The judgment of the wicked, and reward of the just. An exhortation to observe the law. Elias shall come for the conversion of the Jews.
In the terrible day of iudgement, the wicked shal be condemned, and the iust eternally rewarded. 5. Before which time Elias shal returne, and conuert the Iewes to Christ.
1For behold the day shall come kindled as a furnace: and all the proud, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall set them on fire, saith the Lord of hosts, it shall not leave them root, nor branch.Perocchè ecco, che viene quel giorno come un'accesa fornace e tutti i superbi, e tutti gli empj saranno stoppie, e quel giorno, che viene, gli abbrucerà, senza lasciare ad essi radice, né germoglio,FOR behold the day shal come kindled as a furnace: and al the proude, and al that doe impietie shal be stubble: and the day coming shal inflame them, sayth the Lord of hosts, which shal not leaue them roote, and spring.Ecce enim dies veniet succensa quasi caminus: et erunt omnes superbi et omnes facientes impietatem stipula: et inflammabit eos dies veniens, dicit Dominus exercituum, quæ non derelinquet eis radicem et germen. 2But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings: and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd.Ma per voi, che temete il mio nome, nascerà il sole di giustizia, e sotto le ale di lui sta salute, e voi uscirete fuori saltellando come vitelli di branco.And there shal rise to you that feare my name the Sunne of iustice, and health in his winges: and you shal goe forth, and shal leape as calues of the heard.Et orietur vobis timentibus nomen meum sol justitiæ, et sanitas in pennis ejus: et egrediemini, et salietis sicut vituli de armento. 3And you shall tread down the wicked when they shall be ashes under the sole of your feet in the day that I do this, saith the Lord of hosts.E calpesterete gli empj quando saran diventati cenere sotto le piante de' piedi vostri nel giorno, in cui io agirò, dice il Signore degli eserciti.And you shal treade the impious, when they shal be ashes vnder the sole of your feete in the day, that I doe, sayth the Lord of hosts.Et calcabitis impios, cum fuerint cinis sub planta pedum vestrorum, in die qua ego facio, dicit Dominus exercituum. 4Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, the precepts, and judgments.Ricordatevi della legge di Mosè mio servo, intimata da me a lui sull'Horeb per tutto Israele co' miei precetti, e comandamenti.Remember ye the law of Moyses my seruant, which I commanded him in Horeb to al Israel precepts, & iudgements.Mementote legis Moysi servi mei, quam mandavi ei in Horeb ad omnem Israël, præcepta et judicica. 5Behold, I will send you Elias the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.Ecco, che io manderò a voi il profeta Elia, prima che venga il giorno grande, e tremendo del Signore.Behold I wil send you Elias the prophete, before the day of our Lord come great, and dreadful.Ecce ego mittam vobis Eliam prophetam, antequam veniat dies Domini magnus et horribilis.
6And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers: lest I come, and strike the earth with anathema.Ed egli riunirà il cuore de' padri co' figli, e il cuore de' figliuoli co' padri, affinchè io in venendo non fulmini anatema contro la terra.And he shal conuert the hart of the fathers to the children & the hart of the children to their fathers: lest perhaps I come, and strike the earth with anathema.Et convertet cor patrum ad filios, et cor filiorum ad patres eorum: ne forte veniam, et percutiam terram anathemate.
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Worthington
Furnace. At the day of judgment, the difference between the just and the wicked will plainly appear. (Worthington)
Eusebius † AD 339
This sense is most generally given, as well as to those words where our Saviour speaks of the signs of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world together, Matthew 24:3., and Luke 21:5. Yet the prophet may also allude to the punishment of the Jews by the Romans, when all were assembled at the Passover, (Calmet) a scourge which the Christians escaped by retiring to Pella. (Eusebius, History of the Church 3:5.)
Calmet
Proud. Septuagint, "strangers." (Calmet)
Menochius
Branch. No hope shall remain. (Menochius)
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Calmet
Wings. The sun is represented with wings, to imply celerity. The appearance of the Lord will be most acceptable to the virtuous. (Calmet)
Look up, for your redemption is at hand, Luke 21:28.
Calmet
Herd. Protestants, "stall." Hebrew marbek, (Haydock) "fattened;" though some explain it of oxen treading out corn: they would not however leap, nor fatten so much. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Ashes, burnt in Jerusalem. (Haydock)
St. Jerome
Christians rejoiced in the execution of divine justice. The Jews were not allowed to approach the new city, Elia. (St. Jerome)
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Calmet
Law. This must be your guide and comfort. No more prophets shall appear before [John] the Baptist. (Calmet)
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Elias. Septuagint add, "the Thesbite;" and St. Jerome (in Matthew xvii.) says, that Elias shall indeed come and restore all things.
Worthington
Dreadful. Christ's first coming was in all meekness; but he will judge in terror. Hence the prophet's meaning is not that St. John [the Baptist], but that Elias shall come before the great day of the Lord. (Worthington)
Calmet
Yet we may understand it of Christ coming into the world to preach, and again to judge. His first coming proved terrible to the perfidious Jews, whose ruin presently ensued. The destruction of Jerusalem was a figure of that which the world shall experience. (Calmet)
N. Alex.[Noel Alexander?] Diss. vi
This shall be preceded by the preaching of Elias. (N. Alex.[Noel Alexander?] Diss. vi.)
Calmet
This interpretation seems very striking and natural, though the prophet may have had the first coming of Christ and the ruin of the city chiefly in view. Our Saviour testifies that the Elias whom the Jews expected was already come, Matthew 11:14., and 17:11., and Luke 9:8. (Calmet)
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Calmet
Heart, etc. By bringing over the Jews to the faith of Christ, he shall reconcile them to their fathers, viz., the patriarchs and prophets, whose hearts for many ages have been turned away from them, because of their refusing to believe in Christ. (Calmet)
Calmet
The antipathy of Jews and Gentiles shall cease. Both shall enter the Church of Christ, Isaias 11:13. John the Baptist strove to ameliorate the manners of the people, and to bring all to Christ, who reconciles all seeming contradictions in the Scriptures. He came to put an end to all dissensions. (Calmet)
Haydock
Yet the wicked will still have war, Matthew 10:35. (Haydock)
Haydock
Christ will convert those Jews at last, (Romans 11:26.; Calmet) who have not yet opened their eyes. Their fathers, the apostles and first converts, have long ago shewn them the example. (Haydock)
Challoner
Anathema. In the Hebrew, cherem, that is, utter destruction. (Challoner)
Septuagint, "entirely," (Calmet) or "suddenly;" arden. (St. Jerome) (Deuteronomy 7:26.)
Calmet
This passage intimates that the ruin of Jerusalem is threatened. If people should be converted, would that stop the general conflagration? (Calmet)
Haydock
Some of our crafty adversaries have inferred from the above explanation of anathema, that the Church means heretics to be destroyed: but her kingdom is not of this world: she speaks only of the soul, and exercises a spiritual power. (Haydock)
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He shall turn the heart, etc.... By bringing over the Jews to the faith of Christ, he shall reconcile them to their fathers, viz., the partiarchs and prophets; whose hearts for many ages have been turned away from them, because of their refusing to believe in Christ.—Ibid. With anathema.... In the Hebrew, Cherem, that is, with utter destruction.
THE FIRST BOOK OF MACHABEES
These books are so called, because they contain the history of the people of God under the command of Judas Machabeus and his brethren: and he, as some will have it, was surnamed Machabeus, from carrying in his ensigns, or standards, those words of Exodus 15.11, Who is like to thee among the strong, O Lord: in which the initial letters, in the Hebrew, are M. C. B. E. I. It is not known who is the author of these books. But as to their authority, though they are not received by the Jews, saith St. Augustine, (lib. 18, De Civ. Dei, c. 36,) they are received by the church: who, in settling her canon of the scriptures, chose rather to be directed by the tradition she had received from the apostles of Christ, than by that of the scribes and Pharisees. And as the church has declared these two Books canonical, even in two general councils, viz., Florence and Trent, there can be no doubt of their authenticity.
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In the day of iudgement it shal plainly appeare, vvhat difference is betvven the iust and the wicked.
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Concordance Exo. 20. Deut 4. 5. & 6. Mat 11, & 17. v 11.
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The Septuagint for explication adde Thesbites. And S. Ierom. in 17. Mat teacheth that Elias shal in dede come and restore al thinges
Christs first coming was in al mekenes not in terrour, but his coming to iudge wil be dreadful. And therfore the prophet here meaneth not S. Iohn Baptist, but that Elias himself shal come before the great and dreadful day of our Lord.
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vtter destructions
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.4.3
… “For the day of the Lord cometh as a burning furnace, and all sinners shall be stubble, they who do evil things, and the day shall burn them up.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.33.1
… while He gathered from the ends of the earth into His Father’s fold the children who were scattered abroad, and remembered His own dead ones who had formerly fallen asleep, and came down to them that He might deliver them: but the second in which He will come on the clouds, bringing on the day which burns as a furnace,
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 An Address to Demetrianus 22
… for, lo, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel with wrath and anger, to lay the earth desolate, and to destroy the sinners out of it.” And again: “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, burning as an oven; and all the aliens and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Advantage of Patience 22
22. But when shall come the divine vengeance for the righteous blood, the Holy Spirit declares by Malachi the prophet, saying, “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, burning as an oven; and all the aliens and all the wicked shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.29
In Malachi: “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, burning as an oven; and all the aliens and all the wicked shall be as stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall 1
… and there shall be left neither root nor branch.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 23
… “There is wrath revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” ( Rom. i. 18 ); “God will come manifestly: a fire will burn before Him, and round about Him will be a mighty tempest.” ( Ps. l. 3 .) “A fire will burn before Him, and consume His enemies on every side.” ( Ps. xcvii. 3 .) “The day of the Lord is as a burning oven.” (
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Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 31
… This indeed is the aim of other prophets likewise. “Ye shall go forth,” (says Malachi), “from your sepulchres, as young calves let loose from their bonds, and ye shall tread down your enemies.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 Treatise on Christ and Antichrist 61
… For by the mouth of Malachi also He speaks thus: “And unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Lord's Prayer 35
… This is the Lord’s doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us walk and rejoice in it.” Also the prophet Malachi testifies that He is called the Sun, when he says, “But to you that fear the name of the Lord shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and there is healing in His wings.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 1
Come , my beloved, the season calls us to keep the feast. Again, ‘the Sun of Righteousness
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 5
… But let us, my brethren, be superior to the heathen, in keeping the feast with sincerity of soul, and purity of body; to the Jews, in no longer receiving the type and the shadow, but as having been gloriously illumined with the light of truth, and as looking upon the Sun of Righteousness
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.34
34. The Sun was darkened, because of the Sun of Righteousness
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 45
… and chiefly because there is in Him nothing feminine, nothing unmanly; but He burst from the bonds of the Virgin-Mother’s womb with much power, and a Male was brought forth by the Prophetess, as Isaiah declares the good tidings. And of a year old, because He is the Sun of Righteousness
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 19
… thy King cometh to thee meek, riding upon an ass, and a young colt;” another proclaims His second coming also, saying on this wise, “The Lord, whom ye seek, will come, and who will abide the day of His coming? Leap ye as calves set free from bonds.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 15.1
… you alone keep your heritage intact. The fruitful soil of Rome, when it receives the pure seed of the Lord, bears fruit an hundredfold; but here the seed corn is choked in the furrows and nothing grows but darnel or oats. In the West the Sun of righteousness
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.21
… of cords being those of the sins by which we were beforetime bound, the thorns those which choked the seed the goodman of the house had sown. She is the east gate, spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, always shut and always shining, and either concealing or revealing the Holy of Holies; and through her “the Sun of Righteousness,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 108.12
… She saw also that fountain of the Law most bitter and barren which the true Elisha healed by his wisdom changing it into a well sweet and fertilising. Scarcely had the night passed away when burning with eagerness she hastened to the Jordan, stood by the brink of the river, and as the sun rose recalled to mind the rising of the sun of righteousness;
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 2.10
… If the present is a picture of the future, then the Sun of Righteousness will rise upon sinners as well as upon the righteous, upon the wicked and the holy, upon the heathen as well as upon Jews and Christians, though the Scripture says,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Against the Epistle of Manichæus, Called Fundamental 2
… Let those rage against you who know not the difficulty of curing the eye of the inner man that he may gaze upon his Sun,—not that sun which you worship, and which shines with the brilliance of a heavenly body in the eyes of carnal men and of beasts,—but that of which it is written through the prophet, "The Sun of righteousness has arisen upon me;"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.23
… unjust.” Whether you are to understand His sun as being not that which is visible to the fleshly eyes, but that wisdom of which it is said, “She is the brightness of the everlasting light;” of which it is also said, “The Sun of righteousness has arisen upon me;” and again, “But unto you that fear the name of the Lord shall the Sun of righteousness arise:”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 8.7
… “The sun ought not to go down upon your wrath,” yet many suns have passed. Let then your wrath at length pass away also, now that we are celebrating the days of the great Sun, of that Sun of which Scripture saith, “Unto you shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 11.3
… works, but sometimes it lies hid in the conscience, and is known to God alone, since in the body alone is it seen by men.…But according to the other opinion also the moon is understood to be the Church, because she has no light of her own, but is lighted by the only-begotten Son of God, who in many places of holy Scripture is allegorically called the Sun.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 148.10
… when will He “exalt the horn of His people”? When the Lord hath come, and our Sun is risen, not the sun which is seen with the eye, and “riseth upon the good and the evil,” but That whereof is said, To you that hear God, “the Sun of Righteousness shall rise, and healing in His wings;”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 8.10
And of this sun God clearly makes mention by the prophet, when He says, “But to those that fear my name the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 2
… Yet has He given a share of His own name to His servants and as He is Light, calls His saints light, for “Ye,” He says, “are the Light of the world,” and being named servants and being named “Sun of Righteousness”
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 3.29
The soul when it was deified descended into Hades, in order that, just as the Sun of Righteousness
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.12
Since, therefore, God is spiritual light , and Christ is called in the Scriptures Sun of Righteousness
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.28
In the succeeding words, “Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel,”
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St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 49
Then I inquired of him, “Does not Scripture, in the book of Zechariah,
Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 35
… is come already, and they knew him not;” and again, in another passage, “And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.” Well, then, was it really in a Pythagorean sense that the Jews approached John with the inquiry, “Art thou Elias?” and not rather in the sense of the divine pre diction, “Behold, I will send you Elijah” the Tisbite?
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 22
… Up to the present moment they have not, tribe by tribe, smitten their breasts, looking on Him whom they pierced. No one has as yet fallen in with Elias;
St Hippolytus † AD 235 Treatise on Christ and Antichrist 46
… It is a matter of course that His forerunners must appear first, as He says by Malachi and the angel, “I will send to you Elias the Tishbite before the day of the Lord, the great and notable day, comes; and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, lest I come and smite the earth utterly.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 6.7
… and he said, I am not.” No one can fail to remember in this connection what Jesus says of John, “If ye will receive it, this is Elijah which is to come.” How, then, does John come to say to those who ask him, “Art thou Elijah?”—“I am not.” And how can it be true at the same time that John is Elijah who is to come, according to the words of Malachi,
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 6.12
… This, however, is a venturesome statement and implies some disrespect of what is called the Old Testament, and total disregard of the fact that Elijah himself was the subject of prophecy. For Elijah is prophesied by Malachi, who says,
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 13.2
… Wherefore, also, Elisha could not have been called Elijah, but John was Elijah himself. But if it be necessary to adduce the Scripture from which the scribes said that Elijah must first come, listen to Malachi who says, “And behold I will send to you Elijah the Tishbite,” etc., down to the words, “Lest I come and smite the earth utterly.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 1.3
12. But some one will say: “But Elijah is seen to have had nothing to do with the embraces of bodily love.” And therefore was he carried by a chariot into heaven, therefore he appeared glorified with the Lord, and therefore he is to come as the forerunner of the Lord’s advent.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 37
Then He states also another infallible sign, saying, “If ye will receive it, he is Elias, which was for to come.” For “I will send you,” it is said, “Elias the Tishbite, who shall turn the heart of the father to the children.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 55
In this sense Elias is come: but if thou wouldest seek the Tishbite, he is coming. Wherefore also He said, “Elias truly cometh, and shall restore all things.” All what things? Such as the Prophet Malachi spake of; for “I will send you,” saith He, “Elias the Tishbite, who shall restore the heart of father to son, lest I come and utterly smite the earth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.29
… and he shall turn the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a man to his next of kin, lest I come and utterly smite the earth.”
