1. THE Prophets indeed announced the gathering together of the
Gentiles, and the future establishment of the Church; but as the Church
sees not only the continuous progress of strong souls, but likewise the
relapse of weak ones, and their subsequent conversion, we are able to
gather from the Prophetical books both how the gracious and strong soul
advances without stumbling, and also how the weak soul falls, and how
she repairs her falls and recovers her steps.
Sidenote: Mic. v. 2.
2. Accordingly as in the Song of Songs we read of this continuous
progress of blessed souls, so let us now consider, as set forth in the
prophet Micah, concerning whom we have begun to speak, the conversion
of a fallen soul. For it is not without good reason that the prophet’s
words, _But thou Bethlehem Ephratah_, excited your attention. For how
can that house where Christ was born be the house of wrath? Such is,
indeed, what the name of the place signifies, but certain mysterious
operations are declared thereby.
Sidenote: Ib. i. 1.
Sidenote: S. Matt. xi. 27.
Sidenote: Mic. i. 1.
3. Let us first consider what Micah signifies in Latin. It means ‘Who
is from God,’ or as we find elsewhere ‘who is this man,’ the son of
the Morasthite, that is, the heir? Now, who is this heir, but the Son
of God, Who says, _All things are given unto Me of My Father_; and Who,
being Himself the Heir, would have us His co-heirs. And well may we
say ‘Who is that man?’ not one of the people, but chosen to receive the
grace of God, in whom the Holy Spirit speaks, who began to prophesy _in
the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah_. By which order
is signified the course of the vision, for the progress is from the
times of evil kings to that of a good king.
Sidenote: Ib. iv. 8.
Sidenote: Isa. v. 2.
4. Thus as the afflicted soul was first oppressed under evil kings, let
us consider what was the progress of her conversion. Being weak she was
overthrown, and all her fences were made as a way for the passers-by,
or for the inroads of passion; dissolved in luxury and pleasure, she
was trodden down and removed from the presence of the Lord. Her _tower
was decayed_, that tower which, as we read in the song of Isaiah, was
placed in the midst of a choice vineyard. Now this is the case with
the tower, when the vine is withered, and her flock wanders; but when
the verdure of the vine comes back, or the sheep returns, it grows
bright again, for nothing is so decayed as iniquity, or so bright as
righteousness.
Sidenote: Rev. i. 8.
Sidenote: Mic. iv. 9.
Sidenote: Ib.
Sidenote: S. Luke xiii. 11.
5. To this tower the sheep is recalled, when the soul is recalled from
her relapse, and in that sheep that reign of Christ returns, which was
in the beginning, for He is _the Beginning and the Ending_, even the
beginning of our salvation. Still the soul is first severely rebuked,
in that she has grievously transgressed, and she is asked, _Why hast
thou learnt evil? was there no king in thee?_ that is, thou hadst a
king to govern and protect thee, thou oughtest not to have strayed
from the path of righteousness, nor to have left the ways of the Lord,
Who imparted to thee sense and reason. Where were thy thoughts and
counsels, whereby by innate vigour thou mightest have guarded against
unrighteousness and warded off transgression? Why have _pangs taken
thee, as a woman in travail_; that thou shouldest be in labour of
iniquity, and bring forth unrighteousness? For there is no greater
grief than for a man to wound his conscience with the sword of sin;
nor is there any heavier burden than the weight of sin and the load of
transgression. It bows down the soul, it bends it even to the earth, so
that it cannot raise itself. Heavy, my son, heavy indeed is the weight
of sin. Thus that woman in the Gospel, who was bowed together, and thus
bore the semblance of a heavy-laden soul, could be made straight by
Christ alone.
Sidenote: Mic. iv. 10.
Sidenote: Rom. v. 3–5.
6. To such a soul it is said, _Be in pain and labour to bring forth,
O daughter of Sion_. For the pains of child-birth work tribulation, and
_tribulation patience, and patience experience, and experience hope,
and hope maketh not ashamed_. At the same time all that is opposed
to virtue is plucked up and cast forth, lest its seeds should remain
behind and revive, and put out new buds and fruit.
Sidenote: Mic. iv. 13.
7. Nor is it without a meaning that horns and hoofs were given to
her, that she might bruise all the sheaves of the floor, like the
calf of Mount Lebanon. For unless the sheaves were bruised, and the
straw winnowed, the corn that is within cannot be found and separated.
