The Vase And The Salt

Aquae Jericho pessimae erant et terra sterilis. Rogatus ergo Eliseus eas sanare misit sal in vas novum fictile, et demersit illud in flumen, et sanatae sunt aquae pessimae, et terra sterilis. Jericho sunt populi mali et a fructu boni operis aridi. Vas novum fictile: vel sancta Virgo quae fuit vas novum per virginitatem, et fictile, quia terrenum; vel vas novum Christi caro est nova, quae sine peccato nova generatione creata est, id est de matre sine patre: quae et quarta et nova generatio et fictilis, quia mortalis. Sal autem est sapientia, Verbum scilicet Patris. Sal iste dum mittiur a Deo Patre in vas novum, id est in uterum Virginis, vel in carnem assumptam de Virgine, ubi latuit divinitas tanquam in vase; sanatae sunt aquae, id est gentes quae receperunt vas in quo est sal, id est Christum in quo est divinitas. Nam sal in vase, divinitas in carne est. Vas habens sal in aqua est Christus Deus et homo in gente. In nobis quoque sunt vitia et peccata aquae amarae, quae terram nostram, id est animam faciunt sterilem, et submergunt in inferni profundum. Ut ergo sanentur aquae nostrae, opera videlicet nostra, et terra efficiatur vitae fructui idonea, exuamus veterem hominem cum actibus suis; et induti novum effectique vas novum a vitiis mundemur; recipiamus sal verae sapientiae a qua sumus conditi, et in novo homine, qui non moritur, conservemur intacti. Hugo De Sancte Victore, Miscellanea, Liber III, Tit CX, De Incarnatione Verbi figurata per vas novum in quod Eliseus salem misit Source: Migne PL 177.692b-c

The waters of Jericho were bad and the earth sterile. Therefore Elisha, when he was asked to heal them, sent for salt in a new earthenware jar, and he cast it into the river, and the waters were cured of their badness and the earth of its sterility. 1 Jericho is an evil people barren in good works. The new earthen jar is either the Virgin who was a new vase by virginity, and earthen because of the earth, or the new vase is the new flesh of Christ which was created by a new generation without sin, that is, without mother or father, which is then in fourth place a new generation which is earthly because it is mortal. But the salt is wisdom, that is, the Word of the Father. This salt is the Divinity hidden as in a vase sent by God the Father into the new vase, that is, into the womb of the virgin, or to the flesh taken up from the Virgin. The waters are healed, that is, the people are, who receive the vase in which is the salt, that is, Christ in whom is Divinity. For the salt in the vase is Divinity in the flesh. The vase with the salt in the water is Christ, God and man, among the people. In us also there are vices and sins which are bitter waters, because of which our earth, that is, our soul, is sterile, and they drag us down to the depths of hell. Therefore, so that our waters might be healed, that is, our works, and the land be made capable of bearing the fruit of life, let us cast off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new, 2 and endowed with the new, and made a new vase, let us be cleansed from vices. Let us receive the salt of true wisdom by which we are established, and in the new man, who does not die, let us be preserved intact. Hugh Of Saint Victor, Miscellanea, Book 3, Chap 110, On the Incarnation of the Lord prefigured in the vase in which there was the salt for which Elisha sent. 1 4 Kings 2.19-22 2 Ephes 4.22

