise and glory.
Now, how Wisdom directed the works of the Hebrews, he explains as follows:
2. "They journeyed through deserts that were uninhabited, and in desolate places they pitched" (many incorrectly read "made") "their dwellings." — In Greek, en abato epexan skenas, that is, in trackless places they pitched tents, namely in the Arabian desert, whose inhabitants, because they live not in houses but in tents, are called Scenitae (tent-dwellers), according to Pliny, Book VI, chapter 18, and Noma-
-des (Nomads), because they graze flocks and live off them. This alludes to Deuteronomy 32:10: "He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror and vast solitude," where the Septuagint renders autarkesen, that is, He provided him with sufficiency or necessities in the desert, in the thirst of heat, in a waterless land, that is, one lacking water and dry: in the thirst of heat, that is, in a parching, scorching thirst, burnt by the blazing heat of the sun; Aquila has en atakto aoiketo trapomene, that is, in an uncultivated, uninhabitable land, full of horror.
3. "They stood against their enemies and avenged themselves on their foes." — For the Hebrews in the desert, with God as their leader, repelled and overthrew many enemies who blocked their way, such as the Amalekites, Exodus 17:8; Arad king of Canaan, Numbers 21:1; the Moabites, Numbers 22:3; the Midianites, Numbers 31:2; Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, Deuteronomy 2:32 and 3:1, and others like them.
4. "They thirsted and called upon You, and water was given them from a very high rock, and relief from thirst from a hard stone." — For "very high," the Greek is akrotomou, that is, steep or cut from a height, and therefore hard, as others translate. This alludes to Deuteronomy 8:15, where our translator renders it "from the hardest rock"; but the Septuagint, whom the author of Wisdom follows as usual, translate akrotomou: for this rock was situated on the high mount Horeb, which is a ridge of Mount Sinai, Exodus 17:6. Therefore it is not necessary to say that our translator read akrotatou, that is "highest," instead of akrotomou, although Jansen thinks so. "Relief from thirst" -- in Greek, iama dipses, that is, the remedy or cure for thirst (for just as food is the remedy for hunger, so water is the remedy and relief for thirst) -- "from a hard stone." He notes the miracle of the rock, which, struck by Moses, poured out most abundant waters for the Hebrews thirsting in the desert, waters most clear and sweet, says Josephus; and this happened twice: once at Rephidim and Horeb, Exodus 17:6, and a second time at Kadesh, Numbers 20:11. The Jews relate, and Cantacuzenus from them, that this rock was placed on a cart and carried along, accompanying the Hebrews through the desert wherever they went, and that everywhere it watered them with a constant flow of water. And the Apostle seems to imply this in 1 Corinthians 10:4: "They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them." St. Chrysostom, Ambrosiaster, Photius (as cited by Oecumenius), and St. Thomas seem to say the same, suggesting that either the rock itself or at least the stream of water gushing from the rock followed the Hebrews. But this seems fabulous, and the Apostle's meaning is different, as I showed there. Equally fabulous is what they relate, that waters were given to the Hebrews on account of the merits of Miriam, Moses' sister; the pillar of cloud that went before the camp, on account of Aaron's merits; and the manna, on account of Moses' merits: so that after Miriam's death the waters ceased; after Aaron's death the pillar vanished; after Moses' death the manna failed. For this is clearly false from the history of Moses in the Pentateuch, as I showed there.
5. "For by the very things through which their enemies suffered punishment -- the failure of their drink -- and in which, when the children of Israel abounded, they rejoiced: by these same things, when they were in need, it went well with them." — The meaning is: just as in Egypt the Egyptians were tormented by thirst when all the waters were turned to blood by Moses, while the Hebrews, having pure waters and drinking them, rejoiced; so also after the departure from Egypt, when the same Hebrews lacked water in the desert, it went well with them, since the rock struck by Moses poured out most abundant waters for them. Thus by the same things by which the Egyptians were punished, the Hebrews were blessed: for the bloody waters tormented the Egyptians, while the pure and abundant waters given to the Hebrews wonderfully refreshed them in the desert, just as they had refreshed them before in Egypt. That this is the meaning is clear from what follows and from the Greek, which reads: "for by those things through which their enemies were tortured, by these same things they, being in need, received benefit." Our translator, however, in order to explain the first hemistich more fully, added "from the failure of their drink, and in these, when the children of Israel abounded, they rejoiced." See the history in Exodus 7:18. Therefore understand "when they abounded" as meaning the Hebrews in Egypt with pure and drinkable waters, which the Egyptians lacked because the waters had been turned to blood; although our author Castro understands it of the Hebrews supplied with water drawn from the rock by Moses, not in Egypt but in the desert. But the former interpretation is more fitting and better corresponds to the Greek, which takes the entire first verse as referring to the plague of the waters turned to blood, which occurred in Egypt, not in the desert, according to the meaning already given.
7. "For instead of a fountain of an ever-flowing" (in Greek aenaou, that is, perennial, constantly flowing) "river" (the Nile) "You gave human blood to the unjust." — That is, instead of the Nile. You gave the Egyptians blood to drink in place of the waters of the Nile, when You turned the waters of the Nile into blood, Exodus 7:19. The Greek is haimati luthrodei, that is, gory, bloody, putrid blood, which troubled the Egyptians. Isidorus Clarius incorrectly reads lutrodei and translates it as "redemptive blood," explaining it as the blood of the paschal lamb, which, smeared on the doorposts of the Hebrew houses, preserved them untouched from the angel striking the firstborn of the Egyptians; or of the waters of the Nile turned to blood: for this blood was a sign that God wished to avenge the innocent blood of the Hebrew infants killed by the Egyptians, and therefore wished to liberate and lead them out of Egypt.
8. "And when these were diminished as a rebuke for the killing of infants, You gave the others abundant water unexpectedly." — That is, when the Egyptians, on account of the waters turned to blood and the consequent thirst, were diminished in strength, life, and number (for many were killed either by thirst or by drinking water corrupted with blood, as Philo and Josephus testify), and this justly, as a "rebuke" -- in Greek, eis theorian, that is, for the seizure and retribution of the Hebrew infanticide: for the Egyptians were deservedly punished by the bloody waters, since they had stained them with the blood and death of the Hebrew infants. Then "You gave to them," namely to the Hebrews in
the desert laboring with thirst, "abundant water" gushing from the rock.
The Greek more expressively reads, eis theorian nepioktonou prostagmatos, that is, "as a rebuke or reproach for the infanticidal decree." For the bloody waters in reality reproached the Egyptians for their slaughter of the Hebrews' infants; hence Vatablus translates, "to reproach them for the edict about killing infants." From this it is clear that some incorrectly refer the phrase "when they were diminished" to the Hebrews, as if to say, "When the Hebrews were diminished in number because of the killing of their offspring." For from the Greek it is evident that it refers to the Egyptians, in the sense I have given: so say Cantacuzenus, Osorius, Vatablus, Jansen, Clarius, Castro, and others. See the commentary on Exodus 7:20.
Moreover, our translator rendered the Greek not word for word, but faithfully and clearly according to the sense. For the Greek literally reads: "Instead of a perennial fountain of a river, being troubled by gory blood, as a correction for the infanticidal decree, You gave them abundant water unexpectedly." The word parachthenta, that is "troubled," is used in a Hebraism (for the Hebrews lack cases, and so express all with one case and ending); it means the same as "for those troubled" or "when the Egyptians were troubled and dismayed" -- which our translator renders as "when they were diminished," namely in spirit, as well as in strength, life, and number.
9. "Showing through the thirst that then occurred how You exalted Your own and slew their adversaries." — In Greek ekolasas, that is, "You chastised," namely when You punished them with death. That is, You caused the Hebrews in the desert, experiencing thirst and thereby learning how great an evil thirst is, to understand from this how beneficent You had been to them, O Lord, when You miraculously gave them water from the rock and exalted them; while their enemies, the Egyptians, You slew with thirst and bloody waters. For the Egyptians lack rain, because Egypt is made fertile by the flooding and silting of the Nile. Therefore the Egyptians regarded the Nile as their god, as St. Athanasius testifies in his oration Against Idols, and Pliny in Book VIII, chapter 46. Hence that ancient salutation of the Nile: "Jupiter of Egypt, the Nile" -- on which see Rhediginus, Book 27, chapter 6. Therefore it was a terrible punishment for the Egyptians when the Nile, which formerly gave them harvest and life, now corrupted with blood brought them barrenness and death. Moreover, "You slew" means "You had slain," and would have slain thereafter if needed: for the death of the Egyptians through thirst preceded by a year and more the gushing of water from the rock given to the Hebrews in the desert. For the Sage by a beautiful antithesis shows the providence of God, benign toward the pious and avenging toward the impious, through the same water, though displayed at different times.
10. "For when they were tried, receiving discipline indeed with mercy, they understood how the impious, judged with wrath, suffered torments." — He amplifies what he has said, that is: When the Hebrews were tried and afflicted by thirst for a short time, and through it mercifully chastised by God in the desert, from this they learned with what great wrath God punished the Egyptians.
that is, of the Hebrews -- to expose and drown their infants in the Nile. They had cast him out, that is, rejected him, esteemed him as nothing, and indeed mocked him (in Greek aponta gleuazontes, that is, they denied him with sneering). But in the end of events, that is, as in the Greek, at the end or outcome of events, when they finally experienced his sharp vengeance through so many plagues, they marveled, "not thirsting in the same manner as the just" -- meaning that they experienced a different God in their thirst than the Hebrews did: for the latter received water divinely; the former drank undrinkable blood instead of water. So says Jansen. Second, more precisely, one may refer "whom" to Moses, that is: The Egyptians, who had forced the infant Moses to be exposed and had mocked him as one cast away, at last marveled at him in the outcome, when he led the Hebrews out of Egypt. For then they felt his plagues, which he inflicted on them by God's authority, and especially when they were struck by him with bloody waters and thirst -- but the Hebrews were not. This seems to note the plots of the Egyptians, by which Moses was compelled to leave Pharaoh's royal court and flee to Midian lest he be killed, as Josephus relates in Book II of the Antiquities, chapter 5, and Philo in his book On the Fugitives and Book I of the Life of Moses, and Paul in Hebrews 11:24: "By faith," he says, "Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to have the pleasure of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." By which word he indicates that Moses was reproached, and received with laughter and mockery, and driven out of Egypt. So say Lyranus, Denis, Lorinus, Castro, and others. Less correctly Lyranus explains this of the Hebrews, as if to say: The Hebrews, who at first had mocked Moses as weak, later marveled at him when he inflicted plagues on Egypt.
Thus far concerning the plague of thirst; now follow the other plagues inflicted on the Egyptians through small creatures.
16. "But for the senseless thoughts of their iniquity, because some in their error worshiped mute serpents and worthless beasts, You sent upon them a multitude of mute animals for vengeance." — That is, because the Egyptians were most superstitious, and therefore worshiped various beasts as gods, God, to chastise this superstition and idolatry of theirs, sent upon them through Moses small creatures of various kinds to torment them. For the second plague of Egypt was an innumerable multitude of frogs, Exodus 8:2; the third was gnats, Exodus 8:16; the fourth was flies, Exodus 8:24; the eighth was locusts, Exodus 10:4. See the commentary there.
For "iniquity," some incorrectly read "iniquities" and add "proceed" (so the Glossa Interlinearis) or "followed" (so Hugo). For "mute," the Greek is aloga, that is, lacking speech, meaning mute, or lacking reason, meaning irrational: for logos signifies both speech and reason, and animals that lack reason also lack speech, since speech is the indicator of reason and mind. For "worthless beasts," the Greek is knodala eutele, that is, lowly creatures. Knodala
comes from knodala thai, that is, because they are caught by dogs, says Aristophanes in the Wasps; hence Homer, Odyssey 9: "All the beasts that the land nourishes or the sea" -- signifying that the Egyptians worshiped animals of every kind. For, as St. Bonaventure says, under the form of a serpent they worshiped Aesculapius, Jupiter under the form of a ram, Mercury under that of a dog, and Apis under that of a bull. Properly, however, knodala, says Nannius on chapter 16:1, are marine or aquatic animals, so called from knodalesthai, that is, because they move in the sea; and under these the Sage understands frogs, flies, scarabs, and other creatures of a similar nature. Nicander in the Theriaca uses knodala for insects and reptiles; Oppian, however, makes it a certain genus of serpents, under which he lists these species: haimobrodeis, named from a flow of blood; kerastas, whose heads are horned; trichoborous, named from the loss of hair; and toichorous, because they bore through walls.
Moreover, that the Egyptians worshiped as gods, among terrestrial animals, lions, dog-headed apes, dogs, cats, wolves, serpents, and asps, is attested by Philo in his book On the Decalogue, Tertullian in the Apology, chapter 24, Cyprian in his book to Demetrianus, number 5, and Athenagoras in his Apology for the Christians; among aquatic animals, crocodiles and other fish; and among birds, ibises and hawks, as is clear from the same Philo. Hence that verse of Virgil in Aeneid VIII, about Egypt: "Monstrous gods of every kind, and the barking Anubis."
For this reason the infant Christ, fleeing Herod, was carried into Egypt, to overthrow its gods and triumph over them; hence when He entered, the idols of Egypt fell, as Isaiah had foretold in chapter 19, verse 1: "He shall enter Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence." See the commentary there. But nowhere do we read that the Egyptians worshiped frogs, gnats, flies, or locusts, which God sent upon them through Moses. Therefore, when the Sage says that they were punished by mute beasts because they worshiped mute beasts, understand beasts of the same kind in general, not in species. Finally, that the Egyptians worshiped not only the dog, the ram, and the vulture, but also the scarab beetle as a divinity, Eusebius teaches in Book III of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter 2.
17. "That they might know that by those things through which a man sins, by these also he is punished." — The Syriac has "it shall be repaid"; the Arabic, "that they may know that by those things by which a man sins, he is tormented." That is, because the Egyptians worshiped beasts, they were punished by vile beasts -- not of the same species but of a different one. The Sage adds the reason in the following verse. To this maxim are added the laws of retaliation enacted both by God and by princes. Well known is God's decree soon after the flood, Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds human blood, his blood shall be shed." And that of Christ, Matthew 26:52: "All who take up the sword shall perish by the sword." And Isaiah 33:1: "Woe to you who plunder, shall you not be plundered yourself? And you who despise, shall you not be despised?" And Habakkuk 2:8: "Because you (O Babylon) have despoiled many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall despoil you." Finally, "With what measure you measure, it shall be measured back to you," Luke 6:38.
Morally, learn here that every vice is its own punishment, and brings its own torment upon itself. Thus gluttony begets nausea, sleeplessness, headaches and stomachaches, by which it is itself punished; hence the rich man in the parable was punished in his tongue by the fire of Gehenna, because he had sinned with his tongue. Lust begets venereal disease and many other maladies, by which it is itself punished. Avarice begets a thousand cares, anxieties, troubles, and pains by which it is itself fined. Pride begets innumerable anguishes of spirit, because one does not obtain the honors one seeks, but is rather everywhere humiliated and cast down: and so it begets a thousand tumults and commotions of the soul, which continually tear and rend the angry man. Sloth begets poverty, hunger, and nakedness, by which it is itself chastised. Envy torments the envious person more than the rival, for like a viper, the innards of the envious man are gnawed and eaten away by grief and anguish. Wherefore St. Augustine truly and rightly says: "You have commanded, O Lord, and so it is, that every disordered soul is a punishment to itself." And St. Chrysostom on Psalm 3: "Where the fountain of sin is, there is the wound of punishment." The rabbis list five men who were punished in the very things in which they excelled and perhaps took pride: first is Samson, in his strength; second, Saul, in his tall stature; third, Absalom, in his thick and handsome hair, from which he was left hanging and died; fourth, King Zedekiah, in his beautiful eyes, and therefore he was blinded; fifth, King Asa, in his feet, and so he was struck with disease of the feet, 3 Kings 15:23. As they say: "Usually the things in which we sin become the scourges of sinners," says Rupert on John, chapter 11, and vices justly become punishments. Some represent this very thing in a fine emblem, depicting a horse spurred on by Cupid riding upon it, fleeing, but dragging after itself a millstone tied to its tail, about which the verse says:
"As the horse flees, and ever its woe follows behind, Dragging the heavy weight of the rough millstone; So the wretch shall flee, and his woe shall ever follow, Who flees the avenging God behind his back."
18. "For Your almighty hand, which created the world from formless matter, was not unable to send upon them a multitude of bears or bold lions." — "Unable," that is, powerless; ou gar eporei, that is, it was not in difficulty, not at a loss, not constrained. For "formless matter," the Greek is amorphou, that is, without form, as St. Augustine reads it in On Faith and the Creed, chapter 2; the Syriac has "unknown." This alludes to Genesis 1:2: "The earth was void and empty," where the Septuagint translates "invisible and unformed"; Aquila and Theodotion have "void and nothing." Whence first, Eugubinus there says the world was created from matter in-
-visible, that is, from nothing, for nothing is unseen, because what does not exist cannot be seen. Second, the Seleucian and Hermian heretics, as St. Augustine and Epiphanius testify in the book On Heresies, from this passage supposed that prime matter had coexisted with God from eternity, and that He in time formed the world from it by imposing form, or rather forms, upon matter -- but this is heresy. Third, Philo in his book On the Creation of the World takes "invisible matter" as the idea from which the world was made: for this preexisted invisibly in the intelligible world, namely in the mind of God -- but this is symbolic and mystical. Fourth, others say that the preposition "from" signifies an order not of time but of nature: for matter was created by God prior in nature to form, since matter is the subject in which form inheres. That is, "Your hand, O Lord, created the world consisting of formless matter, which the same hand of Yours first created in the order of nature, so as to form the whole world from it." But this is too subtle and beside the point, for God did not draw the form of the world out of its matter, but simultaneously in both time and nature created matter and form from nothing and united them. Moreover, even if matter is prior to form in the genus of material cause, conversely form is prior to matter in the genus of formal cause: for form gives being to a thing, and consequently gives matter its definite nature and species. I say therefore, fifth, that God created the kosmos, that is, the world, not as to its substance but as to its adornment (for this is what kosmos means) and its species from invisible matter, that is, from formless matter. For the Sage here assigns the material cause not of the creation of the world, but of the things and species created: for on the first day of the world, God created from nothing these three things -- heaven, earth, and the abyss, that is, an immense body of waters -- but crude and unformed. Then on the following six days, from these as from invisible matter, that is, crude and formless chaos, He formed, adorned, and shaped all the things and species of the world. For the Greek ktizo, which our translator renders as "create," means generally to fabricate, found, or form. Therefore, by "invisible matter," the Sage does not mean prime matter utterly devoid of all form (for there is no mention of this either in Genesis or anywhere else), but simple bodies, which were invisible because of the darkness that was over the face of the abyss, and because they lacked their proper beauty and adornment. Hence they are called "formless," meaning they lacked not substantial but accidental form. On the first day of the world, then, heaven and earth were created crude and formless, that is, unadorned; and then, adorned with their accidental forms -- namely light, motion, sun, moon, stars, and every other ornament -- on the remaining days they were made beautiful and visible. Thus the Apostle in Hebrews 11:3 says not that the ages were created, but "fitted together by the word of God, so that from things invisible, things visible were made," because on the first day of the world, before light came into being, the earth was not visible and lacked all adornment: for neither herbs and plants clothed it, nor did humans and animals inhabit it; it was also covered with waters, so that it could neither be seen nor was it worthy of being seen. So the Fathers and interpreters generally explain Genesis 1:2.
19. "Bold lions." — The translator of Origen in Book IV of On First Principles, penultimate chapter, renders this as "fierce lions": for fierceness makes them bold. "Or beasts of a new kind, full of rage" (in Greek, neoktisto thumo, that is, full of recent or newly created fury -- for it was not necessary for God for this vengeance to create new beasts, but it would have sufficed to endow already created ones with a new ferocity and fury), "unknown beasts,"
"or breathing out a fiery vapor, or emitting the smell of smoke, or flashing terrible sparks from their eyes: whose very injury could have destroyed them, and whose mere appearance could have killed them through fear." — For "breathing out a fiery vapor," the Greek is purpnoon phusonta asthma, that is, breathing a fire-spouting or flame-vomiting breath, as the fiery serpents with burning breath, sent by God against the murmuring Hebrews, breathed, Numbers 21:6, Deuteronomy 8:15. Hence fish called Physeteres, as if "blowers," which Strabo, Book 15, writes raise a great and swelling wave and darkness by their blowing, so that sailors cannot see what is before their eyes.
"Emitting the smell of smoke." — In Greek, bromou likmomenou kapnou, that is, the kindlings of fanned smoke, that is, breathing with noise, roaring, and hissing, smoke fanned by the back-and-forth of their breath. So say Nannius and Jansen, in accord with that verse of Ovid, Metamorphoses VII: "Bronze-footed bulls breathe Vulcan's fire from their nostrils."
And concerning Leviathan or the whale, Job says in chapter 41, verses 9 and following: "His sneezing is the splendor of fire, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn." Olaus Magnus, Book 21, chapter 5, writes that such whales exist in Norway. Such beasts, then, roar and breathe out smoke with their roaring, terrifying on both counts, so as to strike and nearly kill with fright those who hear and see them.
"Flashing terrible sparks from their eyes" — in Greek astraptontas, that is, lightning-like, as if hurling thunderbolts and flashes of lightning: for a blazing light flashing from the eyes indicates an inner fury, from which it springs.
21. "But even without these, they could have been killed by a single breath, being pursued by their own deeds, and scattered by the breath of Your power: but You have disposed all things in measure, and number, and weight." — That is, indeed God could have blown upon and killed the Egyptians without bears, lions, or any other beasts, by a single breath, that is, by a single blast, or rather by a single word and by His mere command and nod. But You moderated Your wrath, O Lord, because You govern, temper, and measure all things by a certain reason, moderation, and equity. Beautifully and piously Rupert says, in Book I on Exodus, chapter 34: "God presented a great spectacle to the whole world when He subdued the pride of the Egyptians not with lions and bears, but with frogs and flies." And again in chapter 38: "Behold what battle lines He drew up! With what ranks the Lord filled His camp while fighting for Israel: frogs, gnats, flies, and locusts were the formations of His camp. And from such cohorts He assembled entire legions against the mighty Egyptians -- each individual soldier small and weak in itself, but strong enough against the armies of Pharaoh, with God as their commanding general: for what a great army of men could not have accomplished, those phalanxes of locusts valiantly performed as their military service."
"By a single breath." — Cantacuzenus understands by "breath" a strong wind, for example a prester (firestorm) or ecnephia (hurricane), which levels houses, trees, and towers, and indeed uproots and carries them elsewhere. Others understand it as an angel, for an angel in one night struck down 185,000 Assyrians in the camp of Sennacherib, 4 Kings 19:35. More simply, take it as a blast or breath, for this better signifies the power and might of God, by which He could have killed all the Egyptians as easily as a man breathes. For thus Job says, chapter 4, verse 8: "I have seen those who work iniquity and sow sorrows and reap them, perish by the blowing of God, and be consumed by the breath of His wrath."
"Being pursued by their own deeds." — In Greek, hupo tes dikes diochthentes, that is, driven or propelled by the judgment or criminal cause (by which their crimes are recognized, condemned, and punished by a judge; hence our translator renders it, "by their own deeds"). That is, the Egyptians could have been killed by God with a mere breath, a mere word, a mere sentence, just as a judge pursues, condemns, and executes a criminal by his sentence, by which he consigns him to death for his crimes. But a judge executes this sentence, which is physically unable to kill, through an executioner who punishes the criminal. God's sentence, however, needs no executor or executioner, because it is efficacious in itself and actually carries out the punishment. For God's speaking is doing; hence, "By the word of God the heavens were established, and by the breath of His mouth all their power." Thus St. Augustine, in Book II Against the Letter of Petilian, chapter 19, replies to those complaining that Catholics persecuted the Donatists, that it was not the Catholics but the crimes and wickedness of the Donatists that persecuted them as their authors.
"And scattered by the breath of Your power." — In Greek likmethentes, that is, shaken as by a winnowing fan. That is, God could have scattered, dispersed, routed, and destroyed the Egyptians by the mere blast of His power, as by a winnowing shovel or fan, just as chaff is scattered when it is winnowed, so that it vanishes into thin air. With a similar figure Jeremiah says, chapter 15, verse 7: "And I will scatter them, says God, with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land; I have slain and destroyed my people." And Isaiah, chapter 41, verse 16: "You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them off, and the whirlwind shall scatter them." And Zechariah, chapter 1, verse 19: "These are the horns that have winnowed Judah and Israel." And Daniel, chapter 8:4: "I saw the ram goring with its horns toward the west."
"But You have disposed all things in measure, and number, and weight." — He speaks properly of the punishments inflicted by God on the Egyptians and their fitting moderation; hence the Syriac translates: "All harmful things in measure, and in order, and in weight You brought upon them." The Arabic: "Because You ordered all things with number, and power, and measure"; or "weight," that is, with supreme equity and reason You disposed all things, and measured out punishments for the Egyptians according not to Your power but to Your wisdom and equity. The metaphor is drawn from human business transactions, in which fairness and justice are maintained in measuring, counting, and weighing. The meaning therefore is: God sent upon the Egyptians not lions and bears to tear them apart, but flies and frogs merely to vex them, because He did not wish to kill them but to chastise and correct them moderately, according to Isaiah 28:17: "I will set judgment on weight, and justice on measure." To punish in measure, says St. Bonaventure here, is to punish no more than the quantity of guilt demands; in number, no more than its multiplicity requires; in weight, no more than the condition or quality of the sin warrants. To this pertains the sentence pronounced against Belshazzar, Daniel 5:25: "Mane, Tekel, Peres" -- see the commentary there. Hence St. Michael, the minister of divine judgment concerning souls, is depicted with a sword and scales, as the weigher of merits and demerits, rewards and punishments, who balances and equalizes all things precisely. Here is pertinent the example of the blasphemer who, as Nicephorus narrates in Book I, chapter 20, armed himself and challenged God to a duel: God sent against him a tiny fly, which through the opening of his helmet harassed him so continually that, wearied and defeated in his struggle with it, he confessed his madness. For, as Philo says in Book I of the Life of Moses: "When men wish to wage war, they gather for themselves the most powerful reinforcements with which to supplement their weakness. But God, being omnipotent and needing nothing, when He wishes to use, as it were, certain instruments for exacting punishments, chooses not strong ones but vile and small ones, and thus punishes the guilty -- as happened then to the Egyptians."
But this maxim is general: it applies not only to punishments and rewards but to absolutely everything, and is most true. But in what manner and sense?
First, St. Augustine, in Book IV of On Genesis Literally, chapters 3, 4, and 5, applies these three to God Himself, and by them understands the divine ideas according to which He justly and fittingly made and disposed all things. For God is the first and uncreated measure measuring all things, and the number numbering all things, and the weight weighing all things. From Him all creatures borrow and draw their measure, number, and weight; for the measure, number, and weight of each thing is that which corresponds to its idea in the mind of God, and which God by His wisdom and providence has decreed to assign to it. Hear St. Augustine, in the Dialogue, Questions to Orosius, question 39: "Number, and measure, and weight is God Himself: He is number without number, from whom is all number; He is measure without measure, from whom is all measure; He is weight without weight, from whom is all weight. Therefore He disposed all things in number, and measure, and weight, as if He were saying: He disposed all things in Himself." The same St. Augustine (or whoever the author is) in the Book of Twenty-One Sentences, chapter 18, attributes measure to the Father, number to the Son (who is numerically the second Person), and weight to the Holy Spirit, who is also called Love. St. Bonaventure takes measure as the clemency of the Holy Spirit preserving all things; number as the wisdom of the Son ordering all things; weight as the power of the Father working all things. St. Bernard concurs, in Sermon 1 on Septuagesima, where he asserts that God in this life has disposed all things in measure, number, and weight; but in the future life, namely in heavenly beatitude, without measure, number, and weight -- because there all our good will be God, who is immense in every direction. Yet the same God will there also communicate Himself and His glory to each of the blessed in a just and certain measure, proportioned to each one's merits. Wherefore St. Bernard, in the same place, addressing the Heavenly Father, says: "In You there is neither weight nor measure, but fullness and supreme abundance; nor do You have number" -- namely, of the kind that earthly things have, but another, heavenly kind, worthy of God and the blessed.
Second, the same St. Bernard, Sermon 51, among the shorter sermons, attributes measure to the place and time assigned and measured out for each thing; number to the parts of a bodily thing, or to the variety and mutability of an incorporeal thing; and weight to the dignity of a thing.
Third, the author of the Hypognosticon (found in St. Augustine, volume 7), Book VI, chapter 4, takes measure as the quality of a thing, number as its quantity, and weight as a proportionate reason.