Wherefore let the soul that would advance in virtue first bruise and
thrash out its superfluous passions, that so, when the harvest is come,
it may shew forth its fruits. How many are the weeds which choke the
good seed! These must first be rooted out, that they may not destroy
the fertile crop of the soul.
Sidenote: Prov. xiii. 24.
Sidenote: Ps. lxxxix. 32.
Sidenote: Ecclus. xxx. 1.
8. Then the provident guide of the soul has regard to this, that he
may circumscribe her pleasures and cut off her desires, that she may
not delight herself in them. That father’s corrections are profitable,
who spares not the rod, that he may render his son’s soul obedient to
salutary precepts. For he visits with a rod, as we read, _I will visit
their offences with the rod_. And so he who smites the soul of the
Israelites with a rod on the cheek, by this Divine punishment instructs
her in the discipline of patience. But no man need despair who is
chastised and corrected, for he who loveth his son chastiseth him. Let
no man therefore despair of a remedy.
Sidenote: Mic. v. 2.
Sidenote: S. Luke ii. 4.
Sidenote: S. John vi. 50.
Sidenote: S. Matt. ii. 18.
9. Behold therefore, that house which was to thee ‘the house of one
seeing wrath,’ is become ‘the house of bread;’ where rage was, there
is now piety; where the slaughter of the Innocents, there now the
redemption of all mankind, as it is written, _But thou, Bethlehem
Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out
of thee shall He come forth that is Ruler in Israel_. Bethlehem is the
house of bread; Ephratah the house of one seeing wrath. This is the
interpretation of these names. In Bethlehem Christ was born of Mary,
but Bethlehem is the same as Ephratah. Thus Christ was born in the
house of wrath, and therefore it is no longer a house of wrath, but
the house of bread, for it received that _bread which came down from
heaven_. But Ephratah is the house of one that was wrath, because while
Herod searches there for Christ, he commands the Innocents to be slain,
wherefore _In Rama was there a voice heard, Rachel weeping for her
children_.
Sidenote: Ps. cxxxii. 6.
Sidenote: S. Luke i. 42.
Sidenote: Gen. xxxv. 19.
10. But let no man fear any longer; for that rest which David sought
after _is heard of at Ephrata_, and _found in the fields of the wood_.
A wood, as yet, was the assembly of the Gentiles, but after it believed
in Christ it became fruitful, receiving the fruit of the blessed womb.
And Rachel died in childbirth, because even then, as the patriarch’s
wife, she saw the wrath of Herod, which spared not the tenderest
age. Or again, because in Ephratah she gave birth to that Benjamin
who excelling in beauty came last in the order of the mystery, I mean
Paul, who before his birth caused no small grief to his Mother, by
persecuting her sons. And she died, and was buried there, that we,
dying and being buried together with Christ, may rise again in His
Church. Therefore according to another interpretation, Ephratah
signifies ‘enriched or filled with fruit.’
Sidenote: Mic. v. 2.
Sidenote: S. Matt. ii. 6.
Sidenote: S. Matt. ♦xxv. 40.
11. Now here, that is, in the book of the Prophet, we find the
expression, thou art ὀλιγοστός, that is, one of few. But in Matthew
we find, _And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not among the
few_. In one the expression is house of Ephratah, in the other house
of Juda; but this is a difference of words not of meaning. For inwardly
Judæa saw this exhibition of wrath, outwardly she suffered it. And she
is among the few, because they are few who enter the house of bread
by the narrow way. But he is not among the few, that is among those
that make progress, who knows not Christ. Nor is she the least, who is
the house of blessing, and the receptacle of Divine grace; yet in this
she is the least, for any thing which is offered to Christ seems to be
offered to her. And he who seeks for the Church seeks for Christ; and
He is either honoured or despised in every little one, wherefore He
says Himself, _Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye
have done it unto Me_.
Sidenote: Gen. xxxv. 19.
Sidenote: Ps. cxxix. 8.
Sidenote: Ib. cxxvi. 7.
12. Now that Bethlehem is the very same place as Ephratah we learn from
the passage in Genesis, which says, _And Rachel died, and was buried in
the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem_. Holy Rachel, being a type of
the Church, was buried in the way, that they who go by might say, _The
Lord prosper you_, and _they shall come again with joy_.
