Sermons to the People 363.1–364.5

Our understanding, dearest brothers, in considering and treating the holy Scriptures, ought to be governed by the most manifest authority of those same Scriptures, so that, starting from the things said openly to nourish us, the things said more obscurely to exercise us may be faithfully discussed. For who would dare to expound the divine sacraments otherwise than has been preached and prescribed by the apostolic heart and mouth? Now the apostle Paul says: "I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased; for they were laid low in the desert. Now these things were made figures of us, so that we may not desire evil things, as they also desired." And a little later: "All these things," he says, "happened to them in figure; but they were written for our correction, upon whom the end of the ages has come."

Hence, then, beloved, let none of the faithful doubt that the passage of that people through the Red Sea was a figure of our baptism: so that, freed through baptism from the devil and his angels, who, like Pharaoh and the Egyptians, wore us down while we were subject to the mud of the flesh, as if with the labors of brickmaking, under the leadership of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose figure Moses then bore, we may sing to the Lord: "For he is gloriously magnified; horse and rider he has cast into the sea." For they are dead to us, they who can no longer rule over us; for our very offenses, which had made us subject to them, have been sunk and blotted out as in the sea, now that we have been freed by the washing of holy grace. Let us sing, then, to the Lord: "For he is gloriously magnified; horse and rider he has cast into the sea": pride and the proud one he has blotted out in baptism. For now it is the humble man, subject to God, who sings this song. For to the proud man, who seeks his own glory and magnifies himself, the Lord is not gloriously magnified. But the ungodly man who has been justified by believing in him who justifies the ungodly, so that his faith is reckoned as righteousness, so that the righteous may live by faith; who does not, ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish his own, fail to submit to the righteousness of God: he most truly sings that the Lord is his helper and protector unto salvation, his God, whom he honors. For he is not one of those exalted people who, knowing God, did not honor him as God. So he says, "The God of my father." For he is the God of father Abraham, who believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And therefore we little ones, presuming not on our own righteousness but on his grace, magnify the Lord, since he breaks battles, he who is our peace. And therefore "the Lord is his name": to him we say in Isaiah, "Possess us." "The Lord is his name." We were not, and he made us; we had perished, and he found us; we had sold ourselves, and he bought us. "The Lord is his name. The chariots of Pharaoh and his army he cast into the sea." Both worldly exaltations and the troops of innumerable sins which fought for the devil in us he blotted out in baptism. He had set three riders on each chariot, who terrified us as they pursued us with the fear of pain, the fear of humiliation, the fear of death. All these were sunk in the Red Sea, because we were buried with him through baptism into death, him who for us was scourged, dishonored, and slain. So with the red sea he covered all the enemies, he who by a bloody death, by which our sins were to be consumed, consecrated baptism. But if our enemies have gone down into the depth like a stone, the devil's hardness possesses only those, and is only with those, of whom it is written, "The sinner, when he comes into the depth of evils, despises." For they do not believe that what they have done can be forgiven them, and through that despair they sink more heavily and more deeply. But "your right hand, O Lord, is glorified in power; your right hand, O Lord, has shattered the enemies; and in the greatness of your majesty, O Lord, you have crushed the adversaries. You sent forth your wrath, and it consumed them like stubble." For we feared you, born among us, and believed in you, and all our offenses were consumed. For why was the water divided by the spirit of the Lord's wrath, and the waters stood congealed like a wall, the waves congealed in the midst of the sea, when in that division of the water, with the waves congealing, a way lay open for the liberated people? Why, then, was the water not rather divided by the spirit of the Lord's mercy, unless because the terror of God's wrath, which that sinner despises who comes into the depth of evils, is what drives people to baptism, so that we may be freed through water that does not choke us, passing through it by the way? "The enemy said, I will pursue and overtake; I will divide the spoils and fill my soul; I will kill with my sword, my hand will have dominion." The enemy does not understand the force of the Lord's sacrament which is in saving baptism for those who believe and hope in him; and he still thinks that sins can rule over the baptized, because they are tempted by the frailty of the flesh, not knowing where and when and how the full renewal of the whole man will be brought to completion, which is begun and foreshadowed in baptism and already held in most certain hope. For then this mortal will put on immortality, and when every principality and power has been utterly done away, God will be all in all. But now, as long as the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, the enemy says, "I will pursue and overtake." "But you sent your spirit, and the sea covered them." Here it is not called the spirit of God's wrath when the sea covered the enemies; while a little before it was said, "By the spirit of your wrath the water was divided," though by this rather the people of God was freed as it passed over. But no doubt God seems not to be angry with the man whose sins go unpunished, and he grows all the heavier. Hence, compared to lead, he goes down into the depths, all the more as he sees those who have been justified by faith, and who for the hope of the life to come have borne present evils, living in labors, in the enduring of which the Spirit of God strengthens them. God therefore sent his Spirit to console and exercise the righteous in their labors; and the sea covered the ungodly, who not only thought there was no difference between themselves and the righteous, but rather judged that God was angry with them because they were afflicted with such tribulations, and favorable to themselves because they rejoiced in such prosperity. So they went down like lead into the mighty water. "Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you? Glorious in the saints" (who do not glory in themselves), "wonderful in majesties, doing wonders." For these things which were done then foretold something to come, since they were figures of us. "You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them." Certainly no opening of the earth swallowed any of the Egyptians at that time; they were covered by water, they perished in the sea. What then does "You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them" mean? Do we rightly understand the right hand of God to be him of whom Isaiah says, "And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" For he is the only Son, whom the Father did not spare but handed over for us all. And so on the cross he stretched out his right hand, and the earth swallowed the ungodly, when they thought themselves victors and him contemptible. For "the earth has been handed over into the hands of the ungodly, and it covered the face of its judges," that is, his divinity. So the Lord steered his people, carried as it were on that wood, where the earth, that is, the Lord's flesh, stretched out, swallowed the ungodly. For the people did not cross the sea by ship, so that "you steered" could be said in the proper sense. But "you steered in your righteousness your people," not presuming on its own righteousness, but living by faith under your grace: "this people of yours, whom you freed." For "the Lord knows those who are his."

