And it is well added;
And disguiseth his face.
And disguiseth his face.
St Gregory - Moralia - Job
‘the way’] of the uninstructed multitudes.
It goes on;
Ver. 3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
[xlv]
57. Whom do we understand by the fatherless in this place, but the Elect of God, who are set in tenderness of mind, are nourished with the efficacious grace of faith, and do not yet see the face of their Father, Who has already died in their behalf. And there are very many in the Church, who see certain persons aiming at the things of heaven, having all earthly things in contempt, and though they themselves are toiling with all their strength in this world’s labours, yet to those whom they see panting after heavenly things, from the goods which they possess in this world, they bring this life’s aid and support. And though they cannot themselves follow a spiritual life, yet to those reaching forth to the things above they gladly yield means of support. For an ass is used to bear the burthens of men. He then is as it were a kind of ass of the Elect, who whilst yielding himself to earthly courses, carries loads for the uses of men. And often when Heretics turn aside any such person from the bosom of Holy Church, they are as it were driving off the ass of the fatherless, in that when they force him into their own misbelief, they drive him away from tendance on the good.
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58. But who is to be understood by the ‘widow’ saving Holy Church, who is bereft in the mean seas out of the sight of her slain Husband? Now ‘the ox’ of this ‘widow’ is every individual preacher. And it often chances that Heretics by their perverted tenets draw over even those very persons that appeared to be preachers. And so they ‘take the widow’s ox,’ when they carry off from Holy Church even a person preaching. And it is rightly added here for a pledge. For when a pledge is taken away, one thing indeed is held in our hands, but another yet further is sought for. And very often Heretics for this reason try to carry off those that preach, that they may draw to them their followers likewise. Thus ‘the widow’s ox is taken away for a pledge,’ when the same person that practised preaching is for this reason carried off, that others may follow after him. By whose downfall it is very often brought about, that they also go forth from the bosom of Holy Church, who, imbued with godly habits in her, seemed to be meek and humble. Hence it is added; Ver. 4. They have turned the needy out of the way; and have oppressed together the meek of the earth.
[xlvi]
59. For by the term of ‘poverty,’ humility is very often denoted, and very often they that appear gentle and humble, if they have not learnt to maintain discretion, fall by the examples of other men. But there are some Heretics, who eschew to mix themselves with the multitudes, and seek the retirement of a life of greater privacy, and these very often with the bane of their persuasion poison those that they meet with the more, in proportion as by the claims of their life they the more seem deserving of respect. Concerning whom it is subjoined;
Ver. 5. Others as wild asses in the desert go forth to their work.
[xlvii]
60. For the ‘onager’ is a wild ass; and in this place Heretics are rightly likened to ‘wild asses,’ in that being let loose in their pleasures, they are strange to the fetters of faith and reason. Hence it is written; A wild ass used to the wilderness that snuffeth up the wind of his love at his pleasure. For he is a wild ass used to the wilderness, who whilst he does not cultivate the ground of his heart with excellence of discipline, there dwells, where there is no fruit. Since he ‘snuffeth up the wind of his love at his pleasure,’ in that the things that from the desire of knowledge he conceives in his mind, are efficacious to puff up but not to edify. Against whom it is said, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. [1 Cor. 8, 1] Hence here too the words are suitably brought in; they go forth to their work. For it is not the work of God, but their own work that they do, whereas they follow not right doctrines, but their own desires. For it is written, He that walketh in a perfect way, he served me. [Ps. 101, 6] So he that does not walk in a perfect way, serves himself more than the Lord. It goes on;
Watching for a prey, they provide bread for their children.
[xlviii]
61. They ‘watch for a prey,’ who are always trying to seize the words of the righteous according to their own perception, that by them they may provide the bread of error for evil minded children. Of which some bread it is said in Solomon, in the words of the woman that bears the figure of heretical
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wickedness, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. [Prov. 9, 17] It goes on ;
Ver. 6. They reap a field not their own, and the vineyard of him whom they have oppressed by violence they gather.
[xlix]
62. By the name of a ‘field’ may be denoted the wide compass of Holy Scripture, and Heretics ‘reap’ it not being their own, in that they carry away from it sentences which are infinitely removed from their own notions; which same is furthermore described by the title of a ‘vineyard,’ in that through the sentences of truth it puts forth the clusters of the virtues; the owner of which vineyard, i. e. the originator of Holy Scripture, they as it were ‘oppress with violence,’ because they endeavour violently to twist and turn a sense of His upon [L. only reads ‘in the words’] the words of Holy Writ; as He saith, But thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast given Me labour in thine iniquity. [Is. 43, 24] And they ‘reap the vintage of that vineyard,’ in that they heap together therefrom clusters of sentences after the bent of their own understanding. It may be that by the title of a ‘field’ or of a ‘vineyard’ the Church Universal is set forth, which corrupt preachers ‘reap,’ and by oppressing in His members the Author of it, ‘gather the vintage,’ in that in bearing down upon the grace of our Creator, whilst they seize off therefrom persons who seemed to be righteous, what else is this but that they carry off ‘ears’ or ‘clusters’ of souls? Of whom it is yet further added;
Ver. 7. They send men away naked, taking away their garments, who have no covering in the cold.
[l]
63. As garments cover the body, so do good works the soul. Whence it is said to one, Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [Rev. 16, 15] So Heretics, when in the minds of any they destroy good works, manifestly take away the garments of clothing; and it is well said, who have no covering in the cold. For ‘covering’ has relation to righteousness, ‘cold’ to sin. And there are some that in some points commit sin, but in some points follow good works. He then that does wrong by one set of actions, and practises righteousness by another, what is this man but clothed in the cold? He is cold, and he is covered, in that in one part of practice he is made warm for righteousness, in another he is made cold for sin. But whenever Heretics take away their good works from such persons, they bring it to pass that they have not in the cold wherewith to clothe themselves. Therefore it is rightly said, They send men away naked, taking away their garments, who have no covering in the cold; that is, for the cold of sin by itself to kill those whom the warmth of a different practice in some degree covered. But it may be, that by the cold there is denoted desire, by the garment practice. And there are great numbers who are still agitated with wrong desires, but striving with themselves in the spirit, they fight against themselves by right works, and with good actions cover that which they perceive through temptation to spring against them of the wrong sort. And so these from the cause that they desire what is evil are cold, and by the act by which they practise what is good, they are clothed. But when Heretics by wrong statements do away with the works of a right faith, what else do they bring to pass but that those that still feel the cold of carnal desires should die without the clothing of good works? It proceeds; Ver. 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the stones for want of a garment.
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[li]
64. ‘The showers of the mountains’ are the words of the learned. Of which same ‘mountains’ it is delivered by the voice of Holy Church; I lifted up mine eyes unto the hills: and so those persons, ‘the showers of the mountains wet,’ in that the streams of the holy fathers fill them to the full. But as we have already said before, ‘the garment’ we take for the covering of good practice, with which a man is covered, that in the eyes of Almighty God the filthiness of his depravity should be clothed over. Whence it is written, Blessed are they whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. [Ps. 32, 1] Whom do we understand by the title of ‘the stones’ but the strong ones within the bounds of Holy Church, to whom it is declared by the first shepherd; Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. [1 Pet. 2, 5] And so those who on the grounds of their own practice have no reliance, fly to the protection of the holy Martyrs, at their sacred bodies set themselves to tears, and entreat, at their intercessions, to obtain pardon [a]. What then do these do by such self- abasement, but because they lack the covering of good practice ‘embrace the stones? ’ It goes on; Ver. 9. They have done violence in preying on the fatherless, and have spoiled the common folk of the poor [vulgus pauperum].
[lii]
65. When Heretics lack the good fortune of the present life, to weak minds they recommend by words of soft persuasion things that are wrong; but if the good fortune of the present time at all smiles upon them, they do not cease even by violence to draw those they are able. So that by the title of ‘fatherless’ they are denoted who are still delicate, being set within the pale of Holy Church, whose life their merciful Father by dying preserved, who are already brought forward to a good purpose of mind, but are not yet confirmed with any efficacy in good deeds. The Heretics, then, ‘do violence in preying on the fatherless,’ in that upon the weak minds of the faithful they make assault with violence in words and deeds. But ‘the common folk of the poor’ are the uninstructed multitude, which, if it had the riches of true knowledge, would never part with the covering of its faith. For genuine teachers are like a kind of senators within the bounds of Holy Church, who, while they multiply knowledge in the heart, abound in the true riches in themselves. But Heretics ‘spoil the common sort of the poor,’ in that whilst the learned they cannot, all the unlearned by their pestilent preaching they strip naked of the covering of the faith. It goes on;
Ver. 10. From the naked, and those going without clothing and a hungered, they have taken away the ears of corn.
[liii]
66. What he calls naked he repeats in the words without clothing, but it is one thing to be naked and another thing to go naked. Thus every person that does neither what is good nor what is bad is naked and idle; but he that does what is evil ‘goes naked,’ in that without the covering of good practice he is going by the road of wickedness. But there are some who, as knowing the evil of their wickedness, are in haste to be filled with the bread of righteousness, and hunger to receive the sayings of Holy Scripture; and these, as often as they turn over in thought the sentences of the Fathers for the improvement of the mind, as it were from a good crop they carry ears of corn. And so ‘from the naked and those going without clothing and a hungered, Heretics take away ears of corn;’ in that whether any persons be idle and never exercise themselves in any thing good, or
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whether they are going by the way of shamelessness without the covering of good practice, even if they at any time have now the desire to return to repentance, and long for the food of the word, from those same being a hungered they take away the ears of corn, because in the minds of those persons by mischievous persuasions they destroy the sentences of the Fathers. Nor do we improperly say that the ears of corn signify the sentences of the Fathers, in that often whilst they are delivered in forms of figurative diction, we remove the covering of the letter from them like the chaff of corn, that we may be regaled with the marrow of the Spirit. It goes on;
Ver. 11. They rest at mid-day amid the heaps of those that thirst with the winepresses being trodden.
