63. As garments cover the body, so do good works the j, soul. Whence it is said to one, Blessed is lie that watcJtelh Rev. KJ, and keepeth his garments, lest lie walk naked, and they see ^^' his shame. 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 gar- ments, 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 thereis 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 r It proceeds; 264 Men lacking ri(jhleousness seek the aid of holy Martyrs. Job 24, Ver. 8. Thei/ are wet with the showers of the mountains, ., ' ' and embrace the stones for want of a qarment, 64. ' The showers of the mountains' are the words of the learned. Of which same * mountains' it is delivered by the Ps. 121, 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, ^^'^'^i^' Blessed are they whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Whom do we understand by the title of ' the stones' but the strong ones within the bounds of Holy Church, to 1 Pet.2, wtiom it is declared by the first shepherd; Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. 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 % What then do these do by such self-abase- ment, but because they lack the covering of good practice ' embrace the stones?' It goes on; Ver. 9. TJiey have done violence in 'preying on the father - ' ^i^i-gus Iq8s, and have spoiled the common folk of the poor\ ru?n. 65. When Heretics lack the good fortune of the present lii' life, to weak minds they recommend by words of soft per- suasion 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 i or ward to a good purpose of mind, but are not yet confirmed with any efficacy in good deeds. The Heretics, then, ' do violence in '^ He speaks as of an established of damnation. But St. Gregory always practice, and in fact it is found at a speaks of the remission of punishment as much earlier period. See St. Chrys. on a matter of degrees, and in Horn, in Ev.
the Statues, Horn. vi.§. 19, and note l.Tr. xxxii. 7. where he relates a vision of p. 134. The Church has never departed SS. Processus and Martinianus, he from the doctrine of St. Chrys. on 1 says they promised the woman who Cor. end of Hom. xlii. that no inter- offered them aims to do in the Day of cession can deliver one who is in a state Judgment ' tvhaf they could.* Heretics take the bread of trutlt from Imnyer'my souls. 265 preying on the fatherless,' in that upon the weak minds of Book XVI.
the faithful they make assault with violence in words and deeds. But ^ the common folk of the poor' are the un- instructed 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 7iaked, and those going without clothing and a hungered, they have taken away the ears of corn, Q^. What he calls naked he repeats in the words without liii. clothing, but it is one thing to he 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 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 \ 266 Heretics join those who tread the winepress of persecution.
Job 24, Ver. 11. They rest at mid-day amid the heaps of those that thirst with the winepresses being trodden.
Alleg. Ijy^ 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, re- garding the chastening of Holy Church^, 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 them- selves the power of persecuting, stir up the men of this world that have power, and incline their minds for the ex- ercising 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, m 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. TJiey have caused men to groan out of the cities. Iv. 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 repre- sented, which being settled in the diff'erent parts of the ^ Psalms viiijlxxxi, and Ixxxiv. bear from ' Gath' and signifies '■ of Gath.' the title, ' Pro torcularibus' in Viilg. The word for winepresses is 'Gittoth,' 'TtX^ vZv Xvivuv, Sept. Thewordinthe with which '■ Gittith' is probably con- Hebrew is Gittith, which is retained in nected. See also Calmet's Com. in the title of the E. A. V. it is derived Vet. Test, in Ps. viii.
They cause grief in the cities of God by hurthiy the weak. 2f)7 world constitute one Catholic Church, in which all the Book XVI.
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 canied 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 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 misbelief 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 woimded crieth, and God suffer eth him not to go unavenged.
69. For the soul of the righteous is * wounded,' when the Ivi. 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 docs not neglect to smite the injustice of those smiters. It goes on, Ver. 13. They are rebellious against the light.
208 Men refuse the Ihjht^ and tlien lose sight of it.
Job 24, 70. Very often wicked people at once know the right things that they ought to follow, and yet neglect to follow vii. 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, Iviii. 71. For they that are first rebels knowing it, are after- wards blinded so as not to know; as it is said of certain, Eom. 1, Because that when they knevj God they glorified Him not as Qod, neither were thankfid. Of whom it is added a little V. 28. while afterwards, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. 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 Syna- Jer.3,4.gogue by the voice of Prophecy, saying, Therefore at least from this time cry unto Me, My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth. It proceeds; The wicked viurderous in his day of power. 269 Ver. 14. The murderer rising with the light killeth the Book XVI.
poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
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 Incar- nation proved a ' morning,' as the Prophet saith, The morning is. 21, cometh, and also the night; 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 theVs.ioi, wicked of the land. As also when personating the Elect, ' he says, /// the morning will I stand in Thy presence, and Fs. 5,3. will look ftp. Again, by the ^ morning' this life's prosperity is represented; as where it is said by Solomon, Woe to thee, Ecc. lo, O land, when thy King is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning. 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 i John hateth his brother is a murderer. 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 270 Heretics adulteroush/ seek fame, not cJiildren for God.
Job 24, transitory power spreads himself out the more cruelly for the jyr' ' enacting of what is evil, in proportion as there is no man he loves in the bowels of charity. I^'or 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. Tt goes on; Ver. 15. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me. Ix. 74. There is nothing to hinder but that this may be under- stood 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 2 Cor. 2, Paul says. For we are not as many that adulterate^ the word • Vul^. of God. For the adulterer seeks not offspring, but pleasure ^ aduite- '^y^ 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 pro- duction of children. And it is rightly added there, No eye Him that so disyuiseth himself, God will not know. 271 shall see me; because the adultery which is committed in Book the interior is very hard indeed that it shouhl 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 him- self unlawfully the flesh of another man's wife, so all here- tics, 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 doc- trine, is as it were like the wife of another defiled by the corrupter. And it is well added; And disguiseth his face.
lb. It is for this reason that the adulterer ^ disguises his Ixi. 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, / never knew you; depart from Matt. 7 ^ Me, ye that work iniquity. 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 he 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 adver- sity 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.
76. For what is there here denoted by the title of * houses' Ixii. 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 howLnVeS, great things God hath done unto thee; i. e. henceforth, ^^* secure from the evil habit of sin, turn back to thy conscience, 272 TJiewickedchecked and alarmed hyfjood men's prosperity.
Job 24, and be Ihou roused into the voice of preaching.' And so 1 fi ^rzr—^ — when in the present world the rip^hteous are briprhtened 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 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 condemna- tion. 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. \1. If the morning suddenly appear, it is to them even as the shadow of death. Ixiii. 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 J The Kicked lore this dark state as if it tvere li(jht. 273 fear for every particular sinful habit to be avenj^ed in them, Book and by the same uijans by which he that receives power is