These words refer to the Egyptians who, being idolaters and given over to various kinds of errors, also unjustly persecuted the people of God. And the Lord punished them with ten plagues, because they did not want to free his people. They thus experienced the cruelty of the beasts: it is described how flies of various types^[1] and grasshoppers^[2] ravaged them. And also frogs^[3] and poisonous toads and other animals that covered the earth, of which it is said in the psalm, He sent horseflies to ravage them and frogs to molest them. He gave their harvests to the flames and the fruit of their labor to locusts.^[4] One understands further that heretics and schismatics are torn to pieces, scattered and destroyed by the beasts (that is, by evil spirits). The former in fact are subject to the will of the latter (and thus also to the righteous judgment of God) and are tormented and scattered by them.

In the meantime, the priestly Levitical order must show the way to the people of God—who are leaving Egypt! It is they, in fact, who teach the people to flee Egypt, which is to say from the errors of the world, and to pass through the immense desert, that is, to pass through various kinds of temptations without being harmed by the serpents, which are the bites of demons, and to avoid the poison of perverse counsel. And if it happens that someone is bitten by a serpent in the desert, they also show him the bronze serpent^[1] hanging on the cross. The one who sees it, who believes, that is, in him whom the serpent symbolized,^[2] by this very fact will escape the devil’s poison.

Illness of the soul is much more serious than that of the body. Bodily ills cause temporal death, but illness of the spirit brings eternal death. Indeed, when in paradise Adam transgressed the divine commandment, he did not contract an illness of the body but an illness of the soul, by which he would have perished eternally if the grace of Christ had not rescued him from death. Listen to the prophet who proclaims this, when he says, By his wounds we have all been healed.^[1] The wounds and the passion of the Lord were the remedy that healed humanity. In fact, illnesses of the soul are not healed by the medical arts but only by the grace of Christ. The fever of sin and the wounds of guilt are sicknesses of the soul, which do not enter the body from the outside but from within the soul. These wounds of the soul are not healed by human beings but by God—not by the incision of an earthly knife but by the sword of the divine Word that penetrates into the depths of the soul.^[2] Listen to the prophet declare that it was not an herb or an ointment that cured them but your word, O Lord, which heals everyone. And the words of David, He sent his word to heal them.^[3] And rightly the prophet prays to the Lord about the iniquity of the Jewish people in these terms, Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Why therefore does not the health of your people recover?^[4] The prophet does not speak of just any balm but of a heavenly remedy, nor of a human physician but of a physician who is God.

How could he again come before the face of God,^[1] he who was not permitted to draw near the holy soul of Job or even to touch it?^[2] How could he reach heaven who was not permitted to enter paradise?^[3] Indeed, a cherubim with a flaming sword was posted to guard the gate of paradise, so that the one who had fallen in the past—that is, Adam—could not enter again.^[4] Now, what must the holy virtues of the angels be who guard the gates of heaven, those of whom it was said, Lift up the gates, you princes, that the king of glory may come in?^[5] It is not possible that the supremely perverse devil ever passed through or could pass through these gates or go over them to arrive in heaven. Indeed, having fallen from heaven because of his iniquity,^[6] he would never again enter heaven, never again return. If God says to the godless and the wicked, Do not trample my courts,^[7] how much more will the devil, author of all impiety and father and author of every crime, ever go up again to the heavenly court from which he fell by his own will, never returning there? Indeed, if the spirit that leaves does not return, nor is the soul recalled once it has gone, is it not even more true that he who left heaven by his own iniquity will never return there and he who by his obstinate wickedness was expelled from the chorus of the saints will never be recalled to repentance?

