Ezekiel the prophet, as Jerome says in the prologue upon him, was taken captive to Babylon with Joachim, king of Judah, and there he prophesied among those who had been led captive from Judea. In the thirtieth year of his age and the fifth of the captivity, he began to speak to his fellow captives. At the same time, although Ezekiel was later, Ezekiel prophesied in Chaldea and Jeremiah in Judea.
His style is neither sufficiently eloquent nor exceedingly rustic, but tempered in a middle manner from both. He too was a priest, like Jeremiah, and his beginning and end are wrapped in great obscurities. Hence the Hebrews do not read them before the thirtieth year of one’s age. Finally, he was killed by the Jews themselves in those regions.
In the first vision, which is found in the first chapter, the state of the Church militant and the Lord presiding over her are designated, as Gregory expounds upon Ezekiel.
Concerning the unity of the Church and her one king and shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, he prophesied. Hence in chapter 34 the Lord says through him: “I shall raise up over them,” namely My sheep, “one shepherd who shall feed them, My servant David. He shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. But I, the Lord, shall be their God, and My servant David a prince in their midst. And I shall make with them a covenant of peace; and they shall no longer be delivered as spoil to the nations.”
Some expound these things of Zerubbabel, who led the Jewish people back from the Babylonian captivity into their own land and was a good leader and shepherd to them. Yet certain things in this prophecy cannot be understood of Zerubbabel, especially what is said at the end, for they were delivered as spoil to many nations: to Antiochus, Pompey, Titus, and Vespasian.
The true exposition, therefore, concerns Christ, whom Ezekiel calls David because He descended from David’s lineage according to the flesh, and because He is strong in might against the devil and beautiful in the aspect of divinity and humanity. For “David” is interpreted “strong” or “beautiful.” “I shall raise up,” because not from male seed but by divine operation the Word of God was made flesh. “One shepherd,” in the singular: “I am the good shepherd,” says Christ in John 10; and, “There shall be one fold and one shepherd,” in the same place.
And because He humbled Himself even to death on the cross, God exalted Him, placing Him as shepherd and head of the Church, who is the leader of the sheep, that is, of the Church. Through His humanity He leads to knowledge of the divinity; and each of the faithful, as though a sheep under Him, enters into the clear contemplation of the Godhead and goes out to the beholding of the humanity, and shall find pastures of enjoyment.
Thus the servant David, that is, Christ, wholly subject to God in the form of a servant, is the prince in the midst of the sheep, toward whom all points of the circumference look and have regard. Then a covenant of peace was made both between human nature and God—on account of the union and also on account of the Passion by which He made satisfaction to God for us—and between Jews and Gentiles converted to the faith in fraternal love.
“And they shall no longer be spoil to the nations,” that is, to demons or unbelievers: namely Christ’s sheep, with whom He is until the consummation of the age. Hence He Himself says in John 10: “No one shall snatch them from My hand.” But note carefully that through this prophet the Lord severely rebukes bad shepherds, that is, prelates, saying: “Woe to the shepherds who fed themselves. You ate the milk and were clothed with the wool,” namely that of the sheep, “but you did not feed My flock; and that which was fat you killed; that which was weak you did not strengthen,” and so forth.
§ I. The Mystery of the General Resurrection
The mystery of the general resurrection of bodies was shown to Ezekiel when in an imaginary vision he was led into a field full of the bones of the dead. At the prophet’s voice speaking to them on the Lord’s behalf, a great commotion arose from them: bone was joined to bone, flesh and sinews came upon them, and skin was stretched over them. Finally, at the prophet’s voice spirit entered those dead bodies, and they arose and stood alive upon their feet, as is found in Ezekiel 37.
Afterward the Lord adds, saying: “Behold, I shall open your tombs, and bring you out of your sepulchers, My people, and lead you into the land of Israel,” and so forth. According to the letter, through these things it was foretold to those in the Babylonian captivity that they would depart from it, concerning which they had as though despaired. But both the truth and the possibility of the future resurrection were also shown here.
§ II. On God’s Mercy, Justice, and Equity
No one speaks more clearly than Ezekiel throughout chapter 18 concerning the immense mercy of God, receiving every repentant sinner to pardon; His justice in punishing anyone who, even if holy and just for a time, nevertheless declines to evil and does not return to penance; and His equity in not punishing the father for the son’s fault or conversely.
