After shipwrecks, after scourgings, after many and terrible tortures of the flesh and body, the apostle Paul says that he is not hurt but benefited by his adversity because through such terrible affliction he might more truly be proved. "There was given to me," he says, "a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be lifted up. I sought the Lord three times about this so that it might leave me; and he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for strength is made perfect in weakness." When, therefore, weakness and inefficiency and any destruction seize us, then our strength is made perfect. Then, if our faith is put to the test, it will stand fast and receive a crown, as it is written: "The furnace tries the vessels of the potter, and the trial of tribulation tests just people." This, in short, is the difference between us and others who do not know God, that in misfortune they complain and murmur, while adversity does not call us away from the truth of virtue and faith but strengthens us by its suffering.

Remember the calf in Exodus, which they fashioned through idolatry, which Moses beat to powder and gave to the people to drink. In a manner similar to that calf, he will utterly destroy all Lebanon and the practice of idolatry prevailing in it. "And as the beloved son of unicorns." The only-begotten Son, he who gives his life for the world whenever he offers himself as a sacrifice and oblation to God for our sins, is called both Lamb of God and a sheep. "Behold," it is said, "the lamb of God." And again, "He was led like a sheep to slaughter." But, when it is necessary to take vengeance and to overthrow the power attacking the human race, a certain wild and savage force, then he will be called the Son of unicorns. For, as we have learned in Job, the unicorn is a creature irresistible in might and unsubjected to human beings. "For you cannot bind him with a thong," he says, "nor will he stay at your crib." There is also much said in that part of the prophecy about the animal acting like a free person and not submitting to humans. It has been observed that the Scripture has used the comparison of the unicorn in both ways, at one time in praise, at another in censure. "Deliver," he says, "my soul from the sword … and my lowness from the horns of the unicorns." He said these words complaining of the warlike people who in the time of passion rose up in rebellion against him. Again, he says, "My horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn." It seems that on account of the promptness of the animal in repelling attacks it is frequently found representing the baser things, and because of its high horn and freedom it is assigned to represent the better. On the whole, since it is possible to find the "horn" used by Scripture in many places instead of "glory," as the saying, "He will exalt the horn of his people," and "His horn shall be exalted in glory," or also, since the "horn" is frequently used instead of "power," as the saying, "My protector and the horn of my salvation," Christ is the power of God; therefore, he is called the Unicorn on the ground that he has one horn, that is, one common power with the Father.

Accordingly, it is not proper to adore God outside of this holy court, but only within it, lest anyone who is outside of it and is attracted by those outside of it might lose the right to be in the court of the Lord. Many assume an attitude of prayer, but they are not in the court because of the wandering of their mind and the distraction of their thoughts coming from vain solicitude. It is possible to consider the court in a still loftier sense as the heavenly way of life. Therefore, "They that are planted" here "in the house of the Lord," which is the church of the living God, they "shall flourish in the courts of our God." But one who makes his belly a god, or glory, or money or anything else which he honors more than all things, neither adores the Lord nor is in the holy court, even though he seems to be worthy of the visible assemblies.

Wherefore also He drove him out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He pitied him, [and did not desire] that he should continue a sinner for ever, nor that the sin which surrounded him should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable. But He set a bound to his [state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God.

For this end did He put enmity between the serpent and the woman and her seed, they keeping it up mutually: He, the sole of whose foot should be bitten, having power also to tread upon the enemy's head; but the other biting, killing, and impeding the steps of man, until the seed did come appointed to tread down his head,-which was born of Mary, of whom the prophet speaks: "Thou shalt tread upon the asp and the basilisk; thou shalt trample down the lion and the dragon;"-indicating that sin, which was set up and spread out against man, and which rendered him subject to death, should be deprived of its power, along with death, which rules [over men]; and that the lion, that is, antichrist, rampant against mankind in the latter days, should be trampled down by Him; and that He should bind "the dragon, that old serpent" and subject him to the power of man, who had been conquered so that all his might should be trodden down. Now Adam had been conquered, all life having been taken away from him: wherefore, when the foe was conquered in his turn, Adam received new life; and the last enemy, death, is destroyed, which at the first had taken possession of man. Therefore, when man has been liberated, "what is written shall come to pass, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?" This could not be said with justice, if that man, over whom death did first obtain dominion, were not set free. For his salvation is death's destruction. When therefore the Lord vivifies man, that is, Adam, death is at the same time destroyed.