Complete Works, Vol. XX

1 Isa. ix, 6.

of the thousand, who was clearly called by Him who is named the Admirable, the Counselor 1: or, according to the Septuagint: "Angel of the Great Counsel." It was a presage of his, that upon his conversion, his name was changed, and he was called Matthew. Isaiah lxv, 15 and 16: "He shall call his servants by another name: in which he who is blessed upon the earth shall be blessed in God, amen."

Secondly, he describes him by the place of his birth, which foreshadows the scripture of salvation. John iv, 22: "Salvation is from the Jews." Psalm lxxv, 2: "God is known in Judea." Baruch iv, 4: "We are blessed, O Israel, because those things that are pleasing to God are manifest to us." Knowledge, therefore, is referred to the authority of the Writer.

Thirdly, he touches upon the order according to the place: for since salvation is from the Jews, it is reasonable that the Gospel of salvation is written first in Judea. Psalm cxiii, 2: "Judea was made his sanctuary." For if it had to be contradicted where the matter was certain, it ought to have been either refuted or confirmed. Acts iv, 14: "Seeing the man standing with them, who had been cured, they could say nothing against it." Therefore, he uses this order when speaking to the Apostles, Acts i, 8: "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth." First, therefore, in Judea: and for this reason he says, "He first wrote the Gospel in Judea." Acts xiii, 46: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles."

Fourthly, according to the order of meaning (although it is third according to the order of the text), he touches upon the order of the Evangelist, when he says: "As he is placed first in order." The reason for this is that the other faces are arranged around the face of a man (which is that of Matthew), and thus it is placed before others as being the subject of the others. Ezekiel i, 10: "The face of a man among them." This is said of none of the other faces, because the others are, as it were, arranged around this one. Whence also among the other

faces, this one was turned forward: so that although Mark writes of the face of the lion in the Resurrection, and Luke of the ox in the Passion, and John of the eagle in the Ascension, nevertheless all these are accomplished in the face of the man. And therefore the face of the man is prior in order according to nature.

Furthermore, he naturally possesses the face of a man: the others do so by metaphor. Jeremiah xxxi, 22: "The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: A woman shall encompass a man." Whose face is that of a man, not of a lion or another. Psalm lxxxvi, 5: "A man was born in her, and the Most High himself founded her."

But is there a contradiction? Augustine in his book On the Harmony of the Evangelists says: "It seems to me more probable that those who understood the man in Matthew, the lion in Mark, the ox in Luke, and the eagle in John have noted something correctly." I answer. Augustine is not speaking regarding the face according to substance, but regarding the property of the royal tribe through which he descended: as it is said, Apocalypse v, 5: "The lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed." However, all the other saints speak of the substance of the face, which he turned forward toward men: which is that of a man born of men, and exhibiting and suffering human things among men. For each of the Evangelists turned his own face toward men in the beginning of his writing, but the face of the man is turned forward. Ezekiel x, 22: "Their look, and the impulse of each, was to go straight forward before their face."

Fifthly, he touches upon the congruity of the scripture from grace. His calling is below, ix, 9. Compare Luke v, 27, and Mark ii, 14. For one who is intent on earthly gains does not know how to understand heavenly sacraments, which, once converted, he understands through grace. 1 Corinthians ii, 14: "The natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God: for it is foolishness to him." And it follows, v. 15: "But the spiritual man judges all things," etc. Baruch iii, 23: "The sons of Agar, who search for the wisdom that is from the earth, the merchants of Merrha and Theman, and the..."