These all, we see, with the new covenant
Cohere. Thus also John; the Spirit thus
To him reveals that in that number stand
265 The enthroned elders white [1620] and crowned, who (as
With girding-rope) all things surround, before
The Lord's throne, and upon the glassy sea
Subigneous: and four living creatures, winged
And full of eyes within and outwardly,
270 Do signify that hidden things are oped,
And all things shut are at the same time seen,
In the word's eye. The glassy flame-mixt sea
Means that the laver's gifts, with Spirit fused
Therein, upon believers are conferred.
275 Who could e'en tell what the Lord's parent-care
Before His judgment-seat, before His bar,
Prepared hath? that such as willing be
His forum and His judgment for themselves
To antedate, should 'scape! that who thus hastes
280 Might find abundant opportunity!
Thus therefore Law and wondrous prophets sang;
Thus all parts of the covenant old and new,
Those sacred rights and pregnant utterances
Of words, conjoined, do flourish. Thus withal,
285 Apostles' voices witness everywhere;
Nor aught of old, in fine, but to the new
Is joined.
Thus err they, and thus facts retort
Their sayings, who to false ways have declined;
And from the Lord and God, eternal King,
290 Who such an orb produced, detract, and seek
Some other deity 'neath feigned name,
Bereft of minds, which (frenzied) they have lost;
Willing to affirm that Christ a stranger is
To the Law; nor is the world's [1621] Lord; nor doth will
295 Salvation of the flesh; nor was Himself
The body's Maker, by the Father's power. [1622]
Them must we flee, stopping (unasked) our ears;
Lest with their speech they stain innoxious hearts.
Let therefore us, whom so great grace [1623] of God
300 Hath penetrated, and the true celestial words
Of the great Master-Teacher in good ways
Have trained, and given us right monuments; [1624]
Pay honour ever to the Lord, and sing
Endlessly, joying in pure faith, and sure
305 Salvation. Born of the true God, with bread
Perennial are we nourished, and hope
With our whole heart after eternal life.
[1539] The state of the text in some parts of this book is frightful. It has been almost hopeless to extract any sense whatever out of the Latin in many passages--indeed, the renderings are in these cases little better than guess-work--and the confusion of images, ideas, and quotations is extraordinary.
[1540] See the preceding book.
[1541] I have changed the unintelligible "daret" of the edd. into "docet." The reference seems to be to Matt. xxiii. 8; Jas. iii. 1; 1 Pet. v. 2, 3.
[1542] Molem belli deducere terræ.
[1543] Æmulamenta. Migne seems to think the word refers to Marcion's "Antitheses."
[1544] i.e., apparently Marcion's.
[1545] Monumenta.
[1546] See the opening of the preceding book.
[1547] "Conditus;" i.e., probably (in violation of quantity) the past part. of "condio" = flavoured, seasoned.
[1548] I have altered the punctuation here.
[1549] Inferni.
[1550] Locator.
[1551] These lines are capable, according to their punctuation, of various renderings, which for brevity's sake I must be content to omit.
[1552] i.e., the People of Israel. See the de Idol., p. 148, c. v. note 1.
[1553] See Deut. vi. 3, 4, quoted in Mark xii. 29, 30.
[1554] This savours of the Nicene Creed.
[1555] Migne's pointing is followed, in preference to Oehler's.
[1556] "Unum hunc esse Patrem;" i.e., "that this One (God) is the Father." But I rather incline to read, "unumque esse;" or we may render, "This One is the Sire."
[1557] See 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6 (but notice the prepositions in the Greek; our author is not accurate in rendering them); Eph. iv. 4, 5, 6.
[1558] Ad quem se curvare genu plane omne fatetur. The reference is to Phil. ii. 10; but our author is careless in using the present tense, "se curvare."
[1559] The reference is to Eph. iii. 14, 15; but here again our author seems in error, as he refers the words to Christ, whereas the meaning of the apostle appears clearly to refer them tothe Father.
[1560] Legitimos. See book iv. 91.
[1561] See Gal. iii. 20. But here, again, "Galatas" seems rather like an error; for in speaking to the Corinthians St. Paul uses an expression more like our author's: see 2 Cor. xi. 2. The Latin, too, is faulty: "Talem se Paulus zelum se scripsit habere," where, perhaps, for the first "se" we should read "sic."
[1562] Comp. Ex. xx. 5; Deut. v. 9.
[1563] See Isa. i. 10-15; Jer. vi. 20.
[1564] Causa etenim fidei rationis imagine major.
[1565] Comp. 1 Cor. xiii. 12; Heb. x. 1.
[1566] Moses. See Heb. ix. 19-22, and the references there.
[1567] Comp. Heb. ix. 13.
[1568] Alluding probably to our Lord's bearing of the cross-beam of His cross--the beam being the "yokes," and the upright stem of the cross the "plough-beam"--on His shoulders.--See John xix. 17.
[1569] Templum. Comp. John ii. 19-22; Col. ii. 9.
[1570] Libro. The reference is to the preceding lines, especially 89, and Heb. ix. 19, auto to biblion. The use of "libro" is curious, as it seems to be used partly as if it would be equivalent to pro libro, "in the place of a book," partly in a more truly datival sense, "to serve the purposes of a book;" and our "for" is capable of the two senses.
[1571] For this comparison of "speaking" to "sprinkling," comp. Deut. xxxii. 2, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain; my speech shall distil as the dew," etc.; Job xxix. 22, "My speech dropped upon them;" with Eph. v. 26, and with our Lord's significant action (recorded in the passage here alluded to, John xx. 22) of "breathing on" (enephusesen) His disciples. Comp., too, for the "witnesses" and "words of presage," Luke xxiv. 48, 49; Acts i. 6-8.
[1572] i.e., the chief of the Levites, the high priest.
