Recall what the book of Exodus recounts concerning the death of the firstborn, when God at midnight struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the beasts.^[1] At that point they did not feign to want to allow the Israelites to leave, as they had before, but openly asked the people of God to leave Egypt quickly, saying, We are all going to die.^[2]

It says that at midnight, almighty God made his word descend from heaven, from the royal throne, like a ruthless champion in the middle of the land of slaughter, to powerfully carry out the judgment of death on the godless.^[1] What is the word of the Lord if not the Son of God, of whom John says, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God,^[2] through whom everything was made?^[3] Elsewhere he is called the arm of God, as Isaiah says, To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?^[4] He is also called the right hand of the Lord, in that he is the power that brings into effect the divine power. It must be understood, then, that this word, in virtue of the evangelical ministry, carried out at that time the judgment on the firstborn of the Egyptians and then consecrated the firstborn of the Israelites to himself.^[5] He now saves the multitude of believers through the waters of baptism, at the same time destroying the huge army of spiritual enemies.

The name world is often used in the Scriptures with different meanings. What in Latin^[1] we call world, the Greeks call kosmos, and kosmos not only means world but also ornament. In fact, in Isaiah, when a reproach is made against the powerful children of Zion, it is said, Instead of golden ornaments you will be bald, because of your works,^[2] where ornament is indicated with the word that means world, that is, kosmos. And it is also said that the explanation of the world was contained in the pontifical vestment, as we find in the Wisdom of Solomon, where it says, The entire world was in the priestly vestment. Our earth with its inhabitants is also called world, as when the Scripture says that the whole world is in the possession of the evil one.^[3] And Clement, disciple of the apostles,^[4] refers to those places that the Greeks called antipodes and to the other parts of the earth where no one can reach (just as none of the people there can reach us), and he calls them world, saying, The ocean cannot be crossed by people, nor the worlds that are beyond them, which are governed by the very dispositions of the Lord God.^[5] We also call world this universe that is formed by the heavens and the earth, as Paul says, The form of this world is passing away.^[6] And our Lord and Savior also speaks of another beyond this visible world, which is difficult to describe and define in its reality. He says, I do not come from this world.^[7] As though he came from another world, he said, I do not come from this world. We said that it is difficult to describe this world, so as to not provide anyone with occasion to claim that we assert the existence of the images that the Greeks call ideas. In fact, it is foreign to our way of thinking to assert the existence of an incorporeal world, consisting solely in the fantasy of the mind and fallacious thoughts.^[8]