The enemies of the holy city are urging Nehemiah to go down to the plains and to enter into a peace pact with them by together slaughtering calves as testimony to the arranged treaty, but he perseveres in the mountains so that the devout work is not neglected. So too, heretics and false catholics want to have a fellowship of peace with true catholics but with this stipulation, that they do not agree to ascend to the citadel of ecclesiastical faith or duty themselves but rather they compel those whom they see dwelling on the peak of the virtues to go down to the lowest depths of wicked works or dogmas. And it is well that they want to enter into a pact with Nehemiah on one plain, doubtless because they desire that all those whom they are able to seduce be relaxed in the same freedom of the broader life that they themselves follow; and it is well that they wish to enter into a pact with him by together slaughtering calves, because false brothers are eager to offer the sacrifices of their prayer and action to God together with true catholics, so that, when they are believed to be genuinely faithful, they might be able to corrupt these same true catholics through the proximity of their association. But Nehemiah, representing the person of faithful teachers, by no means agrees to go down to the impious or to be defiled with their sacrifices but remains devout in the virtuous works he has undertaken; and the more severely his enemies tried to frighten him, the more he himself strove to become terrifying to these same enemies by doing a good work.

Pressured by the attacks of his enemies, Nehemiah enters the house of Shemaiah as though Shemaiah were his friend and brother but discovers that Shemaiah himself is a traitor and enemy, inasmuch as he had been corrupted by the gifts of friendship with foreigners. For the elect always have conflicts without and fears within,^[1] and not just the apostles but the prophets too lived a life fraught with dangers from the nation, with dangers from Gentiles, with dangers from false brothers.^[2]

According to the Hebrews, the month of Elul is the sixth month of the year, which is called September by the Romans. And it is right that the wall of the holy city is completed in the sixth month of the year, so that by this number the perfected action of the faithful, whether penitents or the innocent, might also be designated. For the perfection of a good work is usually designated by the number six, either because the Lord completed the creation of the world on the sixth day and rested on the seventh or because he wished us to sweat with good actions within the six ages^[1] of this world but to hope for a sabbath rest for our souls in the seventh, which comes in the next life. It is rightly completed on the twenty-fifth day of that same month, namely, on account of the five bodily senses, by the aid of which we ought to do good works outwardly: for just as the simple number five is often a figure of these senses, so when this is multiplied by itself to make twenty-five it designates these same senses with greater perfection. Therefore, we complete the wall of Jerusalem on the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month when, diligently surrendering all of our bodily senses to divine servitude, we bring the pursuits of the virtues that we have begun to a sure end and, with the Lord’s help, effectively complete whatever things have begun to do faithfully in defense of catholic peace.

It is also fitting that the wall is said to have been completed in fifty-two days. For the fiftieth psalm—in which the prophet also prays specifically for the construction of this city, saying, Deal favorably, O Lord, in your good will with Zion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up^[2]—is one of repentance and forgiveness. On the fiftieth day of the Lord’s resurrection, the Holy Spirit, through whom not only the desire to repent is poured into us but also the gift of pardon is conferred on those who repent, came to the primitive church. Now there are two precepts concerning charity, namely, love of God and of neighbors, in which, once pardon for sins has been granted to us by the Holy Spirit, we are commanded to endeavor to attain eternal life. It is therefore most appropriate that when rebuilding the wall of the holy city that had been destroyed by the enemies, its citizens restore it in fifty-two days, because this, undoubtedly, is the perfection of the righteous in this life, namely, that they should not only, by repenting through the grace of divine inspiration, set right whatever sins they have committed but afterwards adorn themselves with good works in love of God and neighbors.

Those who previously were seeking to frighten the builders of the holy city in order to hinder them from working now are themselves frightened when the construction of this same city is completed, and they are disheartened when they realize that its construction was begun and completed through God’s authority. So too in the holy church, when the sturdy structure of charity, self-restraint, peace and the rest of virtues is erected, unclean spirits grow afraid and their temptation, put to flight by our strength, is repelled and makes our victory all the greater. This can be understood to apply equally to heretics and to false catholics, who, through the steadfast faith of good people that works through love, are either set straight and reformed or, having been exposed so that people can be on their guard against them, are expelled from the boundaries of the church.