He himself subjoined it: “For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” Now there are two kinds of wonders [mirabilia]. For some are truly wonderful, some falsely [so]. Those are [truly wonderful] which are really, in themselves, great and excellent — as God himself, and [the things] which are done by him beyond and above the common order of things. Falsely wonderful are [those] which in themselves are small and rather cheap, but are deemed worthy of wonder either because of men’s ignorance and folly, or because of their rarity and novelty. Of which sort are certain deceptions [praestigia] of demons — about which [see] 2 Thess. 2 v. 9, St. Paul; and bk. 4 On the Church ch. 14, [in reply] to [objection] 1, Bellarmine — and the fleeting and perishable riches, dignities, pomps, games, and the like of this world, about which [see] bk. 1 Epist. 6, Horace:
“To marvel at nothing, Numicius, is nearly the one and only [thing] that can make and keep [a man] happy… What think you of the gifts of the earth — of the sea enriching the far-off Arabs and Indians? What of the stage-shows — applause, and the gifts of the friendly Roman? With what feeling, in what wise, do you think they are to be regarded, and spoken of? … Go now, gaze up at silver and ancient marble, at bronzes and arts; admire, with the gems, the Tyrian dyes.”
Whence, too, in the book On listening to the Poets, Plutarch said [that] from the studies of Philosophy this above all is gained [as] excellent and useful — μηδὲν θαυμάζειν [mēden thaumazein, “to marvel at nothing”]; and St. Augustine (bk. 13 City [of God] ch. 21): “Ignorance [is] the mother of wonder.” But things of the former kind, the more they are known, agitated in the mind, and deeply penetrated, [are] by so much always the more wonderful; and of this sort [were the things which] Joshua promised for the next day. For he says: “Tomorrow you shall see wonders,” or “tomorrow there will be wonders” — and, so that he might indicate their kind, magnitude, and excellence, he discloses their author: “The Lord will do wonders” — and indeed not far from you, in heaven or [on] earth, but among you; and therefore [also] for you. For why would this have been added, unless [so] that in some way the end of those wonders be marked — namely, the salvation of this people, [their] confirmation in faith, [their] rousing to the worship and love of God? Now God willed both to say and to do these wonders, because the expectation of such [things] (whether future), or the recollection of past [ones], moves [men] more vehemently, and clings longer in the minds and talk of men — [even] among late posterity, [their] descendants.
But the same words can have various use. For, first, if a [festival’s] eve be, for example, the vigil of the Lord’s Nativity, how aptly might we rouse either ourselves or others with these same words? “Sanctify yourselves” — by a true confession [exomologesis] and detestation of sins; by a firm purpose of fleeing those sins and all their occasions; by a pious meditation of divine things, and especially of that mystery which is celebrated in the Church; by warm prayers, at last, [by] almsgivings, and other holy exercises of this kind. “For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you” — for example, by being born, receiving circumcision, bearing a most bitter death, coming to life again, ascending into the heavens, sending [down] the Holy Spirit. Then, if the last day of life—
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—shall come, and you perceive [it] beforehand — whether from the weakness of [your] powers themselves, or by the physicians’ judgment, or otherwise — is not the same exhortation most timely? For truly, [those things] which not so long after — in the other world [saeculum] — the Lord will do, are marvellous. He will judge all most justly; he will punish the guilty most severely; he will bless the innocent and holy most abundantly. O how marvellous then are either the punishments or the rewards! The fires and mournings of the lower regions, the pleasures and joys of the heavens? The horror of the foulest demons? The fellowship of the most blessed Angels! But thirdly — since this life of ours, and this whole age, is called “Today” by the Apostle (Heb. 3 v. 13, and ch. 4 v. 7) — what [is] now ever to be done by us, other than that we hear this voice of our true Joshua: “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you”? For what else [mean] those [words of] Luke 21 v. 34: “Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life; and that day come upon you suddenly. For it will come as a snare upon all who sit upon the face of the whole earth. Watch, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be held worthy to escape all these things which are to come, and to stand before the Son of man.”
[It is] surely fair, and altogether necessary, that we wash our garments, and abstain from all the enticements of pleasures. The washing of garments signifies the correction of all [those things] which are about us — as if [to remove] what is called by the Apostle (Heb. 12 v. 1) “the sin surrounding us”: if [our] habits be depraved, if the occasions of sinning [be] domestic, if [our] companions [be] evil. A certain one of the bards once cried:
“Chaste [things] please the gods above: come with clean garment.”
And from these same gentiles, Tibullus cries (bk. 1 epist. 1):
“You too I bid be far off; [let him] depart from the altars, / to whom Venus brought joys the past night.”
In Livy (decade 4, bk. 9), for anyone to be initiated into the Bacchic [rites], a chastity [castimonia] of 10 days was required. And another says:
“[The gods] no doubt [are] easy, if grim crimes are thought able to be washed away by a river’s water.”
Not by the hands — as Cicero says (On the Laws) — nor by the whole Ocean can the filth of the soul be washed away; but only by that most precious liquid which the Angel pointed out, when, praising the white-clad race of the pious, he said (Apoc. 7 v. 14): “These are they who came out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” For [he] alludes to those old washings of the Hebrews and Gentiles, and admonishes [us] that these ought to be effected through the true blood of CHRIST — from which both penitence, and tears, and prayers, and all [things] which we do, have [their] force. But the Apostle (1 Cor. 7 v. 29) counsels continence [secubitus]: “This therefore I say, brethren: the time is short; it remains, that both they who have wives be as though not having [them]; and they who weep, as though not weeping; and they who rejoice, as though not rejoicing; and they who buy, as though not possessing; and they who use this world, as though they use [it] not: for the figure of this world passes away.” And Beza there acknowledges continence [as] useful both for prayers, and praised by the Apostle. But beautifully [does] St. Chrysostom [write], bk. On Virginity ch. 30 — nearly all of which is to be transcribed here — and ch. 31; [and] St. Jerome on Ezekiel 46: “Moses wishes the people to be sanctified for three days from all uncleanness, and from the embrace of wives—
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—[from the embrace of wives], so that [the people] may approach Mount Sinai, and, [thus] sanctified, receive holy things. But if [those] about to approach to hear and receive the words of God are bidden to be sanctified from [their] wives, it is manifest [that] in the Law is contained that Apostolic [saying]: ‘Do not defraud one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may have leisure for prayer’ — and [that] by consent [there is] to be abstaining from wives, that we may have leisure for prayer.”