Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
I have already set forth the argument of this chapter.
Vulgate Text: 2 Peter 1:1-21
1. Simon Peter, a servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained equal faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you in the knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus our Lord: 3. according as all things that pertain to life and godliness have been given us by His divine power, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us by His own glory and virtue, 4. by whom He hath given us most great and precious promises, that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature, fleeing the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world. 5. And you, employing all care, minister in your faith virtue; and in virtue, knowledge; 6. and in knowledge, abstinence; and in abstinence, patience; and in patience, godliness; 7. and in godliness, love of brotherhood; and in love of brotherhood, charity. 8. For if these things be with you, and abound, they will make you to be neither empty nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. For he that hath not these things with him is blind, and groping, having forgotten the cleansing of his old sins. 10. Wherefore, brethren, labour the more, that by good works you may make sure your calling and election; for doing these things, you shall not sin at any time. 11. For so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 12. Wherefore I will begin to put you always in remembrance of these things, though indeed you know them, and are confirmed in the present truth. 13. But I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance: 14. being certain that the laying down of my tabernacle is at hand, according as our Lord Jesus Christ also hath signified to me. 15. And I will endeavour also that you frequently may have after my decease, whereby you may keep a memory of these things. 16. For we have not, by following artificial fables, made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of His greatness. 17. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came down to Him a voice from the magnificent glory of this kind: This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him. 18. And this voice we heard brought from heaven, when we were with Him in the holy mount. 19. And we have the more firm prophetical word, whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20. understanding this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation. 21. For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time, but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Verse 1: Simon Peter, a Servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ, to Those Who Have Obtained Equal Faith With Us in the Justice of Our God and Saviour Jesus Christ
1. Simon Peter — who at his circumcision was named by his parents Simon, in his Apostolate was called by Christ Peter Simon, or Simeon (for it is the same name), as I have said elsewhere. Less correctly therefore does Oecumenius say: "Simon is a diminutive of Simeon, as Metras of Metrodorus, Menas of Menodorus, Theodas of Theodosius." For the Hebrew שמעון, if you read it with sheva mobile, is Simeon; if with sheva quiescens, it is Simon, which means the same as "hearing and obeying," inasmuch as Peter heard and obeyed Christ. And so here he calls Himself "Simon," to indicate that he writes these things not of himself, but at Christ's command, whom one must obey. "Peter," in Hebrew Cephas, is the same as a rock or stone; because upon him as upon a rock Christ built His Church, Matthew 16:18.
He adds Peter, first for distinction: for there were many other Simons, and indeed among the Apostles there was another Simon surnamed the Cananaean; and secondly, for authority, so that the faithful may eagerly and reverently receive this epistle as written by Peter, that is, by the Supreme Pontiff and the very rock of the Church. For Christ entrusted to Peter the care of the whole world, says St. Chrysostom on chapter 21 of St. John; and St. Leo, in sermon 3 On His Assumption: "From the whole world," he says, "the one Peter is chosen, who is set over the calling of all nations, and over all the Apostles and all the Fathers of the Church, so that although in the people of God there are many priests and many Pastors, Peter properly governs them all, those whom Christ also principally governs."
Servant and Apostle. — See what has been said about these titles at Romans 1:1 and James 1:1, namely that "to serve God is to reign." St. Augustine, in De Civitate XIX, chapter 21, applies this morally: "The soul that serves God," he says, "rightly commands the body, and within the soul itself reason subjected to God rightly commands lust and the other vices. Wherefore where a man does not serve God, what righteousness can be supposed to be in him? For the soul not serving God can in no way righteously command the other vices, nor can human reason."
To those who have obtained equal faith with us. — For coaequalem the Greek is ἰσότιμον, that is, of equal price and reward, equally to be esteemed, equivalent, of the same order, equal: first because it has been bought at the same price, namely Christ's blood; then because faith is everywhere equally precious; finally because it is itself the price by which the kingdom of heaven is bought, for this is the wages and reward of faith as of a price. Hence Pagninus and the Zürich version translate it "equally precious," that is, the same; yet he says it more significantly, "equally precious," to insinuate the immense price and dignity of the faith of the faithful as one and the same. By this word, then, St. Peter indicates that of all the faithful — whether they be at Rome, or in Bithynia, or in Pontus, etc. — there is one and the same faith of great price, one law, religion, institute, and life, and even charity and union of souls: for faith contains all these things, as a root contains all the branches and the whole tree. So Prosper, in Book I of De Vocatione Gentium, chapter 23. Again, all are equal in the faith and grace of Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles, Bithynians or Pontians or Romans: for God has not given a greater faith or grace to the Jews than to the Gentiles, nor to the Romans than to the Pontians. For granted that to the Apostles and apostolic men and outstanding saints a greater grace and faith has been and is given intensively or extensively — so that they may know and believe more things than the rest of the faithful — yet objectively and essentially no greater is given; rather in all it is the same and equal, because all have the same specific faith and grace, by which they believe for the same reason about God and Christ, and from Him expect the same reward of their faith. Again, the difference of intensity or extension of faith is in particular persons, not in whole nations: for the Jews did not, because they were Jews, receive a more intense or more extensive faith or grace than the Gentiles. Note that he says "equal faith," not rank and order; for Peter, by his order Bishop and by his grade Pontiff, was superior to all the faithful, not their equal, as the heretics wrongly try to prove from this passage.
Have obtained — that is, have received by lot. For faith and grace, with regard to the recipients to whom they are not owed, are given by lot, that is, by chance and gratuitously; although on God's part it is not by lot, but by His determined will and goodwill. Hence Paul, in Ephesians 1:11, says: "In whom we also are called by lot, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His will."
In righteousness — that is, by righteousness. So Pagninus, the Zürich version, Clarius, Gagneius, Vatablus, and others here, as well as Prosper in Book I of De Vocatione Gentium, chapter 23. By "righteousness," first, understand the passion and merits of Christ: for by these Christ justly made satisfaction for our sins, and merited for us faith, grace, and salvation. Hence Christ is said by Paul to have been "made unto us righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," 1 Corinthians 1:30; and Isaiah 53:11 says: "By His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many." Wherefore the commentary of Adam Sasbout is to be guarded against, when he refutes this sense on the grounds that faith, he says, comes to us not from Christ's merit but from God's grace: for this is false; God gives man no grace except through the merits of Christ. For Christ merited for us all grace, therefore also faith, according to that of Ephesians 1:3: "Blessed be God, etc., who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ." On this see the Council of Trent, session VI, chapters 5 and 6; St. Augustine, De Praedestinatione Sanctorum, chapter 15; and Francisco Suarez, Part III, vol. I, disputation 41. So also Cajetan, Catharinus, Salmeron, and others.
Secondly, by "righteousness" understand the holiness of Christ, as if to say: the righteousness and holiness of Christ is the efficient, exemplary, and final cause of our faith, righteousness, and holiness: for the beginning and basis of these is faith. Hence Daniel, in chapter 9, verse 24, calls Christ the Holy of Holies and everlasting righteousness; and St. Dionysius, in chapter 4 of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, part III, calls Christ the fountain of holiness, who fills us with holiness; and St. Cyril, in Book IV of the Thesaurus, chapter 1: "The Son," He says, "does not do thus, but as the fountain of holiness sanctifies His disciples by His own power." The same, in Book IV on John, chapter 2, verse 8: "While the Tabernacle moved on," he says, "the Hebrews followed; when it stood still, they pitched their camp, that we might learn that no other guide to salvation has been given us than the Word of God made man."
Thirdly, by "righteousness" mercy may be understood, according to that text: "He hath dispersed, He hath given to the poor; His righteousness" — that is, His mercy and almsgiving — "remaineth for ever and ever," 1 Corinthians 9:9, as if to say: Through the mercy of Christ promised to us by the Prophets we have received faith. Hence St. Ambrose, in Book III of De Virginibus, near the end, says that Christ is to be sought by all, that Christ is all things to all, and that He distils the dew of grace upon all.
Fourthly, "righteousness" can be taken for justification, as if to say: Through Christ's justification — namely because He Himself justifies us — we have received faith; for the beginning of justification is faith. When therefore Christ gave us faith, He then began to justify us and entered upon our justification. Adamus comes close to this, since he expounds in justitia as "with justice," as if to say: Christ has given us not only faith but also justice, as the term and completion of faith. For Christ has been made all things to us, because He has given all the gifts by which we are directed to salvation. Whence Gregory of Nyssa in De Vita Moysis: "We firmly believe," he says, "that all hope of good things is in Christ: he who has obtained some good is in Christ, who contains every good." Origen, in Book V on the Epistle to the Romans, says "Christ is all good things, while the devil is all evils." Hence Gregory Nazianzen wisely says in his Sentences: "For my part," he says, "I count Christ as the greatest of all riches, whom — would that some day it may fall to me to behold with a pure mind! — and let the world have the rest." The same in Carmen 9:
But to Thee alone, O Christ, I alone am left,
Who holdest all things in Thy sway: in Thee is set
My every strength, in Thee my whole trust of salvation.
Of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ — that is, of Jesus Christ who is our God and Saviour: for that both pertain to Christ is gathered from the Greek, which embraces both under a single article: τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Hence it is clear that Christ is God. For in those first beginnings of the Church and the faith, St. Peter and the Apostles wished and were bound to instil in the faithful that Christ is not a mere man — as Ebion was teaching at about the same time — but true God and true man. St. Hilary excellently puts it in Book VII of De Trinitate: "We know," he says, "that our Lord Jesus Christ is God in these five ways: by name, by birth, by nature, by power, by profession;" which he then explains and confirms one by one. Secondly, however, many rightly refer the τὸ "of our God" to God the Father, and the τὸ "of the Saviour" to Christ. For in the following verse St. Peter seems to distinguish God from Christ, and consequently by "God" to mean the Father, and by "Saviour" the Son Jesus Christ: hence he calls Him Lord with an article, saying τοῦ Κυρίου. For, as Christ says in John 17:3: "This is eternal life, that they know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent;" for both are required for salvation, namely the knowledge both of the true God and of His Son Jesus Christ incarnate for us.
Verse 2: Grace and Peace Be Multiplied Unto You in the Knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus Our Lord
2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you — πληθυνθείη, that is, be multiplied, so that in the multitude (under which understand also magnitude, by an enallage of discrete quantity for continuous) of grace and peace, ever increasing, you may at length attain to the fullness of both. He hints that Christians ought constantly to advance in grace and virtue; because, as St. Augustine says on Psalm 68: "No faithful man says, 'It is enough'; where you have said, 'It is enough,' there you have failed." And St. Leo, in sermon 2 De Quadragesima: "This is the true righteousness of the perfect, that they never presume themselves to be perfect, lest by ceasing from the intention of a journey not yet ended, they fall into the danger of failing there where they have set down the appetite of progressing." And Nazianzen in his Sentences: "Beware," he says, "of ever standing still on the path of virtue: for to you who have come out of a vicious life, to stand still I deem to be the same as if you were sliding back into the deepest abyss of vice."
He joins peace to grace, because, as St. Leo says in his sixth Sermon on the Nativity: "Where the truth of peace shall be, nothing of virtue can be lacking. What is it, dearly beloved, to have peace with God, but to will what He commands and to refuse what He forbids? For if human friendships seek out kindred souls and like wills, and a diversity of manners can never reach a firm concord, how shall he be a partaker of divine peace to whom those things are pleasing which displease God, and who desires to delight in those things by which he knows He is offended?" And St. Paulinus, on the second nativity of St. Felix, addressing Christ, says:
In Thee may the anchor of my well-ordered life be firmly fixed.
May be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Christ — for as the knowledge of God and of Christ grows and is filled out, grace and peace grow and are filled out as well: because the more the goodness of God and of Christ is known — not only speculatively but also practically — the more it is loved and worshipped.
For "knowledge" the Greek is ἐπιγνώσει, which St. Ambrose in epistle 33 to Demetrias (in the Roman edition), St. Augustine in his Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, and Prosper Contra Collatorem render as recognitione, that is, the knowledge of a mindful and grateful soul; Pagninus translates it agnitione; others super cognitione, since ἐπί means "upon" and γνῶσις "knowledge." For St. Peter seems to wish for the faithful an increase of faith, of knowledge, and of divine enlightenment: so that the first knowledge of God and the faith they had received when they were converted from heathenism to Christ may be called γνῶσις, while the advancement of their knowledge and faith may be called ἐπίγνωσις, as it were a γνῶσις surpassing γνῶσις. Less rightly do some assign γνῶσις to the Gentiles and ἐπίγνωσις to Christians, on the ground that the knowledge of God which Christians have surpasses the knowledge of God which the Gentiles have, by as much as faith surpasses reason and the natural light.
St. Peter therefore wishes, and by wishing exhorts, that the faithful by praying, meditating, hearing, reading, and studying may advance in the knowledge and consequently in the love of God, that they may dare to set themselves against the heretics — who arose at about the same time and were called Gnostics, because they arrogated to themselves a perfect knowledge of God.
Verse 3: According as All Things That Pertain to Life and Godliness Have Been Given Us by His Divine Power
3. According as. — This depends on what precedes. For he is explaining the knowledge of God and of Christ, as if to say: I wish and pray for you that "grace and peace may be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Christ," namely that you may more fully and more deeply know "according as all things that pertain to life and godliness, of His divine power, have been given through the knowledge of Him." Or more simply, as if to say: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you in the knowledge of God and of Christ," "according as," that is, in the same way, or just as through this knowledge of God and of Christ all divine gifts which pertain to life and godliness have been given to us; so that the τὸ "according as," Greek ὡς, is exegetical, corresponding to the Hebrew כאשר ka'asher, and explains the excellence of the knowledge of God and of Christ — namely, that through it we have received from God all the gifts of grace, as if to say: I therefore wish you to grow in the knowledge of God and of Christ, because through it you will likewise grow in the rest of God's gifts; for as all these have been first given through it, so day by day they are more bestowed and increased by God. So Adamus, Gagneius and others.
Secondly, Arias and Vatablus take the Greek ὡς, that is "how" or "according as," as a mark of admiration, as if to say: O how abundantly the divine power has lavished upon us all things that pertain to life and godliness! — as though St. Peter began his epistle with an exclamation and admiration of the divine munificence toward Christians, by which He has so enriched and exalted us as to make us partakers of the divine nature. This explanation is pathetic in tone, and the Vulgate version, which has quomodo, can be adapted to it: for in like manner Jeremiah, marvelling at the destruction of Jerusalem, begins his Lamentations saying: "How doth the city sit solitary?" In like manner the Psalmist, marvelling at God's beneficence to His own, exclaims in Psalm 72:1: "How good is God to Israel, to those who are of upright heart!" and in Psalm 30:20: "How great is the multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee!" St. John concurs with St. Peter, who likewise begins his epistle from an admiration of the benefit of the Incarnation of the Word, saying: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of life," etc. St. Paul does the same, in Ephesians 1:3ff., Romans 1:2-5, and Hebrews 1:1ff. For this is a great mystery of godliness, worthy of every admiration and reception, as the same writer says in 1 Timothy 1:15 and 3:16. Yet the former sense, as it is simpler, so is it the more genuine. Others explain these things differently, but variously and obscurely.
All things of His divine power — δυνάμεως, that is, of His might, as if to say: God through the faith of Christ has poured out into us all His strength, all His power, equally with His mercy. Hence the Mother of God sings: "He hath shewed might in His arm," Luke 1:51, because, namely, through Christ and the faith of Christ we have received the remission of sins, grace, righteousness, all the virtues, and especially divine strength for overcoming all adversities, for martyrdom, for converting the whole world; finally also the right and pledge of heavenly happiness and glory, and of the eternal and divine kingdom. Are not these the works and gifts of the power of God? Add to this, that through faith Christ Himself is given to us, who is the Word, the arm, the strength and the power of the Eternal Father.
Which have been given unto life and godliness (supply: pertain — so the Zürich version and Pagninus) have been given. — Thus the Roman edition and some Greek copies, which have δεδωρημένα; and this is what the full sense requires, which is otherwise gaping and hanging if you read with some Greek copies δεδωρημένης, that is, given (in the genitive, agreeing with divinae virtutis), so that, as Cajetan reads it, "(the divine power) which has been given unto life and godliness." For the τὸ "according as all things of His divine power" is left hanging unless you add and complete the phrase with "have been given."
By "life," by antonomasia, understand the supernatural, heavenly, divine, and eternal life — namely the life of grace and glory: for this alone is the true and perfect life.
From this passage it is clear that it is a matter of faith that nothing pertaining to godliness and salvation can be effected by man through the bare powers of nature, as Pelagius wished; but only by the gift of God's grace. So Prosper, Contra Collatorem, chapter 29, and accordingly: "Nothing is more to be shunned, says St. Ambrose, epistle 33 to Demetrias, than the appetite of this concupiscence, which through love of one's own dignity denies that virtue is the work of God; and while other cupidities only diminish those goods to which they are opposed, this one, by drawing all things to itself, at the same time corrupts everything."
Who (Christ, as is clear from the following verse) hath called us by His own glory and virtue. — The translator reads ἰδίᾳ, that is "own"; but the Greeks now read διά, that is "through glory and virtue," which comes to the same thing. Beza wrongly translates it "for the sake of His own glory," as if διά were taken for εἰς: for this is novel and unheard of. Now "glory" means "glorious grace": for "glory" is taken metonymically for grace, because grace is the sign and the effect of God's glory and glorious mercy. For God shows His glory — that is, His glorious power, wisdom, and mercy — most of all through grace, when through it He has called us sinners, base, wretched and unworthy, to His friendship, inheritance, kingdom, and glory. So says St. Paul: "All have sinned, and need the glory," that is the grace, "of God," Romans 3:23. And often elsewhere he calls Christ's grace — as being magnificent and glorious — "glory," as in 2 Corinthians 3:8, 9, 10, 11, 18, and Romans 9:23, where he calls it "the riches of glory."
He calls the same mercy and grace "virtue," Greek ἀρετήν, because the most illustrious virtue of God in men's sight is His clemency, beneficence, and grace. The sense therefore is, as if to say: God has called us not because of our own glory and virtue, but because of His own glorious grace and virtue, that is, His mercy. Hence Prosper at the place cited reads: "He called us by the very power of His glory," so that "glory and virtue" forms a hendiadys — that is, "glorious virtue," namely glorious mercy. Secondly, by "glory" understand the glorious humanity and works of the incarnate Word, concerning which St. John, chapter 1, verse 14, says: "We have seen His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father." Whence Cajetan says that Christ called us by His "own virtue" by living well, so that we too might live well; and by His own "glory" by working miracles and at the same time showing forth the gifts of His glorified body. Hence thirdly, Thomas the Englishman takes "glory" to mean the glory of the body which Christ showed in the Transfiguration to Sts. Peter, James, and John; and by "virtue" he takes the miracles which Christ performed before them in greater number than before the other Apostles: for by these things both He Himself and His companions the Apostles were called by Christ. This sense is fitting, and St. Peter had an eye to it; but it seems incomplete and too narrow: for adequately it signifies the glory, that is, the grace of Christ by which He called all the faithful.
Verse 4: Through Whom He Hath Given Us Most Great and Precious Promises, That by These You May Be Made Partakers of the Divine Nature
4. Through whom He hath given us most great and precious promises. — There is here a threefold reading. First, δι' ὧν, that is, "through which," namely, all the gifts of divine virtue which pertain to life and piety, as preceded. Thus Œcumenius and St. Ambrose, Epistle 33 to Demetrias, Hugh, and Thomas the Englishman. Second, "through which," namely the calling: thus St. Ambrose, Book X, Epistle 84, and Bede; or knowledge: thus Adam; or glory and virtue. The third and genuine reading, δι' οὗ, that is, "through whom," namely Christ. Thus the Roman edition, St. Athanasius, Oration II Against the Arians; the Gloss, Dionysius, Gagneius, and others.
Promises. — Understand the things promised by God freely and generously (for these are ἐπαγγέλματα) by metonymy, as if to say: those precious gifts which God through Moses and the Prophets promised that He would give through Christ, He has now given and shown forth through Him, namely the remission of sins, grace, holiness, all the virtues both theological and moral, the right and pledge of glory, etc., and even the Holy Spirit and the Deity Itself, as will soon be plain — which a little before he called "all things of divine virtue which pertain to life and piety"; for to these applies what follows: "That through these you may be made partakers of the divine nature." Add the Holy Spirit, given at Pentecost with the gift of tongues, wisdom, prophecy, healings, miracles, and the rest for converting the nations, and the very conversion of the nations spread throughout the whole world.
St. Agnes, in St. Ambrose, Book IV, Epistle 34, represents the price and dignity of these promised things, which God through Christ has given and gives to the faithful, by symbolic similitudes and figures: "He has adorned," she says, "my right hand with an inestimable bracelet, and has encircled my neck with precious stones. He has handed to my ears inestimable pearls, and has surrounded me with blooming and sparkling gems; He has set a sign upon my face, that I may admit no other lover but Him alone. He has clothed me in a robe woven with gold, and adorned me with vast necklaces. He has shown me incomparable treasures, which He has promised to give me if I persevere with Him," etc.
Tertullian openly, in his book On the Resurrection, chapter 8: "The flesh is washed," he says, "that the soul may be cleansed; the flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated; the flesh is signed, that the soul may be fortified; the flesh is overshadowed by the laying on of hands, that the soul too may be illumined by the Spirit; the flesh is fed with the body and blood of Christ, that the soul may be fattened upon God."
That by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature. — From this passage many have taken occasion to err. First, Osiander held that we are so united to the divinity that we are really justified by the very justice and sanctity of God Himself; which other heretics, seeing to be impossible, said that we are justified by the merits and justice of Christ imputed to us. See Bellarmine, Book II On Justification, chapter 5.
Second, Michael Servetus, whom Calvin caused to be punished as a heretic at Geneva by death and burning, held that the Deity is really transfused into the just, just as the soul is transfused into the body while the body is animated and vivified. Of which Beza here says: "Ridiculous," he says, "are those who from this passage imagine a transfusion of the divine essence into us, as that impious Servetus stubbornly defended unto death; and yet there are those who think a great injury was done to a good man. So he."
Third, certain over-contemplative persons in the time of Gerson, and even in our own time, imagined themselves to be so united to God by contemplation that their nature is really submerged in the abyssal depth of the divinity — that is, the humanity is annihilated and wholly passes over into the divinity. This was the error of Almaric, of which Ruysbroeck was accused by Gerson, as is plain from his letter to Bartholomew the Carthusian, which he wrote against the defense of Ruysbroeck made by John of Schoonhoven. Likewise some Eutychians said that the humanity of Christ was consumed by the Deity, just as quicksilver is consumed by gold when it is melted, so that in Christ there was but one nature, namely the divine, not two. Hence Apollinaris held that in Christ there was no human mind, but only a divine one. And the Monothelites held that in Christ there was only one will, namely the divine. Setting aside these dreams and ravings of fanatics and Enthusiasts, St. Ambrose, Epistle 38, and Œcumenius, here hold that we are made partakers of the divine nature through Christ: for in Christ our human nature is made a partaker of the divine, indeed is most closely joined to it in the same hypostasis of the Word.
But this union had already been accomplished, and through it all men were made partakers of the divine nature: yet St. Peter says only to the faithful: "That by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature" — assuredly not in Christ, but in your very selves.
I say therefore: God alone essentially has the divine nature; for the Deity is essentially only in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hence the Son alone (equally with the Holy Spirit) is ὁμοούσιος, that is, consubstantial with the Father. Wherefore St. Ambrose, in his book On the Incarnation, chapter 8, teaches that there is only one divine nature, from the fact that St. Peter says "of the nature," not "of the natures," and that this is in the Son inasmuch as He communicates it to us, and consequently the Son is truly and properly God. Again, personally, namely by hypostatic union, only Christ as man is a partaker of the divine nature, because He subsists with it in the same divine person of the Word.
Therefore the faithful and the just are partakers of the divine nature, not essentially, nor personally, but partly accidentally and partly substantially. Accidentally, through the gift of sanctifying grace, which is an accident infused by God into the soul, through which we most closely and most highly participate in the divine nature. For grace is a thing so noble and sublime that it surpasses the nature of all angels and men, and is supernatural to them, so that no created substance can be given to which grace is connatural, as the theologians teach, because grace itself participates as it were at the summit in the divinity, at that height by which it transcends all created things and every nature. And from this fount flow seven most noble effects and dignities which grace confers on the soul. First, grace expels every mortal sin.
Second, it makes a man pleasing to God and His friend, so that a true friendship intervenes between God and the just man, as St. Thomas teaches, II II, Question 23, article 1, where Suarez, Valentia, and others show that all the conditions of friendship are found in charity, by which a man becomes a friend of God.
Third, grace makes a man upright and holy, so that the will, mind, and all the powers are made holy, subjected to God and to God's law; and so it makes the just man like to God, as Adam was created in the state of innocence, according to the words of Ephesians chapter 4, verse 24: "Put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and in the holiness of truth."
Fourth, grace makes the just man a son and heir of God, according to the words of Colossians 1:12: "Giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His beloved Son."
Fifth, it brings with it all the theological virtues and the supernatural moral virtues, namely prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc.; and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which Isaiah, chapter 11:2, says rested first in Christ, saying: "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him: the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him." So St. Thomas teaches, I II, Question 63, article 3, and Question 68, article 1, and the Theologians generally.
Sixth, grace is the seed of glory: just as therefore from a seed are born a tree and fruit, so from grace are born felicity and eternal glory.
Seventh, grace is the principle and cause both of making satisfaction for past faults and of meriting an increase of grace and glory. So the Council of Trent, Session 6, chapter 16, and St. Thomas, I II, Question 114. Through grace therefore man is elevated and made of an order not angelic but divine; and so a sharer, partner, and partaker of the divinity: for there can be no greater participation in this than through grace.
Let sinners consider these things, that they may see how great a good of grace they have lost for the sake of base pleasure, and let them strive with all their strength to recover it; but let the just be eager to retain, confirm, increase, and perfect it. Let them consider what St. John says in his First Epistle, chapter 3, verse 1: "Behold what manner of charity the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God"; and chapter 3, verse 2: "Now we are the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like to Him."
I say secondly, that the just are made partakers of the divine nature, not only accidentally through sanctifying grace, but also substantially through the divine nature itself communicated to them, by which they are adopted by God into sons, heirs, and as it were deified. On which note first: Our formal justification and adoption consist wholly in the charity and grace given and inhering in us, which contains in itself, and brings with it, the Holy Spirit, who is the author of charity and grace: for neither can adopting grace be torn from the Holy Spirit, nor the adoption of the Holy Spirit be torn from grace, just as a ray cannot be torn from the sun, nor the sun from the ray, just as His light cannot be separated from its heat, nor heat from light. "This indeed is the charity of God poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us," as the Apostle says, Romans 5. For the Holy Spirit, by charity and grace, formally justifies us, indwells, vivifies, and adopts us. For inherent justice, or justifying grace, is not one simple quality, but embraces many things, namely the remission of sins, faith, hope, charity, grace, and other gifts, and the Holy Spirit Himself, the author of the gifts. For all these things are infused in justification and received by man, as the Council of Trent says, Session 6, chapter 7.
Hence note secondly: In justification and adoption there is given to man not only charity and grace, or the Holy Spirit only as to His gifts, as some have held; but the very person of the Holy Spirit Himself is given, and consequently the Deity Itself and the whole Holy Trinity, so that It is not only objectively, but also really and personally present in the soul of the just, with the gifts, and through His gifts He becomes present in a new way, and substantially indwells therein as in His own temple, unites it to Himself, and as it were deifies it, and consequently adopts it: which is indeed of great divine condescension, as also of our own dignity and consolation. For God and the Holy Spirit could have justified us in such a way as only to make us just, but not adopt us into sons. Again, He could have adopted us into sons by inherent grace alone; but not content with this He further willed as it were to annex His own person to His gifts, and to give it to us together with them, and thus through Himself to adopt us. The same is plainly taught by St. Bonaventure in his Commentary on the First Book of Sentences, distinction 14, article 2, Question 1, where he shows throughout that the Holy Spirit is given to the just not only in effect, but also in His own person as it were an uncreated gift, that He may be their perfect possession. The same is taught by the Master of the Sentences, Book I, disputations 14 and 15, from St. Augustine and others, and by Scotus, Gabriel, and Marsilius in the same place. The same is clearly affirmed by St. Thomas, I part., Question 43, articles 3 and 6, and Question 38, article 8, where he shows that the proper name of the Holy Spirit is "Gift," because He Himself is given to all the just. St. Thomas is followed by his disciples, and our Fathers Vasquez, Valentia, and especially Suarez, Book XII On the Triune and One God, chapter 5, numbers 11 and 12, who infers from this that the Holy Spirit begins to be present in a new way according to His substance in the soul of the just, where He was not before, and cites for this opinion St. Leo, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and along with St. Thomas asserts it to be so certain that he holds the contrary to be an error. He proves it from Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6: "Your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God." Romans 5: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us." 1 John 4: "He that abides in charity abides in God, and God in him." John chapter 14: "Whom the Father will send in My name, and He shall abide with you and shall be in you. And We will come to him and make Our abode with him"; and John 16: "If I go away, I will send Him to you." The reason is given by Suarez, number 12: "Because," he says, "the gifts of grace by their own power and as it were by connatural right require the real and personal presence of God in the soul sanctified by such gifts; for if by an impossibility we should suppose that the Holy Spirit were not otherwise really present within the soul, by that very fact that the soul should be affected with such gifts, the Holy Spirit Himself would come to it by personal presence, and would remain as long as grace endured in it." In a similar way, he says, the Word is present to the humanity of Christ, so that if by an impossibility He had not before been present to it, He would now by hypostatic union become personally and intimately present to it. He adds afterward a moral reason, namely that through grace there is made a most perfect friendship between God and man, which requires the presence of the friend, namely the Holy Spirit, who abides in the soul of His friend, that He may intimately unite Himself to it, and reside in it as in His own temple, that He may be worshiped, loved, and adored.
From this communication of the very person of the Holy Spirit and of the divinity, there follows for the soul a supreme elevation along with Him and as it were a deification, and consequently a most perfect and most divine adoption — namely, not only through grace, but also through the divine substance. Hence St. Basil, in his homily On the Holy Spirit, says that the saints are gods because of the indwelling Holy Spirit; for it has been said to them by God: "I have said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High." And from this he proves the Holy Spirit to be God: "For it is necessary," he says, "that He be a divine Spirit, and from God, who is the cause of divinity to the gods." Now just as the formal cause of the prior adoption, which takes place through grace, is grace itself, so the formal cause of this second adoption, which takes place through the communication of the Holy Spirit Himself, is the Holy Spirit Himself indwelling the soul of the just; but the medium, disposition, and bond is grace itself — just as the hypostatic union is the medium and bond by which the humanity is united to the Word, but with this dissimilarity, that this bond in Christ is not some quality, but only a substantial mode; whereas here in our adoption it is a quality and a real and perfect form, namely charity and grace, which by its nature requires this personal communication of the Holy Spirit, and brings it with it as the Holy Spirit Himself condescends — which marvelously displays His φιλανθρωπίαν toward men, His familiarity and benevolence, and is therefore to be celebrated with continual praise, meditation, and thanksgiving.
Wherefore justifying grace is as it were the formal cause of this communication of the Holy Spirit, who requires it and is inseparably joined to it: just as heat in fire is as it were the formal cause of the splendor that results from it, and light in the sun is as it were the formal cause of the heating power which the sun has in itself. And so justifying grace is the formal cause both of our justification and likewise of the adoption, both the second and the first, and embraces and brings with it all these things. Nor does the Council of Trent, Session 6, chapters 4 and 7, seem to mean anything else, when, against the modern heretics who establish an external or imputative justice, it teaches that in justification we are translated into a state of grace and adoption of the sons of God; and that the formal cause of justification is the justice of God, "not that by which He Himself is just, but by which He makes us just, receiving justice within us, which the Holy Spirit imparts to each as He wills, etc., while by the merit of the most holy passion of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, the charity of God is poured forth in the hearts of those who are justified, and inheres in them: hence in justification itself, together with the remission of sins, man receives all these things infused at once through Jesus Christ, into whom he is engrafted through faith, hope, and charity: for faith, unless hope and charity be added to it, neither perfectly unites with Christ, nor makes one a living member of His body." Moreover charity brings with it the very person of the Holy Spirit, as I have shown a little before: therefore the first justification and adoption is accidental, because it takes place through grace and charity, which are accidents; the second, flowing from the first, is substantial and therefore more divine, because it takes place through the communication of the Holy Spirit Himself and of the divine nature, and so makes us as it were substantially sons of God, that we may be of the same nature and essence as it were with God our Father.
Hence Origen, in his fourth homily on Leviticus, teaches that we have fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, according to that of 1 John 1:3: "That our fellowship may be with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ"; and consequently, he says, with the Saints and with the angels. This fellowship anyone breaks off and disowns who, by his evil deeds and evil thoughts, is separated from communion with them. Thus Origen.
Symbolically, we are made partakers of the divine nature through the Eucharist. So St. Cyril, Catechesis IV: "Thus," he says, "we are made Christ-bearers (and concorporeal and consanguineous with Christ, as he had said a little before) — that is, bearing Christ in our bodies — when we receive His body and blood into our members; thus according to St. Peter we are rendered partakers of the divine nature."
Tropologically: Gregory of Nyssa, at the beginning of his Epistle to Harmonius, asks: What is Christianity? and answers: "Christianity is the imitation of the divine nature," so that our thoughts and actions may be like to the actions of God, far removed from all malice and vice, pure and holy; so that we may savor heavenly things and be affected by heavenly things. Christianity is conjunction with Christ, and the profession of the life of Christ. For it cannot but be that Christ is justice, and purity, and truth, and the avoidance of any evil; nor can he be a Christian who does not show in himself communion and fellowship with these names; otherwise he has the name and shape of a Christian, not the truth and reality. He brings forward the example of an ape, which, having been taught by a juggler to dance and to imitate human gestures, and brought into the theater for gain — when the spectators applauded it, supposing the ape clothed with human dress and gesture to be a man — one of them, more cunning than his companions, said: I will show you that the ape is an ape, not a man. So he threw almonds to the ape in the theater, and on seeing them, forgetful of itself and of all its training and decorum, abandoning the juggler its master and teacher, it ran to its almonds, shelled them, and ate them, and so showed itself to be an ape and a beast, driven not by reason but by sense and concupiscence. So many Christians display the outward dress and appearance of a Christian, but when their dainties are presented to them like nuts, forgetting their Christianity, they rush at them like cattle, and so show themselves to be not true Christians but counterfeits, not men living by reason and faith, but apes of men. For baptism and Christianity is "the death of crimes and the life of virtues," says St. Cyprian, Book II, Epistle 2 to Donatus, and Optatus of Milevis, Book V Against Parmenian. The same Gregory of Nyssa, praising his brother St. Basil, said: "His birth and kinship was familiarity with God; his fatherland, virtue."
Wherefore St. Leo gravely says in his first sermon On the Nativity: "Acknowledge, O Christian, your dignity, and having been made a partaker of the divine nature, do not return by a degenerate way of life to your old vileness. Remember of what Head and of what Body you are a member. Recall that, having been rescued from the power of darkness, you have been translated into the light and kingdom of God. Through the sacrament of baptism you have been made a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not, by your wicked acts, drive away so great an Indweller, and subject yourself again to the bondage of the devil; for your price is the blood of Christ, who in truth shall judge you, who in mercy has redeemed you, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns forever and ever, amen." St. Macarius, in his 45th homily, teaches that God possesses all creation, but that He has contracted fellowship with man alone, and rests in him: "Do you see," he says, "the kinship of God with man, and of man with God? Therefore the shrewd and prudent soul, after coursing through all creatures, does not find rest for itself save in the Lord alone: nor has the Lord taken pleasure in any save in man alone. If you raise your eyes to the sun, you will find its disk in the sky; but its light and rays bend toward the earth, and all the power of light and brilliance tends toward the earth. So also the Lord sits at the right hand of the Father, but He keeps His eye stretched out upon the hearts of men dwelling on earth, so that, receiving His help, He may exalt them where He Himself is: 'For,' He says, 'where I am, there shall My minister also be.'"
Moreover, although the grace which makes us partakers of the divine nature brings with it and includes all the virtues, yet St. Jerome, Book I Against Jovinian, applies this very thing to virginity: "He has given us," he says, "great and precious promises of virginity, that through these we may be made partakers of the divine nature." To which point also tends what follows: "Flying away from the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world"; and that of Wisdom 6:20: "Incorruption brings one near to God." Others better appropriate this to charity, which, as St. Bernard says in his sermon On the Various Affections of the Soul, cries out from affection: "What have I in heaven? and besides You what have I desired upon earth? My flesh and my heart have failed: O God of my heart, and my portion, O God, forever." For such a soul does not desire anything of its own — not happiness, not glory, not anything else as it were by private love of itself; but it goes wholly out to God, and its one and perfect desire is that the King should bring it into His chamber, that it may cleave to Him and enjoy Him. Whence also, with face continually unveiled, beholding so far as it can the glory of the heavenly Bridegroom, it is transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. From this it plainly deserves to hear: "You are wholly fair, My beloved." And it also dares to speak: "My beloved is mine, and I am His." And in such a most happy and most pleasant converse the glorious soul delights together with her Bridegroom.
St. Ambrose, Book VI, Epistle 38: "What shall I add," he says, "to this — that God has made man a partaker of the divine nature, as we read in the Epistle of Peter? Whence not without reason did one say: 'Of whose race we are.' For He has given us of His own kindred, namely of His rational nature, so that we may seek that divine which is not far from each one of us, in whom we live, and are, and move."
Anagogically — though this also can be taken as the literal sense, and as the last part and completion of the foregoing already given (for glory is the consummation of grace) — we shall be partakers of the divine nature fully and perfectly when God shall make us partakers of His divine glory, felicity, and kingdom in heaven. For, as St. John says in his First Epistle, chapter 3:2: "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him," and St. Augustine, in Tract 51 on John: "What greater honor can the adopted son receive, than to be where the only-begotten is — not made equal to the divinity, but associated to eternity?" Peter hints at the very same thing, saying: "That through these you may be made partakers of the divine nature" — namely, partakers of divine glory. For God, by showing Himself clearly to the Blessed through the light of glory, and filling and beatifying them with Himself, so transfuses Himself into them as to make them like Himself — that is, blessed, glorious, divine, and as it were gods: for man cannot rise higher, nor be more united to God, nor more pass over into Him. Hence St. Athanasius, in Sermon 4 Against the Arians: "For as the Lord, having put on a body, was made man, so we men are deified (theopoioumetha, that is, are made gods) from the Word of God, in that He has been received in the flesh, and from this we now obtain eternal life." And Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 42, says that man attains divinity, that he may see the brightness of God; on which Nicetas: "Deification," he says, "is the term of every action and contemplation. Deification, that is, the vision and contemplation of God: for by this the Blessed so possess God that they seem as it were to be deified along with Him and to pass over into God, just as iron made wholly fiery seems to be turned into fire."
In this sense the particle "that," when it is said "That you may be made partakers of the divine nature," properly signifies the efficient and final cause: for grace effects glory, which makes us partakers of the divine nature and of beatitude; and glory is the end of grace. For in the prior literal sense, "that" signifies the formal cause: for grace formally makes us partakers of the divine nature — that is, pleasing to God, friends, sons, and heirs of God, divine and deiform men.
Finally, from this passage Henry of Ghent, Book XIII, Question 12, held that beatitude and the vision of God come about through the inflowing of the divinity, namely so that the Blessed sees God and is beatified by this vision, not by producing or actively eliciting this vision, but by being merely passive: for God alone by His inflowing effects and produces it first in the soul, then in the powers of the soul. First, he says, the essence itself of the soul, being illuminated by the uncreated light, namely the Deity Itself, by its inflowing shines, and inflamed with the ardor of charity burns so much that nothing appears in it except God — just as in red-hot iron nothing appears except fire; then it is derived into the powers, namely into the intellect, purging it that it may see more clearly; and into the will, that it may love more ardently — so that the whole soul is set on fire by the fire of the divinity. Thus they explain and refute Henry's opinion concerning formal beatitude, which is the vision itself and love of God seen — D. Soto on Book IV, distinction 49, Question 1, article 3, and Scotus, distinction 49, Question 2. Our Vasquez, however, I II, disputation 8, chapter 1, more rightly thinks Henry is speaking of objective, not formal, beatitude and inflowing of the divinity: for the Deity is our objective, not formal, beatitude, because it is the object which by its vision beatifies us.
Fleeing (ἀποφυγόντες in aorist, that is, "when you have fled away"; Pagninus and the Zurich version: "if you flee back") the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world — τῆς ἐν κόσμῳ ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ φθορᾶς, that is, "the corruption which is in concupiscence in the world"; Pagninus and the Zurich version: "if you flee from the corruption which is in the world through concupiscence": for concupiscence, since it is carnal and filthy, plainly is repugnant to the divine nature, which is a most pure and most holy Spirit. Again, concupiscence corrupts both the body and the soul: hence Caesarius of Arles, in his 11th homily: "Lustful thoughts," he says, "give off an incomparably heavier stench than sewers do." If, therefore, we desire to be made partakers of the divine nature, we must renounce concupiscence and declare war upon it.
Hence St. Leo, Sermon 1 On the Nativity: "Let us therefore put off," he says, "the old man with his deeds, and, having obtained a share in the generation of Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh." The same, Sermon 2 On the Ascension: "Let earthly desires not weigh down minds called upward; let perishable things not engross those preordained to eternity; let deceitful enticements not delay those who have entered the way of truth; and let these temporal things be traversed by the faithful so that they may know themselves to be pilgrims in this vale of the world, in which, even if certain advantages flatter them, they are not to be wickedly embraced, but to be passed by bravely." And shortly after: "For whom do carnal pleasures fight, except for the devil, who rejoices to bind souls tending to heavenly things by the delights of corruptible goods, and to draw them away from those seats from which he himself fell?" St. Hilary on Psalm 118, letter "heth": "To God," he says, "a faithful heart is an open and ample possession, that He may indwell and walk about therein. But He who indwells, who walks about, what third thing has He added? 'And I will be their God.' Behold the portion promised to us by Him, that we may be God's habitation. And while He walks within us, He Himself becomes our possession, if we leave the world, if we renounce the fleeting earthly possession, if we reject the inheritance of perishable things, if we reject it, if while still living we depart from the world." For the soul which has once plunged itself into the divinity is fed only on God and divine things; everything else it disdains as paltry and worthless.
Verse 5: And You, Employing All Care, Minister in Your Faith, Virtue; and in Virtue, Knowledge
5. And you, employing all care. — The Greek adds καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο, that is, "and this very thing," namely do, that you may flee concupiscence, as I have just said, "contributing all zeal" to it. So Clarius, Cajetan, Vatablus. St. Peter passes from God and His gifts to the faithful and his duty, namely that he should worthily use, obey, and cooperate with the gifts of God already mentioned, and not allow them to be idle; but by acting upon them increase and perfect them, so that as a faithful servant he may say to God when He requires an account of the talents: "Lord, your mina has gained ten minas," Luke 19:16, and may therefore hear from Him: "Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a little, you shall have power over ten cities."
Note: For "adjoining" the Greek has παρεισενέγκαντες, which is composed of two prepositions, namely εἰς, meaning "in," and παρά, meaning "under, besides, near, on the way." This word, then, signifies, first, that grace by itself alone does not suffice for salvation, but that the cooperation of free choice is required, "so that it be brought in beneath, by the striving also of the efficacy of our will. For God is called our Helper, nor can He help anyone but one who also voluntarily strives at something; because God does not work our salvation in us as He does in senseless stones, or as He does in those in whose nature He has not established reason and will," says St. Augustine, Book II On the Merits of Sins, chapter 5. The same, Sermon 43 On the Words of the Lord: "You act," he says, "if you are acted upon; and you act well, if you are acted upon by what is good."
Second, the τὸ παρά, that is "under," signifies that in the works of grace and salvation, grace goes before as the mistress, while the will follows after as a handmaid and servant. Hence he says: "Minister," as if ministers of grace; for grace stirs up the will to rise to a heavenly and divine work, as the Council of Trent teaches, Session 6, chapter 5. Therefore Pelagius erred, who made grace the handmaid of nature and free choice: "For it is God who works in us both to will and to accomplish," says St. Paul, Philippians 2:13, namely through grace. Grace therefore, stirring and working, precedes the will; the will then cooperates with grace, and so grace from being operating becomes cooperating. For nature and the will are weak, impotent toward the works of salvation, and dead through sin: therefore through grace, as it were animated and vivified, the will is roused from sleep and death, strengthened, and made able to repent, to hope, and to love God, according to the words: "Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you," Ephesians 5:14.
Third, the τὸ παρά, that is, "under, besides," signifies that it is beyond the merit and order of the will and of nature that it should be ordered to these gifts of salvation and glory, which are above and of a higher order: namely, that the will must be elevated by grace above nature and as it were made supernatural, that it may be able to perform the supernatural works of faith, hope, charity, etc., by which it may attain to salvation; for in these works the will can do nothing of itself, but must be elevated by grace: hence a work has all its dignity and merit from grace; for from grace it has that it is a work of charity, heavenly, supernatural, divine, meritorious of eternal life; but from the will it has that it is a human, voluntary, free work. The τὸ παρά therefore signifies that the will, as it were beyond the order, elevated by grace, creeps in and insinuates itself into these supernatural acts, and can do nothing in these acts by its own strength, but receives all its strength for performing them from grace; just as iron of itself cannot heat, but if united to fire and made fiery, receives from the fire the power of heating and burning, so likewise the will receives from grace the power of believing, hoping, loving God, etc.
Fourth, the τὸ εἰς, that is "in," signifies that the will ought zealously to embrace this great gift of God, and to bring and bestow all its strength upon these divine works. Hence he says: "All care," in Greek σπουδήν, that is, zeal, diligence, solicitude, effort, exertion, "adjoining, minister," ἐπιχορηγήσατε, that is, supply, furnish, render, subminister, adjoin, attach, exhibit.
In faith. — Some read τῇ πίστει, that is, "to faith," as if to say: supply to your faith vigor and virtue, and likewise knowledge, abstinence, patience, piety, etc. Make sure, namely, that your faith may not be idle, but a worker and busy with these virtues.
But others generally read ἐν τῇ πίστει, "in faith," that is, "with faith," or "through faith": for living faith stirs up virtue, patience, piety, etc. Where note: The word "in" signifies, first, the connection of the virtues — namely, that they are connected with one another, as if to say: To faith join virtue, to virtue knowledge, etc.; second, that one is strengthened and receives vigor from the other, as if to say: Insert virtue into faith, knowledge into virtue, as marrow into bone, vigor into limbs, spirit into body: for faith is feeble and infirm, unless it is supported by virtue; and virtue, unless directed by knowledge, etc.; third, the means and order of them, as if to say: in faith, that is, through faith, stir up in yourselves virtue, through virtue knowledge, through knowledge abstinence, etc.; fourth, the crown and coronal of them: for just as a golden ring inserted into another, and this into another, and again into another, makes a chain and as it were a golden crown, so faith inserted into virtue, virtue into knowledge, knowledge into patience, patience into piety, etc., makes a circle and crown of virtues, which like a necklace or a golden robe wonderfully clothes, adorns, and perfects the soul.
Virtue, — virtue I say, that is, virtue properly so called, not δύναμις, that is, power, as if to say: Join works of virtues to faith, add practice to knowledge. So Œcumenius. Secondly and more aptly, by virtue understand the vigor, strength, and fortitude of virtue: for ἀρετή is so called because it has something of Ἄρης, that is, of Mars, namely because it is martial, warlike, masculine, robust, generous, heroic. For if he were taking virtue in any general sense, he would not subjoin patience, piety, etc., inasmuch as these are comprised under the generic name of virtue as its species. The sense therefore is, as if he said: I commend to you, O faithful, both the strength of faith and likewise the vigor of virtue, namely fortitude for heroically overcoming all difficulties, which I do not commend to you with other eulogies because by its own appearance and beauty it commends itself more than enough: for virtue needs no embellishment: it is its own ornament; just as vice and softness of mind needs no censure; for it is its own disgrace: for virtue (virtus) is named from man (vir); whence it properly signifies fortitude, because that befits a man. So Cicero, Tusculans II: "Virtue," he says, "is named from man (vir). Now the property of a man most especially is fortitude, whose two greatest functions are contempt of death and of pain. We must therefore use these things, if we wish to be possessors of virtue, or rather if we wish to be men, since virtue has borrowed its name from men." Virtue therefore is the strong and unconquered patience of enduring evils. The same author, Philippics 4: "All other things," he says, "are false, uncertain, perishable, mutable; virtue alone is fixed by the deepest roots, which can never be shaken by any force, never moved from its place." Virtue therefore demands Socratic strength; and Virgil, Æneid V:
Then shame kindles strength, and conscious virtue.
Again, Cicero to Plancus, book X, teaches that virtue surmounts all things however difficult, and seizes all things: "You have attained," he says, "all the highest things with virtue as your guide, fortune as your companion." And in his speech for Plancius: "He excels most in glory who is most outstanding in virtue." Pindar in the Isthmians, ode 6: "If anyone among men," he says, "delighted by expense and labor, exercises the virtues built up by God, then God plants for him lovely glory, and he has now cast anchor at the utmost limits of happiness, being honored from on high." Clement of Alexandria, book IV of the Stromata, cites this saying of Simonides: "Virtue is said to dwell on cliffs of difficult access"; and Hesiod, who says that sweat is set before virtue:
.....The way to her is long and steep.
For it is hard at first, but when one has come to the heights,
It becomes easy.
St. Peter therefore demands that the faithful be not sluggish and weak in faith and Christian life, but active and vigorous, as was St. Valentine the Martyr, who by the word and vigor of his faith almost converted the emperor Claudius II to Christ, as his Acts on February 14 record. Such did St. Peter make his fellow citizens and subjects, that they might be Romans, that is, Valentines: for Rome was originally called Valentia, as Solinus Polyhistor (chap. II) and Dionysius of Halicarnassus (book I of Roman Antiquities) testify. Whence also in Greek it is called Ῥώμη, that is, strength. Hence that virtue of the Roman Martyrs, in continual persecutions and torments from St. Peter to Sylvester, namely from Nero to Constantine through 300 years: to whom therefore you may rightly apply that of Psalm LXVII, 36: "God is wonderful in His saints, the God of Israel, He Himself shall give (nay, has given) strength and fortitude to His people; blessed be God," who makes the Martyrs strong, as new Israels lording it over tyrants and over God Himself.
And to virtue, knowledge. — First, by knowledge Œcumenius understands a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of Christ and God, which, he says, "does not come to just anyone, but only to him who from more excellent works has by habit acquired well-exercised senses." Secondly, St. Augustine, XIV On the Trinity, chap. 1: "Wisdom," he says, "is the knowledge of divine things; knowledge, however, of human things." Thirdly, Arias takes knowledge for the understanding of Holy Scripture. Fourthly, Gregory of Valencia, part I, disputation 1, question I, point 3, § 1, and other Scholastics take knowledge for Theology, which from the principles of faith draws theological conclusions, which from this passage they prove to be a science. Fifthly and most genuinely, by knowledge understand practical knowledge, namely Christian and divine prudence, which teaches what is fitting for the Christian to do or not to do in any place, time, and other circumstances: which St. Anthony used to call the chief virtue; St. Bernard, sermon 49 on the Canticles, called the charioteer of the other virtues. See Cassian, Conferences book II, chap. 2.
Whence St. Peter says that this knowledge produces abstinence, patience, piety, love of the brotherhood, and charity. Again, that it is born of virtue, that is, of fortitude: for a strong and masculine mind is upright, and judges rightly concerning what is to be done; but a soft and effeminate mind, because it inclines too much to its own desires, is therefore depraved, and judges perversely about what is to be done. See St. Bernard, sermon 3 in the Vigil of the Nativity, where he condemns that doctrine which is destitute of good works, and teaches that the only true knowledge is that which orders life and amends morals. The same, sermon 36 on the Canticles: "There are some," he says, "who wish to know in order that they may know, and this is shameful curiosity; and there are some who wish to know in order that they themselves may be known, and this is shameful vanity; and there are some who wish to know in order to sell their knowledge, and this is shameful gain. But there are also some who wish to know in order that they may build up, and this is charity; and likewise to know in order that they may be built up, and this is prudence. Of all these, only the last two are not found in the misuse of knowledge: since they wish to understand for this end, that they may do well." The same, book I On Conscience, chap. 2: "Many," he says, "seek knowledge, few seek conscience." The true knowledge directs, and makes conscience right and holy. Whence St. Augustine, epistle 119, chap. XXI: "So," he says, "let knowledge be employed as a kind of machine, through which the structure of charity may rise up."
Verse 6: And in Knowledge, Abstinence; and in Abstinence, Patience; and in Patience, Godliness
6. And in knowledge (that is, with knowledge, and through knowledge) abstinence. — For knowledge, or Christian ethics, first teaches abstinence, that is, temperance in food and drink, and in the other pleasures of the flesh, lest through them we treat the greatness of God's gifts with insult, as Clarius says: for unless these are first restrained, progress to the other virtues cannot be made, especially since from intemperance and gluttony all vices arise, as St. Gregory teaches, in the third part of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 20. Add that knowledge and abstinence are companions and as it were sisters, so that one cannot be found without the other; whence Daniel with his companions, chap. 1, through abstinence attained the knowledge of all things; and Solomon: "I thought," he says, "in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might transfer my mind to wisdom, and avoid folly," Eccles. II, 3. Again, abstinence is connected with virtue and fortitude; for, as St. Bernard says, sermon 1 On All Saints: "What is more wonderful, or what martyrdom is heavier, than to hunger amid feasts, to be cold amid many costly garments, to be pressed by poverty amid the riches which the world offers, which the malignant one displays, which our appetite desires?" For "abstinence" the Greek has ἐγκράτειαν, that is, temperance, or continence, which is a general virtue setting a measure to pride, anger, gluttony, lust, avarice, sloth, and all vices, and moderating and composing all the actions of man. Whence Œcumenius takes by continence that modesty which moderates knowledge, lest it grow proud and puff up the mind. Others take it as chastity: for this is the companion and sister of wisdom. Whence each of these matrons appearing in vision to St. Gregory Nazianzen said: "We are known and familiar to you. For one of us is called wisdom, the other chastity; and we have been sent by the Lord to dwell with you, because you have prepared in your heart a dwelling-place pleasant and clean for us." So Rufinus in the Prologue of his Apology, and Aldhelm, On the Praises of Virginity, chap. XIII.
And in abstinence, patience. — Because, as St. Gregory says, in part III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 20, "impatience often shakes the minds of the abstinent out of the bosom of tranquility, hence St. Peter admonished them that it should be present"; which is to be understood of rigid and excessive abstinence and fasting: for this weakens and dries up the body, and so sharpens the bile, and from this comes anger and impatience. For moderate abstinence and sobriety composes both the body and the mind, and makes it moderate, patient, and cheerful; and this is what St. Peter signifies here. For "in abstinence," that is, through abstinence, he says, "minister patience": for patience is a greater and higher virtue than abstinence. Whence the Wise Man, Prov. XVI, 32: "Better," he says, "is the patient man than the strong man, and he who rules his spirit than the conqueror of cities"; because, as St. Gregory explains, homily 25, by the latter "those things which are outside are conquered, but by patience the mind itself is overcome by itself, and subjects itself to itself, when patience lays it low in the humility of endurance." For "patience" the Greek has ὑπομονήν, that is, endurance, sustainment, by which some take perseverance in abstinence, namely so that abstinence be not of one day or month, but continuous through all life, and that it firmly and constantly resist all pleasures and temptations (for it not seldom happens that one whom torments do not conquer, pleasure conquers), as concerning that young man, who when tempted by a woman bit off his tongue and spat it in her face, St. Jerome relates in the Life of St. Paul the Hermit; and so by overcoming pleasure he conquered.
And in patience (through patience) piety. — Εὐσέβειαν, that is, the worship of God, that the patient man may turn out pious toward God: for afflictions cast him down and make him humble, and compel him to call upon God for help. "Patience, says Œcumenius, by entering in finishes the whole matter, and by rendering more perfect obedience toward God, gains piety for us." Furthermore piety, because it looks to and worships God, is a higher degree and greater virtue than patience. Here therefore is a chain, and at the same time a climax and gradation of virtues. Whence Bede and Dionysius compare these eight virtues of St. Peter to the eight steps by which one ascended to the temple of Solomon. Moreover Peter joins patience to piety, in order to teach the faithful, who were suffering so many and severe things, to refer all these things through piety to the worship of God, so that for love and honor of Him they may bear all things generously, as the martyrs did. Piety therefore is the seasoning and perfection of patience, as patience is the occasion and enticement of piety.
Some take piety as kindness, as if St. Peter required that one patient toward those who afflict him should be pious, that is, kind, beneficent, and merciful; whence St. Augustine, On the City of God X, 1, says that εὐσέβειαν, that is piety, although it properly belongs to God, is yet often used in works of mercy; because these wonderfully please God, and by them as by sacrifices He Himself is appeased. But these works are included in the love of the brotherhood, about which St. Peter adds:
Verse 7: And in Godliness, Love of Brotherhood; and in Love of Brotherhood, Charity
7. And in piety, love of the brotherhood — because piety does not please God unless it be seasoned with brotherly love, that is, if it be devoid of beneficence, according to that saying: "I will mercy, and not sacrifice," Matt. IX, 13, where God signifies that He is worshipped and honored more by the love of brethren than by sacrifice. He therefore wills that the piety of the faithful be not dry and idle, but be directed to the love of brethren, that is, to the advantage and salvation of one's neighbors. Against this some of the faithful sin who are so addicted to their own devotions that they forget the brethren and the poor, and even greedily hoard their goods, and are unwilling to confer anything on the needy.
And in love of the brotherhood, charity. — For charity is the sum and summit of the virtues, which perfects and crowns the orb and circle of them already enumerated; and it is as it were the gem in the ring.
St. Peter therefore wills that brotherly love be not merely brotherly, that is, flow from the bare love of one's neighbor, but be seasoned and animated by the true charity of God, namely so that out of love of God we love our neighbor, as the image and partaker of God, and so love God in our neighbor, and aid him for God's sake, and therefore not distinguish in our neighbor qualities and conditions, as, for example, that we love fellow-citizens but not foreigners; relatives but not those remote from kinship; friends but not enemies: for God does not distinguish between these, but shows Himself God to all by raining upon the good and the bad, by doing good to the just and the unjust, and therefore the charity of God excludes no one, but embraces all in His bosom. "To love friends is the part of all, but to love enemies is the part of Christians alone," says Tertullian to Scapula, chap. 1.
This is therefore the chain of St. Peter's eight virtues perfectly adorning the Christian, if of course virtue be joined to faith, knowledge to virtue, abstinence to knowledge, patience to abstinence, piety to patience, brotherly love to piety, and charity to brotherly love. In these consists the sum and perfection of the Christian life: these make a holy, complete, and perfect Christian: for faith, piety, and charity render the due office to God; knowledge, abstinence, and patience render what is due to oneself; brotherly love renders what is due to one's neighbor.
Verse 8: For if These Things Be With You and Abound, They Will Not Leave You Empty nor Unfruitful in the Knowledge of Our Lord Jesus Christ
8. For if these things be with you (the Greek has ταῦτα γὰρ ὑμῖν ὑπάρχοντα, which can be rendered either conditionally, as Our [translator] renders it, or absolutely: "For when these things are with you." So Pagninus and the Zurich Bible; but more aptly conditionally: for St. Peter exhorts the faithful to the pursuit of virtues from their fruit, saying: For if these things be with you) and abound (that is, abound, overflow: for this is what τὸ πλεονάζοντα signifies; wrongly therefore Bede, the Gloss, Hugh, and Thomas the Englishman say, "if they overcome," that is, if they conquer the contrary vices), not empty (Greek ἀργούς, that is, idle), nor without fruit (of good works: whence for ἀκάρπους, that is, without fruit, some read ἀπράκτους, that is, without work) they will establish you in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ — as if to say: If you have the virtues that I have just enumerated, they will cause your faith and knowledge of Christ not to be empty, idle, fruitless, and devoid of merit, but to exert itself in the works of the virtues just mentioned, and so to be full, busy, fruitful, and rich and abundant in a great number of merits. So Adamus, Arias, Salmeron, Titelmann, and others. St. Peter says this against Simon and the Gnostics, who taught that we are justified by faith alone, as the modern Huguenots teach, whom you may rightly call Hugnostics. Whence against these same, St. James, chap. II, by many arguments proves that faith without works is vain and dead. Secondly, Lyranus, Hugh, Dionysius take "knowledge of Christ" as the beatific vision, as if to say: These virtues will produce in you a perfect knowledge of Christ, namely the beatific vision. Cajetan adds, as if to say: These virtues will cause you to grow in this life in the knowledge and love of Christ. The Greek favors this, having εἰς τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν, that is, into knowledge, namely greater and fuller, according to that of chap. III, verse 18: "Grow in grace and knowledge of our God." Finally, Œcumenius, Hugh, the Gloss, and Catharinus take "knowledge of Christ" as the day of judgment, by which namely Christ is to know, examine, and judge concerning the virtues and vices of each. But the first exposition, as it is plainer, so it is also more genuine, especially because St. Peter calls ἐπίγνωσις the knowledge which we have of Christ in this life, as is clear from verses 2 and 3; but the day of judgment and of the beatific vision, he calls the day of the revelation of Christ, as is clear from Epistle I, chap. I, verses 5, 7, 13.
