Book 4

Commentaries on the Book of 1 Kings

BOOK FOUR.

CHAPTER I.

1. The deeds of holy men who came before are often the consolations of the elect who follow. For by a wonderful dispensation of divine counsel, they were raised to the citadel of the highest way of life in such a way that they might do mighty things for themselves and provide right governance for their subjects; yet sometimes so left to themselves that those things which they arranged with right intention would not turn out rightly according to God's providence — so that their weakness might become the strength of the elect who follow: because even though as men they can err in managing the affairs of the holy Church, those ecclesiastical arrangements themselves are not to be abandoned. For behold it is said: (1 Kings 8:1–3) And it came to pass when Samuel had grown old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. And the name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of the second was Abiah, judges in Beersheba. And his sons did not walk in his ways.

2. Behold, he who had been full of the spirit of prophecy did not know that those whom he was appointing as judges of Israel would afterward turn aside after greed, and accept bribes, and pervert judgment. What wonder, then, if those who do not receive the grace of prophecy can be deceived in arranging appointments—if those who have the spirit of prophecy do not have that same spirit for disposing all things? Who would doubt concerning so great a man that, if he had foreknown the future perversity of his sons, he certainly would not have advanced them to public honors? Those, therefore, who knowingly promote the reprobate can in no way flatter themselves with this example of the prophet, because it is done innocently only when no signs of subsequent iniquity were apparent in them at the time they were promoted. For this reason also, those who were appointed by Samuel as judges of Israel were fittingly called his sons when they were appointed, so that from this they might be believed not only to have been begotten from him according to the flesh, but also adorned with the splendors of his manner of life. For this reason also their names are carefully recorded, so that from the title of the name that form of virtue which was then in them might be recognized. The name of one, he says, was Joel, and of the other Abiah; they were judges in Beersheba. But also concerning those who are said to have turned aside to greed after receiving their office, it is clearly shown that before they attained the height of that same office, no signs of future depravity were seen in them. But behold, while we attend to the consolations of pastors, we perceive no small dangers for the Lord's flock. For the prophet's sons stood firm as subjects, but fell when placed at the height of authority—so that if, while we are placed under the care of superiors, an unceasing zeal for holy life or the confidence of a great manner of living smiles upon us, we should nevertheless hold the governing of others not in the appetite of desire but in the greatness of fear. But carnal people, while they attend only to visible things, do not deserve to know the spiritual manner of life of the saints. They look upon the eminence of the pastors of holy Church, but they do not know how to consider how unwillingly those pastors bear inwardly the distinction which they hold outwardly in the splendor of eminence, that they endure the loftiness of honor as the oppression of a great burden, that they flee with great desire what they pursue in outward ministry. For with the outstanding teacher as witness we have learned that the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14). Whence also, pursuing carnal things, he errs all the more madly to the degree that through the power of discernment he no longer penetrates any spiritual things. And some such people advance to so great an evil of madness that they do not fear to disturb even the very state of ecclesiastical eminence. Whence it also follows: (Verses 4, 5.) Therefore all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Ramah, and said to him: Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Appoint a king over us, to judge us as all the nations have.

3. But for those who were living under spiritual governance, to ask for a king—what else is it than to eagerly desire to transform that same spiritual leadership into secular domination? Yet when holy men see that they are despised by their subjects, what displeases them is not so much that they are despised, but that those who despise them do not please God. For by the contempt shown to them, they see that increases are given to their own interior glory; but they groan that their merits are increased by the failings of their subjects, whom they would rather have advance in merits, so that in the eternal reward of merits they might have been able to have with them those over whom they preside. Therefore it is also added: (Verse 6) The word was displeasing in the eyes of Samuel, because they had said: Give us a king, to judge us.

4. For what displeased him was that through which he judged those who were speaking to be displeasing to God. But because it is not simply said, "the matter displeased Samuel," but "in the eyes of Samuel," and immediately it is added: (Verse 6.) "And Samuel prayed to the Lord for the people," we ought to consider these things somewhat more carefully. Holy men, who greatly fear displeasing Almighty God, are not hasty in their judgments, but first arrange all things rationally within themselves, so that they may dispose of them outwardly in action without reproach. For they accept no choice of judgment unless it is approved by the contemplation of reason. The Lord indeed wished to open these eyes of the prophet when He said: "See with your eyes, and hear with your ears" (Ezek. 40:4). Hence in the Gospel He said to the disciples: "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see" (Luke 10:23). For the eyes of the saints are the understanding of reason, opened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And therefore they are said to be Samuel's, because all carnal people, even if they seem rational through human wisdom, are all the more blind to this light of reason, inasmuch as they see only with those eyes which the serpent opened. For if they could behold the splendor of spiritual virtues, they would surely desire to possess it as the adornment of their mind. So great indeed is the beauty of these virtues that their sight can never fail to be desired with longing by the one who sees them. Therefore the wise of this world, when they suppose themselves to possess the eyes of reason, can recognize from this how madly they rage: because not to be attracted by the beauty of holy virtues is surely not only not to perceive their glory, but not even to dream of it. Therefore holy men, who are already bound by the love of interior things through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, have the eyes of their mind all the clearer for seeing the glory of inward brightness, the more they have no desire for anything from the darkness of the world; and they can discern carnal things all the more rightly, the further they have been raised up from carnal things and have advanced more deeply into the grace of the Holy Spirit. Hence the Apostle Paul also, from the experience of so great a vision, pronounced the sentence, saying: "The spiritual man judges all things" (1 Cor. 2:15). Rightly therefore it is said: "The matter displeased in the eyes of Samuel." Because by spiritual men nothing is despised before it is judged to be worthy of contempt through the spiritual insight of the mind. And because the more abundantly they are filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, the less they presume upon the loftiness of their own virtue, there follows: "And Samuel prayed to the Lord." For what did he pray to the Lord, if not that He would deign to show him whether he ought to give assent to the petition of the tumultuous people? (Verses 7, 8.) "And the Lord said to Samuel: Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For they have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them, according to all their works which they have done from the day when I brought them out of Egypt even to this day."

5. Because it is said to the prophet as he prays, "Set a king over them," it is clearly shown that he asked for it to be revealed to him whether this should be done. And because He adds, saying, "They have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them," it is fittingly shown how displeasing to Him was the request which is reported to have been displeasing in the eyes of Samuel. This harmony of judgment arises in the saints from the power of charity: because while they love the Creator with their whole mind and devoutly strive to obey His will, they receive as a reward of heavenly recompense that they do not diverge in their thinking from that same will of almighty God, which they always hold fast in good works. For it is written: "He who clings to God is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17). For he clings to the Lord who always strives to carry out the commands of His will. But he becomes one spirit with Him: because through long devotion of pious work he is raised to such a degree of grace of divine knowledge that he can no longer dissent from the fairness of His inner judgment through the error of a worldly spirit. But it is very difficult to answer if it is asked why almighty God both complains that He was rejected in the request for a king, and yet decrees that what was requested should come to pass; and again, if royal dignity was to be established, why it was permitted as though by an offended divine majesty; and when a foreseen king is decreed to be chosen, why one who would be rejected is chosen. What else can we answer to these things except what the apostle Paul would answer to those daring to search the ineffable abyss of God's judgments: "O man," he says, "who are you to answer back to God?" (Rom. 9:20). But if we cannot resolve this effectively, we can touch upon it by inquiring. Perhaps He complains that He was rejected in the request for a king? On account of the reprobate will of the people asking wrongly, the requested king is granted as a punishment. If this is said reasonably, since He put forward both things, He showed both the fault and the retribution together. For he who is shown to have rejected the Creator by his asking is convicted of having made an unjust demand out of a reprobate will. Therefore the penalty of strict justice followed upon the fault of the wicked request. For great indeed is the punishment that proceeds from the severity of the inner examination, when a reprobate mind is so cast away that it is permitted to carry out what it wrongly decides. Those, therefore, who were convicted of having rejected the Lord in asking for a king—since they were permitted to do that by which they would cast the Lord away from themselves—there was no heavier punishment with which they ought to have been struck here.

6. In this place it should be noted that the Lord makes the rejection of the prophet His own. For He does not simply say, "They have rejected me, that I should not reign over them," but rather, "They have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them." So as to clearly show that in the person of the chosen bishop, He Himself presides over His subjects; and when a carnal ruler is raised to the spiritual summit of the elect, He Himself is seen to be rejected whose precepts are cast aside. Therefore, how worthy of reverence the best pastors of the holy Church are is plain. For behold, while they faithfully serve God, they are joined to Him by so great a bond of love that whatever is inflicted upon them is ascribed as an injury to God. Whence also in the Gospel He says to the first pastors of the Church: "He who despises you despises me" (Luke 10:16). Where something even graver is perceived: because when He complains that the pastor has been rejected, all the sins of those who reject him are recalled, and even the evils of their forefathers are mentioned. "According to all their works," He says, "which they have done from the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt." For the supreme crime is recognized, for whose examination all past sins are brought back into the memory of God. And so the Lord complains that He has been rejected, and yet grants that one to be ordained in whom He is rejected: because when He executes the power of His strict justice, the desires of carnal men are by no means prevented from being fulfilled through His mercy. But also that dignity which could have been granted as a punishment ought not to have been granted with the tranquil majesty of divinity, but as if with indignation. However, we do not assert that the indignant majesty of God is indignant in itself, which is not subject to passion: but because when He examines faults, He speaks words of indignation through the Scriptures. Likewise, because a king is taken up as a type of carnal prelates, a king destined for rejection is chosen, not an elect one. Or perhaps a reprobate king is chosen for this reason, that his elect successor, King David, might learn from him what he ought to have guarded against. Thus indeed we also read concerning that court of angels, because of the first apostate angel it is written: "He is the beginning of the ways of God" (Job 40:14); but he who was created before all things fell through pride, and in his ruin the holy angels learned by what virtue they could have stood firm. Which indeed, whoever can behold with the open eyes of right faith equally observes: that Almighty God bestows the gifts of great mercy even when He inflicts punishment; because while He punishes the reprobate, He instructs the saints, so that from where those fall, these may be aided in their progress.

7. By strict judgment indeed He permits evils to be done, but mercifully He provides from those evils which He inflicts through judgment, things which He arranges to make into good. For what greater fault is there than that by which we all die? And what greater goodness than that by which we are freed from death? And indeed, if Adam had not sinned, it would not have been necessary for our Redeemer to take on our flesh. For He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). If therefore He came for sinners, if sins were lacking, it would not have been necessary for Him to come. If the sins, which He is believed to have come to destroy, are understood to have been permitted by the justice of God: since God was to be born as man for sinners, almighty God had foreseen that from that evil by which they were to die, He would bring about a good that would overcome that evil. The greatness of this good—what faithful person does not see how wonderfully it excels? Great indeed are the evils we suffer through the desert of the first sin, but what elect person would not prefer to endure worse things rather than not have so great a Redeemer? Let a king therefore be chosen—but one to be rejected; let him be chosen as if by the indignation, not the will, of God. Let there then follow a king after God's own heart, so that from the severity of His judgment the evil of vengeance may proceed against the reprobate, and the good which He was to bring about from evil may, through the bounty of divine grace, overflow upon the pious, while those others are permitted to fall into the evil they desire. But from what those men cast themselves down, it is brought about that others may not fall at all. But since by these words the judgment of divine severity is affirmed, let us now see how great a dispensation He employs, lest those deliberating wrongly do that for which they would be punished. For there follows: (Verse 9) Now therefore hear their voice; yet solemnly warn them, and declare to them the right of the king who shall reign over them.

8. As if by an open display of clemency He says: So hear their voices, yet let them first hear concerning the right of the king whom they seek, something that will make them tremble; and let them then abandon what was badly begun, when the thing they were seeking is recognized to be how burdensome it is. There follows: (Verses 10-17.) So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked him for a king, and said: This will be the right of the king who is to rule over you. He will take your sons and place them in his chariots, and will make them his horsemen and runners before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself tribunes and centurions, and plowmen of his fields, and reapers of his harvests, and makers of his weapons and chariots. Your daughters also he will make his perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will also take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his servants. Moreover, he will take a tenth of your grain crops and the produce of your vineyards, to give to his eunuchs and servants. He will also take your male servants and female servants, your best young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will also take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will be his slaves.

9. When subjection is sought by carnal men, assuredly whatever is commanded them is burdensome, even if it is not difficult: because since they have it from the swelling of pride that they follow the judgment of their own will, whatever opposes their deliberation they consider most grievous. But indeed when harsh and contrary things are commanded, what a weight of burden is that! What swelling of heart! When they could scarcely bear even pleasant and light things unwillingly—things which, if they had been willing, they would have borne most easily. Let us therefore see how the pious dispensation of the Creator worthily answers the foolish audacity of man. The laws of men are set before those who despise the laws of God; and upon those who had spurned the mild and salutary counsels of the Divinity, the harsh and unbearable burdens of human servitude are proclaimed: so that from these things they might reckon with themselves how intolerable the commands of man would be for those who had refused to obey the counsels of God—who was not so much commanding as advising them not to seek this. But the hearts of carnal men possess recklessness from the increase of audacity, and hardness from the nature of pretense. From recklessness indeed they deliberate upon things easy to do; but because they do not understand what they wrongly propose, they cannot be helped by the counsels of those who are wiser. Wherefore here too it is added: (Verse 19.) The people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. And they said: By no means: for a king shall be over us, and we also shall be like all the nations, and our king shall judge us, and shall go out before us, and shall fight our battles for us.

10. It was indeed a matter of great rashness to ask for a king against God's will; of great hardness, to be unable to be overcome by the counsels of the prophet. It was of great rashness to put forth arguments to him whom they knew, by the Lord's revelation, to know beforehand all that he was about to do. Of great hardness, not to yield to him whom they knew to command only those things which he had learned by the Lord's revelation. For what is it that they say in response: "By no means, but a king shall be over us"? But those who say "By no means" surely deny what they hear. It is therefore openly shown by this word that the prophet set forth the heavy right of the king for this purpose: that he should by no means be requested. But they hear the right of the king, and they detest the very purpose for which it is set forth—so that the progress of reprobate hearts is expressed, in which there is the consummation of an evil purpose and the unconvertibility of the will. But we blame ancient times, we who do not care to see our own. Which times, indeed, the more aged they are as the world grows old, the more lax they become in many things through the fault of time and negligence. For so much the more boldly do we now propose evil things, inasmuch as already, with the vigorous youth of the age, the strength of the human condition has withered; so much the more difficultly do we recall what has been badly proposed, inasmuch as from the loosened vigor of the spirit, our mind becomes carnal. For such are human failings, that what is lacking in spiritual virtue is strengthened in carnal life. All these things indeed, according to the voice of the excellent teacher: "These things happened to them in figure, but they were written for our sake" (1 Cor. 10:11). Already indeed we openly recognize the audacity of these Israelites, which the judgments of divine indignation followed; and yet we do not fear to propose courses of action against the will of God, against the counsel of the prelates of Holy Church. When rebuked in an evil purpose, we also resist, and we attempt to overcome the salutary counsels of our superiors by the unconquerable evil of obstinacy. We see how great an increase of evil it is to behold those who perish, and not to fear to follow their footsteps to perdition; to see those running into the penal snares of death, and by no means to dread being entangled in the same snares. And they indeed asked for a king against the Lord's will; but from the royal dignity it afterward came about that the people, who had cast God aside, worshipped idols and adored images. We therefore see how worthy of reverence the counsels of our elders are, if we carefully consider this: that those who dared to despise them did not foresee that they were doing that by which they could be plunged into so deep a sea of error. Rightly therefore does the Lord complain that He was rejected in the petition for a king; rightly does He grant the royal dignity in anger. So great indeed was the iniquity of those asking, that when they sought that through which they would depart from God, it could be permitted by God's judgment but could not be prohibited. But since we have said these things according to the letter, let us also see what those things which are contained in the right of the king signify spiritually.

CHAPTER II.

1. For when Samuel was rejected, a king was sought: when the reprobate multitude of the people despises a spiritual pastor and seeks a carnal one to rule over them. With such people it is often dealt by the severity of divine justice, so that by the very fact that they despise the chosen preacher, they are permitted to be subject to a reprobate, from whose imitation they perish all the more grievously, the more boldly they despised with greater pride that by which they could have lived forever. When therefore the right of the king is foretold, clearly it is shown in the conduct of one carnal ruler what the other carnal ones will do through tyranny, not what the elect ought to imitate. For in the same history of Kings it is read that when King Ahab took away Naboth's vineyard, he incurred the wrath of almighty God. But here, when the right of the king is foretold, fields, vineyards, and the best olive groves are mentioned as things to be seized (1 Kings 21:2 ff.). When therefore what was committed and punished there is foretold here, it shows that it is not commanded by divine judgment. Wherefore also the chosen King David, when he sought the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite for building an altar to the Lord, did not wish to use that royal right of tyrants (1 Chronicles 21:24), since he would by no means consent to receive it unless he had first given a worthy price for it.

2. Since, therefore, the things contained in the law of the king are declared to be avoided rather than imitated, they must be considered all the more carefully inasmuch as they cannot be avoided if they are not known. He says, then: 'He will take your sons and place them in his chariots.' The sons of the elect are those who imitate their virtues. The chariots of carnal prelates, moreover, are the pomp of worldly pride. For while they glory in being more exalted than others, they stride through the heights as if carried on chariots. The sons of the faithful are therefore placed in chariots when they follow reprobate pastors through the desire for worldly glory — when, abandoning spiritual pursuits, they seek the advantages of a carnal life, and, laying aside that lofty intention directed toward heavenly things, they strive to attain the heights of the world. Fittingly, then, the sons of the Israelites are said to be placed not in a chariot but in chariots, because from everything that excels at the summit of carnal prelates, they advance in pride, and they raise themselves on high by as many lofty chariots, so to speak, as the lofty things they behold by which they consider themselves superior to others. The king, therefore, places the sons of the good in his chariots when a carnal ruler drags the imitators of the elect by the example of his own depravity into the vices of pride — so that they set aside heavenly things, seek earthly things, and rejoice in this alone: that by reason of what is temporally exalted, they are preferred above others.

3. And because against the lesser they are not only raised up but also strong, there follows: "And he will make for himself horsemen." For they rage as if on horses, who are both exalted in rank and fierce in power. They are horsemen also because, while they direct the fierce impulses of their heart against the powerless, they are swift toward everything that they desire to carry out through tyranny. They pant with violence, they foam with rage, and those whom they attack in the course of their tyranny, they crush. But while among wicked pastors some emulate the pride of worldly arrogance, and others by their example oppress those whom they can: there are even some who, to carry out the evils that they cannot inflict upon the good by themselves, bring in others more wicked than themselves. Whence there also follows: "And the forerunners of his chariots."

4. For what are the chariots of the king, if not the perverse minds of wicked subjects, in whose counsels the reprobate prelate finds his rest? For chariots are what carry kings: since through the wicked counsels of the depraved, the deeds of rulers are aided. In them, as it were, the king is carried on high, since through those who favor them for the sake of temporal honors, whatever carnal superiors desire from the loftiness of the world they carry out. These are rightly designated by the name of chariots. For a chariot stands firm on the very thing by which it turns: because the reprobate mind has as the end of its intention the fickleness of the world. Indeed, it finds rest in the very thing from which, through innumerable cares of a revolving mind, it does not cease to fan the affairs of the world. Therefore they are chariots of kings, since through everything lofty they think of by turning it over, they carry upon themselves the commands of carnal superiors. But those who hold a place of familiarity alongside carnal prelates have subordinates whom they may command. They themselves, therefore, are like the chariots of the king, while the others are the forerunners of the chariots; because in the same way that they convey the carnal superior to oppress the humble, they themselves too are led through the service of others to harm whomever they can. For he is, as it were, a forerunner of the chariots, who by the wicked cunning of his mind devises a stratagem by which he may introduce that one to inflict evils upon the meek. But if, as many manuscripts have it, we read not "forerunners" but "pursuers" of the chariots, they are certainly those who imitate the reprobate as they rush toward evil. A chariot is also customarily used to carry kings as a mark of honor. Therefore the king is, as it were, stationed in a chariot, when a carnal ruler glories in the flatteries of the great men who appear to be near him. But whoever precedes or follows these men in their praises is a forerunner or pursuer of the chariots, because these men utter either after or before the same flatteries that those others have scattered in the ears of the people by going ahead or following behind.

5. There follows: 'And he will appoint for himself tribunes and centurions.' Tribunes and centurions are made when they come to such an advance in evil that, for carrying out the tyrant's commands, they take command over impious attendants, when they arrange the battle lines of worldly forces, which they lead forth to wars against the innocent. Tribunes indeed are those who, through many supporters allied to them, lay ambushes against those living uprightly. Centurions, however, are those who omit no kind of harm. For they obtain the perfection of iniquity from this: that they always strive to inflict the many and enormous evils that they can. For the centurion is named from the number one hundred. And because the number one hundred signifies perfection, it is fulfilled in an evil sense when the summit of wickedness is reached by the impious. They are indeed smooth in cunning and violent in terror. They sweetly flatter some, so that with their help they may fiercely terrify others. And so there rightly follows: 'And the plowmen of his fields, and the reapers of his harvests.'

6. The fields of the carnal ruler are the minds of his subjects; and the plowmen of these fields are those who, by the craft of worldly cunning, persuade them to acts of wickedness. For they open up, as it were, the firmness of the fields by speaking, those who through wicked counsels corrupt the hearts of the simple. And they reap the crops when, by the seed of evil counsel, the deceived hearts of the lesser ones yield the fruit of wicked works. Which works are indeed designated by the name of crops: because the perversity of the wicked subject, when it is joyfully received by carnal rulers, is, as it were, the choice food of their mind. In which perversity, because they advance little by little, there follows: "And makers of his weapons and of his chariots." What are the weapons and chariots of tyrants, if not all those instruments of harm that are prepared for overthrowing the hearts of the lesser ones? But because by the chariot one arrives where one may strike with weapons, they become makers of the king's weapons and chariots when, by the most wicked machination of their hearts, they devise both the evils they should commit and the manner in which to inflict those same devised evils. For to forge weapons is to gather up kinds of harm with a wicked mind. And to forge chariots is to find the craft by which they can approach to inflict those same evils.

7. There follows: He will also make your daughters perfumers, and cooks, and bakers. By the name of daughters, the weak minds placed within holy Church are designated. These become the king's perfumers: because when they behold carnal rulers in the height of passing glory, they endeavor to soothe them with flatteries. The Psalmist, indeed rejecting the use of these ointments, says: Let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head (Psalm 141:5). The daughters therefore become perfumers: because when the weak fear to displease carnal rulers, they soften with blandishment the ferocity to which they are subject through fear. And it should be noted that the sons are said first to be taken by the king, and then made horsemen and centurions or makers of arms: but the daughters are not said to be taken, but simply to be made perfumers and bakers. For to be taken implies violence. The sons therefore are taken, because the strong are overthrown with difficulty. When therefore the daughters are said not to be taken but to be made perfumers, what else does this mean except that those who are weak in goodness are easily scattered by the examples of the wicked? They also become the king's cooks and bakers: because those who serve tyrants by flattering them, while they please them by showing favor, offer them food as it were. For the cooks are those who cook at the hearth what kings eat. They are therefore cooks who, through services of favor, kindle the swelling of pride in the carnal ruler's heart: so that he receives flatteries all the more boldly, inasmuch as they prepare for him, as it were, more delicate foods by the fire of aroused devotion. They also become bakers: because when they praise a reprobate life, they strengthen the carnal mind of the tyrant to practice wickedness.

8. There follows: "He will also take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants." What are the fields of good men, if not the devoted minds of their subjects? For while they willingly hear their words, they yield an abundant fruit of good works. And what are their vineyards, if not the minds of those who so advance by imitating the proficient that they even offer the word of life to others, and those whom they set ablaze by speaking into love of the Creator, they make drunk, as it were, by giving them drink? And what are the olive groves, if not the hearts of listeners who, by the example and exhortation of good men, advance in the work of mercy? But when a king is established, the fields are taken away: because when carnal men reach the height of governance, some of the good listeners take up examples of wickedness. The fields are therefore taken away when recently devoted hearts are led astray, when from the seed of wickedness they yield fruit in evil conduct. The olive groves and vineyards are taken away when, by the example of a wicked superior, works of mercy and the words of holy preaching that ought to be displayed and spoken are abandoned. And rightly it is recorded that the taken fields, vineyards, and olive groves are given to the king's servants. For servants are those who, always subject to the authority of their masters, cannot escape the yoke of domination. The servants of the king, therefore, are those who through abundant iniquity so bind themselves to the wills of tyrants that they no longer depart from them. The servants therefore receive the taken fields, vineyards, and olive groves: because the reprobate supporters of carnal prelates, when they transfer deceived hearts to the purpose of wicked work, impose the title of tyrannical power, as it were, upon the fields, vineyards, and olive groves of the elect. There follows: "But he will also tithe your crops and the revenues of your vineyards, to give to his eunuchs and his servants." When the wicked are in charge, it is very difficult that one who is subject to them should suffer no losses to his religion. For the minds of some perish entirely: but those whom they cannot completely pervert, while they unceasingly observe their wicked words and deeds, are stained with some sort of defilement. Rightly therefore it is said: "He will tithe your crops and the revenues of your vineyards." As if to say: Under a reprobate pastor, even the goods of the elect are not whole. But what is taken from the good is given to the eunuchs and servants of the king. The eunuchs and servants of carnal prelates are their hypocritical listeners. They are eunuchs indeed because they show themselves to have cast off worldly pleasure: but they are the king's servants because through everything they pretend to have of virtues, they bear upon themselves the yoke of their reprobate superiors. And rightly the tithe of the crops and vineyards is said to belong to the eunuchs: because the poison of hypocrites is not easily recognized. Inasmuch as even holy men can be deceived in this, what they lose is ascribed to those by whose fraud they are captured. There follows: "He will also take your male servants and female servants, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work." The male and female servants of the saints are those who supply them with temporal necessities. They are male and female servants because, while they provide them with bodily necessities, in this same work of mercy some are stronger than others. And the best young men: because both those who can do much and those who can do little, when they expend all that they are able in the work of mercy, like chosen young men, they powerfully carry out divine services. The donkeys of the elect are also those upon whom the burdens of obedience to be borne are imposed, so that they may help their frailty by bearing with them what they could by no means bear without them. But what does it mean that they are foretold to be put to the king's work? Those who are put to the king's work fulfill on appointed days the debt of compulsory labor owed to the authority of the public power. What then does it mean that the male and female servants and the best young men are foretold to be put to the king's work, except that when carnal men are in authority, both the ministers of the elect and the hearts of those who devoutly obey are frequently stained? For while they unceasingly behold their reprobate life, they gradually decline so far as to imitate something of their deeds. Through long custom indeed they serve the elect; but since they often see the eminence of their high position, they sometimes desire to be served by others through the impulse of pride. They also give their own possessions mercifully, but often by the example of tyrants they take what belongs to others. But because they are servants of the saints, they cannot depart from their authority. They can indeed be abandoned for a time, but from the error into which they fall, they are easily raised up through divine mercy. Because therefore those who quickly come to their senses fall through the examples of the wicked, they are put to the king's work as if by compulsory labor: in which they do not long remain through continuous servitude.

9. There follows: "He will also tithe your flocks, and you shall be his servants." As if to say: When a carnal pastor is placed over you, plunder of virtues is inflicted not only upon your possessions, but also upon yourselves. For the flocks of the elect are the multitudes of spiritual virtues. But since these very spiritual virtues are scattered by the example of the wicked, the king takes tithes of the flock when he who rules carnally destroys certain virtues in the hearts of the saints. He takes tithes: because while he scatters the integrity of the mind, he leaves the number of virtues incomplete. For perfection is signified by the number ten. Hence also, when the Lord showed the losses of our fallen humanity by an open comparison, He brought forward the woman who had lost one of ten drachmas (Luke 15:4 ff.); so that by this, because the number ten is shown to have been diminished, that heavenly fellowship which remained in the angels at the number nine might be taught to be imperfect without the restoration of our condition. And because tithes are exacted each year, those who do not cease to offer tithes are fittingly said to be servants of the king. For they serve each year those by whose example they often become worse. It can also be shown through this—that after the tithes are given, this servitude is asserted—as an evil progression. For those who gradually fail act daily in such a way that they are led to the depths of iniquity. He says therefore: "He will tithe your flocks, and you shall be his servants." As if to say: By the example of the wicked you will gradually fall away, but in falling you act so that you never withdraw from imitating them. For it is written: "By whom a person is overcome, of him he is made a servant" (2 Peter 2:19). Because indeed through imitating a reprobate pastor they fall into the servitude of sin, they cannot be freed from his yoke even when they wish. Hence it is also added: (Verse 18.) "And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day: because you asked for yourselves a king."

10. As if to say, you are gradually slipping into the knowledge of his wicked imitation; but the examples of his wickedness, to which you willingly submit yourselves, you are utterly unable to willingly abandon. For everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34). Those, therefore, over whom sins hold dominion cannot be freed from their yoke by themselves. For often they come to the Lord with prayers, they ask to be freed, but they cannot be heard. For by divine judgment it is dealt with them such that those who were unwilling to avoid evils when they could, are unable to avoid them when they will; and those who willingly rushed into evils foreknown cannot flee from them once experienced. Therefore, also indicating the reason why they are prevented from being heard, he says: "Because you asked for yourselves a king." As if he were openly saying: Because you demanded that be given to you in which, by my foretelling, you knew all these things would come to pass. These things, as I said above, are foretold in the type of carnal prelates concerning the future conduct of the king: so that they might desist from petitioning for him in whom they had recognized such great evils. But it is the nature of the hearts of the reprobate that they quickly propose evil and do not more quickly come to their senses from an evil purpose. Therefore it is also added: (Verses 19, 20.) But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said: "By no means! For a king shall be over us, and we also shall be like all the nations, and our king shall judge us, and shall go out before us, and shall fight our battles for us."

