Book 6

Commentaries on the First Book of Kings

BOOK SIX.

CHAPTER I. (1 Kings XV, 1-3.) And Samuel said to Saul: The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people Israel. Now therefore hear the voice of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: I have reviewed all that Amalek did to Israel, how he opposed him on the way, when he was coming up from Egypt. Now therefore go, and strike Amalek, and destroy all that belongs to him.

1. We said above that Amalek designates the vice of lust, which as it were licks, since it suggests pleasure by flattering. Progress in the way of life is therefore shown, in that above he is declared to have been struck by Saul, and now he is not simply commanded to be struck, but all his possessions to be destroyed. First indeed the teacher strikes him, when through his word it is brought about that chastity is maintained in the hearts and bodies of the converted. For lust is as it were struck when the flesh has been in some manner subdued by the weapons of chastity, yet has not been perfectly subdued. For he who already abandons the defilements of lust, but still feels shameful impulses rising from himself against himself, no longer practices the wicked deed, yet nevertheless cannot drive it from his thought. Often unwillingly and unguardedly he is dragged to impure thoughts, and those things which he carelessly thinks within stir the flesh outwardly, so that it rises to the shameful impulses of pleasure. What then does it mean that Amalek, already struck, is commanded to be struck again and destroyed, except that the preacher must advance those whom he instructs for a chaste life toward the perfection of virtue? Amalek is therefore commanded to be struck again, because not yet well slain he still lives. Amalek is struck again when by the words of the teacher even those impulses that assail the flesh are crushed, when the teacher instructs his subjects to be crowned for this purpose: that they should so tame the body that it in no way rises to enticing impulses. But because the flesh is never restrained in this way if the mind slips into impure thinking, after the striking, Amalek is commanded to be demolished. He is therefore struck in the body and demolished in the heart, while the flesh is worthily worn down through abstinence and the mind is restrained from all impure thoughts. In this passage the preceding words must also be considered, which Samuel speaks in the person of the Lord, saying: "I have reviewed all that Amalek did to Israel, how he opposed him on the way when he was going up from Egypt."

2. What is meant by the deeds of the Amalekites being recounted, except that the defilements of lust are greatly hateful to God? Whence the blessed apostle Paul says: 'Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body' (1 Cor. 6:18). Likewise he says: 'Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge' (Heb. 13:4). Hence also, rebuking more sharply and separating them from the kingdom of God, he says: 'Neither shall the unclean possess the kingdom of God' (Eph. 5:5). Why is lust recounted, except because the sinner is cast out by the justice of God, when he bends himself to perpetrate its defilements? He who is recounted, therefore, so as to fall, is sometimes recounted so as to perish, and sometimes recounted so as to rise again. And because the deeds of Amalek are recalled after such great spans of time, it is in some way suggested to us that such people sometimes come to their senses after long periods. Moreover, his deeds are described when it is said: 'How he withstood him on the way when he was going up out of Egypt.' Israel means "seeing God." Because he is said to go up out of Egypt, this signifies the newly converted, who abandon the darkness and depths of sins, draw near to the light of truth, and ascend the mountain of good works.

3. But Amalek opposed Israel on the way, because lust hurls the weapons of pleasure against those striving toward the summit of perfection, and strikes with the sword of impure suggestion whatever hearts it can. And because the battle of fornication is exceedingly strong and violent, Amalek is said not merely to have confronted Israel in some ordinary way, but to have resisted him. To resist indeed is to press upon someone with a fierce assault. That Israelite who was ascending surely saw these resisting Amalekites when he said: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind" (Rom. 7:23). Whence also, looking to his helper, he says: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 7:24). Amalek is therefore said to resist because, as long as we are in the flesh, we endure the fierce wars of lust. But why is he said to resist those ascending from Egypt? Behold, he who had been caught up to the secrets of the third heaven still had the resisting motions of the flesh. Rightly therefore Israel ascending from Egypt represents not only novices but also those endowed with great virtue. By the name of Egypt, the darkness of this world is signified. And Israel ascends from Egypt because all the elect, as they advance by living holy lives, strive to reach the heavenly homeland. And because as long as they are in the flesh, they have the law of the flesh contrary to the law of the mind, they see Amalek resisting them through powerful impulses. For the violence of this passion is shown when the very wars of Amalek that are recounted are described. For while Israel fought, when Moses raised his hands, Amalek was overcome; and Amalek prevailed when Moses lowered his hands (Exod. 17). But what does it mean that against others Moses fought with arms alone, yet against Amalek not with arms alone but also with the power of prayer? And what power and urgency of supplication was then necessary, where if he lowered his hands, he would give the honor of victory to Amalek? But truly the great struggle against fornication is shown, which is overcome with such great effort and such great difficulty. Therefore the most intense prayer of the army is a necessary weapon. Arms indeed are necessary, because those who wish to fight against fornication cannot conquer unless they are fortified with the other virtues. The army, as we showed above, represents the examples of the Fathers and the precepts of the Scriptures, which indeed everyone ought also to consider, and so occupy the mind with them that one does not gaze upon the defilements of wantonness. But though instructed by examples and teachings, one can by no means trust in oneself. Let him therefore lift up his hands, let him lift up his mind, so that he may shine with good work and devotion, who attempts to cut off perfectly from himself the war of lust.

4. What furthermore does it mean that when the hands are lowered he is conquered, except that often through the boldness of wicked work, even the very beauty of chastity is taken away? Often it is not taken away entirely, but it is weakened along with weakening works. Indeed, amid spiritual works and labors, we are strong against the goads of the flesh; but if, as though weary, we grow sluggish or soft from the rigor of our accustomed way of life, while we gradually grow negligent, the stings of the flesh rise up, which, as though Moses' hands were lowered, conquer Israel (Exod. XVII). Therefore, lest the hands grow weary, let Aaron and Hur place a stone beneath them, and by no means allow Moses' heavy hands to be lowered. Aaron indeed is called "mountain of strength," and Hur is called "fire." For when we grow weary, we are strengthened by contemplating heavenly things. What then is the mountain of strength, if not the height of heavenly contemplation? Which indeed, because it does not exist in a chosen heart without great charity, the mountain of strength is rightly said to stand beside Moses. They indeed place a stone beneath and support his hands, because he who ardently looks upon the highest rewards of heaven takes up great strength, and does not cease both to work well and to beseech the Creator. Because therefore the wars of the flesh are strong and altogether violent, Amalek is fittingly said to have resisted Israel as it ascended. Therefore the Prophet commands the king, saying: Hear the voice of the Lord. I have reviewed all that Amalek did to Israel.

5. What does it mean when he says: "Hear the voice of the Lord," unless that those who wish to live chastely must keep subtle watch against the deceits of the spirit of fornication? As if to say: Do not cease to consider with how many snares he prepares to subject the elect to himself. And therefore he did not say: "I have recounted how he resisted Israel," but: "Hear the voice of the Lord. I have recounted how he resisted Israel." As if to say: If you recognize the manner of his snares, you will more easily be able to overcome the enemy. Rightly therefore he added, saying: "Now therefore go, and strike Amalek, and demolish all that is his." As if to say: Because you know how you ought to go: Go, and demolish all that is his, and so destroy him that nothing of him may live any longer. But who could so subject the flesh to himself, who could ever so restrain his own mind, who could so remain in the flesh as to endure no shameful movements from the flesh? Who could so curb thought that no darkness of impurities would reach it through thinking? But if the shameful stirring of motion is not removed from the flesh, nevertheless the strength of that shamefulness is weakened, when there is indeed a simple movement in the flesh, but in that movement there is no itch of lust. This movement is not Amalekite, because it does not entice the mind that it cannot delight. It cannot be removed from the mind that it should in no way see unclean things, but it is led to a wonderful exercise of purity, so that seeing unclean things, it is stained by no taint of pleasure. Whoever therefore so governs the flesh, whoever so rules the mind, governs for this reason, rules for this reason: because he was able to demolish all of Amalek with strength. But now he explains in what follows what all his possessions are, saying: (Verse 3.) "Do not spare him, and do not covet anything of his; but slay from man to woman, both child and nursing infant, and ox and donkey, and sheep and camel."

6. Who is this one who spares Amalek, if not he who retains something of wantonness either in thought, or in speech, or in the flesh? For many do not practice works of shameful conduct, yet do not restrain their tongue from shameful speech. Many avoid luxury through their actions, but do not avoid it through their thoughts. Some do nothing shameful, yet what they flee from in deed they desire in their heart. He therefore spares Amalek who holds onto the enticements of wantonness, either in speech, or through intention, or through thought. And so He says: "Do not spare him," because from so wicked a vice nothing ought to be kindled in the mind, nothing permitted to burn in deed. Let Him therefore say: "Do not spare him," so that all lustful impulses, all obscene utterances may be utterly destroyed in the body. He therefore says: "You shall not covet anything of his," so that it may be thoroughly uprooted from thought. For what is lust, if not fire? And what are the virtues arising from the flesh and mind, if not flowers? What likewise are shameful thoughts, if not straw? Who does not know that if fire is carelessly extinguished among straw, from the small spark that remains, all the straw is set ablaze? He therefore who does not wish to burn up the flowers of virtues in his mind must so extinguish the fire of lust that it can never blaze up again through even a faint spark. Let him also remove the stubble of carnal thoughts, lest while the natural heat, which cannot be extinguished, is kindled, the green growth of virtues, which cannot catch fire by itself, is burned up as if through straw mixed in with it.

7. What then is the meaning of: "Do not spare him, and do not covet anything of his," unless that all luxury in the flesh must be perfectly subdued, and torn out from the mind by the roots? It can also be understood: "Do not spare him, and do not covet anything from him," because men and women, children and nursing infants are commanded to be killed. For women could be coveted, and children and nursing infants could provoke pity. Who then are the men to be killed, who are the women, who the children, who the oxen, who the sheep, who the camels, who the donkeys — this must be carefully considered. For who are the Amalekite men, if not the persuading impulses of shameful conduct? They are indeed men, because they suggest violently and pour seeds of depravity into corrupted minds. The women are the desires of the mind, which submit themselves to the aforesaid impulses for impious offspring. But who are the children and nursing infants, if not those who are generated from the mingling of Amalekite men and women? For if the impulse of evil suggestion is received in the mind like an adulterer, desire is impregnated like a harlot. Therefore, if that desire is allowed to pour forth its wicked offspring, the impulses of lust are then generated not only in the mind but also in the flesh. When these are born, they are children, because they do not yet inflict violence upon the flesh by their stirring. They are nursing infants when they are nourished by slight and negligent thought. For he who now refreshes shameful impulses in the flesh by free thought no longer gives milk to little ones but food to adults. Therefore the milk of the little Amalekites is the slight thought of impurity, because if the shameful impulse is not fed through thought, the little ones are killed as if denied their milk. This milk the harlot mother offers, because while the heat of desire seizes the mind, it is stirred as if from the worst abundance of the heart, so that the worse offspring of impulses may be nourished in the flesh. What is understood by the ox, if not deceitful counsel, which by the example of the ancients suggests the pleasure of the flesh — those who pleased almighty God amid the works of the flesh? For it seems to split the earth with the plowshare of discernment, as it were; but if it is taken up through deliberation, it ensnares the neck of the wretched mind under the yoke of shameful conduct, which it bears through pretense.

8. By the name of sheep, the life of the innocent is signified. Whence all the elect are called sheep by the voice of our Redeemer, when He says: 'My sheep hear My voice' (John 10:27). What then is the sheep of Amalek, if not the pretense of innocence? For some, when they consider both the very form of the human body and the properties of each sex, when they consider the desire implanted in their members, think they can freely use this as though it were a natural good. It is therefore like a sheep of the Amalekite, when something is suggested to the continent as though it were good, which is clearly proven not to be truly good. What also is signified by the camel? But the camel chews the cud and does not divide the hoof at all. What then is signified by the camel, if not a certain thought of lust, which seems to begin from reason but is not completed through discernment? For while one thinks, the camel as it were ruminates within, but while what one thinks is not ordered by truth, its hoof does not appear to be divided. For some indeed, having professed continence, when they are overcome by the desire of the flesh, trust that they can be saved in married life. And some, when they hear the Apostle's permission: 'Let each man have his own wife and each woman her own husband' (1 Cor. 7:2), declare that all without distinction of persons are included in this precept, and that men of sacred orders can make use of conjugal union. For a sentiment of this kind is an Amalekite camel, because it seems to begin from reason but drags one to an irrational life. What then is the donkey understood to be, if not the open wickedness of fornication? For the devil drives some into the open abyss of fornication, and deceives others through fraud. The donkey is also accustomed to carry the burdens of others. But the Teacher of the Gentiles, when he taught that the husband does not have power over his own body, but the wife does, and likewise: 'Nor does the wife have power over her own body, but the husband' (ibid., 4), what else did he command them than to carry one another's burdens? Therefore by the name of the donkey the strength of conjugal union is designated, because chosen spouses bravely bear one another's burdens, lest through the weakness of the flesh they fall more loosely into the pit of fornication. Therefore the donkey must be killed, but the Amalekite one, because conjugal union must be strengthened in the honor of the marriage bed, but must be destroyed in its baseness. Indeed spouses ought to render to each other their due, but they ought not to come together in a shameful manner. Therefore the donkey of Amalek is killed when in good spouses the love of honorable union is maintained, but all obscenity is avoided in shameful conjunction. Therefore all things of Amalek are commanded to be destroyed, because those who purpose to live chastely ought not to retain in themselves anything of the enticement of the flesh. They must indeed be in the flesh, so that they may do good things through the flesh, but they ought so to depart from the pleasure of the flesh through the loftiness of the mind that they do not tolerate insults from the flesh. Indeed the Apostle wished those to whom he was speaking to be such, saying: 'But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit' (Rom. 8:9). But let us consider with what helpers he who is commanded to destroy Amalek may suffice for these things. For it follows: (Verse 4.) 'Saul commanded the people, and numbered them as lambs.'

9. By the name of lambs, men of great prudence are usually designated. Hence through John it is said: "I saw upon Mount Sion a Lamb standing, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads" (Rev. 14:1). For those who had taken up the name of the Lamb were called lambs. Explaining who they are, he also says: "These are they who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins." What then does it mean that when Amalek is commanded to be destroyed, the soldiers of the king are counted as it were lambs, unless that when we wish to destroy the spirit of fornication by preaching, we ought to bring forth the examples of the perfect? For however many men distinguished by the glory of chastity we present to the worldly who are to be converted, we bring as it were so many soldiers, like lambs mustered, to the wars against Amalek. Moreover, by the name of those mustered, the ministers of divine preaching themselves can be understood. They are therefore as it were lambs, because through the glory of perfect chastity they are now made like those virgins rejoicing with Christ in the kingdom. By these words it is surely shown that those who undertake the ministry of preaching must first be adorned with the outstanding splendor of chastity, because if they fall away through incontinence, they can in no way make others continent, and those who do not have the rays of that light in the splendor of their own manner of life cannot prevail in calling others to the good of so great a light. Rightly therefore it is said: "He mustered them as lambs," because those who ought to drive out the spirit of fornication through the power of the office they have received must necessarily be very chaste. Hence the Lord says to them in the Gospel: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning in your hands" (Luke 12:35), so that their subjects may hear the word of preaching, but the examples of a most luminous manner of life may draw them to the good of chastity that they hear. Hence they are fittingly designated by a perfect number, when it is added: (Verse 3.) "Two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah."

10. By the name of footsoldiers the elect are figured, not when they preach lofty things, but when through good examples they demonstrate to others the straightness of the heavenly journey. Footsoldiers indeed run with their steps to where they wish to bring their arms. But what are examples of chastity, if not the footprints of heavenly soldiers impressed upon the earth? For in order to strike the vices of lust in slippery places, they hasten with the light of good examples toward the darkness of their hearts, and as if arriving by footstep, they slay the enemies—those who, after they are recognized through their works, draw the hearts of sinners to the good of chastity. When therefore through examples of chastity they destroy the darkness of impurities in the hearts of sinners, they are rightly called footsoldiers. And because they are splendid not only with the outward show of bodily purity but also with the light of the heart, they are said to be two hundred thousand. For in the number one hundred and one thousand, the entire sum of the Decalogue is contained. Perfect men therefore are contained in two hundred thousand, because through divine grace they have arrived at the highest citadel of chastity by both continence of body and integrity of mind. For they have perfection of purpose both in body and in mind. Or because they serve God through chastity not loosely or negligently, they have the hundred of work, and because they do not cease to serve Him, they have the thousand of multiplication. But they are strong and constant in continence of body, perfect and persistent in watchfulness of heart through perfection of virtue. Indeed the Apostle, commanding that a widow also be such, says: "That she may be holy in body and in spirit" (1 Cor. 7:34). For she is holy in body and spirit if by the perfection of chastity by which she shines in body, she also shines in mind. But if widows are such, what kind must virgins be commanded to be? For concerning those many, under the description of one it was said: "The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing" (Psalm 44:10). In the same psalm (verse 14) the same queen is praised when it is said: "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within, clothed about with golden fringes in varieties." For what is the golden garment, if not the beauty and honor of the virginal body? It is called a garment because it shines outwardly in the body, but golden because it excels in dignity. But every kind of metal is inferior to gold. So indeed no other form of chastity can be compared to virginal beauty. What then does it mean when it says, "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within," if the glory of the golden garment is proclaimed to be outward? For if there is some great glory of the golden garment outwardly, all glory cannot be seen to be within. What then does it mean that all glory is said to be within, except that even that glory which is outward is recognized to be within along with innumerable others? For virginity is not golden if it exists outwardly but not inwardly. Because therefore it is both within and without, because the same shines in the body and the same gleams in the mind, all the glory of the king's daughter can fittingly be understood to be within. All glory is within, because it is not outward alone nor inward alone. For because many are the splendors of virtues in the mind of the virgin, virginal radiance is so affirmed that all glory is proclaimed to be within. This indeed is what follows: "Clothed about with golden fringes in varieties." For the golden fringes are splendors never failing from the mind. Fringes indeed are the final parts of a garment. They are therefore praised in the beauty of Christ's bride, because there is no glory of virtues if it ceases to shine before the completion of life. The queen therefore is spoken of with love, in the golden garment virginity is proclaimed. But all glory is declared to be within, and in golden fringes, and clothed about with variety, so that integrity joined with innumerable virtues may be understood to endure even to the end. Rightly therefore are two hundred thousand footsoldiers counted against Amalek, because those are fit for conquering unclean spirits through examples of chastity who have learned to maintain it both in the light of works and in the splendor of watchfulness.

11. Because likewise they are instructed and perfected by the word of God, this is shown by the number of ten thousand men of Judah. For they are men by fortitude, and of Judah by proclamation. For Judah is interpreted as "confessing." But they are designated by the number ten, because they have attained the perfection of doctrine through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Whence also to Moses the ten precepts of the law are given, which were written by the finger of God (Exod. XXXI). For what is the finger of God, if not the Holy Spirit? Who, when He wrote the law, set it forth precisely in ten precepts, because even if He brought forth something carnal outwardly in it, inwardly He sealed the perfection of spiritual understanding. Therefore ten thousand men of Judah are to be led forth against Amalek, so that the spirit of fornication may be overcome by those fit in strength. For he laps by suggestion, because he counsels light and flattering things, but the things he counsels by lapping he displays through phantasms of thoughts. Therefore, so that the mind may not see the obscene things shown to it by demons, the examples of the elect must be revealed. And so that the unclean spirit cannot soothe it with foul suggestions, the tongue of preachers ought to be touched through the praise of chastity. Let the preacher lap it, so that the malignant spirit can by no means lap it. And let him delight it with words, lest, for one who lacks heavenly things, the devil tear it apart through the delights of suggestions. Therefore against the twofold battle of the heart, because a twofold good of assistance is necessary, rightly both foot soldiers and men of Judah are said to be prepared against Amalek. But if anyone wishes to understand some as the foot soldiers and others as the men of Judah, the meaning of plain truth is evident: that the greatest doctors have those who, though they do not know how to teach by preaching, are nevertheless able to benefit by their works. But now, having been mustered for such great battles, let us hear by what strategy they fight next. There follows: (Verse 5.) And when Saul had come to the city of Amalek, he set an ambush at the torrent.

12. What is this torrent, if not that of which it is said through the Psalmist: "He shall drink of the torrent in the way" (Psalm 109:7)? For a torrent designates the course of our mortality. Saul therefore sets an ambush in the torrent, when a preacher of the Church inserts the consideration of our mortality into the eternal rewards. For in order to catch slippery souls as if by guile, he begins by speaking of heavenly things, but suddenly turns to setting forth the bitterness of eternal punishments, so that minds secure in the pleasure of the flesh may be terrified. For he leads them out as if by guile, he strikes them through ambush, since by speaking pleasant things he provokes them to listen, and then inserts the sorrows of death, so that the wayward may hear what will make them tremble. Saul therefore comes to the city of Amalek, when the teacher draws the hearts of sinners, fortified by illicit love, with the sweetness of eternal delight. But he hides an ambush for him in the torrent, because he introduces the consideration of death, so that the sinner may see, as it were, a soldier bursting forth against him from ambush, and while he considers that he will soon die, he may fear to extend the delay of sin any further. There follows: (Verse 6.) "And Saul said to the Kenite: Depart, withdraw from the Amalekites, lest perhaps I destroy you together with him. For you showed mercy to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt."

13. Who is the Kenite, who is known to dwell with Amalek, and who is compelled to depart, lest he be equally entangled with him? But perhaps this is the one about whom the Apostle says: "Let the husband render to his wife what is due, and likewise the wife to her husband" (1 Cor. 7:3). The name also fits him, because "Kenite" is said to mean "possessing." These married persons, because they are bound by marriage, are not compelled to abandon everything. What then does it mean when it is said to the Kenite, "Depart from Amalek," unless that by these words all the foulness of obscenity among married persons is condemned? Indeed, those who are joined in the manner of harlots are united with Amalek. The teacher commands them to depart from Amalek when he strives to recall them to marital decency. As if to say: If you cannot contain yourselves from one another, let marriage be honorable for you, and the bed undefiled. Therefore, to depart from Amalek is for spouses to use one another not for the foulness of harlot-like obscenity, but for the temperance of decency and for the fruit of offspring. Hence the same excellent teacher says of the widow who cannot remain so according to his counsel: "But if she cannot contain herself, let her marry, only in the Lord" (ibid., 9). Not in Amalek, but in the Lord; so that she who cannot prevail to abstain from marriage may avoid obscene acts within the covenant of marriage. He also threatens, saying: "Lest I entangle you with him." To be entangled with sinners is to be condemned to eternal punishment. Hence the Lord also says of the wicked servant in the Gospel: "Bind his feet and hands, and cast him into outer darkness" (Matt. 22:13). Now therefore, preachers do not entangle reprobate hearers, because even if they despise the word, they can still return to repentance as long as they live, when they wish. Therefore, marital decency must be urgently commanded to married persons, because with a stern penalty it is said: "Go, depart without harm. Depart from Amalek, lest I entangle you with him." Without harm indeed one departs now, but not then, because those who are made entirely like the foul will not be free from their harm. He is also said to have shown mercy to the children of Israel when they were ascending from Egypt, because the weak children of holy Church, since they cannot preserve the good of perpetual continence, are received through the compassion of marriage. Indeed they ascend from Egypt, because they abandon the darkness of luxury and fornication. And they receive mercy from the Kenite, because they obtain the indulgence of marriage. Hence the teacher of the nations also says: "I say this by way of indulgence, not by way of command" (1 Cor. 7:6). And because holy Church persuades her chosen subjects of the good things she sets forth by speaking, there follows: (Verse 6.) And the Kenite departed from the midst of Amalek.

14. The spouse departs from the midst of Amalek, but cannot depart from the part, because even if one avoids the act of shameful conduct, one cannot avoid the inclination toward pleasure. For married couples can temper the fire through honorable conduct. They go out, therefore, from the midst of Amalek, because even if they cannot be entirely free from carnal desires, they nevertheless moderate the very dominion of the flesh under the bond of the precept of honorable conduct. There follows: (Verse 7.) And Saul struck Amalek from Havilah until you come to Shur, which is opposite Egypt.

15. Havilah is interpreted as "one who gives birth," Shur as "anguish," Egypt as "darkness." But concupiscence gives birth to sin. Rightly, therefore, concupiscence is designated by the name of "one who gives birth." The Prophet also, fearing to fall into the anguish of an impenitent heart, beseeches, saying: "Let not the deep swallow me up, neither let the pit shut its mouth upon me" (Psalm 68:16). The teacher, therefore, strikes Amalek from Havilah to Shur when he suppresses in the hearts of his hearers the vices of conceived delight and the resolve of deliberate choice. He also strikes Shur when he appears to draw to the love of chastity those minds which had purposed to end their life in the stench of lust. For those who, already captured, are bound by the snare of evil habit are in anguish. And it should be noted that Shur is shown to be opposite Egypt, because he who resolves to end his life in lust is even now enclosed in interior darkness, from which he will be led to exterior darkness. But let this book also be closed, so that we may come through silence to the consideration of what follows.

CHAPTER II.

1. King Saul, who had good beginnings but by no means persevered in the good things he had begun, is presented through the text of sacred History, so that in him we may see what is to be imitated and what is to be avoided. Thus indeed we also pick from badly cultivated fields, which rise up to harvest mixed with thorns. He truly knows how to gather well from them, who takes care to pick the ears of grain while striving to avoid the thorns. So when the care of a garden is neglected, along with the vegetable that refreshes there grows the weed that pricks. For it was as if the Lord was instructing His disciples to enter badly cultivated fields cautiously, when He said: "The princes and Pharisees have sat upon the seat of Moses. Whatever they tell you, do; but what they do, do not do" (Matt. 23:2). As if to say: Because the deeds and words of the wicked are mixed together, they must be used in such a way that what gives life is taken from them, and what kills is avoided. Hence again, foretelling, He says: "They will come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves" (Matt. 7:15). Up to this point, then, we have gladly attended to King Saul vigorously carrying out the care of the kingdom; now let us carefully examine in what respect he, as a despiser of the Lord's command, ought to be avoided and rejected. For the text continues: (Verses 8, 9.) "He captured Agag, king of Amalek, alive, but all the common people he slew with the edge of the sword. And Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best flocks of sheep, and of the herds, and the garments, and the rams, and all that was beautiful, and they were unwilling to destroy them. But whatever was vile and worthless, this they destroyed."

2. The Word of the Lord came: Now go, and strike Amalek, and destroy all that belongs to him. Do not spare him, and do not covet anything of theirs. He therefore plainly stood forth as a transgressor through disobedience, because he refused through pride to fulfill the command of the Lord. The Lord indeed commanded the prophet, saying: Do not spare him, and do not covet anything of his possessions. But this man is shown both to have spared and to have coveted all his choicest things: so that, while the manner of the transgression is shown, it might be demonstrated how detestable is the fault of disobedience.

3. But if we describe the wars of the flesh, we find that the falls of kings are great. Hence the Lord also says in the Gospel: "If the salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salted?" (Matt. 5:13). The kings of the Church are her preachers, as has already been shown above. Who then is Agag, king of Amalek, if not the carnal sense? For since we possess from the soul both rationality and sensuality, rationality is ascribed to the mind, sensuality to the flesh; and through the former we share kinship with the angels, through the latter with brute animals. In the former, the higher we are raised, the closer we draw to the heavenly citizens. But through the latter, the more we slide toward the enticements of the flesh, the more carnal, so to speak, we are found to be. Hence, when the daughters of men had already been seen and desired, and pleasures had already been fulfilled in luxury, concerning those who by the merit of purity were called sons of God, the Lord threatens in Genesis, saying: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, because he is flesh" (Gen. 6:3). For man becomes flesh when reason is subjugated to the carnal sense. The king of Amalek, therefore, is the vigor of the carnal sense, which commands through base impulses so as to drag captive reason toward the allurements of obscenity. And fittingly does the name of the Amalekite king suit the carnal sense. For Agag is interpreted as "meditating" or "speaking." To meditate, for him, is to gather the phantasms of wantonness through inner meditation. And to speak, for him, is to arouse the flesh through base impulses to lust. For he has, as it were, a great cry of speech, because by striking the flesh he stirs it more ardently. For by meditating he gathers what he sets forth by speaking: because everyone who is subject to the carnal sense, the more freely he beholds the images of wantonness within, the more powerful the motions of baseness he feels outwardly. He meditates, therefore, through the inner vision of baseness, but he speaks through the outward motion of pleasure. The king of Amalek is therefore called "speaking and meditating," because he can arouse the slippery enticements of the flesh in those whom he deceives through base thoughts, and whom he instructs through the experience of alluring sensation. But it should be noted that the more freely he meditates, the more freely he also speaks: because he stirs the flesh more powerfully the more he holds the causes of his agitation impressed within through thought. For in the manner of fire, the more attentively it is blown upon, the more it is kindled: because if the breath of impure thought is absent, the heat of lustful agitation cannot be present. The king of Israel therefore fights against the king of Amalek when a teacher of the Church argues against fornication. He captures the defeated one when he receives sinners converted to pardon not only as penitents but also as confessors. He therefore holds the king of Amalek already bound, as it were, who sees the carnal sense in converted sinners already subjected to reason through the love of chastity. But what does it mean that the bound one lives, except that there are some who are not moved by their own passions, but upon hearing of the obscenities of others, are moved? They are strong in fighting, but as victors they fall. For he who kept the conquered king alive clearly found pleasure in the person of the captured king in the triumph of that very war.

4. But what else do those do who receive the confession of sins from others? For while they think about what those confessing have done, they burn with desire toward the crimes they hear; for often while they hear the enticements with which others had overwhelmed themselves, they themselves begin to love what those others, now dying to such things through their exhortation, confess. Already therefore Agag has been defeated and captured in his own city, but he is preserved by the victor, when what is detested by the subjects is loved by the prelates: because carnal sense begins to flourish in those in whom it had lost the vigor of its wicked dominion among the others. And because while the pastors rush toward the precipice, the subjects follow along, the king is said to have taken Agag alive, but the same king, and the people subject to the same king, are recorded to have spared the best things of Amalek. For to spare is characteristic of an affected mind, out of love for that which it spares. This certainly befits the vice of lust: because as soon as it begins to please, it draws the mind into love of itself. Because its force is also vehement, it does not know how to remain stationary: because assuredly it quickly accomplishes its work, if the wakening mind does not quickly expel it from itself. For when it invades the mind, it spreads itself through innumerable thoughts of shameful things. Hence also both Saul and the people are rightly recorded to have spared the best of the flocks and herds. The thoughts of lusts are indeed called flocks and herds: because they are both innumerable and are fed in the reprobate heart by the contemplation of uncleanness. They are also the best, not by proof of goodness, but by the appetite of the one choosing them. For in the reprobate heart, because nothing is loved more dearly, they are called the best flocks, to which no others are compared. But they are called the best on account of the blindness of heart, and herds on account of the guilt of transgression. For to reprobate minds it is no great thing to think unclean thoughts; but before God it is no small thing to store unclean things in the temple of God, that is, in the regenerate spirit. He spares therefore not only the sheep, but also the herds: because he who through the love of lust regards the faults of uncleanness as though they were small, spares them as though they were small, but does not find the deserved punishments to be small. Moreover, by the name of sheep the lighter thoughts of lust can be understood, and by herds the stronger and more troublesome ones. The king and the people certainly spare these, when the reprobate teacher and his subjects are subjected to the vexations of unclean thought, both light and strong. But what is it to spare the garments, except for the already condemned mind to deliberate upon unclean things? For if the golden garment is the glory of the virgin bride, what are the garments of Amalek, except the foul defilements of lust? But they are called garments: because by their covering both soul and body are stained. For because the perpetration of lust defiles both soul and body, they are called not a garment, but garments. But, as I said, to spare is to deliberate, and to love unclean things through the affection of the mind. But the unhappy soul thus captured, thus ensnared, because it is driven by wondrous impulses to perpetrate its deliberated depravity, is rightly recorded, after the sheep, herds, and garments, to have spared also the rams. For as it were the horns of rams please it in the gentle blows of lusts, since it strives to retain in itself that one thing by which it may be pierced through to the death of uncleanness. He therefore spares the rams, who gladly receives the blows of his own headlong fall. For he is pricked, that he may serve the desires of his flesh; but that which pricks him sharply, delights him lightly. Because likewise lust entices the mind through innumerable modes of obscenity, they are recorded to have spared not only these named things, but all things that were beautiful. All things which the unclean soul is seen to fashion gladly for itself from the pleasure of lust are called the beautiful things of Amalek. For it could in no way desire these things, if their appearance did not violently please it.

5. But because the fall of the victors is asserted, it is said: 'Nor did they wish to destroy them.' As if to say: They could have destroyed them, if they had wished. For nothing is conquered more easily than lust, if every impure thought is avoided. Therefore it can be destroyed all the more easily, the more each person is able to think of things other than the pleasures of the flesh. For since we cannot imagine two things at the same time, while we think of something else, whatever it may be, we cannot think impure thoughts. Swift and easy, therefore, is the victory over lust through the watchfulness of thought: if, as often as carnal things present themselves, we turn to anything at all that is not an enticement of lust. This I would call easy for those who are standing, not easy for those who have fallen: because he who is made a slave of the impure spirit through the commission of sin can neither freely avoid thoughts of the flesh nor quickly turn to other thoughts. Therefore it is said of the victors: 'They did not wish to destroy them, though they could have,' because before the fall, sins are easily avoided by the free; but if they refuse to avoid them when they can, afterward they cannot even if they wish, because they cannot perfectly will it. To whom indeed Truth Himself says: 'If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed' (John 8:36). As if to say: Because you willingly ceased to be free, you no longer have in yourselves the power to attain freedom. But what does it mean that it is said: 'But whatever was vile and worthless, this they destroyed,' except that some, through the practice of greater pleasures, disdain the lesser ones? What is worthless and vile to them is what they despise by choosing those things that please them more. For because they seek more refined sins, they reject certain ones; and because they approve more precious sins, they consider the lesser ones cheap and small. Rightly therefore it is said: 'Whatever was vile and worthless, this they destroyed.' Because they choose more refined sins, and those that please them less they reject as unfit and despise as cheap.

6. All these things, understood morally, signify the battles and victories over lusts; but according to the historical sense, they designate the swelling pride of the arrogant and disobedient. For the command had been given to Saul by the Lord that he should so destroy Amalek that he would spare none of them and covet nothing. He who is therefore declared to have spared the king of Amalek and all the best things is openly shown to be proud and disobedient. But perhaps he despised the command because he heard it from the prophet, not from the Lord. Yet he certainly ought to have listened to the prophet in such a way as to heed the authority that the prophet set forth beforehand. For the prophet, about to command that he strike the king of Amalek, prefaced it by saying: "Thus says the Lord," so that Saul would not dare to despise the command he had heard through a man, as though it were merely a man's. Lest again the exalted king should treat his ministry with contempt, the prophet likewise prefaced it by saying: "The Lord sent me to anoint you as king." As if to say: The Lord commands you in your royal ministry through the same one through whom He raised you to the dignity of kingship. Therefore he ought to have obeyed all the more humbly, the more clearly he recognized that this man had been sent by God. But while he despised the prophet who was sent, he equally despised the Lord who sent him. Whence it adds: (Verses 10, 11.) "The word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying: I regret that I made Saul king, because he has abandoned me and has not fulfilled my words in deed."

7. He believed that he did not hear the words of the prophet, but the Lord complains that He has been abandoned, when He shows that His words have not been fulfilled in deed. Now the Lord speaks to the Church, saying: "He who hears you, hears me; and he who despises you, despises me" (Luke 10:16). Therefore, those who through disobedience depart from the word of preachers abandon the Lord, because they withdraw from those through whose ministry they are made present to the divine will. They do not then fulfill the words of the Lord in deed, because outwardly men speak, but inwardly God speaks in men. Therefore it is not they who speak, but the Holy Spirit (Matt. 10:20). In preachers, therefore, the outward lowliness of the flesh is not to be despised, whose minds the sublimity of the Godhead so graciously inhabits. What then does it mean that the Lord is said to repent, when He is not believed to be changed by emotions? But because supreme immutability speaks with mutable beings, after the manner of those with whom He speaks, when He is said to repent, it is indicated that the recklessness of the proud displeases Him. For we are accustomed to repent when those to whom we recall having bestowed honors or gifts repay us with evils. Because, therefore, almighty God complains after our manner about the ingratitude of the proud king, He is said to repent of having conferred royal dignity upon him. This is certainly said to the great increase of damnation for the proud: because what they are, they now are not for merit but for punishment, because they are not in the will of God. Therefore, for God to repent is to not have His will in the reprobate, when He remembers the honors He bestowed, but recognizes that those upon whom He conferred good things make evil use of the good things He conferred. Indeed, God intimates this repentance of His to the Jews in other words through the prophet Malachi, saying: "I have no pleasure in you, and I will not accept an offering from your hand" (Mal. 1:10). How greatly, therefore, we see the fault of disobedience must be guarded against, if we attend to how severely it is struck by these words of the Lord.

8. Now, in the war of Amalek we have described the battle against fornication, which is commanded through the sacred Scriptures to be utterly destroyed by us. Rightly, therefore, what the Lord complains of can be understood concerning teachers who have fallen in the war of the flesh, when He says: "It repents me that I have made Saul king, because he has forsaken me and has not fulfilled my words in deed." For His word is the commandment given to preachers: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning in your hands" (Luke 12:35). He, therefore, who has the word in preaching but does not have it in the girding of chastity is seen to be God's by speaking, but is proved to forsake God by his conduct. Outwardly he carries out divine things, but secretly, while he dissolves in the pleasure of the flesh, he is shown not to fulfill the Lord's words in deed. For he has forsaken the Lord by setting forth evil things; he does not fulfill His words by presuming to do what is forbidden. Rightly, therefore, it is said: "It repents me that I have made Saul king." As if He were saying: Him whom I then wished to rule over others, I now do not wish, because him whom I preferred when he was humble, I now see as a proud, haughty transgressor. This, indeed, is not said of any who have fallen whatsoever, but of those whose fall is manifest and whose repentance is in no way foreseen. For concerning the fall of the righteous it is written: "The righteous man falls seven times a day and rises again" (Proverbs 24:16). Their fall is in a certain way their standing, because they are sometimes permitted to fall so that they may always be able to stand more firmly. They are permitted to stumble into evils lest they lose the highest gifts of virtues through pride. These, indeed, even if they sometimes do not fulfill the Lord's words, do not depart from the Lord, because they are abandoned for a time so that they may be held eternally; and they are foolish in a small matter, but after a little while they come to their senses. When, therefore, Saul is reproved not only for not fulfilling the Lord's words in deed but for having forsaken the Lord Himself, whom does he signify better than those who have fallen and are impenitent? Of whom, indeed, it is said through the prophet: "They have struck a covenant with death and with hell" (Isaiah 28:15). To strike a covenant with death is to perpetrate evils boldly and to promise to do them always. For they commit evils unceasingly, but by loving what they do, they pledge themselves, as it were, never to withdraw from friendship with death. The more insensible these become in their covenant with death, the more sharply the heart of mother Church is shaken with compassion. Whence it is well added: (Verse 11.) "And Samuel was grieved, and he cried out to the Lord all night long."

9. Samuel indeed is saddened, because the chief preacher is afflicted over the perdition of his subject. And he cries out to the Lord all night, because he beseeches the divine mercy with devoted prayers for the restoration of the fallen one. For the teacher to cry out is to implore the mercy of almighty God with great longings for the sins of his subjects. He who cries out all night takes upon himself through compassion the entire darkness of that sin, and makes satisfaction to God as a penitent for it, as though for his own crime. Therefore, for the preacher to cry out all night is to take up the entire cause of his subject and to strive to destroy all the darkness of that sin through the affection of devout compunction. But what does it mean that he is said to have cried out and the Lord not to have answered, except that the darkness of an impenitent heart, which I have mentioned, is signified in the fault of Saul, for whom he cries out? The Lord would indeed have answered if He had heard the voice of the one crying out. There follows: (Verse 12.) And when Samuel had risen in the night to go to Saul in the morning, it was reported to Samuel that Saul had come to Carmel and had erected for himself a triumphal arch.

10. What is the life of a sinner, if not night? And what is the light of the just, other than day? Whence also through Paul it is said to converted sinners: 'You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord' (Eph. 5:8). But for the preacher to rise by night is to raise up the affection of the mind from the taking on of another's fault. For the teacher lies, as it were, in the night when he mourns the darkness of another's sin, because he is brought down from the lofty security of his own innocence, so that in the depths the darkness of sins in the consideration of another may be destroyed. He therefore rises by night when he raises himself from affliction, and arranges to come to the guilty one in the morning, because he laments secretly through compassion and strikes with open rebuke through zeal. The teacher also mourns by night, but comes in the morning to reprove, because inwardly he loves the sinning subject, but is by no means ashamed to reprove the one erring openly. For it is as though morning dawns when the teacher begins to lay open the crime that lies hidden. What then does it mean that the one to whom he came is said to have come to Carmel and to have erected a triumphal arch for himself, except that the advance of evil is clearly proclaimed? Indeed, after the fault of disobedience, to erect a triumphal arch or structure is to do evil deeds and to take pride in the perpetration of those same evils. For they raise, as it were, triumphal signs when with a certain ostentation they bring forth those things by which they think they excel others. This certainly applies to teachers who are arrogant as well as to those who are dissolute. The former indeed, while they speak great things, raise themselves to the height of esteem, and what they see themselves to be within, they make known outwardly through boasting and ostentation. And when they draw even that which others accomplish on their own to the favor of their own praise, what else do they seem to do but display a lofty sign of victory with a notable inscription? But some both live shamefully and speak most honorably; they consider the dignity of their words, yet do not reckon the baseness of their own life. When therefore they desire to appear not by the substance of works but by the splendor of words, they assuredly construct a triumphal arch in which they exalt themselves as if victors. And because by the word of the shameful, many other shameful ones come to their senses, after Amalek has been conquered, for them to come to Carmel and erect a triumphal arch is to glory vainly before the simple over the lust that has been extinguished in their subjects. Carmel indeed is interpreted as "soft" or "tender." For who are understood by this name of "tender," except those who are unformed in holy conduct? And who are called "soft," except those who have not yet been made firm in their begun goodness through the practice of virtue? Therefore in Carmel they raise a sign of victory, because they display themselves to the unformed and weak, lest they be found out by the experienced and strong for what they truly are.

11. For these men seek the splendor of victory not in words but in works, because they judge trees not by the beauty of their leaves but test them by the flavor of their fruits. Whence the Lord also, teaching, says: 'By their fruits you shall know them' (Matt. 7:20). Because, therefore, they desire to be praised in vain, because they flee the judgments of the most proven men, and to the unskilled and weak they falsely represent themselves as being other than what they are, Saul is said to have come to Carmel and to have erected a triumphal arch for himself. But what does it mean that he passes on to Gilgal, except that in the same manner in which he displays himself to the simple and religious, he desires to become known among the religious and learned? For Gilgal, as I have already said many times, means "wheel." But some within the holy Church are learned in Sacred Scripture yet are not religious, because they do not possess the power of Scripture, namely charity. When these hear eloquent and carnal men speaking, they admire the words they recognize. But they cannot examine their hidden qualities, which they do not know. Rightly therefore Saul is said to pass on to Gilgal, because those who seek favor from eloquent speech find what they desire not among the learned and religious, but among the simple and unskilled, or among the irreligious wise. But great men, when the reprobate teach good things, fear all the more for the elect subject to them—lest those whom they build up by their tongue, they corrupt by their hand, that is, by their conduct. Because, therefore, slippery teachers are not to be left long in the ministry of preaching, it is fittingly added: (Verse 12.) 'Samuel therefore came to Saul, and Saul was offering a burnt offering to the Lord, the first-fruits of the spoils which he had brought from Amalek.'

12. He came indeed to Saul, to cast down the proud man whom he had raised up as a humble man to the height of the kingdom. He found him as he truly was, not as he had shown himself by the signs of his pride. What then does it mean that he offers the firstfruits of Amalek as a holocaust to the Lord, except that some both live wickedly and think they please God through the advancement of others? And because they believe that what they offer pleases God in no small measure, they are said to offer not a sacrifice or a victim, but a holocaust. They are called the firstfruits of the spoils so that in Samuel the watchful zeal of the highest and chosen priest may be indicated, by whom the beginnings of evils are swiftly suppressed. As if to say: He came in great haste, in whose absence not even the beginning of the holocausts could be freely undertaken. The firstfruits of the spoils can be understood as the choicest things from the plunder. These the slippery offer with open mouth but struck with hidden blindness, when they believe they please God by destroying in their hearers what they allow to live in themselves. As if more openly reproving one who offers indiscriminately, he says: He was offering alive what he would have offered better slain. For if according to the words of the Lord he had destroyed all the spoil in Amalek, he would have offered a wholly acceptable holocaust to almighty God. So indeed the slippery teacher too, if he rejected by willing all the enticements of the flesh that he condemns by speaking, would burn a holocaust that could not be rejected. What then does it mean that it says he was offering the firstfruits of the spoils that he had brought from Amalek, except that the darkness of a blind heart is condemned, because it so esteems what benefits others that it neglects to see what harms itself? As if to say: He rejoiced over that as a victor—a victor in others—which he carried alive and unconquered in himself. And because for the most part they rage so madly that they even attempt to offer a pretext of virtue to the very elect and highest preachers. There follows: (Verse 13.) And when Samuel had come to Saul, Saul said: Blessed are you by the Lord; I have fulfilled the word of the Lord.

13. The word of the Lord was that he should have destroyed Amalek. But what does it mean that he says, "I have fulfilled the word of the Lord," unless that the sin of fornication, the more shameful it is perceived to be, the more carefully it is concealed by the reprobate? Because therefore those who are subject to this same vice of fornication always desire to remain hidden, in their type Saul both disdained to demolish Amalek and said to Samuel: "I have fulfilled the word of the Lord." As if to say: Both in other matters I have subdued lust, and in myself I have destroyed its enticements. And because he strives to bend the mind of the great man with flattering adulation, he first said: "Blessed are you by the Lord." As if to say: This indeed I have done, but I was able to do it not by my own strength, but by your merits and intercessions. But perfect men can hear their own praises, yet cannot be bent from the rigor of justice. Wherefore it is also added: (Verse 14.) And Samuel said: "And what is this voice of flocks that resounds in my ears, and of herds, which I hear?"

14. The voice of the flocks and herds of Amalek is the report of shameful deeds. When anyone is defamed for lesser sins of indulgence, the voice of the flocks is said to resound. When likewise one is accused of more criminal and more obscene things, it is the voice of the herds. As if he lays bare what was hidden under the pretense of his false virtue, saying: You justify yourself with your own mouth, but the crowds of your uncleannesses cry out through the mouths of all. But now let us see by what defenses he who has begun to put forward excuses may escape the charge of the infamy brought against him. There follows: (Verse 15.) They brought them from Amalek. The people spared the best sheep and herds, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; the rest we have slain.

15. What does it mean that he says: "They brought them from Amalek," and did not say, "We brought them"? But when the reprobate are accused, they sometimes conceal their faults by denying them, and sometimes transfer them to others. They conceal them by denying, when they can remain hidden; but when they are caught, as it were, in the open, what they cannot deny they ascribe to others. Indeed, Saul, displaying the ways of such people, says: "They brought them from Amalek. The people spared the best of the sheep and the herds." As if to say: The evil that is heard of should be weighed against the frailty of the people, not against the virtue of the pastor. Indeed, the sins of subjects should be disregarded in comparison with those of prelates. He says therefore: "They brought them from Amalek." As if to say: What resounds about a shameful life is true, but nevertheless that same shamefulness flourished among the little ones, not among the great. Again, still softening the same fault, he says: "The people spared the best of the sheep and the herds, to sacrifice them to the Lord your God." As if to say: The people truly sinned, but not unto death; because the sins of their deeds they now strive, at my exhortation, to blot out through the humility of confession. For the flocks and herds of Amalek are sacrificed to the Lord when the wayward and incontinent come to confession and hasten to blot out by repentance what they have wickedly done. He says therefore: "The people spared"; that is, indulged in sin. "But they brought them to be sacrificed"; because in those matters in which the people recall having fallen, they are now pierced with compunction through confessing and doing penance. The better flocks and herds, as above, designate the choicer sins of lust. As if to say: Even if the people sinned gravely, we ought not to be reproached, because in proportion to the magnitude of the crime they have lamentations of compunction. What does it mean that he says: "To sacrifice them to the Lord your God"? But by this the habit of the deceitful is shown, who, when they seek to hide from great men, resort to flattery. For what does it mean that he claims God is singularly his, except that he shows him to be a familiar friend of God? "To the Lord," he says, "your God." Not mine, but yours; because I am a sinner, you are singularly holy. But with a marvelous practice of fraud, the deceitful so conceal themselves as to reveal, and so justify as to accuse. They also temper the manner of accusation so that by accusing they appear just, lest by excusing they become known. For when he calls God his, he indeed exalts him and diminishes himself. But when he asserts that what was brought from Amalek is to be sacrificed to the Lord, he tacitly brings forth not that for which he ought to be reproached, but praised. And still adding more, he says: "But the rest we destroyed." Indeed, sins that are forgiven are slain. Living sins are those that either still reign in the mind through concupiscence, or those that, though despised through conversion, have not yet been blotted out through penance. The former still live for pleasure, the latter live for punishment; because even if we have now ceased to sin, unless we bewail what we have committed, we are held bound by the obligation of what was committed. But he attributes the greater sins to the lesser people, and the lighter sins to the greater. For what does it mean when he says, "The rest we destroyed," except that there are very small sins among the greater ones, which are washed away by confession alone? These the teachers destroy when, to those who humbly confess, they remit them by apostolic authority. To all these words—because the deceitful strive to conceal themselves, not to expose themselves—there is added the authority of the elect preachers by which they are reproved: (Verse 16.) For Samuel said to Saul: "Allow me, and I will tell you what the Lord has spoken to me this night."

16. What does it mean when he says: "Let me alone, and I will tell you," unless that while deceitful men persist in verbosity, they do not grant their examining superiors an opportunity to speak? As if to say: While you do not cease from verbosity, you do not permit me to say the things you ought to hear. By this word the intention of the flatterer can also be mocked; for while he believes he is pleasing through the blandishment of praise, he supposes that those whom he praises are, as it were, held fast by those same praises. It is therefore as if the chosen leader were to mock his praiser with honorable gravity, saying: You who praise me—I cannot speak harsh things to you. Let me alone, therefore, that is, permit me to speak, and understand the things I am about to say. And because, as I said, flatterers believe they are pleasing by praising, they by no means expect to hear harsh things from those whom they praise. Therefore, as if about to hear joyful and favorable things, Saul follows up, saying: "Speak." But chosen men, when they hear their own praises, do not grow soft from the rigor of justice amid the encouragements of praise. For those who despise the deeds of the reprobate can by no means accept their words. Because, therefore, they cannot be bent by praises, they both examine dishonest flatterers with subtle reasoning and pursue them with stern judgments. Whence it follows: (Verses 17–19.) And Samuel said: "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not made the head among the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel; and the Lord sent you on a mission and said: Go, slay the sinners of Amalek, and you shall fight against them until their utter destruction. Why then did you not listen to the voice of the Lord, but turned to the spoil and did evil in the eyes of the Lord?"

17. By these words, the disobedience of the proud king is subtly examined: because he first sets before him the gifts that were bestowed, then strikes at the audacity of his transgression through a careful investigation of that same fault. For it is a subtle examination when a crafty sinner is so scrutinized that no excuse for his guilt is left to him, so that God's sentence holds him bound, as it were, to the death of his crime, since no refuge from sin remains for him. Therefore, so that every way of escape may be blocked for the deceitful and proud, both the loftiness of his dignity and the manner of his ministry are recalled to him, when he says: 'Were you not, when you were little in your own eyes, made the head among the tribes of Israel? And the Lord said to you: Destroy the sinners of Amalek.' And so that, now surrounded and besieged by these arguments, he might catch him, he lays upon him the hand of guilt, saying: 'Why then did you not hear the voice of the Lord, but turned to the spoil and did evil in the sight of the Lord?' As if to say: Behold what you were, what you were made, what you ought to have done; behold what you have done; behold how far you have departed from what you ought to have carried out. Therefore, when he pressed further, saying: 'Why did you do evil in the eyes of the Lord?' he seized the deceitful defendant, as it were, by surrounding him on every side.

18. But in this passage it should be noted that, while the proud king is rebuked, the times of his election are recalled, so that the swelling of his heart may be perceived not to have been present at his choosing, but to have grown from the eminence of his office. He was indeed chosen as a good man by the Lord, but while he grew from his high position, he declined through pride. Therefore He says: 'When you were little in your own eyes, you were made head among the tribes of Israel'; now, turned to plunder, 'you have done evil in the eyes of the Lord.' As if to say: Through the truth of humility you merited the kingdom, but now, humble in pretense yet swollen in truth, you are losing the kingdom. For what are the eyes of the heart, if not the gaze of reason? For he who has unimpaired sight of reason is perfectly illuminated. He is therefore humble in his own eyes who perfectly examines himself and recognizes himself as humble with perfect vision. By these words, then, not only the past humility of the fallen king is commended, but also the keenness of his reason: because he was so great in reason that he knew himself perfectly, and so great in virtue that, examining himself closely, he truly saw himself as humble. Since, therefore, when he is rebuked his past qualities are recalled, what else is described but that he lacks the things he once had? For none can become proud unless they first lose the eyes of the heart. Concerning the lustful, the matter is even more plainly evident: they would never plunge themselves into the abyss of fornication if they had not first grown dim to the light of inward glory. Because they despise the lofty precepts of chastity, they are also convicted of pride. He who had come to depose the king from his office therefore says: 'When you were little in your own eyes, you were made head among the tribes of Israel; now you have done evil in the eyes of the Lord.' As if to say: Proud now and blind, you are justly deposed, you who formerly, seeing and humble, deserved to obtain the kingdom. For the proud Pharisees too are called blind by the Truth itself, who says to the disciples: 'Let them alone; they are blind, and leaders of the blind' (Matt. 15:14). This blindness is especially ascribed to the lustful, because there are no vices that cast thicker darkness upon the mind than lust. But now you may see many who stood firm as clerics fall once they became priests. To these, certainly, through the command of Samuel it is said: 'When you were little in your own eyes, you were made head among the tribes of Israel.' As if to say: When in a lesser rank you kept the precepts of chastity with an illuminated heart; now, having lost your eyes, you have fallen into the abyss of fornication. You have turned to plunder, because you have broken the divine precepts by violent presumption. For since they burst in to violate the sanctuary of chastity while God forbids, and stands armed, as it were, with threats and blocking the way, they lead, as if through the plunder of spoil, Amalek's chosen things into the Lord's land. And because the unchaste hide themselves from preachers as much as they can, Saul is rebuked for having done evil in the sight of the Lord. As if a preacher, threatening and terrifying one who has fallen into carnal pleasure, should say: The crime of impurity is indeed hidden from men, but it is not concealed from Him who sees all things. When the impenitent hear these and similar words, they can by no means be terrified. Hence, even though they are already caught by reasoning, like serpents they strive to slip away through their slipperiness from the hands of those who hold them. They put forth the tail and hide the head: because the outward results of their deeds are now visible, but the true quality of those same actions is concealed. Whence it also follows: (Verse 20.) 'And Saul said to Samuel: On the contrary, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and I have walked in the way by which the Lord sent me, and I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have destroyed Amalek.'

19. For as if concealing his own hidden faults while bringing forth the exposed faults of others, the slippery teacher commends himself on the success of his preaching, saying: I ought not to be rebuked for the fault of my subjects, but rather praised, since I have destroyed it in the offenders by preaching. I struck Amalek: because the spirit of fornication fell by the sword of my tongue in the hearts of my hearers. The king, even if he lives, has been brought captive: because even if the sense of the flesh, as long as we are in the flesh, cannot be entirely destroyed, it has been captured, as it could be captured, because it cannot prevail over reason. Eager to show that his subjects themselves have been corrected and are confessing their sins, he added, saying: (Verse 21.) But the people took from the spoil sheep and oxen, the firstfruits of those things which were slain, to sacrifice to the Lord their God in Gilgal.

20. When something belonging to someone is taken away by the violence of armed men, it is called plunder. But the vices of the flesh and soul, because they are propagated at the devil's suggestion, are as it were his own property. Whoever therefore, recently lax within himself but now violent, destroys vices, takes plunder; because he powerfully seizes what belongs to another. And it should be noted that both slaughter and plunder are mentioned, so that it may be taught that some things are left behind dead while others are carried away alive. Indeed, the pleasures of lust are slain when they are driven from the heart by the power of heavenly intention and cut away from the body by contrition of spirit. But they are brought alive for sacrifice; because even if by the conversion of the sinner the delight of the flesh or mind is abandoned, the punishment of past delight is not entirely destroyed. Let vices therefore be slain, and let the living firstfruits by no means be kept from sacrifice: so that he who powerfully destroys the force of sin in contempt of pleasures may fear that the punishment of delight remains alive for him to sacrifice. What then are the firstfruits of the slain, if not the delights of sins? He is said to offer these who confesses before God to the priests. And the offerings are sacrificed when their punishment is destroyed through repentance. For they are, as it were, offered slain as firstfruits, yet live on through what follows: when someone confesses sins but does not strive to sacrifice them, that is, to slay them before God, through repentance. Therefore, when the firstfruits of the slain are said to be reserved for sacrifice, the error of certain people is confounded—those who abandon sins but do not nevertheless bewail them. Because therefore sins must not only be confessed but also destroyed by the severity of penance, while Saul feigns the figure of a good teacher, he asserts that his subjects brought the firstfruits of the slain to be sacrificed. Because the measure of penance must also be determined by the reasoning of the Scriptures, the firstfruits to be sacrificed are brought to Gilgal. Moreover, not only oxen but also sheep are kept for sacrifice: so that those who are concerned about their salvation may strive to destroy great sins through repentance in such a way that they do not neglect to bewail lesser ones. But concerning the proud it is clear: because, while they always desire to appear great, they are ashamed to be marked as sinners. Even when caught they resist, and they desire to appear just even in those things which they do. What then does it mean that he says: "Indeed, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord"? But Samuel says: "Let me alone, and I will tell you what the Lord spoke to me in the night." And after a little: "Why have you turned to the plunder, and done evil before the eyes of the Lord?" It is clear therefore how wondrously swollen with pride is he who seeks to justify himself at the very time when he recognizes that the Lord is rebuking him for sin.

21. But if he is believed to have responded thus because he thought the words were the prophet's, not the Lord's, but the prophet's, we still see imitators of Saul who, while trusting in their own learning, both despise through pride the commands of their superiors that they hear, and believe they can improve them by changing them. What then does he mean when he says: "Indeed I heard the voice of the Lord, and I brought Agag the king of Amalek"? But it is as if he were saying: Both what was commanded I strove to fulfill, and what was lacking I supplied. It was necessary that Amalek be struck down; but because, with God's help, he is conquered, it was fitting to supplement this by preserving what could be offered in sacrifice to Him. This clearly appears in the proud: because when they cannot conceal open fault, they attempt to alter or diminish it. As if to say: Even if you judge the open faults of the deed, the hidden simplicity of intention ought to be considered. It would indeed be a fault to bring anything from Amalek, unless what was brought ought to be sacrificed to God. This indeed often happens in monasteries, when any overly devout subject presumes to add to the commands of spiritual superiors; when he despises the common regular life and follows the judgment of his own will. For while he strives to improve his life by choosing rather than by obeying, what else is shown but that he colors open disobedience with the appearance of virtue? Indeed, not only subjects but also superiors ought to examine this matter carefully. Subjects ought to note carefully that Saul displeased God because he attempted to sacrifice to God contrary to the prophet's command. Let superiors note carefully that the prophet gave the king the command to destroy Amalek. For thus a teacher ought to praise the common life without despising the particular gifts of individuals. That common life indeed is praised which is joined by charity and is not darkened by intervening vices. The Apostle's judgment is: "Each one has his own gift from God, one indeed in this way, another in that way" (1 Cor. 7:7). Those, therefore, whose food and table are common ought to attend not only to the common good of refreshment but to the particular nature of their struggle: so that they eat together, but do not equally contend to fight against the stings of fornication through abstinence. For his flesh must be subdued more whose thorn of the flesh is more troublesome. Therefore the common life is no longer merely to be stirred up where the community of meals is observed, but each is said to fight individually against his individual battle. Nor does a teacher command well if he does not command that by which Amalek is struck down, but rather that by which he lives. Therefore let the teacher command, but so that the spirit of fornication may be overcome. Let subjects not refuse to obey, but only where the crime of pride is incurred, not where the abyss of death is avoided. But the disobedient, while with swelling heart they fail to carry out the commands of their superiors, when they attempt to improve what is enjoined upon them, while they desire to offer their own works to God, they destroy themselves. For through other virtues we render Him what is ours; through obedience we offer Him ourselves. Therefore Samuel adds, saying: (Verse 22.) "Does God desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord be obeyed?"

22. For what are the good works of the elect but sacrifices and burnt offerings? Since therefore the Lord had commanded burnt offerings and sacrifices to be offered through the law, what does it mean that the Lord is said not to want burnt offerings and sacrifices, yet promises that He wants to be obeyed, unless that those things which are done apart from obedience are not burnt offerings and sacrifices? As if to say: Good works are then good when they do not disagree with the judgment of those set over them. But if this is said in order to commend the virtue of obedience, it is clear how sublime a good it is, which surpasses sacrifices and offerings. What then does it mean that He wills obedience to the voice of the Lord, unless that all good works must be set below those goods which are commanded? For when superiors rightly command, the goods which subjects choose of their own judgment are set below the commands of their superiors. Those very works set below them are called burnt offerings and sacrifices, so that not only may the small works of inferiors be perceived as not to be compared with the commands of superiors, but the greatest burnt offerings indeed belong to those who wish to withdraw themselves entirely from public work, so as to offer themselves wholly consumed by love to God in the secret of contemplation. Sacrifices belong to those who by no means separate themselves from the common public life, but act with singular virtue, so as to surpass the virtues of others by living more strictly. These things indeed, and things of this kind, when they are done with the permission of good rulers, are sacrifices and burnt offerings which God approves; but when they are done in such a way that through them the commands of superiors are neglected, let those who offer hear what the prophet sent by the Lord says to the disobedient king: Does God desire burnt offerings and sacrifices, and not rather that the voice of the Lord be obeyed? As if to terrify those who despise the commands of their fathers as lesser things, and present their own as greater, saying: Because you think you do something great, you despise what is small and lowly; but if you see clearly, through this you do not please the Lord. And rightly, while the work of the proud is examined, the prophet keenly inquires, saying: Does God desire burnt offerings and sacrifices, and not rather that the voice of the Lord be obeyed? He inquires indeed so that the swelling of pride may be struck by pastoral authority. He says: Does God desire burnt offerings and sacrifices? Because those who choose to follow their own will think they please God; but God by no means approves their works, even when they are great and mighty. But now he added with what praises obedience ought to be proclaimed, and said: (Verse 22.) For obedience is better than sacrifices, and to hearken is more than to offer the fat of rams.

23. For since he said above: "Does God desire holocausts and victims?" does he not subject both to the praises of obedience, so that when he set forth victims and the fat of rams, he understood the holocaust in the fat? Whatever is better is certainly better than something good. But those holocausts and victims which God does not want are by no means good. What, then, does it mean when it is said in praise of obedience, "Obedience is better than victims, and to hearken than to offer the fat of rams," unless that obedience is then better when the holocaust and victim is not evil? As if, therefore, he brings back the proud and disobedient to the consideration of so great a good, saying: Even if nothing were done by you through presumption, the virtue of obedience would be better than the works you choose. It is clear, therefore, on what summit it is placed, which the prophet saw as higher than divine oblations. But if, as above, we follow the spiritual sense, victims are to be referred to the austerity of a great way of life, and holocausts to the compunction of a more secluded life. For obedience is better than victims, and to hearken is more than to offer the fat of rams. Because it is of far higher merit always to subject one's own will to another's will than to wear down the body with great fasts, or to slay oneself through compunction in a more secret sacrifice. For what is the fat of rams but the rich and interior devotion of the elect? He therefore offers the fat of rams who, in the pursuit of a secret way of life, possesses the affection of devout prayer. Nevertheless, obedience is better than victims, and than to offer the fat of rams. Because he who has perfectly learned to fulfill the will of his superior excels in the heavenly kingdom both those who abstain and those who weep. Certainly, because he says this against one who is proud and openly contemning the Lord's commandments, he does not compare the good that he did with the good that he despised; but he destroys the pretense of good by showing the truth of a better good. As if he were saying: Even if you were seeking an excellent good for the more excellent glory of virtues, you ought rather to have chosen the good of obedience, which excels even excellent things. Speaking thus, he indeed destroys the pretense of good by argumentation; but by adding what follows, he openly confounds the parent evil of disobedience, saying: (Verse 23.) "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as the wickedness of idolatry."

24. What is it that those who resist and refuse to comply are likened by the prophet to diviners and idolaters, except that diviners strove to know divine things and to divine hidden matters, while idolaters subjected themselves to figments by venerating them? But those who resist the commands of their superiors resist precisely because they judge that they know the divine will better. To resist is therefore like the sin of divination: because, as if despising the divine altar, they receive responses at the altars of demons, when they trust in the deceitful and proud inventions of their own heart, and oppose by contrary thinking the salutary counsels of their superiors. To refuse to comply, moreover, is said to be like the crime of idolatry; because surely no one would persist in the obstinacy of his disobedience if he did not carry in his heart the figment of his own purpose as though it were an idol. For when he conceives in his heart what he intends to do, he makes, as it were, an idol, and when he resolves that he will carry out the purpose conceived in his mind, he bows down, as it were, to adore a graven image. To refuse to comply is therefore like the crime of idolatry: because whoever is obstinate in his own resolve is raised up outwardly in contempt of his superiors precisely because inwardly he is bowed down to the graven images of his own purpose which he has established by his own devising. But it must be carefully asked why resisting is compared to the sin of divination, and refusing to comply to the crime of idolatry. For "crime" is used only of a great sin, while "sin" is the term used even for what is slight; but if diviners were so called from "altar," because they were accustomed to receive responses by consulting, the sin of idolatry was a crime in comparison with it, because it was more insane to worship stones than to receive false responses about how to live well under the guise of divine things. Why then is resisting said by comparison to be a sin, while refusing to comply is called a crime? But to resist is to dissent from the will of one who commands. Many indeed seem to resist for a time, when they do not immediately accept the commands of their superiors, yet after a little while they comply with those same commands. But to refuse to comply—what is it but both to resist an enjoined obedience and to persist in the obstinacy of that very resistance? For those do not comply who are unconquerable in their heart's resolve and who omit nothing of what they determine to do on account of anyone's authority. Rightly therefore, in comparison with resisting, refusing to comply is called a crime, because it appears to be a far greater and more horrible sin. Because, then, those who are of this sort are not overcome by reasoning, the prophet added what punishment should restrain them, saying: (Verse 23.) Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king.

25. For what does it mean that Saul is cast off, except that he is judged incorrigible? It is as if He were saying: Because you reject all counsels of salvation, for the guilt of obstinacy you ought no longer to be corrected by words, but condemned with the punishment of rejection. How greatly the guilt of disobedience ought to be feared is shown, if one considers attentively that on account of it even kings are deposed. What does it mean when he says: "Because you have cast away the word of the Lord, the Lord has cast you away"? But the word is cast away when it is not reverently preserved in its sublimity; for to cast away is to let something slip from the hand to the ground, whether through negligence or through violent throwing. Now the word of the Lord, because it speaks salutary things, is heavenly or sublime; it is negligently cast to the ground when through sloth it is not fulfilled. But it is cast away through contempt when the proud and disobedient repel it with swelling heart and disdain to observe it with the hand of action. But because he is reproved not for casting away but for rejecting the word, this signifies that while the proud follow their own will, they become far from the Lord. For to reject is to repel something far away. For those who worthily undertake the guidance of others are not only near to God through obedience, but also make those near to Him who through vices and crimes are far from Him. It is therefore as if He were saying: You are expelled far from the order of dignity, because you were unwilling to be present to the merit of that same dignity. For the merit of dignity is the observance of the divine word. When this is rejected, because the merit of dignity is lost, the dignity itself is also removed. It is fitting, then, to observe how much the proud lose through disobedience, and how much the humble gain. The former, while they rejoice in fulfilling the judgment of their own will, offer God great labors of works, yet have no rewards for their labors; the latter, while they abandon themselves, while they follow the judgment of another's will, earn the glory of eternal sublimity; whence also through the most blessed Mary, Mother of the Lord our Redeemer, it is said: "He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble" (Luke 1:52). Indeed the Lord puts down the mighty from their seat when He casts off the disobedient proud, and He exalts the humble, because He glorifies the obedient with eternal glory. But words do not correct the proud; rather, only while they tremble at losing their honors do they feign the humility they do not possess, lest they lose the summit of glory; whence it is added: (Verse 24.) And Saul said to Samuel: "I have sinned, because I have transgressed the words of the Lord and your words."

26. What does it mean that Saul is rebuked by the prophet for not having heard the voice of the Lord and for having done evil in His eyes, and yet he does not at all confess that he has sinned; but when he sees himself rejected from the kingdom, he confesses that he has sinned and transgressed the word of the Lord and His commands? It is because the proud are bold in despising the words of the humble, yet they cannot, in the manner of the elect, despise the honors they covet. They are indeed bold enough to scorn the commands of their superiors, but they are not prepared to relinquish high positions. On the contrary, the humble are ready to obey the commands of their superiors and secure in losing high positions. For since they desire not earthly but heavenly things, they despise the heights of earthly exaltation, they strive to labor for heavenly things; they willingly submit, and they shrink from being placed above others. Saul, therefore, refusing to obey God yet fearing to lose the kingdom—what else does he show us but the character of the proud, who, when they prevail, avoid being seen as lowly or as sinners, but when they are compelled, feign the virtue of humility? But when, under compulsion, they confess, they diminish by their words the sin they accuse. For although he declared that he had sinned by transgressing the word of the Lord, he recalled that he had incurred that same transgression by necessity rather than by will, saying: 'I feared the people and obeyed their voice.' As if to say: The sin for which I am rebuked ought to be struck with a lighter punishment, inasmuch as it was committed not through malice but through weakness. Now, to sin by deliberate purpose and will is a great transgression; but to sin through weakness is the more tolerable, the more the one who lies subject to the sin is unequal to the forces of that same sin. And because by the same craftiness of their heart they suppose themselves to prevail over the humility of simple teachers, he added, as if already having persuaded: (Verse 25) 'But now, I pray, bear my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.'

27. Correctable sins are indeed borne, because after they depart from the will of the one who committed them, they can be wholesomely purged through satisfaction. But the sins of those in whose minds they have become ingrained through impenitence are not borne. Whence John also says: "There is a sin unto death; I do not say that one should pray for that" (1 John 5:16). A sin unto death is that which is committed by one who can never come to his senses. This sin is assuredly not borne by superiors, because it is not wiped away by the prayers or offerings of priests. But Saul, representing in all things the proud and obstinate, does not cease to swell with pride, and yet begs that his sin be borne; he heaps up an unbearable burden, and asks that it be carried as though it were light. This indeed happens as often in the Church as those who willingly commit great crimes fail to consider their magnitude. They gather up unbearable things, and reckon them to be trivial and of no weight. They hide their sins from their superiors, and so that they can scarcely be discovered and rebuked, they minimize those same sins as much as they can, lest those who preside over them recognize their enormity. They are also strong for sinning, but weak for weeping over their sins; they want to be dissolved in the pleasures of sin, but they refuse to be purged by the bitterness of penance. What then does it mean when he says, "Bear my sin," except that they receive the sweetness of sins in themselves, but want to burden their prelates with the weight of those same sins? Some even come voluntarily to confess, but they themselves do not mourn for the things of which they accuse themselves; instead they beg others to do penance, they think they are saved by faith alone, and they do not care to return through penance once they have been cast down. Whence Saul also adds, saying: "And return with me, that I may worship the Lord." For the preacher is, as it were, departing when he rejects the shameless; therefore he says: "Return with me, that I may worship the Lord." He thinks that he is not divided from the communion of the elect solely because he preserves the common faith; or certainly, to worship the Lord is to submit oneself to the discipline of faith and the keeping of good works. But because Saul represents feigning hypocrites, there follows: (Verse 26.) Samuel said to Saul: "I will not return with you, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king."

28. What then does it mean that the prophet refused to bear the sin of the penitent king, except that he saw him not truly penitent? To whom he first responded with those words of rejection, because he recognized that the king would by no means be changed. By this steadfastness of the prophet, certain overly lenient priests of this present time are reproved, who are weak in their conduct yet bold in their recklessness. They can scarcely sustain themselves, yet dare to take up the burdens of others to be carried; they do not bear their own light burdens, yet subject themselves to unbearable ones. Behold, the mighty prophet fled from taking up the burden of the king's sin, so that the priest of the Church may fear and dread to undergo the weight of unbearable sins. For the most part, however, let him so take up the sins of others that he nevertheless permits the one by whom they were committed to weep over those sins he undertakes to expiate. Hence Samuel by no means promised to bear the king's sin, yet he mourned for him whom he had declared rejected. For concerning him it is written shortly after: 'Samuel mourned for Saul, because the Lord repented that He had made him king over Israel.' He did not indeed promise to bear the king's sin, so that the king would strive to weep over it himself. But nevertheless he wept for the one he had declared rejected, so that he might render the Lord favorable toward him. In the literal sense, indeed, when the prophet repeats the sentence, he shows the irrevocable sentence of divine justice by which the sinner is so cast away that he is never permitted to return to the hand of divine mercy. It can also be understood in another way, that he asks the prophet to return with him to worship the Lord. For holy men who do not abandon the Lord by sinning have no need to return to Him through repentance. For to return belongs to one who has departed. This indeed befits sinners who withdraw from the Lord through sin; it does not befit the just who remain steadfast. What then does it mean that the just Samuel is asked to return with Saul the sinner, except that chosen preachers are afflicted like penitents on behalf of their fallen subjects, and come as if returning, when they accompany fallen subjects with fatherly affliction? They therefore return with them, when the sins of their subjects are equally mourned both by the subjects who sinned and by the prelates who stood firm. It is therefore as if he were saying: I have now recognized through the rebuke of preaching that you cling to me with fatherly affection, you whom I did not leave to sin further. Since therefore I have come to my senses through your reproach, I ask you to return with me, because by my own strength I am by no means sufficient to blot out so great a magnitude of wickedness. But such prayers of affection would deserve to be received if they proceeded from truth of heart; fittingly therefore it was answered to the hypocrite: 'I will not return with you.' As if to say: I do not know how to sacrifice to God on your behalf, since I do not perceive you to be subject to God in the truth of humility; and repeating the earlier words, he says: 'Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king;' and because the crafty must be rejected and abandoned, there follows: (v. 27) 'And Samuel turned to depart.' In this departure of the elders, indeed, hypocrites fear the loss of temporal honor more than the loss of their eternal inheritance. Hence even when abandoned they cannot be at rest, but what they dare not accomplish by themselves, they strive to obtain through the intervention of others. Fittingly therefore it is added: (v. 27) 'But he seized the edge of his cloak, and it was torn.'

29. What are the garments of a teacher, if not to teach the qualities of the subjects adhering to him? Concerning these garments, indeed, a promise is made to the great shepherd through the prophet: 'As I live, says the Lord, you shall clothe yourself with all these as with a garment' (Isa. 49:18). And through the Psalmist it is sung: 'The Lord has reigned, He has put on beauty; the Lord has put on strength' (Ps. 93:1). For He put on beauty, who joined to Himself the splendid minds of the faithful, as it were garments. Saul therefore seized Samuel's cloak, when any proud and rejected person seeks the honor of high office to be conferred upon himself by great men through those dear ones and intimates who cling to him; and because no one intercedes on behalf of the reprobate among perfect hearers, he is said to have seized not the cloak, but the edge of the cloak, that is, the extremity; but that edge is torn, because he who suggests useless things is rejected. For when a lesser person making an indiscriminate request is repelled, it is as though the edge of the garment is said to be torn. For it was as though a part of the great prophet's cloak was torn, when He answered Peter who was making a bad suggestion, saying: 'Get behind me, Satan, for you do not savor the things that are of God, but the things that are of men' (Matt. 16:23). Hence He likewise commands, saying: 'If your hand or your foot scandalizes you, cut it off and cast it from you; likewise, if your eye scandalizes you, pluck it out and cast it from you' (Matt. 5:30). By these words, assuredly, not only the edge of the cloak but even the middle portion is designated as needing to be cut away: because when they suggest evil things, even perfect hearers must be disregarded. For this is why the sons of Zebedee together with their mother ask that one sit at the right hand and the other at the left of the Redeemer; but as though ignorant of what constitutes a good request, they are repelled (Matt. 20). For it was as though the Lord tore a part of the cloak, when He rebuked and confuted those members who were causing scandal. And it should be noted that the whole cloak is not torn, but a part of the cloak is torn: because when a good person suggests evil things, he ought to be repelled in that which he suggests wrongly, and in that in which he is otherwise good, he ought to be retained out of love.

30. By the garment, the conduct of the ruler is also signified, as the Psalmist attests, who says: "Let your priests be clothed with justice" (Ps. 131:9). The edge of the cloak is therefore seized when the teacher is praised for great holiness, when that which displays outward beauty is spoken in his praise. But because the good qualities of the just that lie hidden are more numerous, only the edge of the cloak can be grasped: because what is seen of the chosen teacher's justice is little, while much indeed is concealed. But that very little which is known, when it is grasped, is torn: because the just are not held by their own praises. For because they despise them in a moment, they cannot be held, as it were, by the tearing of the cloak. The torn part of the garment is indeed held, but the prophet is not held: because what is said in praise of the just person is true, and yet the just, while they despise what they hear, leave, as it were, the torn piece in the hands of the one holding it. Of the greater ones, therefore, because certain things can be known, a part is, as it were, grasped. But when all that is done is known by the little ones, if it is praised, it must nonetheless be cast aside; because nothing of good works should be held onto through vanity. For hence it is that while John, still a youth, follows the Lord already seized, and is held by his garment, he is described as having fled naked, leaving the garment behind (Mark 14). For the youth is caught by the garment when he is praised for the beginning of his good conduct; but he who despises the praises he hears flees naked, leaving the linen cloth behind. For to flee naked is to have a praiseworthy life, but to despise the praise of a chosen life. For he flees as if naked who ascribes nothing to himself through vainglory from the adornment of virtues. He can also be understood to have fled naked for this reason: because he who is said to have been caught by part of the linen cloth is reported to have left the cloth behind; because it frequently happens in the conscience of the elect that, through the fact that they are praised in part, they suspect that they have lost not a part of their merits, but all the merit of a good life. Samuel's cloak is therefore torn, because chosen teachers despise their own praises. And because they are not swayed by praises, he repeats the severity of the former sentence, saying: (v. 28) "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from your hand this day."