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St Methodius † AD 311 Oration on the Palms 1
… He will say it is not my part to-day to teach you, for He hath consecrated the school to infants, who hath out of the mouth of babes and sucklings perfected praise to destroy the enemy and the avenger, in order that by the miracle of these the hearts of the fathers might be turned to the children, and the disobedient unto the wisdom of the just.
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 13.35
35. In the year that is thirteenth, let the dead praise Him with us, because they are quickened, and the living, because they have turned to repentance,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 5
… First sons; just as David said, “Instead of thy fathers, were begotten thy sons.” ( Ps. xlv. 17 .) And again Malachi; “They shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. And on my handmaidens, and on my servants.” (
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.26
But Enoch and Elias the Thesbite shall be sent and shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children
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1. Behold, for the day. — The word "for" gives the reason for the preceding statements, as if to say: On the day of judgment you will see what difference there is between the pious and the impious, and that the pious have not served God in vain and to no purpose. Behold, for the day will come which will burn up the impious as fire burns stubble; but upon the pious the sun of justice will rise. This day is the day of the final judgment: for Elias will be the precursor of this day. Thus St. Jerome, Cyrillus, Theodoretus, Remigius, Lyran and others, with the exception of one Arius, who understands by the day the day on which Christ and Christianity shone forth upon the world: for that day was to the impious as a furnace, manifesting, rebuking and burning their impiety; but to the pious it was as the sun of justice and health, both of mind and body. But this is a perverse and mystical interpretation. Burned — by fire, both spiritual and mystical, namely by the burning wrath and vengeance of Christ the judge, by which He will separate the impious from the pious and condemn and hurl them into hell, according to that passage in Daniel vii, 9: "His throne was like flames of fire, and his wheels burning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him: the judgment sat, and the books were opened:" thus St. Jerome, Remigius and Clarius; and also by fire proper, namely by the conflagration of the world, which will precede the judgment, and by the fire of hell, which immediately after the judgment will sweep the condemned into Gehenna and snatch them away most swiftly as stubble. For the fire of conflagration will separate the impious from the pious; both because it will burn them more severely and inflict upon them a heavier death and destruction according to their deserts than upon the pious; and because it will separate them in place and state on the day of judgment, so that they stand on the left of the judge, like goats to be slaughtered, and there the judge will stand over them as an executioner, so that immediately after the judge's sentence he will hurl them into hell as a whirlwind: thus Lyran and Vatablus. To this the Apostle alluded, I Corinthians iii, 13, when describing the day of judgment he says: "Every man's work shall be manifest. For the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire: and the fire shall try every man's work, what sort it is." See the remarks there. Burned — by fire, both spiritual and mystical, namely by the burning wrath and vengeance of Christ the judge, by which He will separate the pious from the impious and condemn and hurl them into hell, according to that passage in Daniel vii, 9: "His throne was like flames of fire, and his wheels burning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him: the judgment sat, and the books were opened:" thus St. Jerome, Remigius and Clarius; and also by fire proper, namely by the conflagration of the world, which will precede the judgment, and by the fire of hell, which immediately after the judgment will sweep the condemned into Gehenna and snatch them away most swiftly as stubble. For the fire of conflagration will separate the impious from the pious; both because it will burn them more severely and inflict upon them a heavier death and destruction according to their deserts than upon the pious; and because it will separate them in place and state on the day of judgment, so that they stand on the left of the judge, like goats to be slaughtered, and there the judge will stand over them as an executioner, so that immediately after the judge's sentence he will hurl them into hell as a whirlwind: thus Lyran and Vatablus. To this the Apostle alluded, I Corinthians iii, 13, when describing the day of judgment he says: "Every man's work shall be manifest. For the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire: and the fire shall try every man's work, what sort it is." See the remarks there. Morally, note that the impious kindle this fire for themselves by their sins, as Isaiah teaches in cap. l, 11: "Behold," he says, "you all kindle a fire, girded about with flames: walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled." See the remarks there. Thus the Babylonians kindling the furnace did not kindle it for the three youths, who remained unharmed in it by the power of God, but for themselves. For: "The flame broke forth, and burned those of the Chaldeans whom it found near the furnace," Daniel iii, 48. Like a furnace. — The Septuagint: As an oven; others, as a furnace. Consider the horror of the furnace and the Babylonian fire, in which "flame was poured forth over the furnace forty-nine cubits," Daniel III, 47. Consider the furnace by which Sodom and the five cities were burned with heavenly fire, Genesis XIX. Consider the fires of citadels and cities, if ever you have beheld any with your eyes; and know that these were only a shadow and a spark of this furnace, by the heavenly fire of which the whole world will be consumed, and all things that are in it, namely houses, temples, citadels, villages, cities, trees, animals, men, and all other things, so that the whole earth will appear to be a furnace and a burning oven. Again, this furnace and the fire of the world's conflagration will be only a shadow and a spark of the fire of Gehenna, where the smoke of torments ascends for ever and ever, Apocalypse XIX, 3. Propose this fire to yourself, when lust, pride, anger, a demon, or the world incites you to crime. AND ALL THE PROUD, AND ALL THAT DO WICKEDLY, SHALL BE STUBBLE, — that is, as stubble, in the manner of stubble, as if to say: The proud and the mighty, who in this life were strong, of iron and bronze, so that no one dared resist them; they themselves dared to fight against God; these on the day of judgment will be weak, unwarlike and infirm as stubble, which cannot resist fire: because by the efficacious and mighty vengeance of God, seized like stubble, they will be burned most swiftly; yet they will not be consumed, but God preserving them for eternal torments, they will always remain alive, so that they may always burn. Behold then it will appear that those were not vain who served God, but vain and foolish were those who served Venus, ambition and mammon; because for a little honor, price and pleasure they procured for themselves eternal fires: but the pious through a little contempt, poverty and sorrow procured for themselves eternal glory. WHICH SHALL NOT LEAVE THEM ROOT AND BRANCH. — And, that is, nor. It is a proverb signifying complete eradication and destruction, as if to say: That day of judgment by its fire will so blast, cut down and destroy the wicked, and their riches, delights, happiness and glory, as stubble, that not only all these things, but also all hope of good will be taken from them forever, and they will be cast into eternal death and fire: just as a tree, or rather stubble, cut down, or torn up by the root, and burned cannot sprout again into a branch and be reborn. Thus St. Cyril and Albert. Secondly, Lyra understands by root the hope of returning to the state of grace and merits, as if to say: The wicked will have no hope remaining on the day of judgment of correcting their errors and falls, no hope of penance and pardon, no hope of returning to God's grace, no time will be given for making satisfaction, or for meriting eternal life. The former sense is the literal one, the latter is the moral one.
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2. AND THERE SHALL ARISE UNTO YOU THAT FEAR MY NAME THE SUN OF JUSTICE. — Of justice, both properly so called, and natural and symbolic, that is, of salvation, glory and happiness. For justice congruous to nature, and as it were due to it, is its integrity, salvation and beauty. Hence justice equally with salvation is sometimes taken in Scripture for purity, brightness and splendor, as in Psalm cxxxi, 9 and 16: "Let thy priests be clothed with justice." And: "His priests I will clothe with salvation." Where the Chaldean translator renders for justice, purity, as also here for sun of justice, he renders, sun of purity. And Isaiah LXI, 10: "He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the robe of justice he hath covered me," that is, he hath clothed me on all sides with a most pure garment through Christ the saviour. For the garment of salvation and the robe of justice are the same thing: the latter verse explains the former. Thus Prado on Ezekiel, cap. xvi, 4, near the end. Justice therefore here is salvation, beauty and glory. Whence explaining it he adds: "And health in his wings." For justice due to the sun is its splendor and power of healing. Now Theodoret, Arias and Clarius understand these things of the first birth and coming of Christ into the world, whom he himself as a rising sun illuminated, warmed, and made fruitful and vivified with all grace and virtue. Hence he is called of justice, because from himself he diffused rays of justice, by which he justified, and daily justifies, sinners who wish to look upon him, that is to believe in him and obey him; just as the sun imparts light, joy and life to all who turn their eyes toward it. Secondly, the rising sun is like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber: thus Christ is the bridegroom of the Church. Thirdly, the sun is like a giant in the stadium, hastening from the starting gates to the finish line in unobstructed course: thus Christ the almighty prince powerfully accomplishes the glorious course of his grace, so that he cannot be hindered by anyone. Fourthly, the sun does not wait for prayers, but immediately shines forth, and brings light and life to all who see it: thus Christ loved us first, and when we were enemies he came before us, and of his own accord enriched and enriches us with the greatest benefits. He himself therefore is our Apollo, the guardian of health; he himself the king of all ages, adorning all things with new light, new life, new beauty. Fifthly, the sun is veiled by clouds, suffers eclipse, appears ruddy and red: thus Christ veiled in assumed flesh, suffered failure on the cross, illuminated through resurrection, is ruddy and terrible as judge and avenger of sinners. But that here is treated of the second coming of Christ is evident from what precedes and follows, which all pertain to the day of judgment, in which God will render to each according to his merits punishment or reward. Then therefore to the pious God and Christ shall arise as the sun of justice, but to the impious shall be killed. First and genuinely, because, just as the sun illuminates dark things and exhibits visible and conspicuous things to the eyes of all: so Christ will illustrate and clarify the virtue and justice of the pious, which in this life was obscured and oppressed by the impious, and will exhibit it to the whole world as conspicuous and glorious. Thus St. Jerome. Whence it is said of justice; the Chaldean [version says] of purity, that is, most just, most pure and most holy: because He will make the just and justice, here oppressed, to shine and glitter there. Second, because by His brightness, majesty and glory He will radiate like the sun. Hence when He died on the cross the sun was darkened, to indicate the setting of the true sun. Third, because He will affect the saints with wonderful joy, after the long hardships of persecutions and tribulations of this life, just as the sun rising after the long darkness of night gladdens men. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Rupert, Lyra and Vatablus. Fourth, because just as the sun dispels all darkness of errors, sins, concupiscences, temptations, and brings perpetual day of truth, grace and justice. Fifth, because the light of the sun is not common, such as that of a candle, lamp, fire, stars, but exceptional and glorious: so Christ on the day of judgment will illuminate the saints with the light of glory in their souls, blessing them with the vision of God, which will bring them eternal beatitude and glory, and will endow their bodies with the gift of brightness. For, as Christ says, Matthew XIII, 43: "The just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Sixth, because just as the sun "quickens the eyes of eagles, but wounds and darkens our sight," says St. Augustine, book II On the Morals of the Manichaeans, chapter viii: so Christ will sharpen and quicken the minds of the just eternally, but will blind the souls and eyes of the impious with His light. Seventh, because the sun by its unity is a hieroglyph of God, but by its trinity is a symbol of the Holy Trinity: "for in the sun there are three things, and they cannot be separated, motion, brightness, heat. For we see the sun in heaven running, shining, heating. Divide therefore if you can, Arius, the sun, and then at last divide the Trinity," says St. Augustine, sermon 1 On the Words of the Apostle. The same, sermon 181 On the Seasons: "The sun, he says, brightness and heat, and there are three names, and three are one. What shines does heat, and what heats does shine: these three names are known as one thing: so the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons in the Godhead one, and an indivisible unity is rightly believed." God therefore is the sun, "because He alone is to be worshipped, by enjoying Him alone, His worshipper becomes blessed; and by not enjoying Him alone, every mind is miserable, however much it enjoys any other thing," says St. Augustine, book II Against Faustus, chapter v; for the sun is called from the fact that it is sole, that is, one, alone in the world, and that when it has risen alone, all other stars being darkened, it appears, says Cicero, book II On the Nature of the Gods. Wherefore the Manichaeans worshipped the sun as a god, indeed they thought it to be Christ Himself, as St. Augustine adds in the same place, chapter vi: "With these, he says, most obscene rags of yours you attempt to sew together the ineffable Trinity, saying that the Father dwells in some secret light, but the power of the Son in the sun, wisdom in the moon; and the Holy Spirit in the air." And a little before, refuting their fictions about the sun: "First, he says, you say it is a certain ship: thus you err not only, as is said, with the whole heaven, but also with nature. Then when it shines round to all eyes, and that figure is perfect for its position in its order, you claim it is triangular, that is, through some triangular window of heaven this light radiates to the world and to the earth (just as the rays of the sun when they pass through a triangular opening, soon gather themselves together again, become round, and appear round, to represent the sun round from which they proceed, as the Perspectivists teach, and the experience itself makes clear): thus it comes about that you bend your back and neck to this sun indeed; but not to it itself so clearly conspicuous in its roundness, but to some ship shining and gleaming through a triangular opening, which you think is fabricated, you worship." On the other hand Anaxagoras held that the sun is a burning stone, says the same St. Augustine, book XVIII On the City of God, XII. For when once a stone had fallen from heaven into the Aegos, a river of Thrace, Anaxagoras (who is also said to have predicted this would happen) affirmed that the whole heaven is made of stones, and the sun itself is burning rock. For this reason Euripides his disciple in the tragedy Phaethon called the sun a golden clod. For this cause Anaxagoras was accused by Cleon of impiety, and defended by Pericles his disciple, and was fined five talents and exile. Thus Diogenes Laertius in his Life. To the error of the Manichaeans is added Homer, and from him Pliny in book II, chapter vi. Wherefore those praises which Pliny gives to the sun alone, which are indeed too exalted and divine, you most truly assign to Christ alone, the sun of justice: "The sun, he says, is borne in the middle of the planets with the greatest magnitude and power: and is not only the ruler of times and lands, but also of the stars themselves and of heaven. It is fitting to believe that this is the mind of the whole world, and more plainly the intellect, this the principal governance of nature and divinity, when we estimate his works. He ministers light to things, and takes away darkness: he hides the other stars, he tempers the sadness of heaven, and the seasons of time, and the year ever being reborn from the use of nature. He dispels the sadness of heaven, and even clears the clouds from the human mind. He lends his light also to the other stars, illustrious, excellent, seeing all things, and also hearing all things, as it pleased Homer, the prince of writers, in him alone I see." Again Plato in the Cratylus gives a threefold etymology of ἡλίου, that is, of the sun: "The Dorians, he says, call the sun ἅλιον; but it might be that it is because it gathers men into one and the same place, where it first rises. It might also be said to be derived from παρὰ τοῦ ἀεὶ εἱλεῖν, that is, because it always revolves, namely around the earth in a perpetual course." Thirdly, it is called ἥλιος, "because things which are made from the earth emit rays variously, by which others are both illuminated and also set on fire to true glory and true virtue. Fifth, just as the sun is benevolent and beneficent: so also is a friend. Christ is therefore called by antonomasia the sun of justice, that is, the just and true sun, benign, liberal, imparting his goods to all: "and health in his wings," that is, in his rays; because "a faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality," Eccles. vi, 16. "Health" therefore "in his wings," because