If we consider CHRIST the Lord in himself, the stone placed under him, upon which he may sit and rest, is his own divinity. In a certain manner [it is] also that rock upon which he himself — the lowest Rock, and true cornerstone — deigned to found his Church. Nay, the patience and constancy of any good and pious [man] — or the soul unconquered by the allurements of pleasures, by the terrors of dangers, and by labors — is the rock which offers a most pleasing seat to CHRIST the Lord. But if we regard CHRIST the Lord as to his members, in what other thing should we seek a seat, except in that Rock which [is] in 1 Corinthians 10, v. 4? CHRIST is in that stone which is described in Zechariah ch. 3, v. 9, and ch. 4, v. 7. “Moses sits,” says St. Jerome (to Fabiola), “upon the stone spoken of by Zechariah — which had seven eyes, and in the book of Samuel is called Abenhaazer [Eben-ha-ezer], that is, the stone of help.” Cyril (in the Collectanea, ch. 16): “When Moses had commanded JESUS [Joshua], the son of Nave [Nun], to choose mighty men, and to go out and fight in battle-line with Amalek, he fore-signified that JESUS CHRIST would be made subject to the commandments of the Mosaic law. ‘I came not,’ he says, ‘to loose the law, but to [fulfill it]…’”
(col. 79)
…[I came not to loose the law, but] to fulfill [it]. And when he had chosen out of all Israel, and out of the whole nation, mighty, holy men — I mean the Apostles — and their successors, to fight in the battle-line with the Devil, the King of vice and of sin, he will vanquish him. But on the next day he commanded [the drawing-up of] the battle-line of the servants [soldiers], signifying [that] the time which afterward followed [was] the taking-on of [his] humanity, which is after the fulfillment of the legal time. But Moses ascended upon the top of the hill, that he might be able to behold the battle. For the mystagogy which is according to the Law ascends to a height of knowledge, suited [as] having proportion, whence the Jews may be able to behold the stratagems of CHRIST. And while Moses stretched out [his] hands, Israel grew strong; but while he let [them] down, Amalek grew strong. For hands spread out into the air describe the figure of the cross; and whoever bears the cross conquers; just as, on the other hand, whoever does not bear the cross, but has lost the faith of CHRIST, is pressed [hard] in war. But the hands of Moses [are] heavy, and are scarcely raised into the said figure: because those too who are of the Law rarely come to this — to bear the cross of CHRIST. And, taking [it], he says, they placed a stone under him. And Aaron and Or held up, he says, his hands — one on this side, and one on that. For a precious and chosen stone is CHRIST, leaning upon whom those who believe out of Israel find rest. And the same Christ is understood [as] both Aaron and Or, both Pontiff and Judge. For Aaron indeed is a Pontiff; but Or [is] a Judge — [the Christ] who is understood by both — and [Christ] props up the faithful out of Israel unto faith and victory, which is through Christ, nor does he suffer them to be weighed down and depressed.”
Calvin says allegories of this kind are plausible, yet he himself spurns [them]. But in the Biblical Prolegomena (ch. On the mystical sense) this vanity of his [is] now scorned and hissed off [the stage]. Chytraeus — another [one] now given to Orcus [dead] — praises them, but so that in the mouth of a sinner the praise is not comely. “Our hands and prayers,” he says, “are to be sustained by the stone, or Rock, Christ — not by the intercession and merits of the Saints.” For which reason, I pray — “not by the intercession and merits of the Saints”? Are not the Saints too stones, on which it is permitted to rest? [Is] not the Rock St. Peter? Can nothing of their merits and intercessions — though far otherwise, and much less, than [those] of CHRIST the Lord — profit us? But this I have set forth in my little book On the Litanies. Now let us only observe how — [while] otherwise those Hagiomachs [Saint-fighters] are wont so greatly to envy all the Saints, and to snatch away the appellation of intercessor — [they yet] here attribute [it] to Moses, and at the same time again approve something of the allegories which [Calvin] disapproved. “Moses speaks chiefly about himself,” he says, “to teach [that] this office had been imposed on him by God. For he conceived [his] vows not only from the duty of charity, but because God had chosen him [as] an intercessor, who — by the stretching-out of the rod, and by a silent ardor of praying — might conquer the enemies from afar. In which part he bore the type of CHRIST — although in other parts the likeness would not square [fit].” These [are] his own [words]. But, before this, I more gladly hear Philo and St. Augustine. He [Philo], in the book That Every Good Man is Free: “The legislator of the Jews,” he says, “[teaches that] the wise man has heavy hands — signifying his actions by this enigma: [that they are] not [ones] touching the surface, but penetrating into the solid [depth], inasmuch as [they are] resting [firm], not swayed
(col. 80)
by any inclining purpose of the mind. And so he is compelled by no one, since he [is] a despiser both of death and of torments — by the law of nature set above all the foolish.” Augustine (in the [book of] 50 [Homilies], homily 27, ch. 1): “I confess, enemies are not lacking. For as there were not lacking those who would pursue [Israel] fleeing, so there will not be lacking those who impede [them] walking. Utterly, most beloved, they were figures of us. Meanwhile, let there not be in thee that which may grieve Moses: be not the bitter water which, after the Red Sea, that people could not drink. For there too was a temptation. And yet, when these [things] happen — when the people is embittered — we show them CHRIST, what [things] thou hast borne for them, how he shed [his] blood for them: and they grow mild, as though we cast wood into the water [for them]. Fully wilt thou have Amalek [as] the enemy opposing thy journey. Then Moses prayed, then he stretched out [his] hands. And when he put down [his] hands, Amalek grew strong; when he stretched out [his] hands, Amalek failed. And let thy hands be stretched out, [that] Amalek — the tempter, and the impeder of this journey — may fail: be watchful and sober in prayers, in good works, yet not apart from CHRIST, because that stretching-out of hands was the cross of Christ. In that [cross] the Apostle is stretched out when he says: ‘The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.’ Therefore let Amalek fail, be conquered, and not impede the passage of the people of God. If thou lettest down [thy] hands from the good work, from the cross of Christ, Amalek will prevail. Yet do not think either that thou wilt in every way, or continuously, be strong; or that thou wilt utterly fail by despairing. For that alternation of failing and of strength in the hands of the servant of God, Moses, was perhaps thy alternation. For sometimes in temptations thou failest, but dost not succumb. He put down [his] hands a little; he did not utterly fall. If I said, ‘my foot is moved,’ behold, ‘thy mercy, O Lord, will help me.’ Do not, therefore, fear: there is present on the journey a helper, who in Egypt was not lacking [as] a liberator. Fear not, undertake the way, presume securely. Sometimes he put down [his] hands, sometimes he raised [them]; yet Amalek was conquered. He could rebel; he could not overcome.” St. Bernard (sermon 30 on the Canticle): “The hands of Moses [are] heavy, with Aaron and Hur [as] witnesses. The yoke of the Law [is] heavy, with the Apostles [as] witnesses — who cry out that this [is] unbearable both to themselves and to the Fathers.” (Acts 15.)