Such hroiKjht humbly io feed at the ' crib' ofHoly Writ. 427 Or will it abide bu thy crib? Book 3. By ' crib' in this place, Holy Scripture itself is, not -^^^— unfitly, understood; in which holy animals are fed with the food of the word. Of whom it is said by the Prophet; Thine animals ivill dwell therein. Hence also our Lord, l^s. 68, when born, was found by shepherds in a manger, because His Incarnalion is learned in that Scripture of the Prophets, which refreshes us. This rhinoceros therefore, that is to say, every haughty person, in the beginning of the rising Church, when it heard the sayings of the Patriarchs, the mysteries of the Prophets, and the secrets of the Gospel, made jest of them; because it scorned the more to be confined and fed in the manger of the Preachers, the more it gave itself up to its own pleasures, and occupied the wide plain of its own desperation. It is this wide plain of the proud that Paul well speaks of, when saying, Who despair- E^h.i^ ing, have given themselves over to lasciviousnesSy to work all '^• uncleanness with greediness. For every one gives himself wider range in present evil, the more he despairs of attaining eternal blessings after this life. But Almighty God bore for a long time with this rhinoceros, wandering through the plain of sinful pleasure, and yet, when He willed, suddenly fastened it to His own manger, that being safely confined it might receive the food of life, lest it should entirely lose its life through fatal liberty ? For behold we now see that the mighty men of this world, and its chief rulers, willingly hear the preachings of the Lord, that they constantly read them, and every where depart not from His manger ; because they transgress not, in their conduct, the precepts of the Lord, which they know either by reading or by hearing, but contentedly submit to stand confined, as it were, near the food of the word, that by feeding and abiding there, they may become fat. But, when we behold this wrought by God's agency, what else do we behold but this rliinoceros abiding at tlie manger? But since this rhinoceros, after it has received the food of preaching, ought to display the fmit of good works, it is rightly subjoined ; Ver. 10. Wilt thou bind, the rhinoceros with thy band to plough ^ 4. The bands of the Church, are the precepts of disci- iv. F f 2