Chapter I.
The holy Isaac is commended both for his paternal origin and grace, as well as for his prefiguration of the Lord's descent and passion, and the mystery represented between Christ and Isaac, and the soul represented by Rebecca is opened.
1. In our father Isaac or the origin is sufficiently expressed, either by grace or by glory: to whom all glory redounds, that he was born to Abraham, a reward for such a worthy and admirable man. Nor is it surprising, since he preceded in the figure of the Lord's generation and passion. For even a barren old woman gave birth to him according to God's promise, so that we may believe that God is able to make a virgin conceive and that the only begotten one offered as a sacrifice would not perish for the father and would fulfill the sacrifice. Therefore, by its very name, it signifies both form and grace. For Isaac, in Latin, means laughter, and laughter is a notable sign of joy. And who is ignorant that he is the joy of all, who, with dreadful death or fear suppressed or sorrow removed, becomes the remission of sins for all? Therefore, he was named, and he was designated: he was expressed, and he was announced. He is the one whom the maidservant already pursued: he is the one for whom it was already said: Cast out the maidservant, for the son of the maidservant will not be heir with my son, Isaac (Gen. XXI, 10). He is the one to whom his father acquired a foreign bride. He is gentle, humble, and meek, who, with the arrival of Rebecca, that is, patience, went out into the field to be alienated. For it is the mark of a wise man to separate oneself from the pleasures of the flesh, to elevate the soul, and to withdraw from the body; for this is truly to recognize oneself as a human being. He who is called Enos in the Chaldean language is called, in Latin, homo. But Enos, who assumed and hoped to invoke God; and therefore, it is believed that he was translated. Therefore, it does not seem that a man exists unless he hopes in God. But whoever hopes in God does not live on earth, but rather, as if carried away, clings to God, signifying a clear interpretation of truth.
Therefore, Isaac is a true blessing, full of grace, and a source of joy. To this source, Rebecca came to fill her water jug. For the Scripture says that as she went down to the spring, she filled her jug and went up again (Gen. XXIV, 16). So she went down to the fountain of wisdom, whether the Church or the soul, to fill her entire vessel and to draw from the pure disciplines of wisdom that the Jews refused to draw from the flowing fountain. Who is this fountain, listen to the one saying: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water (Jeremiah II, 13). To this fountain ran the thirsting soul of the prophets, as David also says: My soul thirsts for the living God (Psalm XLI, 3); so that it could quench its thirst with the richness of divine knowledge and wash away the blood of foolishness with the flow of spiritual waters. For this is the flow of blood, as the law signifies (Leviticus XX, 18), which is covered, when a man lying with a woman during her days of menstruation. Woman is a delight of the body and a temptation. Therefore, beware that the strength of your mind is not weakened by a certain union of bodily pleasure, and that everything dissolves into its embrace, and it opens the fountain, which ought to be closed and sealed by the study of intention and the consideration of reason. For a garden is closed, a fountain is sealed (Canticles 4:12). For when the strength of the mind is dissolved, the senses pour forth a bodily pleasure excessively pernicious, and rush into a desire full of serious danger; which, if it had remained under the vigilant custody of a vivid mind, it would have restrained.