Ezekiel 2:9

If God were to stand up as the avenger of sin, the church would lose many of its saints and certainly would be deprived of the apostle Paul.

The scroll symbolizes the prophets and the apostles. In it the Old Testament was written on the reverse and the New on the obverse. Moreover, the scroll symbolizes the secret, the spiritual teaching—and in such a dignified manner that it may be read on both sides. In reality it is of such a kind that there is a connection between reading the outside and understanding the inside.

Let him therefore say: "Which was written within and without," because in sacred eloquence the strong are satisfied by more hidden and sublime sayings, and we little ones are nourished by plainer precepts. Whence it is written: "The high mountains are for the deer, the rock is a refuge for the hedgehogs." For let those have the mountains of understanding who already know how to make the leaps of contemplation. But let the rock be a refuge for the hedgehogs, because we little ones, covered with the thorns of our sins, even if we cannot understand lofty things, are saved in the refuge of our rock, that is, in faith in Christ. Whence also it is said to certain ones: "I judged myself to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus, and him crucified." As if he were saying: Because I considered that you could not grasp the mysteries of his divinity, I spoke to you only of the weakness of his humanity.

Whence it is written: "Stretching out the heaven like a skin, who covers its upper parts in the waters." For what is signified by the name of heaven except sacred Scripture? From which the sun of wisdom, and the moon of knowledge, and from the ancient Fathers the stars of examples and virtues shine for us. This is stretched out like a skin, because, formed through the tongue of flesh by its writers, it is unfolded before our eyes by being expounded through the words of teachers. But what is signified by the name of waters except the most holy choirs of angels? Of which it is written: "And let the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord." The Lord covers the upper parts of this heaven in the waters, because the deep things of sacred eloquence, that is, those things which it narrates concerning the nature of divinity or concerning eternal joys, while we are still ignorant, are known to the angels alone in secret. Therefore this heaven is both stretched out before us, and yet its upper parts are covered in the waters, because both certain things of sacred eloquence now lie open to us through the opening of the spirit, and certain things which can be manifest to the angels alone are still kept hidden from us. Concerning which hidden things, however, we already perceive a part through spiritual understanding, we have already received the pledge of the Holy Spirit, because we have not yet fully known these things, and yet we love them from the depths of our heart, and in many spiritual senses which we have already known, we are fed with the food of truth.

"And I looked, and behold, a hand was sent to me, in which was a rolled-up book; and he spread it out before me, and it was written inside and outside." Just as the order of preachers is designated by the prophet, so the pages of Sacred Scripture are designated by the book which he received. Now the scroll is the obscure speech of Sacred Scripture, which is wrapped up in the profundity of its meanings, so that it may not easily be penetrated by the understanding of all. But the scroll is unrolled before the prophet, because the obscurity of sacred speech is opened before preachers. The hand of God had extended a rolled-up scroll when He was saying to the apostles: "The kingdom of heaven has become like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. And when the grass had grown and produced fruit, then the weeds also appeared," and the rest which your charity remembers even without my recounting it. But He unrolled the scroll which He had shown rolled up when He explained what He had spoken through riddles, saying: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; but the weeds are the sons of wickedness. The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the consummation of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Therefore just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the consummation of the age." And so the rolled-up scroll is unrolled when what had been set forth obscurely is opened through the breadth of understanding. Truth unrolled this rolled-up scroll when He accomplished in His disciples what is written: "Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures."