Ambrose of Milan

The just man Jacob comes in like a hired hand and yet is the master who, in his ministry of preaching the gospel, gathered together a flock that is resplendent in the brilliance of its many signal virtues. Thus, when the flock came to drink, he would set before them in the troughs the bough of storax and walnut and that from the plane tree; those who felt desire for the mysteries of the most blessed Trinity that were prefigured there could engender offspring that were not at all discolored, by conceiving them in a devout mind. …

On Jacob and the Blessed Life ↗