Gregory the Great
Patristic
c. A.D. 540–604
“When I went out to the gate of the city, and in the street they prepared me a chair. It was the custom of the ancients, that the elders should sit together in the gates, and judge the cases of those entering in, that so the people of the city might be the more peaceful, in proportion as it was not allowed to those at variance to enter in. Now we in revering the sacred history hold it certain that all this blessed Job did for the sake of the observance of just dealing, and we are led to the investigating the mysteries of the allegory. What then is denoted by 'the gate of the city' saving every good action, by which the soul enters in to the company of the heavenly Kingdom? Hence the Prophet saith; Thou, that liftest me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all Thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion. For 'the gates of death' are bad actions, which drag to destruction; but because 'Sion' is the word for 'a viewing,' 'the gates of Sion' we interpret good actions, by which we enter into the Country Above, that we may view the glory of our King. But what is denoted by the seat but the authority of mastership. Now 'a street' in the Greek tongue is equivalent to 'breadth.' And so now Holy Church goes forth to the gate of the city, because that she may obtain access to the heavenly country, she puts herself out in holy actions. For whom there is 'a seat prepared in the street,' because in the breadth of high authority she displays the freedom of her mastership. For she that proclaims with public announcement the right things she has a perception of as it were 'sits in the street on the seat,' in that she fears no one for her preaching, and oppressed by alarms for no man buries herself under silence. Does not she in public sit in command to teach, whom at one and the same time truth in perceiving and power in teaching bear up?”