[liv]
67. All those that persecute Holy Church, what else do they but ‘tread the winepress? ’ Which is allowed to be by the Divine appointment, that the clusters of souls may flow out into spiritual wine, and being divested of the corruptible flesh run into the heavenly realms as into a receptacle. For whilst the unrighteous bear down the righteous, they as it were put clusters of the grape beneath their feet. And the clusters being squeezed run over for the fulness of the heavenly feast, which were before as if hanging in the freedom of this air. Thus David the Prophet, regarding the chastening of Holy Church [b], writes the Psalm ‘for the winepresses. ’ Now all that bear hard upon the life of the faithful, tread and thirst, in that by doing things that are cruel they are rendered the more savage; being blinded by just deserts of their ungodliness, they go about to do things more grievous the more they have already done grievous things. But Heretics, when they have not themselves the power of persecuting, stir up the men of this world that have power, and incline their minds for the exercising persecution, and inflame them with what persuasions they are able. And when they see these pursuing cruel measures against the lives of the Catholics, they as it were rest in the very fervour of the sun. Therefore it is well said now, They rest at mid-day amidst the heaps of those that thirst with the winepresses being trodden, in that they join the multitude of those whom they see already employed in hard measures and still thirsting after harder ones. And whilst the fervour of these satisfies their desires, they rest in the deeds of such as in the mid-day. It goes on ;
Ver. 12. They have caused men to groan out of the cities. [lv]
68. Whereas cities (civitates) are so called from the people living together, (conviventes,) by the designation of ‘cities’ the churches of the true faith are not unfitly represented, which being settled in the different parts of the world constitute one Catholic Church, in which all the faithful thinking what is right concerning God live together in harmony. For this very harmony of people living together the Lord even by the distinguishing of places set forth in the Gospel, when being about to satisfy the people with five loaves, He bade them lie down by fifties or hundreds in ranks, so that the crowd of the faithful might take its food at once separate in places, and united in ways. For the rest of the jubilee is contained in a mystery of the number fifty, and fifty is carried twice to be brought to a hundred. Therefore because there is first rest from bad practice, that the soul may afterwards rest more perfectly in the thoughts, some lie down by fifties and some by hundreds, since there are some that already enjoy the rest of practice from evil deeds, and there are some that already enjoy the rest of the soul from evil thoughts. Wherefore since Heretics often, attaching
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themselves to the powerful evil-doers of this world, bear down upon the united life and harmony of the good, it is rightly said in this place, They have caused men to groan from the cities. Whom blessed Job rightly describes as ‘men,’ in that Heretics rather go about to put an end to those, who with perfect steps run in the way of God not effeminately and loosely but manfully; who when they see the wound of misbelieve inflicted in the mind of the faithful little ones, always fall back to crying out and groaning. And hence it is rightly said,
And the soul of the wounded crieth, and God suffereth him not to go unavenged.
[lvi]
69. For the soul of the righteous is ‘wounded,’ when the faith of the weak is unsettled, unto whom this identical thing ‘to cry’ is to be now consumed for the downfall of another. But God does not suffer him to go unavenged, in that though by just appointment he suffers an unjust thing to be done, yet He does not let that unjust thing go unavenged which He has justly permitted to be done, seeing that at once by the injustice of the sons of perdition He smites certain sins of the Elect, which He sees to be in them, and yet by Eternal Justice does not neglect to smite the injustice of those smiters. It goes on,
Ver. 13. They are rebellions against the light.
[lvii] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
70. Very often wicked people at once know the right things that they ought to follow, and yet neglect to follow what they know; and so they are ‘rebellious against the light,’ in that following their desires, they contemn the good that they know. They then that do wrong not from ignorance, but pride, present the shield of their exaltation against the darts of truth, that they may not be stricken in heart to their good. By which same pride of theirs it is brought to pass, that whereas they will not do the things that they know, neither do they now know the good they should do, but that their own blindness should utterly exclude them from the light of truth. And hence it is fitly subjoined,
They know not the ways thereof, nor have returned by the paths thereof.
[lviii]
71. For they that are first rebels knowing it, are afterwards blinded so as not to know; as it is said of certain, Because that when they knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. [Rom 1, 21] Of whom it is added a little while afterwards, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. [v. 28] For because they would not glorify Him Whom they knew, being given over to a reprobate sense, they were left to this fate, that they should not any longer know how to estimate the evil things they did. And it is well said, They know not the ways thereof, neither have returned by the paths thereof. For a ‘path’ is narrower than a ‘way. ’ Now those that care not to do the plainer good works, never attain to the understanding of the more refined. But Almighty God waited that they might go ‘by the paths thereof. ’ And would that they had been minded even to have ‘returned’ by them, that the paths of life which they would not keep by innocency they might at least keep by repentance. Wherein of what great mercifulness are the bowels of God is shewn, in that those whom He sees departing from Him, He seeks that they may return. Hence after the sins; of those doing wrong having been enumerated, He calls back the
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Synagogue by the voice of Prophecy, saying; Therefore at least from this time cry unto Me, My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth. [Jer. 3, 4] It proceeds;
Ver. 14. The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
[lix] [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION]
72. Whereas the murderer in the killing of his neighbours is wont to come upon them chiefly in the silence of the night, why is it that he is said in this place to ‘rise with the light’ in order to ‘kill the poor and needy,’ whilst ‘in the night’ he is described ‘to be as a thief? ’ Now forasmuch as the letter in the bare words alone is not consistent with itself, we are called back for the investigating the hidden meanings of the Spirit. In Holy Scripture the ‘morning’ is sometimes used to be put for the coming of the Lord’s Incarnation, sometimes for the coming of the henceforth dreadful and searching Judge, sometimes for the prosperity of the present life. Thus the coming of the Lord’s Incarnation proved a ‘morning,’ as the Prophet saith, The morning cometh, and also the night; [Is. 21, 12] in that both the beginnings of the new light shone forth in the appearing of our Redeemer, and yet the shades of their misbelief were not cleared off from the hearts of the persecutors. Again, by the ‘morning’ the coming of the Judge is denoted. Whence it is said by the Psalmist, Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land. [Ps. 101, 8] As also when personating the Elect, he says, In the morning will I stand in Thy presence, and will look up. [Ps. 5, 3] Again, by the ‘morning’ this
life’s prosperity is represented. as where it is said by Solomon, Woe to thee, O land, when thy King is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning. [Ecc. 10, 16] For whereas the morning is the first part of the day and the evening the last, we ought not ever to be regaled by this life’s prosperity which goes first, but by those things which at the end of the day, that is at the termination of the world, follow after. Thus those ‘eat in the morning,’ who by this world’s successes are lifted up, and whilst they passionately interest themselves with present things, pay no heed to the things of the future. For whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. [1 John 3, 15] So the ‘murderer rises up with the earliest dawn,’ in that every wicked man is set up in the glory of the present life, and bears down the life of those, who whilst they thirst after the glory to follow, as it were anxiously look out to be filled in the evening. For the bad man in this world whilst seizing on the dignity of transitory power spreads himself out the more cruelly for the enacting of what is evil, in proportion as there is no man he loves in the bowels of charity. For as often as in the thoughts of his heart he is maddened against the good, so often does he kill the life of the innocent.
73. And if, God ordaining it, he suddenly lose the glory of the power he has gotten, he changes his place but not his disposition, for he directly falls away to that, which is subjoined, And in the night is as a thief. For in the night of his tribulation and sunkenness, though he has no power to put forth the hand of cruelty, yet to those whom he sees to be empowered, he recommends counsels of wickedness, and goes about hither and thither, and prompts whatever things he is able toward the injuring of the good. And he is rightly called ‘as a thief,’ because in all those very evil counsels of his he dreads lest he should be caught out. He then that towards the poor and needy is a murderer in the morning, in the night like a thief is hidden out of sight, in that every bad man, who in this life’s prosperity by bearing down kills the life of the humble, being in adversity and abasement, by evil counsels does mischief in a concealed way, and what he is unable to accomplish by himself, that he puts in practice by attaching himself to the powerful ones of this world. It goes on;
Ver. 15. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me.
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[lx]
74. There is nothing to hinder but that this may be understood even after the latter, seeing that he who desires to commit adultery, seeks out the dark. But whereas it is a sentence uttered against Heretics, it is meet that this thing which is declared be understood in a mystical sense. Thus Paul says, For we are not as many that adulterate [Vulg. adulterantes] the word of God. [2 Cor. 2, 17] For the adulterer seeks not offspring, but pleasure in the act of carnal copulation. And every bad man, and that is also a slave to vain-glory, is rightly said to ‘adulterate’ the word of God, because by the sacred word of Revelation he desires not to beget children to God, but to exhibit his own knowledge. For he that is drawn to speak by lust of glory, bestows his pains rather on gratification than the production of children. And it is rightly added there, No eye shall see me; because the adultery which is committed in the interior is very hard indeed that it should be penetrated by the eye of man. Which same the froward soul commits with the more assurance, in proportion as it does not fear being seen by men, whom it may blush at. Moreover it is to be known that as he that commits adultery joins to himself unlawfully the flesh of another man’s wife, so all heretics, while they carry off the faithful soul into their own error, are as it were bearing off another’s wife, in this way; because the soul which is spiritually wedded to God and joined to Him as if in a kind of bridechamber of love, when by wicked persuasions it is led on into corruptness of doctrine, is as it were like the wife of another defiled by the corrupter.
And it is well added;
And disguiseth his face.