For he says: “The soul that sins, the same shall die,” namely the spiritual death that is the privation of grace, from which eternal death follows. “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor the father the iniquity of the son.” This is true of punishment in the other life, namely that of hell or purgatory, for in this life one is rightly punished with temporal punishment for another. This matter is treated beautifully and diffusely in Cause 1, question 4, Now therefore, and in the section Against the Lord, with what follows.
There are several. “If the wicked man does penance for all his sins that he has committed, and keeps all My precepts, and executes judgment and justice, he shall live with life and shall not die. I shall not remember any of his iniquities.” Note each individual word: “If he does penance.” Augustine says: “You should not think that anyone can pass from any sin, great or small, to correction without penance,” in On Penance, distinction 1.
This is understood of that interior penance defined by Gregory and Ambrose in On Penance, distinction 3: “Penance is to lament past evils and not to commit again the things to be lamented,” that is, to resolve not to commit them.
It says, “for all his sins.” Augustine says: “Christ healed the whole man on the Sabbath, because He healed the body from infirmity and the soul from every contagion, indicating that a penitent must likewise grieve over every crime committed in soul and body. For he who reserves one crime will not find pardon for another,” in On Penance, distinction 3.
“And keeps all My precepts”: in resolve, when he truly repents, and afterward in execution. For, as is said in James 3, “Whoever keeps the whole law, but offends in one”—namely, of the precepts—“has become guilty of all.” For, as is said in On Penance, distinction 5, Brethren: “Just as if he were entangled in all sins, so if he remains in only one, he shall not enter the gate of eternal life.”
“And executes judgment,” namely by diligently examining his conscience concerning the things committed and by having recourse through confession to penitential judgment, as Augustine says in On Penance, distinction 1: “Let a man judge himself while he can and change his ways for the better, and then let him come to the prelates of the Church,” and so forth.
“And justice,” through fitting satisfaction for sins. For penance, according to Augustine in On Penance, distinction 3, is a certain vengeance of one who is angry, punishing in himself what he grieves to have committed. Vengeance or punishment pertains to justice.
“He shall live with life,” the life of grace and afterward of glory, “and shall not die” eternal death. “I shall not remember any of his iniquities,” namely for punishment, if he has made perfect satisfaction.
But “if the just man turns himself away from his justice and commits iniquity, all his justices shall not be remembered,” that is, no good work done by him, even in grace, will be pleasing to God or meritorious of eternal life. Hence Gregory says upon this authority in On Penance, distinction 4: “We must consider that in the perpetration of evils we ought to place no confidence in past goods,” namely as regards obtaining eternal life.
The same things are set forth more fully in chapter 33, where the danger and perdition that threaten prelates and preachers if they do not announce and correct the sins of the peoples are also premised, because they are damned with them. For he says: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. If, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall die the death,’ you do not announce it, he shall die in his iniquity, and I will require his blood at your hand. But if you announce it and he does not amend himself, you have delivered your soul,” and so forth.
§ III. Against the Prince and King of Tyre
Likewise, in chapter 28 he speaks against the prince of Tyre, which was a certain very wealthy and strong city devoted to commerce near Galilee, and foretells his killing and the city’s destruction because of its pride. He then adds concerning the king of Tyre: “You, the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, were in the delights of the paradise of God. Every precious stone was your covering: sardius, topaz, jasper, chrysolite, onyx, and beryl,” and so forth; “sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald,” and so forth.
Beyond the literal sense concerning that king of Tyre, whose excellence he expresses through the likeness of these things and afterward whose casting down he describes, the passage is also expounded literally as spoken of Lucifer, as Gregory notes at length in the Moralia, and as is found in On Penance, distinction 2, The beginning.
There, to show his excellence, Gregory says: “What good did he not have?” namely the first angel, first in the dignity of perfection, called Behemoth or Lucifer and cherub. He was the seal of God’s likeness when it is said, “You, the seal,” and so forth. For although man was created in the likeness of God, nevertheless, as though bestowing something greater upon the angel, Scripture says not that he was made in the likeness of God but that he was the very seal of God’s likeness, so that the subtler he is in nature, the more fully the likeness of God may be believed to have been expressed in him.
Hence, further intimating the power of his primacy, Scripture adds, “Every precious stone was your garment,” and so forth. It named nine kinds of stones because there are indeed nine orders of angels named through the sacred writings: angels, archangels, thrones, dominations, virtues, principalities, powers, cherubim, and seraphim. This cherub is said to have been covered with these precious stones because he had them as though for a garment for his adornment. Since he surpassed their brightness, he was the brighter by comparison with them.
