Divine Cooperation and the Sign of Animals

Those being murdered are released from such sluggishness by the Lord's command, which is symbolized by the donkey being loosed by the disciples toward the opposite village so that the Lord, sitting upon it, might release from bonds, irrationality, and sluggishness the beast-like men shown through it.

But camels are also in a human way men, who find it difficult to enter the kingdom of heaven, and they themselves are released by being freed from the harmful burdens of evil, which they happen to carry, according to the prophet Isaiah saying: 'There shields and flying aspides which carried upon donkeys and camels their wealth' (Isaiah 61:5). For it is clear that a shield or a lion has not possessed a perceptible wealth, but the evil powers, which are symbolically named shields and lions through tropology, have possessed that which is signified by tropology, which they do not deposit upon a rational animal or an ox capable of performing noble and useful work, but upon donkeys and camels, which happen to be crested and unclean. These therefore are led out from the master's hand by way of repentance, as it is said, with God presiding over this: for He does not desire the death of the sinner as His repentance (Ezekiel 18:23).

And God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:4). For it is good a transition from evil into virtue. And God has done these things, it must be said, training them so that the once wild beasts of ferocity might be transformed into gentleness. And just as, if I say that the potter makes the clay, I do not signify that he labors so that the clay might remain just as it is, but that, having taken the clay, an earthen vessel might become and no longer exist being broken, so did He make the beasts according to the allegory, not so that they might remain beasts, but so that they might be transformed from the ferocity of evil into the most gentle virtue. And since the characters of men are diverse, through the...

It is said in the plural, 'And God saw that it was good' (Gen 1:31). Since the character of men is signified through irrational animals, this is shown from the book of the Acts of the apostles, when certain foreigners came to the foremost of the apostles, calling him to preach the gospel to them, being foreigners. For when he had gone up to the rooftop to pray, there appeared a vessel like a veil set down with four corners from heaven to earth, in which were all the quadrupeds and the creeping things and the beasts of the earth, and a voice came from heaven to him saying, 'Rise, Peter, slaughter and eat' (Acts 10:13). But he said, 'By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean' (Acts 10:14). And a voice a second time came to him, saying, 'What God has cleansed, do not call common' (Acts 10:15). This is the vision of the animals appearing in the veil, which Peter himself explains when he came to those calling him, saying, 'God also showed me not to call any man common or unclean' (Acts 10:28), lifting up the appearing quadrupeds and beasts to men, having been cleansed by the casting away of impurity.

And this must be stated, that having said 'Bring it out,' he was not satisfied with the command but performed it; for God is not only inciting toward virtue but is already also joined together; for when the good is chosen by one, God also cooperates toward the good, so that, having resolved to obey the command, they may be able to bring the striving thing to its end. For even if someone uses a private impulse toward virtue, he happens to be aware of God, who grants the outcome and the good end of it. This indeed is also shown regarding the paradoxical cases of the Savior, requiring the will from those suffering, where in one place he says, 'What do you want that I should do to you?'; and where, hearing from the leper being ready for faith, he says: 'If you are willing, you are able to cleanse me' (Matt 8:25). And God said: 'Let us make man according to our image and likeness,' and let them rule over the...