he himself comforts the sorrowful, refreshes the afflicted, strengthens the wavering, raises up the fallen, softens the angry, and in short provides all the offices of friendship and charity to all. This is truly the sun of justice: because there is no one of all men who has either benefited men more, or shone upon them more, than Christ. Hence it is promised to those who fear and love God: for love is the magnet of love: the reward of the friends of God is Christ, most friendly. Symbolically, St. Augustine, epistle 119 to Januarius, chapter v: "In Proverbs (Eccles. xxvii, 12) it is read: The wise man remains like the sun, but the fool is changed like the moon. And who is the wise man who remains, except the sun of justice, of whom it is said: The sun of justice has risen upon me, and whom the impious, weeping that he was not risen upon them on the last day, shall say: And the light of justice did not shine upon us, and the sun of justice was not risen upon us? For God makes this sun visible to the eyes of flesh to rise upon the good and the bad; who also rained upon the just and the unjust. Who then is that fool, who is changed like the moon, except Adam, in whom all have sinned? For the human soul, receding from the sun of justice, that is from that internal contemplation of unchangeable truth, converts all its powers to earthly things, and is thereby more and more darkened in its interior and superior faculties." And further below: "When Christ shall appear, your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory. The Church appears obscure in the time of her pilgrimage, groaning amid many iniquities, etc. Justice and abundance of peace shall arise, he says, in his days, until the moon is destroyed: that is, the abundance of peace shall grow to such an extent, until it consumes all the mutability of mortality. Then the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed, and whatever resists us from the infirmity of the flesh, whence perfect peace is not yet ours, shall be wholly consumed, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality." Tropologically, the sun of justice dies to the angry and sinning, and rises to the meek and just. Whence St. Augustine, homily 43 among 50: "The sun ought not, he says, to set upon your anger, and many suns have set: let your anger pass away at some time, we celebrate the day of the great sun; that sun, of which Scripture says: The sun of justice shall rise upon you, and health in his wings. What is in his wings? In his protection. Whence in Psalm xvi it is said: Under the shadow of thy wings protect me." And soon after: "If therefore you are angry, let not this sun set in your heart upon your anger, lest perhaps the sun of justice also set for you, and you remain in darkness. But do not think that anger is nothing: My eye is troubled with wrath. Surely he whose eye is troubled cannot see the sun, and if he should try to see it, it is a punishment to him, not a pleasure." Let pastors note here (which I have seen and heard some do) that they should admonish the people gathering in the Church on the Lord's day, that is on Sunday, to put away anger and all sin, because that is the Lord's day, on which the sun of justice has risen for them. Again St. Bernard, epistle 107: "To you who fear God, the sun of justice shall arise. Therefore, while the children of distrust remain in darkness, the son of light comes forth into this new light from the power of darkness, if indeed he can now confidently say to God: I am a partaker of all those who fear thee." AND HEALTH IN HIS WINGS. — In Hebrew בכנפיו bienaphecha, that is in his wings. Poetically he calls the rays wings, first, because they clothe, adorn and surround the sun, just as feathers or hair surround a bird. Whence Homer calls the sun golden-haired. And Virgil at the beginning of book VI of the Aeneid, speaking of Daedalus: Daring to trust himself to the sky on swift wings, etc. Restored here first to you, Phoebus, he consecrated the oarage of wings. For the sun is called Phoebus, as it were φώθος, from φῶς and βίω, that is the light of life. Second, because the sun moves most swiftly and as it were flies like a bird, according to that passage about the sun, Psalm xviii: "He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way: his going out is from the highest heaven, and his circuit even to the highest heaven." For the sun is so swift that in one natural day, that is in 24 hours, it completes a million miles, and moreover 140 thousand of the same: which is as much as if it ran around the entire circumference of the earth fifty times, as I have taught from astronomers, Genesis i, 16. Moreover the rising sun spreads its rays like most swift wings in a moment throughout the entire hemisphere. Third, because the sun, especially when rising, expands both its rays in such a form that it appears to be a bird with wings spread, according to that passage Psalm cxxxviii, 9: "If I shall take my wings in the morning;"; in Hebrew, If I shall take the wings of the dawn. Which words St. Augustine understands of Christ: "Who when he took his wings in the resurrection, is no longer weighed down by his body." Hence the Egyptians painted the sun as a bird, spreading long wings all around, and they called it the phoenix. For the phoenix is not a true bird, but a symbolic one, namely the sun, as I have shown in Genesis vii, 2. Hence they said there was only one phoenix, because there is only one sun in the world; and they said it dwelt in Heliopolis, that is in the city of the sun, and that it dies and is reborn, because the sun setting in the evening rises again in the morning and as it were rises again, according to that passage of Ovid's Metamorphoses XV: There is one which repairs itself, and reseeds itself. Hence Samson was a type and precursor of Christ, Judges xiii, 24: for just as God caused Samson to be born to the Jews oppressed by the Philistines, who would free his people from the tyranny of their enemies, and from this he was called שמשון Samson, that is the sun of joy from שמש scemesc, that is sun, and ששון sason, that is he rejoiced; or rather Samson, that is the little sun, so that it is a diminutive from scemesc, as if to Israel placed in darkness, sorrow and servitude, there rose a little sun, that is a small new sun, namely Samson the judge and avenger, who would dispel these darknesses and refresh and recreate the Jews with new light, freedom and joy. Thus likewise Christ the true Samson was given by God to the world oppressed by sins and afflictions as a rising sun from on high, who will put to flight and abolish sins in his first coming, but all afflictions and death in his second; and then they will no longer say: "Where is the God of judgment?" For they will see the sun of justice, namely Christ, who will justly punish the wicked according to their merits, and reward the just. Who then is that fool who is changed like the moon, if not Adam, in whom all have sinned? Finally, our Martin of Roa, in book I of Singularities, chapter xiv, holds that Christ is called the sun of justice, that is, a true and just friend, who pours forth the rays of his beneficence upon his faithful ones, as upon friends: for the sun is among sacred and profane writers a symbol of friendship, on account of five analogies. The first is: the sun is unique, and there ought to be one unique friend; there are many stars, many acquaintances, according to that passage in Ecclesiasticus vi, 6: "Let thy friends be many, but one counsellor out of a thousand." The second is: the sun to Euripides is a golden clod, to Homer a golden rope let down from heaven to earth, because it itself generates gold in the deepest bowels of the earth: thus a friend is the best gold, an immense treasure, Ecclesiasticus vi, 14: "A faithful friend is a strong defence; and he that hath found him, hath found a treasure. To a faithful friend there is no price, nor is there weight for the goodness of his friendship. A faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality; and they that fear the Lord shall find him." The third is: the sun always has eternal youth: thus friendship ought to be perpetual and constant, and ought not to be weakened by the variety of times, nor consumed by age. The fourth is: just as the sun illuminates all things with its light, and opens the difficulties of the ways, and shows which way one ought to go: thus also it is the part of friends to admonish friends, and to point out the dangers of life, and offences of morals, and what things ought to be avoided, what embraced. Thus it is said in Judges v, 31: "But they that love thee, shine as the sun riseth in his might," that is, let them emit rays, by which others may both be illuminated, and also be set on fire toward true glory and true virtue. The fifth is: just as the sun is benevolent and beneficent: so also is a friend. There exists among Lactantius an elegant poem on the phoenix by an author of uncertain name, in which its whole history, or rather fable, is narrated, where among other things he calls the phoenix a solar bird. Among other things therefore thus he sings of it: It obeys and serves Phoebus, a memorable attendant, etc. When golden dawn first rises and blushes red, Three or four times it dips its pious body in the waves, And turned toward the new risings of nascent Phoebus, It awaits the rays and the rising splendor. It begins to pour forth the melodies of sacred song, And with wondrous voice to summon forth new light. Just as almost all birds begin to sleep when the sun sets, and to awake when it rises; whence in the morning they sing, and with their song greet the rising sun. The Poet continues concerning the tail and wings of the phoenix: And the tail is stretched out, marked with tawny metal, In whose spots purple mixed with red gleams. A bright emblem stands out among the feathers from above, As if painting a cloud from on high. A radiant crown equals the whole head. Bearing the lofty beauty of Phoebus' crown. The image of a peacock is seen mixed among the form, And mixed among the bird of Phasis. It is light and swift, full of regal splendor: And a rare bird the crowd greets with cheers. Attended by a choir of winged creatures it flies through the heights, And the throng follows it with joyful pious service, etc. It is itself its own offspring, its own father, and its own heir: Its own nurse, always its own foster-child: Itself indeed, but not the same, because it itself is not itself: Having obtained eternal life through the good of death. Indeed the phoenix is the sun, whose tail, wings and hair are rays spread forth in length, breadth and height, which partly are white, partly red, and in their place in the dewy cloud they make a rainbow; and it is beautiful and fair, equally magnificent and swift in its motion, just as a peacock trailing behind itself an elegant train of tail, namely of rays spread far and wide; whence at its rising the birds, animals and men greet it. It is itself its own father, and son, which after its setting rises again from itself as it were and is reborn, and thus by its continual setting it produces for itself a continual rising, and as it were eternal life, of which it is equally the hieroglyph of resurrection. Wherefore to this symbol of the phoenix Malachi seems to allude here, indeed to represent that very thing in his own words, when he says: "And to you that fear my name, the sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings." In the same way as some hold that Job did, in chapter xxix, 18: "I shall die in my nest, and as a palm tree I shall multiply my days." Where Tertullian reads: And as a phoenix I shall multiply my days: for the Greek φοίνιξ among the Septuagint signifies both phoenix and palm, on account of similar longevity. For Pliny, in book VII, chapter xl, asserts that the phoenix lives 660 years. Thus also the Hebrew חול chol, which our author in Job xxiv, 18 translates as palm, the ancient Hebrews and moderns, R. Solomon, the Zurich Bible, Cajetan translate as phoenix. Whence Philip the presbyter in Job xxix: It can be, he says, that Job in the likeness of that bird (the phoenix) says that through death in the ashes of the flesh, as in a nest for a time, he will die, and thence will rise again in glory and multitude of days. Bede asserts the same. Wherefore the phoenix is a symbol of Christ (and consequently of Christians) dying and gloriously rising again from himself and by his own power, as Aldrovandus shows in his work on the Phoenix. Moreover, health is in the wings alone, because the sun by its rays revives, strengthens, vivifies, and gladdens plants, animals and men languishing, torpid and as it were dying from nocturnal cold, and thus as it were heals all creatures' languors and wounds by its light, rays and heat. Now the sense is first, as if to say: Christ will come, who like the phoenix and the sun of justice rising in the world, wherever he shall extend his wings and feathers, that is, the rays of his preaching (whence the Syrian and Arabic versions translate: Health upon his tongue) of grace and power, there he will heal all infirmities of body and soul. For, as St. Mark says in chapter vi, 56: "As many as touched him were made whole;" just as the woman with an issue of blood was healed by touching the hem of his garment, which was as it were a wing and feather (as Hesychius testifies in his homily on St. Mary) of Christ's clothing, from the flow of blood, Luke viii, 44. Again, just as the sun by its light puts to flight serpents, wolves, tigers, and all savage and harmful beasts: so Christ the sun of justice by his coming into the world put to flight demons, broke in pieces idols, blotted out sins, and restored the weak world, nay the dead world, to health and life. Thus Theodoret. He does the same daily, when he rises in the souls of the faithful, whether of sinners or of the just. For from them he drives out and heals either demons and grave sins, or light ones, concupiscences, temptations, evil thoughts, and all infirmities, so that man, restored to himself, sound and vigorous, begins to work works not only holy but even heroic, by which he may ascend to the peak and summit of Christian perfection. But because here we are dealing not with the first, but with the second coming of Christ, by which he himself as judge, like the sun of justice, will restore to the pious afflicted and oppressed in this life their strength, dignity and glory, nay will increase it immensely; hence Secondly and properly, you should understand these things with the same Theodoret, Rupert, Lyran and others of the health which the blessed will obtain from Christ on the day of judgment, as if to say: O pious men, you groan in this life because you are unjustly oppressed by the impious, imprisoned, deprived of liberty, as you, O Jews, in Babylon, as if in a dark prison were shut up by the Chaldeans; but lift up your hearts, endure bravely. Behold, soon there will rise for you the sun of justice, namely Christ the judge, who will celebrate before the whole world their injustice and your justice, and will reward you. Again, in this age you are afflicted with a thousand infirmities and hardships, such as spoliation of goods, poverty, squalor, sorrow, hunger, thirst, diseases, stripes, wounds, death and martyrdom. Endure: behold, soon the sun of justice will spread forth his wings, that is, the rays of his health, upon you, by which he will dispel all your wounds, all your plagues, all your sorrows and infirmities, as the sun dispels darkness, and will heal them fully and perfectly. For he will draw forth your afflicted and corrupted bodies from their sepulchers and ashes, will raise them up, make them blessed and glorify them, so that you will leap like calves from the herd. Wherefore this health comprises much: for Christ in the resurrection will completely heal all infirmities not only of the body but also of the soul. Health therefore to bodies will be, first, his very resurrection; secondly, immortality; thirdly, impassibility, so that it can no longer be harmed or suffer from fire, or sword, or enemy, or demon, or any created thing; fourthly, agility; fifthly, subtlety; sixthly, clarity; seventhly, felicity; eighthly, glory, namely all beauty, all honor, all sweetness, all delights, all riches, all that delights. Now the health of the soul will be, first, inexpressible joy, which will wipe away all sorrow from the mind and every tear from the eyes, according to that passage in Isaiah xxxv, 10: "Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." Second, the integrity of all the powers of the soul: for, as St. Prosper says, in book I of On the Contemplative Life, chapter IV: "There will be intellect without error, memory without forgetfulness, thought without wandering, charity without pretense, sensation without offense, satiety without disgust, and complete health without disease." For the soul, wounded by the sin of Adam, has been injured in the intellect through obscurity and ignorance; in the will, through inclination toward fleeting goods; in the irascible faculty, through various fears and terrors; in the concupiscible faculty, through weakness and manifold concupiscence, etc. Christ in heaven will heal all these things, giving to the intellect light and knowledge, to the will constancy in good, to the irascible faculty heroic fortitude, to the concupiscible faculty honesty and rectitude, so that it desires nothing but what is honest and right. Third, the health of the soul will be the light of glory, the vision and enjoyment of God, and the glorious gifts that will follow from it and will flow into all the powers and faculties of the soul, and from these into the body. Whence St. Augustine, in epistle 56 to Dioscorus, says: "God made the soul of such powerful nature, that from its most complete blessedness, which is promised to the Saints at the end of time, there will overflow even into the lower nature, which is the body, not blessedness, which is proper to one who enjoys and understands, but the fullness of holiness, that is, the vigor of incorruptibility." Morally, let the martyrs apply these things to themselves and ponder them. Behold, we suffer for Christ, we are torn by claws, we are mangled by the teeth of beasts, we are ripped apart by scorpions, we are stretched on the rack, we are cut down by swords, we are burned by fires: behold, the sun of justice, Christ the judge, will come, and will come soon, who will restore our lacerated, mangled, torn, severed, scorched limbs, will heal them, and will adorn them with eternal glory. You pondered these things, O St. Lawrence, when you were being roasted on the gridiron, and yet you mocked the tyrant. You ruminated on these things, O St. Vincent, when you not only generously overcame all the