llie Apostles^ ivhile weak, whelps in the Lioness' den. 881 satisfied the ravenous wishes of" the Apostles. For they are Book in truth called whelps from the tenderness of their mind, and the weakness of their fear, because, after the Lord had suffered, they used to sit with closed doors, as is written of tliem; When it was late on that day, the Jlrst of the «£7^^A:, John 20, and the doors ivere shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst of them. Whence it is here also fitly subjoined of these same whelps ; Ver. 40. When they couch in their .dens, and lie in wait in their caves. 26. For when the holy Apostles did not at all rise up viii. against the limbs of the devil in the voice of bold preaching, and, not being yet strengthened after the Lord's Passion with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, did not preach their Redeemer with firm authority, they were still lying in wait, as it were, in dens against their adversaries. For when the doors were closed, the whelps who were about to ravage the world were couching, as it were, in certain secret caves : in order that they might afterwards boldly seize the prey of souls, of whom it was then certain, from their very conceal- ment, that they were afraid of the assault of the world on themselves. These whelps in ambush with those closed doors sought for the death of our death, that so they might destroy our guilt, and kill all the life of sin within us. To the chief of these, that famished, but still vigorous whelp, it is said, when the Gentiles had been set before him by the linen sheet, as though the prey had been pointed out to him. Kill and eat. These whelps, as though they were still ^cts 10, weak, are ordered to couch in their dens, when it is said to them by the voice of the Lord, Tarry ye here in the city,'^^^^'^^^ until ye be endowed with powerfrom on high. Are not they rightly called the whelps of the lioness, who, having been born in the Church, seized with their mouth the opposing world? 27. And these things we know were done by the holy Apostles, these also we now see done by perfect teachers. For though they are the fathers of the people that follow them, yet are they the sons of those who go before; whence