11. By these words indeed the morals of carnal subjects are openly described: because while they seek after outward things, they do not attend to inner losses even when these are set before them. But those who rule carnally, by the very display of temporal power, give their lesser subjects great hope of protection. Therefore when they say, "A king shall be over us, and he shall fight our battles for us," what else do they suggest but the morals of reprobate subjects, who despise humble and spiritual preachers in order to be helped temporally by carnal men? This they would certainly never do, had they not first lost the light of the heart. For if they outwardly despise the humility of spiritual men, they do not deserve to discern by what sublimity of power these inwardly excel; in those others too they see the outward tyranny of power, but they do not see by what weakness he is inwardly oppressed. The former, because they cling to God, are powerful even in outward things when they wish; the latter, who depart from the Lord, cannot fulfill by strength of action the hope they promise from secular power. For, to take examples from nearby, Saul was chosen as king for those requesting one to fight their battles — strong and powerful, so that, as this sacred history testifies (1 Kings 9:2), he stood above all the people from the shoulder and upward. Chosen therefore by God to govern the kingdom, when he was good and no one among the sons of Israel was better than he, nevertheless, when so great and such a man was left to carnal strength, he lost the battles he had undertaken to fight, and lost his life as well (1 Kings 31:1). But Samuel, who was not exalted by the power of the world, who humbly ministered not only to God but also to men, powerfully displayed trophies from outward wars as well. For was it not said of him just above: "Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord, and Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And it came to pass, while Samuel was offering the burnt offering to the Lord, the Philistines began battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great crash on that day upon the Philistines and terrified them, and the Philistines were struck down by the sons of Israel" (1 Kings 7:9, 10). Let him therefore say: "The people refused to hear the voice of Samuel," so that in their disobedience the hearts of the proud may be designated, so cast off by the judgment of divine equity that great evils threaten which they are about to incur — yet they cannot see them. There follows: (Verse 21.) "And Samuel heard all the words of the people."

12. Samuel indeed heard what the people had spoken, but the people themselves did not hear him. For the reprobate people to speak and not to hear was to utter words against the will of God, yet not at all to foresee the punishment for their wicked speech. But Samuel heard the words of the people, because spiritual men, when they hear the voices of proud speech, recognize the future desert of divine vengeance upon them. Let him say therefore: Samuel heard all the words of the people, because holy and spiritual men, whatever carnal people proudly sound forth outwardly, weigh inwardly what it amounts to in the divine judgment. But because, when they discover the damnable life of their carnal subjects, they intercede for the blotting out of their crimes, there follows: (Verse 21.) And he spoke them in the ears of the Lord. We speak in the ears of those with whom we have the grace of great intimacy. But holy men, because they are joined to almighty God in the bond of great love, speak in His ears, because they seek the hearing of His divine propitiation with all the more confidence, the more sublimely they have received a place of obtaining favor before His mercy. They speak the sins of the people indeed for the humility of confession, but they speak in the ears of the Lord, because with great affection they knock at the door of the Lord's propitiation through prayer. But perhaps he is said to speak in the ears of the Lord because, when holy men beseech on behalf of sinners, they do not reveal to men the prayers they offer to God for them. Whence also in the Gospel the Lord forbids the disciples, saying: When you pray, do not be like the sad hypocrites, who love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, so that they may be seen by men (Matt. 6:5). They speak therefore the words or deeds of the people, when they set before the Lord the offenses of speech and action that must be blotted out by prayers. But they speak these things in the ears of the Lord, so that while they flee the testimony of men when praying, they may be heard more swiftly by Him who regards what is hidden. Therefore, when Samuel is reported to speak in the ears of the Lord, he surely suggests the manner by which one may deserve the hearing of divine favor. For a prayer can by no means reach God which is brought forth with the intention of being recognized by men. Whence also he who is declared to have spoken in the ears of the Lord is reported to have received His answers as well. For there follows: (Verse 22.) And the Lord said to Samuel: Listen to the voice of the people, and establish a king over them.

13. In this matter it should be noted that Samuel spoke the words of the people, by which they had asked for a king, in the ears of the Lord; and the Lord declares Himself rejected in the fact that the people ask for a king. Therefore, when He responds to the one praying and commands the one praying to make a king, what else does He indicate except that the devout prayer of a chosen man is never fruitless? For if he did not obtain the correction of the people, he obtained the good of his own instruction, since he recognized the people as rejected for their evil request, and yet nonetheless knew what he himself ought to do for those who were cast off. The prophet, therefore, was able to be heard and not heard: because through praying he learned what he ought to be, but from the people demanding reprobate things, he did not remove the hardness of heart. But this he was able to obtain—he who spoke in the ears of the Lord—because holy men, by the very fact that they devoutly beseech the Lord on behalf of sinners, are fortified by the help of divine favor, so that they are in no way polluted by the crimes of those whose filth they cannot wash away by their prayers. But what does it mean that the Lord says, "Listen to their voices," when it was said above, "Samuel heard all the words of the people"? He had heard the words of the people so as to know what was being said, not so as to grant what was being asked. Therefore, when the Lord says to him, "Listen to the voice of the people, and set a king over them," He commanded the prophet to comply with the will of the people. And behold, as is plainly seen, the prophet praying is not heard, while the people rejecting God and asking for a king are heard. What shall we say this means, except that by the wondrous and fearful judgment of divine incomprehensibility, holy men praying on behalf of the reprobate cannot be heard, while in the fulfillment of their own depravities, the reprobate sinners themselves can be heard—so that for the latter, unbridled iniquity may increase the merit of eternal punishment, and for the former, the reward of perpetual recompense may grow from the affection of compassion? And immediately, beginning to show the order by which the appointment of that same king was reached, he says: (Verse 22.) And Samuel said to all the sons of Israel: Let each one go to his own city.

14. When we wish to examine spiritual matters, it is necessary that we remove carnal things from our attention: because the inner mind does not penetrate what the dust of outward actions blinds. Therefore, when the prophet of the Lord commands all the people to depart to their own places, he drives from himself the tumult of carnal concerns: so that he may see more clearly the spiritual matters that must be arranged, insofar as the intention of earthly actions does not obscure the keenness of his mind. But indicating what sort of person is foreseen by divine judgment, he says:

CHAPTER III. (1 Kings IX, 1, 2.) There was a man of Benjamin, named Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of a man of Gemini, strong in might. And he had a son named Saul, chosen and good, and there was no man among the children of Israel better than he: from the shoulder and upward he stood taller than all the people.

1. When the person of the king to be appointed is set forth, why are the names of his fathers described, unless so that his kingdom might be perceived as not enduring? For concerning the kingdom which Moses had foreseen would come, he said: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler from his thigh, until he comes who is to be sent; and he shall be the expectation of the nations" (Gen. 49:10). Because therefore the tribe of Judah had been foreseen for the lasting duration of the kingdom, the lineage of Kish is mentioned, so that the royal dignity which was being established in his son might be openly known to be dispensatory, not permanent. But he who begets the carnal king, Kish—that is, "hard" as it is rendered in our language—is also proclaimed strong in might. Now also many carnal people are within the holy Church who seem to do great things; yet they are carnal because they do not have the grace of the Holy Spirit. They are therefore strong in might because everything which they seem to do greatly is bodily. For Kish the father of Saul is called strong in might so that he might be understood to have possessed great bodily strength. He who is strong in might, therefore, is hard, because he who displays great things carnally does not have a heart softened through compassion in fraternal charity. He acts powerfully in things which men outwardly cannot imitate, but inwardly he does not know how to be joined to fraternal minds through the affection of love. He does mighty things which God rejects, and he does not care to display the affection of charity which God approves. He is therefore hard, because while he does bodily things with a proud heart, the grace of the Holy Spirit does not soften his mind. Against this the holy man glories, saying: "God has softened my heart, and the Almighty has troubled me" (Job 23:16). And often those who imitate the ways of such people become rulers by the judgment of God. Whence also Saul is fittingly recorded to have been the son of Kish.

2. But it must be asked why the same Saul is said to be chosen and good, who is declared to be the son of a harsh man. But he is called chosen not according to grace, but according to judgment. He is also called good so that the disposition of divine equity may be commended. For even the evils that we often suffer on account of our sins, because they are inflicted on us through divine justice, are good. Whatever is just is certainly good. For by the justice of God, reprobate pastors are permitted to ascend to the governance of the holy Church; but those who are evil through iniquity are good by divine disposition; and those who are now chosen by the hidden ordering of God will ultimately be condemned at the universal judgment. Therefore, let the reprobate pastor be called chosen, because it is decreed by God's indignation that he should exist; and let him be called good, because he is justly permitted. Likewise, because he is provided as more useful than others for carrying out divine judgments, no one among the sons of Israel is said to be better than he. He is also recorded as standing out above all the people from the shoulder and upward, because he who follows the ways of carnal men in his manner of living strives mightily to do what another cannot do. For the carnal ruler stands out above the entire people from the shoulder and upward, since in external matters he is strong beyond comparison.

3. All these words can also be understood as words of praise, by which, while the person of the king to be appointed is commended, the intention of those requesting a king is confounded. For they say: "A king shall be over us, and he shall judge us, and he shall fight our battles for us" (1 Sam. 8). He is called chosen and good, and that there was no one better than he among the sons of Israel, so that all good qualities might excel in the person of the requested king; but when he proves insufficient for what the people had proposed, human presumption is confounded, so that it wastes away in defeat. And indeed, as I said above, the king who is chosen to go before the people and fight their battles, when he is abandoned by divine help, perished overwhelmed in battle, and for the people whom he had led into those same battles, he became a cause not of salvation but of death. What, then, would the people attribute to God if he who had been chosen as king by God's judgment had not proven so suitable for carrying out what the people wanted? He can also be understood as chosen and good, as he is described, not as he was foreseen to be in the future. He is therefore called chosen and good, so that he is understood to have been chosen as such by the Lord—he who through disobedience was later rejected. For this reason, logic itself demands that what is said about him as chosen and good up to the time of his rejection, we should understand in a favorable sense.

CHAPTER IV.

1. Therefore, repeating all things in summary, let us see what edification they contain in themselves according to another meaning. Because we said that in Samuel the new priesthood is signified, what does it mean that he grew old, except that while the holy Church is led through the passing spans of time, the beauty of conduct grows old in some priests? Now Samuel grew old because the vigor of authority withered. For Samuel was as if young when the order of priests, yearning only for heavenly desires, while seeking nothing earthly, the more effectively it could preach heavenly things, the more it nonetheless kindled the souls of those subject to them toward those things by words and examples. For he was strong in vigor and radiated with youthful beauty, while he displayed the power of the heavenly word in the splendor of holy conduct: because whatever he could powerfully preach by speaking, he strove also to show by living sublimely. For he both gave life to dead souls by the word; but shining forth with the wondrous flower of youth, he raised dead bodies by his command. Since he both gave sight to the blind, walking to the lame, and healing to all infirmities, and he so radiated with the beauty of most holy conduct, that it was of greater virtue to be able to live in this manner than to aid others in that way. Therefore Samuel flourished as if in youth, when in the order of priests there equally shone forth both the wonderful virtue of works and such immense beauty of holy conduct. But it has already been a long time since Samuel grew old. For many ages have elapsed, during which many of those by whose virtue the joys of the world should have been driven from the hearts of others follow the love of the world. Yet we do not say this as though the holy Church has no religious men: but that few are those who at the height of preaching have perfectly known how to despise the world and cling to the highest desires. Therefore it is aptly said that Samuel is both old and prophesies. He is indeed old, because he has lost the rigor of austere conduct in many: yet he does not cease to prophesy, because while he has some spiritual strength, he powerfully displays the virtue of the provident spirit. This can fittingly be understood of one and the same preacher. They are indeed old and prophesy, who are so dissolved through negligence that they teach well but live badly. They set their sons as judges when they establish in the dignity of the priesthood those who look upon the times of their more lax life. Yet the young are ordained by the old: because those who come to be promoted promise strong things. Indeed they pledge the strongest profession of the priestly life, whose virtue they do not possess in their future conduct. Therefore the young are promoted: because those who ordain them do not raise them to the height of so great an order before they receive from them a profession of virtue. For first they instruct them both how sublimely they should live and how carefully they should teach: that they ought to live sublimely for this reason, that they may be able to preach profitably, that they should always direct the purpose of their life toward heavenly things, that they should not seek temporal rewards from the labor of preaching, that they should not show partiality in judgment, but arrange all things with the just balance of equity: so that they may hear the difficulties of the ways of God, and say whether they are willing to undergo their labors.

2. Indeed, most people profess that they walk difficult paths while they seek after sacred orders; but when they arrive at what they sought, they neglect to maintain the steadfastness of their promise. Hence the sons of Samuel are fittingly reported not to have walked in his ways, but to have accepted bribes and perverted judgment. For the ways of Samuel are so called because they are set forth by the office of a preacher. His sons, therefore, do not walk in the ways of their father when those who ambitiously attain to sacred orders abandon the arduous paths of religious life shown to them by their elders, and by their perverse intention are plunged ever deeper into the desire for earthly things. Hence they are openly declared, after avarice, to have turned aside, accepted bribes, and perverted judgment. For those who neglect to labor for heavenly things must necessarily be bound more tightly in the desire for earthly ones. To turn aside after avarice is to be wholly carried away in intention by ambition for earthly things. For there are some who seek earthly gains through avarice, yet do not turn aside after avarice, because although they desire temporal things, they avoid incurring guilt in their pursuit of them. Those, therefore, turn aside after avarice who, for the sake of the earthly things they ardently seek, have no fear whatsoever of incurring guilt. They consider their own soul to be of less worth than anything they can covet. Hence comes violent plunder, hence secret thefts arise: because those over whom the avaricious have power they oppress by violence, and upon those whose goods they cannot assault by force, they contrive to inflict theft. Often, too, those whom they cannot overpower by theft of hands, they ensnare by the falsehood of words. Hence the sons of Samuel, in an orderly progression, are marked out in the disordered confusion of avarice, when it is said: (1 Kings 8:3) "They turned aside after avarice, accepted bribes, and perverted judgment."

3. For those who perverted judgment in order to receive gifts did not seek the darkness of night to commit the theft of a coveted thing, but the darkness of reason. And it should be noted that the burning of avarice is the cause of accepting gifts, and the acceptance of gifts is the cause of perverting judgment: so that by the prophet's narration the depravity of this vice may be shown, not only how it advances in the hearts of the reprobate, but how it can be utterly uprooted from the minds of the saints. For if this perversity of judgment is born from the acceptance of gifts, he who does not accept gifts does not pervert judgment, and he easily rejects offered gifts who has thoroughly uprooted the root of avarice from his heart. But we gather this fault of the sons of Samuel more fully by seeing than by speaking. For if we look at the desolate places of the Churches, where the father grows old, the sons incur the mark of avarice, of accepted gifts, and of perverted judgment: because where the person of the ruler is dissolved through shameful gains, the hearts of the subject flock are easily scattered, so that they live wickedly in themselves and offer examples of depravity to others. But it is pleasing to greatly admire in these things the judgments of almighty God. For the sons of Samuel, while they turn aside after avarice, while they accept gifts for the purpose of perverting judgment, bestow examples of depravity upon the people over whom they preside. But the people themselves, when they ask for a king, cast down the prophet's sons from the height of power. But almighty God both receives the prayers of those asking for a king, and is angered that one is asked for. By these things we can certainly be disturbed, if we do not carefully examine their rationale. For what is more just than that he should fall by the judgment of the people, who so pursued the reprobate judgment of his own mind that the people following him would perish? But nevertheless, when priests live badly, they are not to be judged by laypeople. Therefore they worthily receive one more unworthy, who presumed to unworthily cast out one who was unworthy. For of the sons of Samuel it is said: "They accepted gifts and perverted judgments." But concerning that king whom the children of Israel request, very terrible threats are uttered, for it is said: "He will take your fields and olive groves, and give them to his servants" (1 Kings 8:14). And what wise person would not observe that it is more wicked to seize fields and vineyards by public violence than to exchange judgment under the pretext of truth in order to receive gifts? This fault is covered by a certain modesty, overshadowed by shame. But that fault is seen as so much more wicked, the more openly and more atrociously it is perpetrated. But we have not yet arrived at discussing those times of the kingdom, in which these evils are described as happening even according to the letter: therefore while we speak according to our purpose about the chosen one and what is good, it seems useful that we also carefully examine how the law of the king, which is foretold, can be received in a good sense. For if it did not show something good spiritually, it would by no means be said in this sacred history: "Samuel spoke to the people the law of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book and placed it before the Lord" (1 Kings 10:15).

4. What does it mean that the sons of the Israelites are said to be placed in the king's chariots? The chariots of the prelates of holy Church are their devout desires. For while they fervently seek heavenly joys, they are carried aloft as if in chariots. Hence Elijah is said to have been raised to heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:1), because indeed one who does not seek heavenly joys through lofty and fervent desires cannot be raised to them. When, therefore, good hearers begin through the examples of preachers to despise earthly things and to love eternal things, the sons of the Israelites are indeed placed in the kings' chariots. And it should be noted that they are said both to be taken up and to be placed in chariots, because they must first be drawn away from carnal desires so that they may be properly inflamed by the fires of heavenly love. Because these earthly desires are not easily abandoned, the sons are said to be taken up. For it must happen through great violence that the chosen hearer completely abandons earthly desires and raises himself on high to heavenly things. Concerning this violence the Lord says: "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it" (Matt. 11:12). Concerning this Paul says: "No one will be crowned unless he has competed lawfully" (2 Tim. 2:5). This is also shown covertly by these words, because the sons who are taken up are said to be placed not on seats but in chariots. The ancients were indeed accustomed to fight in chariots. And he who is carried in a chariot is borne lofty and terrible against the enemy. For chosen men are all the more lofty and terrible to hidden enemies the higher they have advanced in the sublimity of interior love. They are indeed lofty because the suggestion of evil spirits does not reach up to their intention. They are also terrible because they can reject the counsels of evil spirits all the more easily the more firmly they stand in the contemplation of heavenly joy through the vigor of their innermost affection. Indeed whenever this is said to those who are still carnal, the goodness of holy warnings is shown to them. This is as if he were saying: Because you seek the role of virtue, under its discipline you cannot be free for the leisure of life. Therefore they are also said to become the king's horsemen and pursuers of the royal chariots, tribunes and centurions. All these indeed belong to earthly warfare. Therefore when they are declared to become horsemen, pursuers of chariots, tribunes, and centurions, they are summoned to every exercise of war. They are indeed horsemen when by the power of the spirit the flowing pleasures of their flesh are restrained and they rule with great power over all enticing impulses. For he rides aloft as if on a horse who, set above his flesh through the good of chastity, free and swift, is able both to flee the enemy when he disdains him and to attack when he deigns to. Indeed through the fact that he has learned to rule well, he has received such increases of virtue that the enemy cannot withstand the charge as of a rushing horseman. And because in the strength of their virtue they follow the examples of the chosen Fathers, they are pursuers of the royal chariots. For the chariots of the king are the good examples of the chosen preacher. In them indeed he is shown both fighting and triumphing, because when we behold the holy works of the preacher, we indeed see him exalted both in the struggle of contest and in the power of triumph. But those oppressed by carnal desires can see him in his chariots but cannot pursue his chariots. For like foot soldiers on level ground they are sluggish in running, weak in battle. Therefore, that they may be able to pursue the royal chariots, let them first become horsemen, trample earthly desires, rule over their flesh, and glow white with the armor of chastity. Then indeed we can run after the chosen Fathers in spiritual battle all the more fittingly the more powerfully we strike the ranks of hidden enemies through that by which we laudably govern ourselves. But if, as many manuscripts have it, we read not "pursuers" but "forerunners," it is not without a good meaning. A forerunner of the royal chariots is one who praises with his word the examples of the just. He certainly ought to be a horseman, because he is a worthless praiser who proclaims the lofty life and teaching of the saints which he by no means takes care to imitate with a lofty purpose. But he who knows how to set forth the life and teaching of others for the imitation of others already begins to be a master of spiritual warfare. Therefore it is well added: (1 Sam. 8:12) "And he will appoint for himself tribunes and centurions."

5. They are tribunes when they begin; centurions when they are perfected in spiritual teaching. For indeed, as we said above, a centurion is so called from the number one hundred. Tribunes can also be understood as spiritual men, simple in knowledge, but inflamed with love of God and neighbor. Although they do not know how to speak of lofty and spiritual things, nevertheless through the examples of the elect, which they know, they strive to kindle those whom they can to the love of the Creator. A tribe is indeed called a kinship, or an assembly. If therefore tribunes are so called from "tribe," those who bring forth the examples of the saints for the advancement of their neighbors are named tribunes. They come as an assembly, as it were, to destroy our rusticity, when they set before us those things by which holy men pleased almighty God. And when they set forth the particular virtues of very many saints, they open to us, as it were, the nobility of spiritual kinships. Centurions, therefore, can be understood as more perfect men, who, while they advance well under the teaching of preachers, become their hearers and co-workers. Concerning whom the Lord indeed says in the Gospel: 'Every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a householder, who brings forth from his treasure things new and old' (Matt. 13:52). Such men indeed are not only outstanding in action, but also learned in the knowledge of God's word. Hence they can exhort their neighbors to the struggle of spiritual warfare all the more usefully, inasmuch as they demonstrate in the work of virtue the lofty things which they know how to preach. They have words in their learning, and they have works as examples for the simple: so that the wise may understand the lofty things they speak, and those who do not perceive the secrets of words in their depths may imitate the works which they see outwardly. They are therefore appointed centurions when, by the perfection of virtue, they obtain the summit of dignity: so that they may live sublimely, and the more loftily they live, the more usefully they may teach.

6. But those who are centurions, when they have arranged the times of war, ought to advance: so that they may be recognized as bearing fruit in peacetime as well. After the tribunes, therefore, the centurions become plowers of fields and reapers of crops; so that they may open the hearts of the now-victorious with the plowshare of exhortation, from which they may reap more abundantly the wheat of good works. As if now indeed plowing in peace, they rouse to the practice of works of piety those hearts that had conquered spiritual assaults. And they reap the harvests when they rejoice that chosen works have sprung forth from the seed of the divine word which they had scattered in the hearts of their hearers. For just as they reap wheat from a field with sickles, so through the embrace of charity they receive from heavenly conversation that by which they may be satisfied with inner devotion.

7. But as long as we live in this life, we possess nothing in peace. For since the ancient enemy always opposes those who act well, it is necessary that we always defend the things we do well. Wherefore they are also rightly said to become, after being plowers of fields and reapers of crops, makers of arms and chariots of the king. They make arms and chariots so that they may defend those very fields which they cultivate and those crops which they reap. They make a chariot so that they may be swift to meet adversaries, and arms so that they may be powerful. They mount the chariot so that with great force they may crush the camps of demons, and they carry arms so that they may destroy those whom they attack. In this lofty height of the chariot stood he who said: "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). Whence also, now secure, he who appeared superior to all his enemies, affirming, said: "No creature shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom. 8:39). But he who had mounted the chariot held arms; whence he also explains, saying: "But I so run, not as uncertainly; so I fight, not as one beating the air, but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection" (1 Cor. 9:26, 27). What then is more rightly expressed by this chariot than the loftiness of right intention? To make a chariot, therefore, is to raise up the height of right intention in the minds of hearers. For those who obtain the ministry of preaching through the examples of their betters make chariots after the labor of plowing and reaping, when they teach their well-doing subjects that from all the good works they do, they should await only the rewards of eternal recompense. Indeed, to despise earthly things, to desire nothing transitory, to love eternal things, and to hasten toward them with great desires, is already to preside over a lofty chariot. Of which chariots indeed it is said through the Psalmist: "The chariot of God is multiplied ten thousandfold, thousands of those rejoicing; the Lord ascends in them" (Ps. 67:18). But their arms are keen counsels, by which they strike their enemies the more powerfully as they more quickly detect their cunning. Whence also that powerful one spoke as if armed: "We are not ignorant of his devices" (2 Cor. 2:11). He was also making arms when he said: "And the shield of faith, with which you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:16, 17). The elect, placed in those chariots and arms, are indeed swift and powerful. Swift indeed, because while they desire spiritual things, they detect spiritual wickedness in a moment. And they are powerful, because while they more ardently desire the highest things, whatever is suggested to them from the lowest love of the world, they count as nothing; and like chariots carried by their weight, they have great force against enemies, who, filled with holy virtues and keen counsels, destroy in a moment all the temptations that are brought against them. Nor is it without meaning in this regard that a chariot, while it rolls along the ground, both lifts the lower part upward and brings the upper part downward. So indeed also the right intention of holy men, while from the earthly things it does it expects heavenly things, as it were directs upward the part that it drags along the ground. And because it humbles itself before the Creator both for its good work and for its expectation of eternal recompense, it as it were plunges toward the earth the part that it lifts upward. Our chariot indeed revolves unceasingly on its wheels, if from good work we always aim at eternal things, and from every height of our advancement we take care to be humble. These arms and chariots are indeed the king's when they are seen to differ in no way from the pattern and teaching of the preachers of holy Church. The elect preachers therefore make chariots and arms when they teach their hearers to hasten toward the heavenly homeland, both by the rectitude of intention and by the fortification of virtue. But there is nothing to prevent us from understanding all these things, which we have shown in the advancement of one person, as distributed individually among many. We have shown indeed that the elect, advancing through the degrees of virtues, are first placed in chariots, then appointed as horsemen and runners before the royal chariots, established as tribunes, centurions, plowers, and reapers, and finally become makers of arms. But because holy Church makes use of the diverse ministries of the elect, whoever wishes may attribute individual gifts of graces to individual orders, so that each of these may be proper to those who are more closely joined to their respective dispositions.

8. What then is the meaning of what he adds: that the daughters of the Israelites would become perfumers, cooks, and bakers? But by the term "daughters" sometimes weakness is signified, sometimes fruitfulness. Who then are the daughters of the Israelites, if not chosen souls, prepared for the conception of the divine Word? They become the king's perfumers: because as they advance through the instruction of their preacher, they receive within themselves the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit, through which they can wholesomely heal the brokenhearted. They also become cooks: because while they are filled with the fervor of the Holy Spirit, by their example they kindle the hearts of their neighbors to love of the Creator. They become bakers, when they restore chosen souls with the nourishment of the Word of God. The daughters therefore become perfumers when they heal the wounds of sinners. Cooks, when they set ablaze hearts purged from the filth of sins toward the pursuit of good works by the example of their virtue. And they are bakers when, to those advancing through their examples, they no longer set forth examples, but bring forth words of deep knowledge; so that, fed as it were with solid food, they may act all the more strongly, inasmuch as, now spiritually instructed, they more fervently desire eternal things. There follows: (Verse 14.) "And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants."

9. What are the fields, what are the vineyards, what are the olive groves that are taken from us by the right of rulers? But the holy preachers, when they speak for the correction of sinners, rebuke the pleasures of the flesh, the lusts of the mind, and the pretenses of good works. For if the pleasures of the flesh were not the fields of wicked possession, the Apostle would never say: "He who sows in the flesh, from the flesh shall reap corruption" (Gal. 6:8). To sow in the flesh, indeed, is to bury the purpose of the mind in the pleasures of the body. And they truly reap corruption from the flesh, because in the resurrection of the elect they shall in no way receive the renewal of eternal incorruption. By the name of vineyards, the lusts of the mind are also rightly represented, because they intoxicate the hearts of the reprobate and estrange them from the knowledge of truth. Criticizing the fruit of this vine, Moses says: "Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, and their cluster most bitter" (Deut. 32:32). For he draws his vine from the vineyard of Sodom and his shoot from Gomorrah, who fills his mind with the most abominable lusts. For he makes, as it were, a vineyard, who thereby forgets eternal things, by which he is also intoxicated through lusts; and he who refreshes himself as if under the shade of a vineyard and the pleasantness of depraved delight, prepares for himself the retribution of eternal fire. Hence, most fittingly setting forth the fruit of that same vineyard, he called it a grape of gall and a cluster of bitterness. For the grape is pleasing to the sight but gall to the taste — delighting the eye, embittering the palate — because indeed what it lusts after greatly pleases the reprobate mind, but in eternal punishment what is now sweet to it turns bitter. The king, therefore, takes away our fields when the chosen preacher by his words removes the joyful impulses of our flesh in its delight. He takes away the vineyards when he utterly cuts off the intoxicating lusts from our heart. He also takes away the olive groves when he rebukes the works of false mercy, when by rightly exhorting he suggests that there is no merit in a work unless it proceeds from the purpose of a good intention.

10. But it must be earnestly inquired why these things are said to be given to the servants of the king. For if these things are justly taken from us, who will there be to whom they may not be unworthily assigned? Yet if we examine this more carefully, we find that our holy preachers are great in their dominions. Who then are these servants, if not those of whose head the Lord says to blessed Job: "Will you take him as a servant forever?" (Job 40:23) For evil spirits are the servants of holy men — in this life perpetual servants, and in the next life eternal servants. For daily they bring about that by which holy men are crowned. For since from the battle of this life the victory of eternal glory is granted to us, those who renew against us those wars by which we are led to eternal rest assuredly render us great services. They are also the servants of the victors, as the Truth testifies: "By whom a man is overcome, of the same he is made a servant" (2 Peter 2:19). For while they stir up battles against those who will be victorious, they serve those who are thereby crowned, inasmuch as these for a time valiantly withstand their attacks. But because what advances the glory of the saints increases for evil spirits as an addition to their damnation, the fields, vineyards, and olive groves that are taken away are assigned to the servants. Indeed, demons will be punished with eternal punishment for all their wickedness. In the encounter of the hidden contest, when the elect conquer, they assign the evils which they repel to their enemies: because the former are tested as gold in the furnace (Wisdom 3:6), while the latter are punished for their wicked suggestion. Therefore the servants receive the fields, vineyards, and olive groves: because when sinners return to life through the preaching of teachers, this also contributes to the heap of damnation for the demons — that the penitent were held so long in past sin by their deceit. These things are also given to the servants when sinners, converted to the Lord through the office of the preacher, recognize that they were held in love of their past crimes by the deceit of demons.

