4. But the holy are the first-born, for it is written in Numbers; _Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the first-born that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel. For on the day that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto Me all the first-born in Israel._ Wherefore He took the Levites for the first-born, as being holy, for we know that the holy are first-born from the Epistle to the Hebrews, where it is written, _But ye are come to Mount Sion, and unto the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels and to the Church of the first-born_. Wherefore as the first-born of the Church are holy, so also are the Levites, for they also are the first-born. For it is not by the order of their birth but by the gift of sanctification that they are holy; Levi being the third son of Leah and not the first. Sidenote: Ps. lviii. 3. Sidenote: Gal. i. 15. Sidenote: S. John i. 26. 5. But he who is sanctified himself opens the womb. What womb? Hear the words, _As soon as they are born they go astray_. As you have understood the first-born who opens the womb, so understand here the womb of the good mother, from which it is not saints, but sinners who go astray. But the Levites are taken away from the midst of Israel, because they have nothing in common with the people, whose earthly first-born are destroyed. The first-born of the world are of another mother, from whose womb Paul was separated when he was called to the grace of God. He received the Word Who is in the midst of our hearts. Whence it is said also, _There standeth One among you, Whom ye know not_. Sidenote: Deut. xxi. 16. Sidenote: Gen. xlv. 22. 6. This digression then of ours from one part of the Law to the other, for the purpose of shewing that the first-born is not the son of the beloved, that is of the more remiss and voluptuous wife, has not been needless, although the words of the chapter before us express the same truth: _He may not make the son of the beloved first-born before the son of the hated, which is indeed the first-born_. He is indeed the first-born who is the holy son of a holy mother; just as she is indeed the mother, from whose womb not her true sons but sinners go astray. Wherefore the former is not the son of the true mother, nor the true first-born, but as though he were so, subsistence is indeed provided for him that he may not want, but he is not honoured, that he may become rich. But the other has received double from all, that he may abound; just as in Genesis each of the patriarchs had two changes of raiment given to them by their brother Joseph, when they were sent back to their father to tell him that he whom he had believed to be dead was found. Sidenote: Deut. xxi. 17. Sidenote: Rev. i. 8. Sidenote: Gen. xxi. 10.