Note: For "establish" the Greek has καθίστησιν, that is, will set, will place, will collocate, as if to say: These virtues will lead you to true and full knowledge and science, and in it as in a most clear and most pleasant light will firmly and steadfastly establish you, and so will lead you from the knowledge of the way to the knowledge and vision of the homeland, in which you will see face to face the God of gods in the heavenly Sion. St. Peter signifies that the true and full knowledge of God and of Christ is the highest good, and the blessedness both of this life through faith and of the life to come through species and vision, according to that saying of Christ: "This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent," John XVII. For St. Peter contrasts those endowed with virtues and those destitute of virtues, namely that those endowed with them are placed in the full knowledge of God and Christ as in the light of paradise, while those destitute of them are as it were blind in the darkness of the abyss; whence concerning these he adds: "For he to whom these things are not at hand, is blind and feeling his way with his hand"; for virtues are practical lights which wonderfully adorn and illumine the soul, and in the knowledge of God as in a clear light place and confirm it; just as fruits stabilize the tree: for they make it strike deeper roots into the earth, by which they draw the sap that they may furnish to the fruits. Hence Clement of Alexandria, Pædagogus I, chap. 6, and Stromata IV, II, and Damascene, Paralipomena I, chap. LXV, calls γνωστικόν, that is, knowing and endowed with knowledge, the perfect man who joins knowledge to virtue and practice, and teaches and perfects others also.
Verse 9: For He That Hath Not These Things With Him Is Blind, and Groping, Having Forgotten the Cleansing of His Old Sins
9. For he to whom these things are not at hand (he to whom the eight virtues just enumerated are lacking), is blind, — that is, practically, because he does not have the practical eyes of practical faith and knowledge: for these are the virtues just mentioned. Hence Christ said of the Pharisees, who had a faith devoid of the practice of virtues: "Let them alone," He said, "they are blind and leaders of the blind," Matt. XV, 14; and before Christ, Isaiah foreseeing them, LIX, 10, depicts: "We have groped for the wall like the blind, and we have groped as if without eyes; we have stumbled at noonday as in darkness, as if dead among the dim ones." And Zephaniah, I, 17: "They shall walk as the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord." And Job V, 14: "They shall meet darkness in the day, and as in the night so shall they grope at noon." St. Peter signifies that those who lack the virtues are as if blind, dwelling in the darkness of ignorance, because they lack prudence and practical knowledge, which is the light and guide of the virtues. Œcumenius anagogically refers this to the coming of Christ to judgment, which will be like the sun, brilliant and glorious: "For then blindness will arise upon the wicked, because even the just will feel a certain weakness, as it were, at so great a light."
And feeling with the hand. — Namely, feeling out the way: for the blind, because they lack eyes, feel out the way and as it were grope with the hand, lest anywhere they slip or stumble. The Greek is μυωπάζων, which can first be rendered, existing and walking with closed eyes: for μύω is to close, and they call the eyes ὦπας. Secondly, μυωπάζων, that is, having the eyes of a mouse, for μῦς is mouse: take the mouse to be a subterranean one, namely a mole, as if to say: He who lacks the virtues is dim-sighted like a mole, which gropes with its hands (i.e., paws) and burrows the earth.
Where note that those who pursue not virtue but the flesh and the world are rightly compared to moles. First, because as moles have eyes, which I have indeed curiously examined, but covered with a little skin, lest they be hurt by the earth while they burrow it, and so they are deprived of their use, namely sight: so also these have a mind, but veiled and blinded by lusts; and so they do not use it, because they are driven by the senses, like moles burrowing the earth. Hence in heaping up wealth and discerning earthly things they are lynxes, in heavenly things moles. Aristotle teaches this about the mole, in book I of the History of Animals, chap. IX: "All animals which give birth to a living animal," he says, "have eyes, except the mole, which I would say in some way has them, though I should altogether deny that it has them, since indeed it neither sees, nor has visible eyes: but if anyone draws back the membrane stretched over them, the place of the eyes appears, and the black part of the same." Hence that of Virgil: "Moles caught in the eyes"; and Pliny, book III, chap. III, says "moles are condemned by nature to perpetual blindness." The same, book XI, chap. XXXVII: "Moles," he says, "have no sight; there is a likeness of eyes, if anyone draws back the membrane stretched over them." Secondly, moles, because they do not see, therefore hear more keenly, nature compensating sight with hearing, and there exerting more strongly the power elsewhere closed up. So Pliny, book X, chap. LXIX, teaches that man surpasses the other animals in touch and taste, but is surpassed in the remaining senses by them: for "eagles," he says, "see more clearly, vultures smell more keenly, moles buried in the earth hear more clearly, in so dense and deaf an element of nature. Moreover, since the voice of all things tends upward, they hear out speech"; but that which he adds is fabulous: "If you speak of them, they are even said to understand and to flee." So worldly people are powerful in hearing, and are wholly all ears, in order to hear new, curious, secret things, especially those that wound a neighbor's reputation, even one absent and removed across the whole world, and dwelling among the antipodes. Thirdly, moles so cling to the earth that they seem buried and like the entombed, says Pliny, book XI, chap. XXXVII. So carnal men in the flesh, worldly men in the world, bury and entomb themselves. Fourthly, moles have their burrows under the earth, are light-fleeing, and shun the sun; in their burrows they heap up sprouts and roots for provender: so the avaricious are intent only on heaping up riches, the gluttonous on delicacies, the proud on honors. Fifthly, moles with insane labor incessantly dig up the earth with their feet as with hands, so much so that they sometimes undermine whole cities. So Pliny, book VIII, chap. XXIX: "M. Varro," he says, "records that a town in Spain was undermined by rabbits, one in Thessaly by moles, a city in Gaul was driven out by frogs, one in Africa by locusts; from Gyaros, an island of the Cyclades, the inhabitants were driven away by mice." So worldly men, who are agitated by the insane sting of some lust, in order to obtain it stir up all things, mix and confuse all things, and so often overturn whole cities and kingdoms, and dispatch them with wars and slaughters.
Thirdly, μυωπάζων can be rendered, blinking or winking with the eyes: whence by Aristotle, in Problems section XXXI, those are called myopes who see things near at hand, but do not see things far off. And Hesychius in the lexicon: μυωπάζειν, he says, is said of those who from birth see things at close range, but from a distance do not see them; but Gellius, book IV, chap. II: "myops," he says, "is the same as bleary-eyed"; and Œcumenius here: "To be lusciosus," he says, "that is μυωπάζων, signifies nothing else than to be dim-sighted"; and Budæus clearly: "Myopes," he says, "are those who from the very beginning of their birth cannot see unless things are brought close to their eyes"; of which kind we see many who almost touch the things they look at with their eyes, and look with squinting and half-closed eyes, whom we call bleary-eyed, the Greeks call νυκτάλωπας. So therefore St. Peter calls myopes those who savor earthly things, inasmuch as they do not perceive heavenly things, which are placed farther off, namely as it were outside the world, but only earthly things, which are near at hand: although this does not quite agree with the words "is blind," unless by "blind" you understand "dim-sighted." Truly St. Gregory, in Morals XXV, chap. IX: "Those who err," he says, "in the knowledge of God, are justly given over to err equally in their actions"; nay rather, St. Paul, in Romans chap. I, verse 28, speaking of the philosophers who, when they had known God, did not glorify Him as God: "And as," he says, "they did not approve to have God in their knowledge: God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, that they might do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all iniquity," etc. As therefore faith is the mother of every virtue, so unbelief is the mother of every vice.
Hence such are like the bat (for μυωπάζων can be derived through ω from ὄμμα, i.e., bat), which is composed of mouse and bird, and seems a winged mole, and therefore sees little; whence it shuns the sun and flies by night, about which I have said more on Isaiah II, 20. Of these Christ said: "There is yet a little light in you; walk while you have the light, that the darkness overtake you not; and he that walks in darkness, does not know where he goes," John XII, 35.
Receiving forgetfulness of the purgation of his old sins, — as if to say: The faithful man who casts off the virtues and falls back into vices, forgets baptism and Christianity, by which he received the remission of sins committed in Gentilism or Judaism, and by which he pledged that he would live a Christian and holy life. For when asked: "Do you renounce Satan and all his pomps?" he answered: "I renounce." So Œcumenius. Truly St. Augustine, book I Against the Two Epistles of Pelagius, chap. XIII: "We say," he says, "that baptism gives forgiveness of all sins and takes away crimes, not merely shaves them away." See the Council of Trent, session V, in the decree On Original Sin, and session VI, chap. XI.
Verse 10: Wherefore, Brethren, Labour the More, That by Good Works You May Make Sure Your Calling and Election
10. Wherefore, brethren, rather labor. — The "rather" can be referred either to "wherefore," as the Greek refers it; and then it is the same as "more," and continues the antithesis with what preceded, as if to say: Do not forget the purgation of sins, but rather labor that through good works you may make your calling sure. Or to "labor," as if to say: More and more day by day labor, etc. For "labor" the Greek has σπουδάσατε, that is, be eager, give heed, labor. For "satagere" is to be sufficiently anxious, or to do enough, that is, to do much as one solicitous. Whence Quintilian, book VI, chap. IV: "Afer," he says, "wittily said of Manlius Sura, who in pleading ran about much, leaped, threw his hands about, dropped his toga and put it back on, that he was not pleading, but labouring (satagere)." Better did St. Martha labor about the frequent ministering to Christ, Luke X, 40.
That by good works. — These words are lacking in most Greek codices; in some however they are found. It is certain that they must either be read, or be understood: for we cannot make our calling sure, except through the virtues which St. Peter named a little before, and their good works: for these are the seeds of blessed eternity and glorious felicity. For "what a man shall sow" on earth, "that he shall also reap" in the heavens, Gal. VI, 8; where it is also added: "He that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting"; and the Psalmist, Psalm CXXV, 6: "Going they went and wept, casting their seeds: but coming they shall come with exultation, carrying their sheaves." See what is said in James chap. II, verse 26.
Peter touches upon Simon Magus, who, forgetting his own baptism and the purgation of sins, taught as one blind that works are not required for salvation, but that faith suffices: For if anyone, he says, believes in me, he shall be saved. See what is said in Acts VIII, 20 and following.
Make sure your calling and election. — There are two kinds of election, just as there are two kinds of calling (for this is the execution of election): one to faith and grace, the other to felicity and glory. Again, each is twofold: for one is absolute and efficacious, such as is that of the just and the blessed; the other is non-absolute and conditioned, such as is that of all men: for all men are called by God to grace, if they will believe in Christ and obey Him: but all believers and just are called to glory, certainly to obtain it, if they persevere in faith and justice unto death. Wherefore the call to grace is an implicit call to glory, but only inchoate and conditioned.
Now some take here the election to glory, and that absolute and efficacious; whence from this passage they contend to prove that the predestined are efficaciously elected by God to glory before foreseen works, from His mere good pleasure, and therefore that St. Peter admonishes that they should make sure through good works this election of God made from eternity.
But others think better that St. Peter is speaking of election to faith and grace, but consequently is speaking of election to glory, not antecedent and absolute, but consequent and conditioned, as if to say: Labor, O Christians, so that you may stabilize through good works your election to grace and Christianity, lest you fall from it, but persevere constantly in it: for thus you will likewise stabilize and make sure your election to glory: for you are all elected and destined to glory by the very fact that you have been baptized and made faithful and just, not absolutely, but under the condition, namely if you persist in the grace received unto the end of life.
That this is so is proved first, because it seems little probable, nay incredible, that absolutely all the faithful of Pontus, Asia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia, to whom St. Peter writes, were efficaciously predestined and elected to glory. Again, that this was revealed to St. Peter is the more incredible, that St. Peter willed to reveal this very thing to all the faithful, and to make them all certain of their salvation.
Secondly, because such is here understood election as is calling; but calling is understood as to faith and grace: therefore election also. The minor is clear, because those who are called by God in this life are absolutely called only to grace; for those who are absolutely called to glory are dead and have departed in grace.
Thirdly, the same is clear from what precedes, from which St. Peter draws this conclusion: for in what precedes he has urged the faithful to the Christian virtues, that through them they may appear and be established not empty but fruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Wherefore when he says: "Labor that through good works you may make sure your calling and election," he says the same thing, and explains what he said in verse 8: "For if these things be with you and abound, they will establish you not empty nor without fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Fourthly, the same is clear from what immediately follows: "For so an entrance shall abundantly be ministered unto you into the eternal kingdom of our Lord," as if to say: By good works you will be elected to glory, and you will enter into the eternal kingdom of God.
Fifthly, because St. Paul, the follower of St. Peter, calls the faithful predestined, elect, and called not immediately to glory, but to grace, as I have shown on Ephesians I, and in canon 13 on St. Paul.
Sixthly, because this election of God is uncertain; whence St. Peter commands that we make it sure: therefore he is not speaking of the absolute and efficacious election of God to glory: for this is most certain and plainly infallible; but of the absolute election to grace, and conditioned to glory.
You will say: This election of God is in itself most certain, but to us and to others it is uncertain: St. Peter therefore commands that we make it sure to ourselves and to others through good works. So Bede, the Gloss, Hugh, and Dionysius.
I answer that this cannot be fittingly said; for "sure" the Greek has βεβαίαν, that is, firm, fixed, stable, namely in itself, not certain and ascertained to us or others, as if to say: Your calling and election to grace, and consequently to glory, is not in itself firm and stable, because you can fall from it: confirm therefore and stabilize it through frequent and continual good works. So Œcumenius: "Be eager," he says, "to render your calling and election stable and unchangeable."
You will say secondly: Good works make the election of God firm, because they put it into execution; for works are means by which we attain the glory to which we have been elected by God: for thus we say in moral matters, that the efficacious intention of the end is confirmed by the efficacious choice of the means.
I answer: Nor does this satisfy: first, because in men this is true, not in God: for men are mutable and inconstant, and so can change their intention; whence they confirm it through the choice of means: but God is plainly constant and immutable; whence He cannot change the intention which He has once made, so as to reject afterwards those whom He has once efficaciously elected to glory, or allow them to fall from it.
Secondly, because God to those whom He has efficaciously elected to glory destines efficacious graces, with which they may efficaciously and certainly do good works, as means by which they may arrive at the glory destined by Him. Wherefore the faithful might have said to St. Peter: Why do you say to us: "labor that through good works you may make sure your election"? For this is God's care. For God who has efficaciously elected us to glory will also give us efficacious means, namely good works, by which we may attain this glory. But if He has not predestined us, but reprobated us, and decreed to place us in the line of the reprobate, much less must we labor by good works to escape this reprobation of God: for this is as impossible for us as it is impossible to repeal and overturn the decree of God, or to compel Him, in place of unsuitable and inefficacious grace, to give us suitable and efficacious grace, which alone leads those elected by God to salvation.
Thirdly, because the execution corresponds to the intention, and conversely the intention is adequated to the execution; for as God intends to do a thing, so He also performs the same; therefore as the execution is, so is the intention: but in execution God does not give glory except after, through, and on account of foreseen good works, as the Scriptures teach, and all confess. Therefore He does the same in intention and predestination, namely so that He neither intends to give glory, nor predestines to it, except him whom He has foreseen working well and dying in good works; because He does not intend to give glory except as a wage for the merit of works, Matt. XX, 8, and as a prize promised for victory to the contender, Apoc. III, 5; XII, 21, and 2 Tim. IV, 8. For which reason, when He gives such grace, with which He foresees that the man will work well and merit glory, He is said strictly to predestine him, because through merits He destines him to glory, according to that of St. Augustine, book On the Gift of Perseverance, chap. XIV: "Predestination is the foreknowledge and preparation of God's benefits, by which most certainly are delivered whoever are delivered." But when He gives someone a grace, with which He foresees that he will work badly, and so be damned, He does not reprobate him nor damn him except after and on account of foreseen demerits: for God of Himself desires and wishes that he be saved, and therefore gives him sufficient, indeed copious, grace, seriously desiring that he cooperate with Him and be saved: for God does not select for him an unsuitable grace with this end, that He may intend to reprobate and damn him, but foresees it will be unsuitable from this, that the man will make it unsuitable by being unwilling to cooperate with it. Wherefore physically equal, and sometimes greater, grace is given to one being damned than is given to one being saved: morally, however, the grace given for salvation is the greater benefit, because it is foreseen to be efficacious, and to persuade the man's consent, and certainly to lead him to salvation, and therefore is the grace of predestination properly so called. For God could have given him another grace with which He foresaw that he would not cooperate, and so be damned; but He did not will to do so, which is indeed an immense benefit and gift, because through this the man infallibly attains eternal felicity, and escapes eternal death.
From these words of St. Peter we gather, against Calvin and the heretics: first, that man has free will; secondly, that the faithful and the just are not certain of their perseverance and salvation, but can fall from faith, grace, and salvation, as many have fallen and daily do fall: so the Council of Trent defines, session VI, canon 23.
Thirdly, Gabriel Vasquez, Valentia, Luis de Molina and others, in disputation I, question XXIII, hence infer that election to glory is made by God from the foreseen merits of each; and accordingly that from the use of free will of the elect, or rather of those to be elected, in one or the other direction, by their future liberty depends whether their election and calling is certain or not; and moreover that in God from eternity there exists His foreknowledge, that by this use of the will they should make their election sure, and obtain eternal life, and have been from eternity predestined — according to that saying of St. Augustine: "He who created thee without thee, will not justify thee nor save thee without thee;" and Theophylact on Matth. XXII: "It belongs to God, he says, to call; but to be made elect or not, is ours." And St. Ambrose, book V On the Faith, chapter V: "He did not, he says, predestine before He foreknew: but whose merits He foreknew, of those He predestined the rewards." St. Cyril, book X of the Thesaurus, chapter VI: "It is not Mine, He says, to give the supreme honour to you who ask it, since it is reserved in the foreknowledge of the Father for those whom the excellence of the contest shall have commended." St. Chrysostom, homily 35 on Matthew, asserts that "the dignity has been prepared as a crown for those who conquer, and according to the proportion of the contest."
Fourthly, from these words of St. Peter the Doctors gather that not only election to glory, but also predestination to grace itself, depends on the cooperation of free will, even though this is not the cause of it. So Gregory of Valencia, part I, Question XXIII, disputation 1, point 4, near the end, where he also aptly resolves this dilemma which torments the common folk: Either I am predestined, or I am not: if I am, I shall most certainly be saved; if I am not, I shall most certainly be damned whatever I do: I shall therefore indulge in pleasures, since afterwards it will not be permitted to enjoy them. For he answers: If you are predestined, you must act well; for you have been foreseen as one who will act well: but if you refuse to act, that is a sign that you are not predestined. Therefore in order to make your predestination sure, act well; and this is what St. Peter wills when he says: "Be diligent that through good works you may make your calling and election sure." If you are not predestined and are destined for hell, the cause of this will be that you act badly. Lest therefore it be true that you are not predestined, you must live piously at all times, lest you depart from life finally bound by sins — which can happen at any hour: for you cannot end life badly and be damned if you have always lived piously. Therefore each one ought perpetually to set this reasoning before himself, and by it stir himself to the pursuit of good works, by which he may make his election sure. Everyone is predestined who, cooperating with divine grace, will finally be free from mortal sin; nor is anyone non-predestined, except him who is finally caught in mortal sin. Since therefore at every hour I am uncertain whether the end of my life will then be; and far more uncertain whether, if I then sin, I shall afterward recover grace by true penitence before death, I shall abstain, so far as I can with divine grace, from mortal sin at every hour, so that, if I do this always, I may more probably reckon myself to be of the number of the predestined rather than of the non-predestined; for death will never find me in mortal sin, if I have always abstained from sin. But because it is not entirely certain to me of what kind the soul dies, and without these no one attains to the health which is in the life to come. To which Landgrave, convinced, said: "Henceforth, be physician of my soul, since through your medicinal tongue God has delivered me from the gravest error."