torments of the body, but also the tyrant Dacian. You meditated on these things, O St. Christina, when, torn by scourges by your father the idolater, as if by an executioner, casting the flowing particles of flesh into your father's face, you said: Receive, O tyrant, the flesh that you begot. Let the penitent also say: We afflict ourselves with fastings, vigils, hairshirts, blows; for you, O Christ, we are mortified all day long, because we hope for the resurrection of the flesh, in which you will restore it to us, emaciated, livid, shriveled, dead, as succulent, rosy, blooming and radiant; when indeed you will reform the body of our humility, conformed to the body of your glory. Let those who mourn, struggle and wrestle also say: Behold, we mourn in the present life, we weep sorrowfully, we sigh, we groan: now the flesh, now the world, now the demon tempts us: now scruples torment us, now suspicions and fears depress us, now anger irritates us, now slanders, reproaches, mockeries afflict us, now labors weary us, now pains almost kill us, etc. Shine forth, O sun of justice! spread your wings and rays of health upon us, show us your face, and we shall be saved. Come, O Lord, let the day of health dawn, and let the shadows of infirmity decline. Come, let the day of eternity dawn, and let the shadows of mortality decline, so that with sorrows, fears, scruples, temptations and pains driven away, there may breathe into our mind peace, serenity, strength, integrity, joy and everlasting jubilation. Whenever therefore infirmity of soul, whenever bodily pain presses upon you, think: The sun of justice will soon arise, and health in his wings. Look upon him, invoke him, fix your hope and mind upon him: thus you will be a phoenix. Hear St. Augustine yearning for this in his Meditations, chapter xix: "O luminous and beautiful house of God, I have loved the beauty of thy house, and the place of the habitation of the glory of the Lord my God: let my pilgrimage sigh for thee night and day, let my heart long for thee, let my mind be intent upon thee, let my soul desire to arrive at the fellowship of thy blessedness: I say to him who made thee, that he may possess me in thee, because he himself made me and thee." And shortly after: "O Jerusalem, eternal house of God, after the love of Christ be thou my joy and consolation: let the sweet memory of thy blessed name be a revelation of my sorrow and weariness. For I am very weary, O Lord, of this life, and of this toilsome pilgrimage. This life is a wretched life, a fleeting life, an uncertain life, a laborious life, an unclean life, the mistress of evils, the queen of the proud, full of miseries and errors, which cannot be called life, but death, in which we die at every moment through various defects of mutability, by diverse kinds of deaths. Can we then say that what we live in this world is life, which tumours swell, pains weaken, heats dry up, air makes sick, foods bloat, fastings torment, jests dissolve, sorrows consume, anxiety constrains, security dulls, riches puff up and boast, poverty casts down, youth exalts, old age bends, infirmity breaks, grief depresses? And to all these evils raging death succeeds, and at once puts an end to all the joys of this wretched life in such a way that when it ceases to be, it is thought never to have been. This vital death and mortal life, although it be sprinkled with these and other bitternesses, alas! how many does it capture with its allurements, and how many does it deceive with its false promises!" Then he thus depicts the health which Christ the judge will bring to his elect: "O thou life, which God has prepared for those who love him, vital life, blessed life, secure life, tranquil life, beautiful life, pure life, chaste life, holy life, life ignorant of death, knowing not sorrow, life without stain, without pain, without anxiety, without corruption, without disturbance, without variety and change, life most full of all elegance and dignity: where there is no adversary attacking, where there is no allurement of sin, where there is perfect love, and no fear: where there is eternal day, and one spirit of all, where God is seen face to face, and by this food of life the mind is satisfied without defect. It pleases me to attend to thy brightness, thy goods delight me: with eager heart, the more I am able to consider thee with myself, the more I languish with love: by thy vehement desire, and by thy sweet memory I am greatly delighted." EGREDIEMINI,—namely from this world and life, as from a prison, so that you may enter into another blessed and immortal life. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Albert and Vatablus. Or rather, "you shall go forth" on the day of judgment (for it is of that we are speaking here) from the sepulchres, when Christ the sun of justice with his wings, that is, with the rays of glory, shall raise you up and heal you, breathing upon you glorious life. Thus Theodoret. Whence also Tertullian in his book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter xxxi, reads: You shall go forth from the sepulchres, as calves loosed from their bonds. AND YOU SHALL LEAP AS CALVES OF THE HERD. — The Hebrew פוש pus signifies to grow, to fatten, to luxuriate, to wanton, to leap from pasture, joy and petulance, as fattened calves do. Whence the Chaldean, the Zurich, and others translate: You shall grow, or you shall fatten as fattened calves; Pagninus, as fattened calves, that is, fatted ones; the Septuagint: You shall leap as calves released and loosed from bonds, as Tertullian reads in his book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter xxxi; for calves above other animals leap, and are wanton (whence a calf is called from wantoning, that is, from being wanton). Hence they are constrained with bonds, and therefore when they are freed from them, as if liberated from prison, they leap forth wonderfully with joy (as also children sent out from schools), especially when they are fattened: for then they abound in blood and vital spirits. Moreover, tender calves are fattened at home in stalls with milk; larger ones however in pastures with the herd, that is, with a flock of oxen and cows. Whence Our translation renders: "As calves of the herd," that is, as calves of the herd, which pasture with the herd, and therefore beside their mothers and other calves and oxen congenial and similar to them, leap forth joyfully. For every animal rejoices in one similar to itself, and delights with it, and if it be a young ox it exults. Whence Rupert, and from him Delrio in adage 1027, "a calf of the herd," explains as a herd-calf: for one who wanders with the herd is freed from bonds and therefore leaps forth. Or, "calves of the herd," that is, separated from the herd, and placed in stalls, so that they may be fattened there. By this phrase Malachi signifies the wonderful exultation of the pious, who in this world as if in a prison by the impious (just as the Jews in Babylon by the Chaldeans) were pressed and oppressed, in the resurrection to be so healed by Christ, that they shall be succulent, beautiful, strong, indeed glorious, and therefore as if fattened calves shall exult with incredible joy, according to that passage in Wisdom iii, 7: "The just shall shine as the sun, and shall run about like sparks through stubble." Whence Mariana thus explains: You shall leap, he says, that is, with joy you shall clap your hands in dances, according to that Psalm cxlix, 5: "The saints shall rejoice in glory, they shall be glad in their beds." The word therefore leap signifies first, complete health, strength and vigor of the bodies of the blessed; second, great joy, whence Vatablus translates: You shall burst forth hither and thither; third, the gift of agility, as Suarez says in the Third Part, Question LIV, article 4, disputation XLIV, section IV, from Innocent III, by which like lightning they shall run most swiftly in every direction, so that wherever the spirit wishes to be, there the body shall be immediately, according to that Isaiah xl, last verse: "They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take to themselves wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Whence St. Anselm, in his book On Similitudes, chapter LI, asserts that the blessed shall be similar to angels in agility, because from heaven to earth they shall glide more swiftly than speech; but the impious, on account of their weight, shall neither move their feet, nor hands, nor any other member of their body, or be able to move them. And in chapter LII, he teaches that a blessed one, if he wishes, can move the earth from its place; but a damned one cannot even remove worms from his eyes. As a symbol of this, those holy animals, Ezekiel i, 14, "went and returned in the likeness of a flash of lightning." Fourth, the word leap signifies a great change of the blessed, by the leap which they shall make from earth to heaven. You shall leap therefore from mud to heaven, from death to life, from troubles to glory, from the sepulcher to the throne of God and the Lamb. Thus the bride, that is, the Church of the blessed, shall imitate the bridegroom Christ, of whom the Song of Songs ii, 8, she herself says: "The voice of my beloved: behold he cometh leaping on the mountains, skipping over the hills. My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart." For Christ made great leaps, when he leaped from heaven into the womb of the Virgin; from the womb into the manger, from the manger to the cross, from the cross he returned to heaven. Fifth, the heavenly choirs and dances, ovations and applause of the blessed. He alludes to the Jews, who after crossing the Red Sea and the submersion of Pharaoh, led sacred choirs with Mary singing beforehand, Exod. xv, 20, and after completing the pilgrimage of 40 years through the desert, dwelling peacefully and joyfully in the promised land, which was a type of heaven and heavenly beatitude, in the feast of Tabernacles among other signs of joy, holding palms in their hands, danced and led dances, as I have shown in Levit. cap. xxiii, 40. By which they anagogically represented the choirs of the blessed in heaven, where after the victory is completed, crowned with palms, they shall celebrate an eternal feast of Tabernacles, according to that: "Praise Him (the Lord) in the tympanum and choir," Psalm. cl, 4. And: "All ye nations, clap your hands, shout unto God with the voice of exultation," Psalm. xlvi, 1. And: "His saints shall rejoice with exultation," Psalm. cxxxi, 16. And Psalm. lxvii, 26: "The princes went before joined with the singers in the midst of the young women playing on timbrels." And Psalm. cxxv, 6: "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They went and wept, casting their seeds: but they shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, carrying their sheaves." For although the dance of the worldly is soft and wanton, that of the heavenly is chaste and angelic. "Drink wine as Cato does, tread the earth with your foot as Scipio does," as he says. For Scipio the commander, as Seneca says in the book On Tranquility, at games and festivals moved his body to rhythms and danced, not softly, but manfully, not doing damage to his name, even if he were watched by enemies. In a similar way David danced with all his strength before the ark, II Reg. vi, 14; and the daughters of Israel before Saul and David, after Goliath was struck down, leading dances sang on timbrels and sistrums: "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands," II Reg. xviii, 7; and the daughter of Jephte met the victor returning from the slaughter of the enemy with timbrels and dances, Judic. xi, 34: "The worldly dance," says Conradus Clingius in Theological Places, cap. On Dance, "is a circle whose center is the devil, and whose circumference is all his angels. But the heavenly dance is a circle, whose center is the Lamb, and whose circumference is all his virgins and elect." Hence in Cant. vii, 1, it is said: "What shall you see in the Sulamitess but the camps of camps?" And Jeremiah cap. xxxi, 4, concerning the Church both militant and triumphant says: "Thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel, and thou shalt be adorned with thy timbrels, and thou shalt go forth in the chorus of them that make merry." And Luke xv, 25, the elder son in the banquet of the younger being restored and revived heard "music and dancing;" namely this dance is demanded by the nuptials of the Lamb, which the Church shall celebrate perpetually with Christ the bridegroom, Apoc. xix, 9, and cap. xii, 2. Wherefore St. Augustine in Meditations cap. xxii: "Would that," he says, "I were present at those most holy choirs, so that I might stand with the most blessed spirits before the creator of glory!" And St. Athanasius, or rather Anastasius (for he cites in Questions III and VIII, Epiphanius and Nyssenus, who were later than Athanasius) to Antiochus, Question XXXIII: "The souls of the saints," he says, "incited by the Holy Spirit, with the angels in the region of the living praise God and dance."
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3. AND YOU SHALL TREAD UPON THE WICKED. — Tertullian in the book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter xxxi: You shall tread upon enemies. First, because you shall have them under your feet: for the wicked shall stand to be judged in the valley of Josaphat; but the pious shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air, and there shall sit with him as judges. Second, because you shall be affected with so great joy as you would be affected if you now trod upon your enemies, that is to say, You shall be superior to the wicked, and shall have dominion over them. Third, because as assessors of Christ the judge you shall condemn the wicked. Whence Pagninus translates: You shall destroy the wicked. Fourth, because through demons as lictors and executors of your sentence you shall hurl them down into Tartarus, where they shall be "as ashes under the sole of your feet," that is, like ashes ground to powder and humiliated, namely most contemptible and abject. Again, ashes denote the fire of Gehenna, says Vatablus; for in that fire the wicked shall be "as ashes," that is, they shall be burned like ashes, not that they shall be reduced to ashes and turned into ash, but because as ashes endure forever in fire, so likewise the wicked shall endure in the same fire eternally. For what is viler, more wretched, more squalid, more arid, more barren than the wicked, even as ash? Thus Catullus: Troy, curse, common sepulcher of Asia and Europe: Troy of men, and all the bitter ashes of virtue. And P. Sabinus: Now ash, and Troy only a mournful ground. Seneca in Hercules Furious: Cadmean offspring, and Ophionian ash, to what have you come? Claudian in Eutropius: Migdonian ashes, and whatever remains of the Eastern realm that perishes. ON THE DAY THAT I MAKE, — that is, shall make, namely on the day of judgment, when I shall make you tread upon the wicked, as they themselves trod upon you in this life, according to that in Psalm cxlix, 6: "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and two-edged swords in their hands: to execute vengeance upon the nations, and punishments upon the peoples: to bind their kings with fetters, and their nobles with manacles of iron: to execute upon them the judgment that is written: this glory is to all his saints." And Wisdom III, 8: "They shall judge nations, and rule over peoples." And Matthew xix, 28: "You who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit upon twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
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4. REMEMBER THE LAW OF MOSES. — Hence the Jews contend to prove that the law of Moses was not abolished by Christ, but will endure until the day of judgment: for this is what is being discussed here in the preceding and following passages. First, Rupertus, Lyranus and Vatablus respond by understanding by law here the moral precepts, which endure also in the time of the new law. But it is an obstacle that, when explaining this law, Malachi adds precepts, in Hebrew חקים chuckim, that is, sanctions concerning sacred things and rites, namely ceremonial precepts; and judgments, that is, judicial precepts. Second, others explain it thus: "Remember the law of Moses," so that namely in his ceremonies, rites and judgments you may behold Christ and His Church and its sacraments; "and the judgments," which are figured in those things. For Moses expressly commanded the Jews thus concerning hearing of Christ: "The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a prophet of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me; him thou shalt hear." Deut. cap. xviii, 15. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoretus, Arias and others. But this too seems more narrow and forced. For to command that they remember the law is to command that they fulfill it in deed, and observe its ceremonial and judicial sanctions. But Malachi could not have commanded this to the Jews for the time of Christ and the Christian law. I say therefore that the Prophet speaks to the Jews of his own age, and to their posterity that would come, until Christ: for throughout all this time the law of Moses endured and was binding. To its observance therefore he exhorts the Jews of his time, because they had grown slack in observing it, especially in the ceremonial precepts concerning the giving of tithes and firstfruits, as we saw, cap. III, 8. He therefore stirs them up, and gives them a sharp spur to the observance of the law, namely the representation of the day of judgment, as if to say: See that you observe all the laws prescribed by Moses, both those which regard the worship of God and those which regard the right of your neighbor. For God on the day of judgment will require an exact account from each one of the law kept or not kept, and will glorify those observing it, will condemn those not observing it. Do not therefore say: "Where is the God of judgment?" as you said cap. II, 17. Nor: "It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his commandments?" as you said cap. III, 14. For on the day of judgment you will see that Christ is the God of judgment, nor will you have served God in vain, and kept his precepts. "Then shall the sun of justice arise upon you, and health in his wings, and you shall go forth, and shall leap as calves of the herd. And you shall tread down the wicked," etc. Thus Remigius, Albertus, Hugo, Vatablus, Arias and others. Therefore Victorinus and Maldonatus err in Matthew xvii, when from this place of Malachi and from Apoc. xi, 6, they think that with Elias there will come, not Henoch, but Moses, so that both may contend against Antichrist. In Horeb. — In Sinai, as I said Exod. xvii, 6.