[1573] Comp. Heb. xiii. 12, 13; John xix. 19, 20.
[1574] Comp. the preceding book, 355.
[1575] The passage which follows is almost unintelligible. The sense which I have offered in my text is so offered with great diffidence, as I am far from certain of having hit the meaning; indeed, the state of the text is such, that any meaning must be a matter of some uncertainty.
[1576] i.e., perhaps the Jewish and Christian peoples. Comp. adv. Jud., c. 1.
[1577] i.e., "barren" of faith and good works. The "goats" being but "kids" (see Lev. xvi. 8), would, of course, be barren. "Exiled" seems to mean "excommunicated." But the comparison of the sacrificed goat to a penitent, and of the scapegoat to an impenitent, excommunicate, is extravagant. Yet I see no other sense.
[1578] See Matt. xxv. 31-33.
[1579] i.e., Lazarus was not allowed to help him. In that sense he may be said to have been "cast away;" but it is Abraham, not Lazarus, who pronounces his doom. See Luke xvi. 19-31.
[1580] i.e., in that the blood of the one was brought within the veil; the other was not.
[1581] Ædem.
[1582] The meaning seems to be, that the ark, when it had to be removed from place to place, had (as we learn from Num. iv. 5) to be covered with "the second veil" (as it is called in Heb. ix. 3), which was "of blue," etc. But that this veil was made "of lambs' skins" does not appear; on the contrary, it was made of "linen." The outer veil, indeed (not the outmost, which was of "badgers' skins," according to the Eng. ver.; but of "huakinthina dermata"--of what material is not said--according to the LXX.), was made "of rams' skins;" but then they were "dyed red" (heruthrodanomena, LXX.), not "blue." So there is some confusion in our author.
[1583] The ark was overlaid with gold without as well as within. (See Ex. xxv. 10, 11; xxxvii. 1, 2; and this is referred to in Heb. ix. 3, 4--kiboton...perikekalummenen--where our Eng. ver. rendering is defective, and in the context as well.) This, however, may be said to be implied in the following words: "and all between," i.e., between the layers above and beneath, "of wood."
[1584] Migne supposes some error in these words. Certainly the sense is dark enough; but see lower down.
[1585] It yielded "almonds," according to the Eng. ver. (Num. xvii. 8). But see the LXX.
[1586] Sagmina. But the word is a very strange one to use indeed. See the Latin Lexicons, s.v.
[1587] It might be questionable whether "jussa" refers to "cherubim" or to "sagmina."
[1588] i.e., twice three + the central one = 7.
[1589] Our author persists in calling the tabernacle temple.
[1590] i.e., the Law's.
[1591] "Tegebat," i.e., with the "fiery-cloudy pillar," unless it be an error for "regebat," which still might apply to the pillar.
[1592] Terræ.
[1593] "Operæ," i.e., sacrifices. The Latin is a hopeless jumble of words without grammatical sequence, and any rendering is mere guesswork.
[1594] Heb. ix. 7.
[1595] i.e., of animals which, as irrational, were "without the Law."
[1596] Terram.
[1597] Rev. vi. 9, 10.
[1598] i.e., beneath the altar. See the 11th verse ib.
[1599] Or possibly, "deeper than the glooms:" "altior a tenebris."
[1600] Terra.
[1601] See 141, 142, above.
[1602] Cælataque sancta. We might conjecture "celataque sancta," ="and the sanctuaries formerly hidden."
[1603] This sense appears intelligible, as the writer's aim seems to be to distinguish between the "actual" commands of God, i.e., the spiritual, essential ones, which the spiritual people "follow," and which "bind"--not the ceremonial observance of a "shadow of the future blessings" (see Heb. x. 1), but "real persons," i.e., living souls. But, as Migne has said, the passage is probably faulty and mutilated.
[1604] Comp. Heb. vii. 19; x. 1; xi. 11, 12.
[1605] "Lignum:" here probably ="the flesh," which He took from Mary; the "rod" (according to our author) which Isaiah had foretold.
[1606] Aërial, i.e., as he said above, "dyed with heaven's hue."
[1607] "Ligno," i.e., "the cross," represented by the "wood" of which the tabernacle's boards, on which the coverings were stretched (but comp. 147-8, above), were made.
[1608] As the flame of the lamps appeared to grow out of and be fused with the "golden semblance" or "form" of the lampstand or candlestick.
[1609] Of which the olive--of which the pure oil for the lamps was to be made: Ex. xxvii. 20; Lev. xxiv. 2--is a type. "Peace" is granted to "the flesh" through Christ's work and death in flesh.
[1610] Traditus.
[1611] In ligno. The passage is again in an almost desperate state.
[1612] Isa. xi. 1, 2.
[1613] Matt. v. 23, 24.
[1614] Primus.
[1615] See Rev. viii. 3, 4.
[1616] Here ensues a confused medley of all the cherubic figures of Moses, Ezekiel, and St. John.
[1617] i.e., by the four evangelists.
[1618] The cherubim, (or, "seraphim" rather,) of Isa. vi. have each six wings. Ezekiel mentions four cherubim, or "living creatures." St. John likewise mentions four "living creatures." Our author, combining the passages, and thrusting them into the subject of the Mosaic cherubim, multiplies the six (wings) by the four (cherubs), and so attains his end--the desired number "twenty-four"--to represent the books of the Old Testament, which (by combining certain books) may be reckoned to be twenty-four in number.
[1619] These wings.
[1620] There is again some great confusion in the text. The elders could not "stand enthroned:" nor do they stand "over," but "around" God's throne; so that the "insuper solio" could not apply to that.
[1621] Mundi.
[1622] Virtute.
[1623] Honestas.
[1624] Or, "records:" "monumenta," i.e., the written word, according to the canon.