And it follows: “Your holes were prepared on the day when you were created.” Holes are made in precious stones so that, bound with gold, they may be joined in the composition of an ornament. This stone therefore had holes, but through the vice of pride they were not filled with the gold of charity.
These words of Gregory do not seem to be understood as though there had been no gold of charity in him, since it is said below that this cherub walked amid the fiery stones—that is, he stood glorious among the hearts of the angels kindled by the fire of charity. Rather, he did not have that gold of the most perfect and inamissible charity of the blessed by which the good angels were bound, that is, confirmed. Holes were therefore made in him, that is, an aptitude was given him for such unfailing charity, of which through pride he deprived himself.
After a lengthy exposition of this prophecy, Gregory concludes: “Therefore Scripture intimates these marvelous things in which he was and which he lost, so that it may show man what he himself will suffer through the guilt of his proud self-display, if God did not will to spare by striking him whom, by creating him, He raised to the glory of so great a brightness.” Thus Gregory there, in On Penance, distinction 2.
§ IV. Ezekiel’s Final Vision
Ezekiel’s final and very obscure vision, which is set down from chapter 40 to the end—namely concerning the marvelous city built upon a mountain and shown to him in spirit—Gregory, upon Ezekiel, expounds morally of the Church. He says that it cannot be understood literally because it would contain an absurdity and contradiction, namely that what is contained would be larger in dimension than that which contains it.
Jerome likewise says that building is to be understood spiritually of Christ and the Church, her sacraments and morals. Gregory, however, expounded only chapter 40. Richard of Saint Victor expounded the whole vision concerning a material building. The ancient Hebrews said that this building was shown to Ezekiel in an imaginary vision and was fulfilled in the rebuilding carried out after the return from Babylon by Zerubbabel and Nehemiah.
But Nicholas of Lyra disproves this with effective reasons: neither the rebuilt temple nor the city was of so great a size as those described here, nor were the waters there. Modern Hebrews say that such a building has not yet been made but will be made materially by the Messiah, whom they await as one still to come and as a mere man who will nevertheless reign temporally with great pomp.
Nicholas also disproves this in many ways, showing from the Scriptures their errors: that the Messiah is a mere man, that He will bestow temporal things upon them, and that He has not yet come. Nicholas himself gives a literal exposition and, by understanding and expounding the text differently, removes the absurdity and contradiction expressed by Gregory.
But if it is said that the Jewish people were never given or possessed such a city as is promised to them in the vision, and that the prophet is therefore untruthful because God’s promise was not fulfilled, the response is that it is not incongruous that such a city was not given to them. For many promises concerning prosperity and adversity made by God are conditional, as is evident in Jeremiah 18.
Jerome, upon Amos, says in On Penance, distinction 1: “If we do penance, He too will repent of His sentence; again, according to the prophet, He promises prosperity if we do penance. But if we become lax through negligence, He will repent of His pledge and change what He promised. We can have an example of this in Samaria and Jerusalem: some of their inhabitants were freed from the punishments threatening them, while others lost what had been promised to their fathers.”
And in cause 22, question 4, it is said: “The supreme nature of God, immutable and remaining the same forever, is often read in Sacred Scripture to have changed His promises.” Such a glorious city was therefore promised to them conditionally: if, after returning to Jerusalem, they kept God’s precepts. Because they did not do this but added worse things to evils, not only was that city not granted, but the one that had been rebuilt was destroyed down to its foundations.
Nicholas therefore first expounds that material building according to the letter and, so that it may be better understood, places there in his work upon Ezekiel figures depicting such a building. Then at the end he gives a brief moral exposition concerning Christ and the Church, and her states and morals.
Because these things have been collected here and there to show the progress of the Church in the Old and New Testaments, I set down here his brief exposition, which comprises almost everything in that vision pertaining to the Church’s states and morals, omitting the scriptural authorities that he adduces to prove the fittingness of the exposition.
In the Church, therefore, which is the congregation of the faithful, there is a twofold government. One concerns spiritual matters, and this is designated by the temple building. The other concerns temporal matters, and this is designated by the division of the land and the building of the city. Nevertheless, both governments are from God, distinction 10, Since the same.
By the mountain upon which the prophet says in chapter 40 that he was placed, and upon which the city was built, Christ is therefore signified, according to Gregory. Upon Him the Church is built as regards both governments, namely the spiritual and the temporal. First we must consider the temple building, which signifies the spiritual state.