Fourth, more fittingly, St. Augustine in Book IV of On Genesis Literally, chapter 3: "Measure," he says, "fixes the mode of each thing, and number gives each thing its species, and weight draws each thing to rest and stability." Therefore God disposed all things in measure, number, and weight, that is, in mode, species, and order. The same Augustine, in the book On the Nature of the Good, chapter 3: "These three," he says, "mode, species, and order, are as it were general goods in things made by God, and thus where these three are great, there are great goods; where small, small goods; where none, no good at all." St. Thomas follows St. Augustine in Part I, Question 5, article 5, where he teaches that every thing or every good has measure, which prescribes and provides each thing with a definite mode from the determination of its principles or causes, both efficient and material; has number, which gives each thing its own form and species; and has weight, that is, an inclination toward its own acts and its own end, and consequently this weight draws the thing itself to its rest and stability. The same, Question 45, article 7: Measure, he says, refers to the substance of a thing limited by its principles; number to species; and weight to order. And from these he proves that in each thing there is
a vestige or representation of the Most Holy Trinity. For "inasmuch as a thing is a certain created substance," he says, "it represents a cause and principle, and thus demonstrates the Person of the Father, who is a principle not from a principle. Inasmuch, however, as it has a certain form and species, it represents the Word, according as the form of an artifact comes from the conception of the artisan. Inasmuch, moreover, as it has order, it represents the Holy Spirit, insofar as He is Love, because the ordering of an effect toward something else comes from the will of the Creator."
Plato gives the reason a priori in the Dialogue on Nature: was it not fitting that He who is the best should make only the most beautiful thing? But beauty consists in right proportion and harmony, namely in measure, number, and order. To this maxim corresponds that of 4 Esdras 4:36: "He weighed the age on a balance, and with a measure He measured the times, and by number He numbered the times." All things, then, clearly consist by their numbers, are weighed by their weights, and subsist distinguished by their measures. Pythagoras asserted that all things that come into being consist of numbers, and that from their harmony and concord all things are generated. Number, he says, is the extension and act of seminal reasons reigning in unity; furthermore, number exists in the divine mind, by which and through which all things are composed and endure, distributed among themselves by a certain indissoluble order. The Pythagoreans, following their master Pythagoras, held that all things come about through numbers: for these give to all things a most beautiful harmony and concord. God therefore administers this world with a harmonious and supremely elegant proportion, like a harpist who strikes the harp most skillfully in rhythm and produces the sweetest harmony and melody. And Plato in the Timaeus teaches that the world was made through the cube of three, that is, through 27, in which number all harmony and consonance consists: for three times three makes nine, and three times nine makes 27. From this, the heretic Valentinus seems to have derived his thirty Aeons as divinities, about whom see Tertullian in the book Against Valentinus. Virgil, in Aeneid XII, sings of the balance of the fates of Aeneas and Turnus:
"Jupiter himself holds the two scales with equal beam, And places the diverse fates of the two upon them, Whom toil shall condemn, and toward which side death shall weigh down."
Therefore, to gather the matter into a summary genuinely, clearly, and methodically: God first disposed all things in measure, by causing each thing to have its own quantity and dimension in length, breadth, and thickness -- for example, that a man should have a measure of six feet in height, a foot and a half in breadth, a foot in thickness; that this tree should have a certain measure of height, and another tree another; that the heavens should be so great, no greater and no smaller, etc. In number: that, for instance, the heavens should be thirteen, no more; that the elements should be four, no more and no fewer; that there should be so many species of animals, fish, birds, and serpents, and so many individuals
of each, no more and no fewer; so many angels, so many men; so many elect, so many reprobate; so many metals, so many trees, so many flowers, so many grains of sand, no more. In weight: that each should have its own gravity, place, and order -- for example, that the earth should be the heaviest and therefore the lowest, then above it water, above water air, above air the heavens, each in its own order and degree; again, that each should have its own weight, that is, its inclination, propensity, impulse, and momentum. See Vallesius, On Sacred Philosophy, chapter 70.
Second, by causing each thing in its entity, or in the genus of being and things, to have its own measure, number, and weight of entity.
Third, by causing the same to have measure, number, and weight in its powers, qualities, accidents, endowments, and actions: for God created substances not bare, but clothed with accidents proper to them and suited to their operations, and He so coordinated all of them among themselves -- like discordant strings on a harp -- that they produce a concordant harmony. See how gold is tawny, gems sparkle, how lilies whiten, how roses blush purple, how birds are distinguished by their own colors and plumage. Hence Hugo the Cardinal, following Rabanus, interprets this passage of truth, judgment, and justice, since God gave things true being, distinction without confusion, and the perfection due to each. Holcot explains these three as: limited perfection, both in essence and in power; a definite distance from God, as numbers are distant from unity, for essences are as numbers; and a natural appetite for that in which nature is perfected, which is each thing's weight.
Finally, pertinent here is that saying of St. Bernard, Sermon 3 on Pentecost: "We must consider three things in the great work of this world: namely, what it is, how it is, and for what purpose it was established. And in the very being of things, an inestimable power is commended, since so many, so great, so manifold, and so magnificent things have been created. In the very manner, a singular wisdom shines forth, since some things are placed above, others below, others in the middle, in the most orderly fashion. But if you consider for what purpose it was made, there presents itself so useful a benignity, so benign a usefulness, that it could overwhelm even the most ungrateful with the multitude and magnitude of its benefits. For all things were created most powerfully from nothing, most wisely beautiful, and most benignly useful."
Morally, learn from God and God's providence order, moderation, and modesty. For God has so fittingly ordered each thing in relation to the others that among them there is the highest order, beauty, concord, harmony, rest, and modesty, according to Job 38:37: "Who can make the harmony of heaven to sleep?" Among birds, behold the peacock spreading its eye-spotted tail, distinguished by as many gems as it has eyes. See also the peacock's gait, which is slow, dignified, and modest: this teaches you not to exult in your wisdom and gifts, but to carry modesty before you. Someone truly said: A religious should be a turtledove in the cell, a hawk in school, a sparrow at table so as to eat what is common, a peacock in the cloister so as to walk quietly, lest he disturb or excite anyone. The universe therefore is a mirror and type of modesty, and modesty has its origin from God, who by His essence is most modest and most peaceful. Hence St. Ambrose, Book I of the Offices, chapter 18: "Modesty is rich," he says, "because it is a portion of God." The whole world, therefore, quiet, silent, and modest, calls out to us the stu-
-dy of quiet, silence, and modesty. Again, this order and rest is the hedge and defense of each individual creature, so that they cannot be overthrown or harmed: thus modesty is the hedge, defense, guard, and protection of all internal virtues. Moreover, this order and composition is the beauty of creatures: see how birds are beautifully clothed and protected by their feathers; apples, pears, and nuts by their rinds; animals by their skin and hair. Your garment, your color, your beauty, your guard and protector is modesty.
Furthermore, just as all creatures, each and every one, are rightly ordered and composed not in just one part and action, but in all and each; so too your modesty should extend to the whole body, so that it shapes and composes all its parts, movements, actions, and gestures to modesty, according to the admonition of St. Peter, 1 Epistle 1:15: "According to Him who called you, the Holy One, be holy yourselves in all your conduct"; and that saying of the Bridegroom about the Bride, Canticle 7:1: "How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O daughter of the prince!" Observe a queen proceeding in public: see how composed she is, how adorned, how modest; you will find nothing in her that is not composed. So also compose your body through modesty. In the Life of St. Mechtild we read that she was so modest and silent that she seemed to be mute; and if you spoke with her, you would think you were speaking with an angel. This is what Ecclesiasticus says, chapter 27:12: "The holy man remains in wisdom like the sun; the fool changes like the moon." Just as the sun in every direction shows its beauty through its rays, and shines through a cloud, and in it produces a parhelion, as it were another sun; so you, whoever you are as a faithful person, especially as a religious or priest, illuminate your soul with the sun of wisdom and virtue, so that it may shine through and gleam in all your movements and actions like a parhelion. Be as it were a sun walking on the earth, or rather a God, and like a holy angel in the flesh.