Sidenote: 1 Cor. x. 17.
13. Wherefore every soul which receives that bread which comes down
from heaven is the house of bread, that is, the Bread of Christ, being
nourished and supported and having its heart strengthened by that
heavenly bread which dwells within it. Hence Paul also says, _For
we being many are one bread_. Every faithful soul is Bethlehem, as
Jerusalem also is said to be, which has the peace and tranquillity of
that Jerusalem which is above, in heaven. That is the true Bread which,
when broken into pieces, fed all men.
14. The fifth version[279] has the words, ‘the house of Bread.’ For
‘Beth’ signifies a house, and ‘lehem’ signifies bread. From the other
versions I imagine that the unbelief of the Jews, who feared to convict
themselves, either led the writers to omit it or others to erase it.
Sidenote: Jud. xix. 2.
15. And that Bethlehem is of the tribe of Judah we learn from that
passage in the book of Judges, where the Levite took to him a concubine
out of Bethlehem-judah, and his concubine was incensed against him, and
returned to her father’s house in Bethlehem-judah.
Sidenote: Mic. v. 2.
Sidenote: Ps. xix. 5.
Sidenote: Mic. v. 3.
Sidenote: Is. liv. 1.
16. Now Christ’s _goings forth were from everlasting_[280], because
our life[281] then commenced, when He _went forth to run His course_,
and gave to Israel the day of salvation. _Until the time ♦that she
which travaileth hath brought forth._ To that soul to which Christ
hath come fruitfulness or bringing forth hath come also; so it was with
the Church, who has _brought more than she that had children_; who has
brought forth seven, that is, a lawful peaceful and tranquil progeny.
Now that soul begins to conceive, and Christ to be formed in her, which
welcomes Him on His arrival and is so fed by His plenty that she is in
want of nothing, and other souls by seeing her return unto the way of
salvation.
Sidenote: Mic. v. 5.
Sidenote: Rom. viii. 37.
17. _And there shall be peace to him_, but it is by temptations that
he must be tried; then, when he has shut out or repulsed vain thoughts,
when he has subdued all the motions of his rising passions, when
distress and persecution and hunger and peril and the sword press
hard upon him, will the value of his peace and tranquillity be tested.
Then, it is said, _shall be peace_; because in all these things _we
are conquerors through Him that loved us_, because we trust in Him that
neither death nor the power of temptations shall cast off or separate
us from His love. He will send temptations, that the just may be proved.
The Lord sends temptations, not that He wishes any man to be beguiled,
but because the weak are for the most part vanquished by temptation,
whilst the strong are proved by them.
Sidenote: Mic. v. 7.
Sidenote: Ib. 8.
Sidenote: S. Matt. xiii. 43.
Sidenote: For Mic. v. 10.
Sidenote: 2 Cor. vii. 5.
Sidenote: Eph. ii. 14.
18. Then there shall be to them _dew from the Lord_, and rest; then the
soul of the just shall be _as a young lion among the flocks of sheep_.
I cannot doubt but that this similitude should, after the manner of
the Gospel, be referred to Christ, for He has said, _Then shall the
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father_.
_his chariots shall be broken_; that is to say, the senseless impulses
and motions of the body shall be appeased; that condition shall cease
wherein _Without are fightings, within are fears_, and over all, that
is, within and without, tranquillity shall prevail; nor shall there be
any resistance or repugnance to this good will, because the obedience
of the flesh, when _the middle wall of partition is broken down_, and
both are made one, shall abolish all discord.
Sidenote: Mic. vi. 8.
Sidenote: Ib. vii. 1.
Sidenote: Ib. 2.
19. But if any weak soul, like Israel according to the flesh have
stumbled, and, shaken by persecutions, have separated herself in
some degree from the love of Christ, she is checked and reproved as
faithless, and ungrateful, and unbelieving, as one who, after being
freed from the vanities of the world, has looked behind her and so
relapsed into them again; as one from whom no gifts, no sacrifice
of bulls, but only to know what is good and to do justly, has been
required. _He hath showed thee, o man, what is good; and what doth
the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to have mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God?_ But since the weaker soul has not kept this
commandment, the Lord says to her, _Woe is me, for I am as when they
have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage_.