31. For perfect men, because they are softened by no praise from the rigor of justice, are the same before as after the testimony of their praise, and they confirm by repeating afterward the same things they had said before. But we must ask what this signifies, that which is said: 'Today'. For if the life of the reprobate is night, what does it mean that Saul's kingdom is torn away in the day? But if the life of a reprobate pastor is night, when his kingdom is torn away, it makes day. For day does not come unless night departs. He says, therefore, 'Today', because the darkness of the disobedient one is declared to be condemned. Whence also, when Judas went out, the Lord says: 'Now is the Son of Man glorified' (John 13:31); because He saw the night of that man's life depart, and the pure light of justice remain in the other disciples. It is also said 'Today', because with the proud one removed, the kingdom was being handed over to the humble king. Whence it is also added: (Verse 28) 'And He has given it to your neighbor who is better than you.' When therefore "today" is said, nothing bright is seen in the rejected king, but the glory of his successor is proclaimed, who from the height of the kingdom was to shine with the splendor of great virtue. And asserting the immutability of the divine sentence, he adds, saying: (Verse 29) 'Moreover, the Triumphant One of Israel will not spare, and will not be moved by repentance.'

32. For who is to be understood by the name of this triumphant one, except the Creator of the human race? For whoever overcomes hidden adversaries conquers by His power, who bestows upon him the grace of overcoming temptation. What does it mean that the triumphant one is said not to spare, when Samuel is being entreated? Because when preachers grow angry at sinning subjects, when they strike the proud or the dissolute with divine judgment, they do not act by the impulse of their own fury, but carry out the decision of the divine will. As if he were clearly saying: I indeed pronounced not my own sentence, but His, whose decree, once issued, cannot be revoked. Therefore He does not spare, and is not moved by repentance—but toward those who can neither cease from their sins nor repent of the sins they love. And adding the reason, he says: (Verse 29.) "For He is not a man, that He should repent." As if to say: His very being belongs to Him in whom there is no changeableness. By the name of the triumphant one, the perfection of the substitute king can also be designated, who was destined to have the glory of many triumphs and who would not dare to spare anyone against the will of the Creator. Whence also in this very same book it is written of him: "And David struck the whole land, and left alive neither man nor woman" (1 Kings 27:9). Of him also it is said: "For He is not a man, that He should repent." For what is designated in this place by "man," except one subject to carnal passions? As if he were still stinging the proud one, saying: You now repent of your sins when you receive the sentence upon your boldness; but he will not repent who, being a man, is not subject to disobedience and pride. And Saul still confesses with his mouth, saying: (Verse 30.) "I have sinned." But he reveals the quality of that confession, because he added, saying: (Verse 30.) "But now honor me before the elders of my people, and before Israel."

33. It is clear what kind of repentance he bears who still desires to be honored. For if he truly repented of his sin, he would have desired to be dishonored rather than honored. It is fitting, therefore, to marvel at the hardness of his cast-off heart. As the man of God, carrying out the command of the Creator, says: "The Lord has cast you off, that you should not be king," on the contrary, he who receives the sentence of rejection seeks honors through the desire for exaltation. What does it mean, then, that he says: "I have sinned"? Indeed, confession of sin should be followed not by honor or glory, but by profit and self-contempt. For what does it profit to confess sins if the affliction of repentance does not follow the voice of confession? For three things must be considered in everyone who truly repents, namely: conversion of the mind, confession of the mouth, and punishment for sin. For he who is not converted in heart, what does it profit him if he confesses his sins? A sin that is loved is by no means erased by confessing it. Indeed, there are some who reveal their sins by confessing but, by not converting, in no way detest them. These indeed accomplish nothing by confessing, because what they cast out by speaking, they bring back in by loving. Whence Scripture also suggests to those wishing to confess profitably, saying: "With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:10). What is it to believe with the heart unto righteousness, except to direct the will toward faith working through love? Therefore, when someone directs the intention of the heart toward righteousness through love, through the beginning of good will he has the fruit of good conversion. This one certainly now confesses unto salvation, because by speaking he casts out from the wound more than conversion has pierced. The third kind, therefore, that is punishment, is like a necessary medicine, so that the abscess of guilt, which is lanced by conversion, may be purged by confessing and healed by the medicine of affliction. Therefore, he who does not believe in his heart unto righteousness by no means makes confession unto salvation, because he displays, as it were, the leaves of a bad tree whose deep roots he fixes in his heart. The sign of true confession, therefore, is not in the confession of the mouth but in the affliction of repentance. For then we perceive a sinner to be well converted when he strives to blot out with worthy severity of affliction what he confesses by speaking. Whence John the Baptist, rebuking the badly converted Jews flocking to him, says: "O generation of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance" (Matt. 3:7). Therefore, repentance is to be recognized in fruit, not in leaves or branches. For good will is, as it were, a tree. What then are the words of confession other than leaves? Therefore, leaves are not to be sought by us for their own sake but for the sake of fruit, because every confession of sins is received for this reason: that the fruit of repentance may follow. Whence also the Lord cursed the tree adorned with leaves but barren of fruit (Mark 11), because he does not accept the ornament of confession without the fruit of affliction. Therefore Saul, who confesses and wishes to be honored, not afflicted and humbled—what does he signify except those who have a sterile confession and bear no fruit, who display the beauty of confession with humble words but pursue the greenness of words, not the humility of repentance?

34. But why do we look to the ancients, when now we see such a great multitude of fallen rulers? For now they rush headlong into disgraceful deeds in droves—not only the weak who are subject to authority, but also negligent prelates and priests. Those who by the rank of their ministry have been assigned to heavenly sacraments act with slippery sinfulness. But many of them, when they somehow come to their senses, confess that they have erred. Yet they wish to bring forth their sins against themselves in such a way that they still desire to be honored on account of their sacred office; in secret they declare themselves shameful, but outwardly they blush to appear humble beyond the dignity of their rank. What then are these men but those who see themselves as cast down, and yet dare to wish to be honored? Often, moreover, they do not come of their own accord, but are seized against their will; they receive the commands of their own abjection, and yet they ask to be honored. They wish indeed to do unclean things, yet dare to cling to the sacred altars. Behold how many Sauls we observe, how many fallen rulers we contemplate from the height of Holy Church. To each of them individually it must surely be said: 'Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king'—so that those whom earthly disgraces do not cease to defile may not perform the heavenly ministry. But this indeed we can say, yet we cannot persuade slippery ministers of it. For Saul both heard that he was rejected and continued to reign; because unclean priests recognize that they have been cast down from the priestly summit through the defilements of luxury, and yet they do not cease to handle the sacred mysteries against God's will. But a king reigning against the Lord's will was not a king but a tyrant; because an unworthy priest, who is rightly cast out on account of his defilement, when he presumes to minister, ascends to the summit of so great a glory only to be condemned. Hence also that great senator of heaven, wishing to terrify such tyrants, says: 'Whoever eats the bread and drinks the blood of the Lord unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself' (1 Cor. 11:27). Often, however, it happens through urgent confession that those who confess are also believed to have undergone a conversion of heart. Sometimes the chosen preachers accept the false humility of the reprobate, so that by their example others may be led to salvation. For they recognize two things in hypocrites: one within, the other without. Within, indeed, pure evil; without, a pretense of good. They detest both, but they often feign approval of the outward show of good in them, so that those who see the good on the outside and do not know the evil within may follow the examples of good that they behold. Rightly therefore it is added: (Verse 31.) 'So Samuel turned back and followed Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.'

35. For on account of the evil that lay hidden within, he deserved to hear: "The Lord has cast you off from being king." But so that under the pretext of good he might draw others to the truth of that same good, Samuel wished to follow Saul, and saw him worship the Lord. Sometimes even the evils of kings and the great ones of the earth must be tolerated, lest being provoked they slip into worse things. For the children of Israel often worshiped the gods of the nations. Whence also it was said above concerning those converted by Samuel: "The children of Israel removed from their midst the Baals and the Ashtaroth" (1 Sam. 7:4). And perhaps if the rejected king did not see the prophet returning with him to worship the Lord, he would worship the images of demons. And so he casts him off, yet returns with him; because in the powerful of this age, iniquity must be condemned in such a way that the good they possess is not lost through provocation. For often they are evil in secret, and the good that is seen, others imitate more devoutly. Certainly the evils of the powerful of the age are great evils for them; but the good things they put forth benefit the example of the faithful more than the good deeds of others. Rightly therefore Samuel returns with the rejected king; because the elect preachers both strike the powerful of the age for their iniquity, and permit them to do certain good things for the sake of example. Whence it also follows: (Verse 32.) And Samuel said: "Bring here Agag, king of Amalek." And Agag was brought to him, very fat and trembling.

36. Kings adore the Lord when the proud and scornful humble themselves to carry out the Lord's commands. The unchaste adore when they are subjected to God through the obedience of chastity. But sometimes they pretend to adore, because some have a pretext of humility or chastity, yet while they are believed to truly possess the good, others through the good they believe them to have lose the practice of good works. Therefore they hand over King Agag to Samuel, because by confessing they bring forth the vigor of their sensuality. For when they confess the sins of lust which they committed through the vigor of the flesh, what else do they do but offer the king of Amalek to the prophets to be slain? But what does it mean that Agag is called very fat, when the vigor of sensuality is fat in some and lean in others? What then does it mean that he is offered fat, except that he was led forth by the subjects of the reprobate king? For subjects are often negligent; but when they behold the examples of their chosen pastor, they groan amid the evils they commit. Through the frailty of the flesh they fall into impurities; but struck by the examples of their superiors, they cannot fully rejoice amid the pleasures of impurity. In whom then is Agag fattest, if not in those of whom it is said: "They rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the worst things" (Prov. 2:14)? For the subjects of a lustful teacher sin all the more boldly, the fewer examples of their superiors they have placed before them to see. But they cast themselves down far more madly when they do not see in their pastors a good that they might follow, and they do see an evil by whose example they perish. In these indeed Agag grows fat, because joyfully, securely, and freely the vigor of the flesh is stretched out in the pleasure of lust, which, with nothing standing in the way, is not deprived of the practice of allurement. Therefore the fattest is offered to be slain when those are converted who greatly rejoiced in the pleasure of lust; for the king is, as it were, handed over when the carnal sense which ruled the mind is revealed to the priests of Christ through confession. Fat also customarily nourishes fire. Rightly therefore this is ascribed to the Amalekite king, because while the spirit of fornication possesses the mind, the more sweetly and frequently it feeds there through shameful thoughts, the more abundant fuel is supplied to it for increasing the fire of concupiscence. But he is said to be trembling, because the carnal sense, when it is handed over to spiritual men through confession, is weakened. Therefore trembling gives a sign that it does not have the strength of its members. When therefore the vigor of sensuality begins to be weakened, what else trembles but the king of the Amalekites? Or he is said to tremble because many, when they begin to be converted, are terrified by the rigor of penance. And because all carnal people cannot abandon the customary pleasures of the flesh without grief, there follows: (Verse 32) And he said: "Does bitter death thus separate?"

37. For to say this to the carnal sense is to strike the mind with the turning of sorrow over the loss of accustomed pleasure. For because the recently converted suffer great darts of bitterness, the king whom they had served, as it were, complains about death: because in them carnality is by no means slain without great tribulation. Therefore to ask the carnal sense about the separation of death is to strike the still-sorrowful mind of the converted person over the loss of past delight. But also the manner of separation is inquired about, when he says: "Is it so?" For as though, having seen the austerities to which it must be subjected, his sensuality says to the mind: "Do you spurn joyful things for such sorrowful ones?" Samuel certainly hears this voice: because the chosen preacher recognizes the tempted heart of his subject by certain signs. But what does it profit to recognize, if he himself says nothing against that which rages within in the heart of the subject? Therefore there follows: (Verse 33) And Samuel said: As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.

38. What is the mother of carnal sense, if not original sin? For since before the sin of the first man no lust was present in the members, the Amalekite king did not exist. There was indeed the sense of the flesh, but it was not shameful and lustful; but as soon as he fell into sin, he felt the itching of his members, because he could not have obedient movement of the flesh when he himself was disobedient to God. Original sin, therefore, is rightly understood as the mother of the shameful sense of the flesh, because from it there comes forth by birth that which began to exist from it. Whence also the Apostle, as if abhorring the law of carnal sense as that of a most severe tyrant, showed not only the king himself but the mother, saying: "Therefore it is no longer I who work that, but sin which dwells in me" (Rom. 7:20). For the sin which he declared he did not work, he understood as the movement of the flesh; but the sin dwelling in him, as original sin. Because therefore from original sin comes the sin of the movement of the flesh, when we consider the carnal sense as king, we rightly name his mother as the first sin. Moreover, the children of this mother are all concupiscences, sins, and vices. The mother is surely made without children when every fault from the flesh and every fault from the mind now seems merely to remain. For she is then without children, because even if no shameful thing now comes from the flesh, if no concupiscence now reigns in the mind, nevertheless that sin remaining in us cannot now be destroyed by the power of a teacher. For what does the Apostle mean when he says: "It is no longer I who work that, but sin which dwells in me"? From that sin indeed, which we contract from the corrupt root of our nature, we have the capacity to be corrupted by the passions of vices. The disordered law of the members, therefore, when it moves the members contrary to our will—we do not work this, but sin which dwells in us. The will indeed is then present with us, but we do not yet find the ability; since we would wish that nothing could be moved in us against our will. And these are perhaps the conceptions of the worst mother, by which that sin is impregnated; if they are allowed to pour forth into shameful and obscene acts, they are said to be, as it were, nourished. The children, therefore, are the movements which are not only naturally within, but which are manifested in shameful and obscene works. The mother of Agag is therefore made without children when original sin is so restrained that it is not permitted to produce any acts or movements. Or perhaps she is made without children because she once had children. When, therefore, converted sinners cease to be shameful both in act and in the gestures of luxury, the fault dwelling in them, as a mother, is as it were bereft of children.

39. And it should be noted that the mother is said to be made without children by way of comparison. As he says, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." The virtues of the mind, from which good works proceed, are mothers; but the sword of Agag is called the weapon of lust, which indeed makes women childless, because lust destroys all good works. Or certainly the women are understood as the minds of the faithful, while the children of holy minds are good thoughts, virtues, and good works. But the sword of Agag made mothers childless, because the delight of lust, if it is allowed to be unsheathed like a sword, slays from them indeed all good thoughts, all virtues, and good works. For the sharp pleasure of this pestilence, if it is received into the mind, while it delights one to gaze more intently upon what is impure, can think of nothing clean and holy; and while it ardently drags one toward the fulfillment of wicked deeds, it permits one to do nothing of virtue. And because through its burning all things perish, not only the children of Agag but all the children of the women are slaughtered. Therefore it makes mothers childless, because the delight of lust, like a sword, while it strikes the fruits of minds, by no means allows thoughts of virtue or the good of work to live. Just as therefore it made mothers childless, so also his own mother is made childless, when the sinner is so converted that, apart from the guilt naturally implanted in us, nothing of obscene works or impulses appears to remain in those who are converted. Whence it is also fittingly added: (Verse 33.) And Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

40. That he is cut into pieces means that, once dead, he is divided into small parts. For Agag is slain when the vigor of the flesh is so crushed by fasting, vigils, and spiritual meditations that nothing wanton, nothing lustful is felt to stir. For to slay him is to render the flesh unable to move shamefully. But the corpse of the slain one remains whole when its movement remains. Lust does not remain when it weighs down the mind by its mere heaviness alone; that is, when a simple and natural motion of the flesh resides in the members, but has nothing of lustful ardor. But because the minds of the elect bear this very thing with difficulty, they carry, as it were, the whole corpse of a dead king. But what does it mean that he is cut into pieces, except that they do not wish to leave even that natural motion its strength? He is therefore cut into pieces, because each time it strikes, it is slain. Therefore, while the alternating movements are not allowed to come together, the corpse of Agag is, as it were, cut into pieces. Or perhaps this Agag is of such a nature that he cannot die unless cut into pieces. For as I said above, lust is kindled after the manner of fire; and if it is extinguished carelessly, the nearby stubble is quickly set ablaze. A great fire, too, can often be better extinguished when dispersed. For when many coals come together into one, they make an enormous mass of embers. Lest therefore the one extinguishing it be burned, the mass of embers is first wisely scattered, so that it may be quickly extinguished through the individual pieces of coals. For what are thoughts of luxury, what are lustful motions of the body, but coals of fire? Which indeed, if they come together in the heart or in the flesh, can quickly burn, but can never easily be extinguished. Let the fire therefore be scattered, let Agag be cut into pieces, and let the mind be guarded so that it disperses unclean thoughts and does not allow one to cling to another. For since one cannot bring it about that one never thinks harmful things, let one do what one can: immediately cast out the thought that carelessly enters the mind. Thus indeed one divides a very great fire quickly into individual coals and swiftly extinguishes it, if one separates all the flames of thoughts in such a way as not to allow them to be joined together in the mind, neither through negligence nor through desire. Thus indeed the vigor of the mind also represses the motions of the body, when it does not allow them to come together with one another. For an enticing motion of the flesh, if it is not at all nourished by thought, does not seem to come together with another. For the glue of enticing motions is unclean thought: because whoever willingly looks upon unclean things immediately moves the flesh violently toward the things loved by lusting after them; the more willingly and lingeringly one thinks, the more, as coals to coals, one binds shameful motions to even more shameful ones. Let him therefore maintain a strong guard over his soul who wishes to powerfully scatter the motions of the flesh. For within, Agag is first divided, so that outwardly he may likewise be divided into pieces; because for one who does not allow evil thoughts to come together, the shameful motions of the flesh are also, as it were, divided into pieces. Thus indeed the very fat Agag is slain, if he is divided into pieces; because we powerfully extinguish the sense of the flesh along with its unclean motions, both in the body and in the soul, if we keep watch against each of its individual snares with singular attention. Hence that Wise Man also carefully admonishes, saying: "With all watchfulness keep your heart, because from it life proceeds, and from one that is neglected, death comes forth" (Proverbs 4:23). For life proceeds when the heart is guarded, because when all uncleanness is repelled, the spirit of the converted is enlivened toward virtues. Therefore Agag is cut into pieces by the prophet when, through the counsel of teachers, individual particles of uncleanness are destroyed both in the body and in the mind of the hearers. Moreover, it is rightly said that he was cut to pieces both before the Lord and in Gilgal; because those who know how to think wisely both about almighty God and about the Holy Scriptures can powerfully divide the minute particles of enticing thoughts and shameful motions. But, as I said, teachers often tolerate the feigned good deeds of the wicked not for their own sake, but for the sake of others; because what they do in pretense benefits not the pretenders, but the onlookers. Indeed, the elect often see the feigned good deeds of the wicked; but because they do not know their hearts, they imitate the good that appears to shine outwardly. Saul asked Samuel to return with him to worship the Lord; but he, having returned, cut Agag into pieces, because elect teachers, through the works that the reprobate perform, turn the elect toward the pursuit of living well. But because they do this very thing by way of dispensation, that is, for the sake of something else, when the necessity of the dispensation passes, they abandon those very reprobate whom they had, as it were, followed toward good works, once they have lapsed into the impenitence of a reprobate heart. And so it is well added: (Verses 34, 35.) And Samuel went away to Ramah, but Saul went up to his house in Gibeah, and Samuel did not see him again until the day of his death.

