Virtutis septifariæ, Ergo accende sensibus, Mittens et nuncius, Amen. 15 20 fold grace of the Holy Spirit, (Isai. ii. 2,) brought as here into connection with the seven beatitudes, (the virtus septifaria,) and with the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer. Thus Anselm, in a Sermon on the Beatitudes (Hom. 2): Superna Gratia saluti nostræ providens orationem nobis contulit, in quâ septiformi prece Spiritum septiformem possemus impetrare; ut suffragio gratiæ septiformis septem supradictas virtutes assequamur: et per eas ad beatitudinem pertingere mereamur. So too Hugh of St Victor: Septem ergo petitiones in Dominicâ Oratione ponuntur, ut septem dona mereamur Spiritûs Sancti, quibus recipiamus septem virtutes, per quas, à septem vitiis liberati, ad septem perveniamus beatitudines. 16. Propinator sermonum] Cf. Luke xxi. 15. XXXI. Clichtoveus, Elucidat. Eccles., p. 178. 5 7-28. These stanzas are in the true spirit of St Augustine, and hardly to be fully understood without reference to his writings, and to the points which he makes, especially in his Anti-pelagian tracts; wherein he continually contrasts, as the poet does here, the killing letter of the Old, and the quickening spirit of the New, Covenant. A few chapters, indeed, of his treatise De Spiritu et Litterâ, c. 13-17, would form the best commentary on these lines which could be found. The first point which the poet makes, is the contrast between the giving of the law de monte, and the giving of the Spirit in cœnaculo. In other words, there it was a God far off who uttered his voice, and that which he spake only set men the further from him, (Exod xx. 18,) while here it was a God coming into the very midst of them, yea, into that upper-chamber itself. Thus Augustine, c. 17: In hâc mirabili congruentiâ illud certè plurimùm distat, quod ibi populus accedere ad locum ubi lex dabatur, horrendo terrore prohibetur hic autem in eos supervenit Spiritus Sanctus, qui eum promissum expectantes in unum fuerant congregati. This, the poet adds, still in the spirit of his great teacher, shews whether are better, precepts or gifts, (ver. 17,) the precepts of the old law, or the gifts of the new-a God requiring as of old, or a God giving as now-requiring indeed still, but only what he himself has first given. The fearful accompaniments of the law's promulgation, he goes on to say, (ver. 19-24,) were but the outward clothing of the eternal truth, "The law worketh wrath." A law of fear, it may restrain indeed acts of sin, the illicita, but does not and cannot beget that love in which alone is the fulfilling of the commandment. (ver. 25-28.) That can only be through the Holy Ghost, whose first giving we on this day commemorate. 19, 20. Cf. Exod. xix. 16. (Vulg.) 21. Lampadum] Cf. Exod. xx. 18 (Vulg.): Cunctus autem populus videbat voces et lampades (λaμπádas LXX.) The word lampades, signifying, as it may, the bickering meteoric flames, perhaps better expresses what is meant than the "lightnings," by which the English Version has rendered the original word. 32. Pluunt-tonant] Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. lxxxviii. 7): Prædicatores nubes esse dictas ex illâ prophetiâ intelligimus, ubi Deus iratus vineæ suæ dicit, Mandabo nubibus meis ne pluant super eam imbrem, Isai. v. 6: which words Augustine found fulfilled when the apostles said, "Lo, we turn to the Gentiles." (Acts xiii. 46.) Cf. Gregory the Great, Moral., 1. 27, c. 24. And thus in another hymn on St Peter and St Paul, Adam of St Victor has these noble stanzas: Hi sunt nubes coruscantes, Ipsi montes appellantur, Veri Solis lumine. Mira virtus est eorum, We may compare Damiani : Paule, doctor egregie, Per amplum mundi circulum; 41. jubilæi] The poet has a true insight into the typical significance of the year of jubilee, the great Pentecostal year, the year of restitution and restoration, in which every man came to his own, all yokes were broken, and all which any Israelite had forfeited and alienated, was given back to him once more. He sees in it rightly a type and a prophecy of that great epoch of recreation and restoration, which at Pentecost began. Durandus (Rational., 1. 6, c. 107): Similiter in diebus Pentecostes hunc numerum post Domini resurrectionem observamus, suscipientes advenientem in nos Spiritûs Sancti gratiam, per quem efficimur filii Dei, et virtutum possessio nobis restituitur, et remissa culpa, et totius debiti chirographo evacuato, ab omni servitutis nexu liberi efficimur. The poet's etymology of the word, however, in the next stanza, namely, that it is either dimittens or mutatus, the year of remission, or the year when all things are changed for the better, has long since been given up. |