[lxi]
75. It is for this reason that the adulterer ‘disguises his face;’ that he may not be known. Now every man who either in thinking or in acting lives badly, ‘disguises his face,’ because by corruptness in doctrine or in practice he is tending to this, that he should not be able to be recognised in the Judgment by Almighty God. Hence He shall say to certain persons at the end, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. [Matt. 7, 23] And what is the ‘face’ of the human heart, save the likeness of God? which same face the bad man ‘disguiseth,’ that he may not be able to be known, when his life discomposes either by bad deeds, or by the error of misbelief. But every such person when he sees the righteous upheld by this world’s good fortune, never ventures to prompt what is wrong to them, but if any storm of adversity falls upon those persons, he directly breaks out into words of pestilent persuasion. And hence it is added;
Ver. 16. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the day time; they know not the light.
[lxii]
76. For what is there here denoted by the title of ‘houses’ but consciences, wherein we dwell, when we do any thing, busying ourselves with it? Whence it is said to one on being healed, Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee [Luke 8, 39]; i. e. henceforth, secure from the evil habit of sin, turn back to thy conscience, and be thou roused into the voice of preaching. ’ And so when in the present world the righteous are brightened by the day of prosperity, to those persons the leaders of false tenets are afraid to recommend what is wrong. But they search out counsels, with all care they await the abasement of their prosperity, that in the darkness of adversity they may by their persuading dig through the minds of those, to whom whilst
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living prosperously they never presumed to speak wrong things, whom as soon as they see under adversity they rise up and maintain, that no otherwise saving in desert of their sins those suffer such things; because loving the glory of the present life alone, the stroke they take for condemnation. So ‘in the dark they dig through houses,’ in that the minds of the good by their mere misfortune alone to corrupt is their endeavour. Now it is well said, which they had marked in the day time, in that when they saw the righteous to have been made to shine with the light of prosperity, because they were prevented speaking, they were only at liberty for concocting malevolent designs against them. But whether it be heretics or any bad persons, they rejoice when they see the righteous in a depressed condition, whereas when they see those break forth to the height of power for ruling, they are confounded, they are filled with fears, they are consumed with misery. And hence it is added,
Ver. 17. If the morning suddenly appear, it is to them even as the shadow of death.
[lxiii]
77. For the wicked look for the afflicting of the righteous, and long to see them in distress, and ‘in the dark they dig through houses,’ when the heart of the innocent but weak ones they corrupt in the season of their casting down by the worst mode of discourse. But it commonly happens that when they see the good in a sunken state, on a sudden, by the secret appointment of God, any righteous one that seemed to be borne down is upheld by some share of the world’s power, and the prosperity of the present life smiles on him, whom the darkness of adversity before overlaid. Which same prosperity of that man when the wicked behold, as it has been said, they are troubled. For directly they turn back to their own hearts, they bring back before their minds’ eye whatever they remember themselves to have done amiss, they fear for every particular sinful habit to be avenged in them, and by the same means by which he that receives power is made to shine the bad man who dreads to be corrected is darkened in sorrow. And so it is well said, If the morning suddenly appear, they think it is the shadow of death. For ‘the morning’ is the mind of the righteous man, which quitting the darkness of its sin, now breaks out unto the light of eternity, as it is said of Holy Church likewise; Who is she that looketh forth as the morning? [Cant. 6, 10] Therefore in the same measure that every righteous person shining with the light of righteousness is in the present life reared to a height with honours, in the same measure before the eyes of the wicked comes the ‘darkness of death,’ in that they who remember that they have done bad things are in fear of being corrected. For they desire always to have a loose given them in their iniquities, to live free from correction, and from sin to have delight; whose fatal mirth is itself appropriately described in the words that are directly introduced,
And they walk so in darkness, as in the light.
[lxiv]
78. For with a froward mind they delight in deeds of wickedness, through their sin they are day by day being dragged to punishment, and are full of assurance. Hence it is said by Solomon, And there are wicked men that are as secure as if they had the deeds of the righteous. Concerning whom it is written again, Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the most wicked doings. Thus ‘they walk in darkness as in the light,’ in that they so delight in the night of sin as if the light of righteousness spread around them. Or otherwise, whereas darkness not inappropriately represents the present life, wherein the consciences of other men are not seen, whilst our light is the eternal
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land, in which when we look at faces, our hearts within us we mutually see; and because the wicked so love the present life, and embrace these times of exile, as if they already reigned in their native country, it is rightly said, They walk in darkness as in the light, in that they are as full of gladness in the present state of blindness, as if they already enjoyed the light of the eternal country. It goes on; He is light above the face of the water.
[lxv]
79. From the plural number he returns to the singular because most frequently one person begins what is bad, and numbers by imitating him follow after, but the fault is primarily his, who to the bad men following after furnished examples of wickedness; and hence the sentence frequently returns to him who was the leader in sin. Now the surface of water is carried hither and thither by the breath of the air, and not being steadied with any fixedness is put in motion every where. And so the mind of the wicked man is ‘lighter than the surface of water,’ in that every breath of temptation that touches it, draws it on without any retarding of resistance. For if we imagine the unstable heart of any bad man, what do we discover but a surface of water set in the wind? For that man one while the breath of anger drives on, now the breath of pride, now the breath of lust, now the breath of envy, now the breath of falsehood forces along. And so he is ‘light above the surface of the water,’ whom every wind of error when it comes drives before it. Whence too it is well said by the Psalmist, O my God, make them like a wheel, as the stubble before the wind. For the wicked are ‘made like a wheel,’ in that being sent into the round of labour, whilst the things that are before they neglect, and those which ought to be given up they follow, in the hind parts they are lifted up, and in the fore parts they fall. And they are likewise rightly compared to ‘stubble before the face of the wind,’ in that, when the breath of temptation comes upon them, having no principle of gravity to rest upon, they are only lifted up to be dashed to the ground, and they often account themselves of some merit in proportion as the blast of error bears them on high. It goes on;
Let their portion be cursed in the earth; and let him not walk by the way of the vineyards.
[lxvi] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
80. Whoever in the present life does what is right and meets with misfortunes, is seen indeed to travail in adversity, but for the blessing of the everlasting inheritance he is finished complete; but whoever does what is bad and yet meets with good fortune, and does not even by the bountifulness of blessings withhold himself from wicked deeds, is seen indeed to prosper, but is tied fast by the bond of everlasting cursing. Hence it is rightly said now, Let their portion be cursed in the earth, in that though he is blessed for a time, yet he is held fast in the bond of cursing. Concerning whom too it is fitly added, He walketh not by the way of the vineyards. For ‘the way of the vineyards,’ is the rightness of the Churches. Wherein nothing hinders but that we understand either the heretic or every carnal man, because ‘the way of the vineyards,’ i. e. the rightness of the Churches, is parted with, when either the right faith or the right rule of just living is not held. For he ‘walks by the way of the Vineyards,’ who taking to heart the preaching of the Holy Catholic Church, deviates neither from the right line of faith nor of good deeds. Since to ‘walk in the way of the vineyards’ is to behold the Fathers of Holy Church as hanging clusters of the vine, whose words whilst he heeds in the toils of the journey, he is intoxicated with the love of Eternity. It goes on;
Ver. 19. Let him pass to excessive heat from the snow waters.
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[lxvii]
81. Iniquity is on this account likened to cold, because the mind that sins it binds up with insensibility. Hence it is written; As a fountain has made her waters cold, so she has made her wickedness cold. Contrariwise charity is ‘heat,’ in this respect that it fires the soul it fills. Of which ‘heat’ is written, Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And there are some who while they shun the cold or their wickednesses come to true faith or to the wearing of sanctity, but because they presume on their own faculties for perceiving more than should be, oftentimes in the faith which they receive they are minded to pry curiously into the things that they do not take in, so as to be held fast in God rather by reason than by faith. But because the mind of man has not power to dive into the mysteries of God; all that they cannot get to the bottom of by reason, they care not to believe, and by overmuch investigation they fall into error. So these, when they did not as yet believe, or were still busied for works of wickedness, were ‘snow waters;’ but when abandoning carnal deeds, in the faith to which they have been brought they aim to dive deeper than they have capacity for, they are hot beyond what they ought to be. And so touching this wicked kind of person the sentence of one prophesying only and not wishing the thing is rightly delivered. Let him pass in overmuch heat from the snow waters. As if it were said in plain speech; ‘he that is not restrained in humility under the fetters of self-discipline, from his unbelief, or from the coldness of bad practice, through immoderate wisdom falls into error. Whence too the great Preacher getting quit of this excessive heat of too refined wisdom from the hearts of his disciples saith well, Not to be wise of himself above that he ought to be wise; but to be wise unto sobriety. [Rom. 12, 3] Lest perchance excessive heat might destroy those, of whom ‘snow waters,’ i. e. unbelief, or the fruits of deadened actions, held possession in the way to die. And because it is very difficult for him who accounts himself wise to bring down his mind to humility and believe those that preach right things, and reject the view of his own wrong thought, it is rightly said;
Ver. 19. And his sin even to hell.
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82. For sin is ‘brought even to hell,’ which before the end of the present life is not by chastening reformed unto repentance. Of which same sin it is said by John, There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it. For ‘a sin unto death’ is a sin even until death in this way, that the pardon of that sin is sought in vain which is not corrected here. Concerning which same it is yet further subjoined;
Ver. 20. Let mercy forget him.
Almighty God’s mercy is said to ‘forget him,’ who has forgotten Almighty God’s justice, in that whoever does not fear Him now as just, can never find him merciful afterward. Which same sentence is not only held out against him, who abandons the preachings of true faith, but against him likewise, who being in the right faith lives a carnal life, in that the vengeance of eternal condemnation is not got quit of, whether sin lie in faith or practice. For though the kind of condemnation be unequal, yet guilt which is not wiped away by repentance, there is no means supplied for the absolving thereof. It goes on;
The worm is his sweetness.
[lxix]
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83. Whoever desires to make his way prosperous in this world, to surpass the rest of the world, to swell high with substance and honours, to this man no doubt worldly business is a delight, and repose a labour. For he is very much tired if the business of the world be lacking wherewith to be tired. Now because it belongs to the nature of worms to be put in motion unceasingly every moment, restlessness of thoughts is not unjustly denoted by the name of ‘worms. ’ And so ‘the worm is the sweetness’ of the wicked soul, in that he is fed to his satisfaction from the same source whence he is unceasingly agitated in restlessness. Moreover it may be that by the title of the ‘worm’ the flesh may be more plainly denoted. Hence it is said further on, How much less man that is a worm? or the son of man which is a worm? [c. 17, 14. and 25, 6] And so of everyone that is full of lust and devoted to the pleasures of the flesh, how great is the blindness is shewn, when it is said, The worm, is his sweetness. For what is our flesh but ‘rottenness’ and ‘the worm? ’ And whosoever pants with carnal desires, what else does he but love ‘the worm? ’ For what the substance of the flesh is, our graves bear witness. What parent, what faithful friend can bear to touch the flesh of one however beloved fraught with worms? And so when the flesh is lusted after, let it be considered what it is when lifeless, and it is understood what it is that is loved. For nothing has so much efficacy to subdue the appetite of carnal desire, as for every one to consider, what that which he loves alive will be when dead. For when we consider the corruption of the flesh, we see in a moment, that when the flesh is unlawfully lusted after, corruption is desired. Therefore it is well said of the mind of the lustful man, the worm is his sweetness, in that he who is on fire with the desire of carnal corruption, pants after the stink of rottenness.
All this, as I remember that I promised in the beginning of this third part, I have run over in brief, that the things which follow after in this work, as they are involved in great obscurity, may with God’s aid be more fully gone into.
THE FOURTH PART. BOOK XVII.
What remains of the twenty-fourth chapter beginning from the middle of verse 20, together with chapters twenty-five and twenty-six entire, he sets forth chiefly in a moral sense.
[i] [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION]
As often as in the history of the holy man we betake ourselves in a new book to unravel the mystery of the typical explanation, it must be either from that man’s name or course of suffering that we mainly draw out the mystical interpretation, so that after the manner of dwelling houses, whilst we set forth a superscription of the title on the very front of the door post, whereas it is known whose house it is, one may enter with greater security. Now I remember that I have often said that blessed Job, both by his course of suffering and his name, marked out the sufferings of our Redeemer, and of His Body, i. e. Holy Church. For ‘Job’ is by interpretation ‘Grieving. ’ And who else is represented in this grieving one saving He, concerning Whom it is written, Surely He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows. [Is. 53, 4] Concerning Whom again it is written, And with His bruise we are healed? [ib. 5] But his friends bear the likeness of heretics, who, as we have often
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said already, while they set themselves to defend, only offend God. Thus let the holy man by words and wounds so tell things of his own as at the same time to set forth ours also, and most often, by the spirit of prophecy, relate things to come, surmount things present, yet sometimes so tell of those present as to be silent touching those future, The keeping then of this exercise of discernment being understood in accordance with the altering of his voice, let our understanding likewise turn about, that it may agree the more truly with his ideas in proportion as it also shifts itself with his accents. Thus by the preceding words the holy man, in sentences eloquently formed by the art of wisdom, set forth the offences of the bad man of whatever kind, and represented how damnable his conduct was, of whose punishment he directly adds, saying,
Let him not be in remembrance; let him be crushed like an unfruitful stump.
[ii] [MORAL INTERPRETATION]
2. For he is not brought back into the ‘remembrance’ of his Creator, whosoever to the very end of his life is in subjection to evil habits. Since if the recollection of the regard from Above did make itself felt on such an one, assuredly it would recall him from his wickedness. For his deserts require that he should be utterly blotted out from his Maker’s remembrance. But it is to be borne in mind that God can never strictly be said to ‘remember;’ for One Who cannot forget, in what way is it possible for Him to remember? But whereas it is our way that those whom we remember we embrace, but those whom we forget we part far from, after the usage of man God is both said to ‘remember,’ when He bestows gifts, and to forget, when He forsakes one in guilt. But because He weighs all things, views all without any alternating of intermission, He both remembers the good, whom still He never forgets, and no wise remembers the bad, whom nevertheless in judgment He does ever behold. For He as it were returns to the recollection of the good, which same nevertheless He never quitted, and as it were He never regards the bad, whose deeds howsoever He has an eye on, but reserves for the last scene the judgment of condemnation thereupon. For hence it is written, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. [Prov. 15, 3] Hence it is said by the Psalmist, The face of the Lord is upon them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. [Ps. 34, 16] Therefore the persons for Him to punish He does regard, but those very persons before He did not see, in that He ‘knows them not. ’ For He shall say to some at the end, I know You not whence ye are; depart from me, ye that work iniquity. [Luke 13, 27] Thus, in a wonderful way, He both beholds and forgets the life of bad men, in that those whom by severity of sentence He judges, as regards the remembrance of mercy He is ignorant of.
3. And these same, because they do not come into His remembrance, like an unfruitful slump are broken to pieces by His judgment. For the earth supported them with a temporal outfitting, the shower of preaching poured down on them from above. But because their life never put forth the fruit of good works, the husbandman in anger cut it clean away, that according to the sentence of Truth it might not cumber the space, which another may occupy for fruit. Of which same ‘unfruitful stump’ it is said by John, And now also the axe is laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down, and cast into the fire. [Matt. 3, 10. Luke 3, 9] But in this place, in order that the eternal punishments of the lost sinner may be denoted, the tree is not said to be cut away, but to be broken to pieces, in that the death indeed of the flesh cuts off the reprobate, but the punishment ensuing breaks them in pieces. For here it is as it were cut down, when he is severed from the present life. But in hell it is broken in pieces, when he is tortured with everlasting damnation. But the holy man, as he set forth the strict punishment of
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the froward one, at once falls back to the sin, that by the immensity of the unjustness he may effectually teach that that excessive damnation of him was not unjust. It goes on;
Ver. 21. For he fed the barren and her that beareth not, and to the widow he did not do good.
[iii]
4. Who is it in this place that is denominated ‘barren’ saving the flesh, which while it goes after things present alone is not able to engender good thoughts? and who is styled ‘a widow’ but the soul, which same because the Maker was minded to unite to Himself, He came to the marriage chamber of the carnal womb, as the Psalmist testifies, who saith, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber? [Ps. 19, 5] And she is rightly called ‘a widow,’ in that her Husband underwent death in her behalf, and now in the retreats of heaven hidden from her eyes as in the tract of another region He lives. Thus the wicked man ‘feeds the barren’ and scorns to ‘do good to the widow,’ because in obeying the desires of the flesh, he makes little of the care of the soul and its life. For with the whole bent and with every effort he considers how without necessities of any kind the flesh which is to die may be made to hold on, and he is indifferent to concern himself for the life of the soul, which either in death or in bliss most surely lives for evermore. Now it is rightly done that when it is said, He fed the barren, it is directly added, and her that beareth not. For certain women we know from sacred history were found ‘barren,’ but yet in the end of their days brought forth. But the flesh is not only called barren, but also she that beareth not, in that of her own wit not even at the last is she capable of begetting good thoughts. For from her own vigour she is now already going off, and yet things transitory she still ceases not to long for, and being now spent of original force, is well nigh thrown off by that very world which she loves, yet by mischievous endeavour still strives to acquire what is temporal. She now no longer has the ability to do wicked things, yet does not a whit cease to mind in thought even the things which she does not in act. Rightly therefore is she called not only ‘barren,’ but also ‘one that beareth not,’ in that of her own wit, as we said, for the offspring of good thought, not even when she has become powerless does she conceive.
5. Which same may likewise be understood of heretical persons preaching. For every single preacher of error, while he teaches a people set without the pale of the Church’s unity, is surely ‘feeding the barren, and her that cannot bear,’ seeing that he is bestowing the serviceableness of his labour upon her, who never makes any return of spiritual fruits. ‘Neither does he do good to the widow,’ forasmuch as for that Holy Church Universal, whose Husband suffered the adverse treatment of death, he scorns to live to and to serve. For to ‘do good to the widow’ is to take much pains in the consoling of her, who by the love of her dead Husband is crushed to the ground. And hence by the voice of the Psalmist this same widow, i. e. Holy Church, makes complaint, saying, I looked for comforters, but I found none. Since then only does she ‘find a comforter,’ when from that death which her husband underwent, she beholds many within herself arise to life. Now very often the preacher of error is allied with the rich of this world, who for this reason, that they strain over earthly employments, are too blind to detect the crafty tricks of the things delivered, and whereas they go about to be powerful without, they are taken without labour by the noose of froward preaching. Hence too it is added;
Ver. 22. He took away the mighty in his might.
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6. Since in the might of his wickedness the mighty he severally takes away, whilst by the craftiness of his error he carries off the great ones of this world. In opposition to whom it is said by Paul, God hast chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. [1 Cor. 1, 27] Now the ‘might’ of the corrupt preacher is the high-flown science of his speaking, puffed up with which he despises all the rest of the world, and in contempt of all men, as being preeminently proficient in himself, he swells big. Who whilst thinking what is great of himself, and not knowing what is true of God, is parted far from knowledge of the faith, and yet endeavours to make himself appear a preacher thereof. Whence it is further added;
And when he standeth, he will not believe his like.
[v]
7. Every evil preacher ‘standeth’ in this world, so long as he lives in an earthly body. But he refuses to ‘believe his life,’ because he is too proud to open his eyes to what is true relating to God. For he would ‘believe his life,’ if he had right notions concerning the Substance of his Creator. These things, then, we were describing above as spoken of every bad man, but we suddenly made the meaning turn to the preacher of error. Whence it is to be noted, that we are so drawn on to the special case as not yet in any wise to be quite taken off from the general. For every bad man, even if he seem to maintain the faith in the bosom of the Church Universal, ‘standeth and believeth not his life,’ because they are right things indeed which by faith he understands of his Creator, yet the works of faith he cares not to maintain; and he is convicted of unbelief, in that, even from that which he sets forth as his creed, by his way of living he is condemned. For hence it is said by John, He that saith he knoweth God, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar.
