The mystical explanation of the cities of refuge is handed down [as] manifold. For by some, all the cities are considered [as] in this life; by some, three in this life, and three in the other. And in the former [view], St. Ambrose can be praised [as] the standard-bearer, who, in the book On the Flight of the World, ch. 2: “The law teaches,” he says, “[that] the world [is] to be fled, [and] God [is] to be followed. For what else does [it] teach, when [it] says: ‘you shall appoint for yourselves cities for refuge; and [they] shall be refuges for you, whither every manslayer may flee, who shall have struck a soul unawares’?” And afterward he thus explains those six cities, so that [they] are:
- As [it were] a metropolis [mother-city], “the Knowledge of the Word,” and a manner of living according to his image.
- The Consideration of the divine operation, by which the world was created.
- The Contemplation of the Royal power, and of the eternal majesty.
- The beholding of the divine Propitiation.
- The contemplation of the divine Law, which prescribed what [is] to be done.
- The portion of the law which prescribes what [is] not to be done.
St. Ambrose, namely, imitated (as I was saying, q. 5) Philo, who, in the book “περὶ φυγάδων [peri phygadōn]” [“On fugitives”], in the second of the four questions which he set down concerning these cities of refuge — where [are] these six cities —:
- ὁ θεῖος λόγος [ho theios logos — the divine Word]. And this [is] not only a city, but also a metropolis.
- ἡ τοῦ λέγοντος θεοῦ ποιητικὴ δύναμις [hē tou legontos theou poiētikē dynamis — the creative power of the speaking God].
- ἡ βασιλικὴ δύναμις [hē basilikē dynamis — the royal power].
- ἡ ἵλεως δύναμις [hē hileōs dynamis — the propitious (merciful) power].
- ἡ νομοθετικὴ δύναμις ἡ προστάττουσα ἃ δεῖ [hē nomothetikē dynamis hē prostattousa ha dei — the legislative power which commands what [one] ought [to do]].
- ἡ νομοθετικὴ δύναμις ἡ ἀπαγορεύουσα ἃ μὴ δεῖ [hē nomothetikē dynamis hē apagoreuousa ha mē dei — the legislative power which forbids what [one] ought not [to do]].
And the same Philo subjoins [that] all these [powers] are signified also in the ark of God. Some, in the ordinary gloss of this place, name six remedies of sins: before baptism indeed — as [if] before the crossing of the Jordan — “the faith of the parents,” “the oblation made to God,” and “circumcision”; but after baptism, “fasting,” “prayer,” and “almsgiving”; or also the three parts of penance: “contrition,” “confession,” and “satisfaction.” One could take the three kinds of life which were before CHRIST, and [the three] which [were] after. For [the life] was either “only contemplative,” or “only active,” or “both together.” And the first is, in the plain, “Bosor,” excellently fortified against the spiritual enemies. The second: [it] is “Ramoth,” lofty through the exercise of good works. The third: “Gaulon,” which indicates a transmigration [passing-over] — namely, from contemplation to action, and from action to contemplation. And again [in the other triad] the first is “Cedes,” at rest in the zeal of one’s own sanctity. The second, “Sichem,” submitting the shoulders to labor and action; the third, “Chebron” [Hebron], a social life, associating contemplation with action, leisure with business, [and] one’s own sanctity and welfare with another’s. And if you take the distinctions of men before CHRIST, [there] were [those] who, besides the good and holy manner of common life (instituted from God’s precepts), imposed on themselves, of their own accord, certain [other] pious and good [things] — such as the “Prophets,” and of the “Pharisees” any [that were] upright, and the “Essenes” (concerning whom [see] in the Triharesium [my treatise on the three Jewish sects]). But after CHRIST [there] are the “Anchorites,” “Cenobites,” and “men of the Society of Jesus.” But [those] who think [of] some cities in this world [age], others in the other [age] — beyond the Jordan, that is, after death and the day of judgment — these now, from Eph. 4, “One God, one faith, one baptism,” seek three refuges; and afterward, the three persons of the most-sacred Trinity themselves, or the “clear vision,” “blessed fruition,” and “eternal possession” of the divine majesty. What if also the three receptacles after death — in which [there] are not eternal joys or torments, as in heaven and hell, [but] from which [there] is a migration to the heavenly fatherland, and to [things that are] as [if] to a certain natural felicity — be understood [as] the “limbo of the Fathers,” “purgatory,” and the “abode of infants”? What if [there be] three differences in the purgatorial places — lowest, highest, and middle, or distinguished in some other way whatever? He thinks [of] a city of refuge who says (Job 14): “Who will grant me this, that thou mayest protect me in hell, and hide me, until thy fury pass away, and appoint me a time wherein thou wilt remember me?” But let [it] be enough [to say that], by these [cities], a refuge of penance, after sins, is signified — which [refuge] can be found sixfold in various ways, so that someone may be safe from God’s wrath, and, through the death of JESUS CHRIST, the High Priest, may escape to the heavenly fatherland (as was treated above, q. 5). And to these [mystical senses] can be usefully and conveniently applied [the things] which [were] said about the conditions of those cities (q. 6) — especially [those] which were said about their conspicuousness, about the roads leading to those cities most surely and most clearly, and the like.
(col. 1227)