PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

IN this edition some additions have been made from the Promptuarium Morale Sacræ Scripturæ of Thomas Hibernicus, an Irish Franciscan who flourished at the beginning of the Fourteenth Century. It was first published, like the Concordances of S. Antony by Luke Wadding, at Rome, in 1624; he was, however, ignorant of the name of the author. Thomas was a man of some note in his day; and another valuable little work of his has been published, the Deliciæ Sanctorum: choice passages on various subjects, from the Fathers and later writers.

The Promptuarium is of the same nature as the Concordances; it is, however, nearly twice as long. The division is entirely different, consisting of three parts. The first goes through the regular course of Sunday and Feria; the second embraces the Festivals of Saints; the third supplies texts for Sermons to be addressed—almost literally—to all sorts and conditions of men. Some of the subjects in this last part are exceedingly curious.

It is plain that only in the second part do he and S. Antony touch the same matter; and my additions, distinguished by Italics, are therefore only made from that. The first part would be well worth republishing.

I had not ventured to hope that the Concordances would ever reach a second edition. I can only be thankful that the style of interpretation which they presuppose must thus have become better known to many of my brethren.

As a proof how large a field of mystical interpretation still remains, after these writers, to be gleaned, I will put down at random a few texts which have in the past year occurred to myself and to friends, as thus bearing a beautiful meaning:—

Christmas or Annunciation. 1 Sam. 23:20:—Now therefore, O King, come down according to all the desire of Thy soul to come down.

Holy Trinity. Is. 9:4:—For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor as in the days of Midian.

Absence of the Blessed Sacrament on Good Friday and Easter Eve. 1 Samuel 20:27, l:—Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Wherefore cometh not the Son of Jesse to meat neither yesterday nor to-day?

The same. S. Luke 24:3:—And they entered in, and found not the Body of the LORD JESUS.

Advent. Exodus 4:14, l:—And also, behold, He cometh forth to meet thee, and when he seeth thee He will be glad in His heart.

Ascension. 2 Chron. 1:13:—Then Solomon came from His journey to the high place that was at Gibeah to Jerusalem from before the tabernacle of the congregation and reigned over Israel.

Our Lord’s perpetual mediation. Neh. 6:3:—And I sent messengers unto them saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down.

Easter-Day. Gen. 1:5, l:—And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Christmas. 1 Sam. 20:6, m:—David earnestly asked leave of Me that He might run to Bethlehem, His city.

Easter. 1 Sam. 25:29:—Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul, but the soul of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy GOD.

Easter. 1 Sam. 17:20:—And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took and went as Jesse had commanded Him.

Easter. 1 Sam. 20:19:—And when Thou hast stayed three days, then Thou shalt go down quickly, and come to the place where the business was in hand, and remain by the stone Ezel.

Easter. 2 Sam. 23:4:—And He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds.

Good Friday. (Jewish ignorance of our LORD). 1 Sam. 17:55:—And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O King, I cannot tell.

Passion Tide. Numbers 10:33:—And they departed from the Mount of the Lord three days’ journey, and the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD went before them in the three days’ journey, to find a rest for them.

All Saints. 1 Chron. 12:33:—Of Zebulun such as went forth to battle, expert in war, with all instruments of war, fifty thousand which could keep rank; they were not of a double heart.

All Saints. 2 Sam. 24:3 m:—Now the LORD thy GOD make the people, how many soever they be are hundredfold.

For one sent on difficult work. Judges 14:12:—And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you; if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, I will give, &c.

The same. 1 Sam. 14:4:—And between the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side and a sharp rock on the other side.

Crucifixion. Judges 9:48:—And Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees and laid it on his shoulder, and said unto the people that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste and do as I have done.

Whitsunday. 1 Sam. 25:2:—And there was a man in Maon, and the man was very great, and he had 3000 sheep and 1000 goats, and he was shearing sheep on Carmel.

Beginning of the Passion. 2 Sam. 15:23:—And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over, the king also himself passed over the brook Kedron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.

Spiritual Communion. Num. 18:27:—And this your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the corn of the threshing-floor and as the fulness of the winepress.

The night of Easter Eve. 1 Sam. 24:4:—And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thy hand, that thou mayest do to him that shall seem good unto thee.

Easter Morning. Dan. 6:19:—Then the King rose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions.

Ascension. 1 Chron. 29:22. l:—And they made Solomon, the son of David, King the second time, and anointed him unto the Lord to be the chief governor.

S. John Baptist. Judges 7:24:—And Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbara and Jordan.

Easter. 2 Kings 23:22:—Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the Kings of Israel, nor of the Kings of Judah.

Easter. S. John 11:41, f:—Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid.

I have now only to thank those who were kind enough to send me corrections to the list of texts. I could wish that more, who have employed the book, would have done so; for I am perfectly aware that in so great a number of figures many errors must remain still undiscovered.

Sackville College, May 28th, 1866.

This second issue, which its accomplished Editor did not live to complete, is now laid before the public by another hand.

It remains to be said that even the Promptuarium of Thomas Hibernicus, rich as it is in mystical interpretations of Holy Scripture, is very far, even in conjunction with S. Antony, from exhausting that mine of devotional thought.

It was my hope to publish, with the co-operation of my dear friend, a much fuller Moral Concordance than the present one, embracing not only the authors there laid under contribution (one of whom it was my chance to bring under his notice), but also texts commented on by those writers, patristic, mediæval, and post-Reformation, who have shown themselves most skilled in the same department. Such are Origen, S. Clement of Alexandria, S. Augustine, Venerable Bede, S. Bernard, Bichard of S. Victor, S. Bouaventure, Henry Herph. Denys à Rykol, Matthias Faber, Jeremiah Drexelius, and John Cocceius, not omitting the rich stores in the Illations of the Mozaratic Missal, nor the manuscript sermons left behind by Dr. Neale himself. Such a compilation, bringing the resources of so many devout and original minds to bear on the elucidation of Holy Writ, could hardly have failed to deepen the method of studying the Sacred Books. The fulfilment of the scheme is now distant and doubtful.

R. F. L.

Nativity of Our Lady, 1866.