Why, before the other tribes, Joshua judged these three [tribes] to be warned [of] these three [things], was inquired [in] quest. 1; but now, why to these same three tribes he proposed such [things] about the crossing of the Jordan, [and] help to be brought to [their] brethren, [they] going before [them]. The cause indeed [is] first, that it is [the mark] of a good Prince to discern [dispicere] the [things] which are accommodated to individuals, and to propose [them] to the same. And they had indeed received these same [things] from Moses, and now guarded [them] in memory (as [was] said [in] quest. 1), and wished to give [them] effect further [ultro]; yet those [things] which were of a prudent and skilled [navus] Leader, Joshua wished to omit nothing. Homer, truly, Iliad 12 [a Greek tag — illegible in the scan] etc.; Quintilian bk. 1 ch. 4; Sopater to Hemeterius [his] brother, in Stobaeus serm. 44. The other [cause], that the same Leader wished to explain and define that which had been said — [as something] involved [wrapped up] and infinite — by Moses in the presence of the people [coram populo], and to this [tribe] privately [it was] evolved [unrolled] and ex-
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—plained: so that, namely, not all and single [men] of these tribes, who through age were now fit [habiles] for arms, should be led beyond the Jordan, but (as [in] quest. 2 I was saying) only some out of them, whom, namely, he had described [selected out]. Third [cause], that by this very [fact] he wished the more to sharpen their alacrity, when he sought fewer from them than they had suspected. For since they were 110,580, out of these he did not take — as he could have — 100,000, not 90,000, or 80,000, nor finally at least half, 55,290, but 40,000 only. Great [is] the allurement [illecebra] to subjects for obeying, when the Superiors [Praepositi] exact from them less than they can, or think [they can]. Fourth [cause], that he wished to define this [force] by a smaller number — [that number] which, as [said], on account of [its] fewness [paucity], might exhilarate these three tribes, [and] so bring no sadness to the rest. For he signified [that] the choicest [lectissimi] and the strongest were to be selected — whose presence and vigor could bring great moment to the mass of the imminent war. And in this the greatest prudence and moderation of Joshua shines out, who so consulted [for] the one part that he might not harm the other; but let him inculcate [instil] to all now that [saying] of the Apostle: “Not that to others there be remission [ease], but to you tribulation; but from equality,” 2 Cor. 8:13.
Fifth. Joshua wished — or, through him, the divine Spirit [wished] — to teach what fellowship and help ought to be in the Church of GOD. Of our brethren, indeed, the rich and plainly opulent [uber] inheritance they have now already received across the Jordan, in celestial Gilead. To us this river [is] still to be crossed; to us war [is] still to be waged — hands [are] still to be joined with the enemies who [are] barbarous in savagery [immanitas], and innumerable in multitude. What [then]? Will those brethren of ours desert us? [Will there be] no help from them? No escort [comitatus]? Behold, [the] most noble part of that triumphant Church — the holy Angels [are] to us companions, helpers, and guardians. [They] who led [their] life here in this land, [as] holy [ones] go before us [praegrediuntur] by example, prayer, [and] aid. “Of these,” says St. Bernard, serm. 2 on the feast of All Saints, “the memory dispels langor, tepor [lukewarmness], and error; when by their intercession our infirmity is aided, by the consideration of [their] beatitude our negligence is excited, and by [our] ignorance too their own [examples] instruct us [erudiatur exemplis].” But in this land too — ours [i.e. here] — we ought to help others, and most of all [those] who are now more perfect. “We ought,” says St. Paul, Rom. 15:1, “we [who are] stronger, to sustain the infirmities of the weak.” What [of them]? [Those] who a pacified seat now already obtain in the recess [secessus] of the sacred religions [religious orders], [and] enjoy the fat [praepingui] clod [gleba] of reading, of prayer, of recess [seclusion], and of contemplation — if to their own brethren in the Catholic Church, [threatened] by the Canaanites, that is, by heretics and sowers of graver crimes, they should see danger to impend — will they not, [in] their quiet and sacred leisure [otium], set arms, trumpets, and battles before [it]? [A] witness [is], in Theodoret, in [his] History of the Holy Fathers, Eusebius the hermit, ch. 4; the admirable Amraïanus [?]; serm. 9, 12 & 40 on the Canticle, D[ivus] Bernard; in [i.e. cited by] Cassian, Collation 24 ch. 13, Macarius; in the preface of the books against the Filidini [?], Aphraates [Aphraat]; and in St. Brigitta bk. 4 ch. 128, Christ the Lord himself. “If,” says St. Gregory, bk. 6 epist. 5, “the Only-begotten of the Father, for the fulfilling of the utility of all, went forth from the secret [privacy] of the Father unto our public [i.e. the world] — what are we going to say [or do], if we set our own secret [privacy] before the utility of [our] neighbors?” There are also other beautiful and useful allegories of the ancients.