Such was the Incarnate Word, who radiated the rays of divinity through His humanity. Hence St. Jerome, on Matthew chapter 9, verse 5, speaking of His calling and the following of Christ: "Certainly," he says, "the very brilliance and majesty of the hidden divinity, which shone even in Christ's human face, could draw to Himself those who saw Him at first glance." And in chapter 21, giving the reason why no one resisted Christ when He drove the sellers from the temple with a whip, overturned tables, and did other things that an infinite army could not have done: "For something fiery and star-like radiated from His eyes, and the majesty of divinity shone in His face." You, O priest, you, O faithful one, have Christ dwelling in your soul by grace; you often, indeed daily, receive Christ in the Eucharist. Show then that Christ dwells in your soul, as He dwelt in the humanity He assumed. Let the splendor of His virtue shine forth in your face, in your words, in your conduct, in your modesty: "Do you not know," says the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 6:19, "that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, etc., and you are not your own? For you have been bought at a great price: glorify and bear God in your body." Be therefore a temple of God: let your mind be the Holy of Holies, let your body be the Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, so that in it there may be an altar of incense, namely of devotion and divine praise, a lampstand of knowledge and teaching, a table of kindness and beneficence. Thus the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, bore Christ in her womb, and therefore in her eyes, voice, limbs, and whole body His majesty, holiness, purity, modesty, and devotion shone forth, "so that the very appearance of her body was an image of her mind, a figure of her integrity," says St. Ambrose, Book II On Virgins. Denis the Carthusian narrates, in chapter
3 of the Divine Names of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, that Dionysius came from Greece to Judea, and there met the Blessed Virgin, and beholding her face shining with such brightness, he fell to the ground overcome with amazement and said: "Unless I knew by natural reason and by faith that there is only one God, I would take this very Virgin for a goddess."
For this reason God had once commanded the high priest, under penalty of death, when entering the temple, to dress in a hyacinth-colored tunic, from the bottom of which all around hung 72 bells: "So that the sound may be heard," He says, "when he enters and leaves the Sanctuary in the presence of the Lord, and he may not die," Exodus 28:35. St. Jerome gives the reason, in On the Vestments of the Priest: "So that the steps of the priest, and his movements, and everything about him may be vocal. Let him conceive truth in his mind, and let his whole attire and adornment resound with it, so that whatever he does, whatever he says, may be instruction for the peoples." Let him therefore dispose all his members, all his actions and words, gestures and movements, in measure, number, and order, so that in his microcosm he may reflect and represent the macrocosm, or rather the Author of the macrocosm, the eternal God and Holy of Holies.
22. "For to be exceedingly powerful belongs to You alone always" (less correctly the Complutensian editors read superat, that is, "remains" and "is left over," although the sense comes to the same) "and who shall resist the strength of Your arm?" — In Greek: "To be mighty in power is always present to You, and who shall stand against the strength of Your arm?" Vatablus: "For ample (others say 'magnificent') power is always with You," etc. An arm is attributed to God by anthropopathism, and it is a symbol of God's power, strength, and unconquered might -- indeed, of His conquering and overthrowing all things.
23. "For the whole world before You is like a grain upon a balance" (the Greek does not have "of the earth," but simply "the whole world") "and like a drop of morning dew" (in Greek proine, that is, of morning, which in the morning before dawn, condensed and contracted by the cold of night, grows warm as the sun's rays strike it, melts, and descends dewy upon the earth) "that falls upon the earth." — Vatablus: "fallen to the ground"; so also the Syriac. The Arabic, however: "And the whole world before You is like the dip of the tongue of a balance," etc. A "moment" therefore is the smallest inclination, dip, nod, or deviation of a balance as it tips downward. For in Greek it is rhope ek plastingon, that is, the tilting or inclination of the scale pans or balances, which, since they are always in motion, always have one side hanging more or less than the other; for when one is raised, the other inclines, hangs down, and is depressed. This proves that God is exceedingly powerful, that is, mighty and potent, from the fact that He holds the entire world and all its forces in His hand like a balance. The meaning therefore is: First, just as the tilt and inclination of a scale pan is the smallest thing and of the least moment, so also the entire universe is the smallest thing in comparison to God.
Second, just as the inclination of the scale is unstable and passing, so also the world passes and departs before God. Third, just as a scale pan suspended from its yoke or beam can be set in motion and tilted to the opposite side by the slightest movement, almost an atom's touch, of the one holding it, so also the entire world is wholly in God's hand, so that wherever God wills, the world is immediately inclined, turns, and tends. Just as a weighmaster governs and directs the scales, so God balances and rules the world, and all men, angels, and everything else in the world. Similar is the comparison to a drop of dew, which descends before dawn and is immediately dried up at sunrise, for it is absorbed either by the earth or by the sun and vanishes: such plainly is the world before God. For if God were to withdraw from the world His concurrence by which He sustains it, the world would immediately lapse back into its nothingness. See the commentary on Isaiah 40:12, 15, 17, where he says: "Behold, the nations are as a drop from a bucket, and are counted as a grain on a balance." St. Ambrose adds, on Psalm 1, that this balance signifies that God created all things with justice, and that in us there is only a moment's worth of divine justice.
Alas now, kings and princes, consider this moment of the balance! Go ahead and take pride in your scepters if you wish; add kingdoms to kingdoms; pursue the empire of Asia and Europe. Alas! What are you doing? You wage war over a moment, you play for a dot, you thirst with immense cupidity for a drop. Go, mortals, gape at the earth and earthly things like moles; covet vast estates; fix your palaces for eternity; heap wealth upon wealth, honors upon honors. Why do you labor with such expenditures of your whole life to divide this dot of earth into a thousand thousand dots, to occupy a hundred-thousandth part of a dot? Why not rather seek God's favor and grace? He closes and balances with His finger this entire globe of earth and heaven. He can in an instant create a thousand worlds, indeed millions of worlds far more perfect than this. He contains within Himself riches, honors, and pleasures infinitely greater than this whole world can display. He makes those who hope in Him omnipotent, says St. Bernard. He makes those who love Him happy, and blesses them with eternal glory. He promises you the vast expanse of the empyrean heaven, indeed the dominion of the whole universe. Why then do you prefer a moment to immensity, a drop to the sea, an instant to eternity? O how great You are, Lord, in whose sight the whole world is like a moment and a drop! "O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Your name in the whole earth! For Your magnificence is exalted above the heavens," Psalm 8:2. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament announces the work of His hands," Psalm 18:2. "The Lord is great and exceedingly to be praised, and of His greatness there is no end," Psalm 144:3. "He is great and has no end, exalted and immense," Baruch 3:25. For, as St. Gregory Nazianzen says in his oration on the Nativity, speaking of God: "He embraces and contains all being in Himself, never begun, never to cease, like a certain infinite and boundless ocean of essence." And in the Poems: "In You all things abide; to You all things hasten together." And St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter 5: "God is not being in just any manner, but simply and without circumscription embraces and anticipates all being in Himself equally." And St. Cyprian, in the book That Idols Are Not Gods: "There is one ruler of the world, who commands all things that are by His word, dispenses them by reason, and accomplishes them by power. He cannot be seen, for He is brighter than sight; nor comprehended, for He is purer than touch; nor estimated, for He is greater than sense. And therefore we worthily esteem Him when we call Him inestimable." Plato saw this, indeed learned it from Solomon, and from Plato Seneca, who in the Preface to Book I of Natural Questions writes: "When you have raised yourself to those truly great things, whenever you see armies marching with standards raised, and as though something great were being done, a horseman now scouting ahead, now spread along the flanks, you will be glad to say: 'A black column moves across the plains' -- that is the scurrying of ants toiling in a narrow space. What difference is there between them and us, except the measure of a tiny body? This is the dot on which you sail, on which you wage war, on which you arrange kingdoms -- small indeed, when the ocean meets it on both sides. Above are immense spaces, into the possession of which the mind is admitted; but only if it has carried with it the least possible from the body, if it has wiped away everything sordid, and, free and light and content with little, has shone forth." And after some intervening remarks: "What is God? The Mind of the universe. What is God? All that you see, and all that you do not see. If at last His own greatness is rendered to Him, than which nothing greater can be conceived -- if He alone is all things, He holds His own work both outside and within."