And the prophet, in whom the Lord spoke, says to that soul, _Woe is me,
the good man is perished out of the earth_. This is as though the Lord
Himself spoke, in compassion for the future punishment of sin, and as
weeping over our transgressions.
Sidenote: Ib. 8.
20. Then the soul, learning that she will gather no fruit from what
she has sown; that in the loss of her harvest nothing will remain to
strengthen her, that she will press her olives, but will find no oil of
gladness, nor will drink the wine of pleasantness; finding also in the
works of the flesh all things full of blood, full of circumvention, of
fraud and deceit, hollow shows of affection, and pre-concerted guile;
nay, those of her own household adverse to her; and therefore that
the motions of her companion the body, which are grievous enemies of
the soul, must be guarded against; turns to God, and begins to hope in
Him, and knowing that the flesh is truly an enemy to her, says to it,
_Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, when I fall I shall arise, when
I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me_.
Sidenote: 1 Cor. v. 5.
Sidenote: Mic. vii. 9.
Sidenote: Mic. vii. 9.
Sidenote: Ib.
21. Finding moreover that she is mocked by some power which opposes her
following a better path, and domineers over her, so that she has been
delivered _for the destruction of the flesh_, to be afflicted with
various evils, assigned to her either by the Lord to satisfy for her
sins, or by the Evil One who is envious of her conversion, and desires
to harass and regain her to himself, finding this, she says, _I will
bear the indignation of the Lord_, Who either chastens me in my fall,
or has given thee power to persecute me, _because I have sinned against
Him_, but I will endure _until He plead my cause_. For unless I shall
confess, and pay the price of my iniquities, I cannot be justified. But
being justified and having paid double for my sins, He shall _execute
judgment for me_, laying aside His wrath, since the sentence against me
is satisfied. _He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold
His righteousness_ and gaze on His delights. Then she that is mine
enemy, that is, the malice of the devil, shall see the light of my
reconciliation and _shame shall cover her which saith to me, Where is
the Lord thy God?_ She shall behold in me His pity and His love.
22. Wherefore let us not listen to him when we are in any of the
troubles of this world, be it bodily pain, or the loss of our children,
or of other necessaries, let us not listen to his words, _Where is the
Lord thy God?_ It is under severe pain that his temptations are to be
feared, it is then that he seeks to turn the sick soul astray.
Sidenote: Ib. 18.
Sidenote: Ps. xxxii. 1.
23. Wherefore the soul which has not listened to his allurements,
seeing afterwards the wonderful works of God, seeing herself in heaven,
and the devil creeping upon the earth, will congratulate herself saying,
_Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by
transgression?_ Thou hast not been mindful of Thy indignation, but hast
cast all our iniquities into the sea as the lead of Egypt, and hast
graciously returned to have pity upon us, both forgiving and hiding
our offences, as it is written, _Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is
forgiven, and whose sin is covered_. For some sins Thou dost wash away
in the blood of Thy Son, others Thou dost remit unto us, that by good
works and confession we may cover our errors. The expression therefore
_that pardoneth iniquities_, appertains to remission; because He takes
them away altogether, so that the things which He remembers not are
as though they did not exist. But the words _passeth by transgression_,
signify that inasmuch as we confess our failings, and cover them
with the fruit of our good works, they are referred to the author of
our fault, and the instigator of our sin. For what else does he who
confesses his fault do but prove himself to have been beguiled by the
craft and malice of that spiritual wickedness which is his adversary?
24. For this therefore this soul gives thanks, that the Lord both
_pardoneth iniquities and passeth by transgressions_, and _casts
them into the deep of the sea_. Which may also be referred to Baptism,
wherein the Egyptian is drowned, the Hebrew rises again; and whereby
by the depths of His wisdom, and the multitude of her good works her
former sins are covered, through the riches of the mercy of our God,
Who is mindful of the promise which He gave to Abraham, and suffers not
that soul which is heir of Abraham to perish.
25. It is by these means that such a soul is recovered. But do you,
my son, who from the first flower of boyhood have been an heir of the
Church which bore and which sustains you, persevere in your purpose,
mindful of the grace of God, and of the gift which you have received
by the imposition of my hands, that in this degree[282] also, as in the
holy office of deacon, you may shew faith and industry, and expect a
recompense from the Lord Jesus.
Farewell; love me as a son, for I also love you.