He is right in saying, Have you protected the calving of the hinds? Since flight, fear and anxiety are usual in this kind of animal, which never ceases from leaping and galloping, how, he says, can it not abort, so do you know how its young can be given birth at the right time? Say if you have numbered the full months of their being with young, and if you have relieved their pangs. [Speak out if you] have reared their young without fear. Will you loosen their pangs? This animal is timorous. How may its young ones, which cannot count on the speed of their legs, be devoid of fear? Who watches them? You see that nature never abandons them, neither the lion rules through its strength, nor is the hind abandoned.

Their young ones leave and go to pasture. Holy Scripture calls pasture that green place of eternity where our nourishment will never be spoiled by any drought. About this pasture the psalmist says, The Lord is my shepherd, and I will never lack anything. In a green place, there he gave me rest.^[1] And again, We are his people and herd of his pasture.^[2] And the Truth himself says about these pastures, If one enters through me, he will be saved and will get out and will find pasture.^[3] They go to pasture because, after going out of their body, they find the eternal green pastures. They go out and do not go back to them, because, after being received in that joyful contemplation, they do not need to hear the words of those who teach. And so, after going out they do not go back to them, because after escaping the afflictions of life, they do not seek to receive any longer from the doctors the doctrine of life.

Then he adds, Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has disposed things in this manner? he says. Who has established the laws of nature? These are, he says, permanent laws that never change. This animal is strong and untamed. Even if you multiply your efforts, you will never have it under your control. Who will destroy the decisions that God has taken?^[1] You see that according to Providence and because God wants that, everything yields and obeys us. But if he does not want us to obtain obedience, we can use every means, and it will be of no use. We will gain nothing. Therefore, why is our effort useless, even though we want to get results? That is because when we see a domesticated animal we can admire the docility in which it has been established. But God has left things out of our reach in order that, before those things that are subjected to you, you may not admire your own wisdom and may not attribute to your capability the obedience of that animal.

The church is this city which is constituted by a multitude of countless nations and about which the Lord says, The city that is on a mountain cannot be hidden.^[1] Therefore, some of the Jews, by scorning and refusing it, despised the shouts of all those who announced the word of God, and when they demanded the obedience of faith, they did not listen, that is, they refused to obey.

Is the unicorn willing to serve you?^[1] This animal, as is reported, is similar to an ox and is found in the austral regions, armed with a single horn. In the unicorn, whoever is not subjected at all to the bondage of the world is covertly represented. It is said to be provided with a single horn, because there is only one truth for the righteous. Again the human soul is compared with the unicorn, and it must be defined as endowed with a single horn if it is led by a single movement to the top. Moreover, it is said that the unicorn cannot be caught as its strength and dangerousness are extreme. However, the virgin hunter can win it, after being captured by the pleasure of beauty. So the soul is caught by the things that it has loved.

The sort of wings described here appears to signify the synagogue of those who led Christ to the cross. Indeed, who is that mother who generated many children but whose children are not hers? It can only be the one who gave birth to the prophets and brought up the apostles, who are not hers though. Indeed both prophets and apostles, after being adopted into the church, abandoned it.

For he whom the grace of charity does not fall upon looks upon his neighbor as a stranger, even though he has himself begotten him to God. Doubtless all are hypocrites whose minds in truth, while ever aiming at outward objects, become insensible within. While they are ever seeking their own, in everything they do they are not softened by any compassion of charity for the feelings of the neighbor.. . . But hypocrites do not know these gut level feelings of charity. Because the more their mind is let loose on outward subjects by worldly concupiscence, the more it is hardened inside by its lack of affection. And it is frozen by a benumbing torpor within, because it is softened by fatal love outside. It is unable to reflect upon itself, because it does not strive to think of itself. A mind cannot think on itself which is not entirely at home in itself. It is unable to be entirely at home in itself, because by as many lusts as it is hurried away, by as many objects as it is distracted from itself and scattered, it lies below, though with collected strength it may rise, if it willed, to the greatest heights. . . .

God has deprived it of its wisdom, nor has he given it understanding. Although to deprive is one thing and not to give is another, yet his first expression, deprived, he repeated by subjoining has not given. As if he were saying, My expression deprived means not that he has unjustly taken away wisdom but that he has justly not given it. Hence the Lord is described as having hardened the heart of Pharaoh, not because he himself inflicted hardness or, in accord with the demands of his deserts, because he softened it by a sensibility of heavenly infused fear. But now, because the hypocrite pretends that he is holy and conceals himself under the semblance of good works, he keeps down peace of the holy church and is therefore, before our eyes, arrayed with the appearance of religion. But if any temptation of his faith springs up, the rabid mind of the wolf strips itself of its garb of sheep’s skin and shows by persecution how greatly it rages against the holy.

In every step of the fall, the beginning is represented by the lighter faults that later, with the increase of guilt, become more and more serious. Here the evilness of this hypocrite is analyzed through his progressive iniquities. First, he presents himself as a righteous person, which he is not at all. Then, he scorns the righteous. Finally, he even insults the Creator. Indeed, the soul never stays in the place where it fell, because, after falling voluntarily, the weight of its evilness leads it to worse and worse actions. And so, by precipitating [the fall], it is submerged more and more deeply. Let the hypocrite then go now and seek for his own praises. Later he will oppress the life of his neighbor, and one day he will even scorn his own Creator. The more he devises arrogant attitudes, the more he sinks into atrocious punishments as a result.

In this passage, by exalting the horse, he shows that also this animal has been generated by his command and authority. It has been clothed with such a power that it alleviates human slowness with its speed, gives people rescue through flight, fights the enemies with its strength and courage and appears splendid in its armor.

Concerning the exhortation of the captains and the howling of the army, the tempting vices that fight against us in invisible contest in behalf of the pride that reigns over them, some of them go first, like captains, others follow, after the manner of an army. For all faults do not occupy the heart with equal access. But while the greater and the few surprise a neglected mind, the smaller and the numberless pour themselves upon it in a whole body. For when pride, the queen of sins, has fully possessed a conquered heart, she surrenders it immediately to the seven principal sins, as if to some of her generals, to lay it waste. And an army in truth follows these generals, because doubtless there spring up from them importunate hosts of sins.

How does God keep hawks hovering in the air? How does he provide them with nourishment? You can figure out all that he said from a small number of examples! Why did he not mention beefs or rams or other animals of this kind, but only those that are useless for us and seem to exist without reason? This is in order to show that if wisdom and providence appear in useful animals, they appear even more in those that seem to be useless, because you see that carnivorous birds of prey possess a certain reasonable wisdom that derives from the natural instinct living in each of them. So. . . some of them are inclined to fight, others scent the corpses, and the vulture remains still in the air.

The eagle is Christ. The high rock is the cross. The young ones licking the blood are the souls of the saints, who feed on Christ’s blood flowing from his side, that blood that also the nations of the believers enjoy like young ones of the heavenly eagle.