TRINITY SUNDAY.

FOR THE EPISTLE.

REV. iv.

"After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven," &c.

After this I beheld, and lo, a door was opened in hearen: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; saying, Come up hither.

Since the door is shewn to be opened, it is manifest that previously it had been closed to men. And it was sufficiently and fully laid open when Christ ascended with His Body to the Father into heaven. Moreover, the first voice which he had heard when he says that it spoke with him, without contradiction condemns those who say that one spoke in the Prophets, another in the Gospel; since it is rather He Himself Who comes, that is, the same Who spake in the Prophets. For John was of the circumcision, and all that people which had heard the announcement of the Old Testament was edified with his word.

That very same voice, said he, that I had heard, that said unto me, Come up hither.

That is the Spirit, whom a little before he confesses that he had seen walking as the Son of man in the midst of the golden candlesticks. And he now gathers from Him what had been foretold in similitudes by the Law, and associates with this Scripture all the former prophets, and opens up the Scriptures. And because our Lord invited in His own Name all believers into heaven, He forthwith poured out the Holy Spirit, who should bring them to heaven. He says:

Immediately I was in the Spirit.

And since the mind of the faithful is opened by the

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Holy Spirit, and that is manifested to them which was also foretold to the fathers, he distinctly says:

And behold, a throne was set in heaven. The throne set: what is it but the throne of judgment and of the King?

And he that sate upon the throne was, to look upon, like a jasper and a sardine stone.

Upon the throne he says that he saw the likeness of a jasper and a sardine stone. The jasper is of the colour of water, the sardine of fire. These two are thence manifested to be placed as judgments upon God's tribunal until the consummation of the world; of which judgments one is already completed in the deluge of water, and the other shall be completed by fire.

And there was a rainbow round about the throne.

Moreover, the rainbow round about the throne has the same colour. The rainbow is called a bow from what the Lord spake to Noah and his sons", that they should not fear any further deluge in the generation of God, but fire. For thus He says: I will place My bow in the clouds, that ye may now no longer fear water, but fire.

And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like to crystal.

That is the gift of Baptism, which He sheds forth through His Son in time of repentance, before He executes judgment. It is, therefore, before the throne, that is, the judgment. And when he says a sea of glass like to crystal, he shews that it is pure water, smooth, not agitated by the wind, not flowing down as on a slope, but given to be immoveable as the house of God.

And round about the throne were four living creatures. The four living creatures are the four Gospels. The first living creature was like to a lion, and the second was like to a calf, and the third had a face like to

a Gen. ix.

a man, and the fourth was like to a flying eagle; and they had six wings, and round about and within they were full of eyes; and they had no rest, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Omnipotent. And the four and twenty elders, falling down before the throne, adored God.

The four and twenty elders are the twenty-four books of the Prophets and of the Law, which give testimonies of the judgment. Moreover, also, they are the twenty-four fathers,-twelve Apostles, and twelve patriarchs. And in that the living creatures are different in appearance, this is the reason: The living creature like to a lion designates Mark, in whom is heard the voice of the lion roaring in the desert. And in the figure of a man, Matthew strives to declare to us the genealogy of Mary, from whom Christ took flesh. Therefore, in innumerating from Abraham to David, and thence to Joseph, he spake of Him as if of a man; therefore, his announcement sets forth the image of a man. Luke, in narrating the priesthood of Zacharias, as he offers a sacrifice for the people, and the angel that appears to him with respect of the priesthood, and the victim in the same description bore the likeness of a calf. John the Evangelist, like to an eagle hastening on uplifted wings to greater heights, argues about the Word of God. Mark, therefore, as an Evangelist, thus beginning: "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet; The voice of one crying in the wilderness," has the effigy of a lion. And Matthew, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham;" this is the form of a man. But Luke said: "There was a priest, by name Zachariah, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron:" this is the likeness of a calf. But John, when he begins, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," sets forth the likeness of a flying eagle. Moreover, not only do the Evangelists express

their four similitudes in their respective openings of the Gospels, but also the Word itself of God, the Father Omnipotent, which is His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, bears the same likeness in the time of His Advent. When He preaches to us, He is, as it were, a lion and a lion's whelp; and when, for man's salvation, He was made man to overcome death, and to set all men free, and that He offered Himself a Victim to the Father on our behalf, He was called a calf. And that He overcame death, and ascended into the heavens, extending His wings and protecting His people, was named a flying eagle. Therefore, these announcements, although they are four, yet are one, because it proceeded from one mouth. Even as the river in Paradise, although it is one, was divided into four heads. Moreover, that for the announcement of the New Testament, those living creatures had eyes within and without, shews the spiritual providence which both looks into the secrets of the heart, and beholds the things which are coming after, that are within and without.

Six wings.

These are the testimonies of the books of the Old Testament. Thus, twenty and four make as many as there are elders sitting upon the thrones. But as an animal cannot fly unless it have wings, so, too, the announcement of the New Testament gains no faith unless it have the fore-announced testimonies of the Old Testament, by which it is lifted from the earth, and flies. For in every case, what has been told before, and is afterwards found to have happened, that begets an undoubting faith. Again, also, if wings be not attached to the living creatures, they have nothing whence they may draw their life. For, unless what the Prophets foretold had been consummated in Christ, their preaching were in vain. For the Catholic Church holds these things, which were both before predicted, and afterwards accomplished.