Deducis per semitam pacis, et lætitiæ, Ab eodem missus à quo et promissus, Tu crederis omnium judex qui crederis omnium opifex; Honestans bene meritos præmio, Onustans immeritos supplicio, Spiras ubi vis et quando vis; doces quos vis et quan tum vis: Imples et instruis certos in dubiis, Firmas in subitis, regis in licitis: 30 Tu ordo decorans omnia, decor ordinans et ornans omnia, Dicta, facta, cogitata, Dicta veritate, facta honestate, cogitata puritate; 35 Donum bonum, Bonum perfectum, Dans intellectum, dans et affectum, Dirigens rectum, formans affectum, firmans provectum, Et ad portas Paradisi coronans dilectum. XXXIII. Clichtoveus, Elucidat. Eccles., p. 41; Cassander, Hymni Ecclesiastici (Opp., Paris. 1616,) p. 242.-This hymn, of which the authorship is popularly attributed to Charlemagne, has had always attributed to it more than an ordinary worth and dignity, such as our Church has certainly recognized and allowed, when, dismissing every other hymn, she has yet retained this in the offices for the ordaining of priests, and the consecrating of bishops. It was also in old time habitually used, and the use in great part still survives, on all other occasions of a more than common solemnity, as at the coronation of kings, the celebration of synods, and, in the Romish Church, at the creation of popes, and the translation of the relics of saints. 7, 8. Fons vivus (John vii. 38, 39 ;)—ignis (Luke xii. 49 ;) — caritas (Rom. v. 5 ;)—unctio (1 John ii. 20, 27.) 10. Dei tu digitus] The title digitus Dei, so often given to the Holy Ghost, rests originally on a comparison of Luke xi. 20, Si in digito Dei ejicio dæmonia, with Matt. xii. 28, Si autem ego in Spiritu Dei ejicio dæmonia, where evidently the digitus Dei of Luke is equivalent to the Spiritus Dei of Matthew. Cf. Augustine, Enarr. 2a in Ps. xc. 11; who also elsewhere unfolds a further fitness in this appellation: Quia per Spiritum S. dona Dei sanctis dividuntur, ut cùm diversa possint, non tamen discedant à concordiâ caritatis, in digitis autem maximè apparet quædam divisio, nec tamen ab unitate præcisio, propterea Spiritus S. appellatus est digitus Dei. And again, Enarr. in Ps. cxliii. 1: In digitis agnoscimus divisionem operationis, et tamen radicem unitatis. Elsewhere he has another explanation of the name (De Civ. Dei, 1. 16, c. 43): Spiritus S. dictus est in Evangelio digitus Dei, ut recordationem nostram in primi præfigurati facti memoriam revocaret, quia et legis illæ tabulæ digito Dei scriptæ referuntur. Jerome gathers from this title an intimation of the ouoovoía of the Spirit with the Father and the Son (In Matt. xii.): Si igitur manus et brachium Dei Filius est, et digitus ejus Spiritus Sanctus, Patris et Filii et Spiritûs Sancti una substantia est. Gregory of Nazianzum draws the same conclusion. Dissolve litis vincula, Adstringe pacis fœdera. Per te sciamus, da, Patrem, Sit laus Patri cum Filio, 25 309 XXXIV. Clichtoveus, Elucidat. Eccles., p. 179; Daniel, Thes. Hymnol., v. 2, p. 73.-In Horst's Paradisus Animæ, Sect. 1, this hymn and the following appear huddled and confounded together in the strangest fashion, the two in one, and with grossest departures from the authentic text. Under this tasteless process the whole beauty of either hymn, being as they are distinct, throughout, and each in itself a perfect composition, moving in its own sphere of thought and feeling, has quite disappeared. The hymns that pertain to John the Baptist, have, if possible, experienced a still worse treatment at his hands; (Sect. 2;) for here they are at any rate the works of the same author that are thus confused, but there those of two or three. |