Ver. 3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
[xlv]
57. Whom do we understand by the fatherless in this place, but the Elect of God, who are set in tenderness of mind, are nourished with the efficacious grace of faith, and do not yet see the face of their Father, Who has already died in their behalf. And there are very many in the Church, who see certain persons aiming at the things of heaven, having all earthly things in contempt, and though they themselves are toiling with all their strength in this world’s labours, yet to those whom they see panting after heavenly things, from the goods which they possess in this world, they bring this life’s aid and support. And though they cannot themselves follow a spiritual life, yet to those reaching forth to the things above they gladly yield means of support. For an ass is used to bear the burthens of men. He then is as it were a kind of ass of the Elect, who whilst yielding himself to earthly courses, carries loads for the uses of men. And often when Heretics turn aside any such person from the bosom of Holy Church, they are as it were driving off the ass of the fatherless, in that when they force him into their own misbelief, they drive him away from tendance on the good.
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58. But who is to be understood by the ‘widow’ saving Holy Church, who is bereft in the mean seas out of the sight of her slain Husband? Now ‘the ox’ of this ‘widow’ is every individual preacher. And it often chances that Heretics by their perverted tenets draw over even those very persons that appeared to be preachers. And so they ‘take the widow’s ox,’ when they carry off from Holy Church even a person preaching. And it is rightly added here for a pledge. For when a pledge is taken away, one thing indeed is held in our hands, but another yet further is sought for. And very often Heretics for this reason try to carry off those that preach, that they may draw to them their followers likewise. Thus ‘the widow’s ox is taken away for a pledge,’ when the same person that practised preaching is for this reason carried off, that others may follow after him. By whose downfall it is very often brought about, that they also go forth from the bosom of Holy Church, who, imbued with godly habits in her, seemed to be meek and humble. Hence it is added; Ver. 4. They have turned the needy out of the way; and have oppressed together the meek of the earth.
[xlvi]
59. For by the term of ‘poverty,’ humility is very often denoted, and very often they that appear gentle and humble, if they have not learnt to maintain discretion, fall by the examples of other men. But there are some Heretics, who eschew to mix themselves with the multitudes, and seek the retirement of a life of greater privacy, and these very often with the bane of their persuasion poison those that they meet with the more, in proportion as by the claims of their life they the more seem deserving of respect. Concerning whom it is subjoined;
Ver. 5. Others as wild asses in the desert go forth to their work.
[xlvii]
60. For the ‘onager’ is a wild ass; and in this place Heretics are rightly likened to ‘wild asses,’ in that being let loose in their pleasures, they are strange to the fetters of faith and reason. Hence it is written; A wild ass used to the wilderness that snuffeth up the wind of his love at his pleasure. For he is a wild ass used to the wilderness, who whilst he does not cultivate the ground of his heart with excellence of discipline, there dwells, where there is no fruit. Since he ‘snuffeth up the wind of his love at his pleasure,’ in that the things that from the desire of knowledge he conceives in his mind, are efficacious to puff up but not to edify. Against whom it is said, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. [1 Cor. 8, 1] Hence here too the words are suitably brought in; they go forth to their work. For it is not the work of God, but their own work that they do, whereas they follow not right doctrines, but their own desires. For it is written, He that walketh in a perfect way, he served me. [Ps. 101, 6] So he that does not walk in a perfect way, serves himself more than the Lord. It goes on;
Watching for a prey, they provide bread for their children.
[xlviii]
61. They ‘watch for a prey,’ who are always trying to seize the words of the righteous according to their own perception, that by them they may provide the bread of error for evil minded children. Of which some bread it is said in Solomon, in the words of the woman that bears the figure of heretical
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wickedness, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. [Prov. 9, 17] It goes on ;
Ver. 6. They reap a field not their own, and the vineyard of him whom they have oppressed by violence they gather.
[xlix]
62. By the name of a ‘field’ may be denoted the wide compass of Holy Scripture, and Heretics ‘reap’ it not being their own, in that they carry away from it sentences which are infinitely removed from their own notions; which same is furthermore described by the title of a ‘vineyard,’ in that through the sentences of truth it puts forth the clusters of the virtues; the owner of which vineyard, i. e. the originator of Holy Scripture, they as it were ‘oppress with violence,’ because they endeavour violently to twist and turn a sense of His upon [L. only reads ‘in the words’] the words of Holy Writ; as He saith, But thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast given Me labour in thine iniquity. [Is. 43, 24] And they ‘reap the vintage of that vineyard,’ in that they heap together therefrom clusters of sentences after the bent of their own understanding. It may be that by the title of a ‘field’ or of a ‘vineyard’ the Church Universal is set forth, which corrupt preachers ‘reap,’ and by oppressing in His members the Author of it, ‘gather the vintage,’ in that in bearing down upon the grace of our Creator, whilst they seize off therefrom persons who seemed to be righteous, what else is this but that they carry off ‘ears’ or ‘clusters’ of souls? Of whom it is yet further added;
Ver. 7. They send men away naked, taking away their garments, who have no covering in the cold.
[l]
63. As garments cover the body, so do good works the soul. Whence it is said to one, Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [Rev. 16, 15] So Heretics, when in the minds of any they destroy good works, manifestly take away the garments of clothing; and it is well said, who have no covering in the cold. For ‘covering’ has relation to righteousness, ‘cold’ to sin. And there are some that in some points commit sin, but in some points follow good works. He then that does wrong by one set of actions, and practises righteousness by another, what is this man but clothed in the cold? He is cold, and he is covered, in that in one part of practice he is made warm for righteousness, in another he is made cold for sin. But whenever Heretics take away their good works from such persons, they bring it to pass that they have not in the cold wherewith to clothe themselves. Therefore it is rightly said, They send men away naked, taking away their garments, who have no covering in the cold; that is, for the cold of sin by itself to kill those whom the warmth of a different practice in some degree covered. But it may be, that by the cold there is denoted desire, by the garment practice. And there are great numbers who are still agitated with wrong desires, but striving with themselves in the spirit, they fight against themselves by right works, and with good actions cover that which they perceive through temptation to spring against them of the wrong sort. And so these from the cause that they desire what is evil are cold, and by the act by which they practise what is good, they are clothed. But when Heretics by wrong statements do away with the works of a right faith, what else do they bring to pass but that those that still feel the cold of carnal desires should die without the clothing of good works? It proceeds; Ver. 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the stones for want of a garment.
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[li]
64. ‘The showers of the mountains’ are the words of the learned. Of which same ‘mountains’ it is delivered by the voice of Holy Church; I lifted up mine eyes unto the hills: and so those persons, ‘the showers of the mountains wet,’ in that the streams of the holy fathers fill them to the full. But as we have already said before, ‘the garment’ we take for the covering of good practice, with which a man is covered, that in the eyes of Almighty God the filthiness of his depravity should be clothed over. Whence it is written, Blessed are they whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. [Ps. 32, 1] Whom do we understand by the title of ‘the stones’ but the strong ones within the bounds of Holy Church, to whom it is declared by the first shepherd; Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. [1 Pet. 2, 5] And so those who on the grounds of their own practice have no reliance, fly to the protection of the holy Martyrs, at their sacred bodies set themselves to tears, and entreat, at their intercessions, to obtain pardon [a]. What then do these do by such self- abasement, but because they lack the covering of good practice ‘embrace the stones? ’ It goes on; Ver. 9. They have done violence in preying on the fatherless, and have spoiled the common folk of the poor [vulgus pauperum].
[lii]
65. When Heretics lack the good fortune of the present life, to weak minds they recommend by words of soft persuasion things that are wrong; but if the good fortune of the present time at all smiles upon them, they do not cease even by violence to draw those they are able. So that by the title of ‘fatherless’ they are denoted who are still delicate, being set within the pale of Holy Church, whose life their merciful Father by dying preserved, who are already brought forward to a good purpose of mind, but are not yet confirmed with any efficacy in good deeds. The Heretics, then, ‘do violence in preying on the fatherless,’ in that upon the weak minds of the faithful they make assault with violence in words and deeds. But ‘the common folk of the poor’ are the uninstructed multitude, which, if it had the riches of true knowledge, would never part with the covering of its faith. For genuine teachers are like a kind of senators within the bounds of Holy Church, who, while they multiply knowledge in the heart, abound in the true riches in themselves. But Heretics ‘spoil the common sort of the poor,’ in that whilst the learned they cannot, all the unlearned by their pestilent preaching they strip naked of the covering of the faith. It goes on;
Ver. 10. From the naked, and those going without clothing and a hungered, they have taken away the ears of corn.
[liii]
66. What he calls naked he repeats in the words without clothing, but it is one thing to be naked and another thing to go naked. Thus every person that does neither what is good nor what is bad is naked and idle; but he that does what is evil ‘goes naked,’ in that without the covering of good practice he is going by the road of wickedness. But there are some who, as knowing the evil of their wickedness, are in haste to be filled with the bread of righteousness, and hunger to receive the sayings of Holy Scripture; and these, as often as they turn over in thought the sentences of the Fathers for the improvement of the mind, as it were from a good crop they carry ears of corn. And so ‘from the naked and those going without clothing and a hungered, Heretics take away ears of corn;’ in that whether any persons be idle and never exercise themselves in any thing good, or
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whether they are going by the way of shamelessness without the covering of good practice, even if they at any time have now the desire to return to repentance, and long for the food of the word, from those same being a hungered they take away the ears of corn, because in the minds of those persons by mischievous persuasions they destroy the sentences of the Fathers. Nor do we improperly say that the ears of corn signify the sentences of the Fathers, in that often whilst they are delivered in forms of figurative diction, we remove the covering of the letter from them like the chaff of corn, that we may be regaled with the marrow of the Spirit. It goes on;
Ver. 11. They rest at mid-day amid the heaps of those that thirst with the winepresses being trodden.