Similar is what Ludolph relates in his book On the Life of Christ, part II, chapter L, concerning a certain monk whose companion told him it had been revealed that he was of the number of the damned, to whom he answered: "Blessed be God, yet I shall not despair, but the penance which I undertook by entering Religion, I shall henceforth double and triple, until I find grace and mercy from the most high God, who is merciful;" and after many days it was again divinely revealed to his companion that he was of the number of those to be saved.
Excellently does St. Augustine speak in sermon 112 On the Times: "Blessed," he says, "is the life — the knowledge of the divinity; the knowledge of the divinity is the virtue of good work; the virtue of good work is the fruit of eternal beatitude." Then he teaches that the reading of Holy Scripture conduces to this end: "He who wishes," he says, "to be always with God, ought to pray and read frequently; for when we pray, we ourselves speak with God: but when we read, God speaks with us, etc.; yet he is most blessed who turns the divine Scriptures into deeds." This is signified by the parable of the workmen, whom God, sending into the vineyard, in the evening gave the denarius of eternal life, as the wage of their labour, Matth. XX; and at Matth. chapter XXV, verse 34, Christ as judge assigns glory to those who do well, gehenna to those who do ill. "Come," He says, "blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat," etc.
Wherefore Abbot Athanasius, desiring to see the fruit of those who labour and contend, saw in a vision a place full of light and glory, and heard an innumerable multitude praising God; and when he knocked and wished to enter, he heard: "None shall enter here who lives in negligence; but if you wish to enter, depart, contend, esteeming the vanities of the world as nothing." So John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CXXX. St. Theresa had these three things among her vows, and she constantly asked them of God, saying: "Lord, grant me to love Thee, to work and suffer for Thee, or to die." The reason is that which St. Bernard gives, On Conversion to the Clergy, chapter XV: "For," he says, "our works do not pass away, as they seem, but every temporal thing is sown as seeds of eternity. The fool will be amazed when he sees from this little seed an abundant harvest spring up, whether good or bad, according to the different quality of the seed." The same, sermon 1 On the Annunciation: "Concerning good works," he says, "His resurrection (Christ's) is for me an effective argument, since He rose for our justification. Further, His ascension is the testimony concerning the hope of rewards, since He ascended for our glorification."
Finally, this orthodox truth of faith is in harmony with man's liberty and the nature of things, as the Philosophers and Poets have seen — although through a shadow — whose maxim is: "With Minerva, move thy hand also;" arising either from the muleteer whose donkey, stuck fast in the mud, ought to be helped, but he idly implored Hercules. To him God replied: "Set thy hand to the labouring donkey, and only then will the divinity assist thee." Or from the wrestler, who about to wrestle in the palaestra consulted Minerva whether he would be the victor, and heard that he would be. Yet when he entered the theatre and stood in the contest with his hands idle, he was struck and defeated by his adversary. To this purpose pertains that saying of Aristotle, book V of the Eudemian Ethics: "As art loves Fortune, so Fortune loves art in turn;" and that of Suidas: "Do something thyself meanwhile, then call upon the gods." Famous is that Greek saying: "The gods sell goods for labours." And that of Virgil's Georgics:
Labour conquers all,
Unyielding labour.
And that of Horace:
The labour of Hercules broke through Acheron.
And that of Antiphanes: "Diligence tames and subdues all things;" and that of Seneca, book II On Anger: "Nothing is so difficult and arduous that the human mind cannot conquer it;" namely: "Practice can do all things." This is to be seen in St. Anthony, Macarius, Onuphrius, Simeon Stylites, and the other Ascetics whom Theodoret recounts in the Philotheus, Palladius in the Lausiac History, Evagrius in the Lives of the Fathers, who by their constant exercise have mastered not only themselves, but also food, drink, sleep, the air, the whole world, and even God Himself.
Morally: From this learn how zealously one must strive after holiness and good works. For it is a certain sign (indeed also a cause) that someone has been predestined by God and chosen for glory, if he constantly devotes himself to works of humility, charity, penitence, patience, piety, obedience, religion, etc.; this is what St. Paul, joining St. Peter, says: "The firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone depart from iniquity who calls upon the name of the Lord," II Tim. II, 19. For no one can withdraw from sins unless he draws near to the virtues, and exercises their works.
Whence St. Bernard, homily 2 on the Octave of Easter, gives three signs of predestination, signified by St. John, epistle I, chapter V, verse 8, when he says: "There are three that give testimony on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood," namely good works, penitence, and continence; and at last summarily concluding: "Now," he says, "to repeat briefly: to have testimony from the blood, the water, and the Spirit, is if you abstain from sins, if you bring forth worthy fruits of penitence, if you do the works of life." Wherefore true Religious who give themselves wholly to these things have a certain sign of their predestination, according to that saying of Christ: "Everyone who shall have left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess eternal life," Matth. chapter XIX, 29. See Jerome in his Letter to Heliodorus; Platus, On the Goods of the Religious State, book I, chapter XXXV; Rufinus in the Lives of the Fathers, book III, number 108.
Excellently does St. Augustine speak in sermon 18 On the Words of the Lord, chapter XVII: "The kingdom of God," he says, "as the number of its possessors increases, is not diminished, because it is not divided; to each one is whole that which is held in concord by many." The author of the Manual cited in St. Augustine, chapter VIII: "The kingdom," he says, "of heaven is the most blessed kingdom, a kingdom without death and without end, on which no times follow throughout the ages, where a continuous day without night knows no measure of time, where the victorious soldier is crowned with ineffable gifts."
The poets feigned that Cupid was born from Chaos and Night, that is, from confusion and ignorance. Understand sin here as perfect, that is, mortal, which tears a man from God's grace and salvation. For it is certain that the predestined and the just sometimes sin venially.
Verse 11: For So an Entrance Shall Be Ministered to You Abundantly Into the Everlasting Kingdom of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
11. For so an entrance shall be ministered abundantly (ἐπιχορηγηθήσεται, that is, supplied, given, granted) unto you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord.
Here he explains the calling and election of the faithful, and its end and reward, as if to say: Through the good works and virtues already named, there will be granted to you a great and ample entrance into heaven, to eternal felicity and glory: therefore by these same things you will make your calling and election sure; for this tends to nothing else than to heavenly felicity and glory.
Note: By the word abundanter, in Greek πλουσίως — that is, richly, opulently — he strikes first at Simon Magus, who taught that Christ does not suffice, because entrance into heaven could be hindered by the angels: for on the contrary "the blood of Christ is the key of paradise," says St. Jerome to Dardanus, epistle 129, and the cross of Christ took away the fiery and turning sword set before paradise, as Cosmas of Jerusalem says, ode 5. Secondly, he intimates that the faithful ought to abound in good works; for thus they will likewise abound in grace in this life, and in glory in heaven: for "entrance into the kingdom of heaven" by metonymy signifies the kingdom of heaven itself, namely the very felicity and heavenly glory: for to it is the entrance of the Blessed. This is what Paul says, II Cor. IX, 6: "He who sows in blessings, of blessings shall also reap." And verse 8: "And God is able to make all grace abound in you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound in every good work, as it is written: He hath dispersed, hath given to the poor, his justice remaineth for ever and ever," etc. Thirdly, St. Ambrose, book III On the Faith, chapter VI, reads abundantius (more abundantly), by which is signified that God rewards our works more abundantly and more greatly than they merit in themselves: for God punishes less than is deserved, but rewards beyond what is deserved, as the Theologians say.
For doing these things, you shall not sin at any time.
Here is St. Peter's syllogism: Whoever does not sin, and keeps himself pure from sin, makes his calling and election sure, both to grace and consequently to glory; but he who is diligent and zealous in good works does not sin: therefore he who is diligent and zealous in good works makes his calling and election sure. And this is of such importance that St. Giles, the companion of St. Francis, said: "If only one man were to be damned, and all the others saved, I would strive with all my strength not to be that one." How much then must we strive now, where so many are to be damned, and so few are to be saved!
For "non peccabitis" the Greek has μὴ πταίσητε, that is, you shall not fall, namely into sin; Pagninus and the Tigurine, you shall by no means stumble; St. Ambrose, book III On the Faith, chapter VI, you shall not err, namely by sinning. For sin is a practical error, namely an error of life and of morals, according to that saying of Prov. XIV, 21: "They err who work evil;" for they indicate that desire is to be chosen by them — for example, of gluttony, lust, ambition — before God and heaven, which truly is a great error and great imprudence. Hence Antiphanes, cited in St. Irenaeus, book II, chapter XIX, says: that is, I shall not be negligent, I shall not desist, I shall not cease; others read, οὐ μελλήσω, that is, I shall not delay, I shall not procrastinate, I shall not put off into the future, but I shall begin now, as Our [translator] renders it. Whence μέλλημα is called delay, hindrance, postponement, procrastination. Note here the fervour of St. Peter, who, already an old man and near to death, says that he is beginning and entering upon his pastoral office. So the Psalmist says: I said, now I have begun; and St. Anthony in St. Athanasius taught his disciples to think daily: "Today I shall begin to serve God, perhaps today I shall also finish;" and St. Francis at his death: "Brothers," he said, "let us begin to serve God: for hitherto we have done nothing." So St. Bonaventure in his Life. Abbot Pambo, dying after many and great labours and contests of the virtues — so that he had never spoken a word of which he repented — said: "I," he said, "go to the Lord as one who has not yet made a beginning of serving God." So in the Lives of the Holy Fathers.
Verse 12: Wherefore I Will Begin to Put You Always in Remembrance of These Things, Though Indeed You Know Them and Are Confirmed in the Present Truth
12. Always to admonish you — ὑπομιμνήσκειν, that is, to remind, to call back to memory.
It is the office of the pastor, the preacher, and the superior often to call back to the minds of his subjects the laws of God, the obligations of their calling and their vows, and the spurs to keeping them: for one must frequently recall what this world compels us to forget: partly the weakness of memory, partly the variety of occupations, partly the appearances and enticements of the world, make man forget his salvation, his obligation, and his virtue. The superior therefore must often rub these in and suggest them to them, both to recall to memory and still more to rouse and sharpen the torpid will: therefore he must inculcate these things in them with fervent prayer and spirit, that he may kindle and inflame them to their practice, according to that saying of Isaiah LVIII, 1: "Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their sins, and to the house of Jacob their iniquities;" and chapter LXII, 6: "Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day, and all the night they shall not be silent for ever. You that are mindful of the Lord, hold not your peace, and give Him no silence till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth;" and St. Paul thus charged Timothy, epistle II, chapter IV, verse 2: "Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, entreat, rebuke, in all patience and doctrine."
Excellently does St. Gregory speak, book II of the Register, epistle 39: "It is the office of a Bishop," he says, "always to think about the ministry of preaching, considering with most intense fear that the Lord, when about to depart to receive His kingdom and distributing the talents to His servants, said: Trade till I come. We truly carry on this business when, by living and speaking, we win souls of our neighbours; when we strengthen the weak in the love above; when by terribly thundering forth the punishments of gehenna we bend the proud and the arrogant; when we spare none against the truth; when, devoted to heavenly friendships, we do not fear human enmities." The same again: "Let the tongue of a Bishop be a comfort to the good, a goad to the wicked; let it beat down the proud, soften the angry, sharpen and inflame the slothful and idle; let it caress the harsh, console the despairing." Such was Isaiah, whose lips therefore one Seraph purged and kindled with a glowing coal, that they might thereafter set others on fire, Isaiah VI; and St. Bernard XXXIII on the Canticle: "He who presides over others ought," he says, "plainly to glow with this wine of zeal — as the Doctor of the Gentiles glowed when he said: Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? Otherwise you wickedly enough seek to be set over those whom you do not care to profit, and whose salvation you do not zealously seek; you all too ambitiously vindicate to yourself their submission."
Of these things, namely that you may apply yourselves to the virtues already listed, "and that through good works you may make your calling and election sure."
And indeed you who know and are confirmed.
Clearly Pagninus and the Tigurine: "although you may know and be confirmed in the present truth." For in the faithful, faith — and the knowledge of God and of salvation — often sleeps; but the voice of the Pastor and preacher rouses it from sleep, sharpens it, and as it were quickens it, making it to be not idle and speculative, but practical, busy, and active.
Verse 13: But I Think It Meet, as Long as I Am in This Tabernacle, to Stir You Up by Putting You in Remembrance
13. But (for) I think it just.
He gives the reason why he wishes to admonish them, namely because this is just — that is, equitable, indeed obligatory: for the office of feeding all the faithful, committed and entrusted to him by Christ (John XXI, 16), demands it. So Peter Damian, book III, epistle 8 to the Archbishop of Besançon, citing these words of St. Peter: "In his very words," he says, "the good pastor shows that he wished to live and die not for himself but for his disciples:" for unto death, indeed by dying, he fed and taught his sheep, just as did John, St. Cyprian, and the other Apostolic pastors.
As long as I am in this tabernacle.
He calls the body a tabernacle, not because the soul merely stands by it, as a captain stands by his ship, and dwells in it, as Plato wished: for it is established that the soul is the form of the body, and by informing it constitutes one composite — namely, man; but firstly, because this life is brief: for as in a tabernacle the stay is usually brief, so brief also is the stay of the soul in this body.
Secondly, because just as a man rests in his house, but living in a tabernacle goes forth, so also the soul in this body does not rest, but is constantly moved, and tends, indeed runs, to death, and through death to immortality. "For we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one to come," Heb. XIII, 14.
Thirdly, the word "tabernacle" rubs in to us that in this body and life we are not residents but pilgrims: for we are citizens of heaven and of the saints, and of the household of God, Eph. II, 19. So of Christ descending from heaven into a body, St. John says, chapter I, verse 14: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt — eskēnōse, that is, He pitched His tabernacle — among us." Indeed Seneca too, epistle 71: "Do you wish," he says, "to be free against this body? Live as one about to depart: set before yourself that this fellowship must some day be done without; you will be the stronger for the necessity of departing." The same, epistle 72: "Before old age," he says, "I took care to live well, in old age to die well; but to die well is to die willingly; that we have lived enough, neither years nor days make, but the mind." The same elsewhere teaches that death is nothing else than the absence of evils; what therefore would he have said had he known the blessed life promised to Christians?
Fourthly, as a soldier dwells in a tent, so also the faithful one in his body: for there is a constant battle for him against the flesh, the world, and the devil.
Excellently does Tertullian say in his book To the Martyrs, chapter III: "We were called to the warfare of the living God already at that time when we answered to the words of the sacrament. No soldier comes to war with delicacies, nor proceeds from his bedroom to the battle line, but from light and tightly drawn tents, where every hardness, harshness, and discomfort consists. Even in peace they already learn to endure war by labour and hardships, marching in arms, running over the field, digging the ditch, shoring up the testudo. By sweat all stands firm, lest bodies and minds be terrified: from shade to sun, from sun to cold, from tunic to breastplate, from silence to clamour, from rest to tumult. Therefore you blessed ones, whatever is hard in this, count it for the exercise of virtues of mind and body."
Fifthly, as one dwelling in a tent suffers many straits, inconveniences, necessities, lacks of bed, seat, hearth, food, drink, etc., so also in this body we suffer very many defects, hardships and discomforts. Again, as a tent is broken by rain, winds and other injuries of the air or of the enemy, or rots and decays, so also the body.
Sixthly, as one dwelling in a tent longs for a house, so the faithful one in this body sighs for heaven, according to that saying of St. Paul, Phil. I, 21: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain;" and verse 23: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ;" and II Cor. V, 4: "For we know that if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens: for in this also we groan, desiring to be clothed upon with our habitation that is from heaven. For we also who are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: because we would not be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." So Bl. Aloysius Gonzaga, when about to die, spoke of death as of a migration from one chamber to another, but to a better and more lasting one. Let every faithful one say the same with St. Peter. Excellently does St. Cyprian say, in his treatise On Mortality: "We reckon paradise as our homeland: we have already begun to have the Patriarchs as our parents; why do we not hasten and run, that we may see our homeland, that we may greet our parents?" The same, epistle 56: "If we could escape death," he says, "with reason we should fear death: but since the mortal must die, let us embrace the occasion coming from the divine promise and dignity, and let us perform the exit of death with the reward of immortality."
Seventhly, because the body, like a tent, is framed together with skins, stretched with sinews as with cords, made firm with bones as with stakes, fixed with feet as with nails. But the soul is clothed and covered with the body as with a tent, and through it she looks out, hears, feels, acts and works, until that body is reformed, perfected, and made blessed in the resurrection.
He alludes to the tents of the Hebrews, which they themselves used in the desert as they journeyed to the promised land, in memory of which their descendants celebrated the feast of Tabernacles. For these signified that we live here as pilgrims in the body as in a tent, and journey toward our homeland, namely toward heaven. In this life and body, therefore, we keep a perpetual feast of Tabernacles, about to keep an everlasting Pascha in heaven. See what was said on Lev. XXIII, 34.
To stir you up (to rouse and inflame those who are torpid and as it were sleeping) by admonition — by my admonition; in Greek ὑπομνήσει, that is, by recollection and by recalling to memory, as he said a little earlier.
Verse 14: Being Certain That the Laying Down of My Tabernacle Is at Hand, According as Our Lord Jesus Christ Also Hath Signified to Me
14. Certain, — εἰδώς, knowing for certain, namely by revelation, as follows.
That the laying aside of my tabernacle is at hand — that I shall shortly die and be crucified, and from death and the cross I shall fly forth into heaven to my Jesus. These therefore are the last warnings, and as it were the swan-song voices, of St. Peter, and therefore burning and effective. So Christ, Jacob, Moses, David, and Tobit, when about to die, gave final warnings to their own.
According as our Lord Jesus Christ hath signified to me, — ἐδήλωσε, He made it manifest.
Hence it is clear that Christ appeared to St. Peter at the time of his death and martyrdom, and made it known to him beforehand. There stands beside Rome on the Appian Way a chapel, in which it is said that Christ appeared to Peter when, at the request of the faithful, he was fleeing from prison; and to him asking, "Lord, whither goest Thou?" He answered, "I go to Rome to be crucified again." Whence St. Peter understood that he was being called by Christ to the cross, and therefore returned to prison, and a little after was crucified. The same is narrated and attested by St. Ambrose, epistle 33; St. Gregory on Psalm IV of Penitence; the Acts of SS. Processus and Martinianus; Hegesippus, book III On the Destruction of Jerusalem, chapter II. Metaphrastes adds — in Surius, on the 29th of June — that St. Peter, when he had spent a long time in Britain, heard from an angel: "Peter, the time of thy resolution is at hand, and thou must go to Rome; in which when thou hast endured death by the cross, thou shalt receive the reward of justice." But the credit of this author is doubtful, especially because in the same place he asserts that St. Linus died before Peter — which is plainly false, for Linus succeeded St. Peter in the Pontificate. Whether therefore by that apparition, or by another earlier one (for that on the Appian Way seems to have happened at the time of St. Peter's death, and therefore after the writing of this epistle), it is certain that Christ revealed this very thing to St. Peter. For He seems to have appeared often to him, inasmuch as His vicar, just as He often appeared to St. Paul, as is clear from Acts IX, 5; Acts XVIII, 9; Acts XXII, 17; Acts XXIII, 11. In a similar manner Christ revealed the imminent death and martyrdom to St. Pius I the Pontiff, St. Polycarp, St. Cyprian, and other Pontiffs of that age, that they might prepare themselves for it.
Morally, St. Peter gives an example to Pontiffs and Princes of thinking on and desiring a swift death and passage to God; namely: "Every power is of short duration of life," Eccli. X, 11. That this is most true in the case of Pontiffs, perpetual experience has taught; for none of them from the time of Christ until now has equalled the years of St. Peter; none, I say, has sat in the Pontificate for 24 complete years, as St. Peter sat. Next nearest to them came Adrian I, who sat 23 years, then Alexander III, who sat 21, then St. Sylvester and St. Leo: for each sat 20 years. Very many sat only six or seven years, indeed a great many for only a few months or days. For three hundred years no Pontiff before Paul V has sat sixteen years, except one — Eugene IV. Finally, since from Christ down to this jubilee year 1625, 239 Pontiffs have sat at Rome — if you divide among them the 1625 years that have passed since Christ, scarcely six years and a half fall to each. Was not therefore the laying aside of the tabernacle of all the Pontiffs swift? Indeed much more so than that of St. Peter himself? Go now, mortals — covet the tiaras, seek the mitres, about to put them aside with life after a few years, perhaps days, and about to render an exact account to God of them. "I have seen an end of all perfection: Thy commandment is exceeding broad."
