Angels heliC'ld around. Efornal hlessimjs nought. 409
(lie ascent of conleniplation elevates witliin. The inouutains Uook
nf pasture are also the lofty powers of angels : which -——'-
therefore refresh us here by ministering and assisting,
because they are fattened there with the inward dew of con-
temjilation. And because, by the bounty of God, they
protect us in every contest, they are well said to be beheld
around. For \\<i behold them ])resent ou all sides around us,
by whose defence we are protected against our adversaries
on every side. The mountains of pasture can be taken,
still further, for the lofty sentences of Holy Scripture, of
which it is said by the Psalmist; The high hillsfor the stags, P'^'- 104,
because those who kiiovv already how to make the leaps of
contemplation, ascend the lofty summits of the Divine
sentences, as the tops of mountains. And because the
feeble cannot reach in truth to these tops, it is there rightlv
subjoined, Uie rock is a refuge for the urchins, because,
namelv, their understanding does not sublimely exercise the
feeble, but fluth alone in Christ humbly keeps them in. It
follows
;
He searcheth after every green thing.
Qb. For parched in truth are all things, which, fashioned xx.
for a time, are dried up from the sweetness of the present
life by the coming end, as ifby the summer sun. But those
are called green, which fade not asvay by any shortness of
existence. For this wild ass then to seek every green thing,
is for each holy man, despising transitory things, to long for
those which are to endure for ever.
But all these things which have been said of the wild ass,
can be understood in another way also. Which we explain,
having repeated the former verse, in order to leave to the
judgment of the reader what he believes is to be preferred.
After, then, the dispensation of preachers has been described
under the figure of hinds, to shew byWhom this same virtue
of preaching is given, the mention of our Lord's Incarnation
is immediately subjoined, so that it is said,
Ver. 5. Who hath sent out the wild assfree ?
QQ. Nor let any consider it unbecoming that the Incarnate xxi.
Lord can be typified by such an animal; whilst it is admitted
by all thatHe is spoken of, in Holy Scripture, as, in a certain
sense, both a worm and a beede. As it is written ; But /Ps.22,6.
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