Complete Works, Vol. XX

And do not take it for another, that you might refer the book to someone else: but "Take thee" [it] to be incorporated, seeking that which may build you up first, and through you, others. Ezekiel 2:8: "Eat whatsoever I give thee." And, Ezekiel 3:2: "And he fed me with that volume." Jeremiah 15:16: "Thy words were found, and I did eat them." Deuteronomy 8:3: "Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word [that proceedeth from the mouth of God]." Apocalypse 10:10: "I took the book from the hand of the angel, and devoured it: and it was in my mouth, sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my belly was bitter," that is, the affection of the heart because of the indignation of sin.

"Book," namely Matthew, which is the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. Nehemiah, or 2 Esdras 8:3: "The ears of all the people were attentive to the Book."

"Great," containing great things. Zechariah 5:2: "I see a flying volume: the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits." The length is from the lowest point to the highest: because the lowest and the highest are the principles of length, as Aristotle says Aristotle, Book 2 On the Heavens. The lowest are the assumption of human generation and the form of a servant. Philippians 2:7: "He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." The highest, however, are the sitting at the right hand of the Father. This book contains a double generation: the material from the genealogy, and the formal from the work of the Holy Spirit and the conception of the Virgin. A double manifestation follows: one made to the Kings The Magi, and another through the testimony of John: then the Baptism is added, and afterwards the temptation: then the preaching, to which is joined the calling of the Disciples: and afterwards the sermon on the mount, which is entirely about the fulfillment of the law through Evangelical perfection: to which are annexed at the end the effects which the sermon has in those who observe it, which are ten. There follows here the confirmation of all these through miracles, the election of the Apostles, and their instruction: to which is joined the power of the keys, and the pre-signification of future beatitude through the transfiguration: and afterwards is shown the way of arriving at it through humility, and liberty, and through the patience of forgiveness toward those who sin against us, and chastity, and obedience, and other virtues, all of which are counted as one: and all these are followed by instruction concerning the future judgment, as much from the side of the judge as from the side of those to be judged, and of the destruction of the world which is to be before the judgment: to which is joined the sacrament of redemption through the Passion: then of the Resurrection with the apparitions made: and finally the twentieth [chapter], which completes the length of the book, the sitting at the right hand of God the Father. The breadth, however, is ten cubits: because through the whole breadth, goods are taught in it in general, and goods of grace: goods of virtue, of precept, of counsel, of supererogation: varied by letter or history, tropologia moral interpretation, allegoria symbolic interpretation, and anagogia mystical/eschatological interpretation. Baruch 4:28: "As it was your sense to go astray from God, so ten times more will you seek him again." Isaiah 34:16: "Search ye diligently in the book of the Lord, and read: not one of them was wanting, one hath not sought the other."