Verse 15: And I Will Endeavour Also That You Frequently May Have After My Decease, Whereby You May Keep a Memory of These Things
15. And I will be diligent, and often.
The Greek ἑκάστοτε can be translated three ways. First, frequently; second, always and daily, as if to say καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν, that is, on every single day. So Vatablus. Third, individually. So Pagninus — as if to say: I shall take care of each one of you, as of my own sheep, not only in life, but also after death.
To have you after my death.
"To have," namely in my mind and memory, that I may often be mindful of you before God, and pray to Him for you, that He may rub in to your memory the recollection of these warnings of mine. So Œcumenius, Salmerón, Catharinus, Gagneius, and others, here; Peter Damian, book III, epistle 8; Suárez, part III, tome II, disputation 23; Bellarmine, book I On the Saints, chapter XVIII. Hence St. Chrysostom, in his oration on the chief of the Apostles, invoking the help of St. Peter, citing these his words, reads thus: "For thou criest aloud, blessed Peter, saying thus: I shall study, after my death, to make remembrance of you." To this purpose comes the saying which St. Clement, epistle 1, says St. Peter said to him: "Be assured that thou must take up every danger, since neither shall I cease beseeching for the salvation of all." Thus the Greeks say echō mnēmas, that is, I have in memory — that is, I remember.
Secondly, Erasmus, Vatablus, Clarius, Adamus, and Cajetan render the Greek echein — that is, to have — as "to be able," so that the sense may be: "I will be diligent so that you may often be able, after my departure, to make mention of these things," whether by praying to God for you; or by committing these very things to letters, which you may often re-read; or by commending them to St. Linus, Cletus, and Clement, my successors, that they may often rub in their memory. Thus the Greeks say echō deiknyein, that is, I can show; echō theōrein, I can consider, or I must consider. And Plato, book II of the Republic, ouk echō hopōs boēthō, that is, I cannot help. So the Latins say habeo dicere, that is, I can speak, as Gellius witnesses, book XVII, chapter XX; habeo polliceri, that is, I can promise. So here "to have you," that is, that you may be able to make memory of these things; or more plainly, to have, namely [ὑπό]μνησιν, that is, the occasion, and the monument, or admonishers — as if to say: I will be diligent that after my death I may leave you a monument — namely this epistle or one like it — and admonishers — namely St. Linus, Clement, and others — and especially God and His holy inspirations (which I shall procure for you by my prayers), who may frequently renew the memory of these things to you. This sense is very plain, easy, and obvious. This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm XLIV, verse 17: "Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee," which St. Augustine explains in the same place: "In place of the Apostles," he says, "Bishops were appointed. Therefore think not thyself deserted, O Church, because thou dost not see Peter, because thou dost not see Paul, because thou dost not see those by whom thou wast born: from thine own offspring fatherhood has grown for thee. Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee; thou shalt make them princes over all the earth."
Thirdly, elan can be translated as to drive, to act, to direct, to incite — as if to say: I will drive, direct, and urge you to remember these things. So Homer in Iliad III says: echei akeas hippous, that is, he drove and urged on swift horses. This sense is fitting and apt for this place. For St. Peter is the charioteer of the Church, driving and urging the faithful to the good — even when he enjoys God in heaven — so that you might rather say of him than of Elijah that saying of Elisha: "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the driver thereof," IV Kings II, 12. The Latin habere signifies the same thing, as when we say: habet illum arcte et duriter — that is, he handles and rules him strictly and harshly. So Plautus in the Menaechmi: "Too much," he says, "have I held thee delicately." Terence in the Hecyra: "I have never held her otherwise than as if she had been born of me." Cato: "Let the bailiff's wife keep the farmstead well-ordered and clean, let her have the hearth swept clean every day before she goes to bed," — that is, let her carefully keep and tend it. Hence it is clear that St. Peter and the Saints, having departed this life, do care for the affairs of mortals, and therefore are to be invoked.
Note here the love, care, and solicitude of St. Peter for the faithful and for the whole Church — inasmuch as he promises always to preserve it even after his death; and as he promised, so in fact he performs: for from this flows the constancy of the Roman Church in the orthodox faith and piety, and especially the continual succession of the Roman Pontiffs in it, through 1625 years; and that, amid so many persecutors, heresies and enemies, inviolate, firm and unshaken. This indeed, after Christ, she owes to St. Peter, as her first Pastor and Pontiff: so that she may rightly hope from him and ask of him for the future the continuation of this his patronage, and may entrust herself wholly to his clientship, certain that, with so great a leader and protector — being founded by Christ upon him as upon a most solid rock — she will endure for ever, nor shall the gates of hell ever prevail against her, Matt. xvi, 18.
Verse 16: For We Have Not, by Following Artificial Fables, Made Known to You the Power and Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but We Were Eyewitnesses of His Greatness
16. For not. — The "for" gives the reason, as if to say: If I had handed down fables to you, the death looming over me would warn and compel me to repent and to retract them; but the things I have handed down are true, not fabulous: wherefore I will not cease, even after death, to impress them upon you.
Having followed cunningly devised fables. — Bede, Lyranus, Cajetan, Adam, and others read "unlearned" instead of "learned." But the Roman Bibles read "learned": in Greek σεσοφισμένους, that is, wisely contrived, ingeniously fabricated, composed for persuasion, captious, sophistical. Hence Pagninus translates "deceitful"; the Zurich Bible, "artfully composed"; Vatablus, "subtle and contrived for deceiving."
He censures the fables of the Gentiles, of the Jews, and of the heretics. Of the Gentiles, because the Philosophers and Poets invented many things about Jupiter, Mars, Diana, and their generation, appearance, sayings, and deeds; and thus they persuaded the people to their worship and idolatry. He chiefly attacks the metamorphoses or transformations of Jupiter and the gods into a bull, into birds and beasts, by which they cloaked, nay, represented their obscenity, and so enticed the people to the same — which Ovid describes at length in the Metamorphoses, and which Athenagoras, Justin, Tertullian, and Lactantius refute, writing on behalf of the Christians against the Gentiles.
Of the Jews, because the Jews are full of fables, as is evident from the Talmud and the Rabbis. Of the heretics, because then Simon Magus, since he was a magician, transformed himself into various shapes, and taught that he had appeared in Judaea as the Son of God, in Samaria as the Father, and among the rest of the Gentiles as the Holy Spirit — so Irenaeus testifies, book I. See what was said on Acts viii, 20. Still more fabulous were the Valentinians, who arose shortly after St. Peter, and put forth the dreams and prodigies of thirty Aeons; whom Irenaeus, Tertullian, Epiphanius, and others refuted. Like to them were those who called themselves Gnostics, that is, knowing and learned, to whom the modern heretics, politicians, and atheists are similar, who boast themselves to be wise as if new Gnostics. For every error and heresy, being proud, conceals its ignorance with the boasting and arrogance of wisdom, when it offers nothing but fables. Hence Theodoret entitles a catalogue of them: "A Compendium of Heretical Fables." St. Athanasius, oration 1 Against the Arians, calls "heretics" light-shunning beasts; Irenaeus, book I, ch. xxxiii, mushrooms; St. Augustine, in the book On Heresies, near the end, tale-tellers, to whom that saying of the Apostle truly applies, Rom. 1:22: "Saying that they were wise," and the Gnostics, that is, the knowing and the learned, "became fools." Wherefore Irenaeus, book 1, ch. xxxv, says: "The victory is the bringing forth of your opinion." And St. Jerome to Ctesiphon: "To have published your opinions is to have overthrown them." Truly the Psalmist: "The wicked have told me fables, but not as Thy law," Ps. cxviii, 85.
We have made known the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, — δύναμιν, that is, force, potency, efficacy, both for expiating sins, and for correcting morals, and for working miracles, and for saving and beatifying, and for converting the world. This power appears the greater because He subdued the world not with the sword, but with the wood; not by fighting, but by suffering. "He was crucified through weakness, but liveth by the power of God," says Paul, II Cor. XIII, 4, on which St. Leo discourses beautifully in sermon 8 On Lent. He glances at Simon Magus, who set himself up for Christ, and called himself the power of God, Acts VIII, 20, as if to say: We preach that Christ is the power and wisdom of God, not Simon Magus. So Paul says, I Cor. 1, 23: "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness, but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
And presence. — So the Roman version. This is what the Greek παρουσίαν signifies; Pagninus and the Zurich Bible translate it "coming." Wrongly therefore do some read "foreknowledge." The sense is, as if to say: Christ the Son of God came down to us not only by virtue and operation, but by presence and substance: for He showed Himself to us to be looked upon, when "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Adam explains παρουσίαν as περιουσίαν, that is, abundance, opulence, excellence; but this seems new and unusual. Others understand the coming of Christ to judgment: for this will be with majesty, and its type was the Transfiguration of Christ, of which He next speaks.
But eyewitnesses, — ἐπόπται, that is, inspectors, exact investigators, eyewitnesses. Likewise in form are called "mystae" and the elder and chief priests, to whom it was permitted to inspect and behold the sacred things and mysteries, which to the people were only set forth veiled, as things to be believed. So Budaeus, drawing from Suidas in his Commentary on the Greek Language, p. 338. For thus a mystes and ἐπόπτης, that is, an inspector of the glory of Christ, was St. Peter in His Transfiguration. So St. Gregory Nazianzen, orations 19 and 34, calls Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the like Prophets ἐπόπτας καὶ θεωρούς of Seraphim, Cherubim, and the unsearchable judgments of God. And Plato in the Symposium calls the sacred rites of love ἐποπτικά, that is, more sacred, more hidden, and seen only by a few choice persons. Hence Pagninus and the Zurich Bible here translate: "But we who beheld His majesty with our own eyes," according to that of I John 1, 1: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; and the life was manifested, and we have seen and do bear witness," etc. The sense is, as if to say: Believe Me, for I am not a fable-monger, but an ἐπόπτης, that is, an eyewitness; I tell what was seen, not what was heard: for one eyewitness is worth more than ten ear-witnesses.
Of His (Christ's) majesty, — μεγαλειότητος, that is, greatness, majesty, as Pagninus translates, magnificence, glory, and brightness; because "His face shone as the sun," Matt. XVII, 2. For although some seem to say that St. Peter, John, and James in Christ's Transfiguration saw the divine essence — as Tertullian, Against Praxeas, ch. xv; St. Chrysostom, epistle 5; St. Leo and Damascene, oration On the Transfiguration — yet the Fathers and Doctors commonly teach the contrary, and the Evangelists sufficiently suggest this. Therefore Tertullian, St. Leo, St. Chrysostom, and Damascene must be expounded as meaning that these three Apostles saw the divine essence not in itself, but in its effect, namely in the glory and brightness of the body of Christ; for this flowed from the glory of the soul of Christ, and was the effect, image, and indicator of His divinity. This is what Damascene says: "The earthly body of Christ was emitting a divine splendor, the mortal body pouring forth the glory of the deity as a fountain, etc. And His face shines like the sun: for it is personally united to matter that lacks light, and thus is made the sun of justice." And the author Of the Wonders of Sacred Scripture, book III, ch. x, which is extant in tome III of St. Augustine: "The divinity hidden in the body, he says, granted a little portion of its own light to be seen outwardly, as much as those beholding could bear." And Euthymius on Matt. xvii: "Christ was transfigured," he says, "with the divine splendor illuminating His face, and changing His appearance to a greater likeness of God."
Verse 17: For He Received From God the Father Honour and Glory, When There Came Down to Him a Voice From the Magnificent Glory
17. For receiving. — He receives. It is a Hebrew enallage: for the Hebrews use participles for verbs, as I have often shown. So Oecumenius and Vatablus.
Honor and glory. — First, because the face of Christ shone as the sun, and His garments were made white as snow. Second, because Moses and Elias appeared speaking with Him, and celebrating Him as the Messiah who was about to redeem the world on the cross, and to triumph over sin, death, and hell. Third, because the Father from the cloud thundered above Him and said: "This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him," whereby He attested that Christ was truly His Son, and therefore God, and on that account commanded all to obey Him as the lawgiver and prince of the new law, and therefore gave Him the brightness and glory of the Transfiguration, as the firstfruits and specimen of the resurrection, felicity, and glory to be given to those who would believe and obey Him. The glory of Christ therefore consisted properly in the splendor of His face and garments; the honor in the voice of the Father descending upon Him: "This is My Son," etc.
By a voice descending from the magnificent glory, — namely, from the bright and gleaming cloud, which was an indicator of the divine glory, that is, of God the Father, who was speaking through it. Hence St. Augustine, tract 35 on John: "From the magnificent power," he says, "the whole Trinity formed the voice, but it indicated the Father alone;" for although this voice was formed by the ministry of angels, yet it was God the Father's, who was speaking through the angels as His ministers: just as a king speaks through his legate or orator. This voice was clear, august, intense, and resonant like thunder, inasmuch as it was carried down from heaven to the Apostles, and struck them with sacred horror.
This is My Son, — whom, namely, I promised in Ps. ii, 7, saying: "Thou art My Son;" and as I once promised, so now I exhibit, present, show forth, and glorify Him, says Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, ch. xxii, as the new lawgiver who succeeds the departing Moses and Elias, that is, the Law and the Prophets.
Beloved, — ἀγαπητός, that is, worthy of love, beloved, dearest; St. Jerome in his epistle to the Philippians translates it "lovable": ἠγαπημένος, that is "beloved," he says, can be one who is not ἀγαπητός, that is, worthy to be loved. St. Cyprian, epistle 63, ch. vi, translates "most beloved," and this firstly, because He is My natural Son; secondly, because He is ὁμοούσιος and consubstantial with Me, not adopted through grace, as are the other Saints. Hence Hilary, book III On the Trinity: "He is," he says, "a Son by origin, truth, nativity, not by adoption, by name, by creation." Thirdly, because He is unique and only-begotten. So St. Athanasius, oration 1 Against the Arians. Thus the Greeks call an only son ἀγαπητὸν υἱόν; for the only one is uniquely loved. And in Hesiod, ἀγαπητὴ θυγάτηρ, that is, beloved daughter, is one and only, that is, only-begotten and unique.
Excellently St. Leo, in his sermon On the Transfiguration: "This," he says, "is My beloved Son, whom no deity separates from Me, no power divides, no eternity distinguishes. This is My Son, not of adoption, but proper; not created from elsewhere, but begotten of Me; nor made comparable to Me from another nature, but born equal to Me from My own essence. This is My Son, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made; because all that I do, He does likewise, and whatever I work, He inseparably and indifferently works with Me." And St. Cyprian, or whoever is the author, in the sermon On Baptism: "Two pleasing words," he says, "'Son' and 'beloved,' are impressed on our senses by God Himself dictating them, that the community of names may associate us in the fellowship of gifts, and that names of such great sweetness may soften our soul, and kindle the affection of devotion." And Damascene, oration On the Transfiguration: "This One," he says, "who is now beheld as a man, is My beloved Son: He who was lately made man, who humbly and abjectly dwells among you, and whose face now shines, this One, I say, is My beloved Son; older than all ages, alone from the Alone, only-begotten without time and eternally proceeding from Me the Father; who is both from Me, and in Me, and with Me always is, and not posterior to Me by reason of existence." And below: "This is My Son, He, I say, the splendor of My glory, He the figure of My substance, through whom I made even the angels, through whom heaven was founded and the earth established, etc. This is no servant, no envoy, no angel, but My beloved Son."
He alludes to Ps. xxviii, 4 and 6: "The voice of the Lord in power, the voice of the Lord in magnificence, etc., and the beloved as the son of unicorns." For "beloved" the Hebrew is שריון sarion, or, as the points now stand, sirion. In place of which the Seventy by a poetic metathesis read ישרון jescurun, that is, upright, direct, sent, beloved. Jescurun alludes to Israel; indeed Genebrardus thinks jescurun is a diminutive of Israel, as if to say, "little Israel," "little upright one," "little beloved," as a term of endearment. See Is. xliv, 2. Israel therefore is jescurun, that is, upright, and therefore beloved by Me. Now Israel was the parent and type of Christ: for Christ truly is Israel, that is, the man who rules with God.
Now Christ the Father's Beloved is compared to a son of unicorns, that is, to the unicorn. First, because the only Son is of the one God, or because He is the Son of God, who is unicorn, that is, unique in essence, and is a most strong horn in power: for Christ is to the Father ὁμοούσιος and consubstantial. Secondly, because the unicorn beyond other animals wonderfully loves its young, choosing rather to die than lose them alive. In a like manner the Father uniquely loves the Son, says Richard on Ps. xxviii, because in a unique and singular way He begot Him without a mother, as on earth He begot the same One, as He is man, without a father, says Euthymius there. Again, Christ as a unicorn so loved His own young, namely the faithful, that He willed to die and be crucified for them. Thirdly, Christ was the son of unicorns because He was the Son of the cross, and "horns were in His hands, where He hid His strength," says St. Ambrose, sermon 2 On the Baptism of Christ. For the unicorn has a forked horn after the manner of the cross, says St. Justin. Fourthly, because as the unicorn, by touching poisoned waters with its horn, drives out the poison from them, as Pliny testifies, book VIII, ch. xxi: so Christ, by the touch of His body, made the poisoned waters of tribulation and death for us healing, drinkable, and sweet. Fifthly, because Christ is unconquered and insuperable through the horn of His deity, of the hypostatic union, and of singular grace, which the Father gave Him, according to: "He hath raised up a horn of salvation to us in the house of David His servant," Luke 1; and: "His horns are like the horns of a rhinoceros: with them shall He winnow the nations even to the ends of the earth," Deut. xxxiii, 17. See what was said there. Sixthly, as the monoceros, or unicorn, cannot be captured except in a virgin's lap: so Christ could not be captured except in the lap of the Blessed Virgin; but being captured by it, He was made man. See what was said on Num. xxiii, 22. Seventhly, because, as the Psalmist there sings, Christ appeared to the world after the cedars were scattered, that is, proud impiety and the errors of Judaism and Gentilism by the force of thunder, that is, of the preaching of the Gospel. Eighthly, the horn of the unicorn is not only strong but also medicinal, says St. Justin: so strong and medicinal is the strength and grace of Christ, inasmuch as it heals and strengthens all infirmities of soul and body, and so makes Virgins and Martyrs. Ninthly, the unicorn by the touch of its horn cleanses waters from the poison of serpents: so Christ, by the touch of the Jordan when He was baptized in it, made its waters and all others cleansers and expiators of sin in the sacrament of Baptism. Tenthly, the foals or fawns of unicorns are beautiful, elegant, lovable, and gracious: such also is Christ.
Tropologically, the voice of Christ preaching shatters the cedars, that is, the idols and the pride of the world. Then the Apostles and the unconquered faithful leapt forth and reigned as sons of unicorns, that is, of the holy Patriarchs, who placed their horn and strength in the Unicorn, that is, in the one God, just as they placed their whole heart and love, and therefore for Him courageously laid down their blood and life.
In whom I am well pleased. — The Greek is more expressive: εἰς ὃν ἐγὼ εὐδόκησα, that is, in whom I have been well pleased, into whom I have poured all My εὐδοκίαν, that is, good pleasure, purpose, and propitious will. The Zurich Bible, "in whom it has been well-pleasing to Me." Vatablus, "in whom I am appeased and reconciled to the world." Others very fittingly, "whom I have appointed as a propitiable and most acceptable victim for Me, that I might reconcile men to Myself." Budaeus in his Commentary on the Greek Language, p. 364: "in whom I have followed My own mind, in whom I have approved My work, in whom I have pleased Myself, in whom My mind has rested, on whom, when I gaze, I lay aside all anger and offense." St. Chrysostom and Euthymius on Matt. xvii: "in whom I take delight;" St. Augustine, book II On the Concord of the Evangelists, ch. xiv: "I have appointed in Thee My pleasure, through Thee I have decreed to fulfill what is pleasing to Me, that henceforth I may not say: It repents Me that I have made man; through Thee I have been pleased with men." The same, sermon 63 On the Words of the Lord, and tract 35 on John, "toward whom I am well affected, to whom I wish well, or of whom I think well." Tertullian, Against Praxeas, ch. xxiii; Cyprian, book I Against the Jews, ch. x; and Irenaeus, book III, ch. xi: "in whom I have thought well."
God therefore was well pleased with Himself in Christ: first, because He loves Him, hypostatically united with the Word, as His Son with infinite love, and in Him He wholly rests by being well pleased.
Secondly, because through Him alone it pleased Him to redeem men, and to institute a new law and a Church.
