Job 39:10

"Will he bind his yoke by straps? The yoke that is easy to wear is tied up by belts, that is to say, it is announced by those who tame and mortify the flesh. This is why John wore a leather belt (4), and not the bloody whip that sinners strike. "And will he trace the furrows in your field? He will open the heart of the docile people to put him in possession of the kingdom of God.

Wilt thou bind the rhinoceros with thy band to plough? Or will he break the clods of the valleys after thee? [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] 31. But he is not only restrained from violence by the hands of God, but, what is more wonderful, is bound to plough; so as not only not to attack men with the horn of cruelty, but, ministering also to their support, to draw the plough of preaching. For he himself speaks of those who are preaching the Gospel, as if they were ploughing: For he that ploweth should plow in hope, and he that thresheth, in hope of partaking the fruit. [1 Cor. 9, 10] He therefore, who had just inflicted tortures on the faithful, and afterwards willingly endures scourges for the faith, who also, by writing his Epistles, preaches in lowliness and contempt the truth which before he fiercely assailed, is doubtless firmly fastened to the plough, and labours for the crop, who used to live in the plain, fatally exempt from fear. Of whom it is rightly said; Or will he break the clods of the valleys after thee? 32. The Lord had, in truth, already entered the minds of some, who believed Him to be truly the Redeemer of mankind. But yet, when they departed not from their former observance, when they kept to the harsh preaching of the letter, the illustrious preacher says to them; If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. [Gal. 5, 2] What else then did he, who in the humble mind of the faithful crushed by refutation the harshness of the law, but break the clods in the valley after the Lord? in order, namely, that the grains of the seeds, which the furrow of the heart, cleft by the plough of faith, was receiving, might not perish by being kept down by the observance of the letter.

Wilt thou bind the rhinoceros with thy band to plough? Or will he break the clods of the valleys after thee? 3. By 'crib' in this place, Holy Scripture itself is, not unfitly, understood; in which holy animals are fed with the food of the word. Of whom it is said by the Prophet; Thine animals will dwell therein. [Ps. 68, 10] Hence also our Lord, when born, was found by shepherds in a manger, because His Incarnation is learned in that Scripture of the Prophets, which refreshes us. This rhinoceros therefore, that is to say, every haughty person, in the beginning of the rising Church, when it heard the sayings of the Patriarchs, the mysteries of the Prophets, and the secrets of the Gospel, made jest of them; because it scorned the more to be confined and fed in the manger of the Preachers, the more it gave itself up to its own pleasures, and occupied the wide plain of its own desperation. It is this wide plain of the proud that Paul well speaks of, when saying, Who despairing, have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. [Eph. 4, 19] For every one gives himself wider range in present evil, the more he despairs of attaining eternal blessings after this life. But Almighty God bore for a long time with this rhinoceros, wandering through the plain of sinful pleasure, and yet, when He willed, suddenly fastened it to His own manger, that being safely confined it might receive the food of life, lest it should entirely lose its life through fatal liberty? For behold we now see that the mighty men of this world, and its chief rulers, willingly hear the preachings of the Lord, that they constantly read them, and every where depart not from His manger; because they transgress not, in their conduct, the precepts of the Lord, which they know either by reading or by hearing, but contentedly submit to stand confined, as it were, near the food of the word, that by feeding and abiding there, they may become fat. But, when we behold this wrought by God's agency, what else do we behold but this rhinoceros abiding at the manger? But since this rhinoceros, after it has received the food of preaching, ought to display the fruit of good works, it is rightly subjoined; Wilt thou bind the rhinoceros with thy band to plough? 4. The bands of the Church, are the precepts of discipline. But to plough, is to cleave with the ploughshare of the…