11. But what does it mean that the crops and the returns of the vineyards are said to be tithed and given to the eunuchs and servants of the king? The crops of the elect are tithed when we gather their most excellent works so that we may bring them forth as an example for the faithful. For there was only one who had in himself the fullness of all virtues, into whom all the fullness of the Godhead poured itself bodily (Col. 1:19). But we, because we have all received from his fullness, possess the gifts of graces in divided portions. Hence Paul says: "To one indeed is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the working of powers, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits" (1 Cor. 12:8). By the number ten, because it is perfect, we tithe the virtues when we gather the gifts of individual elect persons for the lesser ones to imitate. For it is written of Moses: "He was the meekest of all men on earth" (Num. 12:3). Of Abraham also it is said: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" (Gen. 15:6). When therefore we wish to imitate gentleness together with faith, it is necessary that from the example of Moses and Abraham, as from choice crops, food be tithed for the refreshment of our mind. Just so, just so indeed, preachers bring forth the chastity of Joseph (Gen. 39:8), the patience of Job (Job 1:21), the zeal of Phinehas (Num. 25:7) as an example for us: because when they display the virtues of the perfect, they gather, as it were, the tithes of choice harvests, which they may set before those who are making good progress. Hence also it is rightly said that these same tithes of the fruits are given to the eunuchs and servants. Eunuchs, indeed, are those who by strength of soul have crushed in themselves all the fuel of lust. Of whom the Lord certainly says in the Gospel: "There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19:12). Servants are those who still serve under another's care in the pursuits of the active life and cannot yet go forth free to the heights of charity. These are also found in Moses to owe six years of service to their masters (Exod. 21:2), so that in the seventh they may go forth free: because indeed they must first be perfected in works so that they may be able to go forth in due order into the summit of contemplation. The teacher therefore assigns the tithes of the harvests to the eunuch-servants when those who obey him in the splendor of chastity follow the chosen works of the great ones. He also assigns the tithes of the vineyards when he shows them with what wondrous charity our Fathers loved God and neighbor, so that they too may strive to be filled with the same abundance of charity, and as though inebriated and forgetful of things past, may love only the things to come, and not fail to run fervently toward them.

12. After all these things, the servants and maidservants of the Israelites, the best young men, are declared to be taken away and put to the king's work. Who are the servants of the carnal, except those who, by the example of the wicked, have been so corrupted by long habit that they seem to have perpetually subjected the necks of their minds under the yoke of most wicked imitation? Their servants, therefore, are taken away when, by the zeal of chosen preachers, even those abandon their sins who seemed to be vehemently subjected to the reprobate imitation of the carnal. They are also called the best young men. They are young, indeed, because they are strong in evil; they are also called the best because they are more wicked than the rest of sinners. To whom, of course, it is said through the prophet: "Woe to you who are mighty at drinking wine, and men of strength at mixing drunkenness" (Isaiah 5:22). They drink wine, indeed, who by deliberation of mind recklessly take in the heat of concupiscence, and they mix drunkenness, because while they are inflamed by the fires of their lusts, they know not how to return to the ways of righteousness, their reason being lost. They are mighty and strong both at drinking and at mixing drunkenness, so that on account of their fervent devotion to evil they are shown to be, as it were, the best servants. These best young men the divine word likewise points out when it describes the greed of the devil, saying: "His food is choice" (Habakkuk 1:16). For the ancient enemy is greatly refreshed by the wickedness of those who are more wicked than the most wicked.

13. By the name of maidservants, that most wicked condition of sinners is designated—those who through iniquity are exceedingly depraved and furnish examples of wickedness to others. For like maidservants they bear slaves, since they are not only workers of great iniquity but also mothers of it. But because through the preaching of the saints even such people are converted, who afterward render great services to almighty God, the servants and maidservants are fittingly said to be taken away and placed in the work of the king. Did not the King of kings then take a maidservant when He said of that great sinful woman: "Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much" (Luke 7:47)? And He placed her in His work when He entered the village and she received Him in her house (Luke 10:38). He also placed her in His work because, rising from the dead, He entrusted to her the proclamation of His resurrection (Mark 16:7). He also took a servant when He called Matthew from the profit of the tax booth to follow Him. He placed him too in His work, because Matthew provided a banquet for Him in his house and He made him a preacher to Ethiopia, an Evangelist of the converted world (Matt. 9:9; Mark 1:14; Luke 5:27). Therefore, because through the ministry of preachers even those return to the Lord of whose salvation human thought could have despaired, the servants and maidservants and finest young men are fittingly described as being placed in the work of the king.

14. By the name of male and female servants, the movements of the heart and its affections can be understood. For when they suggest wicked things to us, they are male servants; when the affections of the mind desire to submit themselves to the suggestions of depraved impulses, they are female servants. Then indeed it is necessary that we master both through the rigor of our resolve. Preachers take away our male and female servants when they instruct the movements of our hearts and affections as to how they should be directed toward the service of God. They place them in the work of the king when we now exercise that very service of almighty God which we learned through their instruction. Moreover, what is more fittingly represented by donkeys than the lustful movements of the soul? They are placed in the work of the king when that mind which was accustomed to be moved to lasciviousness by depraved thoughts profits from the preaching of the teacher and directs its affections toward the desire of imitating chastity. By the name of male servants, female servants, and donkeys can be designated those who vigorously render bodily service to worldly men. But they are placed in the work of the king, because once converted to the service of almighty God, they endure spiritual labors all the more devoutly for eternal recompense, the more clearly they recognize that they had been enduring great things without fruit. The king is also said to tithe the flocks, because whoever desires to please almighty God must be clean through innocence and intent upon the pursuit of good works. By the former he is a good tree; by the latter he also bears fruit. Since indeed we employ many things in order to preserve innocence and to be able to perform good works, these very crowds of innocent thoughts are our flocks. What then does it mean that they are tithed, except that the subtlety of thoughts is not easily discerned? For often we think we are thinking good things which, when carefully examined, are not good. Therefore the flocks must be tithed, so that only what is contained in the number ten belongs to the king's right. This is rightly accomplished in us when, through the instruction of our preachers, we learn to be perfect not only in the performance of works but also in the examination of thought. Finally it is said: (Verse 17.) And you shall be his servants.

15. So that, namely, they may know themselves to be subject to his authority in such a way that they dare not transgress his commands. The Lord indeed wished to establish this royal dominion when He said: "Whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19). This power also He demanded from His subjects, who said: "If anyone shall preach to you a gospel other than what I have preached to you, let him be anathema" (Gal. 1:8). Likewise the Lord, sending His disciples to preach, says: "He who hears you, hears me; and he who despises you, despises me" (Luke 10:16). Hence concerning the preachers of Judea the Lord says to those same disciples: "Whatever they shall tell you, do" (Matt. 23:3). We are therefore servants of our kings, when we are so subjected to the authority of our prelates that we presume to do nothing apart from their authority. Since, therefore, those who strengthen their virtues in the power of obedience are set over them, at the end of the royal law it is said: "And you shall be his servants" — so that faithful subjects may then also recognize that they ought to be subject to the command of their preachers, when through the advancement of virtues they are led to the heights of perfection. The Truth itself also taught this to the disciples in these very words, saying: "When you have done all these things, say: We are unprofitable servants" (Luke 17:10). Nevertheless, because He was speaking these things to carnal men, He added, saying (v. 18): "And you will cry out on that day before the face of the king, and the Lord will not hear you on that day, because you asked for yourselves a king."

16. Those who had asked for a king cry out from the face of the king, when those who had vowed to lead a spiritual life under a good ruler attempt to abandon the labors of that same life. Indeed, all are recognized by their face. Therefore the face of the king is the known manner of life and teaching of a good preacher. Because they do hard and harsh things for the sake of eternal life and command hard things, their carnal subjects strive not to imitate but to flee from their life and doctrine. For those who had asked for a king, whose appearance they did not know, then see the face of the king; because they consider how laborious is the strictness of the heavenly journey in their superior, which they had desired as if it were an easy thing before they knew it. Then those who had asked for a king cry out from the face of the king; because while they are unwilling to abandon the habit of carnal life, they strive to escape the praiseworthy imitation of the excellent pastor whom they had wanted to be set over them. And because with a blind heart they cannot see the light, they cry out to the Lord, that is, they beseech the Lord that they might escape the spiritual yoke of God. But the Lord does not hear them on that day. What is that day on which the reprobate subjects beseech the Lord, if not the pursuit of vain prosperity? They are not heard; because indeed it never happens through divine grace that subjection once promised to good rulers can freely go out to the pleasures of the world. Therefore he also added the reason, saying: (Verse 18.) Because you asked for yourselves a king.

17. As if to say: The promised subjection to spiritual pastors is indissoluble. You ask for a king easily enough, but because royal authority is burdensome, you cannot easily escape their power. Because we say this with regard to the historical sense, we think it should be noted that almighty God, while foretelling the rights of a king, bestows upon religious superiors a pattern of governance. Why? So that those who command the most strict way of life should not easily grant entrance to newcomers. For this reason also the best teacher of that most strict life, a disciple well-trained by the highest Truth, commands, saying: "Test the spirits, whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1). And likewise: "Let the hard and difficult things through which one goes to God be announced to him, so that he may know what he is entering into." The Lord therefore proclaims the rights of a king — let him speak, let him know all things, what sort of carnal persons will exist under his rule — and so that the weak may not easily approach the life of virtue, strong superiors should by no means easily accept the weak. For swiftness of conversion most often arises from rashness of counsel, not from growth of devotion. For when the weak promise strong things, it is not a proven strength of soul but a confusion of discernment. The wise man admonishes all such persons under a single designation when he says: "Do not lift a burden above yourself." Therefore those who preside over others in the strong resolution of the regular life ought to receive converts to that same life with all the more discernment, inasmuch as it is all the more useful to know beforehand whether the petition of those approaching comes from strength of soul or from rashness of will. For those who are fickle in their actions are accustomed to eagerly desire the harshness of the spiritual life, so that they may appear to desire what they seek with great strength of soul. (Verses 19–20.) But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said: "By no means! Rather, a king shall be over us, and we too shall be like all the nations, and our king shall judge us, and he shall go out before us, and he shall fight our battles for us." Because this has been expounded at length above, we are detained needlessly in examining it further. There follows: (Verse 21.) And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he spoke them in the ears of the Lord.

18. To hear the voice of the people is to recognize outwardly what those seeking the habit of holy life say. For we hear, as it were, only the voice of those approaching, when we know what they assert outwardly; but what kind of people they will be amid the assertions of their promise, we do not see. Therefore we ought to speak these things in the ears of the Lord, so that He Himself may receive the words of their promise: He who, while hearing the words, examines the hearts, and from the course of their progress, demands the returns of vigorous work. Let the minds of our novices hear this and tremble: because indeed what they say to us, we speak in the ears of the Lord. For what they promise before us, we offer to God, so that He Himself may now hold from our hands what He will demand an account of. This freedom of the superior is indeed the obligation of the subject: because he is subjected to a stricter judgment in proportion as he can more clearly know that he must render an account to almighty God for what he answers. Therefore, when we offer to God the things that novices promise, we give to Him, as it were, the written bond that they make to us. And because this is done in secret, Samuel is said to have spoken in the ears of the Lord the things that the people had said. For we speak in the ears of friends when we conceal from outsiders what we say. There follows: (Verse 21.) And the Lord said to Samuel: Hear their voice, and establish a king over them.

19. Above, the prophet, foreseeing the future, said: 'You will cry out to the Lord, and He will not hear you, because you asked for a king for yourselves.' But now the Lord says: 'Listen to their voice, and appoint a king over them' (1 Kings 8:18). What is shown to us through this, except that it is often divinely inspired in the good rulers of holy Church to subject to the pursuits of the heavenly life those who are afterward not devout under the discipline of the same profession? These will indeed afterward cry out from before the face of their king, and yet by divine command they receive a king: because those are divinely inspired to approach the service of God devoutly whom the anxious care of pastors, involving great labor, must restrain under the bond of that same service for the increase of their eternal reward. They are said to cry out to the Lord from before the face of their king; but let the kings themselves hear what the prophet sent by the Lord responds, so that they may know what they ought to do amid those very outcries. 'He will not hear you', he says. Therefore neither should they themselves give ear. For those who are lukewarm in holy monasteries must be healed, as though sick; they are not to be cast out, as though dead. For if they have been sent by the Lord, they will come to their senses amid the applications of spiritual ointments. Let the Lord therefore say: 'Appoint a king over them': because indeed many come devoutly to the service of God who are then permitted to grow cold, but through the zeal of pastors—to whose authority they had submitted themselves by divine inspiration—they are rekindled to the love of the heavenly homeland. But now he sets forth what kind of pastor is fit for these things, saying: (1 Kings 9:1–2) 'There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a man of Jemini, mighty in strength. And he had a son whose name was Saul, chosen and good, and there was no man of Israel better than he; from the shoulder and upward he stood above all the people.'

20. What does it mean that when the king to be appointed is shown, the names of the fathers are proclaimed, unless that he is unworthily taken up to the leadership of the holy Church who does not maintain the nobility of the holy Fathers in his conduct? Moreover, six names of fathers are assigned, so that the perfection of their holy way of life in good action might be designated. For the world was created in six days and is completed in six ages. Therefore there are six fathers who are named in the order of the genealogy of the chosen pastors of the holy Church: because indeed those who obtain the summit of perfection in the pattern of those who follow are sons by imitation. But the father of the king, Kish, is said to mean "hard": because surely those whom the holy preachers imitate are not lax in life and zeal. For they are hard because they do not speak soft things to sinners; they are also hard because, in order to correct others well, they demonstrate in their own conduct the hard things they prescribe to them. For he seemed hard who rebuked the Jews, saying: "O generation of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth worthy fruits of repentance" (Matt. 3:7). But he who was hard to others was not lenient with himself. For to show that he maintained the harshness of penance that he preached, the Evangelist says: "He had a garment of camel's hair, and a leather belt around his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey" (Mark 1:6). To Ezekiel also it is said: "Behold, I have made your forehead harder than their foreheads; I have made your face like diamond and flint" (Ezek. 3:8). But he who came so hard against those hard in evil, to show that he was about to speak the hard things that were coming, wept for seven days in their midst before he spoke. For thus he says: "And I sat where they sat, and I remained seven days mourning in their midst." Therefore, because the holy preachers are not gentle and meek toward obstinate sinners, and because they practice what they preach harshly, Saul is rightly called the son of a hard man. For the chosen preacher ought to imitate those who both preach sharp things and observe what they say. Whence also concerning the same father of the king it is added: "strong in might." There are some within the holy Church who are strong in pride and arrogance. For they do great things; but when people cease to praise the things they do, they themselves cease to do those great things. Therefore he is strong in might who has from the Holy Spirit the virtue that he displays in good work. Concerning this might, Anna prophesied above (1 Sam. 2:4) in her canticle, saying: "The weak have been girded with strength." Concerning this the Lord promises the disciples, saying: "Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). In this might he walked strongly, of whom it is written: "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee" (Luke 4:14). He therefore who is called hard is declared strong in might: because chosen men, while they preach the highest things, demonstrate mighty deeds; and everything lofty they prescribe and everything great they do, they accomplish in the power of the Holy Spirit. Concerning whom it is fittingly added: "And he had a son whose name was Saul, chosen and good." For he who is an imitator of such men is useful not only for the labor of ministry but fit for the fruit of inheritance. Indeed, Judas too was chosen for ministry; but because he was not good, he lost the right of succession. Who then are signified by Saul, still chosen and good, if not the chosen imitators of the holy Fathers, who are useful to others through teaching and to themselves through their way of life; who are able so to govern others that they by no means cease to provide for themselves? For they are chosen and good because they so seek the gain of others that they suffer no losses of their own. For they are full in themselves, overflowing to others, and from their own abundance they so give to others that they lose nothing of their own fullness. They have what they may offer to others, yet having what can suffice for themselves, they offer to no one at their own expense. They strive so to supply oil to others that the fuel of their light is not taken from them: so that while they illuminate others, they do not extinguish themselves. Rightly therefore he is called chosen and good: because certainly he who takes up the governance of the holy Church ought to be rich, adorned with spiritual gifts and the fullness of merits. And because those who excel must be chosen from the common order, it follows: "And there was not among the children of Israel a better man than he." His excellence is indeed commended when it is added: "From the shoulder and upward he stood above all the people." By this bodily appearance, in the person of the bishop to be ordained, the deeds of virtue are prefigured. For what is designated by the shoulder if not strength? But he who from the shoulder and upward stood above all the people was of such lofty stature that he who was tallest among the people reached only to the shoulder of the king; while the future king surpassed the height of all by his neck and head. But what are the heads if not the minds of the subject people? When they are greatly stretched, they reach up to the shoulder of the king to be ordained, because he who is sought for the summit of governing the holy Church ought to be of such perfection that whatever the people wish to set before themselves as good works, he ought to demonstrate in his own conduct. For the heads of the people touch, as it were, the shoulder of the king when their hearts find in their pastor whatever virtue they seek. But the king excels by his neck, and excels by his head. For what is designated by the neck if not speech, and what by the head if not the contemplation of the mind? Therefore he surpasses the heads of all his subjects by head and neck if he is admirable in the height of contemplation and in the sublimity of teaching. For he is, as it were, lofty by his head when he contemplates those things about the heavenly secrets that others cannot contemplate. He also has his neck above others, who, admirable in the height of his speech, cannot be equaled by others. For he had, as it were, raised his head on high who said: "I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know; God knows" (2 Cor. 12:1–2). But as a chosen and good king, to show that his neck also rose above all heads, he said: "He heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak" (2 Cor. 12:4). But why do we marvel at his neck, as it were towering, in those things he kept silent? Let us equal him, if we can, in those things he said. From the neck of the apostle Paul proceeded his epistles, and although wise men have been expounding them since that time, they still strive to better understand what he said. And though they daily advance in learning from him, as if straining toward the summit of his neck, they can by no means reach it. Let the king therefore stand out by his neck, stand out by his head, be lofty by his shoulder: so that he may be perfect in conduct, admirable in speech, above all others exalted on the heights of contemplation. But he who is great in conduct, preeminent in speech, raised above all in contemplation, before he arrives at the summit of governance, ought to have outward signs of fraternal charity: that is, he should have such concern for his neighbors that he seeks the gain of souls for eternal life. Rightly therefore it is added in the type of these men: (Verses 3–4) "Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost; and Kish said to Saul his son: Take with you one of the servants, and arise, go and seek the donkeys. And when they had passed through Mount Ephraim and through the land of Shalisha and had not found them, they also passed through the land of Shaalim and they were not there, and through the land of Benjamin and did not find them."

21. Kish, who is called harsh, signifies not only his elect, but also the Redeemer himself. For no one was harsher toward himself than he. For the prophet, indicating the severity of this harshness, says: "Truly he himself bore our infirmities, and he himself carried our sorrows" (Isa. 53:4). For to die is not to suffer for mortals, who are subject to the suffering of a condemned nature. He therefore was exceedingly harsh toward himself, who had nothing in himself by which he might suffer; but in order to free us by suffering, he graciously assumed that by which he might be harsh toward himself and be able to suffer. The donkeys of Kish are sinful souls (1 Sam. 10). Because even though they have been regenerated in the faith of the Redeemer, they are called stubborn; and lost donkeys, because through uncleanness they have been separated from his service. Hence it is that, as he was heading toward his passion, he sat upon a loosed donkey and her colt (Matt. 21:7), to show openly that he had come to suffer for this purpose: to come to the aid of sinners. For he acknowledged that he was seeking lost donkeys when he said: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). These donkeys he both sought by himself, and still sends preachers to seek them. Therefore Kish tells his son to seek the donkeys, when the Redeemer commands the hearts of the elect by spiritual inspiration to go forth into the ministry of preaching. But those going forth in the office of preaching, because they ought to bring with them only spiritual understanding, are commanded to take one of the servants. For he takes one servant who, while going forth to provide others a pattern of living, is spiritual in everything he does. For he took one of the servants, of whom it was foretold: "He himself will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17). He had taken one servant with him, who says: "We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God" (1 Cor. 2:12). Hence he says again: "We have the mind of Christ" (ibid., 16). Hence through Ezekiel it is said of the holy living creatures: "Where the impulse of the spirit was, there they went" (Ezek. 1:12). Therefore, when seeking the donkeys, he takes one of the servants: when he who newly begins to seek the gain of souls arranges to do all things spiritually, whatever he thinks to do. But to find the donkeys is to behold sinners converted in the light of holiness. For like lost donkeys they are not found, when in the darkness of sins, reprobate hearts bury themselves.

22. And because through the five senses of the body they fall into those same darknesses of sins, they are sought in five regions where they cannot be found, namely Mount Ephraim, the land of Shalisha, and Shaalim, and the land of the Benjaminites, and Zuph. For everyone is hidden where he is cast down through sin; and as one who is lost, it is not known where he is, when he abandons the light of justice in which God placed him. Hence it is that in paradise after the sin, He seeks the first man, saying: "Adam, where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). As if to say: Because I do not find you in the light in which I placed you, show yourself where you have placed yourself. Hence He inquires about the dead Lazarus, saying: "Where have you laid him?" (John 11:34). But the one whom He sought as lost, He commanded to come forth that He might find him, saying: "Lazarus, come out." Therefore man is lost when he sins; he is found when, now repenting, he declares his sin against himself. For since through the sacred Scriptures the sinner is commanded: "Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified" (Isa. 43:26, according to the LXX), when the one who has sinned begins to be justified by confessing, he is now seen in the light, where he is now found to be placed. Now Saul, who seeking the donkeys did not find them, represents the character of a learned preacher, but one newly beginning. Almighty God indeed does not allow him to bear the fruit of preaching, lest he esteem the conversion of sinners as a cheap thing, since he can easily convert them to the Lord. The conversion is therefore delayed, so that the converted may be cherished all the more; and the preacher loves them all the more greatly, the more clearly he sees that he cannot quickly win them over. But while holy men cannot convert others through their preaching, they begin to fear intensely for themselves—lest they displease Almighty God in the very thing by which they thought they were greatly pleasing Him. And it often happens that the hearts of new preachers are so frightened that they now resolve to abandon the office of preaching itself and to devote themselves to God through silence. For this reason it is added: (Verse 5.) "When he had come to the land of Zuph and had not found them, Saul said to his servant: Come, let us return, lest perhaps my father has stopped thinking about the donkeys and is anxious for us."

23. He deliberates about returning to his father who, having set aside the intention of preaching, desires to be free for God in the secret of silence. He is said to return who is reported to have been sent before. For the sons are, as it were, in the presence of their father when chosen men linger in the secret contemplation of the Redeemer. They return, therefore, when from the public work of holy preaching they come to search out the joys of eternal brightness. But because holy men do nothing without counsel, Saul consulted the boy about the return to his father. For we consult the boy when with attentive mind we take care that what we attempt to arrange should not differ from spiritual understanding. Indeed, he had resolved to return to his father who said: "I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue. I set a guard over my mouth, when the sinner stood against me" (Psalm 38:1–2). The sinner stands against the preachers when, in response to their preaching, he does not abandon the state of his iniquity. And because the preacher then proposes to be silent toward him and to be free for God, so that he may return to the Father, he becomes mute. But because through silence he better learned the will of God, his heart grew warm, and with the fire of inward meditation blazing forth, he spoke. This is shown also in this passage, because the boy, when consulted, bestows counsel upon the one consulting him, saying: (Verse 6) "Behold, there is a man of God in this city, a noble man; everything he says comes to pass without ambiguity. Now therefore let us go there; perhaps he will show us our way for which we have come."

24. He calls Samuel a man of God, in whom we have already said that the preachers of Holy Church are designated. He is indeed called a man out of reverence for his holy manner of life, and everything he speaks is declared to come without ambiguity: because whatever he threatens concerning eternal punishments, whatever he promises to the just concerning eternal joy, comes to pass just as he announces it, and the impious shall go away to punishment and the elect to glory. He is also said to be in the city: because a chosen pastor is known to be always vigilant in the common guardianship of the people subject to him. The pastor is in the city, because while he guards others, he is fortified in himself. Whence also through the prophet, in the praises of all men of God, it is said under the description of one: "He shall dwell on high; the fortifications of rocks shall be his loftiness" (Isa. 33:16). For the higher he is raised up in the vision of the eternal citizens, the stronger he is found to be in himself, and the more useful to his neighbors.

25. He is also called noble: because he is conspicuous for his heavenly manner of life, and has nothing of the rusticity of worldly life. For he is seen to be noble from the same source whence he is a citizen. For secular men, because there is no composure of morals in them, are rustic, as though nurtured in outlying places. For from their habitual dishonesty of mind, they produce unseemly movements of body; and like those who are very degenerate, they do not know the bearing of urbane custom, while through everything they do, they cover the appearance of their life with the vileness of earthly obscurity. On the contrary, the men of God are noble, who while they vigorously pursue the things that are divine, shine with heavenly light in all their work: and they have nothing of degeneracy, who in the great light of all their conduct display the rays of their celestial origin. To this end, therefore, Saul is led by the boy, that he may be instructed: because those who are to be placed on the height of prelacy are admonished to submit themselves to the spiritual understanding of perfect preachers through their teaching. He who says this admonishes us to be led by this boy: "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law" (Gal. 5:18). But it must be asked why it is said with hesitation: "If perhaps he may show us our way, on account of which we have come." But because he desires to learn spiritual things, because he longs to receive great gifts, he cannot know whether he is worthy of those same gifts. Therefore he begins to doubt, who does not presume that he merits such great things by his own merits. Which doubt indeed arises in the elect from the virtue of humility. Wherefore also in the voice of the accompanying boy it is said to Saul: "If perhaps he may show us our way." Because indeed the spiritual sense suggests that we should not think lofty things of ourselves, not presume boldly concerning almighty God, but seek His gifts with the utmost reverence of holy fear. Rightly therefore he is called a boy, who is proclaimed as always teaching humble things. Therefore when he says, "Let us go there," and suddenly adds, "If perhaps he may show us our way," he openly indicates that the Spirit of God works in the understanding of the elect, while He both makes them approach devoutly to seek spiritual gifts, and makes them fear with great reverence the omnipotence of the Giver. Whence also he who is led by the spirit is said to look upon the poverty of his own merits, when it is added: (Verse 7.) "And Saul said to his boy: Behold, we shall go, but what shall we bring to the man? The bread has failed in our bags, and we have no small basket to give to the man of God, nor anything else."

26. The minds of the humble have this characteristic: that they possess spiritual gifts, but do not regard themselves in those things which they possess. For because they receive the gifts of virtues from the Holy Spirit, therefore the Holy Spirit, who bestows the gifts, removes them from their own estimation, so that they may have these things in the virtue of their conduct, but not have them in the swelling of pride. Rightly therefore it is said of Saul: 'From the shoulder and upward he was taller than all the people.' And he said to his servant: 'The bread has failed in our bags, and we have no basket'—because chosen men, fit for governing the summit of holy Church, even regard themselves as small through humility in that very thing in which they are great through virtue. And indeed they have bread for the refreshment of the souls of the faithful in the wisdom of the word, and the basket in the memory of inner meditation. For when they preserve in memory for the instruction of the faithful those things which they gather in secret meditation, they store bread, as it were, in a basket. For concerning these baskets it is said in the Gospel: 'They filled seven baskets with the fragments' (Matt. 15:37; Mark 8:8). When loaves abound on the Lord's table, the baskets are commanded to be filled—because when the soul of the elect is refreshed in the heavenly contemplation of the Redeemer, it is instructed in that same contemplation of the truth, so that the nourishment of the word, which is seen to grow abundantly in itself, may be stored in the memory for the instruction of the faithful. They also abundantly have something else besides bread and a basket—those who, along with the virtue of contemplation and the teaching of the word, abound in a wealth of holy works. Therefore, so that the humility of the saints may resound in the speech of the king about to be appointed, he says: 'The bread has failed in our bags, and we have no basket to give to the man of God, nor anything else'—because the Holy Spirit makes those who are being prepared for the governance of the ecclesiastical summit great in the virtue of their inner gift, but altogether small in the regard of their own estimation. Let the servant therefore say: 'Let us go there, if perhaps he may show us about our way.' But let Saul look upon himself as empty—because the Holy Spirit, while he instructs the senses of those living uprightly, makes them now bold, now timid. Bold indeed, so that they may venture forth; timid, lest they become proud. He impels them to seek what is necessary; he holds them back, lest by presuming too much they fall into the vice of rashness. And because those whom he makes fearful he raises up to venture forth through the strength of confidence, it is suddenly added: 'And so the servant of Saul answered again and said:' (Verse 8) 'Behold, there is found in my hand a fourth part of a silver stater; let us give it to the man of God, and he will show us about our way.'

27. As it were, the boy speaks the good understanding of the chosen man, when he is impelled to speak by the direction of the Holy Spirit. What then is it that he says: "There is found in my hand a fourth part of a stater of silver"? What is this part of a stater of silver? But because by the name of silver the divine words are signified, silver in the hand of the boy is the divine word in the power of knowing. Indeed, it is one thing to be able to speak the word, and another to be able to feel it. For even the reprobate speak the divine words, but none except the elect can truly feel them. For that thing is truly felt whose power is recognized. For the sick also eat fish, but the force of their sickness takes from them the experience of taste, so that what they seem to eat, they are prevented from also tasting. Just so indeed, all carnal persons, when they speak of heavenly things which they do not love, like the sick make use of things which they are prevented from tasting. Therefore silver is found in the hand of the boy, when through the merit of humility holy men receive the heavenly things they speak of with great affection of charity, so that it is very sweet for them to speak of heavenly things, because they are sweetly, and indeed very sweetly, satisfied through love. Whence also it is written: "The poor shall eat and be satisfied" (Psalm 21:27). For because the food of the soul is the word of God, the poor eat and are satisfied, but the rich cannot be satisfied; because indeed the elect, who love heavenly things, as often as they hear these things, are more fervently inflamed toward them; while the reprobate speak and hear heavenly things, which they receive with no sweetness for the refreshment of their mind. But a fourth part of a stater of silver is said on account of the quality of the time. For that we may see the other parts of this stater, we must consider the prophets, apostles, and martyrs. For because according to the quality of the time the sound of preaching has been distributed to each order, each as it were held a fourth part of the stater. The prophets therefore presented their fourth part of the stater when they promised the coming of the Redeemer to the Synagogue. The apostles gave their part when they preached to the Jews that he who had been promised had now come. The martyrs also contributed their part when they brought unbelievers to faith in the Redeemer. Therefore the fourth part of the stater is known to have remained, because through the bishops and doctors of the holy Church the word of faith is presented to the elect faithful until the end of the world. But the word of faith is well preached by those to whom it is supplied through the hand of the boy, because indeed those ought to preach heavenly things who in the sweetness of their mind have merited to know their pleasantness. For this part of the stater is given so that one may more fully merit to know the way of right preaching, because the chief doctors of the holy Church commit the authority of preaching to none others except those whom they know to love the heavenly things they speak of. By these words the simpler folk are to be admonished according to the letter, that they should not dare to suspect the depravity of avarice in the man of God on account of what is said: "That we may give to the man of God, and he may show us our way." For if the prophet had his word for sale, he would not be a man of God, and could in no way possess the spirit of prophecy itself. Therefore when this is said, it is not the character of the man of God that is set forth, but the devotion of the one approaching him, because Saul held him in great veneration, and was ashamed to appear empty-handed in his sight. And because a celebrated fame invited them to veneration of this same man of God, he adds: (Verse 9) "For he was called the Seer."