Thirdly, because in His supreme obedience, humility, and sanctity He was wonderfully pleased with Himself; through Him He was appeased toward the whole human race, and returned into grace with it, and pardoned innumerable crimes: for, as Christ says in John viii, 29: "I do always the things that please Him." So St. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Epiphany.
Fourthly, because through Him He loves all who believe in Him, sanctifies them, and appoints them His sons and heirs. For no one pleases God the Father except through Christ, and all who please Christ, please Him also. In short, every virtue, wisdom, holiness, and whatever pleases God, pleases through Christ.
By these words God alludes to, nay fulfills, that of Isaiah xlii, 1, concerning Christ: "Behold My servant, I will uphold Him; My elect, My soul has been well pleased in Him." And to the hymn of the angels singing at Christ's birth: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will," that is, toward whom God through Christ decreed to show His εὐδοκίαν, that is, His good pleasure and supreme love, by giving them His grace, friendship, glory, inheritance, and eternal happiness. Hence the Syriac, Nyssen, Theophylact, and Euthymius, instead of εὐδοκίας, that is, "of good will," read εὐδοκία, that is, "good will," and make the hymn three-membered, in this way: "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, let there be good will to men," that is, the benevolence of God, namely that through Christ now born He may save them and adopt them as His sons. So in Eph. 1, 9, and elsewhere, men of good will are called sons of love, that is, sons willed, chosen, and loved by God.
Note: SS. Matthew, Mark, and Luke variously narrate the history of the Transfiguration; but this was the sequence and order of the event, which reconciles all the Evangelists. First, Christ prayed; meanwhile the disciples, weighed down with sleep both from the labor of climbing the mountain and from the prolixity of Christ's prayer, and slumbering, Christ was transfigured. Secondly, there came Moses and Elias, speaking with Christ of His passing (the death of the cross) which He was about to fulfill at Jerusalem. Thirdly, the Apostles, roused from sleep by this brightness and colloquy, saw the glory of Christ, and Moses and Elias conversing with Him. Fourthly, when this conversation was finished, and they were giving sign of departure, St. Peter, intoxicated as it were with this delight, grieving that they were preparing to depart, asked that three tabernacles be made, one for Christ, the second for Moses, the third for Elias. Fifthly, a cloud came over them, withdrawing Moses and Elias, with a voice to Christ: "This is My beloved Son," etc.; at which the SS. Peter, James, and John, terrified, fell to the earth; but soon, comforted and raised up by Christ, lifting up their eyes they saw Jesus only. Meanwhile Moses was led back to limbo, Elias to his place by an angel, just as he had been brought.
Hear Him, — believe Him and in Him, obey Him: "Him," I say, "hear," not Moses, who teaches the shadows of the law; not Elias, who shuts up heaven, and from there calls forth fire by which he destroys sinners; but Him who is the true teacher of the Gospel, the lawgiver of the new law, the leader to heaven, the idea of holiness, the messenger of My will, and so the figure and stamp of My substance. Therefore he who hears Him hears Me; he who spurns Him spurns Me. So Damascene, oration On the Transfiguration. Excellently St. Leo, sermon On the Transfiguration: "Hear ye then," he says, "without delay Him in whom in all things I am well pleased, and by whose preaching I am manifested, by whose humility I am glorified: because He is the truth and the life, He My virtue and My wisdom. Hear Him, whom the mysteries of the law foretold, whom the mouths of the Prophets sang: Hear Him, who by His own blood redeems the world, who binds the devil and snatches his vessels, who tears asunder the handwriting of sin and the covenants of transgression. Hear Him, who opens the way to heaven, and by the punishment of the cross prepares for you the steps of ascent to the kingdom."
He alludes to that oracle of Moses concerning Christ: "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet of thy nation and of thy brethren, like unto me, Him thou shalt hear, etc. I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak all that I shall command Him: but he that will not hearken to His words, which He shall speak in My name, I will be the avenger," Deut. xviii, 16 and 18. And that of Isaiah lv, 4: "Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, for a leader and a master to the Gentiles." And that of John 1, 17: "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."
Note first, this voice of the Father to Christ was made not before, as some would have it, but after the departure of Elias and Moses, namely when they entered into the cloud, as Luke says, ch. ix, vv. 34 and 35; wherefore in v. 36 he says: "And while the voice was uttered, Jesus was found alone," plainly so that it might be most clear that this voice is referred to Christ alone, not to Moses or Elias. So St. Chrysostom, Ambrose, and others on Matt. xvii or Luke ix. Secondly, here was represented the Holy Trinity, as also in the baptism of Christ: namely the Father in the voice, the Son in the divine glory, the Holy Spirit in the cloud. Thirdly, by this voice, says Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, ch. xxii, is signified the abrogation of the old law and the institution of the new; the passion of Christ in His passing, of which Elias and Moses were speaking with Christ; the resurrection in the Transfiguration; hell and limbo in Moses: for thither was the soul of Moses brought back, as it had been led from there.
Verse 18: And This Voice We Heard Brought From Heaven, When We Were With Him in the Holy Mount
18. We heard this voice (I, James, and John) brought from heaven (from the cloud and the higher air), — ἐνεχθεῖσαν, that is, brought down, descended, as the Translator rendered it a little before.
When we were with Him on the holy mount. — Faber Stapulensis on Mark ix supposes this mountain to have been Lebanon, both because Isaiah xxxv, 2, predicted of it: "The glory of Lebanon has been given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Saron: they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God." But Isaiah's sense is otherwise, as I said there: and because Christ was then in the regions of Caesarea Philippi, which lies near Lebanon. But this is false; for six days had already passed since the discourse held at Caesarea, in which Christ went to Thabor; whence also soon after the Transfiguration He descended to Capernaum, which city is near to Mount Thabor. See Matt. xvii, 1.
The common opinion therefore is that this mountain was Thabor, which the Seventy and Josephus call Itabyrium, of whose situation, height, pleasantness, and fertility I have spoken at Hosea v, 1. Thabor in Hebrew is the same as "light has come," or "purity," or "election," which fittingly agrees with the Transfiguration of Christ: for on it Christ shone with the light of the sun, established the first law of the Gospel, which leads the elect to heaven; wherefore Christians afterwards built three churches on this mountain and a huge monastery, as Bede attests in ch. xvii Of Holy Places, and this mountain is wont to be visited by pilgrims with great devotion. Rightly therefore is this mountain called holy. The Jews fable from Isaiah ii, 2, and Micah iv, 1, that in the time of the Messiah Thabor is to be joined to Carmel, and Jerusalem set upon both, raised up three leagues into the air, as I have recounted from Galatinus and others on Isaiah ii, 2. More truly Damascene, oration On the Transfiguration, explaining that of Ps. lxxxviii, "Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name": "Thabor," he says, "rejoiced when Christ was transfigured on it; Hermon, when He was baptized beside it."
The reason why Christ was transfigured on the mountain, says Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, xxii, was that the new law might be ratified by Him on a mountain, just as the old law had been ratified by Moses on Mount Sinai: "It was fitting," he says, "that the New Testament be sealed on the same eminence on which the Old had been written." Again, on this same Mount Thabor, Barak and Deborah obtained a heavenly victory against Sisera, Judges iv, 6; for, as in ch. v, v. 20, they sing: "From heaven they fought against them, the stars remaining in their order and course warred against Sisera;" because, namely, the angels hurled from heaven lightnings, fire, hail, falling stars upon the line of Sisera, says Lyranus and Abulensis. Josephus, book V, ch. vi, adds rain and winds, and the name of the leader fittingly signifies this: for Barak in Hebrew is "lightning"; Deborah is "bee"; she was the "wife of Lapidoth": the Hebrews and Arias translate, "a woman of the lamps," that is, who arranged the wicks of the tabernacle; or, as Arias, "a woman of torches," that is, illuminated and imbued with divine splendors: for she was a prophetess; for in Hebrew לפדים lappidim are called lamps, and from this the Greek and Latin name lampas is derived, says Arias. As therefore Barak and Deborah with their followers were like a thunder-bearing legion of God (as afterwards was the Christian legion under the Emperor Antoninus, which by its prayers obtained rain from God, as well as thunderbolts upon the enemy), who by lightnings laid low their enemies and illuminated Israel by their oracles and victories on Mount Thabor: so likewise Christ on the same mountain transfigured illuminated the Apostles by His brightness, and struck the devils. There then He Himself was Deborah, that is, the bee pouring forth the honey of the Gospel for the faithful, but reserving the sting of vengeance for the unbelieving. Whence St. Jerome to Furia On Widowhood teaches that Deborah is a bee, because "Deborah," he says, "could say: How sweet are those words to my throat, above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth! She received the name of bee, fed upon the flowers of Scripture, suffused with the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, and composing the sweet juices of ambrosia with prophetic mouth."
Tropologically, a mountain is a place set apart from crowds and noise: and therefore suitable for hearing the voice of God: hence by its height the mountain is a type of heaven, and warns those dwelling on it to lift up the mind to heaven, and so to strive and ascend to arduous works of virtue and the summit of perfection. For which cause Christ delivered His first sermon on the mountain, in which He taught the sum of the Gospel life and the summit of Christian perfection, Matt. v, vi, vii. On a mountain also He spent the night in prayer, Luke vi, 12. Likewise He multiplied the loaves to feed the crowd, Matt. xv, 29. He instituted the Eucharist on Mount Sion: He was crucified on Mount Calvary: rising again, He appeared to His disciples on a mountain, Matt. xxviii, 16: from Mount Olivet He ascended into heaven: He sent the Holy Spirit upon the upper room of Mount Sion, Acts 1, 12.
Christ was imitated by eminent men, such as Elias, Elisha, the sons of the Prophets, St. Anthony, St. Benedict, St. Francis, who chose to dwell with God on mountains, to pray and to lead a heavenly life; whence there they were illuminated and adorned by God with heavenly visions, graces, gifts, and stigmata.
Verse 19: And We Have the More Firm Prophetical Word, Whereunto You Do Well to Attend, as to a Light Shining in a Dark Place
19. And we have the more firm prophetic word. — St. Peter has proved the faith of the Gospel and of Christ which he preached to be true and divine, from the eye-witness vision of Christ's glory in the Transfiguration and the hearing of the voice of God the Father: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." Now lest he should seem to lean on this alone, or lest anyone should render it suspect as private, of illusion or flattery, he confirms the same by the public and most certain testimony of the Prophets: for he calls the oracles of the Prophets the "prophetic word," that is, those things which the Prophets prophesied of Christ and His divinity, incarnation, death, redemption, etc., such as that of Ps. ii, most agreeing with this place: "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee."
Furthermore, this prophetic word is not truer, not better, says St. Augustine, sermon 27 On the Words of the Apostle, ch. iv, but firmer than the eye-witness vision and hearing of St. Peter; because although that brightness and glory of Christ, as well as the voice that descended to Him from heaven, was indeed divine and proceeding from God the Father, yet the Jews and like calumniators could attribute both the voice and the brightness to magical illusions, or at least to fables, as they attributed a like voice of the Father to Christ to thunder, John xii, 29. But this they could not say of the Prophets and the prophetic word, granted that it was prophetic, as they conceded — especially because the Prophets had preceded Christ by many centuries. "Christ was not yet a man," says Augustine, "when He sent the Prophets. If then He brought it about by magic arts that He should be worshipped even after death, surely He was not a magician before He was born?" For this reason God sent so many Prophets through each century, that all of them might prophesy what was to be done and endured by Christ, with this end: that, when both Jews and Gentiles saw these things fulfilled by Him, they might know for certain that He is the Christ predicted and promised by all the Prophets — "which never happened nor can happen to Apollonius, or to Apuleius, or to any of the magicians," says Lactantius, book V, ch. iii. This is what Zachariah sings, Luke 1, 70: "As He spoke by the mouth of His holy Prophets, who are from the beginning." And St. Peter: "To Him all the Prophets give testimony," Acts x, 43. Whence St. Justin Martyr, in his dialogue Against Trypho, relates that he was converted to Christ by reading the Prophets. So St. Augustine, Bede, Hugo, Lyranus, Dionysius, and others everywhere.
Add: faith, and the light of faith, which shows that the oracles of the Prophets are divine and proceeding from God, is firmer and more certain than all knowledge, demonstration, and sensible vision, and than any eye- or ear-witness testimony whatsoever. And thus this prophetic word was firmer not only for others, but for St. Peter himself, than his own vision and hearing. Hence rightly Gagneius and others expound τὸ "firmer" as "most firm." So Paul says, "greater," that is, greatest, "of these is charity," 1 Cor. xiii, 13. Wherefore improbable is the exposition of Erasmus, who by the prophetic word understands the very voice of God the Father to Christ at the Transfiguration, as if the Father were Christ's Prophet and herald, foretelling that what Christ would teach and do would be pleasing to Him. Equally improbable and irrelevant is another exposition of the same, which pleased Clarius and Titelmann, namely that the prophetic word, that is, the oracles of the Prophets, were made firmer by this voice of the Father to Christ: "This is My Son," etc.; for St. Peter is not here treating of the confirmation of the prophetic oracles, but of his own vision, which he confirms by these oracles. Hence it follows that the reading which some Greek codices have is false, when in place of τὸν προφητικὸν λόγον with "o," they read τῶν προφητικῶν λόγων with "ω," from which they thus translate, "we have βεβαιότερον," that is, firmer, namely the aforesaid vision and voice of the Father, than the prophetic words. For other, nay contrary, is the meaning and word of St. Peter.
You will say: The voice of the Father concerning Christ which St. Peter heard, namely, "This is My Son," etc., was as certain and firm as the voice of the same concerning the same which the Prophets heard, e.g. David in Ps. ii, 7: "Thou art My Son." Therefore the prophetic word was not firmer than the vision and hearing of St. Peter. I answer, I deny the consequence. For although the voice of the Father objectively, that is, in itself, was most true and most certain, equal to the oracles of the Prophets, yet subjectively, namely as it was sensibly received and sounded in the ears of St. Peter, it was not so certain and firm as the visions of the Prophets: for hearing and every sense can be deceived; but prophetic vision cannot be deceived, because it is made through a supernatural and divine light, by which God attests to the Prophet that the thing revealed to him is true and certain, and that no other than God reveals it: wherefore the Prophets were bound by divine faith to believe that what they saw and heard was true, and was from God.
You will press: St. Peter also was bound by divine faith to believe this vision and voice were true and from God. I answer: That too is true, but not insofar as he perceived it with eyes and ears, but insofar as he had certain signs of credibility, by which he was convinced that it was true and to be believed by faith. These signs were the life and miracles of Christ, by which he was certain that He was the Christ, the Son of God, and consequently that everything He did and showed was true and from God; again the testimony of Elias and Moses, the divine splendor of Christ, the bright cloud, etc.: for all these convinced Peter to believe that this vision and voice were not feigned, but true and divine: just as by the same and similar things St. Thomas was convinced, that, seeing, hearing, and handling the wounds and the revivified flesh of Christ, with God enlightening his mind, he believed by divine faith that He had truly risen; whence he exclaimed: "My Lord and my God"; and Christ to him: "Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou hast believed," John xx, 29. For as fear is the bristle, as St. Augustine says, by which the thread of divine love is led into the soul, so this vision was the bristle by which faith was led in. In a like manner the Prophets believed their visions and the voices they heard to be true and from God, because God gave them certain signs of this thing, so that they could not doubt of it, but were bound to believe the same by divine faith. In a like manner the faithful are bound to believe that this vision of St. Peter was heavenly and divine, both because the same is expressed by St. Peter in this place of Sacred Scripture, and because consequently the Church proposes the same to the faithful as a thing to be believed by faith, and obliges them to it; for, as St. Augustine says, book Against the Epistle of the Foundation, ch. iv: "I would not believe the Gospel, unless the authority of the Catholic Church moved me," for the Church is she who teaches and assures what is the true Gospel, what is false and supposititious, as was the Gospel of Nicodemus, of Thomas, of the Nazarenes, etc. The same is to be thought of the epistles of St. Peter and of any other Sacred Scripture.
Whereunto ye do well to attend. — προσέχοντες, that is, attending to, as St. Augustine reads, tract 23 on John. So Christ: "Search the Scriptures," He says, "for, etc., they give testimony of Me," John v, 39.
As a lamp shining in a dark place. — Prophecy and all Scripture is as a lamp shining in the night, and in the darkness of this world and life, illuminating them, but moderately and obscurely after the manner of a lamp, that it may show us Christ as the Sun of Justice, and lead us to Him. "For every prophecy is one great lamp to Christ," says St. Augustine, tract 23 on John; and sermon 237 On the Time; these lamps are said to have been invented by Hieronymus Cardanus, physicist and physician, who called them "bell-lamps" from their form, because they have the appearance of a turreted bell. Of such a kind is the bell-lamp of Sacred Scripture, since it is full of the copious oil of wisdom, lofty as a tower, resonant as a bell.
In a dark place — ἐν αὐχμηρῷ τόπῳ, that is, in a squalid, overgrown, dark, gloomy, sordid, dreadful place; for such is this world and this life. As a symbol of this thing, God commanded Moses to construct the tabernacle closed on all sides and lacking a window, therefore dark and gloomy; but, to illuminate it, that a seven-headed candelabrum should be made, having seven lamps which would illuminate it: for the dark tabernacle represents this age full of ignorance; the candelabrum represents Scripture and faith, which illuminate it: see what is said at Exodus 26:1 and following. Thus the ancients, besides simple lamps shining with one wick, which they called "chamber-lamps," had in larger places dimyxoi for bearing two wicks, or trimyxoi for three, or heptamyxoi for seven, or polymyxoi for more; concerning which Martial, book XIV, says:
Though I light up the whole banquet with my flames, and bear so many wicks, I am called one lamp.
See what I have said about lamps and the candelabrum, representing the Church and her faith and doctrine, on Zechariah chapter 5.
Finally, just as oil must frequently be supplied to a lamp so that it may shine, so to Sacred Scripture there must frequently be added by Doctors a learned and pious explanation, so that it may breathe upon its hearers the light of doctrine and the warmth of devotion. At Rome and in Italy we use larger and turreted lamps which contain much oil, and that by a physical contrivance, namely to hinder evaporation, as it were suspended in a tall little turret, which, gradually descending into the mouth and wick of the lamp, continuously and long sustains its light and burning.
Until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.
It is the same thing for the day to dawn as for the day-star to rise: for when it has risen, the dawn comes and the day shines forth, or breaks. You will ask what this day is, and what this day-star is. First, Oecumenius answers that it is the full knowledge of faith and the Gospel: "When," he says, "the day shall come — that is, the very presence of the things themselves — you will have the day-star rising in your hearts, that is, the knowledge of Christ and His coming foretold by the Prophets, who, as the true Light, will illuminate your hearts;" so that prophecy is night, the Gospel is dawn and day-star, and the beatific vision is clear day and noon. Hence St. Cyril, in book I On the Trinity, near the beginning, teaches that Christ is the radiance, the day, and the day-star, who shines into the minds of the faithful through the Spirit, and illuminates them more clearly than all the Prophets; just as the day-star glows more brightly than the other stars. And because, just as the day-star's light is begotten of the sun, so Christ is begotten of the Father, as it were Light from Light, God from God. Hence Christ Himself says of Himself: "I am the bright and morning star," namely the day-star, Apoc. 22:16. The sense, then, is, as if to say: Be intent upon the reading and study of the Prophets, that from them you may be strengthened in the faith of Christ, until from this study and from God's enlightenment the day and day-star — that is, the more certain and clearer and fully explicit knowledge of the Gospel and of the faith — succeeding the night, that is the more obscure knowledge of the Jews and the Prophets, may dawn upon you, so that, plainly confirmed in it, you may through it be led to the bright noon of eternity and of the vision of God. For as the day-star or light of dawn stands in relation to the light of noon, so this doctrine of faith stands in relation to the beatific vision. Again, as the day-star stands in relation to the night, as something midway between night and day, and the beginning of day and light: so the clear doctrine of Christ stands in relation to the obscure doctrine of the Prophets: this, therefore, was as it were a lamp, but Christ's was light, John 1:9. Hence the same John, in his first epistle 2:27, says: "You have no need that any man should teach you; but as His unction teacheth you of all things." And Jeremiah 31:31: "No more shall a man teach his neighbor, etc., for all shall know me;" and, as Isaiah 54:13 says: "All shall be taught of God." Thus Adamus, Arias, Gagnejus, and others.
