Sidenote: Deut. xxi. 15.
1. IN a previous letter I said that the soul ought to be delivered
from its adversaries, and a bond of life which shall be inseparable
entered into with it. And inasmuch as my discourse took as a proof of
its assertion that passage in the Book of Deuteronomy which speaks of
the man who had two wives, one beloved and the other hated, you seem to
have felt much concern lest any one should suppose this man had taken
to himself two souls, which is impossible.
2. But you yourself know that sometimes, when Scripture uses allegory,
it refers some things to the figure of the Synagogue, some to that
of the Church; some things to the soul, others to the mystery of the
Word, others to souls of different kinds and qualities, which he who
has spiritual discernment can distinguish. And so I conceive that it
is not two souls, but different qualities of the same soul, which are
treated of in the following chapter of the Law. For there is an amiable
kind of soul, which desires pleasure, which shuns labour, shrinks
from compunction, slights the judgments of God. It is amiable because
it seems gentle and sweet for the time, and one that soothes rather
than distresses the mind. But there is another severer kind, which is
consumed with zeal for God, which, like a strict wife, will not permit
or suffer her consort to commit whoredoms, allows no indulgence to the
body, gives no licence to delight or pleasure, renounces the hidden
deeds of shame, devotes herself to arduous labours and to severe perils.
Sidenote: Ib. 16.
Sidenote: Exod. xiii. 2.
S. Luke ii. 23.
3. If therefore both have borne children, _he may not_, it is said,
_when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, make the son
of the beloved first[174] before the son of the hated, which is indeed
the first_. The meaning of which I conceive not to be so much a simple
preference as between two first ones, but rather a declaration that
the son of the hated wife alone has the prerogative of being first. Now
the word ‘primitivus’ means as first-born[175], and the first-born are
holy, for _every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the
Lord_. Nevertheless all first-born are not holy, for Esau who was the
first-born was not holy.
Sidenote: Numb. iii. 12, 13.
Sidenote: Heb. xii. 22.
Sidenote: Gen. xxix. 34.
4. But the holy are the first-born, for it is written in Numbers;
_Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel
instead of all the first-born that openeth the matrix among the
children of Israel. For on the day that I smote all the first-born in
the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto Me all the first-born in Israel._
Wherefore He took the Levites for the first-born, as being holy,
for we know that the holy are first-born from the Epistle to the
Hebrews, where it is written, _But ye are come to Mount Sion, and
unto the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels
and to the Church of the first-born_. Wherefore as the first-born of
the Church are holy, so also are the Levites, for they also are the
first-born. For it is not by the order of their birth but by the gift
of sanctification that they are holy; Levi being the third son of Leah
and not the first.
Sidenote: Ps. lviii. 3.
Sidenote: Gal. i. 15.
Sidenote: S. John i. 26.
5. But he who is sanctified himself opens the womb. What womb? Hear
the words, _As soon as they are born they go astray_. As you have
understood the first-born who opens the womb, so understand here the
womb of the good mother, from which it is not saints, but sinners who
go astray. But the Levites are taken away from the midst of Israel,
because they have nothing in common with the people, whose earthly
first-born are destroyed. The first-born of the world are of another
mother, from whose womb Paul was separated when he was called to the
grace of God. He received the Word Who is in the midst of our hearts.
Whence it is said also, _There standeth One among you, Whom ye know
not_.
Sidenote: Deut. xxi. 16.
Sidenote: Gen. xlv. 22.
6. This digression then of ours from one part of the Law to the other,
for the purpose of shewing that the first-born is not the son of the
beloved, that is of the more remiss and voluptuous wife, has not been
needless, although the words of the chapter before us express the same
truth: _He may not make the son of the beloved first-born before the
son of the hated, which is indeed the first-born_. He is indeed the
first-born who is the holy son of a holy mother; just as she is indeed
the mother, from whose womb not her true sons but sinners go astray.
Wherefore the former is not the son of the true mother, nor the true
first-born, but as though he were so, subsistence is indeed provided
for him that he may not want, but he is not honoured, that he may
become rich. But the other has received double from all, that he may
abound; just as in Genesis each of the patriarchs had two changes of
raiment given to them by their brother Joseph, when they were sent back
to their father to tell him that he whom he had believed to be dead was
found.
Sidenote: Deut. xxi. 17.
Sidenote: Rev. i. 8.
Sidenote: Gen. xxi. 10.
7. Thus the first-born has received the prerogative of inheritance,
as the Scripture says, _He is the beginning of his strength, the right
of the first-born is his_. Thus from the first-born Son of God the
first-born are holy, and from that beginning, (for He is the Beginning
and the Ending,) the beginning is called holy, the beginning is the
son to whom the prerogative of the first-fruits is due, according to
that which was said to Abraham, _Cast out this bondwoman and her son,
for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with
Isaac_.
Sidenote: Ib. xxi. 12.
8. Now the Divine Oracle teaches us that this relates to the
inheritance of virtues rather than that of mercy, for the Lord says,
_In all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for
in Isaac shall thy seed be called_. What other inheritance was there
in Isaac which could ennoble his father, but that of sanctity? The
son of the handmaid indeed he set over the Gentiles, as bestowing upon
him a simple portion of his patrimony, but to the son of Sarah he gave
a double portion, for on him he bestowed not only temporal but also
heavenly and eternal things.
Farewell: love me, for I love you.