28. For to be called is to be spoken of by public report. But a Seer is one who looks upon even inward things, which the mind of carnal men does not attend to. Whence it is also said of the holy living creatures: "Round about and within they were full of eyes." They are watchful in outward things and provident inwardly. Against which presumption of carnal teachers the Lord rebukes in the Gospel, saying: "If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch" (Matt. 15:14). A Seer is also called one to whom distant and absent things are present. This well befits holy preachers, who through knowledge are as present to spiritual things as they disdain to fix their attention on outward things. For they hold hidden things as open and distant things as present, who always understand those things which carnal men cannot know. For such ought the pastor of the holy Church to be, because he is placed on the way of the heavenly homeland to provide light to those under him. Therefore let him always scatter rays of light, so that the faithful subjects, from the experience of his illumination, may draw others to illumination. There follows, and he says: (Verse 9.) "Formerly in Israel everyone going to consult God spoke thus: Come, let us go to the Seer."

29. We go to consult the Lord when we proceed to learned preachers, so that we may find counsel for our salvation. But because there is now such a rarity of perfect men, while we consider the flower of religion in ancient times, let us bewail its decline in the present time. Struck with compunction over the misery and calamity of the present time, let us sigh that the flower of the past age has withered together with the beauty of holiness. Therefore, when we see the pastors of the Churches clinging to earthly things, seeking what is passing away, displaying no marks of the spiritual life, when no light from our prelates is poured upon us, remembering those things which have passed away unto the labor of compunction, let us say: "Formerly everyone in Israel who went to consult the Lord used to speak thus: Come, let us go to the Seer." Israel means "seeing God," or "in whom God is." This name is certainly fittingly applied to the holy Church, whose people it is said to be. For in the Gospel it is also said: "Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age" (Matt. 28:20). Since she indeed had in former times pastors flourishing in spiritual conduct, learned in great knowledge, who with great contempt despised earthly things and contemplated heavenly ones, the people could exhort one another toward the light which they saw in them, saying: "Let us go to the Seer." If therefore we must go to those who see, we must equally turn away from the blind, because we ought not to imitate but flee the examples of reprobate prelates; but from those who through the merit of their conduct know spiritual things, we should always seek instruction for our edification. And because none but spiritual men do this, there follows: (Verse 10.) And Saul said to his servant: "Your word is excellent; come, let us go."

30. The best speech is that than which no better can be heard. Therefore, whenever counsels of our salvation are spiritually suggested to us, a speech is made within us than which no better can be found. We praise the speech of the boy, therefore, whenever we are pleased with ourselves in the purpose of our spiritual understanding. And we promise to go with him when we consent to spiritual thoughts. But because a good thought is then fruitful when it is perfected in action, there follows: (Verses 10, 11.) And they came into the city in which the man of God was. And as they were going up the slope of the city, they found young women coming out to draw water, and they said to them: Is the Seer here?

31. Those who seek the man of God come into the city, because it often happens that the life and teaching of a prelate is sought in the conduct of his subjects. So indeed trees too are often examined, whose beauty is found not in their leaves but in their fruit. Often, however, undergrowth that has sprung up is mingled with great trees, and its fruits falsely claim to be the fruits of those trees with which they are mixed. Therefore, whoever wishes to discern the fruit must first discern the branches as well, so that he may recognize from which tree the fruit comes. So indeed it is in the conduct of the faithful: because in the chosen people of a good preacher, while many wicked ones are mixed in, thorns spring up as if among good trees. Therefore the conduct of the chosen preacher is not to be examined in all his subjects, but only in the elect. Then indeed we separate, as it were, the branches of a good tree with discernment, when among the people we imitate those rulers like choice fruits who advance by the example of their master, and we flee from those like thorns who are condemned by the deceit of the ancient enemy. Well therefore is it said of Saul and his servant that they came into the city and ascended the slope of that same city, because indeed when the perfection of holy men is sought in their subjects, it is not the imperfect members but the chosen and perfect ones that must be sought out. For artisans too first begin their works, then adorn them. A painter too, when he desires to apply beautiful colors or gold, first lays down a baser color. Therefore, whoever wishes to judge the skill of artisans should look not at their unfinished works but at the completed ones. Let him therefore ascend the slope of the city, so that he who desires to find the Seer may discover him. For the slope is a low and sunken place. In that part of the city, indeed, those are represented who have not yet advanced to a higher manner of life. We therefore ascend the slope when we avoid setting before ourselves as an example the level ground of weak hearers.

32. And then indeed we find the girls going out to draw water: because we behold the beauty of holy minds in a more perfect way of life. The girls are indeed the minds of the elect, pure through innocence, beautiful through the splendor of virtues. And because they preserve their beauty in a more hidden life, they cannot be seen unless they go out to draw water. The girls draw water when chosen souls, from the deep sorrow of their present exile, pour forth streams of tears. They are said to draw water because, while they remember themselves cast down in this valley of tears, mourning, they send, as it were, the rope of thought into the deep, from which they draw the waters of tears with labor. Then also they are seen going out: because although what they are like within remains hidden, they nevertheless appear in their eyes; and how much they love their Creator is shown by those who endure life amid such great sorrow of the present age. From these, therefore, one must ask: Where is the Seer? Because the dwelling place of the perfect is then well known when it is shown to us by those who, through the progress of their life, are close to their way of living. But preachers have different places. For they have one place for themselves, another for their subjects: because indeed in themselves they dwell in the loftiest contemplation, but for their subjects they descend to the mountain of teaching. Through contemplation they are as if in heaven; and because what they teach is lofty, they both descend when they teach and yet keep themselves on high while speaking sublime things. The more perfect hearers, therefore, are close to their ruler not when he is in the highest contemplation, but on the lower mountain of teaching. Wherefore the girls also answer and say: (Verse 12.) He is here, behold, before you: for today he has come into the city.

33. As if they were saying: We can point out his place because he comes there where we used to see him. For if he remained in the citadel of his own loftiness, no one could show him to you. For a teacher is in the city when he lingers in the instruction of the people subject to him through the ministry of preaching. A teacher is in the city when he leaves his own affairs to arrange what is common to all. For since the people, fortified and made strong through the exhortation of a good preacher, are protected when he lingers in their ministry, he is known to be in the city. Likewise, because among the multitude of the subject people some are simple and others are wise, the young women add: (Verses 12, 13.) Make haste now, today he has come into the city, because there is a sacrifice of the people on the high place. As soon as you enter, you will find him immediately, before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes, because he himself will bless the offering, and then those who have been invited will eat.

34. When Samuel came to the city, he went up to the high place: because the chosen preacher, in the instruction of his subjects, sometimes utters plain words, sometimes lofty ones. Therefore, when he commands plain and intelligible things, he is in the city; when sublime things, and those which are scarcely understood, he is in the high place. He is in the city when he sets forth examples for the simple; but he is in the high place when he utters to the perfect the lofty things of spiritual words. For he was, as it were, in the city, who said: "I judged not myself to know anything among you, except Christ, and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). Likewise, he was in the city when he showed remedies to the weak, saying: "Because of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband" (ibid., 7). But he went up to the high place, because not long after he adds: "But concerning virgins I have no commandment, yet I give counsel. I would that all men were even as myself" (ibid., 8). He also confesses that he often ascends to the high place of words, because he says: "We speak wisdom among the perfect" (ibid., 6).

35. What then is the meaning of what the maidens say: "Hurry now, today he comes into the city," unless that he was rarely seen in the city, namely coming late and departing quickly? By this teaching indeed the doctor of the holy Church is instructed to be rarely in public and frequently in secret, so that the more slowly he is seen, the more devoutly he is revered. Then indeed he is received as though heavenly, because the more he has hidden himself in the secret of contemplation, the richer the treasures of the Word of God he brings to those who await him. For he is able to speak many good things about the lowest matters to whom it is granted through the secret gaze of the mind to see the highest things. And because those things which are spoken seem sweeter, the maidens say: "Hurry." As if they were saying: if he has completed that for which he came into the city, you will not be able to see him hidden away in his secret place.

36. Which statement indeed is now not to be taken literally, but is an example for religious persons. For the holy man was of such strictness that he had appointed days and hours in which whoever desired could see him. They say therefore: "Make haste." As if they were saying: If the appointed time passes, during the hours of his rest, he does not attend to words or actions. We therefore who have taken up the rule of a secluded life ought to observe this more attentively. Hours of ministry must be appointed for us, so that we may persist briefly in work and be able to return hastily to the citadel of contemplation. Moreover, the periods of our secret silence must be guarded with such a strict rule that even those who are accustomed to approach may know that they do not have access to us contrary to our purpose.

37. But since we have begun to explain these things spiritually, this can fittingly be understood as spoken concerning the simple. For in the city, one who appears a stranger is thought to be able to address Samuel, but on the high place he is not thought so: because those whom we believe to be simple, we consider to need plain, not lofty instruction. Therefore they ought to hear the holy preachers when they speak plain things to the simple, which they understand: not when they say lofty things, which they can in no way understand. They say therefore: "Hurry now, today he has come to the city, because there is a sacrifice of the people on the high place." Which is as if one were to say: Because there are many who desire to hear the highest things, now you ought to hurry, when he appears to be instructing the simple like yourself. The sacrifice of the people is indeed the devotion of the chosen people. Which devotion, assuredly, because it is aroused in the hearts of the elect by the word of preaching, is as it were accomplished by Samuel. But the sacrifice of the people is on the high place when the hearts of faithful subjects eagerly desire to hear devoutly the lofty words of holy preaching. Whence it is also aptly said: "Because the people do not eat unless Samuel first blesses the sacrifice": because the more perfect hearers, while they desire to attain the summit of the perfection of virtues, await with great longing the word of knowledge, through which they may arrive at what they desire. In this passage it should be noted that the sacrifice had not yet been offered, and yet it says: "There is a sacrifice of the people on the high place." For if a sacrifice does not exist before it begins to be offered, how was there a sacrifice that did not exist? But because we are pursuing spiritual meanings, the sacrifice did not yet exist, and yet it did: because when the faithful elect desire to be instructed in loftier things, they already indeed have a great devotion for hearing, which, after the preaching has been heard, they have much greater. The sacrifice has therefore not yet been offered: because that greatness of devotion which is born in the heart of the elect from the word of preaching does not exist in the heart before the preacher's word. And yet the sacrifice is indeed on the high place: because from the expectation of the word, there is already a great force of devotion in the heart of one who wishes to hear. Wherefore it is also well said: "Because the people do not eat until he blesses the sacrifice." For because they eagerly love the highest things, they do not rest until they receive those same highest things. For if the sacrifice of the mind is its devotion, the sacrifice is blessed when it is sanctified by the voice of preaching, so that the purer it becomes, the more acceptable it may be held for divine reception. For what is blessed in God's sacrifice is indeed clean when it is offered, and material: but once offered it is so much cleaner, inasmuch as it is not only material but spiritual, inasmuch as it is not only clean but also cleansing. For who would doubt that sins are cleansed by the offerings of sacrifices? For so, so it is with the devotion of the mind: for when it longs to hear good things, it is clean; but when it has been received and blessed by the hands of holy preaching, it is rendered so much more ardent and sacred, the more clearly it has learned whom it can love more sweetly once known. It was indeed clean before, like a preparation of the sacrifice, which desired to know the good, and yet it was a material arrangement: because it did not yet know what it desired to learn. But it is very clean and spiritual when, now sanctified by the words of doctrine, it no longer desires to hear what it may know, but delights to experience through what it has heard the things it loves. Then also the sacrifice is not only clean but cleansing: because the more fervent the love of heavenly things by which it is kindled, the more powerfully the darkness of carnal negligence is driven away from it. For it is written: "Because charity covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8): because assuredly we destroy our carnal things when we are lifted up to heavenly things by ardent devotion.

38. And because it is added: 'And then those who have been called will eat.' What else does this signify, except that the affection of devotion is food for the mind? For we will eat then, when the sacrifice is blessed: because when our devotion is raised up to the love of the Creator at the voice of the preachers, the soul that has arrived at the sweetness of the Creator already has its food. Therefore those eat then who were unwilling to eat before the blessing of the sacrifice. For those who prepare themselves with the highest expectation of intention for the perception of divine sweetness, while they receive no evil desires through appetite, are, as though fasting, filled more eagerly with the refreshment of devotion. For they wait, as it were, for the blessing of the sacrifice for their refreshment, who flee all unlawful desires, so that they may be satisfied by the vision of interior glory through devotion. For indeed it is written: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8). For he who does not admit foolish things into his heart, while he desires heavenly things, is pure in heart: and while he is led through the good of preaching to the sweetness of divine contemplation, he has, as it were, the blessing of the sacrifice in the satisfaction of his soul. Therefore he says: 'Then those who have been called will eat.' For those who are fasting are called to the meal, while the preacher speaks outwardly, who guard their mind from wicked desires, and are drawn through the grace of the Holy Spirit to the experience of interior sweetness. For those who had been called were the invited ones who had come. Therefore the called who are fasting then eat, when those are fed with the devotion of spiritual grace who have prepared themselves to receive it by great watchfulness of their mind. But what does it mean that they say: (Verse 13) 'Go up, for today you will find him'?

39. But while the elect praise the good deeds of preachers, they illuminate the hearts of their hearers with great light. For that heavenly manner of life of the good teacher, which they proclaim, is a day. Let them say therefore: "Today you will find him." For the preacher is found on that day when his life is not less than his reputation: when he is praised by the voice of the elect, but those who hear the praises find and recognize in his praiseworthy manner of life everything that they hear. Against this, the Lord rebuking the Pharisees says: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, who are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful to men, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones" (Matt. 23:27). Hence again He compares the vainglorious to unbelievers, saying: "How can you believe, you who receive glory from men?" (John 5:44). Those who are of this kind are indeed praised in the day, but they are not found on that day: because those who hear their praises gaze, as it were, at the whiteness of the tomb from the outside; but when they seek the virtues that were praised, they find within the night of sins, like the grim and rotting bones of the dead. Let them say therefore, to signify the true glory of the righteous: "Today you will find him": because when the righteous are praised, they possess in the truth of their manner of life whatever shines forth brightly about them through the voice of praise. And because such a great man must be sought with eager devotion, there follows: (Verse 14.) "And they went up into the city. And as they were walking in the midst of the city, Samuel appeared, coming out to meet them, to go up to the high place."

40. When we hear the praises of holy men, we ascend in the city, because we seek them where they descend, not where they are. But, as I said above, the place which preachers have for themselves is the secret contemplation of divinity, while the place for their subjects is preaching. Sometimes indeed they speak plain things, sometimes lofty things. They have therefore a common place for all, they have a sublime and special one for some, and they have a secret one for themselves. These three spiritual places are surely signified, because Samuel is said to go out, and to appear in the midst of the city, and to ascend to the high place. For he who went out in order to appear was somewhere where, before he appeared, he had been hidden. Priests therefore go out when they come from the secret of meditation to preaching. They appear in the city when they speak plainer things, that is, things for doing or for understanding. They ascend to the high place when they either command the wise to perform mighty works, or reveal the depths of mystery. Our ordered ascent is therefore shown by the fact that Saul is reported to ascend in the city. For the places of our Pastors, in which they are accustomed to pray or to be in seclusion, are to be venerated by us, not approached. This we can know not only by example but also by divine exhortation. In the Song of Songs indeed the bridegroom declares, saying: "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not cause the beloved to awaken until she herself wishes" (Song 3:5). For the minds of the perfect are brides, because while they place themselves in the secret of divine love as if in a bridal chamber, there through vision they find the one to whom they are joined by ineffable love. When therefore the bride sleeps in the bridal chamber, she is joined to the bridegroom, because while the chosen soul of the preacher is hidden away in secret contemplation, it is placed as it were in the bridegroom's chamber. Whoever therefore rouses her takes her from the bridegroom, because indeed the rest of the chosen soul is not only its own delight but also the delight of the bridegroom. Whence also it is said through the prophet: "The bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride" (Isa. 62:5). Rightly therefore the bridegroom adjures the daughters of Jerusalem that the bride not be awakened by them as long as she wishes to sleep, lest while she rises from the quiet of the chamber, he himself lose the enjoyment of love. Let the going forth of Samuel therefore be awaited, because holy men are to be venerated in the secret of their silence, not to be disturbed. Therefore one must ascend in the city, because the chosen teacher in the common place of teaching appears as so great a gain to his people, inasmuch as he is known to go out in order to be of benefit. In this place it should be noted that it is not said of Samuel, "Today he ascended in the city," but "today he came into the city"; but of Saul and the boy it is not said "they came," but "they ascended." For he came as if on level ground, while the other climbed as if to heights. What else is shown to us by this, except that the plain things which preachers speak are not plain to us? In the city therefore we do not come but ascend, when we either look with difficulty upon the plain things of preaching, or bear with labor the small things that are commanded to us. But because to stand in the city is to be fortified, therefore we ascend, because when great men teach us to do small goods, they vehemently forbid us from yielding to the counsels of evil spirits. And because it is very laborious to overcome all temptations, we strive to reach the words of the teachers who command this of us, as if through the labor of ascending. But because it is written that "each one shall receive his reward according to his own labor" (which indeed is understood not only of eternal retribution but also of the present), almighty God, according to the merit of the work, grants to his elect increases of virtue (1 Cor. 3:8). For also to Abraham, who did not spare his son, it is said: "By myself I have sworn: because you have done this thing and have not spared your son for my sake, I will bless you and multiply your offspring" (Gen. 22:16). For often those who labor faithfully in doing the things they know deserve through divine grace to know greater things to do. As a figure of these, Saul is rightly said first to ascend in the city, and afterward is reported to be led by Samuel to the high place. But to come to meet someone is to encounter the one coming by the same road. When therefore we wish to learn the way of salvation from holy preachers, they indeed come to meet us when they encounter us with the word of salvation that we seek. For they come as if by the same road when they hasten to teach us what we have resolved to learn. This indeed is the moral sense for all; but if we investigate what pertains spiritually to certain individuals, he comes to meet him because he foreknows that the king who is to be anointed is coming to him. But from where he knows this is added: (Verses 15, 16.) But the Lord had revealed to Samuel's ear one day before Saul came, saying: "At this very hour which now is, tomorrow I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him as leader over my people Israel, and he shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines."

41. He went out therefore to meet him, in order to lead him to the high place: because he who is sought for the governance of the holy Church must both be shown forth by divine gift and called to a lofty manner of life. The ear of Samuel, because it is said in the diminutive, what does it signify if not the humble understanding of the spiritual teacher? The ear therefore is opened by the Lord, when the humble understanding of the preacher is instructed by the Holy Spirit, so that he may hear what he is to do, and arrange what he has heard. But we must carefully consider what is said: "The day before." For the day is the life of the just, as Paul attests when he says: "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord" (Eph. 5:8). When the life of the chosen one is revealed, the hidden day is made known. For man sees the outward show of good works, but God sees the light of the heart. Because therefore both the elect and the reprobate are hidden as regards the intention of the heart, the Lord makes known the coming king the day before; when through his grace the holy preachers recognize in those who are to be promoted that the testimony of good works is preceded by purity of intention. For there is no light of works that is not preceded by rightness of intention. Rightly therefore the king who is to be appointed is recognized the day before. But they do not perceive the following day unless it is born from the preceding one: so that they may consider the day before the day, that is, the intention before the action, and may perceive as sent by God in the light of holy works the one whom divine grace shows to shine through the purpose of the heart. And because at the very hour when he is promised, he is presented: what does this give us to understand, if not that he who is chosen must be perfect, not only in body but in mind? For when God speaks to holy men, it is the full light of day. For a day has its beginning, and it has its end. At the end he reproves sinners, saying: "Adam, where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). And because neither those who merely begin good things, nor those who grow sluggish in good works, are to be promoted, the preacher is sent at the hour of perfect speech, when such a one is presented who shines with the full light of good works and gleams with the full splendor of truth. He is also described as a man coming from the land of Benjamin. He is called a man on account of the strength of his works; from the land of Benjamin, on account of his right confession of faith. Benjamin indeed means "son of the right hand." Who then is called this son of the right hand, if not he of whom it is written: "He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father" (Mark 16:19)? The land of Benjamin therefore is the holy Church. Because therefore the heretics have been expelled from this land, the king comes from the land of Benjamin, when one who is not polluted by any heresy but is catholic in faith receives the primacy of the holy Church. He enjoys the title of "man" if he is firm in faith and strong in action. He indeed is commanded to be anointed as leader over the people of the Lord: because the outward sacraments profit those priests who are not unworthy of the gifts of those same sacraments. Or priests are anointed when through the ministry of those who ordain them they receive an increase of spiritual graces. Whence it also follows: "He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines." As anointed ones they can save others, because they have received spiritual graces more abundantly. For those who save the people are anointed over the people: because those who are appointed by the Lord to govern others receive the spiritual gifts of charisms by which they can benefit them; and they are superior in merits also to those whom they precede in rank. And because often a good pastor is chosen on the merit of a good people, it is well added: (v. 16) "Because I have looked upon my people." Likewise, because a good pastor must be sought from the Lord with great prayers, it is added: (v. 16) "Their cry has come to me."

42. But perhaps some are troubled, because what is said here and what was said above seem contradictory. For there he says: 'They have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them, according to all their works which they have done from the day I led them out of the land of Egypt even to this day' (1 Kings 8:7). But now he says: 'You shall anoint him leader over my people Israel, and he shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have looked upon my people, for their cry has come to me.' Above, a king is permitted to be appointed as if by one who is angry; now he is appointed as if by one who is merciful and kind. And who does not see how much these words of kindness differ from that sentence which was pronounced upon him by Samuel? 'Because,' he says, 'you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king' (1 Kings 15:26). This we certainly resolve quickly if we examine carefully the force of the words themselves. For all these words of divine kindness are ascribed to the merits of the people: 'He shall save my people;' and, 'I have looked upon my people;' and, 'their cry has come to me.' Therefore a king is decreed to be appointed for those whose cry is heard. For even though Saul was to be cast from the kingdom for his future wickedness, nevertheless he had in himself, as long as he reigned, that by which he could benefit the people subject to him. He was certainly to be valiant in war, yet proud in mind. He would have that by which he would fall for himself, and that by which he would stand for others. Therefore, foreseeing that by which he could benefit his subjects, the Lord says: 'He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines;' and, 'their cry has come to me.' Yet still it seems very contradictory that he should be believed to hear the cry of that people who are rebuked for having rejected him. To which it must be answered: that in that people there were both the reprobate and the elect. There, then, the reprobate are accused of having rejected the Lord; here the desires of the elect reach the ears of almighty God. From which what is to be gathered, except that it is often good for the elect that wicked rulers are appointed? It is therefore not surprising if God is angered, as it were, at his own rejection, and yet appoints a king: because the very office of the future king was both bad and good. Bad, indeed, because proud; but good, because vigorous in the defense of his subjects. And we see all of this happening now in the holy Church: because very often the one who receives her primacy is one who is useful to others in word, yet swollen with pride in his own mind. By preaching virtues, he destroys vices as if by standing firm, but by thinking highly of himself, he falls. Thus by preaching he saves the people of God, but by swelling with pride he casts himself down headlong. Like a mighty king, by his word he crushes the hidden adversaries of God's people, but through pride he falls from the height of the kingdom. Therefore a king is not appointed for his own sake, but only for the people; when one is permitted to preside in the holy Church who tramples upon the good things he preaches, either by being proud or by living wickedly.

43. In this passage it must be noted that when a pastor is chosen in the holy Church, sometimes he is ordained for himself and for the people; sometimes neither for the people nor for himself; sometimes for himself, not for the people; and sometimes indeed for the people, not for himself. For himself and the people, when a chosen preacher is given to chosen subjects: because from the very thing by which the multitude of subjects is led to the eternal homeland, gifts of merits are heaped upon the good pastor. A pastor is given neither for himself nor for the people when a reprobate populace is permitted to have a reprobate pastor, since he presides in such a way and they obey in such a way that neither he who teaches nor those who are taught deserve to arrive at eternal goods. Of whom the Lord says through Hosea: "I will give them kings in my wrath" (Hosea 13:11). For a king is given in the wrath of God when one worse than the wicked is appointed to preside over them. Such a pastor is given when such a people is taken on to be governed, who may equally be condemned by eternal punishment. A pastor is given for himself, not for the people, when a good man is placed over the wicked; as the Lord says to Ezekiel: "I am sending you to the children of Israel, to an apostate nation that has departed from me" (Ezekiel 3:3). A pastor is given for himself indeed, not for the people, when even if a chosen preacher cannot convert his hearers to God, he himself nevertheless does not lose the eternal rewards of his labor. But for the people, not for himself: when a pastor is granted to good subjects who possesses gifts by which he benefits them but does not benefit himself. Such indeed were those about whom the Lord commands the disciples, saying: "What they say, do; but what they do, do not do" (Matthew 23:3). As if He were saying: What they have received that is useful for you, take from them as though it were yours; and leave in them as though it were theirs what they possess not for your gain but for their own destruction. Saul, therefore, with the Lord rejected, is chosen, and yet is declared to be one who will free the people of the Lord from the hand of the Philistines, because Almighty God often benefits His good faithful ones through those prelates who do not please Him in the exercise of that same prelacy. There follows: (Verse 17.) And when Samuel looked upon Saul, the Lord said: "Behold the man of whom I spoke to you; this one shall rule over my people."

44. For this was done on the following day, which the Lord had promised on the preceding day, saying: "Tomorrow at this same hour I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him over my people Israel." He is therefore seen on the second day, who was promised on the first: because the preachers of holy Church search out the virtues of the elect in their hidden life. For those who are to be promoted, when they bring forth good things, promise something great from themselves. On the first day, therefore, a king is promised; because preachers behold the great works of the elect, and, as if the Lord were speaking, they recognize inwardly those whom they wish to appoint as rulers of holy Church. Samuel therefore sees on the following day, when the preacher beholds the one who is to be promoted in the great light of his manner of life. And then indeed, as if by the Lord's indication, he recognizes the one who must be appointed king: because the one who stands preeminent on the lofty height of holiness, he sees as worthy to be set above others. And because those who are great in merits are small through humility, there follows: (Verse 18.) Saul approached Samuel in the middle of the gate, saying: "Tell me, I pray, where is the house of the Seer."

45. If a preacher is in the city when he speaks plain and common things that are understood, what is the gate of this city if not humility? For the knowledge of the divine word is hidden from the proud and revealed to the humble. Hence also in the Gospel he speaks to the Father, saying: "I confess to you, Father, King of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to little ones" (Matt. 11:25). By the wise he meant the proud and those who think highly of themselves, but by the little ones he meant the humble. Of these another Scripture certainly makes mention, saying: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5:5). For he resists the proud, lest they understand eternal goods, but he gives grace to the little ones, so that they may know those same eternal goods through his own revealing. The elect, therefore, because they come to spiritual understanding through humility, go to hear the preachers as if through a gate. The chosen preacher also, because he speaks spiritual things humbly, Samuel meets Saul at that same gate. For it is as though both are at the gate when the things that the chosen preacher speaks are humbly heard by another who is chosen.

46. But he who had newly arrived had found the one he was seeking, and did not know it. Therefore Saul himself says to Samuel: "Tell me, I pray, where is the house of the Seer." For this is characteristic of great men, that they are recognized with difficulty by the least. In the flesh indeed they are despised, but in mind they are exalted. They desire to appear contemptible outwardly, but they do not cease to do venerable things. Because, therefore, those who greatly desire to advance through their examples admire them not only in outward matters, but in their inmost qualities. They see in them outwardly what can be despised by carnal people, but they equally observe that inwardly, spiritual men ought to be venerated with great admiration. When they hear that these men are exalted by fame, they desire to know them in the loftiness of their way of life. According to the historical sense, therefore, Saul was seeing Samuel and did not recognize him, so that what was happening to them in figure might signify spiritual things for us. For when we are little ones, we as it were see perfect men when we hear of their virtues from those who report them; but those whom we see, we do not recognize, because we cannot know through experience what we perceive by hearing and hold in the eyes of the heart. When therefore we seek from them the secrets of their way of life for imitation, we are indeed asking them as it were about their own home. For their home is their way of life. This home the disciple of John wished to know, when he asked the Lord, saying: "Master, where do you dwell?" (John 1:38). He indeed, because he was to be led to intimacy with Him as one of the household, heard: "Come, and see." This home Philip had seen but did not recognize, to whom He says: "I have been with you so long a time, and you have not known me. Philip, he who sees me sees also my Father" (John 14:9). Of the Lord also it is written that He spoke to Moses as with His friend; but the same Moses, seeing and not recognizing, was asking, saying: "If I have found grace in your sight, show me your face" (Exodus 33:13). But the spiritual way of life of the saints, because it is revealed to none but the devout and the suppliant, Saul similarly begs that the house of Samuel be shown to him. Holy preachers also, when they hear great things about themselves, cast themselves down through humility; they do not become puffed up. They know how to show to those who ask great things which they may imitate; they know how, among the great things which they show, not to appear great through boasting. Therefore it is also added: (Verse 19) "And Samuel answered Saul, saying: I am the Seer. But go up before me to the high place today, that you may eat with me, and I will send you away in the morning."

