User:JustinCB/VulTMP

Nahum, the consoler of the world, rebukes “the bloody city”^[1] and when it is overthrown cries:—“Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.”^[2] Habakkuk, like a strong and unyielding wrestler,^[3] stands upon his watch and sets his foot upon the tower^[4] that he may contemplate Christ upon the cross and say “His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.”^[5] Zephaniah, that is the bodyguard and knower of the secrets of the Lord,^[6] hears “a cry from the fishgate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.”^[7] He proclaims “howling to the inhabitants of the mortar;^[8] for all the people of Canaan are undone; all they that were laden with silver are cut off.”^[9] Haggai, that is he who is glad or joyful, who has sown in tears to reap in joy,^[10] is occupied with the rebuilding of the temple. He represents the Lord (the Father, that is) as saying “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations and he who is desired^[11] of all nations shall come.”^[12] Zechariah, he that is mindful of his Lord,^[13] gives us many prophecies. He sees Jesus,^[14] “clothed with filthy garments,”^[15] a stone with seven eyes,^[16] a candle-stick all of gold with lamps as many as the eyes, and two olive trees on the right side of the bowl^[17] and on the left. After he has described the horses, red, black, white, and grisled,^[18] and the cutting off of the chariot from Ephraim and of the horse from Jerusalem^[19] he goes on to prophesy and predict a king who shall be a poor man and who shall sit “upon a colt the foal of an ass.”^[20] Malachi, the last of all the prophets, speaks openly of the rejection of Israel and the calling of the nations. “I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name is great among the Gentiles: and in every place incense^[21] is offered unto my name, and a pure offering.”^[22] As for Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, who can fully understand or adequately explain them? The first of them seems to compose not a prophecy but a gospel. The second speaks of a rod of an almond tree^[23] and of a seething pot with its face toward the north,^[24] and of a leopard which has changed its spots.^[25] He also goes four times through the alphabet in different metres.^[26] The beginning and ending of Ezekiel, the third of the four, are involved in so great obscurity that like the commencement of Genesis they are not studied by the Hebrews until they are thirty years old. Daniel, the fourth and last of the four prophets, having knowledge of the times and being interested in the whole world, in clear language proclaims the stone cut out of the mountain without hands that overthrows all kingdoms.^[27] David, who is our Simonides, Pindar, and Alcæus, our Horace, our Catullus, and our Serenus all in one, sings of Christ to his lyre; and on a psaltery with ten strings calls him from the lower world to rise again. Solomon, a lover of peace^[28] and of the Lord, corrects morals, teaches nature, unites Christ and the church, and sings a sweet marriage song^[29] to celebrate that holy bridal. Esther, a type of the church, frees her people from danger and, after having slain Haman whose name means iniquity, hands down to posterity a memorable day and a great feast.^[30] The book of things omitted^[31] or epitome of the old dispensation^[32] is of such importance and value that without it any one who should claim to himself a knowledge of the scriptures would make himself a laughing stock in his own eyes. Every name used in it, nay even the conjunction of the words, serves to throw light on narratives passed over in the books of Kings and upon questions suggested by the gospel. Ezra and Nehemiah, that is the Lord’s helper and His consoler, are united in a single book. They restore the Temple and build up the walls of the city. In their pages we see the throng of the Israelites returning to their native land, we read of priests and Levites, of Israel proper and of proselytes; and we are even told the several families to which the task of building the walls and towers was assigned. These references convey one meaning upon the surface, but another below it. You see how, carried away by my love of the scriptures, I have exceeded the limits of a letter yet have not fully accomplished my object. We have heard only what it is that we ought to know and to desire, so that we too may be able to say with the psalmist:—“My soul breaketh out for the very fervent desire that it hath alway unto thy judgments.”^[33] But the saying of Socrates about himself—“this only I know that I know nothing”^[34]—is fulfilled in our case also.

Chapter 8

The New Testament I will briefly deal with. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the Lord’s team of four,^[35] the true cherubim or store of knowledge.^[36] With them the whole body is full of eyes,^[37] they glitter as sparks,^[38] they run and return like lightning,^[39] their feet are straight feet,^[40] and lifted up, their backs also are winged, ready to fly in all directions. They hold together each by each and are interwoven one with another:^[41] like wheels within wheels they roll along^[42] and go whithersoever the breath of the Holy Spirit wafts them.^[43] The apostle Paul writes to seven churches^[44] (for the eighth epistle—that to the Hebrews—is not generally counted in with the others). He instructs Timothy and Titus; he intercedes with Philemon for his runaway slave.^[45] Of him I think it better to say nothing than to write inadequately. The Acts of the Apostles seem to relate a mere unvarnished narrative descriptive of the infancy of the newly born church; but when once we realize that their author is Luke the physician whose praise is in the gospel,^[46] we shall see that all his words are medicine for the sick soul. The apostles James, Peter, John, and Jude, have published seven epistles at once spiritual and to the point, short and long, short that is in words but lengthy in substance so that there are few indeed who do not find themselves in the dark when they read them. The apocalypse of John has as many mysteries as words. In saying this I have said less than the book deserves. All praise of it is inadequate; manifold meanings lie hid in its every word. I beg of you, my dear brother, to live among these books, to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else. Does not such a life seem to you a foretaste of heaven here on earth? Let not the simplicity of the scripture or the poorness of its vocabulary offend you; for these are due either to the faults of translators or else to deliberate purpose: for in this way it is better fitted for the instruction of an unlettered congregation as the educated person can take one meaning and the uneducated another from one and the same sentence. I am not so dull or so forward as to profess that I myself know it, or that I can pluck upon the earth the fruit which has its root in heaven, but I confess that I should like to do so. I put myself before the man who sits idle and, while I lay no claim to be a master, I readily pledge myself to be a fellow-student. “Every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”^[47] Let us learn upon earth that knowledge which will continue with us in heaven. 11. [In Migne, 10.] I will receive you with open hands and—if I may boast and speak foolishly like Hermagoras^[48]—I will strive to learn with you whatever you desire to study.

