What shall we do in the day of visitation? One of the prophets terrifies me [with this question], whether that of the righteous sentence of God against us or that upon the mountains and hills, of which we have heard. Whatever and whenever it may be, he will reason with us and oppose us and set before us^[1] those bitter accusers, which are our sins, contrasting our wrongdoings with our benefits, striking thought with thought, scrutinizing action with action and calling us to account for the image^[2] that has been blurred and spoiled by wickedness. He will finally lead us away self-convicted and self-condemned, no longer able to say that we are being unjustly treated—a thought that is able even here sometimes to console in their condemnation those who are suffering.

[Christ] said to Peter, the prince of the apostles, Simon, [son] of John, do you love me more than these?^[1] He answered, Lord, you know I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs. He asked him a second time, Simon [son] of John, do you love me? He answered, Yes, Lord, you know I love you. He said to him, Feed my sheep. And he ordered him to feed his sheep a third time, and in Peter he enjoined this office on all of us, diligently to feed the sheep of the Lord, that on the day of his visitation we may, for our toil and watchfulness, receive what he promised us in the gospel, saying, Father, I wish that where I am, there also shall be my minister. Let us look to the promises and rewards; then in an attitude of faith we will more easily stand all our pains, walking as the Lord himself walked, who is the one promising the rewards.

These are the words of God’s antagonist, boasting in the strength of his wickedness, as he threatens to steal and obliterate the divisions of the nations delivered by the Most High to the angels. And loudly [he] cries that he will spoil the earth, and shake the whole human race, and change them from their former good order.

All sins must be avoided, to be sure, because all sins are contrary to God, but they vary in degree. The proud, for example, are God’s enemies. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.^[1] The devil is the prince of the proud. Lest he be puffed up with pride, says holy Scripture, and incur the condemnation passed on the devil,^[2] for everyone who glorifies himself in his heart is partner to the devil, who used to say, By my own power I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd. I have moved the boundaries of peoples. . . . All other failings deserve the mercy of the Lord because, in humility, they are submitted to the tribunal of God; pride alone, because it honors itself beyond its power, resists God. The adulterer or the fornicator does not dare to raise his eyes to heaven; in defection of soul, he looks for God’s mercy; yet this one whom conscience bows down and humbles to the ground, it also elevates to heaven. When pride and inordinate desire for glory raise up a person, they at the same time abase him, for by his sin they make him an enemy of God.

And by the prophet, the enemy said, I will pursue and overtake,^[1] and again by another, I will grasp the whole world in my hand as a nest, and take it up as eggs that have been left. Such, in a word, are their boasts and professions that they may deceive the godly. But not even then ought we, the faithful, to fear his appearance or give heed to his words. For he is a liar and speaks of truth never a word. And though speaking words so many and so great in his boldness, without doubt, like a dragon he was drawn with a hook by the Savior,^[2] and as a beast of burden he received the halter round his nostrils, and as a runaway his nostrils were bound with a ring, and his lips bored with an armlet.^[3] And he was bound by the Lord as a sparrow, that we should mock him. LIFE OF ST.

And so God, the Creator and Healer of all, knowing that pride is the cause and fountain head of evils, has been careful to heal opposites with opposites, that those things which were ruined by pride might be restored by humility. For the one says, I will ascend into heaven,^[1] and the other, My soul was brought low even to the ground.^[2] . . . The one says, As eggs are gathered together which are left, so have I gathered all the earth; the other says, I am like a pelican of the wilderness . . . and am become as a sparrow dwelling alone on a roof.^[3] . . . If we look at the reason for our original fall and the foundations of our salvation, and [if we] consider by whom and in what way the latter were laid and the former originated, we may learn, either through the fall of the devil, or through the example of Christ, how to avoid so terrible a death from pride.

Behold, then, how the Maker of the universe has always shown a loving care for humanity, not merely for the race of the descendants of Abraham but for all the descendants of Adam; through one tribe he has led all tribes to a knowledge of himself. He used them for this purpose both when they were religious and when they were paying the penalty for their sins. For instance, Nebuchadnezzar, the arrogant tyrant, who raised up the golden image and called on all to adore it, said, I will gather in my hand the whole earth as a nest, as eggs that lie abandoned will I gather it.

My hand found the strength of the people like a nest. And like abandoned eggs are collected, so I gathered all the earth. No one moved a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped. You sent your Spirit and the sea covered them; they descended to the depths like lead in the mighty water.^[1] When the Spirit of the Lord was sent, the Egyptians were immersed in the waters of the sea. Although we desire to see ourselves there in the word of the Lord, which is also fulfilled in us, we would do better to apply this passage to the Gentiles, who were filled with the knowledge of the truth when they received the Spirit of God. To this the prophet bore witness: All the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, like the waters covering the sea.^[2]

They descended to the depths like lead in the mighty water. The depths are to be understood as carnal living, which tosses them to and fro on waves of sin. It drowns their self-absorbed souls and sends them to the bottom. Gossip, jealousy, depravity, cruelty and envy are the waves of worldly vice.