47. What does it mean to say, "I am the Seer," except to show himself humble, as he appeared to their eyes? As if to say: In your estimation, the one you seek is great, but the one you see is small. For in this word, "Seer," it is not a title of praise, but "I am." As if to say: That Seer is I—not what you suppose, but what you behold. But he who knew how to humble himself knew how to give gifts not as one who is lowly, but as one who is exalted. For this reason he also commands him to go up before him to the high place, so that he might eat with him. He ascends to the high place who raises his mind to know higher things. Indeed, to ascend to the high place is to prepare the heart for understanding lofty matters. Hence Peter too is taken up on the mountain, so that he might deserve to see the glory of the transfigured Redeemer (Matt. 17:1). For in that ascent of the mountain, the lofty preparation of the mind is expressed: because he who does not fix his mind on high things through earnest attention will not be able to see exalted things. Since, therefore, we better understand sublime things when we are prepared, Saul is commanded to go up to the high place before Samuel. For we ascend, as it were, to the high place before the preacher when we first direct our mind to know lofty things, and they afterwards speak to us of those very things to which we have directed our attention. But what does it mean when he says, "That you may eat with me today"? When holy preachers speak of heavenly things, they refresh the hearts of their chosen hearers: for as the Truth attests, the food of the soul is the word of God: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). For bread is the nourishment of the body; the word is the nourishment of the mind. But those who refresh the body without the mind are dead in mind, alive in flesh. Hence Paul also says of the self-indulgent widow: "She who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives" (1 Tim. 5:6). For the widow would not die through the delights of food if she satisfied her soul with the food of God's word, since Paul himself says: "Nothing is unclean that is received with thanksgiving" (1 Tim. 4:4). But the living widow dies when she nourishes the body with food and kills the soul with hunger (Matt. 4). Therefore man does not live by bread alone: because since man consists of soul and body, just as he lives in one way through the body, so it is necessary that each part be nourished by different foods. Therefore we ascend with the prophet in order to eat, when we raise our mind to the heights of the divine word, so that we may be satisfied by its heavenly flavor through devotion.

48. And because the preachers themselves greatly love the heavenly things of which they speak, we eat together, as it were, when they devoutly bring forth in speaking what we devoutly place in the belly of the soul by hearing. For we eat together, because we hear the Word of God equally. For Truth says to the preachers: "It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you" (Matt. 10:20). Which Paul also proves when he questions his hearers, saying: "Do you seek proof of Christ who dwells in me?" (2 Cor. 13:3). Since, therefore, Christ and His Spirit speak in the holy preachers, the preachers themselves hear the One speaking all the more clearly inasmuch as they are nearer to Him whose seat they deserve to be. Therefore they can be more fully refreshed by the nourishment of the word, inasmuch as they already have within themselves the chamber of refreshment. For they are friends of the bridegroom, and they stand and rejoice with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom. When, therefore, the holy preachers speak divine things, they hear; but because they know by certain experience when the Spirit speaks in them, they hear themselves, yet not in themselves, because they themselves also speak, but having spoken in themselves, they venerate another who speaks. In this, therefore—that they hear and speak—they both refresh and are refreshed. They refresh their hearers when they bring forth the word with their own voice; they themselves are refreshed when the word they bring forth is brought forth to them by divine revelation. Yet those are more devoutly satisfied who have experienced the delights of the mind in the speaking of the Spirit. Is not the experience of the speaking Spirit this: to perceive themselves unprepared and unpremeditated, and suddenly to be prepared and ready? To know what they had not known; to have what they had not had; to lose the torpor of the mind; to suddenly burn with wondrous devotion; to be wondrously filled at once and in a moment with fullness of knowledge; to bring forth with wondrous eloquence of speech the things they have understood? The elect preachers, therefore, have experience of the Spirit speaking in them in the sudden revelation of truth; they have the sudden ardor of charity; they have it in the fullness of knowledge; they have it in the most eloquent preaching of the word. For they are suddenly instructed, and at once they grow fervent, and in a moment they are filled, and they are enriched with a wondrous power of speech. For concerning that sudden experience the Lord says: "It will be given to you in that hour what you should speak" (Matt. 10:19). Concerning that sudden fervor of charity, Cleopas says: "Was not our heart burning within us on the way, while He spoke and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32). Concerning the experience of being filled and of eloquence, Luke also recalls, saying: "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty spirit, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:2). For in that same Spirit they were both filled and spoke, so as to signify what we assert: that namely, by speaking they feed others, who are themselves fed by hearing what they say. And because they recognize the sound of the mighty Spirit as ardor, or as speech, or as filling, they feast all the more sweetly on spiritual gifts inasmuch as they have been more worthily taken up to His table. He says, therefore: "Come up, that you may eat with me today"; because the good teacher, when he sweetly receives in the devotion of his mind the things he speaks, feeds both himself and those who hear him at the same time.

49. On the other hand, reprobate teachers, because they do not love what they say, fast while they feed others with their word. For since the Lord said that the word of God is the refreshment of the soul, and the word of God in a full mind is complete learning and complete devotion, those who do not devoutly hear what they speak are not fed by the word of God. Indeed the Apostle, as if already filled with that sweetness of the word, says: "Of his fullness we have all received" (John 1:16). The fullness of the word is one thing, the fullness of a book is another. From the fullness of the word, only the elect can receive; but from the fullness of Scripture, even the reprobate can receive. For the book of the blessed apostle John and the book of the blessed apostle Paul are indeed fullnesses, which are contained in them. Paul or John wrote their words, to be sure, but what each one wrote, the Word speaking in them inspired. Therefore, whoever receives the word of Scripture not in love but in knowledge receives from the fullness not of the word but of the book. And because he receives a dead thing, he himself does not live in its reception. But what am I saying—that Scripture is dead? It is not only dead but killing. For it is written: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6). Indeed every divine letter does this. For the letter is the body, and the life of this body is the spirit. He who reads the letter and refreshes his mind in the love of understanding receives a body that has been vivified and is vivifying. Therefore the reprobate, who search the Scriptures they do not love, who boldly speak outwardly of that whose savor they do not inwardly understand—while others perceive with devout mind the refreshment of the Scriptures they expound, it is as though others are filled from what they themselves give, but not they themselves. Let Samuel therefore say: "Come up, that you may eat with me today," because from what the elect teachers bestow upon their subjects from the word, they both hear together and are filled together. For behold, this is demonstrated in the very word we are speaking. For who doubts that Samuel wrote this Scripture we are expounding? And yet he who wrote it says this: "Samuel answered"—so as to show clearly that what he himself was writing, another was imparting. Therefore, because the Holy Spirit, who speaks through him, says through him about him: "Samuel answered Saul: Go up before me to the high place, that you may eat with me today." He says what he hears, and he simultaneously hears and says. Therefore, while the elect preacher hears and speaks with great veneration of love, and good hearers receive with great devotion what is said, Saul and Samuel are said to eat together at the high place. Likewise, because preachers are worthier and more fervent than their hearers in the refreshment of the same word, it is not Samuel who is said to be about to eat with Saul, but Saul with Samuel. But also because such splendid instruction of the mind exists in the great light of the spiritual life, he does not say: "That you may eat with me this night," but "today." He also dismisses him in the morning. "Morning" means the beginning of the following day. The following day is the serene light of holy conduct. He therefore says: (Verse 19.) "I will send you away in the morning."

50. He is indeed sent forth in the morning from the height, who, when he advances to the light of higher knowledge, proposes to dwell in the great light of good work. Or he is sent forth in the morning, who intends to preach to others the word of great knowledge which he learned from the mouth of a preacher. For when we propose good things, we are as it were in the morning at the beginning of the day, because we have already begun to behold the brightness of good which we may follow. But this morning grows into full day when he who has proposed to do great goods or to preach the lofty joys of eternity displays what he has proposed in the great light of virtue. In the morning, therefore, Saul is sent forth from the height, because the hearers of good preachers do not delay to practice sublimely what they hear as sublime from them. But the elect know both how to hide and how to manifest the goods they possess. They hide them indeed, lest they perish through pride; but they manifest them, lest they remain unfruitful. While they hide them, they guard them; but while they manifest them, they bring forth fruit. For there follows: (Ver. 19, 20.) 'And all things that are in your heart I will show to you; and as for the donkeys which you lost three days ago, do not be anxious, for they have been found.'

51. How preachers strive to conceal themselves is shown above in the word of Samuel, where it is said: "I am the Seer." But now, because he says, "All things that are in your mind, I will declare to you," what else do we understand except that holy men often both hide and bring forth the virtues which they have? But, as I said, they hide them lest they appear great on account of their great virtues; they bring them forth so that the elect may imitate them. And so they declare that they excel in the word of wisdom or the spirit of prophecy, not that they may be venerated, but that they may be heard. Wherefore also the Psalmist, intimating that he possesses the grace of the word, says: "I have understood more than all my teachers" (Ps. 118:99). Therefore, certain of the skill of the spirit, he confidently invites us, saying: "Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 33:11). For Micah was affirming himself to be a prophet when he said: "Would that I were not a man having the spirit, and that I rather spoke a lie" (Mic. 2:11). Hence Elisha says concerning Naaman the Syrian: "Let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel" (4 Kings 5:8). Hence Paul says: "They are Hebrews, so am I; they are the seed of Abraham, so am I; they are ministers of Christ, so am I—I speak as one less wise—I am more so" (2 Cor. 11:22–23). But on the other hand, Amos says: "I am not a prophet, but a herdsman plucking sycamores" (Amos 7:14). Hence also Paul, when he wishes to hide himself for the sake of safeguarding, says: "I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God" (1 Cor. 15:9). Hence John the Baptist, when questioned, said: "I am not a prophet" (John 1:21). For he was not a prophet unto self-exaltation, but he was a prophet and more than a prophet unto ministry. Samuel therefore, in order to guard himself, says: "I am the Seer"; and in order to present himself for the profit of others, says: "I will declare all things to you." And if anyone wishes, he can understand it in the same way: that when he says, "I am the Seer," if he declares himself to be a seer, he says this so that he may share the good that he has with the elect. Therefore, in order to prove what he asserts, he subsequently adds: "I will declare all things to you." This is what the doctors of holy Church do; for while they behold the virtues and vices of minds, they clearly know how to heal vices and to promote virtues. He therefore declares all things that are in the heart when he deigns to set forth by the instruction of manifest teaching the way of virtue which the good hearer desires to hold. And if he is great and has resolved not only to do good things but also to preach them, preachers declare all things that are in his heart when they open to their minds whatever they desire concerning doctrine. But because he signifies to the one to whom he speaks the one who strives for the gains of preaching, he adds and says: "And as for the donkeys which you lost three days ago, do not be anxious, for they have been found."

52. This was explained above in the person of Saul, how it applies to inexperienced preachers. For he lost the donkeys, because he by no means drew to repentance the sinners to whom he offered the word of life. He would indeed have found them, if those who had hidden themselves in the night of wickedness had returned to the light of justice, in which they could have been found as men. Why then does he say, "They have been found," unless because often the great men of salvation consider that good can easily be found in those about whose life the unlearned despair? For even skilled physicians of bodies often presume to cure those whose health the unskilled cannot presume to restore. So indeed, sinners are often drawn to repentance and satisfaction by learned teachers who could not be drawn by unlearned and inexperienced ones. Since therefore, both by the preaching and by the example of the perfect, those return to the Lord through repentance who could not be converted through the ministry of others, Samuel rightly says that the donkeys have been found which Saul could not find. This saying can also be understood with respect to the advancement of the ruler being ordained. As if to say: As you advance in learning and life, you will also be able to win for the Lord those whom you have not yet been able to win. So certain indeed is the virtue of advancement that its fruits, which do not yet stand firm in reality, stand firm in the certainty of hope. And because by these words he is invited to endure the labors of holy preaching, he explains what rewards of gain he should expect, saying: (Verse 20.) And for whom shall be all the best things of Israel? Shall they not be for you and for all your father's house?

53. Israel, which is interpreted "seeing God" — whom does it more fittingly signify in this place than that blessed society of eternal citizens who, from the toil of this life, have arrived at the eternal vision of almighty God? What then are the best things of Israel, if not the gifts of eternal recompense? Paul indeed says: "Each one shall receive his reward according to his own labor" (1 Cor. 3:8). Likewise he says: "There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and of the stars. For star differs from star in brightness" (1 Cor. 15:41). Therefore the recompenses and rewards of all the faithful are the good things of Israel. But because the reward of the elect preachers is the highest, theirs are the best things of Israel. Concerning these best things of Israel the Lord promises to his faithful servant, saying: "Amen I say to you, he will set him over all his goods" (Matt. 24:47). For he who is set not among all things but over all things is declared to possess not merely the good things of Israel, but even the best. Let Samuel therefore say: "To whom shall all the best things of Israel belong, if not to you and to all the house of your father?" As if to say: Even if the labor of preaching is great, it ought to be borne with all the more devotion, the greater the gains of its reward. The teacher of holy Church ought therefore to weigh with anxious mind that not only the good things but even the best things of Israel are his, so that he who awaits things so supreme and excellent may always do what is greater and more excellent. For indeed those supreme rewards are owed not to the supreme rank, but to supreme labor. For the distinguished teacher did not say: "Each one shall receive his reward according to his dignity," but "according to his labor." When therefore the best things of eternal life are assigned to preachers, great toil in this life is enjoined upon them: because surely he who does not strive to be better than the rest cannot prevail in having better things than the rest. And because this is common to all preachers of holy Church, the best things of Israel are said to belong not only to Saul, but to the whole house of his father. For as sons are born from a father, so in the order of preachers new ones are successively raised up in place of others, resplendent with the same nobility of holiness. The house of the preacher is also his spiritual manner of life. Therefore the best things of Israel belong to the whole house of his father: because wherever there is a priestly manner of life, there assuredly it is, and it is so exalted that from the loftiness of its merit, its rewards in eternal life are the very best. In this, therefore, let preachers examine themselves carefully: because the best things of Israel will belong not only to themselves but to his whole house — because if they depart from the house, they will not have the best things. For if they hold only the eminence of preaching, they will not have the best things, because they do not maintain the loftiness of life. But every elect person, when he hears great things about himself, brings his own weaknesses to mind, so that he may guard himself against pride, lest he lose the good things he has. Hence it is added: (Verse 21.) Saul answered and said: "Am I not a son of Gemini, of the least tribe of Israel, and is not my kindred the last among all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken this word to me?"

54. As if he were saying: Why do you ascribe such great things to me, when I am nothing? For he is a son of Gemini who imitates the negligent in the care of himself and in the example of his neighbor. He is indeed a twin, because while he neglects the care of himself, he does not bestow examples of good work upon others. Therefore whoever imitates such people is called a son of Gemini. He is said to be from the smallest tribe of Israel, because the last order of the holy Church is that of converted sinners. Rightly therefore, he who confesses himself to be a sinner is said to be from the smallest tribe of Israel. His family is also reported to be the last among the others, because according to the voice of Truth: "Whoever breaks the least commandment shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19). For Benjamin means "son of the right hand." By this name indeed the people of the holy Church are designated, who, while being born in the faith of the Redeemer, are prepared through good works for the goods of the heavenly fatherland. The right hand of God is indeed that strength of eternal life. The families of the tribe of Benjamin are the diverse ways of life of the elect. For just as diverse families come from one principle of generation, so from the one origin of orthodox faith, many ways of life of the faithful arise. Therefore holy men, when they cast themselves down through humility, because they confess themselves to be sinners, and yet rightly believe in God, assert themselves to be, as it were, both sons of Gemini and of the last family of Israel. But because the more they humble themselves, according to the voice of Truth, the more they are exalted (Luke 14:10–11), there follows: (Verse 22.) So Samuel, taking Saul and his servant, brought them into the dining hall, and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited.

55. Samuel takes up Saul when the preacher of holy Church opens the heights of his preaching to a chosen hearer. For a subject is taken up when he is elevated to the knowledge of heavenly things through the word of a teacher. And because he desires to know spiritual things not with carnal intention, he took up not only Saul himself but also his servant. For it was as though he had remained below without a servant, he who said: "My heart has forsaken me" (Ps. 37:11). For our heart forsakes us when we are so overcome by carnal desires that we place the intention of our heart on earthly, carnal, and bodily things, and not on heavenly and spiritual ones. He had found this lost servant, who said: "Your servant has found his heart" (2 Kings 7:27). For we find our heart when we seek spiritual things through the intention of the heart; when we tear it away from earthly things so that we may direct it toward heavenly ones. The chosen preacher, therefore, to those who are still carnal, neither commands difficult things nor reveals spiritual ones. For Paul also says to the Corinthians: "I could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal ones, as to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not solid food" (1 Cor. 3:1). As if by these words he were saying: I therefore did not lead you to the heights, because you did not have a spiritual sense with you, as Saul did not have his servant. Wherefore, also indicating the reason, he says: "For you are still carnal." Rightly, therefore, Samuel is said to have taken up Saul and his servant, because the teachers of holy Church command difficult things and reveal lofty ones to those whom they consider to be spiritual. They are also led into a dining hall, because the breadth of charity is shown to them. For one is placed as it were in a dining hall who, through what he has learned on high, dwells in the breadth of charity. Or certainly our entrance into the dining hall is love; the dining hall is the beauty of the spiritual life. Whence John says: "He who does not love remains in death" (1 John 3:14). For if he who does not love remains in death, then he who loves remains in life. We are therefore led into the dining hall when we rise to the affection of heavenly conversation through the affection of charity. In this breadth of dwelling, holy preachers indeed hold the higher place, because blessed John the Evangelist says: "And around the throne were twenty-four seats, and upon the seats twenty-four elders" (Rev. 4:4). For the elders are holy preachers, mature in understanding, grave in character, who surround the throne of God with seats placed nearby, because those who love the Creator above all others rest closer to him through the loftiest manner of life. Rightly therefore Saul with his servant receives a place at the head of those who had been invited, because in them the type of pastors to be chosen is shown. The ruler is indeed placed at the head when, through the force of great love, he receives the singular resolve of the heavenly life; while he holds the catholic faith in common with the rest, he possesses a sublime virtue above the rest. Whence it also follows: (Verse 22.) "For there were about thirty men."

56. Three times ten makes thirty. The number three suggests faith in the holy and undivided Trinity. The number ten, through the ten commandments of the law, signifies the perfection of good works. The number thirty, therefore, designates those who hold that faith which works through love. Saul is placed at the head of these, because through divine grace he who is to be the future shepherd of the Church is made more exalted in merit than those over whom he ought to be superior in dignity. Samuel bestows this exalted place upon him, because he who deserves such greatness of life advances to it through the instruction of his elders. And since great things, and not small ones, are now shown to him to accomplish, it is added: (Vers. 23, 24.) Samuel said to the cook: Give the portion which I gave to you, and which I commanded you to set aside with you. So the cook took up the shoulder and placed it before Saul. And Samuel said: Behold what remains, set it before you and eat, because it was purposely kept for you when I called the people. And Saul ate with Samuel on that day.

57. What is signified by the shoulder of the breast, if not the strength of action? This is bestowed by Samuel's cook, when it is demonstrated to lesser ones by the greatest preachers. For the cooks are priests, because while they speak to the chosen faithful in the fervor of the spirit, they cook the foods of the mind, as it were through fire. But the portion that is given is said to have been set apart, because the strength of good work in a preacher ought to be singular. Saul places this before him, when he commands the one to be ordained as pastor of holy Church to consider how great a strength he ought to possess. But concerning what the cook had set aside, Samuel says to Saul: 'Behold that which is left, set it before you.' It remained indeed, because Christ did not fulfill all things that are ours; through His cross He indeed redeemed all, but something remained, so that whoever strives to be redeemed and to reign with Him must be crucified. He who said the following had surely seen this remainder: 'If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him' (2 Tim. 2:12). As if to say: What Christ fulfilled avails nothing unless one also fulfills that which remained. Hence the blessed apostle Peter says: 'Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps' (1 Pet. 2:21). Hence Paul says: 'I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh' (Col. 1:24).

58. But it should be noted that the cook placed the shoulder before Saul, and yet Samuel instructed Saul to place it before himself. What does this mean? A steward usually places a dish on the table before those reclining; and when the one reclining draws it toward himself, he places closer before himself what was a little farther away. The cook, therefore, places the shoulder before Saul; Samuel instructs Saul to place it before himself: because what is enjoined upon a new preacher concerning the strength of good work, he ought to draw closer to himself, as it were, through the zeal of contemplation. And after he has drawn it to himself, he eats it: because what he has long contemplated, he resolves to carry out. Indeed, to eat the shoulder is to store away inwardly through purpose of mind what is outwardly commanded concerning strong action. For it was as if urging every chosen one to place the shoulder before himself and eat it, he who said: "If you sit down at the table of a mighty man, wisely consider what is set before you, for you must prepare similar things" (Prov. 23:1). At the table of the mighty one, he indicated the strength of the shoulder. And when he said, "Wisely consider what is set before you," he taught the one to whom he spoke to place the shoulder before himself. But he suggested that he ought to eat it, because he said, "You must prepare similar things." For by preparing similar things, we eat; because when we resolve to perform the mighty deeds we hear, we store away the food of life, as it were eating, in the stomach of the heart. But the vessel of election commands even the highest teachers under the instruction of a single disciple, saying: "Lay hands hastily on no one" (1 Tim. 5:22). For since those who are to be raised to the heights must be chosen with great deliberation of counsel, what follows is fittingly added: "Because it was kept for you by design, when I called the people." As if to say: Place before yourself what, before it was set out, I placed before myself; consider what I considered. For the portion of the shoulder is kept by design, because the strongest action of a preacher is rightly entrusted to the one who is judged worthy of so great a ministry by the highest men with great consideration. This portion was kept by design when the people are called, because when faithful subjects come to undertake the ministry of preaching, what is enjoined upon good preachers is not weak things upon the weak, but strong things upon the strong. But those who progress well strive above all to maintain the good of obedience in their lofty way of life. Therefore what follows is fittingly added: "And Saul ate with Samuel on that day." As I have already said, for a teacher being advanced, to eat is to prepare himself to do what is commanded him concerning virtue. And he is rightly said to have eaten with Samuel, because when those who newly arrive resolve to do great things, the highest men become more fervent in the strength of good work. In this eating can also be signified that of which he promised above, saying: "Go up before me, that you may eat with me today." Saul therefore eats with Samuel, because when the preacher inwardly hears the heavenly sweetness of the word of God, what the subjects outwardly hear as he speaks, they are both assuredly satisfied from the divine refreshment. There follows: (Verse 25.) "And they went down from the high place into the town, and Samuel spoke with Saul on the rooftop. And Saul made his bed on the rooftop, and slept."

59. Whoever is raised to the height of pastoral care must have in that very sublimity of his office both loftiness in his own life and compassion for the weakness of others. Therefore let Saul ascend with Samuel, and let him descend into the town. Let the ruler know how to conduct lofty matters; let him know how to arrange common ones. Let him say with Paul: "Our conversation is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20); let him say with us: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? I see another law contradicting the law of my mind and leading me captive under the law of sin" (Rom. 7:24). The ruler is on the height when he speaks wisdom among the perfect. When he arranges carnal matters, he descends into the town, saying: "On account of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and each woman her own husband; let the husband render to his wife what is owed, and the wife likewise to her husband" (1 Cor. 7:2). He is on the height when he says: "No creature shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom. 8:39). But he descends into the town, for speaking, he says: "I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak; I became all things to all men, that I might save all" (1 Cor. 9:22). Samuel therefore brought Saul up to the high place and set him down in the town, because great men, when they appoint someone to the summit of holy Church, teach those whom they place on that summit to live sublimely, to preach plainly, to be strict with themselves but temperate with their subjects — to attend so to their own salvation that they can yet be weak with the weak. I say "be weak" through the affection of the mind, not through the languor of inner sickness. For if the teacher lies prostrate through languor of mind, he cannot heal the sick or raise up those who are fallen. It is well, therefore, that Saul is reported to have descended with Samuel into the town and to have spoken with him on the rooftop. For the town is on the plain, but the rooftop is on high. Compared to the high place, the rooftop is on the plain; compared to the town, it is not on the plain but elevated. So indeed, when chosen preachers show compassion to lesser members, they seem to leave the height behind; but descending into the town, they are on the rooftop, because they come down from the height, yet they take on the weakness of their subjects by pitying and counseling them, not by acting out and sharing in that weakness. For though they show compassion to the weak and command them to take wives, they themselves do not take wives by becoming weak. Therefore, descending into the town, they are on the rooftop, because even though they command plain things, they do not retain what is weak in themselves. And since Samuel is said not merely to be on the rooftop but to speak with Saul there, this surely signifies that the future teacher must be taught to show compassion to his weak subjects in such a way that he himself nevertheless maintains the height of his way of life.

60. And because the new preacher needs much consideration for carrying out these things, Saul is said to have made a bed for himself and to have slept. For the new preacher to sleep on the rooftop is to arrange in his lofty contemplation how he ought to bear the burdens of those subject to him. For if he stays awake for worldly pursuits, he assuredly brings it about that he does not seek so great a good of discernment in his inmost depths. He ought therefore to sleep, so that he thinks of no worldly things, because one who is weighed down by secular concerns can never order spiritual matters. But neither can he sleep who does not make a bed for himself, because indeed if he does not reflect on the examples or sayings of good men, it is impossible for him to find rest from outward things. We lay soft things beneath ourselves, as it were, when we reflect on the teaching or life of the elect. We also sleep upon those same coverings, because we can then rest well in contemplation when we are occupied with spiritual matters. Let him therefore say, "Because Saul made a bed for himself and slept," to suggest to the chosen soul that if she carelessly occupies herself with outward things, she will not acquire the grace of inward rest. But he who wishes to arrange spiritual matters well through contemplation, until he has perfectly ordered them within, ought not to awake to those things which are outside. Fittingly, therefore, there is added: (Verse 26.) And when they had risen in the morning, and it was now growing light, Samuel called to Saul on the rooftop, saying: "Arise, and I will send you on your way."

61. Indeed, morning dawns when the splendor of truth opens itself to the quiet mind. For the human mind becomes dark through ignorance and bright through the illumination of truth. Therefore, one who is ignorant is in night; when illuminated, in day. Moreover, one rises in the morning who sleeps at night: when he rouses himself to carry out those things which he arranged through deliberation. And because the business of ordaining the king was being conducted, both are said to have risen. The supreme preacher rises in order to ordain his hearer for the ministry of that same preaching. He who is to be ordained rises, so that he may not presume that so sublime an order is to be received with anything less than the deepest affection of the heart. Indeed they rise together, because a sublime office is given and is received as sublime. In this passage another thing must be noted: that both first rose, and then Samuel called Saul, saying: "Arise, and I will send you on your way." But according to the historical sense, if both rose, Saul is admonished to prepare himself for the work, because he is commanded to rise from sleep. Because indeed both the high priests and he who is taken up into the order of preaching attentively consider the burden of so great a ministry, they sleep as it were together and rise together. But he who is newly to be ordained, rising from sleep, is commanded to rise again for the work: because although he has striven to weigh the height of the order by meditating, he must nevertheless attain it through the merit of his way of life. Therefore, having risen, he is commanded to rise, so that he may resolve to match with his merits the sublime order which he deliberates to undertake. Hence he is also called on the rooftop: because he is commanded to strive for lofty things. He also says: "And I will send you on your way." He rises, of course, so that he may be sent forth: because that man will be able to be free in the ministry of preaching who has grown in the height of a great way of life. Indeed, he who had already risen rose again: because he who by contemplation had learned the height of the dignity took care to raise himself up in that same height of dignity through the sublimity of his life. Hence it is added: (Verse 26.) "And Saul rose." Then it is added: (Verse 26.) "And they both went out; he, namely, and Samuel."

62. The pastor goes out when he comes from the secret of meditation to the public sphere of action. For when he arranges what he wishes to do, he is within; but when he outwardly carries out what he has thought, he as it were goes out. Saul also went out, because in the outward dignity, the one who is promoted undertakes that which he had long considered whether it should be undertaken. Both therefore are said to have gone out, because both had been within: while the one with anxious mind foresaw what he should give and to whom; the other likewise more attentively considered what manner of man he was who would receive such high things. Because therefore the ministry of holy preaching must be bestowed and received with the utmost discernment, while the king of Israel is anointed, both the king and the prophet about to anoint him are reported to have gone out. However, many manuscripts have: "And when they had risen early in the morning, before dawn," which can indeed be fittingly understood. It is morning, before dawn, when in a certain way the day begins to breathe, and yet the full light of day has not arrived. Now when the holy preachers of the Church consider the good manner of life of those whom they intend to ordain, it is as it were morning. But because they cannot know their future, it is morning, but before dawn. This is fittingly said in the ordination of him who is afterwards recorded to have displeased almighty God. For as it were at morning, before dawn, the prophet saw this man who appeared to him in the light of good conduct. But the full brightness of day had not yet come, because he could not see through the present light of knowledge the future darkness in him. This indeed happens in the holy Church as often as those who are chosen are good in the present but will not persevere in the same goodness. For he as it were goes out at morning and before the light, who displays the present light of good works but conceals the darkness of his future life. But what was done next follows: (Verses 27ff.) "And as they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul: Tell the servant to go ahead of us and pass on; but you stand still for a moment, that I may make known to you the word of the Lord. Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him."

63. For what does it mean that the king is led to the farthest part of the city and anointed? But the farthest part of the city is the lowest part of the subject people. Those who therefore hold the last place in the holy Church are, as it were, in the farthest part of the city. Moreover, in the lowest part of the Church itself, converted sinners appear to be. For all the righteous are in the upper or first part. Or perhaps virginity holds the first place, continence the second, the married life the third, and the conversion of sinners the last. In the farthest part of the city, therefore, the king is anointed: because the ruler of the holy Church is ordained for sinners, not for the righteous. For hence Truth says of Himself: 'I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance' (Matt. 9:13). Hence again He says: 'They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick' (ibid., 12).