"You have encouraged us in your strength," that is, in your Christ. For "the weakness of God is stronger than men." "And though he was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives by the power of God." "You have encouraged us in your strength and in your holy refreshment." For in that the mortality of the flesh was refreshed in him through the resurrection, and in him this corruptible has already put on incorruption, we have been encouraged, hoping for what is to come and enduring all these present things for its sake. For after baptism there remains the crossing through the desert, through the life that is lived in hope, until we come to the land of promise, the land of the living, where the Lord is our portion, into the eternal Jerusalem; and until we come there, this whole life is a desert for us, and wholly temptation. But in him who has conquered the world, the people of God conquers all things. For as in baptism past sins are blotted out like enemies pursuing from behind, so after baptism, on the journey of this life, as we eat the spiritual food and drink the spiritual drink, we overcome everything that opposes us. For the name of our Emperor has terrified the enemies of our way. First the wrath of the nations rose up to destroy the Christian name; but when wrath could do nothing, it turned into grief; and as the faith grew more and more and filled all things, grief turned into fear; so that even the proud of this world, like the birds of the sky, seek refuge and protection under the shade of that plant which has grown so great from the tiniest mustard seed. So too in this song, where the things that then happened to them in figure are recalled, the order of the nations' wrath, grief, and fear has been kept. "The nations heard," it says, "and were angry; pains seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the leaders of Edom hastened" (that is, were troubled) "and the princes of the Moabites: trembling seized them; all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away. Let trembling and fear of the greatness of your arm fall upon them. Let them become like stones, until your people pass over, O Lord, until this people of yours pass over, whom you have acquired." So it was done; so it is done. Stunned with amazement, the enemies of the Church become like stones until we pass over to the homeland. And those who have tried to resist are overcome now by the sign of the Lord's cross, as Amalek was then by the outstretched hands of Moses. And so we are brought in and planted on the mountain of the Lord's inheritance, which grew from the small stone that Daniel saw and filled the whole earth. This is the dwelling of the Lord made ready. For "the temple of God is holy, and the sanctification of his house, which is from him." "For the temple of God is holy," says the apostle, "which you are." And so that no one would look back to the earthly Jerusalem, where that temple bore a certain figure for a time, as was fitting, he indicated that he was speaking of the eternal kingdom, which is the eternal inheritance of God, the eternal Jerusalem. For he went on to say: "which your hands have prepared, O Lord, who reign always, and for ever, and still." Is there anything beyond "for ever"? Who would say that? Why, then, did he add "and still"? Perhaps, because "for ever" is customarily understood also as a very long time, "and still" was added so that the true "for ever," which is without end, would be understood. Or is it because God reigns "always" in the heavenly beings, which he established for ever and ever (he laid down a command, and it will not pass away); and "for ever" in those whose sins he forgave when they turned back after transgressing the command, whom he acquired out of time and to whom he gave blessedness without end; and reigns "still" over those whom he has set under the feet of his people in most just punishments? For no one is withdrawn from his kingdom, by whose eternal law all creatures are held in check, in the distribution of giving and repaying, by the deserts of rewards and punishments, and by a most just ordering. For "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." "For Pharaoh's cavalry went into the sea with chariots and riders, and the Lord brought the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel walked on dry ground through the midst of the sea."