24. "But You have mercy on all" (that is, all men: for in Greek it is pantas, which is masculine, not neu-
-tral) "because You can do all things, and You overlook the sins of men for the sake of repentance." — That is, although You could destroy the Egyptians and all other sinners, because You hold the entire world in Your hand like a grain on a balance, nevertheless You have spared them and continue to spare them, because You are merciful and have mercy on all. For Your mercy equals Your omnipotence, and is indeed clothed and armed with it, so that through it Your mercy is immense and omnipotent. Therefore through it You overlook the sins of men, with this purpose: that they may do penance, and so You may receive them back into grace and pour out the bowels of mercy upon them.
Note the inference: He does not say "You have mercy on all because You are merciful," but "because You can do all things," that is, because You are omnipotent. The first reason is that God, from the fact that He is omnipotent, considers all things as nothing, and therefore unworthy of His wrath and indignation, according to the saying of the poet: "No honor will make you worthy of Caesar's wrath." Thus a lion does not consider the barking of a dog worthy of its rage.
The second reason is that to be able to restrain wrath and to be able to pardon sinners belongs to a lofty and noble spirit, one that is not powerless over itself but most powerful in commanding itself, whatever may happen. From which it follows that this excellent nature in God declares the greatness of His soul and His omnipotence. Hence St. Fulgentius, Epistle 7 to Venantius, chapter 4: "God," he says, "is great in forgiving. In this greatness nothing is lacking, in which there is omnipotent mercy and merciful omnipotence. So great is the kindness of omnipotence and the omnipotence of kindness in God, that there is nothing He would not be willing or able to pardon in one who is converted." Finally, the same thing the Church sings when she says: "O God, who manifests Your omnipotence above all by pardoning and showing mercy." See also Seneca in the book On Anger, and in the Wisdom: "The wise man," he says, "is above injury."
Hence Cato, when struck with a slap, denied that the injury had reached him. The same Seneca, Book I On Clemency, chapter 3: "No virtue," he says, "among all virtues becomes a king and prince more than clemency. For these virtues are an ornament and glory to great men if their power is beneficial; destructive is the force that can harm." Third, "You have mercy," that is, You pardon the sinner both the punishment and the guilt on account of repentance, as follows, "because You can do all things": because to pardon sins is a work of the highest power, and greater than creating heaven and earth, for the reasons that St. Thomas, following St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine, presents in Part III, Question 114, article 9. For a judge can, and indeed must, punish the guilty, but he cannot pardon the guilt -- for that belongs to the king or supreme prince. Therefore it is a greater power to show mercy than to punish, for the king commits the latter to his subordinates, but reserves the former as a royal prerogative for himself. Here is pertinent that saying of St. Fulgentius, Epistle 7, chapter 13: "If God is merciful, He can forgive all sins. No goodness is perfect from which
not all malice is overcome." Fourth and best, concerning the occasion and meaning of repentance, when He thus speaks: "You have mercy on all," namely creatures, giving them what they need, "because You can do all things." That is, because You, who are most rich and most powerful, can supply and enrich the need and misery of all creatures: for in all things You can do all things. Or rather, that is: Although You could destroy the world with a mere nod, as was said before, nevertheless You do not do so, but You have mercy, that is, You preserve it and the sinners in it, because You can do all things -- as You can create, so also You can mercifully preserve in being. For, as verse 27 says: "You spare all things, because they are Yours, O Lord." This is what chapter 12, verse 16 says: "And because You are Lord of all, You cause Yourself to spare all." So says Castro. For God's mercy is omnipotent, both in showing mercy and in acting: for there is no misery so great that God's mercy cannot and would not cure it. Therefore, just as the miseries of men are infinite, so likewise the mercy of God is infinite. Wherefore the abyss of our misery calls upon the abyss of divine mercy: for God permits or sends so many and such great miseries upon men so that He may have an object upon which to pour out the riches of His mercy. For this mercy surpasses and transcends beyond measure all the miseries of all men and creatures. Hence that saying of the Psalmist, Psalm 32:5: "The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord"; and Psalm 144:9: "His tender mercies are over all His works."
"And You overlook the sins of men for the sake of repentance." — In Greek eis, or "unto" repentance. That is, God overlooks and delays punishing the sins of men for this purpose: that they may acknowledge their guilt and do penance, according to Romans 2:4: "Do you despise the riches of His goodness, and patience, and longsuffering? Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" -- that is, desires and strives to lead you. And Isaiah 30:18: "The Lord waits to have mercy on you." So say Cantacuzenus, Vatablus, Osorius, and Jansen. Therefore less accurately many explain it thus: "You overlook," that is, You pardon the sins of men on account of the repentance that they have done or are doing. Hence St. Thomas, Part III, Question 86, article 1, teaches that the opinion of those who think that someone in this life cannot do penance and amend his ways is erroneous. Moreover, repentance is not merely a change of mind and reform of conduct, as Luther, Beza, and Erasmus maintain on Matthew chapter 3 and 1 Corinthians 7, and Calvin in Institutes Book III, chapter 3, section 5; but it is also sorrow, contrition, and detestation of sins committed, and their punishment, chastisement, and satisfaction. Therefore they wrongly derive the etymology of poenitentia (repentance) as if it were said from pone, that is, "after" or "subsequently," as if to repent were the same as adopting a later counsel; whereas the Fathers and ancient Latin writers derive poenitentia from poena (punishment), so that it means the same as "holding to punishment," as St. Augustine says in the book On True and False Repentance, chapter 19, and St. Isidore, Book III
of Etymologies, last chapter. Hence Ausonius, Epigram 22, on Occasion and Repentance, introduces her speaking thus:
"I am the goddess who exacts penalties for deeds done and undone. So that you may repent, I am called Metanoia."
And Lactantius, Book VI, chapter 24: "He comes to his senses," he says, "and recovers his mind as if from madness -- he whom his error grieves -- and chastises himself for his folly, and strengthens his spirit for living more rightly." See Bellarmine, Book I On Repentance, chapter 7.