64. But we have said that the boy of Saul designates the spiritual sense. What then does it mean that Samuel commands him to go ahead and pass on? The boy goes ahead when what is done is what the spiritual sense suggests to us, not what the carnal impulse commands. But he goes ahead of some and passes by, while he goes ahead of others and does not pass by. Indeed the boy going ahead does not pass by the arrogant, but passes by the humble: for while the arrogant do great and spiritual things, they are great in their own eyes. They have the boy with them, as it were, whom they follow, who glory in being spiritual in the spiritual things they do. To these the prophet surely reproaches, saying: "Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight" (Isa. 5:21). The elect therefore, in all that they do, take care to be spiritual, yet avoid considering themselves spiritual. They are indeed great in merit, but humble in self-estimation: because they always do great things, yet in those same great things they never regard themselves as great. They make the boy whom they send ahead pass on, as it were, when they have the spiritual sense present in their work, but far from their self-estimation. But what does it mean that he is commanded to stand still for a moment, so that the word of the Lord might be shown to him? He stands still for a moment, having sent the boy ahead, who for the time withdraws himself from his own judgment and does another's will. Therefore he makes the boy pass on and stands still for a moment, who at the command of his superior abandons even those things he considers spiritual: he abandons them so that he may be able to carry out fittingly what is enjoined upon him. This certainly befits the one being ordained as a preacher: for when he considers the weight of pastoral care and his own weakness, the spirit going before him says this to himself: that being so weak, he unworthily takes up so great a burden. Let him therefore not only send the boy ahead, but make him pass on: so that he does not follow his own judgment, but accepts what is determined for him by the provision of one who is better. And about him standing still, it is immediately added.

CHAPTER V. (1 Kings 10:1.) Then Samuel took a small flask of oil and poured it upon his head.

1. This indeed is expressed by this anointing, which even now is materially displayed in the holy Church: because he who is placed in a position of authority receives the sacrament of anointing. Because indeed the anointing itself is a sacrament, he who is promoted is well anointed outwardly if he is strengthened inwardly by the power of the sacrament. Let us therefore first consider more attentively the very properties of oil. Oil indeed rises above other liquids, oil nourishes fire, oil is accustomed to heal wounds. By the first property, therefore, it signifies the good of mercy, because it is written of the Lord: His mercies are above all his works (Ps. 144:9). Because it nourishes fire, it designates the grace of preaching, which illuminates the minds of the elect. Because indeed wounds are healed by oil, this surely suggests that the wounds of sins must be cleansed. Let the head of the king therefore be anointed, because the mind of the teacher must be filled with spiritual grace. Let him have oil in his anointing, let him have abundant mercy, which is to be preferred above the other virtues. Let him have oil, so that while he nourishes within himself the ardor of the Holy Spirit, he may shine forth powerfully to others through the word. Let him likewise have the oil of medicine, so that he may wisely arrange how to cleanse the stench of sins and restore sick minds to health. But Saul is anointed with a small flask, not to prefigure doctrine, but to express things to come. A small flask indeed is a small vessel: what then does it mean that Saul is anointed with a small flask of oil, except that in the end he is rejected? For because he afterward refused to obey God, he heard from Samuel: Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king (1 Kings 15:26). For as it were he had but a small flask of oil, he who received spiritual grace only to be cast away. This is fittingly understood also of the rulers of the holy Church. For very often those receive the height of prelacy who are not perfected in the love of God and neighbor. For they have a certain affection of charity, but they do not have its fullness. What then is that rough and imperfect affection of the mind but a small flask of oil? For while it anoints the head, it does not fill it: it is indeed all poured out, but it provides little. On the contrary, however, when the chosen king is commanded to be anointed, the Lord says to the same prophet: Fill your horn with oil, and come, I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons (1 Kings 16:1). Hence it is that the same chosen king, ascribing the fullness of his anointing to the praises of God, says: You have anointed my head with oil, and my inebriating cup, how excellent it is (Ps. 22:5). He therefore who received the grace of anointing without being destined to persevere, by God's dispensation, is anointed with the liquid of that vessel by which the failure of the anointed one would be signified. There follows: (Verse 1.) And he kissed him and said: Behold, God has anointed you over his inheritance as prince, and you shall deliver his people from the hand of their enemies who are round about them.

2. The ruler is led to the height of holy Church so that he may hold this office by which he establishes peace between God and men. For by sinning, we incur the enmity of our Creator. Therefore, when a ruler is appointed for the correction of sinners, he removes from our midst that which has made us enemies of God. Rightly, then, Samuel is reported to have kissed Saul on the head. For that one bears the prophet's kiss fixed upon his head who bears in his mind the support of our reconciliation: namely, when he who strives in his mind to restore the discordant to peace cherishes in himself no fuel for divine discord. Therefore, after the prince has been kissed, it is said: "God has anointed you as prince over His inheritance." As if he were admonishing him by these things, saying: You who know yourself appointed for this purpose—that you ought to dissolve the enmities of sin—what you destroy in others you must not retain in yourself. For some are indeed anointed yet do not receive the kiss; they busy themselves with liberating the people of the Lord, but do not shrink from subjecting themselves to the yoke of His enemies. For he who preaches to others the good things he does not practice gives, as it were, a kiss that he does not receive. For he seeks to make others friends of God, yet he himself does not cease to be His enemy. He builds up in himself the enmities of sin that he attempts to destroy in others by his word. Since, therefore, only he rules with benefit who is a friend of God through the disposition of great charity, Samuel is said to have kissed the head of the king. Hence Truth itself first kisses those whom it appoints, and then sends them to set others free. "You are my friends," He says; then He added, saying: "I have appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:14). Hence also, rising from the dead, He says: "Peace be with you"; then He adds: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). So that He might, as it were, fix the kiss of peace in the minds of those whom He had commanded to loose the hatreds of sin. The king, therefore, having been kissed, is established over the inheritance of the Lord, because the chosen teacher is selected so that he may stand preeminent in dignity over the faithful committed to him, yet from his position of authority he may seek not his own gain but the Lord's. For this reason he is declared appointed for this purpose: that those who are under him may be freed from the hands of their enemies. The inheritance of the Lord is the multitude of the faithful. Therefore every worldly intention is set aside when the king is declared anointed over the inheritance of the Lord. The fruit of anointing, then, is the cultivation of the divine inheritance. He therefore fulfills the office of his anointing who seeks only the gain of souls. He who remembers that he was anointed as prince over the inheritance of the Lord seeks from his earthly dignity only what Christ sought through His own ministry. By this word, therefore, the intention of negligent rulers is condemned.

3. For they hear that they have been anointed over the inheritance of the Lord: that the Lord seeks from the earth none but the elect; they know that He calls not the breadth of land, not abundance of gold, not the overflow of riches, but His faithful ones His inheritance, and yet they do not cease to seek earthly things and to gather what perishes. They direct all their care toward that which the Lord does not seek; and what He alone seeks, they neglect to seek. Therefore it is said, so that the negligent may see themselves in it; it is said, so that the good may become better: God has anointed you, he says, as prince over His inheritance. As if to say: He has made His inheritance yours; see that you do not rule in it otherwise. You shall therefore deliver the people from the hand of the enemies who are round about them. A great labor is enjoined upon the preacher by this, that the enemies are said to be round about. For the battle would be grave enough if they endured the fury of evil spirits on one side alone. Hence, declaring through the prophet, He says: The wicked walk round about (Psalm 11:9). Hence blessed Peter, exhorting, says: Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, steadfast in the faith (1 Peter 5:8). Our enemies therefore are round about us, because unclean spirits always lie in wait against our thought, word, and deed. For when they seek to suggest evil things to us, they are on one side; when they drag us toward evil, we are struck by their assault from another side; when they invite us to evil works, they stir up war from yet another side. We therefore have enemies round about us, since in everything that we think, speak, and do, we suffer the wars of evil spirits. But because it is said not to free the people from war, but from the hands of the enemies, great marks of virtue are ascribed to preachers: because they ought not only to protect the free lest they be captured, but also to free the captives from their servitude. This moreover is accomplished by our kings when those who through the boldness of transgression have been subjected to the yoke of diabolical power come to their senses through their preaching. Which indeed only those preachers can accomplish who arrive at the summit of governance by divine appointment. For those whom almighty God appoints, He sends to endure the battles of the ancient enemy, but He does not abandon them amid those very wars, because He protects His soldiers and makes them victorious. But when holy men are raised to the primacy of the holy Church, they greatly tremble lest the burden of so great an office has been imposed upon them by the judgment of men, not by the appointment of the Creator. Therefore, for the strengthening of the humble, signs are given by which they may know that they have been chosen by God, not by men. Wherefore Samuel also, adding, says: (Verse 2.) And this shall be a sign to you, that God has anointed you as prince. When you shall have departed from me today, you shall find two men by the tomb of Rachel, in the borders of Benjamin, in the south, leaping over great pits, and they shall say to you: The donkeys which you went to seek have been found, and your father, having set aside the matter of the donkeys, is anxious about you and says: What shall I do about my son?

4. For it is as if He says to the humble shepherd, trembling at so great a ministry: You tremble for this reason, because you do not know whether what has been done concerning you is from God; but because you can know this, you ought not to tremble. Therefore this shall be a sign to you that not man, but God has anointed you as ruler: namely, those two men will say to you: The donkeys which you went to seek have been found. As if He were saying: If you find those two men, and they tell you this, know that God, not I, has appointed you as ruler. What then do these two men signify to us, except certain perfect preachers of holy Church? They are two, because they are perfect in both precepts of charity; men, because they are strong in holy conduct. They are said to be found near the tomb of Rachel, because through devotion to the contemplative life they are separated from worldly pursuits; and while they seek the gain of souls, they are not buried. For it is the undoubted opinion of the venerable fathers that Rachel signifies the beauty of the contemplative life. Therefore the men stand near the tomb of Rachel, because perfect teachers so devote themselves to heavenly contemplation that they also bear the care of holy Church. They stand near the tomb of Rachel, because they direct the course of good works through the power of contemplation, and because they do nothing in action except what they arrange through contemplation. And because in the very height of heavenly contemplation they strive to maintain not their own presumption but the rule of holy Church, the tomb of Rachel is described as being in the borders of Benjamin. As I have already said, in Benjamin, who is called the son of the right hand, the Redeemer of the human race is signified. The borders of Benjamin, therefore, are the rules of the Holy Scriptures, concerning which borders it is written: Do not transgress the boundaries which your fathers have set (Prov. 22:28). Because, therefore, the holy preachers, when they see the highest things through contemplation, do not depart from the rule of faith, the tomb near which they stand is rightly said to be in the borders of Benjamin. These men indeed leap over great pits at midday, because through the fervor of perfect charity, in which they have been taken up, they despise all the heights of the world that are seen. For whatever is perceived as lofty in this world is not true height, but a pit, which deposits into hell all whom it receives in its ambition. Therefore the heights of the world are to be avoided by spiritual men, not sought after, because they open up from a hidden place, and lead down to hell those whom they swallow up and receive. Spiritual men, therefore, leap over pits, because while they raise themselves up through heavenly desire, they despise earthly things. For they give a leap as if over pits they have seen, when in order to despise earthly things they raise themselves to desire eternal goods. They leap over pits at midday, therefore, because only those who possess the full light and ardor of heavenly charity can despise the world. Then let Saul understand that he has been anointed by the Lord as ruler, when these men say to him: The donkeys which you were seeking have been found. For they tell Saul that the donkeys have been found when they perceive him fit for gathering the gain of souls. As if He were saying otherwise: Do not believe from men that you have been chosen by God for the ministry of preaching, if those men declare this concerning you who, being full of the Spirit of God, are perceived to say things not human but divine. Because, therefore, concerning ourselves we must believe not ourselves but those better than us, fittingly Saul recognizes that he has been anointed by the Lord as ruler through men who leap over great pits at midday. But one is he by whom he is anointed, and others are those who attest that this anointing is from the Lord; because every affair of holy Church, just as it is more fully proved by the consultation of the holy fathers, so also is it more firmly established.

5. For blessed Paul sought this as a sign of his anointing when he came to Jerusalem to see Peter, and compared his Gospel with him and the other apostles. For he had received his apostleship not from man nor through man, but from heaven, at the call of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 1); and yet he proved the ministry of his anointing through the consultation of his fellow apostles. For he says of himself: "I compared my Gospel with them, lest I should run or had run in vain" (Gal. 2:2). The Precursor of the Redeemer had also anointed his disciples, but so that they might recognize the signs of his anointing, he sent them as if to leap over great ditches, saying: "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we expect another?" (Matt. 11:3). For John knew the one whom he had preached, whom he had baptized; but he sent his disciples so that, having seen the signs, they might believe more firmly and hold more securely the proofs of their election. Those, therefore, who are found suitable for the office of preaching recognize, as a sign of their election, that the souls of sinners which they seek have been found. And because almighty God rejoices not only in the preaching but also in the conduct of the chosen teacher, he adds and says: "And your father, having left the donkeys, is anxious about you, and says: What shall I do about my son?" We said that Kish, the father of Saul, who in our language is called "hard," designates those who teach by word and example to despise earthly things and to hasten to the heavenly homeland through a hard and rough manner of life. We have also recognized this hardness of the heavenly life both in the word and in the life of our Redeemer. If, therefore, we look to the summit of our instruction, we are children of the Redeemer. Our father, therefore, having dismissed the donkeys, is anxious about us; because our Redeemer wills that we seek the salvation of others in such a way that we do not neglect our own. He wills that sinners be called to repentance, but he does not will that those who call those very sinners should perish. He wills that the converted sinner should have the righteousness which he did not have; but he does not will that the righteous person should lose the palm of righteousness which he has. Having left the donkeys, therefore, he is anxious about his son, because he wills his preachers to rest for a time from the anxious attention to others, so that they may better provide for themselves through quiet. And because that very solicitude of the holy Church must be taken up again by a good ruler, our rest is interrupted; because a prior solicitude precedes it, and a later one follows. The chosen preacher, therefore, should devote himself to the benefit of his subjects and devote himself to his own; but let him so have care for his own that he immediately returns to the care of others which he left behind; because then our Creator loves us as sons, when we both love our subjects as brothers and love him as a father, since through the affection of solicitude we are joined to them, and through our rest, which he loves, we hasten to him as to a father. For this love of our rest is expressed in what is said: "What shall I do about my son?" This indeed a father says who loves his son tenderly. This therefore is not said about a present son, but an absent one. But because he seeks the lost donkeys of his father, he is greatly beloved by him; because whoever strives by preaching to convert the souls of sinners is already joined to our Redeemer in great love. He who through solicitude for others is, as it were, far from him, is near through the quiet of contemplation and the affection of prayer. Because, therefore, he desires that we be close to him both through contemplation and prayer, like a loving father he says: "What shall I do about my son?" As if to say: How shall I make that absent one present to me? But because the great men of holy Church praise the solicitude of our preaching but blame excessive solicitude, those who say the father's donkeys have been found assert that the father is anxious about his son. The elect, therefore, can recognize the sign of their anointing; because indeed they are then led by God to the summit of the holy Church, when through words and examples they are suitable for the salvation of others, and through quiet they are zealous for their own; and when they seek sinners for heaven, they do not abandon themselves to the world. There follows: (Verses 3, 4.) "When you have departed from there and have gone further, and have come to the oak of Tabor, three men going up to God at Bethel will find you there, one carrying three kids, another three loaves of bread, and another a bottle of wine. And when they have greeted you, they will give you two loaves, and you shall receive them from their hand."

6. When we wish to make good progress in holy conduct, it is necessary for us to gather for ourselves the examples of very many of the elect; for bees too cannot produce honey if they do not gather it from various flowers. Well therefore does Saul pass from some men to others, because the more abundantly we observe the examples of the saints, the better we are instructed. Indeed the flowers of eternal fruits are the works of the saints, which, when they are drenched with the dew of heavenly love, from them we gather that by which we may be filled for our own instruction and for the benefit of others. For Saul goes from there and passes on beyond, when the untrained preacher advances through the examples of the elect, and from the observed virtue of one, goes to explore the conduct of another. Often it delights him to admire in some the labor of preaching, often in others the strength of good works; he venerates those who speak and strives to imitate those who act. He looks at some to see with what beauty they shine outwardly, while the splendor of others he examines not in their outward conduct but in their innermost being. Hence it is also well said that when he passes on, he is reported to come to the oak of Tabor. For the oak is a shady and strong tree. In this tree indeed the more hidden conduct of the saints is expressed. For the men of this manner of life, since they do not go out to the exterior works of the active life, are as if in shadow, because they cannot feel the fires of temptations. For since they rest in heavenly desire, the farther removed they are from the love of the world, the more peacefully they remain in the shadow of refreshment. But this shadow is of a strong tree, because the conduct of the saints despises earthly things all the more powerfully as it rises more purely into the love of heavenly things. It is also strong, because those who love only the heavenly things which they see powerfully endure the adversities of the world. And because those who disdain to look upon earthly things through love are in the great light of interior splendor, the oak itself is said to be of Tabor. For Tabor is interpreted as "coming light." For light comes when the inner brightness of the Creator opens itself to the chosen mind. Therefore it is called the oak of Tabor, because hidden conduct, by despising earthly things, acts so that it may more clearly behold the intimate light of the Creator. For we are hidden when we guard our senses in the fear of God. And then indeed we perceive the coming light, because when the members of the body are well governed, the grace of the Creator is poured back into our mind. And it should be noted that he who knew that the father was anxious for him on account of those who were leaping into the pits is said to come to the oak of Tabor. For the preachers of the holy Church frequently praise virtues to which they themselves cannot devote themselves. They preach indeed the secret of the contemplative life; but since they are anxious for the care of their subjects, they avoid clinging to the secrets of that life. As if Samuel were to say: Those men praise the pursuit of contemplation to you; but since they cannot hold what they praise, it must be sought in others. Therefore we pass on to the oak of Tabor when from the holy preachers we learn that the pursuit of the contemplative life is praiseworthy; but we seek its perfection in those who devote themselves to it spiritually. The three men, therefore, who find the anointed king at the oak of Tabor designate those who are perfect in the pursuit of the contemplative life. They are rightly said not to be found by the king, but to find the king there. For they are not found, because they are hidden. But they themselves find us, because they open to us the light of their hidden conduct when they deign to do so. They are not found, because they withdraw their life from every testimony of men. But they find us, because through the affection of charity they show us something of their light for imitation. They likewise do not bring forth their virtues for imitation except to those who desire with great longing to obtain and practice them. Therefore it is necessary for us first to come to the oak of Tabor, so that we may be able to be found by those three men. For we are already as if in the shadow of the coming light when we are inflamed with great desires for the highest contemplation.

7. Then therefore three men appear to us: because those who deign to show themselves to us who desire them are strong in the guard of speech, thought, and deed. For they cannot be persons of a more hidden life if they had kept open the doors of their eyes, heart, and mouth. Because therefore they guard the heart from foolish thought, the mouth from idle talk, and the whole body from wicked action, they are three; but they are men, because they observe that same guard most bravely. Three men therefore appear to us: because when we behold such persons, we perceive in them the strength of virtue. They are certainly in the shadow of the coming light; because they can see the inner light of the Creator all the more clearly, the more zealously they guard a pure heart from the defilement of the world. To such persons indeed the Lord appeared rising from the dead; such persons the Holy Spirit filled. For concerning that secret place it is said: "When it was evening on the first day of the week, and the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews" (John 20:19). And again: "After eight days his disciples were again within, and Thomas with them; Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said to them: Peace be to you." Concerning another secret place likewise it is written: "When the days of Pentecost were being fulfilled, all the disciples were together in the same place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound of a rushing mighty spirit, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:1). Those indeed have closed doors who, against the negligence of human falling, keep the functions of the body restrained under a strong guard. They are also within, because they rest in the inward love of the heavenly life. To these assuredly the risen Lord appears, because they behold his glory all the more clearly, the more strictly they follow the mystery of his passion through contempt of the world. These also can be filled with the Holy Spirit, as though in a house; because those receive abundantly the gifts of his graces who have prepared themselves to receive them by despising visible things.

8. Who are rightly said to ascend to the Lord in Bethel. For Bethel means "house of God." And what is the house of God, if not that house which the inaccessible light inhabits? The inaccessible light is also the revelation of His divinity. It is light, indeed, because it can be seen in some manner by pure hearts. In its fullness it fills all things, yet abundantly filling all things, it is not grasped. It is grasped, indeed, so that it may fill, but in filling it is not grasped, for though it fills all things, it is not exhausted. The revelation of the Creator, therefore, because it is so great an immensity of light that it illumines all things and is confined in nothing — since it is seen and yet not comprehended — is inaccessible light. These three men, then, ascend to the Lord, because those who guard themselves in a more hidden life are raised up to the contemplation of the divine light. But because they cannot yet attain to the very appearance of God Almighty, they are said to ascend in Bethel. For whatever the human mind can think about Almighty God is not God. But when by thinking it transcends all things, when it considers that whatever it can fashion for itself of inmost light, whatever of inner sweetness and delight, whatever of spiritual pleasure, is believed to be less than that reality, it nevertheless arrives at a certain light which is not God but which God inhabits. And because then the soul of the elect is wonderfully inflamed, wonderfully refreshed, and enjoys ineffable delight, it is compelled to consider how ineffable must be the light, the sweetness, and the delight which is God Himself, if so immense is that light which He inhabits and which is not He Himself. Moses had indeed ascended to the Lord in Bethel when he was speaking with Him on the mountain. But he who had arrived at the light which God inhabits was seeking the light which was God Himself, saying: "Show me Your face" (Exod. 33:13). Of whom it is also written: "The Lord spoke to Moses face to face" (ibid.). What does it mean that Moses speaks with the Lord face to face, and yet entreats the Lord to show him His face? But the face of God is the knowledge of Him. Now God is known through a mirror, and He is known through Himself. Through a mirror here, through Himself in heaven. The mirror is that light which God inhabits; but He Himself is that light which He is (1 Cor. 13:12). And Moses, who is said to see God face to face and yet asks to see His face (Exod. 33:13) — what does he more rightly signify than the perfection of the elect, who already gaze upon the mirror of that supreme light, yet ardently desire to attain to the very truth of that light? This knowledge of the light does not satisfy the desires of the elect but rather arouses them; that other knowledge, however, both satisfies and arouses. For it is so delightful a thing that it is ineffably desired, and so full that those who have always beheld it with great longing are always satisfied with ineffable fullness. The men, therefore, who ascend to the Lord are said to ascend in Bethel, because however much we advance in this life, we can see the very light of the Creator through a mirror, but we are by no means able to see it in itself.

9. And because only the humble are exalted to this sublime vision, it is well said of these same men: 'That one was carrying three kids, another three cakes of bread.' For he carries three kids who, in penitence, considers that he has sinned by mouth, heart, and deed. For since sinners are signified by kids, those who at the final judgment are to be placed at the left hand of the eternal Judge are expressed by the name of kids. Therefore he carries three kids to the Lord who does not cease to consider in penitence the sins of deed, word, and thought. And he is indeed a man, and yet he carries kids; because he strongly guards against sinning, but does not cease to make satisfaction as though he were a sinner. For he was a man and was carrying kids, who said: 'In many things we all offend' (James 3:2). And because they strive to blot out by penitence the sins they confess, one carries three kids and another carries three cakes of bread. For we referred the cakes of bread above to the affliction of penitence; because if bread sometimes signifies the pleasure of the present life, bread is twisted when we are tormented for the past pleasure of the flesh. Hence King Hezekiah too, when he is pierced with penitence, promises that he will twist the royal pleasures, saying: 'I will recount all my years in the bitterness of my soul' (Isaiah 38:15). For when the carnal mind dissolves into the pleasures of sin, it has, as it were, its day; because it joyfully beholds what it does. Therefore the days of the reprobate mind are evil pleasures. Therefore the sinner recounts all his days; because when he comes to his senses through divine grace, he does not cease to make satisfaction for all his evils. For first one is said to carry three kids, then another three cakes of bread; so that the virtue of each elect person may appear, who is strong in good work, humble in self-estimation, afflicted through the contrition of penitence. And because they cannot be of such great perfection unless, out of love for eternal goods, they have forgotten temporal things, the third is said to carry a flask of wine. For he carries a flask of wine who has filled his mind with the warmth of the Holy Spirit, by which he both eagerly strives after the things ahead by running forward, and leaves behind the things that are past, as if in the great forgetfulness of intoxication. For he was carrying kids who said: 'Christ came to call sinners, of whom I am the chief' (1 Timothy 1:15). And because he was also carrying a cake of bread, he says: 'I chastise my body and bring it into subjection' (1 Corinthians 9:27). But as though drunk with the wine of a flask, he says: 'Forgetting what is behind and stretching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus' (Philippians 3:13). Therefore three men ascend to the Lord and bring three kids, three cakes of bread, and a flask of wine: because those devoted to the pursuits of a more secluded life rise to the contemplation of the true light by the merit of humility. But what they are in themselves and what they are to others, he sets forth, saying: 'And when they have greeted you, they will give you three cakes of bread, and you shall receive them from their hand.' Holy men greet us when they announce to us the eternal goods of salvation. Those who greet us in the body incline their head to show reverence to the one greeted. But for spiritual men to incline the head is to bring down their mind from the highest contemplation. For if they do not incline the head, they cannot greet; because they do not instruct us with salutary teaching if they do not bring down their mind from the highest contemplation of heavenly things. For then they show us great reverence: because they do not consider those to be small for whose sake they deign to descend from their lofty summit.

10. But while the future king is greeted, two loaves of bread are given to him. For two loaves are given to the preacher being ordained, when he is taught to weep for sins not only his own, but those of others. He has, therefore, one twisted loaf when he is afflicted for his own sins; he has the other when he strives to lament the sins of his subjects. But the Psalmist, more clearly suggesting this bread, says: "Rise up after you have sat down, you who eat the bread of sorrow" (Psalm 126:2). Hence he confesses to the Lord, saying: "You will feed us with the bread of tears, and you will give us drink in tears with measure" (Psalm 79:9). The twisted loaf, therefore, is the bread of sorrow and the bread of tears. And perhaps for this reason that one man carried three twisted loaves: because there were three who were going together, so that when they divided them among themselves, each would have one loaf apiece. This can also fittingly be understood of the goats. In this matter, what is to be noted except that men of a more secluded life, while they maintain a solitary way of living, do not have care for others? They therefore have one goat and one loaf, who are pricked with compunction only for their own sins and are not burdened by those of others through pastoral office. And because those who are of the same perfect way of life emulate in themselves the affliction of the flesh, fittingly one carries three loaves, another three goats, and a third a flask of wine. For it is as though one carries what all are about to offer or eat; and all eat or offer what one carries, when each one, kindled by pious emulation of them, has in himself good examples for others and does not neglect to imitate the good things that others have. And because the twisted loaves of bread are spoken of in the feminine gender, this surely suggests that for him who is pricked with compunction by habit, from some tears still more tears arise. For the affliction of the penitent is, as it were, fruitful as in the feminine sex; because the more often one is pricked with compunction, the more abundant streams of tears are supplied to him. To Saul, therefore, not one loaf but two are given, because it is not enough for the preacher to weep for himself alone. Let him therefore receive two loaves from the hands of the men, so that he may learn to weep by the example of the perfect, but may recognize that weeping is necessary both for himself and for his subjects. And because by the hand power is sometimes understood, the men have three loaves in hand; because those who have advanced to the heights of contemplation possess weeping in the strength of their power. For because they do not wish to be dissolved in vain joy when they could be, they are rightly able to weep when they wish. We indeed, being weak and negligent of the guard of our mind, even when we wish to be moved to compunction and to weep for our sins, are unable to do so. For since spiritual tears are produced from a great fervor of the spirit, we who are bound by the cold of our negligence are prevented from quickly growing warm unto tears. Rightly, therefore, those who are said to appear to the future king at the oak of Tabor are said to have loaves in their hands; because those who are perfect in the contemplation of the secluded life possess what is profitable for their subjects through the observance of virtues.

11. And it should be noted that Samuel commands the anointed king, saying: "And you shall receive from their hand." What better meaning can be gathered from this phrase than what is plainly seen: namely, that we do not willingly imitate the affliction found in holy men? For those who seek the honor of prelacy and its dignity are innumerable, but those who desire the labor of ministry and the affliction of the flesh that comes with that same prelacy are few. We gladly wish to be exalted above others, but we avoid mourning their sins. For we see the loaves offered to us, but we refuse to receive them from the hands of those offering, because we observe the affliction in chosen men that we do not imitate. Therefore let the prophet command, saying: "You shall receive from their hand." So that whoever desires to be a fit ruler of the Church should by no means refuse to take up what has been spoken. It is also fitting that Saul is first led to men leaping over great ditches, and then to those who carry loaves, young goats, and wine: so that the untrained preacher may learn from some to despise the heights of the world, and from others to offer the affliction of the flesh and the sacrifices of tears to almighty God on behalf of himself and those under his care. But the prophet, further conveying the summit of his progress, adds, saying: (Verses 5, 6.) "After this you shall come to the hill of the Lord, where there is a garrison of the Philistines, and when you have entered the city, you shall meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place, and before them a psaltery, and a timbrel, and a pipe, and a harp, and they themselves prophesying. And the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon you, and you shall prophesy with them, and you shall be changed into another man."

12. A hill is the height of a mountain. What is more rightly understood by this hill than the holy intent of the Scriptures? It is indeed the height of a mountain, because it does not lie on the plain of the letter, but is exceedingly elevated in the sublimity of spiritual meanings. The untrained preacher therefore sets out on the right path of virtues if, after he has seen the public preachers and the secluded anchorites, he sees and recognizes the height of Scripture. In this matter it should be noted that we said Saul, in that he stood out above all the people from his shoulders and upward, signified a learned man of great conduct. Why then does he ascend to the hill of the Lord, so that he may come to the height of the Scriptures, which he already knows? But in a similar way it could have been asked about him why he went to see the men leaping over great ditches, when he was said to be a man of great conduct. To which it must be said: because he was shown to represent great men in conduct, but untrained in the ministry of preaching. He who can advance through the examples of better men both in the purity of contemplation and in the office of preaching ought to return to the height of the Scriptures, because the higher the life by which he advances, the more keenly he attends to the sublimity of sacred speech. Let the prophet therefore say: "After these things you will come to the hill of the Lord." As if to say: When you grasp the perfection of holy men through perfect imitation, you will advance into so great an understanding of Sacred Scripture that what you once thought you perceived in it sublimely will now seem plain.

