Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
Creatures, however, depend on the Most Holy Trinity as a ray on the sun. For the Father is he from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named; the Son, from whom is all sonship, offspring and propagation; the Holy Spirit, from whom is all love, all grace, all liberality, every gift. In man, moreover, says St. Bernard, “there is a creating Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, from which fell the created trinity, memory, reason and will. And there is a trinity into which fell impotence, blindness, uncleanness. There is a trinity through which rises again faith, hope, charity. These threefold things have subdivisions. For there is faith in precepts, in signs, in promises; there is also hope of pardon, of grace and of glory; and there is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith,” serm. 1 among the Little Ones. In like manner St. Augustine, bk. xi On the Trinity, near the end, teaches that the Most Holy Trinity impressed its image on the soul and its three powers: “These three,” he says, “memory, understanding, will, since they are not three lives, but one life; nor three minds, but one mind; consequently, then, are not three substances, but one substance. Wherefore these three are one in that they are one life, one mind, one essence,” just as in God the three persons are one life, one mind, one divine essence. The same, at the beginning of bk. xii, shows that a vestige of the Most Holy Trinity is in the body and in any sense; for example, in sight, he says, there are three: the thing seen, the vision itself, and the attention of the mind. And in chapters v and xx he teaches that the perfect image of God is in the just alone. “For these alone,” he says, “live according to the trinity of the inner man,” which consists in faith, hope and charity. Now as memory begets understanding, and understanding love; and as faith begets hope, and hope charity; so the Father begets the Son, the Son with the Father breathes forth the Holy Spirit. Again, there is an image or vestige of the Most Holy Trinity impressed on the sun; for as the sun scatters rays, and the rays heat, so the Father pours forth the Son from himself, and the Son with the Father the Holy Spirit. Likewise in a tree; for as a tree puts forth a branch from the root, and the branch with the root bears fruit, so the Father brings forth the Son, and through the Son and with the Son the Holy Spirit. There is an image in Adam, as Nazianzen hints, orat. 39. For Adam was unbegotten, because formed by God alone, who soon fashioned Eve from Adam; Adam then begot Seth by Eve: so the Father is unbegotten, the Son begotten by him, through whom and with whom he produces the Holy Spirit. There is an image in the soul, which is the same in the head, neck and breast, and flows from the head through the neck, and carries the animal spirits into the breast; likewise the same divinity is in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which flows from the Father through the Son, and communicates itself to the Holy Spirit. There is an image in the eye and in the mirror. For as the same object, for example the same numerical man, is and appears as if threefold in three mirrors, and in three eyes by his likeness, so the same Godhead is and appears threefold in three persons. There is an image, and the clearest and most illustrious, in the venerable Eucharist. For as the same numerical Christ exists in three consecrated hosts, and the hosts are really distinct from each other, though they have plainly the same essence, namely the same body of Christ; so the same divine essence exists in three persons, who in the notion of person really differ, while having the same and undivided essence. There is an image in a chain, says St. Basil, epist. 43 to Gregory of Nyssa. “For as he who takes hold of the end of one ring thereby draws along the other linked to it, so he who draws the Spirit, as the Prophet says, draws through him also the Son and the Father at once. For here is a new and unusual joining of distinction” of notions and personal properties, “and distinct joining” of persons in the same numerical essence. There is an image, says the same in the same place, in the rainbow: as three colors make the rainbow in the heavenly circle, so three persons in the Godhead make the Triad, that is, one and threefold God. Finally, every spirit and every body is an image of the Most Holy Trinity: for in a spirit there is a trinity, nature, power, operation; in a body, matter, form, property. Would you have more? God created and ordered all things in a trinity, namely in number, weight and measure. Wherefore Plato in the Timaeus held that the world was made by the cube of the ternary, namely by twenty-seven (the cube of numbers arises when a number is multiplied first into itself, then into the product, so that three times three are nine, three times nine are twenty-seven), in which all harmony and consonance consists. Hence he first created the Angels distinguished into three orders, in three hierarchies, that in them he might express the first image of himself, namely of the Most Holy Triad. For three times three are nine, three times nine are twenty-seven, which is the cube of the ternary. Grant, O Lord, that in these vestiges of yourself, and especially in your image, which you have impressed on our soul, we may ever behold you. Grant that in our memory we may always have present our prototype, the eternal Father, that everywhere we may remember and be mindful of him. Grant that in our understanding, the word of our mind, we may think on and relish the primeval Word, from whom is every word of ours. Grant that in our will and love we may unceasingly love the Holy Spirit, who is our fountain-love, that he may deign to dwell in it as in his holy temple, and to drive and impel it to every good. These your ineffable