plained by the gloss thus;—that he neither describes the temporal nativity of our Lord,—represented by earth,—nor His eternal generation, symbolized by heaven—but, so to speak, avoids both.
Sedulius, a hundred years later, after speaking of our Lord's true manhood, says:
This Matthew writes, and thence the human face:
Mark roars a lion in a desert place;
While priestly Luke the ox for symbol names,
And John, who towers to heaven, the eagle claims.
Later poets carried out, as we shall see that Adam does,—the symbolism still further, and made the Lord to be in Himself all that His servants were separately. Thus a mediæval epigram:
Luke is the ox,—Mark lion, eagle John,—
Matthew the man: but God is all in one.
The Man in birth, the Ox in death, to rise
The Lion,—and the Eagle seek the skies.
Hildebert of Mans, after going through these symbols, adduces another:
The fountain yet distils: increase thy store:
Each righteous man contains these symbols four.
For human sense he claims the human face:
The ox in self-denial finds a place:
Lion is he, as conqueror in hard straits:
Eagle, for oft he seeks the heavenly gates.
That is, of love to God, and love to his neighbour.
The poet compares the visions of Ezekiel and S. John. The wheels of the Prophet, which roll along the earth, signify the account given by the Evangelists
