[Sermones "Dormi secure" de tempore]

bonds, the angel of the Lord comes, that is, the grace of God inspiring him, and says: Arise quickly from your sins and follow me through penance and through the way of innocence. Receive the garment of salvation which you lost through guilt, and thus He leads you out from the bonds to the right way which tends toward eternal salvation. And then the sinner, thinking of past sins, says: Now I know in truth that the Lord sent His angel and delivered me from the hand of Herod, that is, the devil, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews, that is, the damned. Whence the blessed Augustine says: Led out by divine grace from the bonds of my sins, I turned back and saw the abyss in which I had lain. And thus the second bond is clear. The third bond is of honor, and that is threefold, as is clear in Ecclesiastes 4: A threefold cord is not easily broken. Whence in a figure we read that the Romans depicted the love of the world in the manner of a beautiful woman standing in a golden circle, in which was written in golden letters: Discern what you are; when you know, flee; and despise desires. Thus many saints did, and they adhered to God. Whence the Psalm: It is good for me to adhere to God. Also it was written nearby: I recede, that is, from God, when love draws me through the bond of pride. Also it was written in another part: I am dear while I live, because the world loves what is its own, but after death it is very bitter. Also it was written in the third part of the image: I play. For it deludes a man and deceives him to such an extent that he does not know how to discern the truth, as is clear concerning two men, one of whom called the other and said to him: Hail, my brother, and with a knife he killed him. Thus, alas, the love of this world has killed and

receives many. Also it was written in the fourth part of the image: I exceed the mind. And this is clear concerning Solomon, whose mind the love of the world exceeded, and thus it bound him so that he worshipped alien gods because of the love of the world. And thus anyone who has been bound by the bond of the love of this world can well say: The cords of sinners have encompassed me. The fourth bond is of horror and eternal damnation. Concerning this bond the Lord says in Matthew 22: Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the exterior darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Concerning this bond we read the figure in Daniel 4: I was seeing, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, very tall, because its summit touched the heavens, its aspect reached to the ends of the whole world, and its leaves were beautiful, and its fruits were very sweet; under its shadow the animals and beasts, and in its branches the birds of heaven, and from it all flesh is fed. And a holy watcher descended from heaven and cried out strongly: Cut down the tree, prune its branches. Dissipate its fruits and let the beasts and birds flee from the branches, and bind the germ of its root with an iron bond, and let the heart of a beast be given to it. Thus, morally, the tree in the midst of the earth is a sinner in the midst of the sinners of this world, who is tall because he does not cease to sin. Great, because he commits great things. Strong, because he labors strongly in those very vices. Its aspect reaches to the ends of the whole earth, because he does not blush in his sin. Its leaves are beautiful, that is, human praise. Its fruits are very delightful, earthly goods. Underneath, the beasts rest, that is, carnal delights in which he lives. And the beast