{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4745","native_reference":{"book_number":330,"chapter_from":1,"chapter_to":1,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":16,"verse_to":16},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: The wheel within a wheel is life under the law, life under grace; inasmuch as Jews are within the church, the law is included in grace. For one is within the church who is a Jew secretly; and circumcision of the heart is a sacrament within the church. But that Jewish people are within the church of which it is written: \"In Judah is God known\"; therefore as wheel runs within wheel, in the same way the wings were still and the wings were flying.<br/><i>— On the Holy Spirit 3.21.162</i></p><p><b>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: Rightly are the sacred utterances said to be similar to the vision of the sea, because in them there are great volumes of sentences, heaps of meanings. Nor is it undeservedly that Sacred Scripture is said to be similar to the sea, because the sentences of speech are confirmed in it through the sacrament of baptism. Or certainly it must be considered that we sail by ships into the sea when we proceed toward desired lands. But what is in our desire except that land about which it is written: \"My portion is in the land of the living\"? But he who crosses the sea is carried, as I said, by wood. And we know that Sacred Scripture announces to us the wood of the cross through the law, when it says: \"Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.\" Paul attests this concerning our Redeemer, saying: \"Made a curse for us.\" Through the prophets also it announces the wood, when it is said: \"The Lord will reign from the wood.\" And again: \"Let us put wood in his bread.\" But through the Gospel the wood of the cross is openly shown, where the very passion of the Lord which was prophesied is declared. Through the apostles, moreover, this same cross is also held in words and works, when Paul says: \"The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.\" And again: \"But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.\" Therefore for us who proceed toward the eternal homeland, Sacred Scripture through its four faces is a sea. It announces the cross, because it carries us to the land of the living by wood. But unless the prophet perceived Sacred Scripture to be similar to the sea, he would by no means have said: \"The earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters covering the sea.\"</p><p>The likeness of the four is one, because what the law preaches, the prophets also preach; what the prophets announce, the Gospel displays; what the Gospel displayed, the apostles proclaimed throughout the world. Therefore the likeness of the four is one, because the divine utterances, although distinct in time, are nevertheless united in meaning.</p><p>And their appearance and their workings, as if a wheel were in the midst of a wheel. A wheel within a wheel is the New Testament, as we have said, within the Old Testament, because what the Old Testament designated, the New Testament displayed. For to speak of a few things out of many, what does it mean that while Adam slept Eve was brought forth, except that while Christ died the Church was formed? What does it mean that Isaac was led to be sacrificed, and carried the wood, was placed upon the altar and lived, except that our Redeemer, led to his passion, himself carried the wood of the cross? And thus in sacrifice he died for us according to his humanity, yet remained immortal according to his divinity. What does it mean that the manslayer, absolved after the death of the high priest, returns to his own land, except that the human race, which by sinning brought death upon itself, after the death of the true priest, namely our Redeemer, is loosed from the bonds of its sins and restored to the possession of paradise? What does it mean that the mercy seat was commanded to be made in the tabernacle, upon which two cherubim, one from one end and the other from the other end, are placed of the purest gold, spreading their wings and covering the oracle, who look upon each other with their faces turned toward the mercy seat, except that both Testaments so agree with each other in the Mediator of God and men, that what one designates, the other displays? For what is designated by the mercy seat except the Redeemer himself of the human race? Of whom Paul says: Whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood. And what is signified by the two Cherubim, which are called the fullness of knowledge, except both Testaments? Of which one stands from one end of the mercy seat, and the other from the other end, because what the Old Testament began to promise by prophesying concerning the incarnation of our Redeemer, the New Testament narrates as perfectly fulfilled. Moreover the two cherubim were made of the purest gold, because both Testaments are written with pure and simple truth. And they spread their wings and cover the oracle, because we who are the oracle of almighty God are protected from threatening faults by the edification of Sacred Scripture. While we carefully examine its sentences, we are veiled by its wings from the error of ignorance. Therefore the two cherubim look upon each other with their faces turned toward the mercy seat, because both Testaments disagree with each other in nothing. And they hold their faces toward each other as it were, because what one promises, the other displays, while they see the Mediator of God and men placed between them. For the cherubim would turn their faces away from each other, if what one Testament promised, the other denied. But while they speak harmoniously of the Mediator of God and men, so that they look upon each other in turn, they gaze upon the mercy seat. Therefore a wheel is in the midst of a wheel, because the New Testament is within the Old Testament. And, as we have often already said, what the Old Testament promised, the New displayed; and what the former announces in hidden fashion, the latter openly proclaims as fulfilled. Therefore the Old Testament is the prophecy of the New Testament; and the New Testament is the exposition of the Old Testament.<br/><i>— Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 6</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: If you consider the way in which the universe moves in different and contrary ways, whether you think it is in error or whether you think it is of a different nature from us, you see the meaning of \"a wheel within a wheel.\" But as far as all that is concerned, the God of the whole universe directs everything and makes everything to move where he wills, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 1:16</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"07880f615f357ade3f6c985a92b0182d8f17fe6ff9494af157fd575fe61ffa7a","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4745,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"9ed8eebbe1903707ee4af2296c1b52c248be7cb0e4f10c75a573b26d06094c65","translator":null,"work":null}