And if it says next: "That the Mount of Olives shall be divided, half of it to the east and towards the sea, a very great chasm, and half of it shall lean towards the north, and half of it towards the south," it possibly shews the expansion1 of the Church throughout the whole inhabited world, for it has filled the east, and the western and eastern nations; it stretches to the western sea, and the isles therein; yea, it has reached to west and south, and to north and north-east. On all sides and everywhere the Church figuratively called the Olive of the Lord is planted. And it is possible that by its division is figuratively meant the schisms and heresies and moral declensions in everyday life that have taken place in the Church of Christ, and are even now taking place; for it says, the mountain shall be divided, half of it towards the east and the sea, a very great chasm, and half of it shall lean towards the north, and half of it towards the south, as being divided into four parts, two of which are worthier and better, and two the reverse. And note in this passage how the part to the east and the part to the south may refer to two sections of those who have made progress in the things of God, the first those who are perfected in knowledge and reason and the other graces of the Holy Spirit; and the second, those who live a good life but pass their time in ways self-chosen. And the other two parts separated from the first, one to the sea and one towards the north, both signify tendency to evil. For "from the face of the north," he says, "shall be burned the evil of all the inhabitants of the earth," while the Dragon is said to have his home in the sea. So that, probably, two kinds of character in those that fall away from the Church, the morally sinful, and the one who slips away from healthy and orthodox knowledge, are here figuratively represented by the prophecy as divisions in the Mount of Olives.