25. "For You love all things that are" (that is, all things created by You, which received their being from You; but sin, so hateful to God, is not a thing created by God but made by man -- hence, explaining this, He adds) "and hate nothing of those things which You have made: for You did not establish or make anything out of hatred." — In Greek, kataskeuasas, that is, "You prepared and arranged in order." The Septuagint corrected at Rome have: "For You would not have established anything if You hated it." And so St. Augustine reads it, meaning: You have mercy on all, because You love all things as Your works; therefore You cannot pursue them with hatred, for You made them out of love. For You made them in order to show them Your goodness and to share Your being with them. Hence it is said in Genesis 1:31: "God saw all things that He had made, and they were very good." For, as St. Thomas teaches in Part I, Question 20, article 20, our love loves things because they are good, but God loves things not because they are good, but in order to make them good: for His love is the cause of the goodness of things. For "You hate," the Greek is ebdeluxo, that is, You abominate, You detest, You execrate. Away with you then, Calvin, who teach that God created the reprobate for damnation and Gehenna, and therefore for sin by which they would deserve Gehenna! You make God the author of sin, and therefore your god must be none other than the devil: for the devil is the author of all evil, just as conversely God is the fountain and origin of all good. And God hates and punishes sin in Gehenna -- how then did He make it? For "You hate nothing, O Lord, of the things which You have made." And, as St. Fulgentius says, "God is not the author of those things of which He is the avenger." Therefore God loves all men insofar as they are men; but He hates some insofar as they are sinners, because they have perpetrated, at the devil's instigation, the sins that He Himself hates. He hates, therefore, our work, which by sinning we have made; but He loves His own work, which He Himself made, namely nature and grace, says St. Augustine, Tractate 110 on John.
From this passage and similar ones it is clear that in God there is a true and properly so-called act of love, by which He loves not only Himself but also all created things, especially angels, souls, men, and saints. You will object: therefore the act of love by which God loves creatures, since it is free and could be absent from God, adds something to the act of love by which God loves Himself; indeed, that act is added to this one. Therefore something can be added to God and His act, which is absurd, since all things that are in God are identical with God and with God's infinite essence, to which nothing can be added. The answer is that only externally is an object added to God's act, namely the creature that is loved; internally, however, nothing is added to the act of God by which He loves Himself. For since this act is infinite, most pure, most simple, and most perfect, without any change or addition to itself, it extends itself to loving creatures when He wills to love them, and therefore creates and blesses them. For that act is like an immense ocean, which absorbs a creature like a drop without any increase of itself. For as verse 23 says: "The whole world before You is like a grain on a balance, and like a drop of morning dew." Therefore, as the most illustrious lord Augustinus Oregius, almoner and theologian of our Most Holy Lord Urban VIII, explains more profoundly and clearly than others, in Treatise 1 On the One God, chapter 14, Question 1: If God had from eternity willed to love and create what in fact He did not will, and conversely had not willed what He did will, there would have been no change in God. For by the same indivisible act of His will, which is the divine substance and is equivalent to infinite acts of willing or not willing, He would have willed what He did not will, and not willed what He did will. For from the fact that the secondary object of the divine will -- to which it is freely directed -- is changed, it does not follow that God is changed; it suffices that creatures be changed. And just as God is not changed by the fact that through His immensity He coexists with things with which He previously did not coexist, so likewise God is not understood to change if He is understood to have willed from eternity the existence of things that do not exist, or the non-existence of things that do exist. For by reason of the infinite perfection of the divine act of intellect and will, God can by a single, most simple, and most indivisible act understand from eternity that all things that are to have existence will have it in whatever difference of time; and by the same act He knows that things which will not exist will not have existence. Thus by the same most simple act He wills those things to exist to which He decreed to give existence, and does not will the existence of those which He did not decree to produce, but willed to remain only within the number of possible things. Therefore God would not be understood to change if from eternity He were understood to have willed what He did not will, and not to have willed what He did will: just as by one and the same act He wills what He wills, and does not will what He rejects and to which He decreed not to give existence.
26. "And how could anything endure, unless You willed it? Or how would that which was not called by You be preserved?" — "Called," that is, created, and by the voice of God summoned from nothing into the nature and existence of things. For God's speaking is doing, God's calling is creating: "For He spoke, and they were made" -- all things. As St. Athanasius says, Sermon 3 Against the Arians. With a similar phrase the Apostle says of God, Romans 4:17: "Who gives life to the dead, and calls those things which are not as though they are," since from non-beings He makes beings, and from non-existent things existent things. For non-beings obey God just as beings do; therefore, if they are called by God, they immediately present themselves and exist. This proves that God loves His works, even sinful men, for example the Egyptians, because He preserves them. For without God's concurrence sustaining them, they could not remain in being, but would immediately return to the nothingness from which they were called forth and created by God. The preservation of men and creatures, therefore, is like a continuation of the first creation, and like a continuous creation of them. Just as God initially created them out of love, so He preserves them out of love. Moreover, as our author Lessius learnedly notes in Book X On the Divine Attributes, chapter 3, this preservation of creatures by God, although it is one and of a single mode, can nevertheless be conceived in four ways. First, by way of sustentation, as if the creature rests upon God as upon a most firm foundation and base, and He from below, as it were, sustains it lest it fall back into the center of its nothingness. Thus St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter 10, calls God the omnipotent seat, base, and foundation of all things. And St. Gregory, Moralia II, chapter 7, says God is beneath all things and sustains creation from below. Second, by way of suspension: for God draws the creature from the abyss of nothingness upward, as it were, toward Himself into being and into a definite species, and holds it suspended in that state, lest it fall back into its abyss whence it was drawn. Third, by way of influence and supply: thus St. Augustine, Book IV of On Genesis Literally, chapter 12, and St. Dionysius above, call preservation an operation, a generous and unceasing supply of being and nature. The same is signified when God is said to be the being of all things, the life of all things. Fourth, by way of connection and binding: for just as a fluid thing, unless it is continually bound and connected in its parts, immediately flows apart and dissolves, so unless God internally binds and connects all the smallest particles, or the totalities of a thing, the whole thing will dissolve into nothing. This is what the Fathers mean when they say that God contains and binds all things together.
27. "But You spare all things, because they are Yours, O Lord, who loves souls." — The Syriac: "Because all things are Yours, O Lord, You love souls, for whose sake You created all other things." This is the second reason why God does not immediately kill the Egyptians and other sinners, but moderately chastises them so that they may come to their senses and be saved: namely, because all things, and especially souls, are the possession and special property of God. For since God created all things, He has over them all, as His own possessions, full dominion of ownership, and possesses them all as entirely His by right. For, as Cantacuzenus wisely says, it belongs to a good master and owner so to manage his possessions as to spare them, lest he recklessly destroy them or uselessly and fruitlessly waste and consume them. Therefore, if we, in whom concupiscence and extravagance are active, do not squander our possessions without usefulness and advantage, how much more will God, the steward of all things, who provides for and manages all things, who has all our hairs numbered, care for our things -- not only
so that they may exist, but also that they may be well and rightly established?
He redeemed them: for this was fourfold, that is, that extraordinary love of God for men, which the Apostle so greatly celebrates and urges in Titus, chapter 3, verse 4. This is what God proclaims through Ezekiel, chapter 18, verse 4: "Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine." From this you may rightly infer that God gives each soul sufficient help for salvation. Again, You "O Lord, love souls," that is, lives, even those of the Egyptians and other impious people, and therefore You do not immediately kill them, but moderately chastise them, so that they may come to their senses and escape death, and attain life -- the present life long, and the future life eternal. Christ Himself demonstrated this very thing to Carpus in a renowned vision, which St. Dionysius recounts in Epistle 8 to Demophilus.
Note that for "O Lord, who loves souls," the Greek more expressively reads despota philopsuchos, that is, "O Lord, lover of souls." For God loves and cherishes souls uniquely, as nobler and more precious than all other creatures: for He Himself breathed the soul into man with His own mouth, and made it in His own image, most like Himself, Genesis 2:7. He Himself, for the sake of souls, that is, for the sake of men, created the whole world and all that is in it. And lest souls fallen into sin should perish, He sent Christ into the flesh and onto the cross. See then, O man, how much you ought to love your soul and care for its salvation, and then also the souls of other men, which God so loved and which Christ with His precious blood