mysteries, O Most Holy Trinity, the Prophets, by your revelation, first learned, first announced, first handed on in writing to posterity. Isaias saw God, not only as one but as three, in that wonderful and inexplicable vision, sitting on an august throne, and likewise heard the Seraphim saluting and adoring him with the thrice-holy. The same often learns and teaches that the Father communicated the Holy Spirit to the incarnate Son: “Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my elect, my soul delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him,” ch. xlii, ver. 1. “And now the Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit,” ch. xlviii, ver. 16. And: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me; to preach to the meek he hath sent me,” ch. lxi, ver. 1. Jeremias, receiving from the same the oracles he was to utter, and astonished, confesses his infancy to the Most Holy Trinity with a threefold sigh and lament: “A, a, a, Lord God: behold I cannot speak, for I am a child,” ch. i, 6. The same, with a threefold rebuke of the earth, warns it to hear the voice of its threefold God: “Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord,” ch. xxii, 29. The same: “The Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A woman shall compass a man,” ch. xxxi, 22. And presently of the Holy Spirit: “I will give my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart (which is the work of the Holy Spirit): and I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” ver. 33. Ezechiel saw the Most Holy Trinity in the chariot of glory, attended by four Cherubim, sitting upon a sapphire throne, in a threefold appearance, of man, of amber and of fire. “The rings also had a stature, and a height, and a dreadful appearance: and the whole body full of eyes, etc. For the spirit of life was in the wheels,” ch. i, 18. The same continually hears from God: “Son of man, thou shalt speak these things,” thou shalt prophesy these things, so as to represent the Son of God as an ambassador sent by the Father to men. He makes mention of the Holy Spirit when he says: “And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into Chaldea,” ch. xi, 24. And: “I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels,” ver. 19. And: “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you,” ch. xxxvi, 26. Daniel represents the Most Holy Triad in the three children in the Babylonian furnace, by whose help they remained unhurt in the fire, ch. iii; wherefore they sang to it a notable hymn. The same, ch. vii, 9: “I beheld,” he says, “till thrones were placed, and the Ancient of days sat: his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool: his throne like flames of fire: the wheels of it like a 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, etc. And behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like the son of man came, and he came even to the Ancient of days. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away; and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed. My spirit trembled,” ver. 9–15. And again: “Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished, and everlasting justice may be brought, and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the Saint of saints may be anointed,” ch. ix, 24. For the anointer is the Father; the anointed, namely Christ, is the Son; the anointing and the oil is the Holy Spirit. Yours, therefore, nay, from you, O Most Holy Trinity, are these oracles by which you revealed yourself to the Prophets, and through them pictured yourself to us. Grant that we may know, revere, love and worship you in them. Grant that all who are to read these commentaries on them may be kindled by them to your love and veneration. The Saracens and Turks in Asia, the schismatics in Africa, the heretics in Europe, the pagans in India deny and tear you. Come, Lord, by your power and grace let heresy, schism, Mohammedanism, paganism come to an end: let your kingdom come, let your holy name be sanctified in all Asia, Africa, Europe, India; that the whole world may confess you, praise you, celebrate you; that all together, with one mouth and equal harmony, we may unceasingly sing to you: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” Glory to the Father, who created us: glory to the Son, who redeemed us with his blood: glory to the Holy Spirit, who sanctified us by his grace. Glory to the Father, who predestined us: glory to the Son, who justified us: glory to the Holy Spirit, who will bless and glorify us. And by this faith and praise may we merit to enjoy you in heaven, and in you to possess life, kingdom and eternal glory (which you assuredly are), and to rejoice before you with the hierarchies of the heavenly spirits, with the myriads, I say, of Angels, through all eternities: Blessing, and brightness, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to our God, one and triune, for ever and ever. O sacred Trinity, O threefold Unity, O one immensity, immense charity, dear truth, true sweetness, sweet happiness, happy eternity, our God, our love and honor, our jubilee, and our all. Amen.
HIEROGLYPHICS AND SACRED SYMBOLS COLLECTED FROM THE FOUR PROPHETS, ARRANGED IN ORDER, AND BRIEFLY EXPLAINED.
I. Chap. ii, ver. 2. “In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it: for from Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation.” This mountain is a hieroglyph of the Church, which, like a mountain, towers above all the hills of human polity, wisdom and religion, to which nations from the whole world have flowed: because from Mount Sion, where the Church began, went forth the law of Christ and the word of the Gospel, that is, the glad tidings of peace between men and God, and among themselves; for Christ reconciled us to God, and by his law taught men and led them to peace, that laying down arms they might cultivate and keep union. See what is said on Isaias ii.