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5. BEHOLD I WILL SEND YOU ELIAS. — After exhorting his people to keep the law of Moses, which the Prophet inserted in passing, he here returns to the day of judgment and assigns Elias as its forerunner. You will ask: Who is this Elias? Calvin and some Catholics, such as Burgensis, Arias, and Clarius, hold that he is John the Baptist, because Christ, looking back to this passage of Malachi in Matthew xvii, 10, says: "Elias already came," namely John the Baptist, as St. Matthew soon explains. And in chapter xi, 14: "All the Prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you will receive it, he is Elias who was to come." Others, innovating, understand by Elias any prophets whatsoever to be sent by God into the world. But I say, it is certain that by Elias here the true Elias is meant, not John the Baptist, or a choir of Prophets. This is proved first, because the Septuagint calls this Elias the Thesbite: for thus the Vatican codices and others have it, so that it is remarkable that it is lacking in the Royal edition. So also the Arabic version: Behold, it says, I will send you Elias the Thesbite, before the appearance of the terrible day of the Lord. Therefore the discourse is about the true Elias: for John the Baptist was not a Thesbite. Second, because Elias here will be the forerunner of the second advent of Christ to judgment: for this will be "the great and terrible day of the Lord": but the Baptist went before the first advent of Christ into the world. Third, because when Elias comes, Christ will also come to strike the earth with a curse, as the Prophet indicates in the last verse. But this will happen in the second advent. For in the first he came to save the world, not to destroy or strike it. Fourth, thus alluding to this passage does Ecclesiasticus explain it, in chapter xlviii, 10, saying: "Who art written in the judgments of times to mitigate the wrath of the Lord, to reconcile the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob." And Christ in Matthew xvii, 10: "Elias indeed," he says, "will come and will restore all things." Fifth, because thus interpret the Greek and Latin Fathers, Cyril, Theodoret, Remigius, Haymo, Albert, Hugh, Lyra and others here, St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, Bede, Anselm, St. Thomas in Matthew xvii; Hippolytus in his book On the Consummation of the Age; Cyprian, tract On Sinai and Sion; Ephrem, tract On Antichrist; Prosper in the middle of time, chapter xiii; Tertullian, book On the Soul, chapter xxxv; Justin, Dialogue Against Trypho. Nyssenus, book Testimonies Against the Jews; St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, xxix; St. Gregory, XI Morals, x, Andrew, Ambrose, Haymo, Rupert and Aretas in the Apocalypse, chapter xi. The same was the common opinion of the Hebrews, as appears in Matthew xvii, 10. The Sibyl also predicted the same concerning Elias, singing thus: Then also borne in a heavenly chariot shall the Thesbite enter the lands from heaven, and shall show three signs to the whole world of perishing life. You will say: St. Jerome understands by Elias a choir of Prophets, who will go before the second advent of Christ. I answer: St. Jerome explains Elias mystically, as I will soon say, not literally. For he clearly teaches that Elias in person will come in chapters xi and xvii of St. Matthew. You will press further: How then does St. Jerome here say: "The Jews and Judaizing heretics think that Elias will come before their messiah?" I answer because the Jews still await their Messiah, and his first advent into the world, whom they believe Elias will be the forerunner: St. Jerome refutes these. And indeed there is a twofold error of theirs here. The former, that they believe Christ has not yet come. The latter, that they think Elias will be the forerunner of the first advent of Christ, when he is to be the forerunner of the second. To the argument proposed at the beginning from chapter xvii of St. Matthew, I respond that Elijah and John the Baptist were most similar in office, zeal, preaching and holiness, and will be; because the latter was the precursor of Christ in His first coming, the former will be the precursor of the same in His second coming. Wherefore one receives the name of the other, as being his antitype. For John the Baptist is called Elijah, not in person, but on account of a similar spirit and power, as Gabriel says in Luke i, 17: "He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah." Christ therefore distinguishes two Elijahs, one literal, of whom He says: "Elijah indeed shall come, and shall restore all things;" another typical, namely John the Baptist, of whom He says: "Elijah is already come." For the Jews confused the twofold coming of Christ, and mixed it into one, before which Elijah was to come, and therefore said that Christ had not yet come, because Elijah had not yet come: to whom Christ responds that there are two comings of Christ, and the precursor of the first is the typical Elijah, namely John the Baptist, as Malachi predicted in chapter III, verse 1; the precursor of the second will be the true Elijah, and therefore when they themselves saw the typical Elijah, they ought to have believed that Christ had already come, whose precursor the Prophets had predicted he would be. Mystically St. Jerome and from him Remigius: "After Moses, whose commandments we have specially taught are to be kept, he says Elijah is to be sent, signifying in Moses the law, in Elijah prophecy. And the Lord and Saviour transfigured on the mountain had Moses and Elijah speaking with Him in white garments, and they spoke to Him of what He was to suffer in Jerusalem. For the law and the whole chorus of the Prophets proclaim the passion of Christ." And soon after: "The Lord will send in Elijah (who is interpreted My God, and is from the town of Tishbe, which signifies conversion and repentance) the whole chorus of the Prophets, who shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children." You will ask first, why does this Prophet introduce mention of Elijah? I respond first, because in chapter i, 10, and chapter ii, 2, he predicted the rejection of Judaism and the Jews through Christ; so that he might console them and reconcile them to Christ, he predicts here that they will be called back again, and received into their former grace by Christ in the time of Elijah, through his preaching and miracles. Therefore when they see him, they will receive him as the true Elijah here predicted, and will believe in Christ whom Elijah will preach. Wherefore the Jews eagerly await Elijah, so that they might embrace Christ designated by him. Hence the opinion of the Rabbis concerning Elijah is: Tisbi, that is Elijah the Thesbite, will solve hard things, that is, all knots and questions. For they refer to Elijah whatever in Scripture is doubtful and obscure, as Quinquarboreus relates in the Abbreviations of Hebrew. Indeed the Jews even now, whenever they circumcise someone, set up and adorn the chair of Elijah, thinking that he is present in spirit, and zealous for the law of the Lord, as the Rabbis relate in the Talmud, tractate Berachot, and R. David here, and Galatinus book X, chapter vi. Second, because Malachi said in verse 2, that Christ to those fearing God on the day of judgment "shall arise as the sun of justice, and health in his wings; and you shall go forth, and shall leap as calves of the herd, and you shall tread down the wicked." But such was and will be Elijah; hence he will fittingly be the precursor of Christ. For he himself was, and will be the phoenix of his age, nay rather the sun illuminating, healing and kindling with the love of God the cold hearts of men; hence he also merited to be snatched up to heaven in a fiery chariot, as it were Phaethon: hence also Elijah is said to be as ἥλιος, that is the sun, says St. Chrysostom, of whom more presently. You will ask second, why Elijah rather than Moses, or some other, will be the precursor of the second coming of Christ? I respond first, on account of the great zeal with which Elijah was endowed by God beyond other Prophets. For when he was sent by God to correct the most corrupt morals of his age, and to root out idolatry from Israel, there was need for him to accomplish this with great strength of spirit and zeal, which God therefore gave him; and with this he fought and overcame both the most impious Jezabel with her husband Ahab, and all the prophets of Baal, whom he also slew, III Kings xviii. Similar zeal will be needed at the end of the world, when charity will grow cold, and iniquity will abound. Therefore the zealous Elijah will be sent, so that he might fight with the Antichrist, so that he might correct the most perverse morals of that age, and thus prepare the way for Christ coming. Moses, although zealous, is not fitting to return, lest it appear that he restores the old law by his return, and confirms the Jews in Judaism: for they appeal to nothing else than to Moses and his law. Second, because Elias was sent by God to remove the schism which Jeroboam made, and the ten tribes apostatizing from Juda and from God, on account of which they adored golden calves in Dan and Bethel. In a similar manner he will be sent at the end of the world to remove the schism which the Jews once made from Christ and from the other faithful nations, so that he may unite them to Christ and the Church. For the Jews themselves will believe, inasmuch as he is a Jew, and their prophet, so celebrated in Scripture, and promised to perform again at the end of the world the same work which he once did. Malachias gives this reason, when he adds: "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; and to restore," that is, so that he may restore to God and to the ancestral faith, "the tribes of Jacob," as Ecclesiasticus chapter xlviii, 10 says. Third, because just as formerly under Noe the world perished by flood, so at the end it will perish by the fire of conflagration. Elias the Prophet, therefore, who is fiery, will be sent, so that he may foretell the impending fire to sinners, and kindle them to faith and penance, by which they may escape this fire. Hence Eccles. chapter xlviii, 1: "Elias the prophet, it says, rose up like fire, and his word burned like a torch." Fourth, because Elias on account of his heavenly zeal was caught up into heaven. From heaven therefore, as it were a heavenly witness of Christ coming from heaven, he will come, according to that Eccles. xlviii, 9: "Thou who wast taken up in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot of fiery horses: who art written in the judgments of times (that is, in the time judged and decreed by God) to appease the wrath of the Lord." Add that Elias merited this by his virginity and angelic purity. For that he was a virgin, and indeed singular in that age, is taught by St. Ignatius epistle 11, St. Ambrose book I On Virginity, and St. Epiphanius in the Anchor.: "Elias, he says, was in virginity, so that by the prerogative of virginity he might proclaim immortality to the world." St. Ephrem, sermon On the Transfiguration: "He beheld, he says, the virgin of the Old Testament the virgin of the New, namely Elias John." Fifth, because Elias was the leader and standard-bearer of the prophets, both in time, in dignity, in holiness, in freedom and efficacy of preaching, in the glory of deeds accomplished; whence he represents the whole choir of prophets, says St. Jerome, who goes before Christ, and bears witness to him. For the same reason Elias appeared to the apostles in the Transfiguration of Christ, so that he might show that he himself was Christ, and that he and all the Prophets gave their assent to him, and testified to him that he was the Messias, the savior of the world. Sixth, because Elias was the guardian, prophet, teacher, protector, apostle of Israel and the Jews. He will come therefore, so that he may bring back his Jews, wandering from God for so many ages, to him and to Christ. Hence Elisaeus, while Elias was being caught up into heaven, cried out to him: "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the driver thereof," as if to say: Thou, O Elias my father, wast the chariot and driver of Israel, because thou didst rule and direct him as a driver whithersoever thou didst wish, and didst likewise bear, protect and defend him as with a chariot against the Syrians and other enemies. Whence the Septuagint translates: My father, the chariot of Israel and his horsemen, as if to say: Thou, O Elias, wast all the strength, the whole army of Israel, thou who didst preserve and defend him more by thy zeal, prayers and merits than a great multitude of chariots and horsemen. Tertullian excellently, book On the Soul, chapter xxxv, citing these words of Malachias: "Elias, he says, will come not from the departure of life, but from the translation thereof, nor is he to be restored to the body, from which he has not been exempted, but to be returned to the world, from which he was translated, not from the restoration of life, but from the fulfillment of prophecy, the same both himself and his name and his person." Seventh, because, just as Elias was caught up in a fiery chariot to heaven, a type of the glorious ascension of Christ into heaven: so in turn he was a type of the glorious kingdom of Christ and of the blessed, by which on the day of judgment they shall ascend triumphantly into heaven, there to reign eternally. Fittingly therefore glorious Elias shall go before the glorious coming of Christ, as the rising sun goes before the midday sun. For Elias was by his sanctity, zeal and rapture as it were ἥλιος, that is the sun of the world. See St. Chrysostom, sermon On the Ascension of Elias, vol. I, where depicting the triumphal chariot of Elias among other things he says: "For it was fitting that the rector of the erring people, the governor of sacred things, the moderator of discordant desires, the charioteer of Israel; so that, since he recalled to the yoke of the fear of God the wanton and wandering minds, bound them with reins and straps, and composed them in a certain harmonious coupling to run the straight course of the path of discipline, he should be borne aloft to the heavenly kingdoms in a chariot and with horses." He adds then: "Hence I believe poets and painters have taken examples in depicting the image of the sun: who himself gleaming in a chariot and with shining horses, and lifted up by the wave of the Ocean escaping among the steep cliffs of mountains, seems as it were to ascend to the heavenly places. For the sun in Greek speech is called ἥλιος. Whence Elias truly ἥλιος, because in a chariot and with horses shining with fire, from the wave of the Ocean, that is from the commotion of the world through the cliffs of mountains, that is through the difficulties of great labors, proceeding, he ascended borne to the heavenly places." For Elias was "a man to whom the whole world was inferior," as the same says in homily 15, among 27, from various places in St. Matthew. Eighth, because Elias is an example and type of the blessed resurrection, which on the day of judgment Christ shall confer on all the blessed and elect. Whence from Epiphanius in the Anchor., St. Augustine in book XV of the City of God xix, calls Elias and Henoch the firstborn of our resurrection. And Tertullian in the book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter v, 8: "Henoch and Elias, he says, not yet separated by resurrection, because not yet ended by death, yet because translated from the world, and by this very fact candidates of eternity, learn immunity of the flesh from all vice, and from all damage, and from all injury and insult, to what faith do they set their testimony, except that by which it is fitting to believe these to be documents of future integrity?" Morally, learn here from Elias how great a virtue zeal is, and how much God esteems the zealous, as those whom he wishes to be near to him, and to be his forerunners, precursors and heralds, as was the antitype Elias, namely John the Baptist; of whom Gabriel said to Zacharias, Luke i, 17: "He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias." Such was St. Paul, saying Rom. viii, 35: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Tribulation? or distress?" etc. Such was St. Ignatius, whose fiery epistles, life and martyrdom if anyone reads, he shall be set on fire. Such Francis, who therefore while still living, but absent, appeared to his brothers as the sun in a fiery chariot, as another Elias zealot of the divine law, setting the world on fire by his ardor, and to be caught up thereby into heaven. Elias asked by supernatural virtue in a chariot at once splendid and fiery, to be shown to him by the Lord, so that as true Israelites they might walk after him, who of spiritual men, as another Elias, had been made by God a chariot and charioteer," says St. Bonaventure in his Life, chapter IV. Of this his zeal Elias glories, IV Kings xix, 14: "With zeal, he says, have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, destroyed thy altars, slain thy prophets with the sword, I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away."
