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Chapter X.
Complete historical editorial footnotes. These notes retain the original edition’s wording; individual note authors are unspecified.
English translation and editorial credits: Augustus Henry Eugene de Romestin, Eugene de Romestin (assistant), Henry Thomas Forbes Duckworth (assistant).
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The “mysteries” are the sacrament of baptism, and the “three-fold question” those which preceded baptism, viz.: Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty? Dost thou believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in His cross? and Dost thou believe in the Holy Spirit? with the answer, “I believe,” to each, as mentioned by the author of De Sacramentis, II. 7 (written probably in the 5th or 6th century).
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter X., editorial note cite_note-7 · Original source
105. Notice, also, that the appearance of the mystery three times repeated expressed the operation of the Trinity. And so in the mysteries the threefold question is put, and the threefold answer made, and no one can be cleansed but by a threefold confession. For which reason, also, Peter in the Gospel is asked three times whether he loves the Lord, that by the threefold answer the bonds of the guilt he had contracted by denying the Lord might be loosed.
Ps. lxviii. [lxvii.] 30.
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter X., editorial note cite_note-11 · Original source
108. Therefore the holy prophet David, seeing in the Spirit that we should from wild beasts become like the dwellers in heaven, says, “Rebuke the wild beasts of the wood,” evidently signifying, not the wood disturbed by the running of wild beasts, and shaken with the roaring of animals, but that wood of which it is written: “We found it in the fields of the wood.” In which, as the prophet said: “The righteous shall flourish as the palm-tree, and shall be multiplied as the cedar which is in Libanus.” That wood which, shaken in the tops of the trees spoken of in prophecy, shed forth the nourishment of the heavenly Word. That wood into which Paul entered indeed as a ravening wolf, but went forth as a shepherd, for “their sound is gone out into all the earth.”
Ps. cxxxii. [cxxxi] 6.
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter X., editorial note cite_note-12 · Original source
108. Therefore the holy prophet David, seeing in the Spirit that we should from wild beasts become like the dwellers in heaven, says, “Rebuke the wild beasts of the wood,” evidently signifying, not the wood disturbed by the running of wild beasts, and shaken with the roaring of animals, but that wood of which it is written: “We found it in the fields of the wood.” In which, as the prophet said: “The righteous shall flourish as the palm-tree, and shall be multiplied as the cedar which is in Libanus.” That wood which, shaken in the tops of the trees spoken of in prophecy, shed forth the nourishment of the heavenly Word. That wood into which Paul entered indeed as a ravening wolf, but went forth as a shepherd, for “their sound is gone out into all the earth.”
Ps. xcii. [xci.] 12.
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter X., editorial note cite_note-13 · Original source
108. Therefore the holy prophet David, seeing in the Spirit that we should from wild beasts become like the dwellers in heaven, says, “Rebuke the wild beasts of the wood,” evidently signifying, not the wood disturbed by the running of wild beasts, and shaken with the roaring of animals, but that wood of which it is written: “We found it in the fields of the wood.” In which, as the prophet said: “The righteous shall flourish as the palm-tree, and shall be multiplied as the cedar which is in Libanus.” That wood which, shaken in the tops of the trees spoken of in prophecy, shed forth the nourishment of the heavenly Word. That wood into which Paul entered indeed as a ravening wolf, but went forth as a shepherd, for “their sound is gone out into all the earth.”
Ps. xix. [xviii.] 4.
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter X., editorial note cite_note-14 · Original source
108. Therefore the holy prophet David, seeing in the Spirit that we should from wild beasts become like the dwellers in heaven, says, “Rebuke the wild beasts of the wood,” evidently signifying, not the wood disturbed by the running of wild beasts, and shaken with the roaring of animals, but that wood of which it is written: “We found it in the fields of the wood.” In which, as the prophet said: “The righteous shall flourish as the palm-tree, and shall be multiplied as the cedar which is in Libanus.” That wood which, shaken in the tops of the trees spoken of in prophecy, shed forth the nourishment of the heavenly Word. That wood into which Paul entered indeed as a ravening wolf, but went forth as a shepherd, for “their sound is gone out into all the earth.”
Ps. lxviii. [lxvii.] 31.
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter X., editorial note cite_note-19 · Original source
112. In which account is a very beautiful figure, that is to say, that we, sinners of the Gentiles, black beforehand through our transgressions, and aforetime fruitless, raised from the depth the word of prophecy which the Jews had thrust down, as it were, into the mire of their mind and carnality. And therefore it is written: “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God.” In which is signified the appearance of holy Church, who says in the Song of Songs: “I am black and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem;” black through sin, comely through grace; black by natural condition, comely through redemption, or certainly, black with the dust of her labours. So she is black while fighting, is comely when she is crowned with the ornaments of victory.