This Moses sang, and the children of Israel; this Miriam the prophetess sang, and the daughters of Israel with her; this we too sing now, whether men and women, or our spirit and our flesh. "For those who belong to Jesus Christ," says the apostle, "have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires." This is fittingly understood to be signified by the tambourine which Miriam took up to accompany this song. For flesh is stretched on wood to make a tambourine; and from the cross they learn to confess the sweet sound of grace. Made humble, then, through baptism by the goodness of grace, our pride having been extinguished there, the pride through which the proud enemy ruled over us, so that now whoever glories may glory in the Lord, let us sing to the Lord: "For he is gloriously magnified; horse and rider he has cast into the sea."

Samson had his strength from grace, not from nature. For if he had been strong by nature, his strength would not have been taken away when his hair was cut off. And where was that mightiest strength, if not in what Scripture said, "The Spirit of the Lord went with him"? That strength belonged to the Spirit of the Lord. In Samson was the vessel; in the Spirit was the fullness. A vessel can be filled and emptied, and every vessel has its filling from elsewhere. That is why grace itself was commended in Paul when he was called a vessel of election. Let us see, then, what kind of riddle Samson put to the foreigners. "Out of the eater," he said, "came food, and out of the strong came sweetness." This riddle was betrayed, passed on to friends, solved; Samson was defeated. If he is righteous in this, it is hidden; this man's righteousness lies very deep. For both in that he is read to have been overcome by a woman's blandishments, and in that he went in to a prostitute, his merit seems to waver to those who understand the secrets of truth less well. For a prophet too is commanded by the Lord to take a prostitute as his wife. Perhaps we shall be able to say that in the Old Testament this was not criminal or damnable, since what he said or did was prophecy. Let us inquire, then, what the one defeated signified, what the victor signified, what the one yielding to a woman's blandishments signified, what the one betraying the secret of the riddle signified, what the one going in to the prostitute signified, what the one who caught foxes signified, burning the enemies' crops by means of the foxes' tails, to which he tied fire. He could indeed have burned those crops directly, had he not had a mystery in mind in the foxes. For could the dry stubble not burn unless foxes carried fire through it? Let us understand, then, that great mysteries lie hidden here.

What was Samson? If I say he signified Christ, I think I speak the truth; but at once it occurs to those who reflect: Is Christ, then, overcome by a woman's blandishments? And how can Christ be understood to have gone in to a prostitute? And then, when is Christ's head bared, his hair shaved, his strength stripped away, he bound, blinded, mocked? Wake up, faith! Attend to what Christ is: not only what Christ did, but also what he suffered. What did he do? He worked as one strong; he suffered as one weak. In one person I understand both. I see the strength of the Son of God; I see the weakness of the son of man. There is something more: the whole Christ, as Scripture presents him, is both head and body. As Christ is the head of the Church, so the Church is the body of Christ. And so that she is not alone, with her head she is the whole Christ. The Church, then, has in her the strong and the weak; she has those who eat solid bread, and those who must still be nourished with milk. I add something else which must be confessed: in the very fellowship of the sacraments, in the communion of baptism, in the sharing of the altar, she has the righteous and the unrighteous. For now the body of Christ, as you know, is on the threshing floor; afterwards it will be in the barn. Yet while it is on the threshing floor, it does not refuse to bear with the chaff; when the time for storing comes, the wheat will be separated from the chaff. So Samson did some things in the person of the head, some in the person of the body, but all in the person of Christ. In that Samson worked mighty deeds and wonders, he signified Christ the head of the Church; in that he acted wisely, he bore the image of those who live righteously in the Church; where perhaps he was caught off guard and acted incautiously, he figured those in the Church who are sinners. The prostitute whom Samson takes in marriage is the Church, which before she knew the one God committed fornication with idols, and which Christ afterwards joined to himself. But after she had been enlightened by him and received the faith, she also merited to learn through him the sacraments of salvation, and to have the mysteries of heavenly secrets revealed to her by him. For the riddle itself, which contains "Out of the eater came food, and out of the strong came sweetness," what else does it signify but Christ rising from the dead? Out of the eater, that is, out of death, which devours and consumes all things, came that food who said, "I am the living bread who came down from heaven." Him human wickedness embittered and gave the bitterness of vinegar and gall to drink; and from him the people of the Gentiles, converted, received the sweetness of life. And so from the mouth of the dead lion, that is, from the death of Christ, who lay down and slept like a lion, came forth a swarm of bees, that is, of Christians. And as for his saying, "You would not have found out my riddle had you not plowed with my heifer": this heifer is the Church, which through the teaching and preaching of the apostles and saints has published to the ends of the earth the mysteries of the faith, of the Trinity, of the resurrection, of the judgment and likewise of the kingdom, and has promised the rewards of eternal life to those who understand and know them.

It goes on: "Samson was angry, because his companion took his wife." This companion bore the figure of all heretics. A great secret, my brothers! For the heretics who divided the Church wanted to take and carry off their Lord's wife. For they went out from the Church and from the Gospels, they who through the adultery of ungodliness try to seize the Church, that is, the body of Christ, for their own party. Hence that faithful servant and friend of the Lord's bride speaks, saying: "For I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." And with faithful zeal and rebuke he touches the person of the depraved companion: "And I fear," he says, "lest, as the serpent seduced Eve, so your minds too be corrupted from the truth which is in Christ Jesus." And who are the companions, that is, the heretical deserters who wanted to seize the Lord's bride, but Donatus, Arius, Manichaeus, and the other vessels of error and perdition? Of such the apostle says: "I hear," he says, "that there are divisions among you: for one says, I belong to Paul; another, I to Apollos; another, I to Cephas." Let us see, then, what this mystical Samson did when he was wronged about his wife by a stranger. He caught foxes, that is, the adulterous companions, of whom it is said in the Song of Songs, "Catch for us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards." What does "catch" mean? Seize, convict, refute, so that the vineyards of the Church may not be destroyed. What else is catching foxes but refuting heretics by the authority of the divine law, and binding and tying them up with the testimonies of the holy Scriptures as with chains? He catches foxes, ties their tails, and sets fire to them. What do the foxes' tied tails mean? What are the foxes' tails but the hinder parts of the heretics, whose front parts are attractive and deceptive, but whose hinder parts are bound, that is, condemned, and drag fire at the end, so as to consume the fruits and works of those who acquiesce in their seductions? You say to a man now, "Do not listen to heretics, do not give in to heretics." He replies, "Why? Didn't so-and-so listen to heretics? And hasn't some other Christian committed such great evils, such adulteries, such robberies? And what evil has befallen him?" The front parts of the foxes are what the seduced pay attention to; but behind is the fire. "Nothing," he says, "has happened to him." Because he goes in front, is he dragging nothing behind him? He will come to the fire at the rear. And do you think that the heretics drag fire to burn the enemies' crops and will not burn themselves? For without doubt the foxes, where they set fire to the harvests, also burned themselves. See, then, the judgment that awaits the heretics behind them, though they do not see behind them. They have blandishments to soothe with; they show their front parts free; in the judgment of God they drag fire in their tied tails, that is, in their hinder parts, because their wickedness goes ahead of its punishments.