[liv]
67. All those that persecute Holy Church, what else do they but ‘tread the winepress? ’ Which is allowed to be by the Divine appointment, that the clusters of souls may flow out into spiritual wine, and being divested of the corruptible flesh run into the heavenly realms as into a receptacle. For whilst the unrighteous bear down the righteous, they as it were put clusters of the grape beneath their feet. And the clusters being squeezed run over for the fulness of the heavenly feast, which were before as if hanging in the freedom of this air. Thus David the Prophet, regarding the chastening of Holy Church [b], writes the Psalm ‘for the winepresses. ’ Now all that bear hard upon the life of the faithful, tread and thirst, in that by doing things that are cruel they are rendered the more savage; being blinded by just deserts of their ungodliness, they go about to do things more grievous the more they have already done grievous things. But Heretics, when they have not themselves the power of persecuting, stir up the men of this world that have power, and incline their minds for the exercising persecution, and inflame them with what persuasions they are able. And when they see these pursuing cruel measures against the lives of the Catholics, they as it were rest in the very fervour of the sun. Therefore it is well said now, They rest at mid-day amidst the heaps of those that thirst with the winepresses being trodden, in that they join the multitude of those whom they see already employed in hard measures and still thirsting after harder ones. And whilst the fervour of these satisfies their desires, they rest in the deeds of such as in the mid-day. It goes on ;
Ver. 12. They have caused men to groan out of the cities. [lv]
68. Whereas cities (civitates) are so called from the people living together, (conviventes,) by the designation of ‘cities’ the churches of the true faith are not unfitly represented, which being settled in the different parts of the world constitute one Catholic Church, in which all the faithful thinking what is right concerning God live together in harmony. For this very harmony of people living together the Lord even by the distinguishing of places set forth in the Gospel, when being about to satisfy the people with five loaves, He bade them lie down by fifties or hundreds in ranks, so that the crowd of the faithful might take its food at once separate in places, and united in ways. For the rest of the jubilee is contained in a mystery of the number fifty, and fifty is carried twice to be brought to a hundred. Therefore because there is first rest from bad practice, that the soul may afterwards rest more perfectly in the thoughts, some lie down by fifties and some by hundreds, since there are some that already enjoy the rest of practice from evil deeds, and there are some that already enjoy the rest of the soul from evil thoughts. Wherefore since Heretics often, attaching
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themselves to the powerful evil-doers of this world, bear down upon the united life and harmony of the good, it is rightly said in this place, They have caused men to groan from the cities. Whom blessed Job rightly describes as ‘men,’ in that Heretics rather go about to put an end to those, who with perfect steps run in the way of God not effeminately and loosely but manfully; who when they see the wound of misbelieve inflicted in the mind of the faithful little ones, always fall back to crying out and groaning. And hence it is rightly said,
And the soul of the wounded crieth, and God suffereth him not to go unavenged.
[lvi]
69. For the soul of the righteous is ‘wounded,’ when the faith of the weak is unsettled, unto whom this identical thing ‘to cry’ is to be now consumed for the downfall of another. But God does not suffer him to go unavenged, in that though by just appointment he suffers an unjust thing to be done, yet He does not let that unjust thing go unavenged which He has justly permitted to be done, seeing that at once by the injustice of the sons of perdition He smites certain sins of the Elect, which He sees to be in them, and yet by Eternal Justice does not neglect to smite the injustice of those smiters. It goes on,
Ver. 13. They are rebellions against the light.
[lvii] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
70. Very often wicked people at once know the right things that they ought to follow, and yet neglect to follow what they know; and so they are ‘rebellious against the light,’ in that following their desires, they contemn the good that they know. They then that do wrong not from ignorance, but pride, present the shield of their exaltation against the darts of truth, that they may not be stricken in heart to their good. By which same pride of theirs it is brought to pass, that whereas they will not do the things that they know, neither do they now know the good they should do, but that their own blindness should utterly exclude them from the light of truth. And hence it is fitly subjoined,
They know not the ways thereof, nor have returned by the paths thereof.
[lviii]
71. For they that are first rebels knowing it, are afterwards blinded so as not to know; as it is said of certain, Because that when they knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. [Rom 1, 21] Of whom it is added a little while afterwards, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. [v. 28] For because they would not glorify Him Whom they knew, being given over to a reprobate sense, they were left to this fate, that they should not any longer know how to estimate the evil things they did. And it is well said, They know not the ways thereof, neither have returned by the paths thereof. For a ‘path’ is narrower than a ‘way. ’ Now those that care not to do the plainer good works, never attain to the understanding of the more refined. But Almighty God waited that they might go ‘by the paths thereof. ’ And would that they had been minded even to have ‘returned’ by them, that the paths of life which they would not keep by innocency they might at least keep by repentance. Wherein of what great mercifulness are the bowels of God is shewn, in that those whom He sees departing from Him, He seeks that they may return. Hence after the sins; of those doing wrong having been enumerated, He calls back the
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Synagogue by the voice of Prophecy, saying; Therefore at least from this time cry unto Me, My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth. [Jer. 3, 4] It proceeds;
Ver. 14. The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
[lix] [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION]
72. Whereas the murderer in the killing of his neighbours is wont to come upon them chiefly in the silence of the night, why is it that he is said in this place to ‘rise with the light’ in order to ‘kill the poor and needy,’ whilst ‘in the night’ he is described ‘to be as a thief? ’ Now forasmuch as the letter in the bare words alone is not consistent with itself, we are called back for the investigating the hidden meanings of the Spirit. In Holy Scripture the ‘morning’ is sometimes used to be put for the coming of the Lord’s Incarnation, sometimes for the coming of the henceforth dreadful and searching Judge, sometimes for the prosperity of the present life. Thus the coming of the Lord’s Incarnation proved a ‘morning,’ as the Prophet saith, The morning cometh, and also the night; [Is. 21, 12] in that both the beginnings of the new light shone forth in the appearing of our Redeemer, and yet the shades of their misbelief were not cleared off from the hearts of the persecutors. Again, by the ‘morning’ the coming of the Judge is denoted. Whence it is said by the Psalmist, Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land. [Ps. 101, 8] As also when personating the Elect, he says, In the morning will I stand in Thy presence, and will look up. [Ps. 5, 3] Again, by the ‘morning’ this
life’s prosperity is represented. as where it is said by Solomon, Woe to thee, O land, when thy King is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning. [Ecc. 10, 16] For whereas the morning is the first part of the day and the evening the last, we ought not ever to be regaled by this life’s prosperity which goes first, but by those things which at the end of the day, that is at the termination of the world, follow after. Thus those ‘eat in the morning,’ who by this world’s successes are lifted up, and whilst they passionately interest themselves with present things, pay no heed to the things of the future. For whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. [1 John 3, 15] So the ‘murderer rises up with the earliest dawn,’ in that every wicked man is set up in the glory of the present life, and bears down the life of those, who whilst they thirst after the glory to follow, as it were anxiously look out to be filled in the evening. For the bad man in this world whilst seizing on the dignity of transitory power spreads himself out the more cruelly for the enacting of what is evil, in proportion as there is no man he loves in the bowels of charity. For as often as in the thoughts of his heart he is maddened against the good, so often does he kill the life of the innocent.
73. And if, God ordaining it, he suddenly lose the glory of the power he has gotten, he changes his place but not his disposition, for he directly falls away to that, which is subjoined, And in the night is as a thief. For in the night of his tribulation and sunkenness, though he has no power to put forth the hand of cruelty, yet to those whom he sees to be empowered, he recommends counsels of wickedness, and goes about hither and thither, and prompts whatever things he is able toward the injuring of the good. And he is rightly called ‘as a thief,’ because in all those very evil counsels of his he dreads lest he should be caught out. He then that towards the poor and needy is a murderer in the morning, in the night like a thief is hidden out of sight, in that every bad man, who in this life’s prosperity by bearing down kills the life of the humble, being in adversity and abasement, by evil counsels does mischief in a concealed way, and what he is unable to accomplish by himself, that he puts in practice by attaching himself to the powerful ones of this world. It goes on;
Ver. 15. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me.
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[lx]
74. There is nothing to hinder but that this may be understood even after the latter, seeing that he who desires to commit adultery, seeks out the dark. But whereas it is a sentence uttered against Heretics, it is meet that this thing which is declared be understood in a mystical sense. Thus Paul says, For we are not as many that adulterate [Vulg. adulterantes] the word of God. [2 Cor. 2, 17] For the adulterer seeks not offspring, but pleasure in the act of carnal copulation. And every bad man, and that is also a slave to vain-glory, is rightly said to ‘adulterate’ the word of God, because by the sacred word of Revelation he desires not to beget children to God, but to exhibit his own knowledge. For he that is drawn to speak by lust of glory, bestows his pains rather on gratification than the production of children. And it is rightly added there, No eye shall see me; because the adultery which is committed in the interior is very hard indeed that it should be penetrated by the eye of man. Which same the froward soul commits with the more assurance, in proportion as it does not fear being seen by men, whom it may blush at. Moreover it is to be known that as he that commits adultery joins to himself unlawfully the flesh of another man’s wife, so all heretics, while they carry off the faithful soul into their own error, are as it were bearing off another’s wife, in this way; because the soul which is spiritually wedded to God and joined to Him as if in a kind of bridechamber of love, when by wicked persuasions it is led on into corruptness of doctrine, is as it were like the wife of another defiled by the corrupter.
And it is well added;
And disguiseth his face.
[lxi]
75. It is for this reason that the adulterer ‘disguises his face;’ that he may not be known. Now every man who either in thinking or in acting lives badly, ‘disguises his face,’ because by corruptness in doctrine or in practice he is tending to this, that he should not be able to be recognised in the Judgment by Almighty God. Hence He shall say to certain persons at the end, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. [Matt. 7, 23] And what is the ‘face’ of the human heart, save the likeness of God? which same face the bad man ‘disguiseth,’ that he may not be able to be known, when his life discomposes either by bad deeds, or by the error of misbelief. But every such person when he sees the righteous upheld by this world’s good fortune, never ventures to prompt what is wrong to them, but if any storm of adversity falls upon those persons, he directly breaks out into words of pestilent persuasion. And hence it is added;
Ver. 16. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the day time; they know not the light.