Around the temple building a threefold wall is described, surrounding it on every side: exterior, middle, and interior. By the exterior wall that surrounds all the buildings is signified the divine protection and guardianship embracing all things. By the middle wall is understood angelic protection or guardianship. By the inner wall, which has a smaller circumference, is understood the guardianship and protection exercised by the Church’s prelates and ministers, which is indeed less effective than the angelic.
Through these walls an entrance to the temple lies on three sides. By those sides are understood the three parts of the habitable earth: Asia, Africa, and Europe. From these parts many—indeed innumerable persons—have entered the Church through baptism and reception of the faith, and they enter at present and will enter in the future.
On each side—eastern, southern, and northern—there were three gates in the circuit of the walls, facing one another opposite. By them are designated the three states or degrees of those coming to the faith: beginners, designated by the first, exterior gate; the progressing, signified by the second, middle gate; and the perfect, signified by the third gate in the inner wall.
At the gates of the exterior wall there are no large buildings, but certain little houses built above them. By this is designated that the state of beginners is still notably imperfect. At the middle gates there are beautiful buildings, and much more so at the gates of the inner wall, to designate that the progressing have more of the perfection of the virtues than beginners, and the perfect more than the progressing. Hence the ascent to the middle gates was by seven steps, and to the interior gates by eight.
Each of the six gates has a vestibule, a portico, two fronts, and six chambers. By the vestibule preceding the portico is understood prevenient grace, and by the portico subsequent grace. Or by these two are understood good will and holy operation.
By the two fronts made for the beauty and strength of the gates, in the manner of two turtledoves on either side of each gate, are understood patience in adversities, lest one be broken, and moderation in prosperity, lest one be lifted up.
By the chambers in which men sleep and rest is understood peace. Peace is twofold, internal and fraternal. To signify this, the chambers are said to be here and there on either side of the gate. There are three on one side because three things make internal peace: a clean conscience, divine friendship, and modest sufficiency. On the other side there are likewise three chambers because three things constitute fraternal peace: the first is true humility, the second just equity, and the third due taciturnity. For fraternal peace is frequently taken away by immoderate and incautious speech.
After the exposition of the gates, the treasury chambers said to be around the pavement must be considered. They are said to be thirty, by which is designated the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments, necessary in three times: the time of the law of nature, the Mosaic law, and grace or the evangelical law. For the number ten multiplied by three rises to thirty. They are called gazophylacia, from gaza, which means riches, and phylaxe, which means to keep, because the riches of the virtues are preserved through fulfillment of the commandments.
After the treasury chambers comes the account of the tables, which are said to be eight. By them are designated the four parts of Sacred Scripture in the Old Testament—the legal, prophetic, historical, and sapiential writings—to which correspond in the New the evangelical law, the epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse. From these Scriptures, as from spiritual tables, the whole Christian people are refreshed, because man does not live by bread alone, and so forth.
After the tables comes the account of the inner court. There, according to the Hebrews, were four things: the altar of holocausts; the treasury chambers of the priests, namely those serving by the week; the treasury chambers of the singers serving by the week in the temple; and the passage of the waters from the right side of the altar.
By the altar of holocausts, where the sacrifices were burned, is signified the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which Christ’s Passion is represented and which fulfills all those sacrifices that were figures of it. By the treasury chambers of the priests and singers that were within beside the altar are signified the merits in the Church of those who minister and of the ministers themselves. By the waters flowing from the side is understood baptism, cleansing the filth of vices.
These two are the chief sacraments of the Church: the first is greater in being and the second greater in effect. Christ instituted the latter Himself as regards its matter and form and received it in Himself; and the other sacraments are included under these.
Now the temple itself must be considered. For the building of the Church consists not only in morals, the teaching of Scripture, and the sacraments, but also in the articles of faith, which are designated here in the temple.
The temple is divided into three parts: the porch, the holy place, and the holy of holies. Through the porch there is an entrance to the other parts of the temple. Hence it signifies the article of the unity of the divine essence and of divine providence as regards the rewarding of good and punishment of evil. For it has always been necessary to believe that there is one God and that He is the rewarder of the good and punisher of the evil. Through this article lies the way to the others.
By the holy of holies, where the things within it were hidden—namely, the ark with its contents—the article of the Trinity is signified. The ark was incorruptible and gilded, signifying perpetuity and the preciousness of perfection. Within it was the rod, signifying divine justice; the manna, mercy; the tablets, wisdom; the mercy seat, omnipotence, which is manifested most greatly in showing mercy; and the cherubim, the glory of the blessed.