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6. AND HE SHALL TURN THE HEART OF THE FATHERS TO THE CHILDREN. — Various interpreters explain this in various ways. First, St. Jerome here, St. Augustine in the twentieth book of the City of God, chapter twenty-nine, Gregory in the ninth book of the Morals, and from these Toletus on Luke i, 17, explain it thus: Elias will transfer the heart, that is the mind, of the fathers to the children, namely by stirring up in the children the same heart, that is the same spirit, faith, desire and devotion toward Christ, which their fathers had, so that the children might imitate and emulate them, as if to say Elias by his preaching will restore and recall the faith and devotion of the fathers, namely of the Patriarchs and ancient prophets toward the coming Messiah, in the children, that is in posterity, so that they too with living faith and burning zeal might embrace Christ as the Messiah already present; and thus the burning desire of the fathers toward Christ, now extinguished for many centuries through infidelity and crimes, he will kindle in the children. Whence for "shall turn" in Hebrew it is "hosceb," that is "shall cause to return," as if to say Elias will cause the heart, that is the mind, faith and devotion of the fathers to return in the children. "Hosceb" alludes to "Tishi," that is Thesbite: for Elias in Hebrew is the same as "my God"; Tishi signifies conversion to penance, restoration and recall, as if to say Elias according to his name and country will be a Thesbite, because he will turn the hearts of his people through penance to their God; and thus he will restore and recall all things to their integrity: thus St. Jerome. This is what Christ says: "Elias shall come and restore all things," Matthew xvii. And Ecclesiasticus, chapter xlviii, 10: "Elias shall come to reconcile the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob," that is Elias will restore the twelve tribes, collapsed from the true and ancient faith and religion of the fathers, to their pristine and ancestral piety: broken and scattered by blindness and perfidy, he will restore them by showing the light of faith. But here an objection can be raised against this exposition from what follows: "And the heart of the children to their fathers"; for indeed Elias did not transfer the heart, that is the mind and devotion, of the children to the fathers, so as to impart it to them, as if they had possessed it originally, and were already dead. But I respond that the sense is: Elias will turn "the heart of the children to the fathers"; that is, he will cause the heart, that is the mind and faith, of the Jews to agree and adhere to the heart, that is the mind and faith, of the fathers. Second, Rabbi Solomon, Aben-Ezra, Rabbi David, Arias, Vatable and de Castro hold that by this phrase nothing else is signified than all, both fathers and children, being converted to one faith and religion, as if to say Elias will turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to the fathers, that is he will cause fathers and children to have one heart, that is to be of one mind in the faith and love of God, so that with one common heart and spirit fathers with children, and children with fathers, that is both greater and lesser, might receive and worship Christ. Whence Aben-Ezra: They will be, he says, all one heart, or of one heart in returning to the Lord, both fathers and children. But thus he would rather have said: He will turn the heart of fathers and children to Christ; but now he says: He will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers. Third, as if to say Elias by his preaching and zeal will cause the Jews at the end of the world to imitate their patriarchs, so that just as they themselves believed, hoped, greatly desired and loved the coming Christ; so their children might believe, hope, greatly desire and love him as past, indeed as present: and thus the heart of the fathers, turned away from the unbelieving children before, he will turn to them now believing, and will cause the Patriarchs to recognize the Jews believing in Christ as legitimate children, and to love them: "For Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw and was glad," says Christ in John viii. Say the same of Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, etc.: thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupertus, Lyra and others. For this is to reduce, or turn the heart of one to another, namely to restore the pristine love, to reconcile the turned-away affection: for the heart is the symbol and seat of love. This sense follows from the first, and therefore both are genuine, and should be connected. Because indeed The Jews at the end of the world will have the same heart, that is, the same mind, faith and piety in Christ, which the fathers had; hence consequently they will have the same heart, that is, mutual love and charity, of the faithful fathers toward faithful sons, and of sons toward fathers. Whence Luke chapter i, 17, applying these words of Malachi in the antitype of Elias, that is, of John the Baptist: "He shall turn," he says, "the hearts of the fathers to the children;" and for what Malachi adds: "And the heart of the children to their fathers," he translates: "And the unbelieving to the wisdom of the just," that is, first, as if to say, Elias, equally as John, shall turn the Jews to wisdom, that is, to the faith which the ancient just fathers among them had concerning Christ coming. Thus Maldonatus in Luke i. Secondly, as if to say, John shall make the unbelieving carefully consider the signs of the coming of the Messiah, prescribed by the Prophets, and given to the fathers by God, and from these believe that the Messiah has already come, and recognize Christ, namely that Christ is he whom he himself will point out to them with his finger, saying: "Behold the Lamb of God:" for this is the work of wisdom. Thus Toletus in Luke i. Thirdly, John converts the unbelieving, in Greek ἀπειθεῖς, that is, the disobedient, as the Syriac translates it, namely to the law and precepts of their elders, to the wisdom of the just, which is to love heavenly and eternal things, not earthly and perishable ones; to fear and worship God, and to observe his laws: for he who does this is wise and prudent. For the preaching of John was this: "Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matthew iii, 2. The same shall be Elias's. Symbolically, Elias shall turn the heart of the fathers, that is, of the Jews, to the sons, that is, to Christ and the apostles: for these, sprung from the Jews, were their sons: and the heart of the sons to the fathers, namely of Christians to Jews (for the first Christians were born from Jews), as if to say, Elias shall make it so that Jews believe in Christ and in Christians, so that the faith and religion of Christians may be infused into Jews, and therefore both may have one heart, that is, one mind, faith and religion, namely the worship of Christ. Thus Theodoret here, and St. Chrysostom, and Euthymius in chapter xvii of Matthew, and Damascene, book IV On Faith, chapter xxvii. From this place therefore it is evident that almost all Jews at the end of the world are to be converted to Christ, through Elias. Thus St. Chrysostom holds in homily 58 on Matthew: "Elias," he says, "shall restore all things, namely the unbelief of the Jews who shall then remain, he shall convert to faith." And after some remarks: "How then shall they believe, you will ask? If indeed Elias shall restore all things, not only surely because he is known, but also because until that day the glory of Christ shall be ever more and more resplendent with solar rays, to which when his preaching shall be added, impelling to the faith of Christ, they shall most easily receive it." The same teach St. Augustine XX On the City of God xxix, Theodoret in chapter xii of Daniel, St. Gregory homily 12 on Ezekiel, Damascene book V On Faith, chapter xxvii, Bede, book III on Mark chapter xxvii, Theophylactus in chapter xvii of St. Matthew, Ambrose, Victorinus and Ansbert in chapter xi of the Apocalypse, and this is the common tradition of the Fathers and the Church. Note here: When Christ says: "Elias shall restore all things," he signifies that there shall then be a great conversion: moreover, Elias shall make peace between Jews and Gentiles, at discord for so long a time, so that they may come together in one covenant in the faith of Christ and the Church: furthermore, Elias shall reform the fallen morals of clergy and people, and by his apostolic zeal shall restore all things to their ancestral brightness and primordial splendor, which the Church had in the time of the Apostles, so that Christian religion and holiness may everywhere shine forth and gleam wonderfully. I have said more concerning Elias and Enoch in Genesis v, 24, and Apocalypse xi, 2 and following. Hence again Julian, Archbishop of Toledo, in book I Against the Jews, proves that they have already turned away from Christ, and consequently that Christ has already come: for they cannot be converted unless they have turned away; but the Jews have not turned away from any other Christ than from our Jesus Christ: therefore this is the true Christ and Messiah. LEST PERHAPS I COME AND STRIKE THE EARTH,—that is, coming I shall strike, or, when I come to judge, I shall strike. It is a hendiadys, by which one thing is expressed through two. For "perhaps" is not to be referred to "I come" (because it is not fortuitous and doubtful, but fixed and certain that He will come to judgment), but to "I strike," as if to say: Lest perhaps when I come about to judge the earth, I find it full of unbelief and crimes, and therefore by a just sentence of condemnation I strike it with anathema; the Chaldean [version has] extermination; Pagninus, slaughter; the Septuagint, ἄρδην, that is, utterly, or suddenly; the Zurich [Bible], completely; others, utterly, root and branch; others, unto destruction, or utter destruction. For the Hebrew חרם cherem signifies excision, by which a thing is cut away root and branch, destroyed and lost: the Greek ἀνάθεμα signifies the same thing. See what is said at Leviticus xxvii, 28, and Romans ix, 3. By cherem therefore and anathema understand here eternal curse, punishment and the fire of hell, to which Christ will condemn all the impious on the day of judgment. Thus Remigius. By earth, by metonymy, understand the inhabitants of the earth, namely earthly men and those who savour of earthly things: thus St. Jerome. He says earth, not Judaea, both because the Jews whom Elias will convert are scattered throughout the whole earth; and because Elias will convert not only Jews, but also Gentiles everywhere on earth, and will imprint upon them Christian faith, or life and morals, and thus will turn away from them the anathema of eternal damnation. Less correctly does Arias understand by anathema the destruction of the Jews by Titus and the Romans: for here we are dealing with the day of judgment, of which Elias will be the precursor. Nor does Vatablus aptly think that by "perhaps" is signified the uncertain time of the coming of Christ, as if to say: Lest perhaps I come at an uncertain time, when you least expect it, or are awaiting me. For whenever Christ comes, He will certainly destroy the impious, unless they convert themselves through the preaching of Elias. Morally, learn here first, from Elias who turns away the wrath of God lest He strike the whole earth with anathema, that illustrious and zealous saints are as it were the bases and columns of the world, who by their prayers, merits and zeal, when otherwise it would be falling into ruin, support and sustain it: both because by praying they bind, as it were, the hand of an angry God, lest it rush forth into vengeance: and because by preaching and living holily they pierce the hearts of sinners and impel them to correct their lives. For these are as it were earthly angels, whose mind is in heaven, who are higher than earth, and as it were stronger than God. Such an Atlas for Sodom was Abraham, Genesis xviii, 23, and among the Jews Moses, Exodus xxxii, 14, and Samuel, I Kings vii, 10, and David, III Kings xi, 12, and Hezekiah, IV Kings xx, 6, and Jeremiah, chapter i, 18. For God values one eminently holy man more than a hundred ordinary just men. The reason for this, which Plato saw in passing, by the light, that is, of nature, in the Theaetetus, saying: "Nothing is more like to God than when some one of men is most just." Which indeed ought to be a spur to anyone, that he might continually strive with burning effort toward progress, and toward the height of holiness. For such a one shines forth in the assembly of the just like a giant, whose right hand touches heaven, and there as it were another Jacob wrestles with God, and overcomes Him who is willing. Hence the Lord to Ezekiel, chapter xxii, 30: "I sought, He says, among them for a man that should stand in the gap, and stand in the breach before me in favour of the land, that I should not destroy it, and I found none. And I poured out my indignation upon them, in the fire of my wrath I consumed them." There is no doubt that there were then many just men in Judaea, but there was no one so eminent as to stand in the breach before God, and to wrest the scourge from Him. Such an Atlas for Venice was St. Laurence Justinian, Patriarch of the same: for it was revealed to a certain holy man that God, being angry at the city, would have destroyed it, had not the divine fury been turned away by the prayers of his holy Patriarch. Thus his Life relates. Such an Atlas for Emesa, nay for the whole world, was St. Simeon, surnamed Salus, that is, the fool, because he concealed his holiness by foolish deeds, while meanwhile he performed many miracles to the utmost contempt of himself, and for the bodily and spiritual salvation of his neighbours. For when a certain citizen of Emesa had gone to Jerusalem and commended himself to the prayers of Abbot John, he received this answer from him: "I marvel at you, since you have in Emesa Abbot Simeon, to turn aside to me, a vile and abject man. For not I alone, but the whole world also has need of his prayers." Thus Leontius, Bishop of Naples, in the Life of St. Simeon. Like Atlases of the Church were St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Vincent Ferrer (who converted one hundred thousand Christians, twenty-five thousand Jews, and eight thousand Saracens to Christ); thus in this age St. Xavier was the Atlas of Japan and the Indies. Who therefore would doubt that the world stands by the prayers of such saints? Wherefore deservedly St. Ambrose, book II On Cain and Abel, chapters III and IV: "How blessed, he says, is the city which has many just men, how is it wholly blessed on that account! How I rejoice when I see some meek and wise men living long, when I behold chaste virgins, grave widows of advanced age, as if they present some hoary senate of the Church by their very countenance and appearance of gravity, which the young may revere, which they may imitate, by which they may be colored toward all grace of manners. Similarly when someone of this kind dies, although laid down by long old age, I am affected, because the flock of young men is destitute of a wall of elders." He adds that such are as it were cities of refuge, into which those who have sinned may withdraw themselves: "Finally, he says, of a city about to perish or of impending evils, or of future corruption, this is the first sign, if there depart from it men of counsel, or even grave women. Hence the gate of evils first opens to those growing heavy." The same doctrine teaches Isaiah, chapter i, 1 and seq. Learn secondly to esteem and weigh the final curse and anathema, with which Malachi closes his own and all other prophets' oracles, that by that goad he may incite all to a pious and holy life. Isaiah concludes his oracles with the same, saying: "And they shall go out, and see the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched: and they shall be a loathsome sight to all flesh." This is the curse with which the impious shall be struck and confounded on the last and decisive day of the world, which shall be the horizon of time and eternity, of heaven and hell, when by Christ the judge in the valley of Josaphat, as in the theatre of the whole world, to be damned to eternal torments, fearful and astounded they shall hear: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels;" and straightway wrapped in the fire of conflagration, they shall be snatched by demons into Tartarus, where separated forever, nay cursed by God, angels and the blessed, shut up in perpetual prison, they shall never again see the sun, stars, or any light, shall perceive no joy or consolation; but shall wallow in perpetual fires: where the smoke of their torments ascendeth up for ever and ever. Think on this when lust stimulates you, when ambition solicits you, when anger agitates you, when the flesh flatters you, when the world allures you, when the devil displays his deceptive enticements and pomps. In your hand, in your judgment are life and death, heaven and hell, your salvation and damnation, your eternal happiness and unhappiness. Choose what you will. Think: "A moment that delights, an eternity that torments." And conversely: "A moment that torments, an eternity that delights." Excellently St. Chrysostom, homily 1 On Lazarus: "If anyone, he says, in a hundred years had seen through one night a sweet dream, and enjoyed many delights through sleep, and then for a hundred years were to be tortured, would he wish to equate one night in which he dreamed with a hundred years? Think thus of the future life. For what is one dream to a hundred years, this is the present life to the future, nay much less. What is a small drop to an immense sea, this are a thousand years to future fruition; and as much as there is difference between dreams and real things, so much difference is there between the state of this life and that." For what else are all things and hopes of mortals than "dreams of the waking?" says Philo: "What shall seem great to him in human affairs, to whom all eternity and the magnitude of the whole world is known?" says Cicero, Tusculan Disputations IV. On the other hand think how unlike is the curse of the impious, the anathema of the blessed. The impious are the curse of justice and divine vengeance; the saints are the curse of mercy and divine glory. The impious are the curse of the devil; the pious and elect are the curse of God, that is, a sacred thing separated from profane uses, dedicated to God and God's praises for eternity. The impious are anathema, bellows and fuel of hell; the Saints are anathema of heaven and the heavenly Jerusalem, so that in it they may shine forth to the perpetual glory of God through eternal ages. Be therefore upright and pious, flee the allurements of the world, mortify concupiscences, endure sicknesses, contempt, hardships, persecutions; strive for purity, cultivate holiness, exert yourself toward every virtue: all your labor will be brief and short; but an immense reward awaits you, and an unfading crown. "For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory," II Cor. IV, 17. "O human frailty, whatever you do is small in comparison with the hope of eternal things," says Eusebius of Emesa (or rather Eucherius of Lyons, or whoever the author is) in his homily On St. Maximus. Wherefore St. Antony, as St. Athanasius testifies in his Life, inculcated this blessed exhortation to his followers, that it might be a constant spur to his heroic victory and all perfection: "Let this be the first commandment common to all, that in the vigor of your chosen purpose you should not grow weary, but rather, as if always beginning, should continually increase what you have begun, especially since the span of human life compared to eternity is very brief." And soon after: "The promise of eternal life is purchased at a small price, for it is written: The days of our life are seventy years; but if in strength, eighty. When therefore we have labored in God's work for eighty or a hundred years, we shall not reign in the future for so long a time, but for the years aforesaid all the kingdoms of all ages shall be given to us, etc. Let no one, when he has looked upon the world, think that he has left behind great things: because all the earth compared to the infinity of the heavens is brief and small." O eternity, how great, how enduring, how constant and eternal you are! You are a curse, you are an anathema. O senseless minds, which forget you! O stupor of stupid mortals, who sell and squander you for a moment of pleasure! Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be desolate exceedingly, O gates thereof. If God were to give and say to Judas, and to any of the damned: For each thousand years for your sins you shall shed but a single tear; and when in this manner through such vast intervals of years, you shall have shed so many tears as to fill the entire capacity of the world with them, I will have mercy on you, and will snatch you from the fires and punishments of hell; surely Judas would rejoice with great and ineffable joy, because he would have some hope of salvation. But how long would this hope be, how vast the spaces of years he would have to measure out in punishments? How many thousands of thousands of years would he have to await before he would fill even a cup with his tears? How many millions of years to fill a goblet? How many cubic millions to fill one barrel? When therefore would he fill a chamber, when a house, when a city, when one province, when the earth, when the air, when the heaven with his tears? But now the wretched Judas does not even have this hope, but even if through these intervals of years he had filled the entire world with tears, still there would be no end, no middle, indeed not even the beginning of his wretched eternity: because a new world similar to the former would be prepared by God to be filled with his tears; and when that were filled, a third and after it a fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on without number and end. The same is true on the other side concerning the glory of St. Paul, and of any of the blessed. MEDITATE ON ETERNITY, enter into it and penetrate it as far as you can: the deeper you enter, the longer and deeper you will find it: It is an Abyss. It must be said once, again and again, indeed always: MEDITATE ON ETERNITY. O Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, Queen of the prophets, Mother of the eternal Word, ordained from eternity for His faithful and children, you who didst clothe God for us in your virgin flesh; and through Him, having conquered death, didst open to us the entrance to blessed eternity, offer this work of mine, or rather yours, to your blessed Son Jesus Christ, our Savior, and to the whole Holy Trinity, and from it obtain that all who shall read it may be kindled to His perpetual worship and praise. For He Himself is blessed eternity, His own and ours. Make us love it as the highest good with the most ardent love; and on the other hand, sin and hell, as the highest and eternal evil, may we fear and flee most greatly: and therefore make it so that the memory, fear and love of blessed and miserable eternity may ever be before us, that WE MAY LIVE FOR BLESSED ETERNITY, strive, labor, and endure all hard and bitter things. Turn away from us the curse and anathema of eternal reprobation. Make and form us a curse and anathema to God, in the temple and glory of heaven. We are your children, or wish to be. Show yourself therefore to be a mother, now and in the hour of our death. Amen. I have seen an end of all perfection: thy commandment is exceeding broad, Psalm cxviii. Treasure up for the eternal age. St. Gregory of Nazianzus in Sentences. Join your heart to the Eternity of God, and with Him you will be eternal. Augustine on Psalm xci. No labor is hard, no time is long, by which the glory of Eternity is acquired. Angels in Bede in History, lib. III, cap. xix. For a few years of labor all the kingdoms of all ages shall be returned to us. St. Antony in St. Athanasius. True blessedness is to despise the blessedness of the world, and neglecting earthly things to burn with desire for divine things. St. Eucherius to Valerius.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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4, 4 « ecce enim dies veniet succensa quasi caminus ; et erunt omnes superbi et omnes facientes impietatem stipula et inflammabit eos dies veniens, dicit Dominus exercituum, quae non derelinquet eis radicem et germen » ;, — frequenter in s. literis Deus igne circumdatus tamquam legislator, vel vindex et iudex in terram descendere exhibetur (cf. Gen. 18, 11. Ex. 3, 2; 14, 24; 19, 18. Deut. 4, 12. 15; 5, 24. Ps. 11, 9; 96, 3. Dan. '1, 9 etc.). Symbolum est aptissimum ad vim et efficaciam illam adumbrandam, qua sanctitas Dei omne destruit impedimentum et omnem comburit impietatem. Quare codem modo etiam dies Domini nobis proponitur tamquam ardens igne et zelo et furore Domini omnia consumens (cf. Is. 10, 17; 13, 9; 34, 8. Ioel 2, 30. Mich. 1, 4. Soph. 4, 18 etc.). Neque tamen merum est symbolum. Sicut enim angelus Domini olim revera apparuit in igne et igne combussit Sodomitas etc., ita docente revelatione novi foederis scimus Christum iudicem in igne venturum et igne conflagratorio terram purgaturum et impios ignibus aeternis cruciandos iri traditum (cf. Matth. 95, 24. gitur plenus, cur dies Domini tamquam caminus ardens nobis describatur. . Quanta cum facilitate maximam superbiam et ingentem tumorem impiorum Deus sit prostraturus et funditus eversurus, comparatione stipulae effertur et imagine arboris combustae vel stirpitus excisae, ita ut neque radix neque ullus relinquatur surculus. Poenae vehementia et gravitas non simpliciter igne describitur, sed clibano seu furno ardente, « cuius flamma propter repercussum longe vehementior est igne qui in libero aere succenditur » (Ros.). Ad rem notat Clarius : « qui hic ad humilitatem inclinari non possunt nec incurvari ad observantiam mandatorum Dei, hi erunt in iudicio Dei velut infirmissima stipula in conspectu ignis et veluti arbor inutilis quae nec radices habet nec ramos ; nemo tum patrocinabitur damnatis conscientiis ; nihil erit quo se excusent ; nemo redimet, nemo miserebitur, deiicientur veluti stipula in ignem perpetuo in illo arsuri ». Iste dies Domini plene et perfecte et reliqua omnia iudicia Dei in se quasi complectens et absolvens est utique dies iudicii extremi, de quo versum explicant S. Cyr. Alb. Rib. Sanct. Lap. Sa, Mar. Men. etc. At cum imagine simili supra Messiae adventus sit propositus, qui tamquam ignis conflans filios Levi sit purgaturus et Iuda et Ierusalem ad sanctitatis splendorem emundaturus (3, 2-4), non. alienum esse a mente prophetae videtur, diem Domini sensu latiore de omni iudicio intelligere quod Dominus ad impios conterendos et ad piorum solatium et elevationem per saeculorum decursum est exerciturus. Talis autem dies discretionis ac divisionis praeprimis erat dies ultionis qua Romani bellum Iudaeis intulerunt et rempublicam iudaicam funditus everterunt (cf. Calm. Reinke) ; quare in evangeliis quoque excidium hierosolymitanum et ultimum iudicium arcto nexu inter se copulata repraesentantur (Matth. 24, 3 et seq. Marc. 13, 4. Luc. 21, 8). Immo huius diei Domini umbram quandam et inchoationem iam cernere licet cum Z7heod.' M. tempore Machabaeorum, «cum suum praebens auxilium Deus malos poena implicuit, in solatio autem et prosperitate eos constituit qui leges ipsius protegebant ». At quantum Dominus terribilem se exhibet impiis, tantum se praebebit benignum ac beneficum piis
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v. 2 « et orietur vobis timentibus nomen meum sol iustitiae et sanitas in pennis eius ; et egrediemini et salictis sicut vituli de armento » ; — impiis instat furnus ardens et combustio ; piis oritur sol iustitiae, iis iustitia et quae inde consequens est salus et beatitas, quasi sol affulgebit eos circumdans et exornans abundantia luminis, splendoris, vitae beatissimae, cuius symbolum est solis iubar omnia sua luce et calore replens et sua pulchritudine vestiens omnemque vitam terrestrem sustentans ac fovens. Quare in alis eius vel pennis i. e. in radiis eius sanitas afferri dicitur, qua vulnera omnia et calamitates et miseriae perfecte sanantur et status integerrimae salutis revocatur ; « quocumque enim radios extenderit, omnia sanabit, vulnera curabit, confractiones solidabit » (Rib.), vitam, incolumitatem, felicitatem restituet. Saepe in s. literis?ustitiaenomine ille comprehenditur status rerum, quem Deus efficere vult et qui in hominis sanctitate et beatitate consistit et absolvitur; unde iustitia saepe est salus (cf. Is. 32, 4'1 ; 45, 8 ; 46, 13; 48, 18; 01, 8; 56, 4 ; 61, 11. Ier. 31, 23 etc.), cuius abundantia, splendor, gloria sols nomine depingitur. Cum salutis fons et largitor sit ipse Dominus et cum Christus iudex tamquam talis suis sit appariturus afferens omnis generis sanitatem et auferens omnem dolorem et abstergens omnem lacrimam et in immensum suos consolans et beans, iure merito ad Christum accommodatur amplissima haec appellatio solis iustitiae (cf. S. Hier. S. Cyr. Rib. Sant. Lap. ec.). In huius nominis laude amplificanda et declaranda multi sunt SS. Patres et veteres interpretes. Pauca ex iis decerpere iuvabit. S. Cyr. inter alia eius appellationis rationem in eo potissimum cernit, quod « Christus instar solis cuiusdam iustitiae illucebit perfectissimae scientiae radios immittens et quacumque animi imbecillitate ac languore sanctos suos levans et a pristina tribulatione eos seiungens ». Hanc appellationem utrique Christi adventui congruere ; haud ineleganter prosequitur Theod. : « in priori quidem veluti sol quispiam nobis exortus est in caligine et umbra mortis constitutis atque a peccato nos liberans iustitiam impertitus est et spiritualibus donis quasi quibusdam alis nos contegens curationem animabus nostris exhibuit. Et in secundo rursus adventu his qui in hac vita vexantur vel ex eorum voto vel praeter eorum votum apparens iuste utpote iustus iudicabit et promissa bona largietur. Et quemadmodum sol exoriens somno oppressos ad laborem excitat, sic hic adveniens longo somno i. e. morte constrictos excitat ». Solis nomen eo praeprimis dici censet S. Hier., quia omnia patefaciet et vera iudicabit. Alias rationes alii addunt : « dicitur sol propter visibilem splendorem, in quo veniet ; propter laetitiam maximam, quam tunc iustis afferet, sicut sol oriens omnia laetificat ; quia adventu suo fugabit omnes tenebras i. e. afflictiones, quibus in hoc saeculo sancti premebantur; denique sicut sol restituit rebus suum colorem quem nox abstulisse videbatur, ita hoc sole exoriente redibit iustis suus color, redibit eis suus splendor afflictionibus et persecutionibus obscuratus » (Hib.). Hune Christi titulum amplissime prosequitur et explicat Lap. ad h. 1. Etiam Barh. solem iustitiae explanat « Verbum Patris quod sanat languores animae et corporis ». Alii, uti Rup., iustificationem intelligunt animarum, qua timentes Dominum felices erunt in die illa, vel, uti Alb., claritatem quae propter iustitiae meritum solem superet — cf. Eusebius, M. 92, 409. Felicitatem et tripudium iustorum imagine illustrat pastoritia : saltetis sicut vituli saginarii (hebr.) ; tempore scil. angustiarum afflicti et trepidi sese abscondebant (cf. Is. 26, 20); tunc autem libere prodibunt et salute potiti gloriosa gestient et laetabuntur (cf. Cant. 2, 9. 171; 8, 44. Ps. 113, 4, 6). Tunc quam maxime patebit, quid intersit inter iustum et impium (3, 18) :
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v. 3 « et calcabitis impios, cum fuerint cinis sub planta pedum vestrorum in die qua ego facio, dicit Dominus exercituum » ;, — ecce, ad quid demum totus impiorum tumor sit redigendus, ad quid eorum superbia, arrogantia, opes, fastus, gloria omnisque luxus : cinis erunt et tamquam abiectissimi et ramenta conculcabuntur die illo quem Dominus faciet (hebr.) ; pulvis erunt et tamquam lutum prosternentur (cf. Ps. 14, 4; 11, 43), vel potius praeter supplicium ignis quod v. 1 iis fore dicebatur, maximus quidam contemptus iis praedicitur, quo maledicto Dei onerati iusteque a Dei regno exclusi ab omnibus electis habebuntur. Haec utiin variis regni Dei epochis inchoatione quadam hisce in terris cernuntu?, quando Deus servis suis victoriam et triumphum de malorum machinationibus concedit, ita demum in. consummatione saeculorum et in die iudicii et per totam aeternitatem plenum ac perfectum sortientur effectum. IIac igitur veritate et spe quae saeculum prospicit futurum et aeternum, vates pios erigit et consolatur docens, quomodo de huius temporis afflictionibus sit iudicandum et ad quem demum rerum eventum mentis acies convertatur oporteat : annos aeternos in mente habui. Hanc scil. esse Dei normam quae suo tempore plane et perfecte ad effectum perducenda sit, ut sicut ipse est lux et inhabitat lucem inaccessibilem, ita suos lumine suo reddat beatos, hostes vero absumat et puniat. Ut promissionum divinarum participes fiant Deumque iudicem secura ac fida mente exspectare possint, propheta demum eam addit exhortationem quae pro aequalibus maximi erat momenti; ita enim, ut bene advertit Rib., prophetae de futuris vaticinari solent, ut praesentia non deserant ; id quod etiam non uno in loco monet S. Ilier. (cf. in Is. 25, 10; in Os. 14, 3; M. 24, 292; 25, 824). Unde
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v. 4 « Mementote legis Moysi servi iei quam mandavi ei in IHoreb ad omnem Israel, praecepta et iudicia » ; — omnia enim bona fideli legis obscervationi sese largiturum esse Deus sollemniter promisit (cf. Lev. 20: Deut. 28); hac enim via et ratione ab electo populo sibi volebat sub priore testamento serviri et legem esse statuerat paedagogum in Christum, ut qui adhuc parvuli essent et imperfecti sub legis tutela coercerentur et custodirentur in eam fidem quae per Christum erat revelanda (cf. Gal. 3, 19 seq.). Moyses in lege promulganda servus Dei erat, legatus scil. et internuntius Dei ad populum, qui non sua perferebat, sed Domini voluntatem per angelos intermedios sibi manifestatam (cf. Gal. 3, 19. Hebr. 2, 2) promulgabat populo et ideo fidelis dicitur in omni domo eius (Num. 12, "1. Hebr. 3, 2). Reverentiam legis auctor eius primarius Deus expostulat ; quare. ut memores sint quis mandaverit admonentur ; admonentur quoque voce Horeb, quam tremenda maiestatis divinae manifestatione et quanto terrore omnibus incusso lex fuerit promulgata (cf. Deut. 1, 6 ; 4, 10 seq. 5, 2. Ex. 19, 16 seq. 90, 18. Hebr. 12, 18-21). Horeb proprie dicitur pars septemtrionalis montis Sinai vel clivus quidam humilior montis Sinai ; sed iam in Exodo utrumque nomen promiscue adhibetur (cf. Ex. 3, 1. 12; 19, 9: 33, 6. Winer s. v. Sinai ; Schenkel, Bibellex. III, 137). Legis obligationem pro omni Israel in mentem revocat ; unde si filios Israel se esse gloriantur et ad populum Dei electum pertinere volunt, sciant hoc esse foedus Dei, hanc conditionem, ut totius legis statuta et iura, leges caerimoniales, iudiciales aeque ac morales observent et eas quae ad cultum Dei et sacrificia spectent. Quare integrum legis ambitum explicite commemorat. Atque ad hanc observantiam eo magis incumbant oportet, quia nuper sub Nehemia fidelem legis exsecutionem sollemniter spoponderant (Neh. 9, 38-10, 39). Unde illud mementote compluribus titulis et causis graviter sonat. Demum placuit Deo per ultimum prophetarum de ultima parte periodi messianicae hisce in terris futurae insigne edere vaticinium, quo simul veluti praeclaro documento omnibus saeculis notum fiat, quanta cum fidelitate Deus foedus illud cum patriarchis initum servet. Populus quidem in peculiarem hereditatem a Deo electus huius electionis ius et dignitatem foedere violato conculcavit ; immo Messiam quoque repudiabit et a se repellet, uti iam praedictum est ab Isaia (49, 4; 65, 2; cf. Rom. 10, 19-21) ; Dei autem dona sunt sine poenitentia ; non repellit populum suum quem olim in patribus elegit, et quem primogenitum sibi filium olim elegerat, eundem memor dilectionis suae in fine saeculorum cum plenitudo gentium in regnum messianicum intraverit, ad pristinam fidem et cum Deo amicitiam insigni misericordia revocabit. Hoc mysterium, quod S. Paulus latius declarat (Rom. 11, 25), vates noster proponens et prophetiam concludens ultimam populi electi in regno Dei praerogativam manifestat. Sicut enim salus est ex Iudaeis et evangelium primo annuntiandum erat Iudaeis et deinde Graecis, ita ultima regni messianici hisce in terris perfectio et splendor eximius ex Iudaeorum conversione accedet (cf. Rom. 41, 19. 15). Quomodo autem tam felix rerum conversio efficienda sit, vates docet
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v. 5 « ecce ego mittam vobis Eliam prophetam, antequam veniat dies Domini magnus et horribilis,