[lxii]
76. For what is there here denoted by the title of ‘houses’ but consciences, wherein we dwell, when we do any thing, busying ourselves with it? Whence it is said to one on being healed, Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee [Luke 8, 39]; i. e. henceforth, secure from the evil habit of sin, turn back to thy conscience, and be thou roused into the voice of preaching. ’ And so when in the present world the righteous are brightened by the day of prosperity, to those persons the leaders of false tenets are afraid to recommend what is wrong. But they search out counsels, with all care they await the abasement of their prosperity, that in the darkness of adversity they may by their persuading dig through the minds of those, to whom whilst
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living prosperously they never presumed to speak wrong things, whom as soon as they see under adversity they rise up and maintain, that no otherwise saving in desert of their sins those suffer such things; because loving the glory of the present life alone, the stroke they take for condemnation. So ‘in the dark they dig through houses,’ in that the minds of the good by their mere misfortune alone to corrupt is their endeavour. Now it is well said, which they had marked in the day time, in that when they saw the righteous to have been made to shine with the light of prosperity, because they were prevented speaking, they were only at liberty for concocting malevolent designs against them. But whether it be heretics or any bad persons, they rejoice when they see the righteous in a depressed condition, whereas when they see those break forth to the height of power for ruling, they are confounded, they are filled with fears, they are consumed with misery. And hence it is added,
Ver. 17. If the morning suddenly appear, it is to them even as the shadow of death.
[lxiii]
77. For the wicked look for the afflicting of the righteous, and long to see them in distress, and ‘in the dark they dig through houses,’ when the heart of the innocent but weak ones they corrupt in the season of their casting down by the worst mode of discourse. But it commonly happens that when they see the good in a sunken state, on a sudden, by the secret appointment of God, any righteous one that seemed to be borne down is upheld by some share of the world’s power, and the prosperity of the present life smiles on him, whom the darkness of adversity before overlaid. Which same prosperity of that man when the wicked behold, as it has been said, they are troubled. For directly they turn back to their own hearts, they bring back before their minds’ eye whatever they remember themselves to have done amiss, they fear for every particular sinful habit to be avenged in them, and by the same means by which he that receives power is made to shine the bad man who dreads to be corrected is darkened in sorrow. And so it is well said, If the morning suddenly appear, they think it is the shadow of death. For ‘the morning’ is the mind of the righteous man, which quitting the darkness of its sin, now breaks out unto the light of eternity, as it is said of Holy Church likewise; Who is she that looketh forth as the morning? [Cant. 6, 10] Therefore in the same measure that every righteous person shining with the light of righteousness is in the present life reared to a height with honours, in the same measure before the eyes of the wicked comes the ‘darkness of death,’ in that they who remember that they have done bad things are in fear of being corrected. For they desire always to have a loose given them in their iniquities, to live free from correction, and from sin to have delight; whose fatal mirth is itself appropriately described in the words that are directly introduced,
And they walk so in darkness, as in the light.
[lxiv]
78. For with a froward mind they delight in deeds of wickedness, through their sin they are day by day being dragged to punishment, and are full of assurance. Hence it is said by Solomon, And there are wicked men that are as secure as if they had the deeds of the righteous. Concerning whom it is written again, Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the most wicked doings. Thus ‘they walk in darkness as in the light,’ in that they so delight in the night of sin as if the light of righteousness spread around them. Or otherwise, whereas darkness not inappropriately represents the present life, wherein the consciences of other men are not seen, whilst our light is the eternal
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land, in which when we look at faces, our hearts within us we mutually see; and because the wicked so love the present life, and embrace these times of exile, as if they already reigned in their native country, it is rightly said, They walk in darkness as in the light, in that they are as full of gladness in the present state of blindness, as if they already enjoyed the light of the eternal country. It goes on; He is light above the face of the water.
[lxv]
79. From the plural number he returns to the singular because most frequently one person begins what is bad, and numbers by imitating him follow after, but the fault is primarily his, who to the bad men following after furnished examples of wickedness; and hence the sentence frequently returns to him who was the leader in sin. Now the surface of water is carried hither and thither by the breath of the air, and not being steadied with any fixedness is put in motion every where. And so the mind of the wicked man is ‘lighter than the surface of water,’ in that every breath of temptation that touches it, draws it on without any retarding of resistance. For if we imagine the unstable heart of any bad man, what do we discover but a surface of water set in the wind? For that man one while the breath of anger drives on, now the breath of pride, now the breath of lust, now the breath of envy, now the breath of falsehood forces along. And so he is ‘light above the surface of the water,’ whom every wind of error when it comes drives before it. Whence too it is well said by the Psalmist, O my God, make them like a wheel, as the stubble before the wind. For the wicked are ‘made like a wheel,’ in that being sent into the round of labour, whilst the things that are before they neglect, and those which ought to be given up they follow, in the hind parts they are lifted up, and in the fore parts they fall. And they are likewise rightly compared to ‘stubble before the face of the wind,’ in that, when the breath of temptation comes upon them, having no principle of gravity to rest upon, they are only lifted up to be dashed to the ground, and they often account themselves of some merit in proportion as the blast of error bears them on high. It goes on;
Let their portion be cursed in the earth; and let him not walk by the way of the vineyards.
[lxvi] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
80. Whoever in the present life does what is right and meets with misfortunes, is seen indeed to travail in adversity, but for the blessing of the everlasting inheritance he is finished complete; but whoever does what is bad and yet meets with good fortune, and does not even by the bountifulness of blessings withhold himself from wicked deeds, is seen indeed to prosper, but is tied fast by the bond of everlasting cursing. Hence it is rightly said now, Let their portion be cursed in the earth, in that though he is blessed for a time, yet he is held fast in the bond of cursing. Concerning whom too it is fitly added, He walketh not by the way of the vineyards. For ‘the way of the vineyards,’ is the rightness of the Churches. Wherein nothing hinders but that we understand either the heretic or every carnal man, because ‘the way of the vineyards,’ i. e. the rightness of the Churches, is parted with, when either the right faith or the right rule of just living is not held. For he ‘walks by the way of the Vineyards,’ who taking to heart the preaching of the Holy Catholic Church, deviates neither from the right line of faith nor of good deeds. Since to ‘walk in the way of the vineyards’ is to behold the Fathers of Holy Church as hanging clusters of the vine, whose words whilst he heeds in the toils of the journey, he is intoxicated with the love of Eternity. It goes on;
Ver. 19. Let him pass to excessive heat from the snow waters.
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[lxvii]
81. Iniquity is on this account likened to cold, because the mind that sins it binds up with insensibility. Hence it is written; As a fountain has made her waters cold, so she has made her wickedness cold. Contrariwise charity is ‘heat,’ in this respect that it fires the soul it fills. Of which ‘heat’ is written, Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And there are some who while they shun the cold or their wickednesses come to true faith or to the wearing of sanctity, but because they presume on their own faculties for perceiving more than should be, oftentimes in the faith which they receive they are minded to pry curiously into the things that they do not take in, so as to be held fast in God rather by reason than by faith. But because the mind of man has not power to dive into the mysteries of God; all that they cannot get to the bottom of by reason, they care not to believe, and by overmuch investigation they fall into error. So these, when they did not as yet believe, or were still busied for works of wickedness, were ‘snow waters;’ but when abandoning carnal deeds, in the faith to which they have been brought they aim to dive deeper than they have capacity for, they are hot beyond what they ought to be. And so touching this wicked kind of person the sentence of one prophesying only and not wishing the thing is rightly delivered. Let him pass in overmuch heat from the snow waters. As if it were said in plain speech; ‘he that is not restrained in humility under the fetters of self-discipline, from his unbelief, or from the coldness of bad practice, through immoderate wisdom falls into error. Whence too the great Preacher getting quit of this excessive heat of too refined wisdom from the hearts of his disciples saith well, Not to be wise of himself above that he ought to be wise; but to be wise unto sobriety. [Rom. 12, 3] Lest perchance excessive heat might destroy those, of whom ‘snow waters,’ i. e. unbelief, or the fruits of deadened actions, held possession in the way to die. And because it is very difficult for him who accounts himself wise to bring down his mind to humility and believe those that preach right things, and reject the view of his own wrong thought, it is rightly said;
Ver. 19. And his sin even to hell.
[lxviii]
82. For sin is ‘brought even to hell,’ which before the end of the present life is not by chastening reformed unto repentance. Of which same sin it is said by John, There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it. For ‘a sin unto death’ is a sin even until death in this way, that the pardon of that sin is sought in vain which is not corrected here. Concerning which same it is yet further subjoined;
Ver. 20. Let mercy forget him.
Almighty God’s mercy is said to ‘forget him,’ who has forgotten Almighty God’s justice, in that whoever does not fear Him now as just, can never find him merciful afterward. Which same sentence is not only held out against him, who abandons the preachings of true faith, but against him likewise, who being in the right faith lives a carnal life, in that the vengeance of eternal condemnation is not got quit of, whether sin lie in faith or practice. For though the kind of condemnation be unequal, yet guilt which is not wiped away by repentance, there is no means supplied for the absolving thereof. It goes on;
The worm is his sweetness.