For you, Sennacherib, are the ax in the hands of him that cuts, and you are the saw in the hands of him that saws, and the rod in the hand of him that wields you for chastisement, and you are the staff for smiting. You are sent against the fickle people, and again you are ordained against the stubborn people, that you may carry away the captivity and take the spoil; and you have made them as the mire of the streets for all people and for all the Gentiles. And when you have done all these things, why are you exalted against him who holds you, and why do you boast against him who saws with you, and why have you reviled the holy city?

Let us consider therefore those to whom God has granted power, to see if we may deserve to serve them and to cling to their doctrine, putting aside all pride and resisting with great courage the sin, which fearlessly operates in bodies; for death has been swallowed up by victory. On the other hand, how weak we are in this age, knowing that the church is to stand and to be led toward what is good. . . . You know that the ax does not boast without the man who uses it to cut . . . but we must fight to be able to have peace with those who keep the commandments of God.

And Isaiah shows that the Holy Spirit is not only light but also fire, saying, And the light of Israel shall be for a fire. So the prophets called him a burning fire, because in those three points we see more intensely the majesty of the Godhead; since to sanctify is of the Godhead, to illuminate is the property of fire and light, and the Godhead is customarily pointed out or seen in the appearance of fire: For our God is a consuming fire, as Moses said.^[1]

May the remnant be saved, as Isaiah said, and the remnant has clearly been saved. For out of them were the twelve apostles, out of them more than five hundred brothers, to whom the Lord showed himself after his resurrection.^[1] Out of their number were so many thousands baptized,^[2] who laid the price of their possessions at the apostles’ feet. Thus then was fulfilled the prayer here made to God: For your servant David’s sake, turn not away the presence of your anointed.^[3]

This, then, is what the patriarch Isaac says, You shall serve your brother. But the time will be when you shall shake off and loose his yoke from your neck.^[1] He means that there will be two peoples, one the son of the slave girl, the other of the free woman^[2]—for the letter is a slave, whereas grace is free.^[3] The people that is attentive to the letter is going to be a slave as long as it needs to follow the expounder of learning in the spirit. Then that will also come to pass what the apostle says, that the remnant may be saved by reason of the election made by grace.^[4] You shall serve your brother, but then you will perceive your advancement in servitude only when you begin to obey your brother voluntarily and not under compulsion.

Do you also see that he does not say that all will be saved but only those who are worthy will be saved? . . . He does not speak of the sands of the sea without cause, but he does so to remind them of the ancient promise they had made themselves unworthy of.^[1] Why are you bothered, as though the promise has not been kept? The prophets demonstrate that not everyone will be saved. . . . It not only demonstrates that only a few will be saved, and not everyone, but also says how they will be saved. How are they to be saved, and by what manner will God consider them to be worthy? . . . Faith is such that it holds salvation in a few short words.

The remnant means the Jews who have believed in Christ. Many of them, we remember, did believe in the days of the apostles, and even today there are some converts, although very few.

And it is their own Scriptures that bear witness that it is not we who are the inventors of the prophecies touching Christ. That is why many of them, who pondered these prophecies before his passion and more especially after his resurrection, have come to believe in him, as was foretold: For if your people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted.

Through this Son of man, Christ Jesus, and from his remnant, that is, the apostles and the many others who from among the Israelites have believed in Christ as God, and with the increasing plenitude of the Gentiles, the holy vineyard^[1] is being completed.

But grace from above sometimes looks upon these mighty men and afflicts them by the very employments caused by their abundant goods and intersperses with their prosperity adverse but profitable tribulation. [This is done] in order that, being sorrowful, they may turn to their heart and learn how vainly they are engaged in perishable pursuits. . . .This can be especially understood also of the Jews. . . . Because they are to be admitted to the faith at the end of the world . . . it is said by Isaiah, if the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For the light returns to them when they themselves return to confess the power of our Redeemer.

What wonder, most beloved brothers, if such [the Lord’s Prayer] is the prayer that God has taught, who by his instruction has abbreviated our every prayer in a saving word? This had already been foretold by Isaiah the prophet, when filled with the Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty and loving kindness of God. He said, He will finish the word and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short word in all the world. For when the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came to all, and gathering together the learned and unlearned alike, he gave forth the precepts of salvation to every sex and age, he made a concise compendium of his precepts. [This was] so that the memory of the learners might not be burdened in heavenly discipline but might learn quickly what was necessary to a simple faith.

When God made statements such as You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness,^[1] he was teaching me to refrain from doing to others what I would be unwilling to do to myself. Therefore the precept offered in the Gospel belongs only to the one who first drew it up in ancient times, arranging it according to his own teaching in a formula that could easily be understood. This was predicted in another passage in which the Lord, that is, Christ, was to make a concise word on the earth.^[2]

Three gathered together in the name of the Lord^[1] count for more with God than tens of thousands of those who deny the Godhead. Would you prefer the whole of the Canaanites to Abraham alone?^[2] or the men of Sodom to Lot?^[3] or the Midianities to Moses,^[4] when each of these was a pilgrim and a stranger? How do the three hundred men with Gideon, who bravely lapped,^[5] compare with the thousands who were put to flight? Or the servants of Abraham, who scarcely exceeded them in number, with the many kings and the army of tens of thousands whom, few as they were, they overtook and defeated?^[6] Or how do you understand the passage that though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved?^[7] And again, I have left me seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal?^[8] . . . God has not taken pleasure in numbers.