13. There is the garrison of the Philistines: because those who fell from heaven through the drink of pride mock the Jews and heretics through the Scriptures. They stand therefore on the hill: because the hearts they possess they deceive in the Scriptures by the falseness of understanding. Therefore, as often as the Jews presume to ascend to the hill of the Lord, they are captured by the Philistines standing there. For while they think they understand the meaning of Scripture in a lofty way, demons meet them in their ascent and, deceiving them, slay them. Rightly, therefore, Saul is commanded to go to the hill of the Lord not immediately, but first, after seeing those leaping over pits and carrying bread and wine: because faithful men are fortified by the great protection of the teaching and examples of their betters. Hence it is also said to the same Saul: "You will meet a company of prophets coming from the high place." As if to say: You will be able to fear the garrison of the Philistines so much less, the more you will have prophets meeting you for your security. And because a company of prophets is mentioned, a great multitude of our defenders is signified. Let the Jew therefore be afraid: because when he ascends alone, he perishes. For what do those same prophets coming to meet us say? "Woe to him who is alone, for if he falls, there is no one to lift him up" (Eccl. 4:10). For he is alone who is abandoned by God. Certainly no one lifts up this one when he falls, because no saint takes up one abandoned by God. Therefore every elect person ascends securely: because he is not alone. For He who speaks through us is with us. For He also promises, saying: "Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Matt. 28:20). Indeed he was not alone who said: "I am not alone, but He who sent me is with me" (John 8:16). Likewise he was not alone who demanded, saying: "Do you seek proof of Christ who speaks in me?" (2 Cor. 13:3). This can fittingly be understood not only of the Lord's spiritual presence, but also of the material teaching of the elect. Holy preachers indeed ascend to the hill of the Lord, where the garrison of the Philistines is: but because they have the company of prophets meeting them, they in no way fear the Philistines themselves. But who are these prophets, if not the great preachers of holy Church? For the ministry of prophets is to reveal hidden things and to predict the future. Moreover, the teachers of holy Church, when they draw the hidden meanings of the Scriptures to common knowledge, open secrets that are unknown: and when they preach eternal joys, they reveal things to come. Prophets therefore come to meet us: because the teachers of holy Church show us the truth of holy Scripture. For when they tell us what we wish to know from sacred eloquence, they meet those going along the way that leads to the hill of the Lord. There, therefore, through the meeting of the prophets, we are secure where the Philistines are: because through the authority of holy preachers we recognize the understanding of Scripture, in which the Jews and heretics are slain by demons with the sword of their own errors. Behold, for if we have recourse to the Law of Moses, we certainly find the hill of the Lord. There surely we read of the tabernacle, there of the high priest, there of the blood of goats and calves together, and of the Paschal Lamb. The Jews understand these things according to the letter by their own spirit, and because they have no prophet with them in this, they die. If I wish to ascend to this mountain, I first see the prophets descending, and I ascend securely. And to leave aside the new ones for the moment, Isaiah first meets me as I ascend, saying: "Like a sheep he will be led to slaughter, and like a lamb before his shearer, he will not open his mouth" (Isa. 53:7). Hence Paul says: "Christ, appearing as high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, nor through the blood of goats or calves, but through his own blood, entered once into the holy places, having obtained eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:11-12). But if we wish to have more on this hill, we find all the prophets by seeking them: because what the old teachers had promised, the new preachers demonstrate to have been fulfilled in our Redeemer.

14. Wherefore the Redeemer of the human race can also fittingly be designated by the name of a hill. Whence Isaiah, prophesying, says: 'In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains' (Isa. 2:2). He is called a hill on account of the sublimity of His holiness, and of the Lord, because He is the Son of the most high Father. On this hill indeed the garrison of the Philistines is said to be, because He was born as a sign to be contradicted. The garrison of the Philistines is the opposition of heretics. For as though standing on the hill, they lie in ambush against those ascending to the hill; and while they pervert the Holy Scriptures by expounding them wrongly, they destroy those who are carelessly ascending to know the Redeemer. Therefore let the elect not be alarmed; ascending, he meets a company of prophets, because all the preachers of the Old and New Testament announce to him the Redeemer Himself. They come indeed from on high, because what they preach on earth, they see in heaven. Whence also to John, as though truly from the chosen company of prophets, it is said from heaven: 'Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after this' (Rev. 4:1). Who, when he had ascended, beheld and recognized the Lamb—whom Moses had prefigured as to be slain, and whom he himself had seen offered on the cross—now reigning; and he learned how great were the thanksgivings rendered to Him by those for whom He had been slain. Therefore the preachers come from on high, because what they preach to those beneath them, they have learned in heavenly contemplation.

15. Well also is the company of prophets said to have met Saul at the entrance of the city; because we can see the great preachers of Holy Church where they descend, not where they are exalted. For the things which they say to us little ones, we hear; but the things which they see in heavenly places, how they see them, or how sweetly they love them, we do not see. For the apostle Paul was caught up into paradise and was taken up to the third heaven, and he heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak (2 Cor. 12:4). Who then could find so great a preacher caught up into paradise, or taken up to the third heaven? But blessed Paul said these things about himself under compulsion. Whence also at the end of the sublimity he had set forth, humbling himself, he says: "I have become a fool; you compelled me" (2 Cor. 12:11). How great then were those things which he was unwilling to tell, if he came to reveal even these under compulsion? For he who heard things which it is not lawful for a man to speak also saw things which it is not lawful for a man to know. You might perhaps say: Even if he wished, how could he express in human speech the beauty of that third heaven, the light of that innermost brightness, the indescribable splendor of the angels, and the inaccessible glory — how sweetly all those elect and blessed eternal citizens receive from the fullness of that One, how eagerly they partake, how completely they are filled, how pleasantly they taste the sweetness of divine goodness, with what delightful fullness they are satisfied: what the splendors are for each one from that one ineffable light of the Creator, what the beauty of all together is from that one glory: by what excellence of dignity some surpass others, and by what means the good are subject to the better in the ineffable delight of justice?

16. We cannot, therefore, follow the lofty Paul to that height, but we enter the city, in which, as if descending from on high, he comes to meet us. For we who cannot perceive the lofty things that the preachers see must reverently hear the plain things that they teach. But when they descend, they carry before them the psaltery, the timbrel, the flute, and the harp. They have the psaltery because they announce the kingdom of heaven; they have the timbrel because they preach the mortification of the flesh; they have the flute because they command their subjects to weep for the acquisition of eternal joy; and they also have the harp because they teach the devout to rejoice in the certainty of eternal goods. The psaltery indeed, which resonates from the upper part, also signifies the proclamation of eternal joys, because when it urges us to love heavenly things, it sends forth the sound of its sweetness, as it were, from the upper part. The timbrel, because it is stretched over the hide of a dead animal, fittingly represents the mortification of our flesh. That the flute is customarily present at the funeral rites of the dead, we have learned from the Gospel, for when the Lord wished to raise the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, He cast the flute players out of the house and drove away the tumultuous crowd (Matt. 9:25). What then is expressed by the flute, if not the mourning of the saints? For when they see themselves cast out from that eternal life which they desire, they lament over themselves as though they were dead. The harp, however, is a very joyful musical instrument. By this instrument the word of consolation for the elect is fittingly represented, because just as we are gladdened by the sound of the harp, so the elect preachers console us amid the hardships of our present exile. The psaltery, therefore, is placed first in the procession of the preachers, because above all else the glory of the heavenly kingdom must be proclaimed, so that when we recognize the good that we should love, we may desire to labor for the attainment of that same good. Hence it is that when Matthew in the Gospel was setting forth the beginnings of the Lord's Incarnation, he said: John began to preach and to say: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 4:17). But because when we know heavenly things, if we wish to reach them, it is necessary that we mortify the passions of the flesh, the preachers of holy Church produce, as it were after the psaltery, the sound of the timbrel. And what is this mortification of the body other than a preparation for eternal blessedness? We learn to love the preparation of heavenly things, and we are commanded to seek them with the most ardent weeping. For we mourn the dead, as it were with a flute, when we grieve vehemently that we do not yet live in that eternal life. After the timbrel, therefore, our preachers have the flute, because they teach us both to mortify our members and to groan for love of eternal life. They also bring the harp after the flute, because they command us so to bewail the hardships of our present exile that we may rejoice in the promise of our eternal inheritance. For the great prophet sounded the psaltery when he said: My sheep hear my voice, and I give them eternal life (John 10:27). Again striking the psaltery, he says: The Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life (John 3:14). He sounded the timbrel who said: Mortify your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil desire (Col. 3:5). He sounded the flute who said: Be afflicted, mourn; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to sorrow (James 4:9). He sounded the timbrel who said: For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter (Ps. 43:22). He holds the flute before him who likewise speaks to God, saying: You will feed us with the bread of tears, and give us drink in full measure (Ps. 79:6). The Lord held the flute before Him when He said: Amen I say to you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be sorrowful (John 16:20). But as if adding the sound of the harp, He says: Your sorrow shall be turned into joy (ibid.). He sounded the harp for us, as it were, who said: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men; the Lord is near (Phil. 4:4). He sounds the harp for us who, announcing the good things of our city, says: Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of praise (Isa. 51:3). Because, therefore, the preachers of holy Church announce the heavenly kingdom, and for the attainment of that same kingdom command us to mortify the flesh, to bewail our captivity, and to exult in hope of future blessedness, the prophets descending from the height are said to carry before them the psaltery, the timbrel, the flute, and the harp. And they are called a company of prophets, because the pastors of holy Church are many, yet they have one pastor, the Lord Jesus Christ.

17. And it should be noted that the prophets are said to have the psaltery, drum, flute, and harp before them, so that the pattern of the elect preachers might be seen. For the reprobate have what they preach behind them, because they say and do not do; they neglect to do the good things that they know. Whence also to King Saul, already despising the Lord's commands, it is said: "Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king" (1 Samuel 15:23). Hence the Lord complains through the prophet concerning the Jews, saying: "They have cast me behind their back" (1 Kings 14:9). Therefore the holy teachers, because they maintain the path of heavenly conduct that they preach by the continual course of good works, in their figure it is said that the prophets had the psaltery, drum, flute, and harp before them as they descended. For these instruments can be referred to the preaching of the Redeemer. And because not far above we said that the hill of the Lord is the Redeemer himself, let us consider the fittingness of the instruments. He who names him king of the eternal kingdom surely sounds the psaltery for us. And he who affirms the discipline of our mortification in him strikes, as it were, the drum. He sounds the flute who proclaims the Redeemer dead for the salvation of the world. He strikes the harp who declares that he rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. But we are made glad at the delight of such great instruments if we hear the very flock of prophets sounding forth. For David says: "His going forth is from the highest heaven, and his circuit reaches to the highest" (Psalm 18:7). Hence he likewise says: "All kings of the earth shall worship him, all nations shall serve him" (Psalm 71:11). For he held, as it were, the psaltery in praise of the Redeemer, who obtained the higher part of praise and preached the coming of the Redeemer from the highest heaven. Isaiah touched the drum of his mortification, saying: "And we saw him, and there was no beauty, and we desired him, despised and the lowest of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity; and his face was as it were hidden and despised, whence we did not esteem him" (Isaiah 53:3). Likewise sounding the flute of his death, he says: "He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb he was silent" (Isaiah 53:7). David, striking the harp of the resurrection, says: "Let the whole earth be moved before his face; say among the nations that the Lord has reigned from the wood; for he has established the world, which shall not be moved" (Psalm 95:10). Also touching the harp of the ascension, he said: "O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, who ascends above the heaven of heavens to the east" (Psalm 67:33–34). Therefore the prophets descend from on high when the holy preachers announce to us those mysteries which they have learned by lofty contemplation. And they sound the psaltery, flute, and harp, because they declare our Redeemer to be Lord of the eternal kingdom, both humbled through the human condition, and that by his death he redeems the world, and by rising again he restores heavenly things. Which instruments of praise they surely have before them, because they understand what they say. On the contrary, Caiaphas is said to prophesy (John 11) and yet to be ignorant of what he said, since the flute of the Lord's death that he touched he did not have before him as an elect prophet would, but behind him. Well then is it added concerning the elect prophets: "And them prophesying." Because while they see what they say, they have, as it were, the instruments that they play before them; and while they preach, they bring forth what they have known by foreseeing. Therefore Saul comes to the hill of the Lord when the chosen yet unformed preacher advances in spiritual knowledge and recognizes the Redeemer of the human race not on the level plain of his humanity, but in the lofty majesty of his divinity. Then indeed he hears the choirs of the prophets singing together, because he perfectly understands all the Scriptures that concern him. He therefore who saw the men leaping over great pits, who beheld those carrying kids, and loaves of bread, and a flask of wine, arrives at the hill of the Lord—when he who is known to have advanced through the examples of the elect is raised to the summit of knowledge, and knowing the Redeemer sublimely, loves him ineffably, from whom, as a familiar friend, he may obtain what he further desires to know about him.

18. It is well added: "And the Spirit of the Lord will leap upon you, and you will prophesy with them." The Spirit of the Lord is said to leap because the hearts of the elect are suddenly filled with His gifts. They immediately begin to prophesy, because those who are full of the divine Spirit cannot remain silent about the mighty works of God. Or he is declared about to prophesy, to whom Samuel promises the grace of the divine word. This is as if he were saying: You who now cannot speak in that abundance of the Spirit coming upon you—when that fullness has poured itself into you, you will abound with a wealth of speech. Indeed, the Lord, promising this leaping Spirit to the disciples, says: "When the Spirit of truth comes, He will teach you all truth, and will announce to you the things that are to come" (John 16:13). The Spirit indeed leaps upon those whose hearts He illuminated by coming suddenly (Acts 2:2). And once illuminated, they prophesied, because they proclaimed the Redeemer of the human race in every tongue. This we certainly see happening even now in the holy Church, because often those who desire to speak divine things are suddenly taught by that same Spirit, and they are also able to speak most excellently things they had learned by no prior meditation. For in return for keeping the commandments of God, they receive the grace of the word in the sublime revelation of the Redeemer. For what wonder is it if those who through purity of life are always the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit can suddenly receive the light of knowledge? But what kind of gift of the Holy Spirit would it be if it gave knowledge and did not give the affection of great charity? For those who are filled with that Spirit preach heavenly things, but they love what they speak. Therefore it is fittingly added: "And you will be changed into another man." What is the love of the elect mind other than a transformation of the old nature? For our nature was so condemned through the fall of the first man that it daily declines by slipping and grows old by declining. But we who fail in ourselves, when that Spirit leaps into us, are renewed, because we are immediately made what we were not. Someone was lukewarm, but suddenly visited by the Spirit, he is made fervent. He begins to burn with devotion, to exercise himself vigorously in good work. He has therefore been changed into another man, because he began to be what, before the Spirit leaped into him, he could not be. Someone is already of good conduct, loves heavenly things, despises earthly things, but he cannot manage to weep for the things he loves above or for the things he hates below. Often indeed he desires to weep and cannot, though he recalls having committed many things for which he ought to weep; but when that Spirit suddenly leaps in, he bursts forth into fountains of tears. He is therefore changed into another man, who receives the grace of compunction through the coming Spirit, which he did not have before the coming of that same Spirit. Someone desires to obtain purity of heart, to think on heavenly things, to be hindered by no encounters with worldly cares; but he cannot rise up to what he desires through devotion by means of the affection of purity. But suddenly, caught up in the power of the coming Spirit, he ceases to be carnal, powerfully casts aside the cares of the world, and rises to the contemplation of eternal things with wonderful purity. He then marvels that he is what he was not; he then marvels that he was not what he is. For when he sees himself to be such in spiritual things, he who is such marvels that he could not have been such before. He is therefore changed into another man, who sees himself to be what he was not, and not to be what he had been. Well therefore concerning Saul: "You will be changed into another man." Because when the preachers of the holy Church receive the grace of divine preaching, they do not receive only the knowledge of the word, but the power of love—so that through the word they may be able to benefit others, and through love of the word they themselves may become better. For when they speak, they are changed into another man, because when the Spirit speaks through them, they themselves are joined to that same Spirit by wondrous charity, and they no longer dissent from His will in either word or deed. For sacred Scripture, praising such a man, says: "He who clings to God is one spirit with Him" (1 Cor. 6:17). For we cling to God when we abundantly receive the grace of the Holy Spirit; and we are made one spirit with Him when we are in harmony with the divine will in mind, mouth, and deed. Well therefore did the prophet Samuel add, saying: (Verse 7) "For when all these signs have come to you, do whatever your hand finds to do, for the Lord is with you."

19. These indeed are the signs by which a preacher may recognize himself, and then let him dare to undertake everything he plans to do, when he has learned by certain experience that he has received the power of the Holy Spirit in great abundance of charity. But the preacher ought to teach those things which he does, just as Luke says of the Lord: "That Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day in which, commanding the apostles through the Holy Spirit whom He had chosen, He was taken up" (Acts 1:1-2). Hence Paul says: "I dare not speak of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed" (Rom. 15:18). And so Samuel commands the anointed king, saying: "Do whatever your hand finds to do." As if to say: When you see yourself filled with divine grace, teach others whatever you do, because from the divine grace presiding over you, you have the ability both to live excellently and to preach profitably. But nevertheless, he adds what he ought to observe before all these things, saying: (Verse 8.) "And you shall go down before me to Gilgal. For I will surely come down to you, to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait for me, until I come and show you what you should do."

20. What does it mean that he first says: "Do whatever your hand finds," and then adds: "You shall wait seven days for me, until I come and show you what you are to do"? But he who had received the signs by which he would know himself anointed king by the Lord was to be tested as to whether he would recognize those very signs. This indeed suits a spiritual rather than a historical explanation. For we have said that coming to the hill of the Lord pertains to the perfect knowledge and love of the Redeemer, and being filled with the gift of prophecy pertains to the power of the Holy Spirit. He says therefore: "When all these signs have come upon you, do whatever your hand finds." Because whoever is certain of the intimate inspiration of the Holy Spirit can be confident both in the purpose of good work and in the ordering of preaching. He likewise said: "You shall wait seven days for me, until I come; and I will show you what you are to do." Because the chief pastors of the holy Church, while they are uncertain about the progress of those beneath them, are very anxious to recognize it in them by sure indications. But what are the indications of the Spirit, if not the surpassing gifts of humility? For the Holy Spirit, the greater the light of virtues with which He illuminates the hearts of the elect, the more abundantly He enriches them with the gift of humility. For the loftier they are in merits, the lowlier they are through the virtue of humility. He therefore who is commanded to go down to Gilgal before the prophet and to wait, is clearly given the burden of obedience for the purpose of testing his humility. It is also the right order of a chosen way of life that one should not impose obedience on others which he himself has not taken care to render to others. He is therefore commanded to wait, so that it may be recognized whether he is truly humble. If, then, the sign of a perfect preacher is the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the virtue of humility is the sign of that fullness, what is said in praise of humility except that its gifts are the signs of signs?

21. But because the king who is about to sacrifice is commanded to be preceded by the prophet, we discern better the things that are said if they are examined in order. Gilgal is indeed interpreted as "wheel." But what does the wheel signify in this place, if not the life of the obedient? A wheel indeed advances by turning, and now seeks the heights, now the depths. So indeed is the life of the obedient, because it does below what draws it upward, and sees above what it performs below, as if it is raised to the heights and set down to the depths. For what the obedient do below, they lift upward; because when they obey the commands of their superiors, the things they perform are earthly, but from the earthly things they do, they await heavenly rewards. Likewise, what they hold above, they bend toward the earth, because in order to perform earthly things well, they contemplate heavenly things, and they do only that which they perceive to be fitting to that supreme happiness. Indeed, commanding Moses to turn this wheel, the Lord said: "Make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain" (Exod. 25:40). For he who saw on the heights what he made in the depths surely bent the upper part of the wheel toward the earth. He had also raised the lower part to the heights, who said: "The Lord lives, in whose sight I stand" (3 Kings 17:1). He stood indeed in the lowest place through the humility of obedience, while he rebuked the faithless king; but he raised the level ground of his work to the height of divine contemplation, so that he might turn the running wheel most excellently, while in his earthly work he looked to what heavenly reward he might merit. This indeed is the pattern of chosen obedience: that in everything we do outwardly, we look to the power of the Creator present everywhere. Thus indeed in the submission of our obedience we can have both uprightness of work and growth in devotion. We are indeed upright in work then, because we exert ourselves in the labor of obedience for him whom we behold. We are also devout, because we believe we please him whom we regard as the observer of our labors and the bestower of eternal recompense. And because the commands of superiors must be observed with perfect humility, it is well said to Saul: "You shall wait seven days." For the number seven stands for the gifts of the sevenfold Spirit. We wait seven days for the teachers of the Church when, through the power of the sevenfold Spirit, we receive such great clarity of inward devotion that we in no way neglect their precepts. In this place it should be noted that he did not say: "You shall be in Gilgal for seven days," but: "You shall wait for me seven days, after you have gone down before me." We go down before the preacher when we do what is commanded us by his judgment. Then indeed we are said to descend, because we subject our minds to their authority. But to wait seven days is to fulfill the good of obedience with every light of the heart. Which we certainly do when we pass over neither the hard nor the easy commands of our superiors. For the Lord wanted no day to be devoid of this light, when he said: "Whoever breaks one of these least commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19). And because the perfect obedience that we render to men is a gift of the Creator, he who waits seven days is said to offer an oblation and to sacrifice peace offerings. The oblation is indeed the Lord's because it is offered to men for God's sake, but what is offered to men is received by God. The victims are the services of the obedient, because when we submit to men for God's sake, we overcome the proud spirits. By other virtues we indeed assail the demons; through obedience we conquer them. Therefore those who obey are victors, because while they perfectly subject their own will to others, they themselves through obedience exercise dominion over the fallen angels.

22. But it should be noted that Samuel commanded Saul to go down before him to Gilgal, yet did not want him to offer oblation and sacrifices without him. For he said: "I indeed will come down to you so that you may offer oblation and sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait for me, until I come to you, and I will show you what you should do." What is this but that we ought both to be wisely ignorant of our own good deeds, and sometimes to know them usefully? They should indeed be left unknown, lest they furnish occasion for pride to us who are weak; but they should be known by the more perfect, so that they may grow through devotion. Hence it is also fittingly said in the Gospel concerning the pregnant Elizabeth: "And she hid herself for five months" (Luke 1:24). For those who cannot yet be spiritual and strong are designated by the number five. But she who has newly conceived hides herself for five months: because she does good through the bodily senses; but because she is not yet spiritual and strong in this good work, she wisely conceals what she does. He therefore offers sacrifices to God, he offers oblation, who waiting seven days receives the coming prophet: because then what he offers is worthy of God, when the one offering is righteous by the virtue of obedience and filled with fear by the consideration of divine immensity; when he does not believe himself to be anything other than what he knows by the approval of his superiors. For it is as if we offer in the presence of the prophet, when we believe only those works of ours to be worthy of divine acceptance which are approved by the judgment of holy preachers. And because he is said to sacrifice in the presence of the prophet, this assuredly signifies that in our works we ought to trust wise and spiritual men. Because likewise Saul waits seven days, the preacher of the holy Church ought to wisely order the virtue of his subject, so that he does not praise his good deeds before him except when he can despise the favor of his own praise. Hence also the same oblation and sacrifices are declared to be offered by Saul to God, and not to himself. For he offers sacrifices to God who is not vainly puffed up about the virtue he possesses, but attributes everything he accomplishes to the grace of the Creator. This also, because we learn by the teaching of doctors, Samuel fittingly says in concluding his speech: "And I will show you what you should do." He indeed shows the one who waits what he should do: when the one who is known to obey perfectly is taught how he ought to command others. But this is not yet shown to Saul, but is promised. For he is not sent to sacrifice, but to wait. And because we advance by conversation with the saints, it is fittingly added: (Verse 9.) And so, when he had turned his shoulder to go away from Samuel, God changed for him another heart.

23. For the heart is changed to another when it is directed toward desiring better things; the heart is also changed when it is abandoned to evil. But in the case of Saul, who was first good and afterward evil, how this ought rather to be understood literally is not very clear. But if it is said with reference to his advancement, he had a changed heart, because he who had been searching for donkeys was now thinking about the governance of a kingdom. If, however, he is understood to have then received an evil heart, he was humble before the prophet; but as he began to depart, he likewise began also to grow proud. In his mind he was already thinking of himself not as a little one but as a king. He was not yet exalted in rank, but he was exalted in his own estimation. But since throughout this sacred history nothing is yet openly said about his pride, we too act more rightly if for the time being we pass over in silence what might seem unfavorable about him. What can still support his remaining innocence is said in what follows: That Saul was a child of one year when he began to reign, and he reigned two years over Israel (1 Sam. 13:1). For if he was a humble king for two years, the changed heart is asserted of him on account of the vigor of his purpose, not on account of a new swelling of pride. Therefore, in that Saul is said to have had a changed heart, he is likened to new preachers of the holy Church, who when they receive the office of preaching become better through divine grace. For Samuel anointed Saul as prince, but God changed his heart to another, because we receive the sacraments of holy orders outwardly from the teachers of the Church, but we are strengthened inwardly by the power of the sacraments from Almighty God. The power of the sacrament, however, is the grace of the sevenfold Spirit. Those who receive this grace are surely changed as if having received another heart, because those whom the Holy Spirit strengthens by his grace, he immediately makes to be what they were not. So indeed the disciples of the Redeemer also formerly were afraid; but when through the coming of the Holy Spirit another heart was changed in them, they preached the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31). For God changed their heart to another, to whom he granted knowledge of all languages (Acts 2:6). For he changed their heart to another whom he clothed with wondrous love and illuminated with the splendors of all virtues. And it should be noted that God changed his heart to another at the time when he turned his shoulder to go away from the prophet. For he turns his shoulder, as it were, to go away, when he who receives the office of preaching resolves to carry out what is commanded him concerning the pastoral office. He resolves indeed, but does not prevail, if God does not change his heart to another, because the highest place is not well governed unless the mind of the ruler is filled with the supreme grace of the divine gift. Moreover, because these things are promised to him for the future, it is added: (Verse 10.) And all these signs came to him on that day.

24. For what else is the teaching of a chosen preacher than the day of an instructed disciple? For he who walks in the day sees both the level ground on which to walk and the precipices to avoid. So indeed, while we are illuminated by the teachings of holy preachers, we openly perceive what must be done and what must be avoided. In that day, therefore, in which the prophet preaches, a good hearer perceives the signs of his election—he who beholds in himself those gifts of virtues which his preacher previously showed would come to him. They are indeed signs, because through these those who are advanced to the order of preaching understand themselves to be chosen by God. Therefore, let no one consider himself anointed for the leadership of the Church who has not seen the signs of that day present in the power of perfection. Let him therefore first attentively observe the first sign, namely whether, by the example of men, he already knows how to leap over great pits. Let him also recognize the following sign: whether at the oak of Tabor he met three men whom he saw carrying young goats and loaves of bread to Bethel, to the house of the Lord; whether he received two loaves from their hands. Let him likewise see the third: whether he came to the hill of the Lord, whether he beheld the bands prophesying, whether the Spirit of the Lord leaped upon him and he can already prophesy in their midst. And indeed he saw men leaping over pits if, by the example of the perfect, he has already learned to despise all things of the world. He came to the oak of Tabor if he already knows how to experience the strength and pleasantness of the contemplative life. There he also beheld those carrying young goats and loaves of bread and wine to the Lord, because from the lovers of the contemplative life he has already learned both to acknowledge himself unceasingly as a sinner, and to afflict the flesh for those same sins, and to offer the pain of his affliction gratefully to almighty God. He came to the hill of the Lord if, by advancing, he has ascended to the revealed intimate glory of the Redeemer or to the sublime understanding of the Scriptures. He met the band of prophets if he has understood the harmonious knowledge of the preachers of the holy Church. In their midst he felt the Spirit of the Lord leaping upon him; in that ineffable sweetness of inner experience he recognized in himself the gift of divinity coming upon him, and by speaking he poured forth the abundance of the grace he had come to know. As often as holy preachers show these things to us who are imperfect, through the teaching by which they illuminate us, they produce, as it were, a most brilliant day. And indeed all these things preachers who have already been advanced know, as their ordainers have set them forth.

25. Since therefore they have the day of signs, let them profitably consider whether they already see the promised signs. For he who has not yet learned to despise the glory of the world was able to hear the first sign promised, but did not see it displayed. If he does not know the strength and sweetness of the contemplative life, he has not deserved to see the good of the following sign. If he has not ascended to the height of the Scriptures through the knowledge of intimate learning, he has not yet come to the hill of the Lord. If he does not yet have the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon him, he cannot prophesy. For without that Spirit a pastor is carnal, and what he speaks cannot be attributed to the dignity of preaching, but to the boldness of rashness. With what dread, then, can we wretches be terrified? For behold, we have undertaken the leadership of others, we who do not possess the power of the governance we have assumed. We have heard the signs of spiritual prelacy which we do not see in ourselves through the light of experience. We desire earthly things, we are occupied with outward cares, and we are driven the further from heavenly contemplation the more we are weighed down by anxiety over earthly affairs. Pressed down also by this burden of earthly life, when can we attain that splendor of the intimate glory of the Redeemer, when can we arrive at the loftiest meanings of the holy Scriptures? But neither can we speak of heavenly things, which we do not know, as though they were known. And we who are unwilling to devote ourselves through quiet to the love of the interior life do not feel the Spirit of the Lord leaping upon us. Therefore let the signs that are known but not possessed terrify us, so that when we are pricked with compunction for the immensity of our negligence, we may seek the power of the order we have assumed through weeping and lamentation. Hence the Psalmist laments with the voice of the weak, saying: "We have not seen our signs, there is no longer a prophet" (Psalm 73:9). For one is a prophet when these aforementioned signs of prophecy are foreseen to be present in him. If therefore he is raised to the summit of prelacy, let him not measure himself by the height of his office, but by the power of his perfection. Let him therefore say: "We have not seen our signs, there is no longer a prophet." As if to say: I would call myself a prophet now, if I could discern the gifts of the Spirit with which the person of a prophet ought to shine. He therefore who has heard of the perfection of the pastoral order he has assumed, which he has not deserved to obtain in himself by his manner of living, is not a fit teacher of holy Church. In the first king, therefore, the advancement of all pastors of holy Church is shown, when it is said: "All these signs came to him on that day." And because this same advancement of the chosen preachers is wondrous, there follows: (Verse 11.) But those who had known him yesterday and the day before, seeing that he was with the prophets and was prophesying, said to one another: "What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?"