[lxix]
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83. Whoever desires to make his way prosperous in this world, to surpass the rest of the world, to swell high with substance and honours, to this man no doubt worldly business is a delight, and repose a labour. For he is very much tired if the business of the world be lacking wherewith to be tired. Now because it belongs to the nature of worms to be put in motion unceasingly every moment, restlessness of thoughts is not unjustly denoted by the name of ‘worms. ’ And so ‘the worm is the sweetness’ of the wicked soul, in that he is fed to his satisfaction from the same source whence he is unceasingly agitated in restlessness. Moreover it may be that by the title of the ‘worm’ the flesh may be more plainly denoted. Hence it is said further on, How much less man that is a worm? or the son of man which is a worm? [c. 17, 14. and 25, 6] And so of everyone that is full of lust and devoted to the pleasures of the flesh, how great is the blindness is shewn, when it is said, The worm, is his sweetness. For what is our flesh but ‘rottenness’ and ‘the worm? ’ And whosoever pants with carnal desires, what else does he but love ‘the worm? ’ For what the substance of the flesh is, our graves bear witness. What parent, what faithful friend can bear to touch the flesh of one however beloved fraught with worms? And so when the flesh is lusted after, let it be considered what it is when lifeless, and it is understood what it is that is loved. For nothing has so much efficacy to subdue the appetite of carnal desire, as for every one to consider, what that which he loves alive will be when dead. For when we consider the corruption of the flesh, we see in a moment, that when the flesh is unlawfully lusted after, corruption is desired. Therefore it is well said of the mind of the lustful man, the worm is his sweetness, in that he who is on fire with the desire of carnal corruption, pants after the stink of rottenness.
All this, as I remember that I promised in the beginning of this third part, I have run over in brief, that the things which follow after in this work, as they are involved in great obscurity, may with God’s aid be more fully gone into.
THE FOURTH PART. BOOK XVII.
What remains of the twenty-fourth chapter beginning from the middle of verse 20, together with chapters twenty-five and twenty-six entire, he sets forth chiefly in a moral sense.
[i] [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION]
As often as in the history of the holy man we betake ourselves in a new book to unravel the mystery of the typical explanation, it must be either from that man’s name or course of suffering that we mainly draw out the mystical interpretation, so that after the manner of dwelling houses, whilst we set forth a superscription of the title on the very front of the door post, whereas it is known whose house it is, one may enter with greater security. Now I remember that I have often said that blessed Job, both by his course of suffering and his name, marked out the sufferings of our Redeemer, and of His Body, i. e. Holy Church. For ‘Job’ is by interpretation ‘Grieving. ’ And who else is represented in this grieving one saving He, concerning Whom it is written, Surely He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows. [Is. 53, 4] Concerning Whom again it is written, And with His bruise we are healed? [ib. 5] But his friends bear the likeness of heretics, who, as we have often
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said already, while they set themselves to defend, only offend God. Thus let the holy man by words and wounds so tell things of his own as at the same time to set forth ours also, and most often, by the spirit of prophecy, relate things to come, surmount things present, yet sometimes so tell of those present as to be silent touching those future, The keeping then of this exercise of discernment being understood in accordance with the altering of his voice, let our understanding likewise turn about, that it may agree the more truly with his ideas in proportion as it also shifts itself with his accents. Thus by the preceding words the holy man, in sentences eloquently formed by the art of wisdom, set forth the offences of the bad man of whatever kind, and represented how damnable his conduct was, of whose punishment he directly adds, saying,
Let him not be in remembrance; let him be crushed like an unfruitful stump.
[ii] [MORAL INTERPRETATION]
2. For he is not brought back into the ‘remembrance’ of his Creator, whosoever to the very end of his life is in subjection to evil habits. Since if the recollection of the regard from Above did make itself felt on such an one, assuredly it would recall him from his wickedness. For his deserts require that he should be utterly blotted out from his Maker’s remembrance. But it is to be borne in mind that God can never strictly be said to ‘remember;’ for One Who cannot forget, in what way is it possible for Him to remember? But whereas it is our way that those whom we remember we embrace, but those whom we forget we part far from, after the usage of man God is both said to ‘remember,’ when He bestows gifts, and to forget, when He forsakes one in guilt. But because He weighs all things, views all without any alternating of intermission, He both remembers the good, whom still He never forgets, and no wise remembers the bad, whom nevertheless in judgment He does ever behold. For He as it were returns to the recollection of the good, which same nevertheless He never quitted, and as it were He never regards the bad, whose deeds howsoever He has an eye on, but reserves for the last scene the judgment of condemnation thereupon. For hence it is written, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. [Prov. 15, 3] Hence it is said by the Psalmist, The face of the Lord is upon them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. [Ps. 34, 16] Therefore the persons for Him to punish He does regard, but those very persons before He did not see, in that He ‘knows them not. ’ For He shall say to some at the end, I know You not whence ye are; depart from me, ye that work iniquity. [Luke 13, 27] Thus, in a wonderful way, He both beholds and forgets the life of bad men, in that those whom by severity of sentence He judges, as regards the remembrance of mercy He is ignorant of.
3. And these same, because they do not come into His remembrance, like an unfruitful slump are broken to pieces by His judgment. For the earth supported them with a temporal outfitting, the shower of preaching poured down on them from above. But because their life never put forth the fruit of good works, the husbandman in anger cut it clean away, that according to the sentence of Truth it might not cumber the space, which another may occupy for fruit. Of which same ‘unfruitful stump’ it is said by John, And now also the axe is laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down, and cast into the fire. [Matt. 3, 10. Luke 3, 9] But in this place, in order that the eternal punishments of the lost sinner may be denoted, the tree is not said to be cut away, but to be broken to pieces, in that the death indeed of the flesh cuts off the reprobate, but the punishment ensuing breaks them in pieces. For here it is as it were cut down, when he is severed from the present life. But in hell it is broken in pieces, when he is tortured with everlasting damnation. But the holy man, as he set forth the strict punishment of
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the froward one, at once falls back to the sin, that by the immensity of the unjustness he may effectually teach that that excessive damnation of him was not unjust. It goes on;
Ver. 21. For he fed the barren and her that beareth not, and to the widow he did not do good.
[iii]
4. Who is it in this place that is denominated ‘barren’ saving the flesh, which while it goes after things present alone is not able to engender good thoughts? and who is styled ‘a widow’ but the soul, which same because the Maker was minded to unite to Himself, He came to the marriage chamber of the carnal womb, as the Psalmist testifies, who saith, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber? [Ps. 19, 5] And she is rightly called ‘a widow,’ in that her Husband underwent death in her behalf, and now in the retreats of heaven hidden from her eyes as in the tract of another region He lives. Thus the wicked man ‘feeds the barren’ and scorns to ‘do good to the widow,’ because in obeying the desires of the flesh, he makes little of the care of the soul and its life. For with the whole bent and with every effort he considers how without necessities of any kind the flesh which is to die may be made to hold on, and he is indifferent to concern himself for the life of the soul, which either in death or in bliss most surely lives for evermore. Now it is rightly done that when it is said, He fed the barren, it is directly added, and her that beareth not. For certain women we know from sacred history were found ‘barren,’ but yet in the end of their days brought forth. But the flesh is not only called barren, but also she that beareth not, in that of her own wit not even at the last is she capable of begetting good thoughts. For from her own vigour she is now already going off, and yet things transitory she still ceases not to long for, and being now spent of original force, is well nigh thrown off by that very world which she loves, yet by mischievous endeavour still strives to acquire what is temporal. She now no longer has the ability to do wicked things, yet does not a whit cease to mind in thought even the things which she does not in act. Rightly therefore is she called not only ‘barren,’ but also ‘one that beareth not,’ in that of her own wit, as we said, for the offspring of good thought, not even when she has become powerless does she conceive.
5. Which same may likewise be understood of heretical persons preaching. For every single preacher of error, while he teaches a people set without the pale of the Church’s unity, is surely ‘feeding the barren, and her that cannot bear,’ seeing that he is bestowing the serviceableness of his labour upon her, who never makes any return of spiritual fruits. ‘Neither does he do good to the widow,’ forasmuch as for that Holy Church Universal, whose Husband suffered the adverse treatment of death, he scorns to live to and to serve. For to ‘do good to the widow’ is to take much pains in the consoling of her, who by the love of her dead Husband is crushed to the ground. And hence by the voice of the Psalmist this same widow, i. e. Holy Church, makes complaint, saying, I looked for comforters, but I found none. Since then only does she ‘find a comforter,’ when from that death which her husband underwent, she beholds many within herself arise to life. Now very often the preacher of error is allied with the rich of this world, who for this reason, that they strain over earthly employments, are too blind to detect the crafty tricks of the things delivered, and whereas they go about to be powerful without, they are taken without labour by the noose of froward preaching. Hence too it is added;
Ver. 22. He took away the mighty in his might.
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6. Since in the might of his wickedness the mighty he severally takes away, whilst by the craftiness of his error he carries off the great ones of this world. In opposition to whom it is said by Paul, God hast chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. [1 Cor. 1, 27] Now the ‘might’ of the corrupt preacher is the high-flown science of his speaking, puffed up with which he despises all the rest of the world, and in contempt of all men, as being preeminently proficient in himself, he swells big. Who whilst thinking what is great of himself, and not knowing what is true of God, is parted far from knowledge of the faith, and yet endeavours to make himself appear a preacher thereof. Whence it is further added;
And when he standeth, he will not believe his like.
[v]
7. Every evil preacher ‘standeth’ in this world, so long as he lives in an earthly body. But he refuses to ‘believe his life,’ because he is too proud to open his eyes to what is true relating to God. For he would ‘believe his life,’ if he had right notions concerning the Substance of his Creator. These things, then, we were describing above as spoken of every bad man, but we suddenly made the meaning turn to the preacher of error. Whence it is to be noted, that we are so drawn on to the special case as not yet in any wise to be quite taken off from the general. For every bad man, even if he seem to maintain the faith in the bosom of the Church Universal, ‘standeth and believeth not his life,’ because they are right things indeed which by faith he understands of his Creator, yet the works of faith he cares not to maintain; and he is convicted of unbelief, in that, even from that which he sets forth as his creed, by his way of living he is condemned. For hence it is said by John, He that saith he knoweth God, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar.