That the Son is from the Father—that is, that he is of the same being as the Father—is proven by the following testimonies. The apostle says, He is the splendor of his glory and the imprint of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.^[1] And God the Father, reproaching the bad faith of unbelievers who did not want to listen to the voice of the Son who, while remaining in his being, had spoken through the prophets,^[2] said, They did not listen to the voice of my being.^[3] And reproaching with fearsome words because the voice of his being had been despised, he speaks again to the same prophet, saying, Weeping on the high mountains and grief on the desert roads, because they have failed, no longer being human. They did not listen to the voice of my being, from the birds of the air to the beasts.^[4] And again reproaching those who, deviating from the profession of one being, did not want to remain in the being itself of faith, he says, If they had remained in my being, I would have brought them back from their evil ways and their wicked thoughts.^[5] And it is again stated clearly that the Son must not be professed as being other than the being of the Father but that, with faith, he must be contemplated in his very being with the eyes of the intellect, when the prophet says, Who has been in the being of the Lord and has seen his word?^[6] Thus, that the being of the Father is the Son was already clearly proclaimed by the oracles of the prophets, Solomon saying, You in fact showed us your being and your sweetness that you have toward your children.^[7] The Lord showed that these were poured out from heaven on the people of Israel in the figure and semblance of heavenly bread,^[8] saying in the Gospel, It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven.^[9] He declares himself to be the bread when he says, I am the living bread, who came down from heaven.^[10] Of him the prophet David also says, Human beings ate the bread of angels.^[11]

The Holy Spirit did not beatify the dove^[1] or the wind^[2] or the fire,^[3] nor did he unite them to himself and to his own person so as to remain in that state forever. Otherwise the nature of the Holy Spirit would be variable and convertible, if those phenomena had not happened by a change in the creatures, but the Holy Spirit was mutably changed from one thing into another, as water changes into ice. Rather, those creatures appeared when it was fitting that they appear, because the creature serves the Creator^[4] and was changed and transformed according to the will of him who remains immutable in himself, so as to signify and reveal himself as it was necessary to signify and reveal himself to mortals. Thus, though the Scripture would call the dove the Holy Spirit^[5] and would say of the fire, And tongues as of fire appeared, which parted and came to rest on each of them, and they began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance^[6]—thus indicating that the Spirit was manifested through the fire just as through the dove—we can nevertheless not say that the Holy Spirit is God and dove or God and fire in the same way that we say that the Son is God and man.

Was it the work of angels when sensible creatures, docile to the will of the Creator, took forms adapted to the circumstances—bodily forms appearing to the eyes of human beings and voices resounding in their ears? Of such docility it is written in the book of Wisdom, In fact, the creature that obeys you who made it, exerts itself to punish the unrighteous and restrains itself to benefit those who trust in you. At that time, then, adapting itself to all these changes, it served your goodness that nourishes all, according to the desire of those who aspired to you. The power of the divine will reaches, by means of spiritual creatures, even to the visible and sensible effects of bodily creatures. Indeed, where is the will of the Wisdom of almighty God^[1] not effective, whose power extends from one end of the earth to the other and governs all with goodness?^[2]

It seems to me that, to complete the argument of the prayer, it would not be out of place after this to discuss briefly the disposition and the attitude that one who prays must have, as well as the place where one should pray and the direction he should face^[1] (if circumstances permit) and the choice of the appropriate time for praying, and topics of this kind. Disposition refers to the soul, attitude to the body. Thus Paul says . . . one must pray without anger or dissension.^[2] The attitude consists in raising pure hands,^[3] expressions that seem to me to be derived from the psalms, which say, May the raising of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.^[4] Regarding the place, I want therefore that people pray in every place.^[5] Regarding the orientation, the Wisdom of Solomon says, To make it known that one must rise before the sun to give you thanks and worship you before the dawning of the light.

No one has done more so that we might be good, great and thankful in everything than God who created us. Thus he often lavishes blessings on us beyond our will, blessings that we are for the most part unaware of. If this surprises you, let me point out that this happened, not just to anyone, but to blessed Paul. That blessed one, in fact, being in many dangers and trials, often begged God that temptations would depart from him. God nevertheless did not respond to his request, except to the extent that it was advantageous for him, and to show this he said, My grace is enough for you. Indeed, my power is fully manifested in weakness.^[1] Thus, before telling him the reason why, he pours out blessings without Paul wanting or knowing about it. What is so unusual, then, if he commands us to be grateful in return for such tender care? So let us obey him, having this attitude always. In fact, nothing ruined the Jews more than their ingratitude, and this behavior alone brought on all those misfortunes, one after the other. Indeed, even prior to those misfortunes, it ruined and corrupted their souls. The hope of the ingrate is like winter frost, it says. It dulls the soul and makes it die, just like the body. This is born of arrogance and from believing oneself to be deserving of something. The contrite person, however, will give thanks to God not only for blessings but also for what seems to be against him, and, when he suffers, he will not think himself to have suffered unjustly. We too, then, the more we embrace virtue, the more we will humble ourselves, because virtue consists above all in this.