Secondly, the day here and the day-star can fittingly be taken for blessedness, namely heavenly glory and the beatific vision: for life amid the miseries and darknesses of this age is as it were night; therefore the future life in glory will be as it were day and day-star. For the day-star, that is the star of Venus, because it brings the dawn, that is the beginning of day, is on this account the same as day, according to that saying of Martial:
Phosphorus (that is, day-star), give back the day.
And that of Boethius, book III On Consolation: "When the day-star has driven away the darkness, the lovely day drives its rosy steeds."
Furthermore, the day-star is a symbol of the beatific vision. First, because it comes about through the light of glory, according to Psalm 35:10: "In Thy light we shall see light." Therefore it is aptly called the day-star. Secondly, because the day-star, or dawn, is the beginning of the day: it therefore signifies the beginning of blessedness, when the soul alone, immediately after death, is made blessed by the vision of God, of which the completion and as it were noon will be at the resurrection, when the body and the whole man will be made blessed and lit up with glory throughout all eternity. Thirdly, because the day-star, as bearing day and light, is a symbol of prosperity and happiness, as I said on Isaiah 14:21. Fourthly, because the Blessed will shine in heaven like stars and day-stars, according to that saying in Apoc. 2:28: "He that shall overcome, etc., I will give him the morning star." And Daniel 12:3: "They that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and those that instruct many to justice as stars for all eternity." See what is said in both places. Fifthly, just as the light of the day-star and of dawn flows from the sun, as I shall presently say, so the glory of the Saints flows from the glory of Christ; and just as the day-star and stars accompany, attend, and surround the sun: so also do the Saints surround Christ. Sixthly, because φωσφόρος, that is the day-star, also signifies the sun, says Suidas, because φωσφορεῖν is to shine forth and to bring on day; so too Cicero, book II On the Nature of the Gods, calls the moon "day-bringer"; whence the Syriac here for "day-star" renders "sun."
For this day the Bride of Canticles 2:3 was sighing, feeding among the lilies "until the day breaketh" of blessed eternity, "and the shadows be inclined" of wretched mortality, says St. Gregory; and St. John, Apoc. 21:23, says that the heavenly Jerusalem "hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God hath enlightened it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof;" and 22:5: "And night shall be no more, and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them." Thus St. Augustine on Psalm 51: "As long," he says, "as we walk by the lamp, we must needs live in fear; but when our day shall come — that is, the manifestation of Christ, of which the Apostle says: When Christ, our life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory." The same, on Psalm 89: "Therefore," he says, "in these as it were nocturnal sorrows and labors prophecy has been kindled for us as a lamp in a dark and gloomy place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts. For blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." The word "until" favors this exposition; for we need prophecy and Scripture throughout this whole life, until we reach the vision in the heavenly homeland. It also favors it that the day-star's course is coeval with the sun, firm and perpetual, and therefore after a long night the sight of it is most delightful, as the origin of light, sun, and day: whence Zophar to Job 11:17: "As the brightness of noonday," he says, "shall arise to thee in the evening," that is, when you think yourself consumed, you shall arise like the Day-star. And Virgil, Aeneid II:
— Lucifer leads on the day.
Statius, Thebaid III: He bears the day on his crimson countenance.
and Ovid, Fasti VI: And vigilant Lucifer rises from the eastern waters.
The same, Metamorphoses VIII: Lucifer, unveiling the day and putting to flight the seasons of night.
and book XI: The eleventh Lucifer had gathered together the band of stars.
and book XV: — And when Lucifer comes forth bright on his white horse.
And Statius, Thebaid XII: The third Lucifer was knocking at the dawn.
Hence the Poets called Lucifer — namely the dawn — the daughter of Titan, that is of the sun, because from the rising sun proceeds that brightness of the sky which we call dawn. Thus Varro, book VI: "Dawn," he says, "is so called before sunrise from this, that from the then-golden fire of the sun the air becomes golden;" and Virgil, Aeneid IV, sings thus of dawn:
The next day was lighting up the lands with the lamp of Phoebus;
and book VII: Yellow Dawn was shining in her rosy chariot.
and Tibullus, book III: The horses of Phaethon (that is, of the Sun) were now bearing Aurora with their light.
Hence "aurora" is called as it were "aurea hora" (the golden hour), or rather as it were "aura rorans" (the dewy breeze).
The former sense is plainer and simpler, and therefore more literal and genuine: the latter is fuller and more anagogical. For as Lucifer is the precursor and herald of the day and the sun, so the faith of Christ runs before and heralds the beatific vision. This Lucifer of faith therefore arises in our hearts; but in heaven the noon of divine brightness will shine forth in our minds.
Tropologically Hugh: The day, he says, is the fervor of love, which the day-star ought to precede, that is, the knowledge of God and of virtue, that it may grow toward the noon of perfection, according to that of Proverbs 4:18: "The path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day." Hence Thomas the Englishman, reading "illucescat" ("shine within") instead of "elucescat," says, that is, let it shine inwardly, and even into the inmost part of the soul. Furthermore, as all the brightness of the day-star and dawn arises from the rising and following sun: so all the grace and glory of the Saints arises from Christ, who is the Sun of justice, of grace, and of glory. This is what is said of the Church and of the faithful soul in Canticles 6:9: "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun?" St. Gregory, explaining this in book XVI of the Morals, chapter 25, says: "The dawn," he says, "is the mind of the just man, which, leaving behind the darkness of its sin, now bursts forth into the light of eternity." The same is fair as the moon, because, as Philo Carpathius says on Canticles 6, she receives grace from Christ, as the moon receives light from the sun; and because sometimes she shines in prosperity, sometimes she is left in the darkness of adversities; and because she grows in virtue, as the new moon grows up to the full moon. The same is chosen as the sun, because she imitates Christ, the Sun of justice, from whom she takes both light and warmth. But St. Bernard, in his short sermon 60, by the dawn understands humility, from which virtue and the holy life begin: "Well," he says, "is she called the rising dawn, that the structure of the virtues, rising up, may be raised upon humility as its proper foundation." By the moon, which takes its splendor from the sun, chastity is signified: "For every faithful soul, if she be presented to the gaze of the true Sun, immediately from the vision of Him admits into herself the comeliness of beauty and the loveliness of chastity: whence it comes that, growing and advancing by His light, she is even brought to perfection, so that it may rightly be said of her: Chosen as the sun." By the sun is signified charity, and therefore the spouse is called "chosen as the sun," because she is clothed with the nuptial garment of charity: he who shall be clothed with this virtue and shine forth, will doubtless be terrible to his enemies as an army set in array. So far St. Bernard. Ambrose and St. Augustine, epistle 80, say: The Church of the just is the rising dawn, because she progresses from the darkness of sins to the light of holiness; then she grows from virtue to virtue like the moon; finally, on the day of judgment, having left behind the gloom and rottenness of sins and the mortality of the flesh, clothed with the light of immortality and eternal charity, she will represent the sun itself. Finally, St. Gregory on Canticles 6 says that the Church, in beginners, advances like the dawn, since they begin to shine with the light of holy action out of the darkness of sins; in those making progress she is fair as the moon, since, while they offer good examples to sinners, they shine like the moon in the night; finally, in the perfect she is chosen as the sun, when by them she offers examples of imitation not only to sinners, but also to the good and holy. "For indeed," he says, "the moon is now made the sun; because she who was just now shining for those wandering in the night, now manifests the light of truth to those walking in the day." Hence Venerable Bede, book III of the History of the English, chapter 19, relates that St. Fursey, caught up in ecstasy, heard angels singing in concert to the just: "They shall go from virtue to virtue, the God of gods shall be seen in Sion." Such a one, then, shines, advances, and stands out above the rest as a Lucifer, of whom Ovid sings, Metamorphoses book II:
Behold, vigilant Aurora has flung open from the bright east her crimson doors and her halls full of roses; the stars flee away, whose ranks Lucifer marshals, and last of all he leaves his station in the sky.
Again, as the star of Venus always accompanies the sun, and in the morning indeed precedes him as he rises, and is called Lucifer; but in the evening follows him as he sets, and is called Hesperus, of which the Poet says:
Hesperus, who shinest in heaven, a fire more delightful,
that is, a most delightful star: for the ancients held the stars to be fiery. So he who continually advances in virtue accompanies Christ, who is the Sun of justice; and, as St. John says, Apoc. 14:4: "They follow the Lamb whithersoever He shall go." Wherefore that Abbot in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter 44, no. 6, by this reasoning continually stirred himself up to progress in the virtues: "I," he says, "have determined that my words shall every single day be heard by the Lord, thinking that it is said to me: Labor for My sake, and I will give you rest. Strive yet a little while, and you will see My salvation and My glory. If you love Me, if you are My sons, return praying to the Father. If you are My brethren, blush for Me, just as I suffered many things for your sake. If you are My sheep, follow the Lord's Passion." And another, no. 9: "I," he says, "daily await the Church of intellectual virtues, and I see in the midst of them the Lord of glory shining above all. But when I depart from it, I ascend into heaven, awaiting the wondrous beauties of the angels, and the hymns which they send forth unceasingly to God, etc. And all things which are upon the earth I reckon as ash and dung." Of St. Josaphat the king, Damascene writes in his History, chapter 38, that, having left his kingdom, he withdrew into the desert to St. Barlaam, in order to give himself wholly to the mortification of the vices, to abstinence, vigils, and prayers. "Which thing indeed," he says, "that noble and unencumbered runner of the heavenly journey performed excellently, and preserved the ardor of his soul perpetually from beginning to end, always arranging ascents in his heart, and leaping over from virtue to a more sublime virtue, and unceasingly joining desire to desire and zeal to zeal, until at length he attained the hoped-for and desired blessedness." In the monastery of St. Anthony and the others, of old there was an ardent contest among all concerning virtue and progress: for they kept saying that the virtues are degrees and ladders cohering with each other, and supported one upon another, which carry the soul up to heaven, says Damascene in the History, chapter 11, who therefore deservedly calls those same men terrestrial angels.
Verse 20: Understanding This First, That No Prophecy of Scripture Is Made by Private Interpretation
20. Understanding this first, that no prophecy of (holy) Scripture is made by private interpretation.
"Prophecy of Scripture" is scriptural prophecy, or, by hypallage, prophetic Scripture. He proves that the prophetic word is more firm, and that we ought zealously to attend to it, from this, that prophecy is not the word of the Prophet, but of God, who is the first and infallible truth; this is what he says: "The prophecy of Scripture is not made by private interpretation," that is, it is not produced by one's own invention, by which the Prophet would by himself, by his own ingenuity and acumen, bring forth into light, interpret, and explain hidden and future things: for, as Philo says, in his book On Rewards and Punishments, "The Prophet is an interpreter of God dictating oracles." That this is the sense is clear from the reason which St. Peter, by way of explanation, adds: "For prophecy was not brought at any time by the will of man, but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Spirit." Where note that all sacred Scripture is here called "prophecy," both by synecdoche, because the greater part of Scripture which then existed was the Prophets — for the whole Old Testament is a prophecy and figure of the New Testament; and properly, because all divine revelation, or whatever is revealed by God, even if it is not future, but present or past, is rightly called prophecy, because it is the revelation of a hidden thing either in itself, or insofar as it is revealed by God: for many things naturally certain and clear, such as the precepts of the Decalogue, were revealed by God, which nevertheless are called prophecy, on account of hidden revelation, namely because, being revealed by God, they are oracles of the revealing God, as I have shown from St. Gregory, homily 1 on Ezekiel, and St. Thomas, II II, Question 171, article 3, in the Proem on the Prophets.
Secondly, "Prophecy of Scripture" can be taken as the interpretation of Scripture itself. For thus to prophesy sometimes is the same as to teach and to interpret, as when Aaron is called a Prophet, that is, an interpreter of Moses, Exodus 7:1. And at Antioch many are said to have been Prophets and Doctors, Acts 13:1; and often elsewhere doctors are called Prophets. I have shown the same point at greater length on 1 Corinthians 14, at the beginning of the chapter. Then the sense will be, as if to say: Prophecy, that is the interpretation and explanation of Sacred Scripture, is not made, that is, ought not to be made, nor can be, by private interpretation, that is, by one's own acumen and ingenuity, one's own sense, one's own explanation and doctrine. And St. Peter proves this from this, that prophecy and Scripture itself is not the work and doctrine of man, but of God, as if to say: Scripture itself is not the invention of human ingenuity, is not the work of the human mind, but of the divine; therefore its explanation and interpretation likewise is to be sought not from man, but from God. And this is properly what the Greek διάλυσις signifies, that is, dissolution, explanation, interpretation.
St. Peter seems to be aiming at the Simonians and the Gnostics, who expounded Sacred Scripture at their pleasure, and twisted it to their own fancies and errors.
By which is refuted the error of our Gnostics and Illuminati, who say that Scripture is to be interpreted by each man's own private spirit; and that everyone, even the cobbler and the shoemaker, has the internal Spirit of God who lays open the Scriptures to him. For from this have arisen all the heresies, so many and so various, indeed diametrically fighting and contrary to one another; because, namely, every man interprets Sacred Scripture according to his own fancy, as we have seen and daily see. For this reason therefore God set Doctors in the Church, namely that they should interpret Scripture; and the interpretation of speeches is one of the charisms of the Holy Spirit, as Paul teaches, 1 Corinthians 12:10, and chapter 14, verse 26. For Sacred Scripture is not a private, but a public dogma handed down by God to the whole Church; therefore it is not to be explained by anyone's private spirit, but by the common and public Spirit of the Church and of the Holy Spirit assisting her. Hence the holy Fathers received the Spirit from God and the Church, the Fathers who interpreted Sacred Scripture for the whole Church: "It belongs therefore to the Church to judge of the true sense and interpretation of Sacred Scripture," as the Council of Trent says, session IV. By the Church understand the Presidents of the Church, namely the Bishops, and especially the supreme Pontiff.
Verse 21: For Prophecy Came Not by the Will of Man at Any Time, but the Holy Men of God Spoke, Inspired by the Holy Spirit
21. For prophecy was not brought at any time by the will of man, — as if to say: Not with men's knowledge, not according to the will and pleasure of men, but of God, was prophecy brought. "Prophecy" properly is an act and cognition of the intellect; here, however, St. Peter names not the intellect, but the human will, because it is clear that man's intellect does not extend itself to future contingents to be foreseen and foretold by its own acumen; but the will and presumption of man can extend itself to that point of a proud man, namely a false prophet, that he should wish to predict what he does not know and is ignorant of: but true prophecy and true Prophets, as not by their own intellect, so neither by their own will, but by God's, have foreseen and announced things to come: so Cajetan. This is what Isaiah says, 41:23: "Show the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that ye are gods." For, as Tertullian says, Apology 20: "The testimony of divinity is the truth of divination;" for God alone, through His omniscience, foreknows future contingents.
Secondly, "will" can be taken for work, as if to say: "For not by will," that is, by human work, was prophecy brought: for the will is the cause of work, and moves the intellect to understanding, and the other powers and members to acting, and therefore embraces these under itself, and signifies them. It is a metonymy. Thus in John 1:13 it is said: "Who are born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man (that is, by carnal and virile work and generation), but of God." Hence it is commonly said: "The will is reckoned for the work and the deed."
But inspired by the Holy Spirit, — φερόμενοι, that is, driven; Pagninus and the Zurich version, "impelled"; Vatablus, "snatched away and agitated." Thus Plato in the Meno calls Prophets "fatidicos, divina re inspiratos et a Deo possessos." "For the mind of the Prophet is moved by the power of the heavenly Deity," says St. Gregory, Dialogues II, chapter 3; but in such a way that he is master of himself, and does not, like one in a frenzy, wander and rave, as did the Gentile Bacchae, who, as it were drunk and driven by rage, and seized, did not know what they were saying or doing: such also were the Prophets and Prophetesses of the Priscillianists and the Montanists.
The holy men of God spoke, — namely the Prophets and the other Writers of Sacred Scripture. For although they knew some of the things which they write naturally, namely because they had seen or heard them, as when they write the histories of their own time, as the Author of Maccabees does, book II, chapter 2, verses 24 and 27, yet even in those very things they were stirred up by the Holy Spirit to write them, and that in the way and manner in which the Holy Spirit willed, who therefore was assisting them so that they should not err even in a single point; for, as St. Augustine says, epistle 8 to St. Jerome: "Faith will totter, if the authority of the divine Scriptures totters." Hence the Psalmist, Psalm 44:2: "My tongue," he says, "is the pen of a scribe (of the Holy Spirit) writing swiftly." Hence also the Prophets prefix this preface to their oracles: "The word of the Lord which Isaiah, Amos, etc., saw or heard. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken," etc. "The Holy Spirit therefore was the scribe, the Prophets were His pens by which the Holy Spirit dictated what was to be written," says St. Cyprian, sermon On Almsgiving, and St. Augustine, City of God XVIII, 38, and St. Gregory, Preface to the Morals 1. Wherefore "that Sacred Scripture is an Epistle from God sent from heaven to men," St. Anthony said, as St. Athanasius and St. Augustine testify, sermon 2 on Psalm 90, and St. Chrysostom, homily 3 on 2 Thessalonians, and accordingly nothing in it is idle, but all things, even the least, are full of meaning, mystery, and spirit, as St. Basil testifies, homily 6 on the Hexaemeron, and St. Jerome, on Matthew chapter 5. See Bellarmine, book III On the Word of God.
The holy men of God. — For although prophecy is a grace freely given, not a sanctifying grace, and is therefore sometimes given to the wicked, as Christ testifies, Matthew 7:22, as it was given to Balaam, Numbers 24:17, and to Caiaphas, John 11:51, yet the Prophets and hagiographic Writers were almost all of them holy, with the exception of Solomon, about whom many doubt. For they themselves were the familiars, interpreters, ambassadors, messengers, and angels of God, as is plain from Haggai 1:13, and 1 Kings 2:27, 3 Kings 12:22, and elsewhere; whence Philo, book On Giants, near the end: "The men of God," he says, "are priests and Prophets, whose dignity is greater than that they should mix themselves with the human commonwealth and be citizens of the world; but, more sublime than all sensible things, they have migrated into the intelligible world, having there taken up their dwelling, enrolled in the commonwealth of incorporeal and incorruptible ideas;" and St. Augustine, tractate 1 on John, explaining that of Psalm 71, "Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills justice": "The mountains," he says, "are the great saints, the hills the common people, justice is faith. For the lesser souls would not receive faith, unless the greater souls, which are called mountains, were enlightened by Wisdom itself, so that they could pass on to the little ones what the little ones could grasp."
Morally: Hence let Doctors and Interpreters and students of Sacred Scripture learn, first, not to interpret it by their own ingenuity and sense, but according to the mind of the Church and of the Fathers, as the Council of Trent decrees, session IV. Therefore let them shun the commentaries of the Rabbis, as being human, unlearned, fabulous, hostile to Christ, since for the most part they twist the oracles concerning Christ to David or Solomon. Secondly, that to study they should join purity of life, holiness, and prayers, by which they may obtain from God light for understanding and explaining them. So did Sts. Augustine, Jerome, Chrysostom, Basil, Nazianzen, and St. Thomas Aquinas, who in the more difficult places used to add fasting to prayer, and openly kept saying that his knowledge had been gained more by God's enlightenment than by labor and study. Indeed even the royal Psalmist: "Open thou," he says, "my eyes, and I shall consider the wondrous things of Thy law," Psalm 118:18. Excellently St. Athanasius, book On the Incarnation of the Word, near the end: "For the searching out of Scripture," he says, "and for true understanding, there is need of an upright life, a pure mind, and the virtue which is according to Christ, that the mind, running along its track, may be able to attain what it seeks, insofar as it is permitted to human nature to understand divine things: for without a pure mind and the imitation of the Saints no one comprehends the words of the Saints." And St. Bernard to the Brethren of Mount of God: "By what Spirit," he says, "the Scriptures were composed, by that same Spirit they desire to be read, by Him also they are to be understood." And Procopius of Gaza, Preface to Genesis: "If any place," he says, "presents itself more obscure than that the powers of your ingenuity can master it, either the Fathers are to be consulted, or the God of the sciences is to be wearied with prayers." Abbot Theodore in Cassian, Conference V, chapter 34, teaches that the understanding of the Scriptures is to be sought not so much by turning over the Commentaries of the Interpreters, as by cleansing the heart through the cleansing-out of carnal vices: "With which expelled," he says, "immediately the eyes of the heart, the veil of the passions being taken away, begin as it were naturally to contemplate the mysteries of the Scriptures." See the same, Conference XIV, chapters 10 and 11.