26. What is it that they say, "What is this thing that has happened," except to marvel greatly at what could not be comprehended by them? They had known the man, a son of man; they saw him joined to the prophets. They had known him as carnal; they saw him as spiritual. They had known him as simple; they saw him as a prophet. They say therefore: "What has happened to the son of Kish?" They were able to know what he had been; what he now was, and how he could be so, they did not know. This indeed is the spiritual progress of the preacher: that he who was once known in ordinary life should possess something in a higher order that is beyond understanding. Three degrees of perfection are shown, because he says: "Yesterday and the day before." In two days indeed the preacher is recognized; on the third he possesses something that even those who knew him cannot comprehend. For the first day belongs to hearers, the second to companions, the third is that of preaching. For the pastor had his first day when as a disciple he obeyed his superiors. For he who is devoted in the virtue of obedience is seen as if in a great light. He had his second day when he began to be an assistant to his betters. For this brightness of a great way of life, in the example of the elect, makes the greatest day. The Lord, indicating this day, said: "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). But the third day is that of the rushing Spirit and of prophecy. For on the third day the pastor is beheld, when he matches the sublimity of his dignity with the splendor of his conduct, when, clothed with heavenly power, he shines upon his subjects with such life and such teaching that he can be seen by them but cannot be examined and judged. Such indeed was Moses when he descended from the mountain with a most radiant face, whose subjects saw the brightness but could not fix their gaze upon the shining splendor (Exod. 34:35; 2 Cor. 3:7). Such was he who gloried, saying: "But we, beholding the glory of God with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image, as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18). Such indeed were those whom the Holy Spirit had filled. Whence also those who had gathered in Jerusalem say in amazement: "Are not all these who speak Galileans?" (Acts 2:7). For they were asking in order to understand what they were hearing, and they could not understand it. But those who had known Saul ask in wonder about the thing that happened to him; because we sometimes see those who are humble and despised in a lower order of holy Church, whom, when the Holy Spirit takes them up to the order of preaching, He clothes with the splendors of His graces and shows them to be wondrous in those same splendors. But we rightly admire the virtues of the saints when we ascribe them to the goodness of the Creator. Wherefore Moses also, praising the Lord, said: "Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, glorious among the saints, wonderful in majesty, working wonders?" (Exod. 15:11). Hence the Psalmist says: "God is wonderful in His saints; He Himself will give power and strength to His people" (Ps. 67:36). Rightly there follows: (Verse 12) "One answered another, saying: And who is their father?"

27. What is it that up to this point it was said of Saul alone: "What has happened to the son of Kish?" And now, as if concerning many, the answer is given: "And who is their father?" But if this is understood according to history, it can in no way stand. It remains therefore that the meaning which is taken from the letter must be sought in spiritual signification. When therefore it is said: "Who is their father?" not only Saul prophesying is considered, but that entire company of prophets. For indeed all those prophets, because they were greatly spiritual, were reckoned not from carnal descent but from heavenly origin. The Father of the prophets is He who inquires through Malachi, saying: "If I am the Lord, where is my fear? And if I am a father, where is my love?" (Mal. 1:6). For because they are joined to almighty God in great love, they are called sons of Him whom they love as a father. This applies all the more fittingly to the preachers of the new Church, inasmuch as He raised them higher into heavenly nobility, who revealed to them the glory of so great a lineage in the form of a prayer. "Thus," He says, "you shall pray: Our Father, who art in heaven" (Matt. 6:9). Which is as if to say: The holy preachers would be worthy of admiration if the wonders they perform they accomplished by their own power; but now what is seen is not a wonder, because He works this through them for whom nothing seems difficult. Let one therefore say to another: "And who is their father?" As if to say: What wonder is it if they teach marvelously, since it is not they themselves who speak, but the Spirit of their Father who speaks in them? Therefore it is not said: "Who is his father?" (John 6:42), lest what belongs to many sons be attributed to one alone. For only He who is Son by nature dares to say: "My Father works until now" (John 5:17). And likewise: "The Lord said to me: You are my Son, today I have begotten you" (Ps. 2:7). For in order to bring forth the difference between each dignity, He speaks to Mary Magdalene, saying: "I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (John 20:17). As often therefore as one preacher is seen to be distinguished by a wondrous life or preaching, in his heavenly generation he is seen not alone but with innumerable others; because almighty God, who is shown to be wonderful in one, produces far greater admiration among people when innumerable others are considered who possessed that which they marvel at in one. This, however, can fittingly be referred to the detraction of carnal people: for when they try to diminish the reputation of spiritual men, they search out their carnal circumstances which they may bring forward for disparagement. And very often in holy Church those have a wondrous reputation for holiness who have no worldly eminence at all. When therefore carnal people find fault with either the fleshly origin or the poverty in those who by divine generation are already great and rich, they inquire about the father of the prophets as if in mockery. And because they consider it a very strange thing that lowly men of the world can appear so great, there is added: (Ibid.) "Therefore it was turned into a proverb: Is Saul also among the prophets?"

28. Which indeed, if they were to examine with the eyes of the heart, they would not regard as a new thing. For the Holy Spirit acts according to His own custom when He raises the poor, the humble, and the simple to the summit of virtues. For of Him it is written: "Who sets the humble on high, and lifts up the mourning to safety" (Job 5:11). Hence the almighty Father says of His same almighty Spirit through the prophet: "Upon whom does my spirit rest, if not upon the humble, and the quiet, and the one who trembles at my words?" (Isaiah 66:2). Hence Paul says: "Not many wise according to the flesh, not many noble, but God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the strong; and God chose the ignoble things of the world, to destroy the things that are; so that no flesh should glory in His sight" (1 Corinthians 1:26, etc.). Which proverb can certainly be ascribed to the elect as well. For no less amazement was held concerning the blessed apostle Paul, when it was heard by the Church that he who used to assault the Church by threatening and slaughtering was now evangelizing and defending it by preaching. Then indeed those who heard could say: "Is Saul among the apostles? Does he who used to persecute Jesus now preach Jesus?" But this has now been turned into a proverb of the elect. A proverb indeed is when in what is said, something else is concealed. But the conversion of the blessed apostle Paul has become a proverb for the sinner. Let every sinner therefore hear of the conversion of blessed Paul, and not despair on account of the multitude of his crimes. For Saul, breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, was afflicting the elect everywhere; he was guarding the garments of those who stoned the protomartyr Stephen, and was as it were stoning with the hands of all, since he made them all free to stone (Acts 9:1 ff.). But he who was such while persecuting Christ, upon being converted to Christ, was made the head of the nations, because he obtained the leadership of the whole Church. While we behold so great a sinner converted and honored by the Lord with so sublime a dignity, let us presume that we too can find forgiveness for our sins. Our proverb therefore is this: that a persecutor is taken up for evangelizing, which contains this mystery—that the converted sinner may not only hope for pardon from the Lord, but that by fighting manfully he may be able to attain to the crown. But this is the usual difference between carnal and spiritual preachers: that carnal preachers, after the lofty words of preaching, descend to the depths of wicked works, while spiritual preachers, after the sublime things they speak, raise themselves up to even higher desires for the heavenly homeland. Whence it is also added: (Verse 13) "But he ceased to prophesy, and came to the high place."

29. He comes to a high place after the ministry of prophecy, who raises his mind to the heavenly joys which he preaches, and lifts himself up by loving those things which he displays by speaking. Teachers indeed preach plain things with those of lesser rank; when they are with those whom they teach, they are, as it were, on level ground. And because after the words of preaching they prepare themselves by good works to merit the things they preach, they are said to come to a high place. Those who are certainly sublime in word and deed are not so in thoughts of pride. They always do great things, but never desire to appear great. Therefore it is well added: (Verses 14, 15, and 16.) And Saul's uncle said to him and to his servant: Where did you go? He answered: To seek the donkeys, and when we had not found them, we came to Samuel. And his uncle said to him: Tell me, what did Samuel say to you. And Saul said to his uncle: He told us that the donkeys had been found. But the matter of the kingship, which Samuel had spoken to him, he did not reveal to him.

30. The word of the kingdom is the honorable dignity of the pastor. For by its very display it speaks: because he is no mere uncle who is elevated by so great an order. Therefore the king does not reveal the word of the kingdom: because the pastor of the Church speaks with the great splendor of divinity, but does not speak with pride. He who indeed does not reveal the word conceals what he speaks. For the word always speaks to him for whom it is a word; otherwise it is not a word. Therefore he possesses the word of the kingdom who shines with that manner of life which, as if by speaking, provides to others examples of the heavenly journey. Therefore he does not reveal the word who does not disclose the greatness of his holiness through vainglory. He indeed has what he might reveal, but what is shown through itself he does not wish to proclaim. For he who shines with great dignity and great holiness shows many things by living which he does not say by speaking. The Lord surely wished the preacher to have this word of the kingdom when He commanded that bells be placed on the garment of the high priest (Exod. 28:34). The garment of the high priest is the display of a good manner of life. It is furnished, as it were, with many bells when it multiplies the good works that cry out as an example to the lesser ones. But the king does not dare to reveal the word of the kingdom: because it is commanded of priests that they bear the beauty of their garment before the Lord. He bears the beauty of his garment before the Lord who both shows forth good things and, from the display of good works, seeks to please not men outwardly through vanity, but God inwardly through love. Then certainly the priest is silent, but as he walks, what he wears cries out; because the chosen preacher does not proclaim himself by boasting, but never ceases to speak by living well. Let it therefore be said of Saul that he did not reveal to his uncle the word of the kingdom: because chosen men, when they receive the splendor of dignity or the growth of a good life, put themselves forward by examples, but conceal themselves in silence. And because they believe themselves to be lesser in merits than other chosen ones, he to whom he does not reveal the word is called his uncle. For an uncle is called the brother of the father. Moreover, the Redeemer of the human race makes as many sons unto the unfading glory of the eternal inheritance as He instructs in the sacraments of His faith and doctrine. For those who are instructed in the Church are, as it were, still little children. But he who now meets Him as a perfect man through great merits is a brother of the Redeemer. The blessed Apostle Paul, praising such men indeed, says: Heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Because therefore perfect preachers regard other chosen and perfect ones as such and themselves as imperfect, the one who is reported to have questioned him about the word of the kingdom is called the uncle of Saul. Moreover, Samuel had spoken to Saul this same word of the kingdom: because chosen men have learned the spiritual manner of life which they possess from the speech of their elders. But the king who had been initiated through anointing had not yet been chosen by the people. Whence it also follows: (Verse 17.) Samuel called the people to the Lord at Mizpah.

31. Mizpah, as I said, is interpreted as "watchtower." In the ordination of the king, the people are called to Mizpah, because those who come together to ordain a pastor of holy Church are taught to attend to his spiritual qualities, not his carnal ones. To watch, indeed, is to recognize the preacher to be ordained through the standard of sacred Scripture. For sacred Scripture is the mirror of the elect. A pastor is known as if through a mirror, when he is shown by his conduct to be such as is proclaimed in sacred eloquence. Rightly, therefore, Samuel convokes the people at Mizpah, so that the election of a good bishop may not rest on human judgment, but on divine: since there is elected not such a one as can be determined by the will of men, but such as is declared in sacred eloquence. Because this is a gift of God, it is necessary that the people, who are known to expect such great things from God, be purged of their guilt through the satisfaction of penance. Moreover, the very recognition of sin is a preparation for the divine gift, because often when we believe ourselves unworthy of the divine gift, we merit it through humility. Hence Samuel also strives to turn those who had gathered to receive the king first to the consideration of their sins, because it is added: (Verses 18, 19.) And Samuel said to the children of Israel: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I brought Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of all the kings who were afflicting you. But today you have rejected the Lord your God, who alone saved you from all your evils and tribulations, and you said: By no means, but a king shall be over us.

32. Indeed, he carefully showed them both the good things which the Lord had bestowed upon them and the evil things which they themselves had done against the Lord, so that they might recognize that they had sinned all the more gravely, inasmuch as they had dared by sinning to offend him from whom they had received such great blessings. But what it means to reject the Lord, and how it ought to be understood according to the literal and the spiritual sense, has been explained at length above (Above in the exposition of verse 7, chapter VIII), where the Lord says to Samuel: "They have not rejected you, but me, according to all their works which they have done from the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt." But because holy preachers instruct by teaching those whom they pierce by rebuking, he added, saying: (Verse 19) "Now therefore, stand before the Lord by your tribes and by your families."

33. We are indeed commanded to stand before the Lord when we prepare our hearts to know His commandments at the instruction of our elders. Or the elect stand before the Lord when they are considered by great men with respect to their spiritual virtues, so that whoever is seen to be better among them may be preferred over the rest through pastoral care. And because there are many orders of the faithful, they are commanded to stand before the Lord by tribes and families. Pursuing this indeed more broadly, he adds saying: (Verses 20, 21.) And Samuel brought near all the tribes of Israel, and the lot fell upon the tribe of Benjamin, and he brought near the tribe of Benjamin and its families, and the family of Matri was taken, and it came down to the son of Kish.

34. He made them all stand by tribes and families, so that he might consider them all, and having considered all, might choose the more suitable one. But since he himself had already known the king by the Lord's revelation, and had anointed him as ruler at His command, why is it that he is still sought out as one to be chosen through tribes and families? But the king had been found by the prophet alone. Therefore, the one already found is sought, so that he who had not been found by the people might be found by them. He is also sought by lot, so that the people could not doubt that the one whom the prophet chose had been provided by divine dispensation. What then is signified in this event, if not that the rulers of the holy Church must be chosen with great deliberation? For the highest preachers, from the interior grace of the Holy Spirit which they possess, are full of the great light of providence. And because they are deeply humble, they do not presume upon the greatness of their inner illumination. Therefore, what they rightly determine within themselves, they also test before others. For the prophet alone knows the future king, when the supreme ruler of the holy Church perceives the character and merits of the one to be ordained as ruler. He also anoints him as ruler when he declares him to be full of spiritual gifts. Nevertheless, he still convenes the people, divides them by tribes and kindreds, casts lots, and finds, as if by a method, the one whom he already knows. The tribes and families stand, as it were, divided, when in the state of virtues the diverse orders of the holy Church are examined. For when we behold the many perfections of the elect—when we see the purity of virgins, the strength of the continent, the honorable ministries of clerics, the devotion of monks—we observe, as it were, tribes standing before us. And because there is great variety among these in the service of God, when we likewise observe the varieties that exist within each order, we see standing before us not only tribes, as it were, but also kindreds. And the lot falls upon a tribe, because better men are often found in one order than in another. For a tribe receives, as it were, the lot, when those who are more perfect than others are seen to be suited for the ministry of preaching. But the lot does not yet fall upon a person, but upon a tribe, when there are many among whom a worthy person lies hidden. Thus there still remains something for the highest men to investigate. Rightly, therefore, the lot is said to have fallen upon the tribe of Benjamin, and Samuel is said to have brought forward that tribe and its kindreds and to have arrived at the son of Kish, because the elect and highest men of the holy Church do not cease to consider the virtues of each individual until they arrive at the one who is found worthy of the lot of pastoral ministry. But those who are worthy are vehemently terrified to take up the burden of so great an office. Whence it also follows: (Verse 21, 22.) They sought him therefore, and he was not found; and they inquired of the Lord further, whether the man would come there. And the Lord answered: Behold, he has hidden himself at home.

35. For they hide themselves so as not to be found, because they flee from undertaking a dignity whose burden they judge themselves unequal to bear. For spiritual leadership has the outward glory of dignity, and it also has the greatness of its inward labor. For a ruler is both honored by his subjects and bears those by whom he is honored. When therefore from the beginning of honor a cause of burden arises, because from the very source whence honor is received by the ruler, he takes on that by which he is weighed down. Although honor of dignity is in itself a great burden upon the mind, because it ought to be despised, and yet it pleases. It ought indeed to be despised lest it lift up the mind through pride; and it ought to be accepted, so that subjects may reverence the heavenly things which the teacher speaks. A heavier burden therefore arises from honor, because the chosen pastor can bear it only by great strength of soul—namely, to despise in himself what he receives in himself for God's sake, so that he may be such a one for God yet not be such for himself, and may deny himself yet not deny himself; so that what he is, he may be for God, and what he is for himself, he may not be. And so the honor offered by a subject is accepted, so that preaching may be commended. The preacher also despises the honor offered, because he is not puffed up by being honored, but rejoices that the ministry of the word of God is commended. But how difficult this is to accomplish is better grasped by thinking than by speaking. For it is impossible for weak minds to bear bravely the burden of others and to manage by strength of mind the reverence of honor offered to them—so that amid the attentions of that same honor, one may know how to rejoice in the progress of subjects and not know how to swell with pride on account of the reverence shown to oneself. Because therefore chosen men do not wish to displease God, when called they flee from undertaking the office of leadership. But they hold that very flight from ministry as a virtue of humility, not as a boast of dignity. For they flee as much as they can; but if they have been appointed by the Lord, they can by no means remain hidden. For the same reason Saul is hidden at home, but at the Lord's revealing he is shown forth, because chosen men withdraw themselves from the outward ministries of holy Church, yet by the Lord's dispensation they are brought forward to administer outward ministries. But because now in holy Church those who withdraw themselves from such great honors are few, while those who thrust themselves forward are many, those who thrust themselves forward ought to note this: that he who is said by the prophet to have been hidden at home was being sought not for the spiritual dignity of the Church, but for the secular glory of a kingdom. For they were not seeking to make him a pontiff, but they wanted to make him king. Let the priest therefore see with what disposition the summit of holy Church ought to be fled from, if kings so cautiously flee from ascending the summit of the world. But because holy men, the more earnestly they refuse to accept the rank of leadership, are the more devoutly sought after by devoted peoples, there follows: (Verse 23.) 'They ran and brought him from there.' After this it is also added: (Ibid.) 'And he stood in the midst of the people.'

36. The prelate stands in the midst of the people when his strength is observed by all his subjects. For to stand is a mark of virtue. He who does good works steadfastly, therefore, stands. And because good works provide an example to those of lesser rank, he is seen to stand in the midst of the people, not in solitude. This is also fittingly understood as referring to the uprightness of intention. For he who stands with uprightness of body raises his head on high. But he who does good publicly does not stand with the strength of his work if he does not possess uprightness of intention. The king is therefore said to stand in the midst of the people so that the model of the holy prelates of the Church may be shown; because they ought to display good works as an example to their subjects, yet they should avoid receiving the glory of the world for that same good work. But he adds how great he ought to appear, and says: (Ibid.) And he was taller than all the people from his shoulder and upward.

37. We have shown at length above (Book IV, chapter 4, number 20) that the outstanding greatness of body in holy preachers signifies the increase of perfection. Therefore he is seen as exalted in the midst of the people, who, placed at the summit of virtues, is not unknown by his subjects. Indeed the right order for a chosen preacher is that before the loftiness of ecclesiastical eminence, he ascend the summit of virtue, that for the honor of God he obtain the summit of glory, but shine with greater loftiness through the revealed perfection of virtues. Such a Pastor indeed is greatly to be proclaimed by perfect men, and to be desired and loved by the lesser ones. Well therefore is it added: 'And he said to all the people: Surely you see whom the Lord has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people.' (Verse 23.) 'And all the people cried out: Long live the king.' There follows: (Verse 24.) 'Samuel spoke to the people the law of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and placed it before the Lord.'

38. Concerning the law of kingship, because we spoke at length about it above (Book IV, ch. 4, no. 4 ff.), we recall only this about it: that in the historical narrative it is not prescribed but rather shown what wicked kings will do and what good kings should avoid. Kings are indeed to defend their subjects, not to strip them of their own goods. They ought to provide help to those under them, not to seize their fields, vineyards, and olive groves. But if anyone should wish to argue that these things were written not as things to be avoided but as things to be done, then the law of tyrants is written on behalf of that king who is demanded after the Lord has been rejected. The cruel law of the kingdom, therefore, is the punishment of a people that rejects the Lord. For it was not unjust that he should lose his fields and vineyards who willingly cast off the Lord reigning over him. Therefore we perceive that all the things contained in this law of kingship that seem contrary to equity are in fact equitable, if we consider what the people had sinned in asking for a king. For what great burden of law is it in the judgment of divine equity, if they should unwillingly place their sons and daughters in the service of the king, when they had willingly removed them from the liberty of God? And what is seen to be unfitting if, as the final consequence, those who rejected God reigning over them should themselves become the servants of men? Therefore, when the law of the kingdom is written, a punishment is handed down to perpetual memory by which the presumptuous may be chastised; and because it had been issued through the justice of the Lord, it is said to have been deposited before the Lord. But perhaps that right was something other than this law that is written. If that is true, then Samuel speaks this law before the king to the people, so that the king may know what to require from the people, and the people may know what they ought to render to their kings. This law is written in a book so that it may be preserved for the memory of those to come. It is placed before the Lord so that it may be held in reverence. We, however, have said that the kings of the Churches are the holy preachers, and we have shown that all the things contained in the law of kingship plainly apply to them. Samuel therefore speaks this law to the people when a chosen teacher instructs the faithful of holy Church with what humility they ought to submit to their superiors. It is also written in a book when he firmly implants these things in their minds. For he who speaks in such a way that his hearers forget what they have heard tells the law to the people but does not write it in a book. Therefore, for a teacher to write in a book the words he speaks is to commend them attentively to the minds of his hearers. The Lord was, as it were, wishing to write what He had said when He declared: "Remember the word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his lord" (John 15:20). Hence Paul, inscribing the spoken law of the kingdom in a book, says: "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you; considering the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith" (Heb. 13:7). But if anyone here wishes to understand that another law is prefigured, let him look to the one that blessed Paul sets forth, saying: "Let him who preaches the gospel live by the gospel, and let him who serves the altar live by the altar" (1 Cor. 9:14). For the Lord was speaking this law of the kingdom to the people when He said: "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward" (Matt. 10:41). And so that He might inscribe this more firmly in the book, strengthening His word from the lesser case, He said: "Whoever gives one of these least of mine only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple shall not lose his reward" (Mark 9:40). There follows: (Verses 25, 26, 27.) Samuel dismissed all the people, each one to his own house. But Saul went to his house in Gibeah, and there went with him a portion of the army whose hearts God had touched. But the sons of Belial said: "Can this man possibly save us?" And they despised him.

39. If a plain historical narrative is sought, what could ever have been stated more clearly? But if we attend to the force of each individual word, great things are enclosed within this simplicity of words. For the people are said to have been dismissed to their home, but the king is reported not to have been dismissed to his home, but to have gone away. Separately also it speaks of the homes of the people and of the home of the king: because the people are reported as dismissed to their home, and the king as having gone away to his own. Yet the people were dismissed before the king went away. Concerning the departing people it is also carefully indicated that they did not go all at once, but each one is reported to have gone away to his own home. But concerning those who followed the king it does not say: "A part of the army went away, each one after the king," but: "A part of the army went with him." Finally, those who follow the king are reported to have had their hearts touched by God; those who despise the king are called sons of Belial. This manner of speaking is certainly not simple, but is very subtle for one who knows how to consider not what merely sounds on the surface, but what is wisely intimated within. What does it mean, then, that the king is said to go away to his home, but the people to be dismissed? We have shown that the king designates the pastor of the Church, and the people designate his subjects. Now to go is the act of one who is free; to be dismissed belongs to one who can be held back. The king is therefore said to go away so that in the person of the preacher, freedom of spirit may be proclaimed. Teachers can indeed go when they wish and return, because they are strong in good work and wise in their inner disposition. They come, indeed, when they go out to their subjects either by the example of good work or by the word of preaching. They go away when they return to the secret place of the mind and inwardly arrange what they are about to do outwardly. Inasmuch as they remain daily in this contemplation, they are, as it were, hidden within their home. The king is therefore said to go away to his home because the preacher, proven by the work of eternal life and secure in the teaching of wisdom, is free to go out to his labors and to enter into the counsels of the mind.

40. But the people is sent to its own house, because faithful subjects are not free to arrange what they wish, but only what is commanded. They are sent away as if held under constraint, while they are directed to do what is ordered and to avoid presuming what is not ordered. And because they are sent to diverse works, each one of them is sent to his own house. For in order that we may well accomplish those things which they command us, before we appear in the work, we are hidden within in internal consideration. Therefore our kings send each of us to our own house, because they command us to go to those things which they enjoin upon us through the secret disposition of the mind. They indeed command well, but if we neglect to foresee the manner of our action, we scatter with an inconsiderate mind what has been well commanded. Therefore each one returns to his own house, when every faithful subject anticipates by arranging through the counsel of the mind the work of obedience that he sets before himself. But because after the king was chosen the people was sent to its own house before the king is said to have departed, something else can be signified in this. For those who receive the king go to their own house when each subject prepares himself by considering, so that he may render faithful obedience to him whom he has asked to be set over him. In this place, therefore, the point is not to consider things already commanded, but to subject oneself with the lowest disposition to things about to be commanded. And for the king to go to his own house is to consider how he may command with discretion those who are prepared. Therefore the house of the king is one thing, and that of the subject people another; because the former consider with a lofty mind the journeys of subjects that must be arranged, while the latter prepare to carry out the commands of their superiors through the strength of their inmost purpose. Whence also the house of the king is reported to be situated in Gibeah. For Gibeah means "lofty." Therefore the house of the king is shown to be in Gibeah, because the chosen teacher strives not to dwell by thinking on low and earthly things, but to meditate on high and heavenly things. Whence also it is well said that a part of the army goes with him to Gibeah, because those who are strong against the devil follow their chosen pastor to the heights of virtues. Therefore a part of the army is said to go with the king, because in the holy Church very many are faithful who know how to humbly obey their superiors but do not know how to think lofty thoughts. They know indeed how to carry out what is commanded, but they do not know how to foresee what should be commanded to others. For Paul was, as it were, commemorating the soldiers of this part when he wrote to the Colossians, saying: "Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas, and John who is called Justus, who are of the circumcision: these alone are my helpers in the kingdom of God" (Col. 4:10). Likewise, addressing the Romans, he says: "Greet Prisca and Aquila, my helpers" (Rom. 16:5). And a little later: "Timothy my helper greets you, and Lucas, and Jason" (ibid. 21). He called his disciples helpers, because they were lesser in rank but sharers of the labor; they were subject to the Apostle by the humility of obedience, but while they preached with him the glory of the eternal kingdom, equally defended the truth with him, resisted the unbelievers, and bravely endured the persecutions inflicted upon them, they were, as it were, soldiers of the king in the war of God. A part of the army is said to go with the king to Gibeah, because perfect disciples are co-helpers of their teachers in the lofty governance of the holy Church; they bring what aid they can through the height of virtue, but they serve through humility those whom they help.

41. And because only those can do this who have been prevented by the grace of the Holy Spirit, when part of the army is said to go with the king, it is added: 'Whose hearts God had touched.' For since we are accustomed to touch with a finger, God touches the hearts of the Saints when He bestows upon them the grace of the Holy Spirit. And they feel His touch: because, having received the gift of inward virtue, they are stirred from the weakness of their carnality. They immediately become soldiers of the heavenly army, because through the power of the Holy Spirit they abandon what is weak and are prepared for undertaking mighty deeds in the warfare of Christ. But because within the holy Church certain persons do not fear to despise their prelates, let them hear that those who despise the king are called sons of Belial. Through the vice of pride, indeed, they are begotten in imitation of him of whom it is written: 'He beholds every high thing, and he himself is king over all the children of pride' (Job 41:25). They aptly reveal the ways of the proud, because they say: 'Can this man save us?' For holy men, because they despise present things and seek eternal things, bring forth even in their outward conduct the contempt for the world which they hold in their mind; inwardly they are venerable, outwardly they appear contemptible. The proud, therefore, because they look only at what can be despised outwardly in the Saints, and do not deserve to perceive what is truly worthy of great veneration, say: 'Can this man save us?' As if they were asking scornfully: Are such great things to be hoped for from one so small? Are we to believe that one so lowly can save us who are so great, one so weak can save us who are so strong? For what else is the meaning of what they say — 'this man' and 'us' — except that the proud and arrogant, looking upon others, always believe them to be small and weak, but themselves to be great, strong, and wise? Rightly, therefore, they are called sons of Belial, because while they exalt themselves through pride, they conform themselves to him who is said to have fallen from heaven in the same manner. Of these same despisers of the king it is also said: ('Ibid.') 'And they brought him no gifts.'

42. If we examine these things according to the letter, they surely suggest that both lords of the lands and spiritual prelates of holy Church are to be honored with outward services. Hence the blessed Apostle Paul also addresses the proud Romans, saying: "Render to all what is owed; to whom tribute, tribute; to whom tax, tax" (Rom. 13:7). Hence the prince of the Apostles, exhorting, says: "Be subject to every human creature for God's sake, whether to the king as preeminent, or to governors as sent by him" (1 Pet. 2:13). We offer spiritual gifts to our rulers when we present to them the due reverence of honor and keep what they command with great devotion. For reverence of honor and humility of subjection are great gifts; because when we are both inwardly subject to our rulers through humility and outwardly display the reverence of honor through external services, we offer them one gift from the body, another from the heart. Therefore, to suggest the arrogance of the proud, the prophet does not say: "They did not bring him a gift," but "they did not bring him gifts"; because when they despise the chosen preachers, they disdain to offer them both honor from the body and humility from the heart. But when the chosen preachers recognize the fault of their subjects, sometimes they eagerly hasten to correct it at once by rebuking, and sometimes they pretend not to know of it, so that they may seek a fitting time to remove it. Hence concerning that same despised king it is immediately added: (Ibid.) "But he pretended not to hear."

43. He who knows indeed hears the wickedness of his subjects; but he hears and does not respond, nay rather he pretends not to hear: because very often, when the situation demands it, the known pride of subjects is left uncorrected, so that at a more opportune time it may be struck as though just discovered. We rightly recognize this discretion of ecclesiastical censure in this very king of Israel, if we consider the different times and deeds of his reign. For while still inexperienced and newly appointed, he is said to have pretended not to hear the words of those who despised him, but once his kingdom over Israel was established, he is reported to have fought to the right and to the left, and to have prevailed wherever he turned. Therefore a fault which cannot be struck with fitting severity must be overlooked, not exposed, because subjects sin more boldly if the weakness of their superiors is recognized. Let these things discussed in the fourth book of this work suffice, so that through a fresh beginning of discourse we may renew our zeal for expounding what remains.