41. What is the house of the transgressor, if not the habit of wicked work? For whoever is enclosed in a perverse habit dwells, as it were, in a house. Saul therefore ascended to his house, when any reprobate, after the rebuke of teachers, returns to the practice of evil work. For he descended, as it were, to the plains when he feigned humility in order to learn the commands of his superiors. But what does it mean that Samuel is said to have departed before Saul ascended to his house? Yet, as I said, when there is no need on behalf of others, the chosen preacher cannot remain with the crafty man; and because the pretender advances in the absence of the teacher, Saul did not go away to his house, but ascended. For to ascend, for the reprobate, is to advance from bad to worse. Likewise, when the proud man is said to descend, he is declared to ascend. For to ascend to his house, for the proud man, is to exalt himself through pride up to the measure by which he is to be condemned. For the house of the proud man is the measure of his own wickedness. For when they are permitted, through the prosperities of this world, to exercise tyranny, to disturb the earth, to oppress the good, and to afflict the innocent, what else do the proud appear to do but ascend? But because it is predetermined by God how much they may harm, how much they may rage, how much they may exalt themselves through tyranny, they are permitted to ascend only up to their house. For their house is the measure of wickedness in which they will always remain: because when they have arrived at the fullness of their crimes, they are snatched away by death and punished with eternal torments. For he remains, as it were, in his house, who can never escape from the punishments of his way of life. This can fittingly be understood not only of the proud, but also of the lustful and all the reprobate. For they were still in the ascent and not yet in their house, those of whom it is said: 'The iniquities of the Amorites are not yet full' (Gen. 15:16). Hence likewise the blessed apostle Paul says: 'To fill up their sins' (1 Thess. 2:16). Therefore they ascend to their house when, by the advancement of evil, they advance to more wicked works, for which they will endure eternal torments.

42. Moreover, Samuel is said to depart to Ramah. For teachers separated from the reprobate do not merely go, but depart. They go when they leave those who are to be corrected, because those whom they dismiss as if in anger, they afterward return to, invited by their good amendment. Therefore, for a teacher to depart is to abandon the impenitent wicked with perpetual condemnation. For they so abandon those who work sins unto death through impenitence that they are not compelled to return to them any further. Well therefore it says: 'Saul did not see Samuel again until the day of his death.' And because they perceive that this must be done in the contemplation of the highest truth, he is recorded as departing to Ramah. For a consummated vision is the perfected understanding of innermost truth. Lest therefore the severity of preachers be judged excessive by the carnal-minded when they separate the reprobate from the communion of the Church in perpetuity, let them hear that after Samuel came to Ramah, he saw Saul no more—because the teacher eternally separates the one whom he does not recognize as belonging to the number of the elect. But this is believed with confidence if in the figure of Samuel the affection of charity among the preachers of the holy Church is perceived alongside their severity. For the zeal of severity is shown in that it is recorded he did not see Saul until the day of his death. But concerning the affection of charity, it is added: (Verse 35) 'Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, because the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.'

43. For what is it that he mourns for one whom he disdains to look upon, except that even with their zeal for righteousness, the holy teachers possess a disposition of great charity, and the very greatness of that charity is shown by the fact that he is said to weep for the rejected king? With what affection, then, do they weep for the sins of their elect subjects, who have learned to weep so tenderly even for the cast-off reprobate? For the urgency of the mourning is shown by what is added next:

CHAPTER III. (1 Kings XVI, 1.) The Lord said to Samuel: How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him, so that he should not reign over Israel?

1. For when it is said to him: "How long will you mourn?" it is shown that he was mourning persistently. Great, therefore, is the affection of the saints, even when they outwardly bring forth the severity of punishment. For on the outside they rage, but inwardly they melt with love. In the manner of mothers they strike their little ones, yet they groan with the affection of the little ones whom they chastise. But what does it mean that the Lord says: "How long will you mourn for Saul?" Can a mother see her son dying and not weep at all through the rending of her heart? She who dies endures the dead without grief, but is weakened. What does it mean that He says: "How long will you mourn for Saul?" Unless it is because the lost are not to be mourned excessively? For often a teacher is vehemently afflicted over the perdition of his subject, but is consoled by regard for the supreme justice. What, therefore, does this saying of God to the prophet mean, except to relieve the preacher's mind from affliction through inward consolation? And because, when prelates have fallen, the elect are substituted through divine mercy, the Lord adds, saying: (Verse 1.) "Fill your horn with oil, and come: I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided among his sons a king for myself."

2. For as if consoling one who mourns, he says: Why is the casting off of one person lamented, when a better one is substituted? Hence Saul is shown as not foreseen, but David as foreseen. How great, therefore, and of what quality he was, let it be weighed with prompt consideration—he who is determined by the judgment and choice of Almighty God. But what does it mean that God foresees and the prophet is sent to anoint, except that the spiritual customs of the holy Church are being described, which is seen to appoint no one except those whom it contemplates God to have chosen beforehand and preordained? "Come," he says, "I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have foreseen among his sons a king." As if to say: Presume nothing on your own part, but by ordaining you will follow him whom I have foreseen. Hence also a little later he adds, saying: "And you shall anoint the one I shall point out to you." What is this, except that those who wish to ordain others to the summit of the Church ought to be prophets? For they can recognize what has been foreseen by God, if they consult the sacred Scriptures to find the person of the bishop to be chosen. For it is as though God is shown speaking when such a Pastor is chosen as is commended through sacred eloquence. In the literal sense, however, Samuel is told to come from the Lord so that he might be called back from compassion for the reprobate and rejected king. But if by continual weeping he was seeking the restoration of the fallen one, for him to come was to cease from such an intention. And he filled his horn with oil, because he tempered pastoral sublimity in anointing the king with the splendor of praise. For with a harsh horn he assailed Saul, because he struck down the sinner as if with a great assault, saying: "Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king" (1 Kings 15:23). What does it mean, then, that the horn is commanded to be filled with oil, except that the justice of the king to be anointed is commended? As if to say: The king who is now anointed will not need to be struck with rebuke, but proclaimed with the favor of wondrous praise—he needs not to be assailed, but to be favored. He is sent to Jesse the Bethlehemite, so that the king who is chosen might be taught to be one who would endure. For through the patriarch Jacob, the condition of the kingdom that would endure was shown long before, because he said: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler from his loins, until he comes who is to be sent" (Genesis 49:10). Therefore the king foreseen among the sons of Jesse is declared, so that the king who is commanded to be anointed might be taught to be not one who would depart like Saul, but one who would be lasting. As if he rouses the prophet wasting away in anguish over the rejected one, saying: Why is the one rejected for his fault lamented, when one worthy of praise is substituted?

3. We have touched upon these things according to the literal sense; now let us consider the election of our prelates beneath the literal narrative. What does it mean that the horn is commanded to be filled with oil, except that such a pastor is to be chosen in the holy Church who ought not to be accused as a transgressor, but commended to the example of others with wondrous praises? For the horn is the weapon of animals. And what else are the authority and rebuke of the chief bishop but weapons? Indeed horns strike when their sharp points are applied to sinners through rebuke. For to strike with the horn is to reprove sinners sharply. The horn is filled with oil when the sublimity of the preacher does not have the harshness of threats, but the gentleness of favors. Or the horn is filled with oil when to the chosen pastor there is given at once both the exaltation of the summit and the power of anointing—when the lofty rank is ascended, yet he who is raised to the heights is filled with the abundance of merits. Therefore priests are anointed from a full horn who attain to the highest rank with the fullness of graces. Because indeed fire is kindled by oil, the oil is the love of the teacher's heart—in which fire is kindled, because in the richness of the mouth the power and grace of the Holy Spirit burns. Because therefore the teacher ought to have the richness of great charity, the king who is commanded to be anointed is said to be anointed from a full horn. The fullness of the horn is also spoken of in terms of the perseverance of graces; for those who fail before the end do not merit to be anointed with the fullness of the horn. Still more must be said about the fullness of this horn: it is commanded for this reason, because he who must fill others from his own fullness needs a great anointing. Whence Moses too is said to have been so full that the Lord is shown to have taken from his spirit and given it to others (Num. 11). Or the horn of the prophet is filled when the pontifical sublimity is prepared for teaching more perfect things. For when the princes of the Church are ordained, the things they ought to do must not be preached to them in half-measure. Therefore the bishops fill the horn when they set forth full and perfect virtues, which the chosen princes of the Church may imitate. Because indeed those who anoint ought themselves to be spiritual, they are commanded to fill the horn. The horn is indeed from the flesh, but it is not enclosed in the flesh. Therefore the horn is the spiritual manner of life of the teacher. The horn pours out oil when he preaches lofty things who demonstrates these things by his lofty manner of life. Therefore to fill the horn with oil is to take up the preaching of great virtues in a lofty manner of life. And he pours it on the head when he imprints it on the mind of him who comes newly to the highest order. Therefore when the elect are promoted, they are anointed from a full horn, because they advance to the height of their order by the power of perfection.

4. But the prophet is sent to Jesse of Bethlehem, a king is foreseen among his sons, because that shepherd is chosen who has been instructed in ecclesiastical devotion. Bethlehem, therefore, which is called "house of bread," what else does it designate but each and every house of religion? For by the name of bread the teaching of perfection is shown, as Paul attests, who, rousing the weak to conversion, says: "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food. For you were not yet able, nor are you yet able" (1 Cor. 3:2). For if milk belongs to little ones, bread belongs to none but the perfect. Whence also it is said of the strength of the perfect man: "He shall dwell on high, the fortifications of rocks shall be his loftiness, bread has been given to him" (Isa. 33:16). Therefore in the house of bread a king is sought for anointing, because those are profitably advanced who are nourished in the order of perfect conduct. For he is able to make others strong who has not been nourished in lax and negligent conduct. Therefore he is sought in the house of bread, because in promoting a bishop, strength of conduct must be sought. From a weak congregation a person of virtue is almost never taken. Whence rightly the search is made among the sons of Jesse, who is named "salvation of the Lord," or certainly "salvation" absolutely. Indeed, a prelate is rightly called salvation. For what are sins and vices, if not diseases of souls? But a chosen preacher, through the integrity of sound doctrine, through the solidity of innocence, through the splendor of an elect life, is rightly named the salvation of the Lord. There are indeed other teachers whose speech creeps like a cancer. From the family of these a king is not taken, because he does not lead sick minds to health, but kills them. And it should be noted that Jesse is called by another name, Isai. He has indeed a twofold name, because a good teacher is not always at peace. In time of peace he is called the salvation of the Lord, so that the wounds of wars may be taught to be healed, as it were, within the secure vestibules of his house. But in war he has the name Jesse, because he both fortifies himself bravely and protects others valiantly. For Jesse is said to mean "relief of the island." But by the name of island, what is understood if not minds surrounded by the waves of temptations? They are indeed islands, because even if they endure great conflicts, they are not moved. Whence also the Psalmist, proclaiming the victory of the elect, says: "The Lord has reigned, let the earth exult, let many islands rejoice" (Ps. 97:1). The Lord indeed reigns when no storm of enemies disturbs his throne, namely the elect minds; but the earth rejoices, because the solid hearts of teachers are glad. The islands rejoice, because when they overcome temptations by his grace, the hearers of their superiors are gladdened. The earth indeed is the strong mind and the firm tongue of the teacher. But the island is said to be the strong heart of the subject, which is still assailed by temptations, yet is not moved. What then does it mean that Jesse is called the relief of the island, except that through the strength of teachers the hearts of the lesser are uplifted? For amid so many waves of temptations they would collapse, if their hearts were not raised to the desire of the lofty life by the strength of their superiors. Therefore a king is described as hidden among the sons of Isai and Jesse, because those profitably come to the summit of the Church who have learned under the instruction of the elect both to guard peace and to arrange or wage spiritual wars. Therefore it is well said: "For I have provided among his sons a king for myself." For among these and not among others is a king foreseen, because through divine grace none attain to the summit of the Church who do not follow the instruction of the elect through all the successive periods of time. There follows: (Verses 2–3.) And Samuel said: "How shall I go? For Saul will hear of it and will kill me." And the Lord said: "You shall take a calf from the herd in your hand, and you shall say: I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. And you shall call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you are to do."

5. What is shown by these words, except that the cunning and cruelty of tyrants must sometimes be eluded by pious deception? For by the Lord's command a calf is taken from the herd, a sacrifice is simulated, and the royal anointing is reached, because when tyrants desire to do harm, certain things which they may believe must be set before them, so that they find no opening to do harm. Thus tyrants must be eluded in such a way that the guilt of lying is avoided. This is well accomplished when what is asserted actually takes place, but what takes place is stated in such a way that it is concealed, because it is partly spoken and partly kept silent. For the prophet Samuel is commanded to go to anoint the king, and to declare that he is going to sacrifice to the Lord, not that he is going to anoint a king; so that in sacrificing he speaks the truth, and in concealing the anointing he eludes the tyrant's cruelty while speaking the truth. For that he went to sacrifice, he shortly afterward clearly sets forth, where it says: 'He therefore sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.'

6. But now it is better handled if we consider what these things signify spiritually. What does it mean, then, that the prophet takes a calf in his hand, and so arrives to anoint the king? But what is the calf, if not the splendor of the image of the Redeemer? For since he strives to make the one he chooses conformed to the Redeemer, when he preaches the very form of the Redeemer, he carries, as it were, a calf in his hand. And because he demonstrates the splendor of the Lord's manner of life, which he preaches, in the power of his works, he leads by hand the calf he takes from the herd. For to take up a calf in hand is to preserve the preaching of the Lord's manner of life in the power of one's works. Thus indeed, going in this way, he is not killed; otherwise he would be killed: because he who speaks and does not act is condemned by the sword of his own mouth. What does it mean that he is commanded to say: "I have come to sacrifice to the Lord"? What does it likewise mean that he does what he says, since he comes and sacrifices, except that the one who promotes others ought to be of such efficacy that he not only speaks good things, but persuades them? Indeed the sacrificial victim, which is seen in the prophet's hand, is recognized upon the altar. For what is the heart of a chosen hearer, if not the altar of God? For when a teacher speaks good things with his mouth and shows them by his works, the calf is in his hand. But when he also persuades his hearers of what he says and does, the victim is on the altar. He therefore sacrifices when chosen hearts receive through love that which shines forth in the word and example of the teacher, concerning the imitation of the Redeemer. There follows: "And you shall call Jesse to the sacrifice." Perhaps this passage suggests that subjects are not to be promoted without the knowledge of their superiors. Jesse is first called to the sacrifice, so that the good which the subject is seen to undertake may be grounded in the mind of his master. Rightly it is added: "And I will show you what you are to do." Expressing this very thing, he says: (Verse 3.) "And you shall anoint the one whom I shall point out to you."

7. For unless Jesse is first called, what must be done is not revealed to him: because without the will of the master, nothing concerning the person of the subject is to be done. Therefore, when he has been called, what must be done is shown, because with the will of the devout teacher, the humility of the subject is raised to the height of prelacy. But what does it mean when it is said: "You shall anoint the one whom I shall show you," except that all the disciples are not equal to the chosen pastor? For among them, some are useful for obeying; others both obey humbly and have learned to command with discretion. Therefore He says: "You shall anoint the one whom I shall show you," so that when a person is sought for the summit of the priesthood, the search may be conducted with great care. By these words, certainly, nothing of their own judgment is left to the ordainers of Churches in the election of others. "The one whom I shall show you," He says, "him you shall anoint." Who are those who anoint those whom God does not show, except those who, led by carnal affection, elevate to the summit of the Churches those who are to be ordained, who do not discern merits but show favoritism toward persons? These indeed anoint kings, but not those who are shown by God. What is their own, they do; what is God's, they take away. For it is God's part to show the person; it is the ordainer's part to provide the anointing. Therefore, when they show to themselves those whom they anoint, they refuse to have God as their co-worker. Hence also through the prophet Hosea the Lord complains about such chosen ones, saying: "They have reigned, but not from me; princes have arisen, and I did not know it" (Hosea 8:4). Therefore it is said to the elect, what the reprobate cannot hear: "You shall anoint the one whom I shall show you," so that no one may be promoted unless he is judged worthy of so great an office by the commendation of the Holy Scriptures. For in them the Lord speaks; there it is recorded what kind of man and how great the teacher of the Church ought to be. Therefore, the one shown by the Lord is chosen, who is commended through sacred eloquence. These things indeed wicked rulers despise, but good ones carry out. Therefore, concerning the obedience of the good, it is rightly added: (Verse 4.) "So Samuel did what the Lord told him. He came to Bethlehem, and the elders of the city were astonished, coming to meet him."

8. As for the historical sense, the elders are amazed, because the prophet was not accustomed to come there. By this it is perhaps signified that chosen teachers should scarcely ever be seen in public, should be frequent in solitude, free from civil affairs, full of spiritual ones. Therefore it becomes a wonder to the people when the person of the pastor is seen in public. They marvel that he goes out whom they knew as a cultivator of secrecy. Because he is held in great veneration by the people, the elders of the city are reported both to have marveled and to have gone out to meet him. But because not the people but the elders marvel, the perfect virtue of teachers is shown, which is praised not by the little ones and the simple but by the great and the learned. They also inquire about the peaceful coming of the prophet. As if, then, he who said threatened a coming that was not peaceful: "What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in the spirit of gentleness?" (1 Cor. 4:21). What then is the meaning of what is said: (Verse 4) "Is your coming peaceful?"

9. But the chosen faithful, when they rightly consider the deeds of spiritual teachers, assuredly weigh the divine will in them. For because they knew Samuel to be a prophet, it was assuredly because he had known the secrets of divine dispensation. Therefore, when they ask about his peaceful arrival, what else do they do by asking than wish to know the secret of divine counsel? Would that we also, as often as we see holy men, would be eager to inquire about the security of our peace, and to learn diligently from them how we are seen by God, we who do not have the eyes of our own knowledge. Therefore the arrival of teachers is peaceful when they come to those who are not to be struck for fault, but to be exhorted for the sake of righteousness. He therefore who had come to the righteous man who had been advanced, answered saying: (Verse 5) "Peaceful; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Sanctify yourselves and come with me, that we may sacrifice."

10. Those who direct their intention toward heavenly things go with the doctors to offer sacrifice. And the prophet sacrifices before those who go, when the doctor binds in the hearts of those present through love what he proclaims by word. But that we may attend a little to the historical sense, we must carefully examine what is said: "Sanctify yourselves and come with me." For if they do not dare to be present at the sacrifice unless sanctified, what must we think of those who sacrifice? For to sanctify is to purify. How pure, then, ought the priests to be, where the people invited to the sacrifice are not to be admitted unless sanctified? For the sanctification of the body is chastity, and the sanctification of the mind is charity and humility. Let the one invited to the sacrifice therefore be sanctified, but he who invites is all the more compelled to be so. Let the priests note what they say to those invited: "Come with me." For the sanctified come with them if pure priests approach the service of God together with pure people. For to go with them is for the pure to approach together with the pure. For if the people are pure but the priests are not pure, they do not come with them, because they do not approach in an equal order of purity. Let such ones hear what another prophet admonishes, saying: "Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord" (Isaiah 52:11). Let them likewise hear what he says: "Wash yourselves, be clean" (Isaiah 1:16). Because therefore the people must be cleansed, he says: "Sanctify yourselves." Because likewise men of the highest rank must always remain in the continual state of their purity and draw others to the pattern of their purity, he adds: "And come with me." But because the elders are invited to the sacrifice, what do they demonstrate by this type, except that for choosing a bishop, or for anointing and consecrating him, many wise and religious men must be called? Who are indeed sanctified and come, if they resolve not to follow anything carnal in that election. For them to be sanctified is to bring a spiritual and holy intention to the bestowing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And well is it said in the type of the chosen, both of Jesse and of his sons: (Verse 5) "Jesse therefore sanctified his sons and called them to the sacrifice."