As for his going in to the prostitute: if he did it without reason, whoever did it is unclean; but if a prophet did it, it is a sacrament. If he did not go in so as to lie with her, perhaps he went in for the sake of a mystery. And we do not read that he lay with her. It goes on: "But the enemies waited at the gates of the city to seize him when he came out from the prostitute to whom he had gone in." But he was sleeping. See how it is not written that he had intercourse with the prostitute, but it is written that he was sleeping. "When he rose," it says, "he went out at midnight, and took away the gates of that city with their bars, and carried those same gates up to the top of a mountain, and he could not be held by the foreigners." He took away the gates of the city through which he had gone in to the prostitute, and carried them up a mountain. What is this? Scripture joins together both hell and the love of a woman. The prostitute's house bore the image of hell. It is fittingly put for the underworld, for it turns no one away and draws to itself everyone who enters. In this place we recognize the works of our Redeemer: after the synagogue, to which he had come, was separated from him by the devil, after it had made him bald, that is, crucified him in the place of Calvary, he descended to the underworld; and the enemies guarded the place of the sleeper, that is, the tomb, and wanted to seize him whom they could not see. But he was sleeping there. I said this because it was a true death. What is said, "He rose at midnight," signifies that he rose in secret. For he suffered openly; but when he rose he was shown only to the disciples and to certain others. So all saw that he went in; few came to know that he rose, and held and handled him. Yet he takes away the gates of the city, that is, he removes the gates of hell. What is taking away the gates of hell but removing the dominion of death? For it used to receive and not send back. And what did our Lord Jesus Christ do? Having taken away the gates of death, he ascended to the top of the mountain. For we know that he both rose and ascended into the heavens.

What does it mean that he had his strength in his hair? Pay careful attention to this too, brothers. He had strength not in his hand, not in his foot, not in his chest, not in his head itself, but in his hair, in his locks. What is hair? What are long locks? We see it ourselves, and the apostle, when asked, answers us: "Long hair is a covering." And Christ had strength in a covering when the shadows of the old Law covered him. Samson's hair, then, was a covering, because in Christ one thing was seen and another understood. And what does it mean that the secret was betrayed and Samson was shaved? The Law was despised, and Christ suffered. For they would not have killed Christ had they not despised the Law. For they themselves knew that it was not lawful for them to kill Christ. They said to the judge, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death." Samson was shaved, the thick growth was laid bare, the covering was removed, and Christ who was hidden appeared. But the hair grew again and clothed the head, because the Jews would not believe in Christ even when he rose. He was blinded at the mill; he was in the prison house. The prison house or the mill is the toil of this world. And Samson's blinding signifies those who, blinded by unbelief, recognized Christ neither when he worked mighty deeds nor when he ascended to heaven. The blindness they inflicted, then, signified the blindness of the Jews. Christ was both seized and killed by the Jews; but rather he killed those who killed him. So his enemies brought him in to make sport of him. Now notice here the image of the cross. For he stretched out his hands to two pillars, as to the two beams of the cross; but, slain, he crushed his adversaries, and his passion became the slaying of his persecutors. And therefore Scripture concluded thus: "He killed more in his death than he had killed in his life." This mystery was evidently fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ: our redemption, which he had not accomplished while living, he accomplished in dying, he who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.