I find, indeed, that some eminent writers have published treatises on these matters piously and briefly written. Moreover, I know that the heretic Photinus has written on the same, with the object not of explaining the meaning of the text to his readers but of wresting things simply and truthfully said in support of his own dogma.^[1] Yet the Holy Spirit has taken care that in these words nothing should be set down which is ambiguous or obscure or inconsistent with other truths; for therein is that prophecy verified, Finishing and cutting short the word in equity: because a short word will the Lord make upon the earth.^[2] It shall be our endeavor, then, first to restore and emphasize the words of the apostles in their native simplicity.

One might perhaps suppose that in regard to the knowledge of righteousness we have all we need; inasmuch as our Lord, summing and shortening his word upon the earth, has said that upon two commandments hang all the law and the prophets, and he put those commandments in the plainest words: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,^[1] and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.^[2]

It was said by Moses, They drew honey from the rock, and oil from the hardest rock.^[1] . . . But because according to Paul, the rock was Christ,^[2] they drew honey from the rock who saw the deeds and miracles of our Redeemer; and they drew oil from the hard rock because they were found worthy to be anointed with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after his resurrection. . . . The gift of the holy anointing flowed out of him through the breathing forth of the Spirit. Of this oil the prophet said, The yoke will be destroyed from before the oil.

It is possible that the Holy Spirit himself was denoted by the name of oil, concerning which it is said through the prophet: and the yoke will rot at the presence of the oil. The yoke rotted at the presence of oil because when we are anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, we are liberated from the bondage of our slavery. Then, with the prideful tyranny of the evil spirit broken, the yoke with which the necks of our freedom was oppressed is destroyed. Again, it is written about the oil: My beloved had a vineyard on a hill called the son of oil. The son of oil represents the faithful people, whose faith in God is generated by the interior anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Although it has been burdened in the past with many tribulations, therefore, let the holy church call to mind the gifts of the Spirit and the marvelous prophecies which it now possesses, and let it lament its silence, saying, The rock poured out for me streams with oil.^[1]

And who are these but the rich? Because they have indeed received their consolation, glory and honor, and a lofty position from their wealth.

[God spoke] of the branches (thickets), not the root. When the measure of the people’s sins was complete, John came and took up the roots of their trees. For the ax is laid to the roots of the trees,^[1] [the roots] which Isaiah had left [untouched]. When will this be, if not at the rising forth of the true One, who was designated by the [image of] the staff and the shoot, and upon whom rests the Spirit, who is referred to as being sevenfold.^[2]

In this instance Lebanon means Jerusalem . . . which the Word warns will fall with all of the men of greatness and glory.

In this instance the birth of Christ from the seed of Jesse and David is joined with the destruction of Lebanon and the call of the Gentiles.

What Scripture once said cryptically, however, it now expresses more clearly: for the glorious trees are ruined.^[1] I want to know what is meant by the cedars of Lebanon that burned, the firs that wailed and the pines that fell. The glorious trees, it says, are ruined. Wail, oaks of Bashan,^[2] that is, of confusion and shame, for the thickest forest, which in Hebrew is called besor and is translated by the Septuagint as densely wooded [nemorosus], has been felled. In other words, wail because the temple, which had grown to unassailable strength, having been constructed by many different kings and rulers and later by Herod, was demolished by the invading Romans.

Certain persons not familiar with this locale believe that Lebanon and the firs, pines and oaks, as well as Bashan and the dense or fortified forests, signify the competing powers of which Ezekiel had spoken under the names of Assyria and Pharaoh. Behold, Assyria is a cedar in Lebanon, with strong branches and dense foliage, of great height, with its top reaching to the clouds; the waters nourished it and the abyss exalted it, etc.^[3] They think that Assyria and the Pharaoh represent either competing powers or the proud or rulers, about which we read also in the psalms. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon,^[4] and in another place, For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high, and shortly further against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up.^[5] They claim that it was to this, the nation of Lebanon, that it was prophesied: Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.

We, however, hold to the first interpretation, primarily because it corresponds with what follows: The voice of the shepherds wails because their glory is ruined; the voice of the lions roars because the pride of Jordan is ruined.^[6] According to the Septuagint’s translation, The voice of the shepherds mourns because their glory has been made wretched; the voice of the lions roars because Jordan’s groaning is despondent. The whole of the chapter is contained in these short verses. What the text once called cedars, firs, pines and the oaks of Bashan, what it called trees, as in for the glorious trees are ruined, it now, through the use of another metaphor, calls shepherds, that is, rulers and teachers. These, the leaders of the people, ought to weep and grieve because their glory and majesty and beauty are ruined and destroyed, clearly referring to the temple in which they gloried.