Chapter 9

Eusebius who is here regards you with the affection of a brother; he^[49] has made your letter twice as precious by telling me of your sincerity of character, your contempt for the world, your constancy in friendship, and your love to Christ. The letter bears on its face (without any aid from him) your prudence and the charm of your style. Make haste then, I beseech you, and cut instead of loosing the hawser which prevents your vessel from moving in the sea. The man who sells his goods because he despises them and means to renounce the world can have no desire to sell them dear. Count as money gained the sum that you must expend upon your outfit. There is an old saying that a miser lacks as much what he has as what he has not. The believer has a whole world of wealth; the unbeliever has not a single farthing. Let us always live “as having nothing and yet possessing all things.”^[50] Food and raiment, these are the Christian’s wealth.^[51] If your property is in your own power,^[52] sell it: if not, cast it from you. “If any man…will take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.”^[53] You are all for delay, you wish to defer action: unless—so you argue—unless I sell my goods piecemeal and with caution, Christ will be at a loss to feed his poor. Nay, he who has offered himself to God, has given Him everything once for all. The apostles did but forsake ships and nets.^[54] The widow cast but two brass coins into the treasury^[55] and yet she shall be preferred before Crœsus^[56] with all his wealth. He readily despises all things who reflects always that he must die.

Footnotes

1. i.e., Nineveh—Nahum iii. 1.
2. Nahum i. 15.
3. The name strictly means ‘embrace.’
4. Hab. ii. 1.
5. Hab. iii. 3, 4.
6. Strictly ‘the Lord guards’ or ‘hides.’
7. Zeph. i. 10.
8. So R.V. marg. Probably a place in Jerusalem.
9. Zeph. i. 11, R.V.
10. Ps. cxxvi. 5.
11. So Vulg. ‘the desire’ A.V.
12. Hag. ii. 6, 7.
13. Strictly ‘the Lord is mindful.’
14. i.e., Joshua the High Priest.
15. Zech. iii. 3.
16. Zech. iii. 9.
17. Zech. iv. 2, 3.
18. Zech. vi. 1–3.
19. Zech. ix. 10.
20. Zech. ix. 9.
21. This word is not in the Vulg.
22. Mal. i. 10, 11, R.V.
23. Jer. i. 11.
24. Jer. i. 13.
25. Jer. xiii. 23.
26. Lamentations cc. I.–IV., each verse in which begins with a different letter of the alphabet.
27. Dan. ii. 45.
28. See note on LII. 3, p.
29. The Song of Songs.
30. i.e. the feast of Purim—Esth. ix. 20–32.
31. Paraleipomena, the name given in the LXX. to the books of Chronicles.
32. Veteris instrumenti ᾽επιτομή.
33. Ps. cxix. 20, PBV.
34. Plato, Ap. Soc. 21, 22.
35. Quadriga. cf. Irenæus, Adv. Hær. III. ii. 8.
36. Clement of Alexandria, following Philo, makes cherub mean wisdom.
37. Ezek. i. 18, Vulg.
38. Ezek. i. 7.
39. Ezek. i. 14.
40. Ezek. i. 7.
41. Ezek. i. 11.
42. Ezek. i. 16.
43. Ezek. i. 20.
44. i.e. those of Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica.
45. Onesimus.
46. Col. iv. 14; 2 Cor. viii. 18.
47. Matt. vii. 8.
48. A verbose rhetorician mentioned by Cic. de Inv. i. 6.
49. Eusebius of Cremona, who for the next five years remained with Jerome, and afterwards corresponded with him from Italy. See Letter LVII. § 2. Rufinus, Apol. i. 19. Jerome, Apol. iii. 4, 5, etc.
50. 2 Cor. vi. 10.
51. 1 Tim. vi. 8.
52. Cf. Acts v. 4.
53. Matt. v. 40.
54. Matt. iv. 18–22.
55. Mark xii. 41–44.
56. The last king of Lydia, celebrated for his riches.