11. And because we have taught through the sacred scriptures that the Lord shows who should be chosen as bishops, let us now see, as the mysteries of this sacred history speak, what kind of men He shows to be worthy and what kind He rejects. There follows: (Verses 6, 7.) 'And when they had come in, he saw Eliab and said: Is this the Lord's anointed before Him? And the Lord said to Samuel: Do not look upon his countenance, nor upon the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, nor do I judge according to the sight of men. For man sees those things which appear, but the Lord beholds the heart.' For what does it mean for the wise to enter in, except to pass into the subtle sanctuary of discernment? But he saw Eliab when he entered, because the pastor recognizes that man as worthy of leadership in the holy Church who possesses both the strength of good works and the knowledge of truth. But what does it mean that the Lord commands him not to look upon his stature or his countenance, except that in the holy Church neither works nor knowledge are commended without humility? For what is a person's countenance but the outward manner of life by which he is known? And what is his stature but the height of knowledge by which he is raised to higher things? Whom then does Eliab more fittingly signify than those who do good and are learned, yet are arrogant? Hence Eliab is interpreted as "my God is father." This indeed is the name they dare to presume for themselves. For what does it mean that "my God is father" is said, except that while they vigorously do good works and wisely understand spiritual things, they boast that by singular merit they have passed into the number of the sons of God? For they would say "father" not "mine" but "ours" to the almighty Lord, if through humility they saw themselves in common with the other elect in the order of heavenly birth. Rightly therefore he is rejected, because in the spiritual heights none but the humble are preferred. Thus the prophet subtly inquires about the person to be anointed, saying: 'Is this the Lord's anointed before Him?' This happens now when the chief teacher recognizes both the life and the understanding of the one to be chosen, but still inquires about the virtue of humility. But he sees his countenance and stature rejected, when he recognizes that whatever beauty he has in works, whatever loftiness exists in his learning, is without the virtue of humility. Rightly therefore the Lord says: 'I have cast him aside, nor do I judge according to the sight of man, because man sees the face, but God beholds the heart.' As if He were saying: Men are accustomed to praise great works and words of knowledge, but I praise neither words nor works that I do not see founded in true humility. Those who are of this sort would tremble at the repulse of their unworthiness if they were willing to hear attentively what the Lord says to the prophet: 'Do not look upon his countenance, nor upon the height of his stature, because I have cast him aside.' For they consider what the arrogant do to be of great importance; but behold, the Lord declares it so worthless that it is judged not even worth looking upon. But with this one set aside, what follows is shown: (Verse 8.) 'And Jesse called Aminadab and brought him before Samuel. And he said: Neither has the Lord chosen this one.'

12. Aminadab is interpreted as "urbane." Rightly therefore, by the Lord's deliberate counsel, he is rejected: because the holy church does not choose for the governance of souls one who is vigorous in secular affairs, but one who is distinguished in spiritual conduct. Indeed, those are urbane who, having set aside their focus on heavenly things, strive to show themselves vigorous in outward pursuits. Therefore the Lord did not choose this one either, because by the zeal of a faithful pastor, heavenly things, not earthly ones, ought to be provided for the flocks of the faithful — not weak and fleeting things, but sublime and eternal ones. (Verse 9.) Then he brought forward Shammah, about whom he also said: "The Lord has not chosen this one either."

13. Sama is interpreted as "hearing." What then does Sama designate, except the obedient and simple? For to hear, for them, is to carry out by obeying those things which are commanded by their superiors. Whence also concerning the obedience of the Gentile people it is said through the Psalmist: "A people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me" (Psalm 17:45). But what does it mean that they are said not to be chosen by the Lord, except that at the summit of the Church are placed not the unskilled humble, but the humble wise, who both know how to carry out what is commanded and wisely command what ought to be done? For it is necessary for him both to do and to teach. Therefore let him do humbly, and let him teach wisely. Because therefore those who know how to act through humility but do not know how to command through learning are not to be taken up into royal dignity, Sama is said not to be chosen by the Lord for the kingdom. From this, then, from this let the simple and the disobedient gather how penally they thrust themselves forward to preeminence, if Almighty God does not receive even him for governance who is called "hearing" through the humility of obedience. And because holy Church has many of this kind, both simple and well-living, as well as humble and wise, it follows: (Verse 10.) And so Jesse brought all his sons before Samuel. And Samuel said: "The Lord has not chosen from these."

14. Because perfection is usually signified by the number seven, the prophet Isaiah testifies, who, declaring the gifts of the Holy Spirit abiding in our Redeemer, says: "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him" (Isaiah 11:2). What then does it mean that those who are rejected from the office of preaching are signified by the number seven, when that same number signifies perfection, which no one possesses except from the infusion of the Holy Spirit? But this is fittingly asserted: because to many the grace of the Holy Spirit is given for living well, but is not given for teaching. Since they are many and perfect in good works, they are fittingly contained in the number seven. Likewise, because they do robust things but do not understand subtle things, they are rejected from the governance of the kingdom. And so there are seven sons, and yet none of them is chosen for the governance of souls: because even though by living well they know how to govern themselves strongly, they are by no means able to protect others strongly through doctrine. Let the ordainer of the Church never rush so hastily in ordaining, because, even if he has many who are not suitable for undertaking the care of souls, those who can preside cannot be lacking to him. Therefore let the teacher seek earnestly, let him not cease to seek, until he can find those who are hidden. The great virtues of the elect, like treasures of almighty God, are almost always hidden in secret. For almighty God acts in the manner of fearful rich men: because lest he lose the treasures of virtues, he both places them in elect minds and conceals those very minds in secrecy. Therefore let him who desires to ordain, or rather to adorn, the head of the Church seek the hidden treasures. He desires to adorn the bride of Christ; but he cannot unless he brings forth the hidden treasures of the bridegroom for her adornment, and let him not cease until he finds those that are hidden. But why do I urge pastors to seek, when unless God brings forth the hidden [it seems one should read "the hidden ones"], they cannot be found? For what else does this mean: "You shall anoint whomever I shall show you"? Nevertheless they must be sought, because unless they are sought for a long time, they are by no means shown. For the Lord also promises that he will show, and yet the prophet strives to seek, that he may deserve to find. Whence the Lord also commands persistence in seeking, saying: "Seek and you shall find, ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). Therefore the prophet, seeking and persevering in seeking even after so many have been rejected—what does he suggest to us, except that by no dispensation should the unworthy be permitted to come to the summit of religion? For although in most affairs of the holy Church dispensation is salutary, it is certainly deadly and fatal where either the blind through ignorance, or the irreligious though learned, or those devoted to secular affairs are permitted to come to the leadership of others. For the first destroy the souls of their subjects through ignorance, the second through knowing and not doing, and the last likewise through neglecting spiritual things and following carnal and earthly things. The first indeed labor with all their strength so that what they say may be praised; the second do not know what to say; the last strive with every effort to be more abundantly honored among the great ones of the world—who indeed are so much worse than the first, inasmuch as the first wish to appear exalted in spiritual matters, while these wish to appear exalted in carnal and worldly matters. The desire of these last is to be supported by riches, to be exalted by honors, to be elevated by the friendships of the powerful of this age. From all these affections of a reprobate mind can arise neglect of the souls of subjects, contempt of Christ, and the squandering of the Church's resources. Therefore let the teacher seek, so that by no dispensation may he set the unworthy over others: because what is deadly should never be permitted. Whence it is added: "And Samuel said to Jesse: Are all your sons here?" What does it mean that he seeks another, except that the seeker ought not to rest before he deserves to find? And because often what is cast aside and despised on the outside is exalted within, it follows: (Verse 11) "Who answered: There remains yet the youngest, and he tends the sheep."

15. What is the least, if not the rejected? I mean rejected by himself, not by God: because by God one is rejected through pride; but he is rejected by himself who is considered worthless and lowly. Or he is called the least who, in comparison with others, does not appear to be anything. The rejected one, therefore, is called humble; because he sees himself despised and endures it, cares not at all to be displayed, but feeds the sheep; because he nourishes simple thoughts in the contemplation of the eternal inheritance. Of these pastures of the elect, the Lord certainly says: They shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures (John 10:9). For within they have the pastures of contemplation, without the pastures of good works. Within they enrich the mind with devotions, without they satisfy themselves with pious works. Rightly is this little one said to feed the sheep, because every chosen one is humble and is not barren, who daily does great things but does not think great things of himself. Rightly therefore he is declared not only the little one, but the shepherd: because those who are truly humble cast themselves down outwardly, but through interior fellowship they dwell in the highest and eternal pastures. For it is written: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). And what grace? If not that they may see and know the highest things, know and love them, and run toward those beloved things as ones who are well-fed and strong. And so, because he is exceedingly suitable, he is urgently commanded to be brought forth. For there follows: (Verse 11.) And Samuel said to Jesse: Send and bring him. For we shall not sit down until he comes.

16. But what does it mean, "We will not sit down until he comes"? Whom does he seek, except because in the observance of fasting the sacraments of anointing are to be celebrated? But we must attend not only to the sacraments themselves, but to the power of the sacraments. For there are certain foods which, if they are not avoided, by no means allow one to anoint kings well. Indeed, the outward affairs of the Church are certain foods of the soul, which are devoutly administered by the elect. But if the soul is satiated by the multitude of affairs, it is not perfectly permitted to enter into receiving spiritual things. Therefore, when spiritual matters are pressing, let outward things be deferred, because they must be arranged with great quietness of mind. There follows: (Verse 12.) "So he sent and brought him in." The future king is brought in when the humble are brought forth from the hiding places of their concealment. They are hidden indeed, but in pastures; because, even if they conceal themselves among the lowly and weak things of the flesh before men, great is the breadth of heavenly contemplation in which they dwell. But let us see what kind of man the one now set over others appears to be. For it follows and says: (Verse 12.) "Now he was ruddy, and of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look upon."

17. What does it mean that such great beauty of the king is affirmed, except that the person of the teacher must be adorned with great splendors of virtues? For of the Redeemer it was said: "His Spirit adorned the heavens" (Job 26:13). For the heavens are the sublime preachers. These heavens indeed were adorned by the Spirit, because they receive from the Holy Spirit the virtues by which they shine. What then does it mean that he is said to be ruddy, except that in red matter the fervor of charity is often signified? Hence also in the vestment of the high priest, scarlet twice-dyed is placed, so that he may be clothed with a twofold charity. He is therefore called ruddy through the ardor of charity, because while he displays the burning precepts of charity, he glows red, as it were, through the heat. What likewise does "handsome in appearance" mean, except conspicuous in inner contemplation? For he has, as it were, a handsome appearance, who shines with the beauty of vision in inner contemplation. What then does the face signify, except the outward glory of uprightness? For since everyone is recognized by the face, the beauty of the face is the illustrious uprightness of one's manner of life. For he is perceived, as it were, through the beauty of his face, who is found to be splendid in every gesture of his body. He is therefore ruddy with love, handsome in appearance on account of knowledge, fair of face, splendid in uprightness. But since the fervor of charity is demonstrated through holy works, the labor of work itself can be signified by the redness. For he who labors greatly displays a redness of face, because while he grows hot within, he draws redness outwardly upon his countenance. For so it is with all spiritual labor. For the more each person strives to labor for eternal life, the more fervently he is kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit to labor, as though in growing hot he produces a redness that he bears outwardly. The teacher is therefore ruddy through the labor of pious work, handsome in appearance through the splendor of contemplation. But the beauty of face is the very beauty of charity. For through other virtues we receive the form of holiness; through charity itself, we clothe that very form upon ourselves with, as it were, a wondrous beauty. Those other virtues are the body of justice, but charity is rightly understood as the face of this body. For everyone is recognized by the face, not by the body. For if you see the body but do not see the face, you do not recognize the one whose body alone you behold. But what else does it mean that the foolish virgins are answered by the bridegroom: "I do not know you" (Matt. 25:12)? Behold, virginity is preserved through great labors, and virginity itself is recognized as a great and incomparable virtue. What then does it mean that the foolish virgins are not recognized by the bridegroom, except that they have a body by which they stand, but they do not have the beauty of face that the bridegroom would recognize? They have indeed labor in preserving the body, but they do not have the beauty of countenance in perfect charity. For these three things advance in the life of the elect in the order in which they are set forth. For no one is able to possess the beautiful visions of contemplation unless he first exercises himself vigorously in the labor of pious work. Indeed, the joys of eternal light, the immensity of that supreme light, the eternal vigor of ineffable splendor—the more laboriously it is sought, the more generously it opens itself to those who seek it. He who is already such is indeed seen to be fit for teaching; but unless he shines with a fair face, unless he bears a mind illuminated by the rays of perfect charity, he is not proven worthy of so great an eminence. Let the pastor therefore be ruddy, and not be slack in work; let him be handsome in appearance, that is, lofty in contemplation; let him be fair of face, so that the whole strength of his work and the height of his contemplation, known to the eyes of the heavenly majesty, may shine through the ineffable beauty of charity. Indeed, because the teacher of the holy Church must possess these three marks of immense beauty, Peter is taken up on behalf of all and is asked three times whether he loves the Redeemer. For first it is said to him: "Peter, do you love me?" (John 21:16), that through love he may strive to do mighty deeds; second, that in contemplating he may know lofty things; third, that with the affection of perfect charity he may both burn with fervor toward his neighbor and blaze more ardently toward the beauty of his Creator. Let us then hear by what testimony such a one, so great, so handsome, so fair a youth, is brought forth. For there follows: (Verse 12) "Arise and anoint him, for this is he."

18. What does it mean, "Arise, and anoint him"? Was the boy so small that he could not be anointed while sitting? For indeed, while sitting, we cannot reach high things. Great therefore is the virtue, great the loftiness of the humble, if not even prophets can reach their heights. The prophet therefore arises when the pontiff raises himself in wondrous veneration of the chosen preacher. For outwardly he beholds a humble person, as it were, by seeing; but inwardly he does not recognize his merit unless he raises himself in interior contemplation. The teacher is therefore commanded to arise, because he who wishes to bestow such great sacraments upon someone must first come to know the sublimity of that person's merits. What then does it mean when it is said, "Arise, and anoint him, for he is the one," if not: offer sublime sacraments sublimely to the sublime? For often undiscerning pastors know the negligent and reprobate life of those who approach, and yet do not fear to promote them. These indeed anoint but do not arise, because they do not perceive those to whom they grant the sacraments of anointing as situated in a high place of merits. When therefore a sublime teacher is presented, his ordainer is admonished to arise, because the sacraments of anointing are worthily bestowed through ministry when the one to be anointed is perceived in the lofty sublimity of virtue. Of him indeed it is said, "For he is the one": if therefore he is the one, no other is; because unless he shines with these virtues, he necessarily cannot attain to an order of such great loftiness. Him therefore whom the Lord promised He would show, He presented as ruddy and handsome in appearance and fair of face, saying, "For he is the one." Because no one ought to undertake the summit of governance who does not possess the strength of great work, namely the knowledge of contemplation and the fervor of charity. Rightly therefore it is added: (Verse 13.) "Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers."

19. The horn of oil is lifted up, so that the entire life of the pontiff may be shown to be spiritual. The horn of oil is lifted up, so that in that excellent liquid the master of the Church may strive to be a man of great mercy. The head of the king is anointed with oil, because he ought to shine upon the lampstand through the flame of the word. The horn receives oil, so that by rebuking he may cleanse, and by showing compassion he may draw others through gentleness. The horn also receives, in the loftiness of office, oil for the nourishment of virtue. But he is anointed with a full horn, so that the virtue of the pontiff may be shown to be complete. For the horn has fullness in its anointing if he is perfect in the virtue of mercy as well as in charity and in the word. He is also recognized as having a full horn in his anointing whose every power is dispensed through mercy. Indeed, the very authority of the holy Church, when it is without mercy, is nothing; for the rigor of discipline is spiritual only when it is not devoid of the balm of mercy. Therefore the horn and the oil are shown together, so that discipline may always be maintained with mercy. For the horn is said to be full of oil, so that wherever the horn displays its sharpness, it may also display the anointing of poured-out grace. But when the anointing is brought to anoint the king, the horn is seen on the outside, while the fullness of oil is hidden within. Let the prophet therefore carry the horn on the outside, but fill it with oil within; let him set forth the text on the outside, but declare the mysteries within. Let the prophet therefore know what he bestows; let the anointed king know, by receiving what is offered, what he must do. What then does it mean that the horn is on the outside and the oil within, except that often the hardness of subjects deserves to feel the rebuke of the pastor, yet fails to perceive something of his mercy? The ruler therefore displays the horn, in which the oil lies hidden; because when someone is sharply corrected out of charity, the punishment is felt, but the charity is not seen. For the ruler appears harsh who rebukes in such a way as if he does not love; he reproves as if he vehemently hates. What then is perceived by those who are stung with compunction, except the sharpness of the horn by which they are struck more keenly? But because the pastor deeply loves within the one whom he strikes outwardly by reproving, what else does he do but show the horn by rebuking while hiding the oil by loving? Therefore a full horn is declared in the anointing of the king, so that in the chosen preacher both qualities may be shown to be perfect. For he ought to be sharp in reproving, gentle in showing mercy. Let him strike perfectly, so that he may perfectly pierce the whole force of the disease; let him anoint perfectly through mercy, so that he may restore to health the wounds he inflicts. For if he strikes less forcefully than he ought, he fails to expel what lies deeper hidden. And if he strikes forcefully but does not anoint abundantly, he kills the one struck through severity and does not restore him to health. Let the horn therefore be whole, and the fullness of oil complete, so that through the horn wounds may be struck with severity, and through the oil they may be soothed.

20. But what does it mean that he is anointed in the midst of his brothers, except that he is commanded to spread examples of virtue all around? He is anointed in the midst of his brothers so that all may be able to become partakers of so great an anointing. For he who is placed in the midst is seen from every side. He is anointed with oil in the midst of others because he who is set up as an example for others ought to have no part of himself obscure, so that all may look upon him and take from him an example of light. Hence also the holy living creatures are described as having eyes all around (Ezek. 1), because when the chosen teacher receives the ardor of charity, the power of mercy, and the zeal for righteousness from the gift of the Holy Spirit, he dwells as it were in a sphere of light, which renders him radiant from every side to those standing around him. Or he is anointed in the midst of his brothers so that he may always consider himself both anointed and in the middle. Let him therefore acknowledge his dignity and exercise the force of that dignity, because he has been anointed. Let him see himself as one in the middle, a man of common condition, so that he may recognize that those over whom he stands are his equals. He is therefore anointed in the midst of his brothers so that he may be both humble and exalted—exalted in rank, humble in self-estimation. Likewise, he is anointed in the middle so that he may not love himself with private affection, but from all his preeminence may seek the gain of others. Hence Saul is reported to have been anointed alone at the farthest part of the city (1 Sam. 9). For what does it mean that he is anointed alone by one alone, except that he was destined to swell with pride over the power of his high position through private self-love! For when he wished to love himself singularly on account of the dignity he had received, he carried the nourishment of light, as it were, alone. Hence also the boy who accompanied him is sent ahead, because none of the elect follows the examples of him who is rejected by divine authority. David, therefore, is anointed in the midst of his brothers, because the chosen teacher does not glory with singular love in that by which he is raised to singular heights. And because spiritual gifts are heaped upon chosen rulers through the ministry of men, it is added: (v. 13) "And the Spirit of the Lord was directed upon David from that day forward."