In the holy place, which signifies Christ, there was a lampstand, signifying the perfection of sevenfold grace by its seven lamps; a table of loaves, signifying every kind of doctrine and knowledge; and an altar of incense, signifying the highest devotion.
By the holy of holies, the article of the Trinity is understood through the three chambers existing there, with passage from one into another. Although there is no superiority or inferiority there, nevertheless the Son properly proceeds from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from both.
By the part of the temple called the holy place is understood the article of the Incarnation, through which three natures are united in the supposit of the Son: the divinity, Christ’s soul, and His flesh. These are signified by the three chambers existing there, one above another, for the divinity is superior to the soul and the soul superior to the flesh.
By the temple treasury chambers are understood the miracles that confirm the faith. By the winding stairs through which one ascends upward are understood the kinds of knowledge of creatures through which one ascends to knowledge of the Creator. By the appendage around the temple are understood all other matters pertaining to faith that are reduced to the foregoing articles.
The building around the temple on the southern side, whence a warm wind blows, is the fervor of charity in the faithful. The building on the northern side is filial fear. By the four little courts within the walls in different places may be understood the four cardinal virtues. By the ovens or kitchens may be understood the doctors who cook the food of Scripture by their meditations so that it may be savory to the peoples. This takes place in the little courts because the doctors themselves must first have been exercised in the cardinal virtues.
After the exposition of the temple and the buildings around it, it must be said what is signified by the priests ministering in it. Five things are described concerning them: their lineage, clothing, manner, sustenance, and activity.
Concerning the first it is said that they are the sons of Zadok, which is interpreted “just.” By this is intimated that the ministers of the Church ought through spiritual imitation to be sons of Christ, who by excellence is called just, according to Isaiah 45: “Let the clouds rain down the Just One.”
They had linen garments, which signify purity of mind and body, as well as linen breeches to cover their shame. This signifies that nothing shameful or immodest ought to appear in the conduct, gesture, deed, or example of the Church’s ministers.
It is also said that they ought to be in different garments in the temple from those worn when they associate with others among the people. This is observed literally by clerics in the New Testament, and morally because, in the exercise of ministry, nothing worldly or secular ought to appear in them, but the whole conduct of their mind ought then to be in heaven.
Likewise it is said that they are not to grow their hair long, which is also now observed literally; but morally it signifies that they ought not multiply temporal goods for themselves, but distribute their surplus to the poor, cause 12, question 2, Glory.
Likewise, they are not to eat what is caught by a beast or what has died, that is, they are not to live from the property of another or from any illicit dealing or occupation. They are not to drink wine when about to enter the temple, that is, they are to be sober from wine and from passions. They are to celebrate the divine office, teach the people, and determine what must be done in doubtful matters. By these things are designated the devotion they must possess and their knowledge of the Scriptures, which ought to be the greater insofar as their grade is higher.
After the clerical state has been described, the secular state or its government is next treated. Three things are set down concerning it: the division of the land to be inhabited by them, the condition of the prince, and the quality of the city to be built.
As regards the first, it is manifest that no community can subsist well without the observance of justice. Justice is twofold: commutative and distributive. Commutative justice properly exists among the people in buying, selling, and other just exchanges, and concerns movable and immovable goods.
This is intimated when it is said that the land promised to them is to be divided equally among the twelve tribes, because the Christian people ought to employ commutative justice, whose mean is considered according to equality of quantity, as is said in Book 5 of the Ethics. This is done concerning immovable goods when each is content with his own inheritance and does not take from another’s possessions by violence or fraud. Concerning movable goods it says: “Let the balance be just, and the ephah just,” and so forth.
Concerning princes it is said that they are to be content within the boundaries of their possession. By this is understood that Christian princes ought to be content with their own revenues, not burden their subjects with undue exactions, and not usurp the kingdoms and dominions of others, either in whole or in part.
Distributive justice properly pertains to superiors, who are those who impose honors and burdens upon their subjects. Its mean is considered not according to equality of quantity but of proportion: so that each is honored more or less according to his merit, is punished more or less for evil, and is burdened with impositions according to his condition. Hence it is said that princes ought to execute justice and judgment.
As regards the third, namely the building of the city, it is said that it ought to be square. Because a city is called a unity of citizens, and this unity ought to exist in the Church in faith, charity, and the sacraments, the city is therefore designated as square, because its citizens ought to exercise themselves in the four cardinal virtues.
“And the name of the city, the Lord is there”; thus the community of the Christian people is denominated from Christ. The measurements and numbers of reeds and cubits that signify the quantity of merits are known to God alone.