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v. 6 et convertet cor patrum ad filios et cor filiorum ad patres eorum, ne forte veniam et percutiam terram anathemate » ; —,dies Domini hoc loco iuremerito de ultimo iudicio intelligitur; cum enim dicatur magnus et horribilis, non de qualicumque iudicio neque de qualicumque iustitiae vel potentiae divinae manifestatione poterit explanari — quo sensu de die Domini alias saepius instituitur sermo; cf. Is. 2, 42; 13, 6; 34, 8. Lament. 1, 12 ; 2, 22. Ioel 4, 18; 2, 1. Am. 5, 18. Abd. 15. Soph. 4, "1. 14. Zach. 14, 1 — verum de maxima illa et ultima in saeculorum consummatione. Idque eo magis valere debet, quia vates in antecedentibus 9, 2 de alio die Domini locutus est, qui quamvis ipse quoque terrore non careat, tamen felicem habere eventum dicitur, cum filii Levi sint emundandi et sacrificium Iuda et Ierusalem placiturum sit Domino. Hic vero dies magnus et horribilis inducitur in connexione cum plena et perfecta impiorum deletione et conculcatione (4, 1. 3), ille prior autem spem salutis impiis quoque non denegat (3, 3. 6). Porro cum verbis ex Ioele 2, 31 petitis vates noster utatur, iuremerito illum diem designare voluisse censendus erit, de quo Ioel l. c. et ante quem signa erunt in sole et luna ; istum vero diem non coincidere cum ipso adventu periodi messianicae sed fore posteffusionem Spiritus Dei super omnem carnem, ex loele manifestum est. Demum alium diem quam illum de quo 3, 2 vates loquitur, necessario intelligendum esse etiam ex alio praecursore colligitur. Ibi enim mittitur nuntius cuius nomen tacetur, qui praeparet viam Domini et quem repente Dominus sequatur veniens ad templum suum et foedus novum instituens et populum ad veram sanctitatem revocans —; hoc autem loco mittitur Elias propheta, qui populi electi conversionem operabitur, ne Dominus veniat terram aeterno maledicto percussurus. Neque ullo pacto audiendi sunt, qui nuntium illum 3, 4 et Eliam prophetam unum eundemque esse censent (Reinke, Keil, Pressel, Trochon). Nam nullo indicio vates innuit a &e nunc vocari Eliam prophetam illum quem antea nuntium Domini appellaverat, cui rei si addideris quod modo monui de diverso utriusque munere et tempore, evidens fit utriusque distinctio. Esse autem verba explicanda prout sonant, scil. de Elia propheta, cum multis SS. Patribus et plerisque interpretibus omnino est asserendum. Primo enim non apparet ratio, cur de alio quopiam verba adeo explicita accipiantur. Dicitur enim Elias ille qui mittetur; iam vero ex s. historia omnes sciebant Eliam morte non esse sublatum, sed vivum curru igneo per turbinem in coelo raptum (4 Reg. 2, 11. Eccli. 48, 9. 1 Mach. 2,38) ; siergo audiunt Eliam iri missum, de hoc eodem Elia necessario cogitare debebant. Idemque ex munere eius et titulo etiam clarius designatur : Elias N*2371 à xpogrjrs, ille scil. propheta celeber et notus, de quo tot ac tanta in s. literis narrantur (3 Reg. 17, 1-4 Reg. 3, 11) et qui eadem appellatione Elias N*221 vocatur (1 Reg. 18, 36. 2 Chron. 21, 12). Neque excipi potest, virum qui sicut Elias propheta pro Domino magno zelo operetur, vocari Eliam ; nam eiusmodi loquendi usus nullo exemplo demonstrari potest ; et si posset, non erat dicendum missum iri Eliam zàv «pogr5", Sed prophetam quemquam vel alterum quendam Eliam. Sed, obiicit. Beinke, etiam de Messia dicitur : et suscitabo super eos pastorem unum, servum meum David... et servus meus David princeps in medio eorum (Ez. 34, 23. 24). At hoc exemplum potius contrarium demonstrat. Nam haec appellatio Messiae in s. literis sedulo praeparatur cum Messias vocetur germen ex David oriundum, vel germen quod Dominus Davidi sit suscitaturus, surculus de radice lesse, qui solium David sit occupaturus'(cf. Is. 9, 6; 114, 4. Ier. 23, 5; 33, 15; vide ad Os. 3, 9). Iam talem etiam simpliciter David vocari et quo sensu ita vocetur, omnes statim perspicient, praesertim cum de morte Davidis explicita sit mentio in s. literis, de eius autem in hanc vitam terrestrem reditu nihil innuatur. Aliter res se habet in Elia propheta, inter quem et nuntium illum nullibi talis statuitur nexus, sicut inter Davidem et Messiam. Omitto alia quae rem plane diversam esse evincunt et ex iis quae iam proposita sunt facile colliguntur. Igitur Elias propheta mittetur ante iudicium ultimum, ef convertet cor patrum ad. filios et cor filiorum ad patres i. e. sanabit magnam illam apostasiam, qua filii i. e. generationes posteriores Iudaeorum a fide et pietate patrum priscorum separati et seiuncti sunt, qua impietate prisci patres, patriarchae, populi parentes mente et animo aversi sunt a filiis - spuriis et degeneribus, et corfiliorum ad fidem et imitationem patrum reducet. Cum scil. Iudaei « crediderint in Christum, in quem patres crediderunt, ut indicat illud Ioan. 1 : Abraham exsultavit ut videret diem meum, vidit'et gavisus est, tunc cor patrum convertetur ad filios, a quibus scil. propter incredulitatem fuerat aversum » (Aib. sim. apud S.Hier. Sanct. Lap. Sa, Mar. Men. Gord. Tir. Reinke). In hac conver- $ione quae est Iudaeorum adductio ad Deum foederis, Elias id perficiet quod olim precatus erat : « exaudi me Domine, exaudi me, ut discat populus iste, quia tu es Dominus Deus et tu convertisti cor eorum iterum » (3 Reg. 18, 37). Cor patrum dici aversum a malis filiis, vide simili modo Is. 29, 99... Alii interpretantur : convertet cor patrum simul cum filiis et cor filiorum simul cum patribus i. e. omnem populum omnesque familias convertet (sim. iam S. Cyr. Mar. Presselet ex interpretibus Iudaeis Kimchi et Abenesra apud Reinke). Quae explicatio sua se facilitate commendat, atque revera 57 saepius hos convertat (Ros. Schegg) vcl generatim ut omnis discordia et animorum divisio tollatur (Loch). Alii patres Iudaeos esse volunt, filios vero gentiles, qui una in Ecclesia Christi sint coadunandi (Theod. Calm.), «ut Iudaei et Christiani qui nunc inter se discrepant, pari in Christum religione consentiant » (S. Hier.). Alia vide apud Lap. et Reine. Eliae missio idco fit, ne Dominus aeterno maledicto terram percutere cogatur, ne scil. gens iudaica fiat anathema Qn i. e. funditus a Deo reprobetur et abiiciatur ruina irreparabili. Quaecumque enim per modum anathematis devovebantur, penitus destruenda erant (cf. Lev. 27, 99. Deut. 90, 16. 1'1. Ios. 8, 26). Ita Elias Domino iudici parat viam, ne iudicium ultimum fiat iudicium condemnationis in populum olim electum, sed ut qui primi fuerint in foedere Dei, iidem etiam in saeculorum fine in hoc Dei foedere inveniantur. Latinum ne forte quod dubitationem innuere videtur, ita expediunt : «ut nos certo affirmare non audemus quod ex alieno pendet arbitratu atque ideo particulam illam frequenter adiicimus, sic Deus qui se humano loquendi modo frequenter accommodat, cum de eventu non dubitet, particulas tamen addit dubitantes » (Sanct.), vel « dubitatio haec indicat Deum etsi certa cognitione praenoscat omnia, integram hominibus relinquere libertatem » (Rib.). Geterum notandum est, illud forte in textu hebr. non adesse, sicuti abest quoque in reliquis sermonibus Domini aliorumque v. g. Gen. 3, 3. 22. Ex. 23, 33; 33, 3. Deut. 4, 16. 19 etc. ubi in latina versione legitur frequentissime. Eliam prophetam hic intelligi ipsum Joannem Baptistamex veteribus unus docuit S. Ephraem idque conclusit ex verbis angeli ad Zachariam : « iste ibit ante illum in virtute et spiritu Eliae, ut convertat cor patrum ad filios » (Luc. 4, 17) et ex Christi voce: «si vultis recipere, ipse est Elias qui venturus est» (Matth. 11, 14). Eandem sententiam ex iisdem duobus locis etiam affert Bar. Placuit ea explicatio recentioribus protestantibus multis (cf. Keil, Pressel) et etiam nonnullis interpretibus catholicis, inter quos a Reinke, strenuo huius interpretationis patrono, nominantur: Burgensis, Arias, Clarius, Braun, Bergier, Iahn, Scholz, Ackermann, Dereser. Sed Clarius certo iis non est adnumerandus ; scribit enim ad locum nostrum: «videtur sicut sub uno Eliae nomine intelligimus et Ioannem Baptistam et Eliam ipsum, sic uterque adventus hic includi »; at ad eos referri debere Vat. videtur. S. Hier. in commentario quidem ad h. l. ita loquitur, ut in Elia omnem prophetarum chorum intelligere videatur: «igitur antequam veniat dies iudicii et percutiat Dominus terram anathemate, mittet Dominus in Elia (qui interpretatur Deus meus et est de oppido Thesbi quod conversionem et poenitentiam sonat) omnem prophetarum chorum, qui convertat cor patrum ad filios, Abraham videlicet et Isaac et lacob et omnium patriarcharum, ut credant posteri eorum in Dominum Salvatorem, in quem et illi crediderunt». Verum in commentariis ad Matth. 471, 11. 12 Eliam venturum esse sine ulla dubitatione asserit: «ipse qui venturus est in secundo Salvatoris adventu juxta corporis fidem, nunc per loannem venit in virtute et spiritu (Eliae) » (M. 96, 124). Atque haec sententia tenenda est. Ei iam clare suffragatur versio graeca LXX praebens &yo &xosc£AXo üyiv 'HA(av x9» Osc6(60» ; Elias enim Thesbites vocari non potest nisi idem ille qui Elias in s. literis vocatur et utpote oriundus ex oppido Thesbi, nomine ZT/esbites saepius designatur (cf. 3 Reg. 171, 4; 21, 171. 28. 4 Reg. 1, 3. 8; 9, 36). Sicut igitur appellatio Elias & xpcofzac exclusa significatione generica ?psum Eliam dicit, ita magis distincte et maiore emphasi cognomen Z^hesbitae eundem illum exclusa omni nominis cum alio communione vcl societate eumque solum designat. At etiam maius est testimonium quod ab ipso aliquo s. auctore huic acceptioni redditur. Inter ceteras enim laudes quae Eliae tribuuntur Eccli. 48, 4 seq. etiam hoc legitur : qu scriptus est in iudictis temporum lenire iracundiam Domini, conciliare cor patris ad filium et restituere tribus lacob; quae verba nostrum apud Mal. locum respicere clarum est; dicitur enim Elias ille idem cuius res gestae ex libris historicis a v. 1- 9 summatim referuntur, à xxzxyozosig scriptus, literis consignatus et memoriae proditus tamquam talis qui iracundiam (Domini) leniturus sit ante furorem (graece) i. e. antequam furor Domini exardescat, qui debeat éxwsp£gac convertere cor patris ad filium et restituere xazaavzcos (cf. LXX. Mal. 4, 24 óg amoxaxaocíjse:) tribus Iacob. Inde enata est sententia apud Iudaeos pervulgata, quam discipuli Christi testantur et quam Christustotidem verbis omnino confirmat et approbat : Elias quidem venturus est el restituet omnia (&xcxaxzovtoer Matth. 477, 11. Marc. 9, 12) et quae apud posteriores quoque Iudaeos longe lateque erat pervulgata (cf. Reinke, Mal. p. 589). Eam retinent atque propugnant theologi catholici, ex quibus v. g. Bellarminus dicit « sententiam verissimam, lenoch et Eliam in suis personis venturos, et contrarium vel esse haeresim vel errorem haeresi proxrmum » (de Rom. Pontif. 3, 6; in opere de Controversiis, t. 4 p. 119 ; Parisiis 1608) ; similiter Fr. Suarez eam assertionem esse aut de fide aut fidei valde proximam affirmat (in 3 p. S. Thom. qu. 59, disp. 55 sect. 2; in edit. Moguntiae 1604 t. 9 p. 654) et quam longa serie scriptorum ecclesiasticorum ac theologorum ea defendatur, vide et apud hos quos modo nominavi, et praesertim apud Natalem Alexandrum (hist. vet. Test. in mundi quintam aetatem dissert. 6 ; edit. Paris. 1130 t. 2 p. 185). Atque revera huic sententiae etiam multi Patres calculum adiecerunt, ex quibus accipe haec testimonia : Tertullianus (de anima 35; M. 2, 41), Hilarius (in Matth. 11, 11. M. 9, 1015), Origenes(in Matth. M. 13, 1086), Victorinus Martyr (schol. in Apoc. 44, 5. M. 5, 334), Iustinus (c. Tvyph. n. 49. M. 6, 584), Hippolytus (de Christo et Antichr. 46. M. 10, '164), Ambrosius (in Ps. 48 n. 10. M. 14, 1138 ; in Luc. 1, 17. M. 19, 1548), Augustinus (de Civ. D. 20, 99. M. 41, 104) qui quidem ita loquitur : « per hunc Eliam magnum mirabilemque prophetam exposita sibi leze ultimo tempore ante iudicium Iudaeos in Christum verum, id est, in Christum nostrum esse credituros celeberrimum est in sermonibus cordibusque fidelium. Ipse quippe ante adventum iudicis Salvatoris non immerito speratur esse venturus, quia etiamnunc vivere non immerito creditur », et rem certam atque indubiam proponit in loan. tract. &n. 8 : «duo Christi adventus, duo praecones » (M. 35, 1408). Porro Gregorius Nyssenus (testim. adv. Iud. 47. M.46, 929), Chrysostomus (hom. $1al. 58 in Matth. M. 58, 588; in 4 Thess. 5. hom. 9n.92. M. 62, 449), Gregorius Magnus (in Iob mor. 9 n. 9; 14 n. 24; 38 n. 34. M. "15, 863. 964 ; '16, 168), Joannes Damascenus (de fid. orth. 4, 26. M. 94, : 421'1). Hisce adde interpretes in Malachiae locum : Cyr. quem etiam vide explicantem Ioan. 1, 93 (M. 13, 184), Theod. Theod. M. Alb. Rib. Sanct. Lap. Sa etc. At Rup. non sine haesitantia mentem suam aperit : « de adventu Heliae quidquam definire non ausim, quia videlicet doctorum alii, quibus omnes fere consentimus credunt eum ad literam venturum et restituturum omnia ac mortis debitum persoluturum ; alii vero nequaquam, quibus vir illustris B. Hieronymus consentire videtur... ceterum Dominus interrogatus ab Apostolis de adventu Heliae respondit: Helias iam venit el non cognoverunt eum . . . loannem in Helia volens intelligi ; unde subsecutus adiunxit : si. vultis recipere, loannes ipse est. Helias qui venturus est » (Matth. 11, 14; 1'1, 12) !. Eam difficultatem quam alii quoque ex verbis istis Domini movent, egregie solvit S. Chrysostomus (hom. in Matth. l. c.) et Maldonatus in Matth. ; verum ea de re longiorem disputationem instituere non est huius loci. Concludere iuvat hosce in minores prophetas commentarios verbis iis quibus Theod. quem toties laudavimus suos in eosdem absolvit: «ego vero illud monitos velim lectores laborum nostrorum, ut de his quae bene et recte diximus, increatam Trinitatem laudibus prosequantur. Si quid vero ex propheticis oraculis nostrum captum fugerit, naturae infirmitati ignoscant et defectum suppleant propositumque laudent et labo- . res precationibus compensent. Bonorum autem largitor, sapientiae fons et auctorem et lectores prudentia ad omnes res instruat, ut inseparabiliter ei servientes glorificemus eum in corpore et in spiritu nostro, quoniam ei convenit gloria in saecula saeculorum. Amen ». PROLEGOMENA. . ; 1. De vate eiusque tempore. 9. De libri argumento. LIBER NAHUM . . SERMO PRIMUS Cap. 1. &) Ultoris Dei potentia et terror. 1, 9. 8. b) Interibit Ninive, Sion exsultabit, 1, 9- 15. SERMO ALTER Cap. 2. ; a) Impugnatio et casus urbis. 9. 1-8. b) Praedatio et vastitas. 9, 9-13. . TEnTIUS Sgnuo Cap. 3. ics a) Scelera denuntiantur et poena. 3, 1- T PROLEGOMENA . 1. De aetate prophetae. 2. De argumento prophetiae . LIBER HABACUC. PRIOR PARS, DiALoGÜs INTER PROPHETAM ET DzUw. Cap. 1 " 2. a) De impiorum perversitate querelae. 1, 2-4. b) Chaldaei ultores describuntur. 1, 541. c) Propheta excidium deprecatur. 4, 12-17. . d) Deus normam iudicii proponit. 2, 1-5. . €) Vae latroni et superbo dominatori. 2, 6-11. f) Vae oppressori, illusori, idololatrae. 9, 12-20. : ALTERA PARS , . . . &, T CaNTICUM Hanaccc. Cap. 3, a) Titulus et prooemium. 3, 1-2. e) Dei iudicium cum timore ac spe exspectandum. 3, 1649. . . 448 PROLEGOMENA . . . . . $n de uod x0 xw 35 424 De prophetae tempore et libro. "- - PUE PROLEGOMENA . . . . gs v. E. uec ow sod ox. 7109 De prophetae tempore et libello. E ue u^ ue ue ub Re EM DES S ro 2B LIBER AGGABI . . . . EO uw... ge dud PRIMA ADMONITIO ET QUID EA SIT EFFECTUM jd 43, Tu dG Geekow 4 » d) Populi socordia et poena. 14, 1-6. . ... . . . . . . » TERTIA ADMONITIO DE CAUSA CALAMITATUM ET PROMISSIO BENEDICTIONIS 2. 11-20. 199 a) Contaminatos consequitur afflictio. 9, 11-18. 00. 5. . . 900 b) Promittit futuram benedictionem. 2, 49-90 zou c^ cw. wx ow m4 QuanRTUS SERMO DOMUI DaviD STABILITATEM SPONDET 2, 21-24. . . . 905 a) Nulla adhuc terrae gentiumque commotio. f, 7-13. c) Impetus hostiles compescentur. 1, 18-94. . ALTERA VISIO : INSTAURATIO URBIS GLORIOSA. 2,1-13. . b) Gloria Sionis ad eam invitantur. 9, 6-13. . TERTIA VISIO : SACERDOTII SANCTITAS RESTITUTA Cap. 3. b) Quid hac instauratione significetur. 3, 6-10. QUARTA VISIO : TEMPLI AEDIFICATIO Cap. 4. a) Armis et subsidiis spiritualibus est utendum. 4, 1- T. b) Templi aedificatio. 4, 8-14. Re od QuiNTA visIO : ABLATIO INIQUITATIS POPULI Cap. 5. b) Iniquitas e terra theocratica amovetur. 5, s- M. DE VERA AD PROMISSA CONSEQUENDA PRAEPARATIONE Cap. 7. 8. a) Non ieiunium, sed obedientiam praecepit Deus. 7, 1-7. b) Inobedientia eos reddidit miseros. 7, 8-14. . €) Sioni gratiam et prosperitatem promittit. 8, 1-8. e) Promittitur laetitia gentiumque conversio. 8, 18-23. SECTIO PRIOR Cap. 9-11. a) Iudicium in gentes finitimas. 9, 1- 1. b) Messias rex pacificus. 9, 8-10. c) Reducibus praeclarae victoriae promittuntur. 9, M- 17. d) À Deo salus est petenda. 10, 4-9. . e) Deus salutem concedet gloriosam. 10, 3-7. f) Colligentur dispersi. 10, 8-19. g) Iudicium in contumaces. 11, 1-3.
4:1
… a view to a judgment of condemnation, says clearly: "Many of those who sleep in the dust shall awake: some to eternal life, others to reproach and eternal infamy." Similar themes are developed by Is. 14, 9-20; 33, 14; Ez. 32, 23; Zach. 5, 1-11; Mal. 4, 1-3.
4:2
… beginning of the "New Testament" (Jer. 31, 31). "The fixed term of eternal counsel" (Dante, Par., 33, 3), a cooperator in the divine plan of the Redemption, the "new Eve," Mary rises above the world like the aurora consurgens, herald of the "Sun of justice" (Mal. 4, 2). Dante depicts the A. as a sublime example of humility (Purg. 10, 28-45).
… The frisking of lambs in spring figures the exultation of Israel freed from Egypt (Sap. 19, 9) with which inanimate nature is associated (Ps. 113 [114], 4, 6; cf. Mal. 4, 2 [Hebr. 3, 20]: the calves).
4:4
Horeb (Hebrew Hōrēb, «Drought», «Desolation»)
… with the terrible theophany and the so-called Sinaitic covenant (Ex. 19:18 ff.; Deut. 4:10, 15; 5:20; 18:16); the delivery of the tablets of the Law and their placement in the Ark (Deut. 9:8 ff.; 1 Kings 8:9; 1 Chron. 5:10); the promulgation of the Law (Mal. 4:4); the worship of the golden calf (Ps. 105[106]:19; Deut. 9:8 ff.); the long sojourn of the Israelites just out of Egypt and the point of departure for Kadesh-barnea (Deut. 1:2, 19, …
4:5
Circumcision (From Lat. circumcisio, «cutting around»; Gr. περιτομή; Heb. Milāh)
… The chair on which the sandiqās sits during the act of circumcision is usually called the chair of the prophet Elijah, who is believed to assist invisibly at every circumcision and is popularly called "the Angel of the covenant" (cf. Mal. 3:1; 4:5).
… 11; c) a precursor will immediately prepare the people for the work of the M. (Mal. 3, 1 ff.; cf. Is. 42, 6; 49, 8; Hag. 2, 9). Such a precursor, of whom Elijah (v.) is the type, "will turn the heart of the fathers toward the children" and vice versa (Mal. 4, 5 f. = Lk. 1, 16 f.; Mt. 11, 10; 17, 10-13). There is no lack of allusions to the messianic hope in Sir. 36, 6-22; 45, 22, etc.; and in Wis. 18, 4; 14, 11-14.
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.