The received mystical interpretation of our Lord’s final entry into Jerusalem represented the ass as the type of the Jewish converts, and the colt, of the Gentile Church. See hereafter, Hom. LXVI., and comp. Origen on St. Matt. t. 16, 15; St. Amb. in Luc. lib. 9, 4–14; St. Just. Mart. Dial. cum. Tryph. c. 53. The interpretation to which St. Chrysostom points of the flight into Egypt, is probably the same with that of St. Hilary on this place. “Joseph is admonished by the angel to take the young child into Egypt: Egypt full of idols, and given to the worship of all kinds of portents for gods. Accordingly, after the persecution by the Jews, and the assent of that profane multitude to His murder, Christ passes over to the nations, sold as they were to the vainest superstitions. He leaves Jewry, and is carried into the world which knows Him not: while Bethlehem, i.e., Judæa, overflows with the blood of martyrs. As to Herod’s rage and his murdering the infants, it is the type of the Jewish people raging against the Christians, under the notion that by the slaughter of the blessed martyrs they may blot out Christ’s name from the faith and profession of all men.” p.613, ed. Ben. Paris, 1693.