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Origen, hom. 3: “See,” he says, “[that] for me today the labor is in the agony of this life, and [I have] a contest against the enemies — that is, the contrary powers — how they come into [our] help, [those] who before the advent of CHRIST my Lord were justified in the law. See how Isaiah affords me help, when he illuminates me with the discourses of his law. See Jeremiah, girded and expedited [unencumbered], coming to our help, and with the darts of his volume [scroll] putting to flight the fiercest enemies, and [putting to flight] the darknesses of my heart. Daniel too is girded to our help, when he instructs and forewarns us about Christ’s presence and reign, and about the future fraud of Antichrist. Ezekiel too is present, signing to us celestial sacraments in the four-formed circles of wheels, and concluding a wheel in a wheel. Hosea too leads the twice-[six] troops of the prophetic column, and all proceed girded as to the loins in the truth which they preach — to the help of their brethren, so that, instructed by their volumes, we may not be ignorant of diabolical astutenesses. These, therefore, who are strong men, armed and girded as to the loins in truth, go forth in our help, and fight with us. But the infants and women do not go forth to our battle. Nor [is it] a wonder — for an ‘infant’ [infans] is [so] called who does not speak [non loquitur]. What, therefore, could that one help me who has said nothing? whose [words] I find nothing which I might read? whose discourse does not instruct? But [the] woman the Apostle says [is] a weak [infirmum] vessel. Whence, consequently, a weak vessel comes not to the conflict, lest it be broken and perish. For thus also of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels it is said that ‘a bruised reed he did not break.’ Because, therefore, women are bidden to be taught at home by their own husbands, and are placed more in the person of disciples than of teachers — to my help comes not [he] who cannot teach me, and of whom I find nothing which I ought to imitate or hold.”
Rupert, ch. 9, bk. 1 on Joshua: “The Reubenite and Gadite, and the half-tribe of Manasseh — before the crossing of the Jordan, before the entrance of the land of promise having already obtained possessions — [are] mystically the ecclesiastical orders, who now, in this world and present life, more instantly [urgently] and out of duty [ex debito] announce the word of GOD, and receive the licit faculties conceded to them out of the Gospel, so that to them it may be free [vacet] to evangelize — so that they may delight to announce Christ not only for the hope of future [things] and matters, but also for the sake of present [things]. ‘You therefore,’ he says, ‘be mindful of the discourse [sermon] which Moses the servant of the Lord commands you.’ Be mindful of the discourse, be mindful of [your] profession, be mindful of the law and [the] duty, be mindful of the office of your Superior [Praepositus]. For woe to you [vae vobis] if you shall not have fought — because you have already received the stipend of the war [pugnae stipendium]; if you shall not have evangelized, [you] who live off the gospel. ‘Armed, cross before your brethren, all strong in hand, and fight for them’: armed, I say, in word and in work, and strong in hand — lest perchance, preaching to others, you yourselves be made reprobate.” In all these [things], illustriously — to use [him] as [I have] always elsewhere — Joshua bears the type of Jesus Christ our Lord, because all his oration, exhortation, and life was ever occupied in the commendation of charity. “A [new] commandment,” said John 13:34, “I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” The rest [of the things] which are of the greatest prudence and lenity — [where are they so] expressed as, all, in Christ Jesus?