[Sermones "Dormi secure" de tempore]

degree is the Powers, who are of such power that they resist the evil angels and punish those in this world who attack the church of God. The sixth is the Virtues, who have great power from God of performing miracles. The seventh degree is the Principalities, who are sent to this end: that they might guard and inform the princes of the world, but alas, they do not wish to listen to them. The eighth is the Archangels, who are sent to rule provinces and reveal great things to us. The ninth is the Angels, whose office it is to guard men, as is evident in the Psalm: "He hath given His angels charge over thee to keep thee, etc." The tenth degree is men, for whom He sent His own son, who humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant. And this was a sign that He ought to redeem us from eternal death. And this sun rose in His birth, set in His passion, and returned to His place in the ascension. And this is the second sign of the sun. The third sign of the sun was made in the time of the passion of Christ. Of which one reads in the gospel of Luke 23: "From the sixth hour until the ninth, darkness was over the whole earth, and the sun was obscured." And this obscuration was not an eclipse, but miraculous. This sign the Lord made for three causes. First, so that He might show Himself the true God who created the sun. For so great was the hardness in the heart of some Jews that they did not care about the sign, and therefore they were blind, and blind they remain in intellect until the day of judgment. Secondly, so that He might incite His faithful to sympathize. For the natural sun shone with its Lord; how much more should we

Christians, who have been redeemed by His most holy passion. Thirdly, Christ obscured the sun in His passion so that He might recall the impious to repentance or patience, just as many did, as is evident in the gospel where it is said that those who came to that spectacle, having seen the signs, were beating their breasts and returning. Why were they beating their breasts? Certainly, this is a sign of repentance. So also let us do penance for our sins, but they have hearts harder than rocks, who do not wish to follow to do penance. The fourth sign of the sun will be made in the extreme judgment, when the heavens and the earth are to be moved. Of which sign Matthew 24 says: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened." This obscuration of the sun will not be by the interposition of the moon like an eclipse, but by divine virtue, and for the sake of the sinners to be damned, and it will not shine anymore upon the earth. A figure of this we read in Ezekiel 11, the Lord said to Ezekiel: Son, go to King Pharaoh and take up a lament over him and say to him: Behold, thus saith the Lord. Since you have been likened to a lion and a dragon which is in the sea, I will spread my net over you and will draw you out, and I will cast you upon the earth, and I will water the earth with the stench of your blood, and I will cover the heavens over you when you shall have been extinguished so that they do not rain, and I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light, and the sword of the King of Babylon will come to you, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn you. So morally, by this king of Egypt, the sinner is noted, who is dark in sins, to whom the preachers say: You have been likened to a lion.