Tkey how downfrom their hujhest stale to brinyforth. 397 Jlesh} Or certainly; Ye did run welt; who hindered you Book that ye should not obey the truth? What a roaring was ^^^- there in the birth-pains of this hind, which brought forth 7. with so many difficulties her young so long conceived, and which knew theyhad returned, when at length brought forth,to the womb of wickedness ? Let us consider what pain, what labour she suffered, who after she had Jiad strength to bring forth what she had conceived, was, again, obliged to resus- citate them when dead. 48. But it must be particularly observed, that these hinds bow down to bring forih ; doubtless, because they would not have strength to bring forth, if they were standing erect. For unless lioly preachers were to come down from that boundlessness ofinward contemplation which they embrace, by bending, as it were, to our infirmity, in the humblest preaching, they would surely never beget sons in the faith. For they could not benefit us, if they continued in the uprightness of their own height. But let us see the hind bending herself to bring forth. It says, / could not speak i^ Cor, 3, unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal; as unto babes in Christ, I have given you milk and not meat. And presently it mentions the causes of this bending. For hithertoihid, ye were not able, neither yet now are ye able. But this hind, which has been bent on our account, let us, I pray you, be- hold erect. It says ; We speak wisdom among tliem that are \ Cor.2 perfect. And aarain, Whether we be beside ourselves, it is^'*^ , 2 Cor. 5, to God. But when it is beside itself to God, we do not 13. at all understand its transport. It therefore bows down to us, in order to gain us. Whence it fitly subjoins in that place. Whether we be sober, it isfor your cause. For if holy men ibid were to choose to preach to us those things which they hear, when they are intoxicated with heavenly contemplation, and did not rather temper their knowledge with some mode- ration and sobriety, who could receive those streams of the heavenly fount, in the still contracted channel of his under- standing } But these bended hinds are called elsewhere ' heavens,' of which it is said, Bow thy heavens, O Lord, V^,]i4, and come down. For when the heavens are bowed down, * the Lord descends, because, when holy preachers bend ^lemselvcs in their preaching, they pour the knowledge of