412 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO CHAP. XI.
ning the Church of the Gentileswas in darkness,and faroff
from the knowledge of God. But when Christ the Prince
of peace shone forth,the Jews being stillin darkness,thither
came the Gentiles,and offeredto Christ the frankincense
of piety,the gold of divineknowledge, and preciousstones,
that is,obedience to His commands. THEOPHYL. Or be
cause the South is praisedin Scriptureas warm and life-
giving,thereforethe soul reigningin the south,that is,in
allspiritualconversation,comes to hear the wisdom of Solo
mon, the Prince of peace,the Lord our God, (i.e.is raised
up to contemplateHim,) to whom no one shallcome except
he reign in a good life. But He brings next an example
from the Ninevites,saying,The men of Nineveh shallrise
up injudgment with thisgeneration,and shallcondemn it.
Chrys. CHRYS. The judgment of condemnation comes from mennunocc. lilceOi.uijike to t,l1C)sewho are condemned. From like,
forinstance,as in the parable of the ten virgins,but from
unlike,when the Ninevitescondemn thosewho livedat the
time of Christ,that so theircondemnation might be the
Hom.43.more remarkable. For the Ninevitesindeed were barbarians,'" att'but theseJews. The one enjoying the propheticteaching,
the other having never receivedthe divine word. To the
former came a servant,to the latterthe Master,of whom the
one foretolddestruction,the otherpreached the kingdom of
heaven. To allmen then was itknown thatthe Jews ought
intherto have believed,but the contraryhappened; there
fore He adds, For they repentedat the preaching of Jonas,
and, behold,a greaterthan Jonas is here. AMBROSE. Now
in a mystery, the Church consistsof two things,either
ignorance of sin,which has referencemainly to the queen
of the South, or ceasing to sin,which relatesindeed to the
repentantNinevites. For repentance blotsout the offence,
wisdom guards againstit.
Aug.de AUG. Luke indeed relatesthisin the same placeas Mat-
Kb"iiEv t*iew,Dut in a somewhat differentorder. But who does
c.39. not see that it is an idle question,in what orderour Lord
saidthosethings,seeingthatwe ought to learnby the most
preciousauthorityof the Evangelist,that there is no false
hood. But not everyman willrepeatanother'swords in the
same orderin which they proceeded from his mouth, seeing