Complete Works, Vol. XX

...his throne shall be established in mercy, and he shall sit upon it, etc. For Christ came for these two things: namely, to heal our nature by assuming it and suffering, and to introduce it into the kingdom by rising and ascending. And the following reasoning states this:

And thus, with the number of fourteen placed in a threefold manner, extending the beginning from the faith of believing into the time of election, and directing it from election unto the day of the migration, and defining it from the day of the migration unto Christ, he shows the course of the Lord’s coming: so that, satisfying both the number and the time, etc.

Secondly, he touches upon the course of the genealogy, saying: "And thus with the number of fourteen in a threefold manner," that is, in three forms, according to the three dignities by which the ancient people were ruled: patriarchs, kings, and pontiffs. From the patriarchs, the nature of corporeal substance descended, which in the kings was exalted while remaining for the kingdom; and failing from the kings into captivity, they were redeemed and governed through the pontiffs. Just as Christ received corporeal substance, which he exalted while remaining for the kingdom; and by both the offering and the office of a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, he redeemed the people from captivity; and therefore he says "in a threefold manner," implying the form of the patriarchs, of the kingdom, and of the pontificate. Regarding the first, Hebrews 2:16:

For nowhere does he take hold of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham he takes hold.

Regarding the second, Isaiah 33:22:

The Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us.

Regarding the third, Hebrews 9:11:

Christ being come an high priest of the good things to come, etc.

And this is what follows: "The beginning, etc."

Thirdly, he adds the reason for these, saying: "And satisfying the number," namely, by placing the fathers in the genealogy, which is terminated according to form by the decades of the tessera square/four-fold pattern.

A tessera square is a square, and a decas decade is ten: because it is composed of four (the digit) and ten (the articulation).

And four indeed signifies the fourfold death from which we have been redeemed: namely, the transgressions of the laws of nature, of Moses, of grace, and the death of hell; or, the death of the transgression of precepts, of experience in paradise, of nature in the world, of the decalogue, and of the law of grace; or, the death of guilt, of punishment, of nature, and of hell. Or, because those to be redeemed are dispersed into the four corners of the world. Or, because they are to be instructed about the Redeemer through the four Gospels. Or, because those who are redeemed are to be informed by four habits: namely, the habit of virtue, of the gift of the Holy Spirit, of the beatitudes which he teaches in this book (below, 5:3-12), and of the fruits of the Spirit which the Apostle touches upon, Galatians 5:22-23:

But the fruit of the Spirit is: charity, etc.

Regarding the gifts, he touches upon Isaiah 11:2:

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

Regarding the virtues, he touches upon Luke 24:49:

Stay in the city, until you be endued with power from on high.

Regarding the four Gospels, Genesis 2:10:

And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads.

Regarding the four corners of the world, Ezekiel 37:9:

Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe upon these slain, and let them live.

Regarding the four deaths, Daniel 7:2:

Behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.

In great bitterness, guilt attacks with the wind of temptation; punishment, with the wind of fluidity, because our life is a wind through it; the death of nature, with the wind of exsufflation, for then the typhonic wind thrusts itself against the ship of life, breaking it; but the death of hell fights with the wind of the tempest. Psalm 10:7:

Fire and brimstone and storms of winds shall be the portion of their cup.

And the wind has these four by its nature. For it breathes in the aura, flows in the commotion of the air, exhales things found, and attacks opposing things. Transgressions...