21. For the Spirit of the Lord is directed after the anointing: because we receive the sacraments outwardly, so that we may be filled inwardly with the grace of the Holy Spirit. For outwardly man operates, inwardly God, and not man. For outwardly man rises, inwardly the spirit directs itself: because man bestows upon man the order of religion, but the spirit is directed into him upon whom the order is conferred, so that outwardly he may receive the sublimity of the order, and inwardly the strength of the Holy Spirit. Outwardly the order is entrusted, so that he may do the things that are of God; inwardly the spirit is directed, so that he may powerfully accomplish what is enjoined. For great is the burden of holy orders, great the frailty of the flesh. Therefore, because so great a burden is entrusted to one who is weak, the spirit is directed: so that the weak one may be strengthened, and may bear so great a burden all the more willingly, the more powerfully the almighty spirit itself helps him to bear it. But the spirit is said to be directed, so that, turned away from the proud king, it may be perceived. Therefore the spirit directs itself into another, when the grace of the same spirit flees the proud and the deceitful. Whence it is also written: "The Spirit of the Lord of discipline will flee from the deceitful" (Wis. 1:7). Hence also He says through Himself in the Gospel: "The Spirit breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, and you do not know whence He comes or where He goes" (John 3:8). The Spirit indeed comes and goes, because He abandons the reprobate and takes up the elect. And because the judgment of almighty God is inscrutable, man does not know whence He comes and where He goes: because it cannot be known whether anyone ought to persevere forever in the grace which he receives. The spirit is therefore said to come from him who has fallen away, and to go to him who will persevere: because He abandons some in time, takes up others, and yet does not abandon them. Whence also, as a type of the elect, it is said of David: "The Spirit of the Lord was directed upon David from that day and for the remainder." He is directed indeed on the day of anointing, when we so receive the sacraments of Christ outwardly that we are filled inwardly with the grace of the Holy Spirit. And the spirit is directed "for the remainder," who never departs from the grace which he receives. This grace of the directed spirit we ascribe to preachers in such a way that we attribute it to all orders of the holy Church. For whoever receives the faith of our Redeemer is reborn through the baptism of our redemption, and is redeemed from all sin by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Whence also, suggesting the gift of the same Holy Spirit to the elect who have been redeemed, the Apostle Paul says: "In whom you were sealed on the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). If therefore we consider the people formerly proud in circumcision losing the Holy Spirit, we see equally the direction of the same spirit into those who are baptized. In whom indeed we are directed, because through pride they lost the grace of the Holy Spirit. What then does it mean, what is said, "From that day and for the remainder," unless that the grace of the Holy Spirit is so received that the elect are taught to persevere in it even to the end? Many indeed after the remission of sins commit sins unto death, in whom assuredly the spirit does not appear to be directed "for the remainder." Therefore the spirit is directed in the elect alone "from that day for the remainder," because for the reprobate, at the beginning of their faith, sins are forgiven through the Holy Spirit, but they afterward lose the grace of the Holy Spirit through iniquity. For He is directed "for the remainder," but in David, because David is interpreted as "strong of hand." He is indeed strong of hand who prevails over the devil and holds through perseverance unto the end the good that he has received. Of whom the Lord certainly says: "He who perseveres unto the end shall be saved" (Matt. 10:22). But if the state of the universal Church is considered, we see the Spirit of the Lord directed upon David "for the remainder": because the grace of the Holy Spirit began to fill the elect of the holy Church from the very beginnings of that same Church, whom He does not cease to guard even to the end of the world.

22. Now indeed, according to our plan, the book ought to be brought to a close at its end; but it returns to memory that we referred the beginnings of the volume to the conversation of the Redeemer. And since through John our same Redeemer is declared to be the beginning and the end, the book is most fittingly closed if it is completed in the narration of our Redeemer (Rev. 1:8). David, therefore, meaning "strong of hand," represents the Redeemer of the human race Himself, who prevailed over the ancient enemy and carried away the elect from his power. He is called the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, because He willed to be born from that people whom He filled, as it were with bread, with the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. For Judea was the "house of bread," which possessed the solid food of the Scriptures in spiritual understanding, as if from bread. But what does Samuel signify, except, as we have already often said, the order of the new preachers? And what does David represent, except the Redeemer? Samuel is therefore sent to anoint him. For to anoint him is to preach his incomparable sanctification to those who are ignorant of it. For he is, as it were, anointed when the fragrance of his renown is opened to those who do not know him. For he was anointing him who said: "Because in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily" (Col. 2:9). But why do we take only the new preachers as pertaining to his anointing, when we see that the old ones also anointed him so reverently? For what smells better and sweeter than what the prophet Isaiah poured out upon him, saying: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety; and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him" (Isa. 11:2)? Likewise, he who is held in our hands, David, speaking to him, says: "Beautiful in form above the sons of men, grace is poured forth upon your lips" (Ps. 44:3). And shortly after: "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions." Moreover, Daniel anointed him and offered the whole sacrament of anointing to the Jews, saying: "When the Holy of Holies shall come, your anointing shall cease" (Dan. 9). The prophet is therefore sent to anoint him, because the fragrance of him is never grasped by the little ones unless it is spread abroad through the mouths of preachers. Whence also those three women prepare spices and anoint the Redeemer in the tomb (Mark 16). Jesus is indeed anointed in the tomb when the glory of his resurrection is preached. Whence also when they come, Jesus is not found; because when they rightly discuss the Lord's death, they show that the dead one is already rising, and as it were by coming they do not find him; because where they rightly understand the cause of his death, they find that life has been restored through that death.

23. But what does it mean that he is commanded to fill the horn with oil? For what was the severity of the law, if not the sharpness of a horn? For it struck as if with a horn, since it did not pardon sins through mercy, but punished them by inflicting penalty. The horn, therefore, is filled with oil, because such a King is anointed who mercifully forgives the sins of men, not punishing through the severity of the law. For they were holding forth the horn of Moses, who said to the Lord concerning the woman who had been caught in adultery: "Moses commands that such a woman be stoned; what do You say about her?" (John 8:5). But He who had been anointed with the full horn says: "Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her." That man had taken up the horn for striking, as it were, who said: "If this man were a prophet, He would know who and what sort of woman this is who touches Him, for she is a sinner" (Luke 7:39). But Jesus, who had been anointed from the fullness of the horn, forgave everything, saying: "Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much." Hence to those murmuring about His reception of sinners He says: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matt. 9:13). The prophet is therefore sent with a full horn to anoint David, because teachers now preach Him who dissolved the harshness of the law, and restored through the warmth of His grace everything that it had set forth rigidly. Was he not anointing Him—he who was sent to anoint Him—of whom it is said: "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John: he came as a witness, to bear witness to the light" (John 1:6)? But we have heard how he was sent; let us hear how he anoints: "Behold," he says, "the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29).

24. By the horn, namely of his kingdom, the sublimity of the holy Church can be designated, which is great, but is not harsh and proud. Concerning this horn it is said above through Hannah, the mother of Samuel: 'He will exalt the horn of his Christ' (1 Sam. 2:10). For hence it is said through Zechariah: 'He has raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David his servant' (Luke 1:69). What indeed is the horn of salvation, if not the sublimity of ecclesiastical power? For what is nowhere said to the ancients is now said to the universal Church: 'Whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven' (Matt. 16:19). This horn is indeed said to be raised up and full of oil, because the holy Church, together with the sublimity of power, extends the bowels of compassion. And because through the vice of condemned humanity we can more easily be lifted up to the authority of power than bent to the tenderness of piety, rightly he is commanded not to prepare a horn, but oil. For he who says, "Fill your horn with oil," indicated that the horn existed without oil. What is this, except that we can grow angry and rebuke even without deliberation, but we cannot be bent to mercy except through great meditation? As if he were saying: Fill with oil the zeal which you naturally have; for if you do not have it of yourself, you can have it from virtue. This is certainly said to him who is sent to anoint the Redeemer, so that he who is placed in the office of preaching may always strive to be rich in mercy.

25. By this horn the affection of the mind can be shown. This horn is certainly commanded to be filled, because the anointing of our Redeemer, that is, His sanctification, ought to be perfectly known before it can be sufficiently preached. The horn is therefore filled when the holiness of the Redeemer is well recognized. And he is anointed with a full horn when He is preached most excellently. For John, because he had come to anoint by preaching, as it were filled the horn by knowing, so that he might be able to anoint Him by speaking well. But if we wish to understand the filling well, let us hear what is said in the Gospel: "The word came upon John the son of Zacharias in the desert" (Luke 3:2). He therefore anointed Him with a full horn, who was first perfectly taught by the Word before he could speak of the divinity of the Word and the assumed nature of man. But coming, he had a calf in his hand; because, in order to become a worthy herald of the Redeemer, he slaughtered his own flesh to God through abstinence. By the name of calf the Lord Himself can also be designated. What then does it mean that the prophet carried a calf in his hand, except that he who wishes to show forth Jesus by preaching ought to imitate the sufferings of Him whom he preaches through the mortification of the flesh? Indeed, to hold a calf in the hand is to show the likeness of Christ's passion in the power of one's works. For otherwise, he who comes to anoint the king is slain; because indeed the preacher of truth brings himself into danger of his own salvation, who tramples by wicked conduct the word that he preaches with his mouth. Samuel therefore, coming to anoint the king, carried a calf in his hand; because the forerunner of the Lord first showed himself admirable through the splendor of a heavenly way of life, and thus made known the good of so great a grace to those who did not know it.

26. But what does it mean that he is commanded to seek among the sons of Jesse, except that He was to be born from the ancient people and was to have no equal? He is therefore commanded to be sought, so that we might believe in Him with reason. And because He says of Himself: "No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44), it is rightly said to Samuel by the Father: "You shall anoint the one whom I shall show you." For he had anointed, as it were, one who was shown to him—he who heard from the one whom he had anointed: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 16:17). He is sent therefore to Bethlehem, because when Christ is sought according to the flesh, He is found born from the people of the Jews. He came also to Bethlehem, because the order of preachers strove first to convert Judea, and afterward preached the faith of the Redeemer to the Gentiles. But what does it mean that the elders of the city marvel, except that those who had attained the understanding of maturity were astonished at the preaching of so great a novelty? But marveling, they come to meet him, because they gladly hear the preaching of the truth. To come to meet preachers is to hear with desire the word of faith that they preach. What do they ask about his peaceful entrance? What is a peaceful entrance, except when he has come with the presence of peace? This same peace He shows who says: "He Himself is our peace, who has made both one" (Eph. 2:14). What does it mean, then, that they ask about his peaceful entrance, except that the hearts of the elect Jews were waiting with desire for the promise of the fathers? As if wavering, those who were waiting might say: "Has the peace perhaps come, which foretold that it would come, so great a span of time running ahead?" And because the new teachers relate that what the ancient fathers had promised has been fulfilled, they say: "It is peaceful." As if to say: We do not promise future things, but we show the present gifts of peace. In our entrance it is present; in our word it is not something future. Already the righteous Simeon saw, already he held and adored Him, saying: "Now you dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to your word in peace" (Luke 2:29). Already He appeared to the shepherds; already, with the long-awaited peace sent from heaven, the multitude of angels sang: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will" (Luke 2:14). And because He had come not only to preach peace but also to persuade, he adds, saying: "I have come to sacrifice."

27. What is it for a priest to sacrifice, except to join the hearts of the elect to our Redeemer through love? As if he were saying: You wish to know whether he has come, but it does not profit to be known unless it profits to be loved. I have come therefore to sacrifice to the Lord. Hence it is that Paul expels those in whom he could not sacrifice, saying: "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema" (1 Cor. 16:22). But to those invited to the sacrifice it is said: "Sanctify yourselves, and come." The Jews therefore cannot come with us to the sacrifice of faith, because they refuse to judge the Lord Jesus from the Scriptures, but out of hatred alone they flee from hearing his preaching. Whence the Lord complains through himself, saying: "If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have no excuse, because they have seen and hated both me and my Father" (John 15:24). What then is the meaning of what is said: "Sanctify yourselves, and come"? But for hearers to be sanctified is to prepare the secret place of a pure mind for hearing. For them to be sanctified is indeed to cast hatred from the heart, and to prepare purity of intention for hearing the word of preaching. Therefore the sanctified are commanded to come, because coming profits nothing for those who do not have purity of intention in hearing. And because the Holy Spirit speaks through holy teachers, he says: "Come with me" — as if to say: Attend to the one speaking in such a way that you believe the one hearing is with you, because I speak in such a way that I hear, since I myself am the one who speaks and governs the speaking. And because at the beginning of the nascent Church many of the Jews both heard devoutly and believed faithfully, it is rightly said that Jesse and his sons were sanctified by Samuel and invited to the sacrifice.

28. But among the seven sons of Jesse, the king is not found. For what are the seven sons of Jesse, if not all the perfect ones of the Synagogue? They come to the prophet, but none of them is chosen, because the chosen preacher both looks upon the perfect sons of the Synagogue and believes none of them to be the Redeemer of the human race. He therefore brings forward all the older sons, so that when we look upon all the perfect ones, we may consider the excellence of the Redeemer. Among whom indeed, unless the little one is brought forward, the king is not revealed by the Lord, because surely when we compare great men to our Redeemer, how greatly His dignity surpasses theirs is seen. He is therefore not found among the others, because they are mere men. Therefore the boy who tends the sheep is sought in the pastures, because He submits Himself to the Father in obedience even unto death; yet who shall declare His generation (Isa. 53:8)? He is called the little one because the grace of His humility is commended. He is therefore called the little one, who is declared by the Psalmist to have been made lower than the angels (Ps. 8). But the little one tends the sheep, because through humility He is lowly, and through majesty He is exalted. Here He labors and hungers, but there He feeds the angels from the glory of His majesty. For while all receive from the fullness of His glory, they are, as it were, satisfied in those most blessed pastures by the boy. The little one is also declared to be the shepherd, because over the assumption of His flesh the heavenly citizens rejoice ineffably. For that ineffable joy of the blessed citizens is, as it were, the food of the sheep. He is therefore commanded to be brought forward urgently; until He comes, the reclining at table must necessarily be postponed. For they would have reclined at table before He came, if the people had believed in another. Therefore He had to be awaited, who was the singular and unique food of blessed souls. Whence He also says of Himself: I am the living bread which came down from heaven (John 6:51). But because He who ascended is the same one who descended (Eph. 4:10), He is sent there so that He may be brought forward. For to send to the pastures is to extend the mind above the angels even to the equality of the eternal Father. And to find Him is to believe Him equal to the supreme Father in all things. But he brings Him forward who already declares that He came for the Redemption of the human race through the humanity He assumed. For he had sent and brought Him forward—he to whom one is sent in His type—when he said: He who comes from heaven is above all (John 3:31). Isaiah was bringing forward the little one tending the sheep when he said: A little child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, Mighty, Father of the age to come, Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). But because the faith of a teacher profits only himself for salvation and not also his hearers, He is commanded to be sent and brought forward, so that each one may have faith in Him through which he may deserve to be saved. For each one must go and bring Him, because they must firmly believe Him to be equal to the eternal Father through His divinity, and a partaker of our nature through His humanity.

29. Of whose description it is also said: "He was ruddy, and beautiful in appearance, and fair of face." Ruddy indeed, because he was wounded by the lance; ruddy, because he was reddened by his Passion. Whence also it is said to him through the prophet: "Why is your garment red?" (Isa. 63:2). He was indeed ruddy, who colored the brightness of such great innocence with the redness of his precious blood. He was also beautiful in appearance, because by rising again he put on the beauty of immortality, and looked upon us mortals with great love. For as if promising the beauty of his appearance to his disciples, he says: "I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice" (John 16:22). Hence also promising, he says: "I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come, and will take you to myself, that where I am, you also may be." What is the beauty of the face, but the glory of his majesty? For his face is perfect knowledge. Paul also, recalling this, says: "We see now through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, just as I also have been known" (1 Cor. 13:12). What then is the beauty of the face, but the splendor of eternal divinity? This beauty is now believed, not seen; then it will not be believed, but seen, because the apostle says: "When he shall appear, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). Whence also to Moses, seeking that same beauty of the face, he replied: "You shall see my back" (Exod. 33:23). Whatever we can now contemplate of his divinity is not the beauty itself, but a veil over the beauty. We behold the back, so that we may follow; but when by following we arrive at him, we behold the front, that is, the beauty of his face. He was therefore ruddy in this world, beautiful in paradise, and eternally fair of face in heaven. And this threefold beauty can also be recognized in his manner of life in this present world. He was indeed ruddy, because he ardently loved those for whom he laid down his life. He was beautiful in appearance, because he knew all things. Fair of face, because he did all things well. But what is that beauty of appearance? "No one knows the Father except the Son" (Matt. 11:27). Peter also, marveling at this, says: "Now we know that you know all things, and it is not necessary for anyone to question you" (John 16:30). The crowds who beheld him bear witness to the beauty of his face, who say: "He has done all things well; he has made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak" (Mark 7:37). Hence also others, marveling, say: "What manner of man is this, that the winds and the sea obey him?" (Matt. 8:27). What then is the beauty of the face, but the beauty of holiness? What likewise is the beauty of the face, but the splendor of his incomparable way of life? Because in everything he did, he shone with the incomparable light of grace. The Psalmist, marveling at this beauty of face, says: "You are beautiful in form beyond the sons of men; grace is poured forth upon your lips" (Ps. 44:3). Paul, proclaiming this, says: "Who, being the splendor of his glory and the figure of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, making purgation of sins, sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having been made so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did he ever say: 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you'?" (Heb. 1:3). Concerning him, therefore, it is rightly commanded to the prophet: "Arise, and anoint him, for this is he."

30. Peter the apostle also, not only a prophet but the greatest patriarch, saw the indescribable light poured from above, the overshadowing cloud, the Father crying out: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 17:5; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; 2 Pet. 1:17). There it is said: "He himself is." Here it is said: "This is my beloved Son." There, because he was being shown in types, he is perceived as more absent, when it is said: "He himself is." Here, however, because his glory was now revealed, he is perceived as more present, because he says: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." He therefore is to be anointed, he is to be praised, and to be soothed with perpetual acclamations. But who could worthily suffice to praise him, when one cannot suffice even to behold the glory that one praises? What does it mean that Peter falls when he hears the voice resounding with words of such great proclamation? But he was a little one; he was still seeing what he was not sufficient to see. He was seeing, and because by seeing he was falling, this signifies that he could not attain to that which he deserved to see. No one can say "Lord Jesus" except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Because therefore Peter had not yet received that fullness of the Spirit, he was unable, as a little one, to proclaim Jesus. Therefore he is first commanded to rise and to tell the vision to no one until he had risen from the dead. For after the resurrection he was about to receive the Holy Spirit. Whence it is written: "The Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified" (John 7:39). Peter therefore ought not to tell the vision before the resurrection, since indeed he saw well, but before he had the Spirit, he did not understand.

31. What then is it that the Lord says to Samuel: "Rise, and anoint him"? What is it that he is commanded to rise in order to anoint, unless that he who eagerly desires to proclaim the sublimity of the Lord must be greatly lifted up to heavenly things? But how upright was Peter, who was raised up to behold such great things? Yet if he still awaits a higher state of perfection, who would not fear to undertake the office of so great a preaching? If the Lord admonishes a prophet to rise, does he dare to preach the Lord who lies fallen through the lapse of wickedness? For this is why every preacher is commanded through Isaiah: "Go up onto a high mountain, you who evangelize Zion" (Isa. 40:9). The high mountain is the perfection of teaching and of works. Let him therefore rise who is commanded to anoint the king; let him stretch himself toward lofty things. Let him rise in lofty work, let him rise in lofty contemplation, let him rise in the wisdom of the word, let him rise in the power of charity. Indeed, he who is anointed through preaching is so great that he can scarcely be reached even from the heights. And perhaps Paul was able to anoint him because he says: "Our conversation is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). He was able to anoint him because he had raised himself to the secrets of the third heaven and heard hidden words in paradise. Because, therefore, the Lord Jesus ought to be preached sublimely by the sublime, the prophet is commanded to rise, because he is ordered to anoint the one through whom Christ himself is signified. Lofty indeed, nay most lofty, is this virtue of perfect conduct, yet it is perfectly accomplished by many. Great indeed is this sublimity, yet holy Church possesses many who are sublime. For from the time she rejected the Synagogue, she raised up holy Church to an innumerable height of virtue. Rightly therefore it is said: "And the Spirit of the Lord was directed upon David from that day forward." The day indeed is faith in the Redeemer, in which holy Church is illuminated and the rejected Synagogue is cast down in wondrous blindness. On that day, therefore, the Holy Spirit is directed upon David, because his grace is taken from the Synagogue and given to the elect of holy Church. For he is directed because he abandons those and takes up these. But he is directed on the day because he who is not illuminated in faith in the Redeemer cannot have the Spirit directing himself within him. The Spirit, therefore, is directed on the day because he is given to those who possess the light of faith. Moreover, he is directed upon David because only holy Church receives him, which is the body of the Redeemer. But since, with God as author, we have completed the things we proposed to treat from the Book of Kings, the supreme and almighty Spirit must be entreated that he who brought forth his words through whomever he willed may grant both to the writer and to the reader the disposition of virtue. Amen.