434 The wing is as virtues^ the heaiy body anfauils. Job 39, it not in act ? The Lord, thorof'ore, says that He is glorified '—hy the dragon, or by the ostrich, V)ccause He frequently converts both the openly wicked, and the pretendedly good, to obey Him from their inmost thought. Or certainly, the beasts of the field, that is the dragons and ostriches, glorify the Lord, when that Gentile people, which had before been a member of the devil in this world, exalls the faith which is in Him. And this He both upbraids with the name of * dragon,' on account of its wickedness, and brands with the term ' ostriches,' on account of its hypocrisy. For the Gentile world received, as it were, wings, but was unable to fly ; which both possessed the nature of reason, but knew not the operation of reason. 12. We have still something to examine more attentively, respecting the hawk and heron, in considering this ostrich. For the bodies of the hawk and the heron are small, but they are supported with thicker wings; and they therefore fly along with swiftness ; because there is little in them which weighs them down, and much which supports them. But the ostrich, on the other hand, isendowed with scantier wings, and is weighed down with a huge body, so that though it desires to fly, yet the very fewmess of the feathers supports not in the air the mass of so huge a body. The character of the Elect is, therefore, well signified by the heron and the hawk ; for as long as they exist in this life, they cannot be without some infection of sin, however small. But since there is little in them which weighs them down, they have abundant virtue of good doing which exalts them on high. But the hypocrite, on the contrary, though he does many things to raise him up, yet perpetrates many things to weigh him down. For it is not, that the hypocrite does no good things, but he commits many wickednesses, with which to weigh them down. Its few feathers, therefore, raise not up the body of the ostrich, because a multitude of evil doings weighs down the little virtue of the hypocrite. This very wing of the ostrich has also a resemblance in colour to the wings of the heron and the hawk, but has no resemblance to their power. For the wings of these are close and firmer, and in flying can press down the air by the power of their solidity. Hut the loosely-formed wings of the ostrich, on