Queries On The Achievements Of Clergy

Quis eorum mori exoptans mundo et vivere Christo luxuriosos gentium convivas laudantes deos suos, id est, sensus, extollentes divitias, ut apostolus et avaritia, inquit, quae est simulacrorum servitus, concussis duabus virtute bracchiorum columnis, quae intelleguntur in voluptatibus nequam animae carnisque, quibus domus humanae omnis nequitiae quodammodo pangitur ac fulcimentatur, tam innumerabiles, ut Sampson, prostravit? Quis orationibus holocaustoque lactantis agni Philistinorum metum depellens insperatas tonitruorum voces nubium imbres concitans absque adulatione regem constituens, eundum Deo non placentem abiciens, uncto pro illo meliore in regno, ut Samuel, valedicturus populo astabit hoc modo dicens: Ecce praesto sum, loquimini coram Domino et christo eius, utrum bovem cuiusquam tulerim an asinum, si quempiam calumniatus sum, si oppressi aliquem, si de manu cuiusquam munus accepi? cui a populo responsum est dicente: non es calumniatus nos neque oppressisti neque tulisti de manu alicuius quippiam. Quis eorum igne caelesti centum superbos exurens, quinquaginta humiles servans et absque adulationis fuco, non Deum per prophetas, sed idolum Accaron consulenti, mortem immimentem iniquo regi annuntians, omnes prophetas simulacri Baal, qui interpretati accipiuntur sensus humani invidiae avaritiae, ut iam diximus, semper intenti, mucrone corusco, hoc est verbo Dei, ut Helias egregius vates, prostravit et zelo Dei commotus, iniquorum terrae imbres adimens aetherales, ac si fortissimo penurii clustello tribus annis sexque mensibus obseratos, fame siti moribundus in deserto conquestus est: Domine, inquiens, prophetas tuos occiderunt et altaria tua suffoderunt et ego relictus sum solus et quaerunt animam meam? Quis eorum carissimum discipulum terrenis extra solitum ponderibus oneratum, quae ante ea a se magnopere licet rogato ut acciperet despecta fuissent, etsi non perpetua lepra, ut Helisaeus, saltim expulsione multavit? Et quis ex illis puero in vitae desperatione aestuanti atque inproviso super bellico hostium apparatu civitatem, in qua erant, obsidentium tremefacto inter nos, ut ille, animae visus, ferventi exoratione ad Deum facta, ita ut intueri poterit auxiiiarium caelestis exercitus, armatorum curruum ceu equitum ignito vultu fulgentium montem plenum, patefecit, et credere quin fortior fortior esset ad salvandum quam inimici ad pugnandum? Et quis eorum corporis tactu mortui scilicet mundo, viventis autem Deo, alii diverso funcre occubanti procul dubio mortuo Deo, vitiis vero viventi quasi supra dictus proficiet, ita ut statim prosiliens Christo grates pro sanitate agat cunctorum paene mortalium ore desperata? Cuius eorum, carbone ignito de altari forcipe Cherubin advecto, ut peccata sua delerentur humilitate confessionis, labia, ut Esaiae, mundata sunt et efficaci oratione sibi adiuncta pii regis Ezechiae, supplantatione centum octoginta quinque milia exercitus Assyriorum nullo apparente vulneris vestigio angeli manu, ut supra dicti, prostrata sunt ? Quis eorum ob praecepta Dei et minas caelitus datas veritatemque vel non audientibus proferendam squalores pedoresque carcerum, ut momentaneas mortes, ut beatus Ieremias excepit ? Et ne multa: quis eorum, ut magister gentium dixit, errare hi montibus et in speluncis, et in cavernis terrae, lapidari secari, totius mortis genere pro nomine Domini attemptari, sicut sancti prophetae, perpessus est? Sanctus Gildas Sapiens, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae Source: Migne PL 69.371c-372d

Who among them, longing to die to the world and live for Christ, has cast down, like Samson, such a wealth of feasters praising their gods and extolling their riches, that is, the senses, for as the Apostle says, 'avarice which is the service of idols,' 1 and with the power of two arms has smashed and brought down the two columns, which are understood as the vile pleasures of the soul and the flesh by which the house of every human wickedness in a certain manner is fixed and established? 2 Who among them by prayers and the burnt offering of a suckling lamb, driving away the fear of the Philistines, has, like Samuel, brought on sudden thunder and rain from the clouds, and without flattery set up a new king, and cast away the same when he did not please God, having anointed a better man for the kingdom, he who then coming to bid farewell to the people, standing before them, did so in this way, saying: 'Behold, here I am; speak before the Lord and His anointed: if I have taken anyone's ox or ass, if I have calumniated anyone, if I have oppressed anyone, if I have taken a bribe from anyone's hand.' To which the people gave reply, saying, 'You have not calumniated us, nor oppressed us, nor have you taken a bribe from any hand.' 3 Who among them, burning a hundred proud men by fire from heaven, and protecting fifty humble ones, like Elijah the prophet, without the pretence of flattery, have announced an imminent death to an unrighteous king when he was taking counsel, not of God through His prophet, but of the idol Accaron? He who overthrew with a gleaming sword, that is, the word of God, all the prophets of the idol Baal, who, being interpreted, are understood to be the human passions, as we have already said, ever intent on envy and avarice. He who moved by zeal for God, deprived the land of the wicked of heaven's rain, as if were shut up in a stronghold of want, for three years and six months, and about to die of hunger and thirst in the waste, made lament, saying: 'Lord, they have slain your prophets and thrown down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life.' 4 Who among them punished a beloved disciple, burdened beyond his need by the weight of earthly things which he had previously despised, though earnestly entreated to accept them, not by perpetual leprosy, it is true, yet by dismissal, as Elisha? Who among them, in despair of life, excited and trembling at the sudden warlike preparations of the enemies for a city's besieging, has given vision to the soul of a serving boy, so that he could see the mountain full of the heavenly army of allies, and of armed chariots or horsemen flashing with fiery countenances, and believe that God was stronger to save than enemies to fight? Who among them, like him, when dead to the world and yet living to God, has profited another laying in that different death, which is doubtless death to God but living for vice, by bodily contact, so that he should swiftly leap up and give thanks to Christ for a healing despaired of in the reckoning of almost all men? 5 Whom among them, with a fiery coal carried from the altar in the tongs of Cherubim, so that his sins should be blotted out, by humble confession, as Isaiah, have had lips purified, which with the aid of the efficacious prayer of the pious king Hezekiah, utterly overthrew that one hundred and eighty five thousand of the Assyrian army, like the men mentioned above, with no trace of wound, by the hand of the angel? 6 Who among them, like the blessed Jeremiah, because of the commands of God and threats given from heaven, for the offering of truth to men who heard not, suffered the squalor and filth of prisons, as heavy as death? 7 And lest we go on too long, who among them, as the teacher of the Gentiles said, has endured wandering on mountains, in caves and holes of the earth, stoning, cutting, and trial by every kind of death for the Lord's name, like the holy prophets ? 8 Saint Gildas The Wise, On The Destruction and Ruin of Britain 1 Colos 3.5 2 Judges 16.23-30 3 1 Kings 7.8-11, 9.15-10.1, 15.22-16.13, 12.1-5 4 4 Kings 1.9-17, 3 Kings 17.36-40, 1-2, 3 Kings 19.10 5 3 Kings 5, 4 Kings 6.8-18,4.32-37 6 Isaiah 6.6, 37 7 Jerem 201-2, 37.15, 26.1-15 8 Hebr 9.36-3

Salt And Grace

Ἅλατι Ἐλισσαῖος τὰ Ἰεριχούντια ῥεύματα ἀτεκνοῦντα ἰάσατο, εὐαγγελικῶς κινηθεὶς πρὸς τὴν ἴασιν, οἶα βλέπων τὰ ἔμπροσθεν. Τύπον γὰρ ἔφερε, τὰ μὲν ὕδατα πάσης τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος πρὸς ἀγονίαν ἀρετῶν καὶ ἀκαρπίαν εὐσεβείας στερεωθέντα. Οἱ ἅλες δὲ τῆς πάντα νοτιζούσης ποιότητος καὶ δυνάμεως εἰς τὴν τοῦ Κυρίου διδαχὴν, καθὼς αὐτὸς πρὸς τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ ἀποστόλους φησιν. Ὑμεῖς ἐστε τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς· Ἐλισσαῖος δὲ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Δημιουργοῦ καὶ Δεσπότου. Οἱ γὰρ τὴν εἰκόνα καθαρὰν φυλάττοντες τῷ ποιήσαντι, καὶ συνθαυματουργεῖν αὐτῷ, χάριν παρ' αὐτοῦ ἐκομίσαντο. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΙϚ' Εὐαγγελιῳ Source: Migne PG 78.189b-c

With the cure of salt Elisha purified the fruitless waters, 1 and this act of medicine is in the manner of the Gospel, like something before your eyes. For the waters bear the figure of all human nature which is sterile in virtue and fruitless deprived of piety. The salt being moistened has the quality and power akin to the teaching of the Lord. As when He said to his disciples, 'You are the salt of the earth.' 2 Elisha, then, is as the creator and the Lord. For he who guards the pure image in his deeds makes even miracles like Him, working by His grace. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 16, to Euaggelios 1 4 Kings 2.19-22 2 Mt 5.13