Chapter XV.
Through the closed and floating ark, the body of a man covered in leather and moved by various motions: through fifteen cubits of water by which the mountains were surpassed, human senses: finally, through death of all flesh, the destruction of souls corrupted by passions is foreshadowed: but especially the proud are to be destroyed, while the just remains as if incorporeal in the body, with wicked affections extinguished in the meantime.
And the Lord closed the ark from outside (Gen. VII, 16). The meaning is clear according to the literal interpretation. The ark had to be closed and securely covered so that the wandering streams of the flood would not penetrate. A higher sense can also be interpreted without inconsistency, if we consider that the human body, to which this ark that is described is compared, is enclosed in skin in order to be protected from cold and heat, which the divine craftsman clothed with natural coverings for the protection of all the limbs, and covered with a covering that was spread over it, so that it neither freezes from the cold nor dissolves from the summer heat.
51. So the water overflowed and lifted up the ark, and it was carried on top of the waters. It is not without reason that the water overflowed, when the floodgates of heaven were opened and the fountains of the deep were broken, and the rivers. This has been said with great emphasis. For where there is an eruption, there must necessarily be an irreversible outpouring; it is not easy to contain the immense overflow of flowing waters. Therefore, it is evident what has been written. But if you think it should be examined more deeply, our flesh is moved in various ways and is tossed about by passions, by which it is tossed here and there, like on the waves of its own troubles, now with hunger, now with thirst, now with desire, now with joy, now with sorrow.
Furthermore, I believe that this should not be overlooked, because Scripture did not overlook it, how many cubits the water was above the earth; for it said that the water was fifteen cubits above the high mountains. Therefore, the simple understanding is clear. However, the allegory encompasses five senses, which are like high mountains in our body, which overshadow this flesh of passions, and are often attacked by beasts, and are agitated by their dense and opaque nature. And so the Lord, coming through the faith of the believing nations, came to His Church, coming from Lebanon as the prophet Habakkuk says: The Lord will come from Lebanon, from the shady and dark mountain (Hab. III, 3). The Church also comes from Lebanon, as the Song of Songs has: Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon. You will pass through and cross over from the beginning of faith, from the dens of lions, and the mountains of leopards (Song of Songs IV, 8), where the pagan peoples, who suffered heavy attacks of bestial passions, now rise with the height of faith and the loftiness of devotion. Therefore, through these mountains Christ came, combating with the fierce movements of this body in Gospel disputations, and destroying that elevation of the heart and the self-exalting pride by obedience and humility, and they began to bear the deserved fruits of gentleness, which were previously overthrown by the heavy floods of passions. But some have estimated the number of cubits in this way, that the five senses have a triple collection; because sight sees the visible, and hearing hears the audible, and smelling smells the odoriferous, and taste tastes the tasteful, and touch touches the substance subject to be touched. Therefore, the five senses are valued in three ways, according to the saying: Write it in three ways (Prov. 22:20). However, I think it is more beneficial to consider the senses of the earthly, animal, and spiritual man, which have surpassed those flowing floods of the deluge.
53. Justly dead is every flesh that was moved. This is clear both according to the letter, and specifically and naturally expresses the corruption of the flesh by the evidence of a violent disturbance. For a corrupt disturbance only occurs through the corruption of the affections. Flesh moves by pleasures, and it is itself moved by pleasures. Such a disturbance creates corruption. Therefore, the cause of corruption is the disturbance of this world, through which the soul of each degenerates. For when corrupt passions move the mind, corruption is generated; when they excite the pursuit of virtues, progress is made in discipline. Therefore, everyone who was in the dry land is dead: for those whom the wave of such a great flood had submerged could not but die. This is according to the order and series of words in the scripture. But if you seek an allegory, there is no doubt that just as a fire consumes a drier piece of wood that it begins to lick, so the soul, unless it is moistened by the dew of various virtues, watered by a certain cup of wisdom, and by the fountain of justice, and by the irrigating stream of chastity, will burn up, with its vital root dried out, in the fire of desires, or be washed away, being weakened by the flood of the flesh. Therefore, the soul should always feast on the thoughts of good deeds, so that the mind, intoxicated with the juice of prudence, may thrive; thereby it will not easily succumb to the bodily deluge of harm and perish in the arid state of negligence. Therefore, the Lord reminds us not to depart from the fountain of wisdom, but to drink from the cups of virtue; lest anyone wither under the scorching heat of injustice and be unable to withstand the storm of persecution (Baruch 3:20 et seq.). For it is written: 'If they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?' (Luke 23:31)
54. God destroyed, he says, everything that was above the face of the earth (Gen. VII, 23). The clear explanation of the text. However, the allegory reveals to us the pride that exalts itself in this earthly and fragile substance, and forgetful of divine things, despises human things, deforming the appearance and gait of an arrogant man: such as Isaiah describes the daughters of Judea, shining their eyes with glances and boasting with their head held high (Isa. III, 16). For there are those who raise their eyebrows, with an inflated heart, a lifted chest, and a backward-leaning neck: who indeed only strike the ground with the soles of their feet, but freely suspend their whole body, and hang down in an empty examination: they proceed in their steps to what is in front of them, but lean the crown of their head towards what is behind them: they look at the sky, but despise the earth, as if they were attached by the pain of their neck, so that they cannot incline it. Therefore, God has erased these from the book of life, saying: Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled (Luke 14:11): and he does not allow them to adhere to heavenly rewards through the merits of the saints.
55. Therefore, all those who were outside the ark, having been killed, Noah was left alone in the ark with those who were with him (Gen. VII, 23). The speech does not need interpretation; it is simpler. The understanding coincides with the letter. However, a deeper and inner meaning indicates the just man, a lover of wisdom, like a fruitful tree, having the branches of those things that used to devour its food cut off, overshadowing its hair, constraining the processes of the branches, as if only the ground of irrational passions remained with his own. But the debates of the mind, which adhere to virtue, are its own. And he added well that he remained in the ark, as if it were hardly believable that, with bodily passions cut off, he was still seen to be dwelling in the body: although he was now free from earthly contagions, he still preserved the substance of the body that was incorruptible: and as if incorporeal in the body, he was carried through the flood, not swallowed up; indeed, he carried the body as if placed in the ark within, but he, impassable by bodily passions, as if incorporeal, governed in the midst of such great movements.