No More Learning

[vii]
8. What is the ‘place’ of the hypocrite, saving the heart of his flatterers? For there he rests, where he finds partialities towards him. Therefore ‘the eye that saw him shall see him no more,’ because being removed by death, he is hidden from his foolish lovers, who were wont to behold him, admiring him. ‘Neither shall his place any more behold him,’ because the tongues of his flatterers do not follow him with their partialities to the Judgment. Yet so long as he lives he does not cease to teach his followers likewise the things that he practises himself; and through the frowardness of
- 477 -
his erring way he begets others also in a likeness to that false pretension which he shews forth. Concerning whom it is fitly added in this place,
Ver. 10. His children shall be wasted with poverty.
[viii]
9. It is written, For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter [Wisd. 1, 4]; and it is declared by the Psalmist, The rich have lacked and been a hungred [Ps. 34, 10]. For if their want and hunger were spoken of outward starving, then surely they would be any thing but rich, who were in want of the bread of the body. But forasmuch as whilst they are increased without, they are rendered void within, they are described as rich and needy at one and the same time, in that they never entitle themselves to be filled with the bread of wisdom. And so the children of this hypocrite are ‘worn down with want,’ because they that are born in hypocrisy in mimicry of him, whilst they do not hold the substance of truth, are brought to nought in the penury of the heart.
And his hands shall repay him his own grief.
[ix]
10. What is denoted by ‘hands,’ saving works? Thus ‘his hands will repay him grief,’ because he will reap just damnation from his wicked course of life. Now it is well said, not ‘give,’ but ‘repay,’ in that his froward deeds shall pay him back eternal punishment like a kind of debt. But before he is brought to eternal punishment, let him add more fully the sort of character that he shews himself here. It goes on,
His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth, and shall sleep with him in the dust.
[x] [MORAL INTERPRETATION]
11. The origin of a bad beginning by preoccupying further multiplies the causes of sin. For when a man has begun to do evil, by custom he now grows to a worse height in that which he had begun. What then is the ‘youth’ of this hypocrite, but the beginning of wickedness, since in youth passion now begins to kindle? And the hypocrite then has youth, when he begins to long for and to embrace the passion for glory. Which same, whilst the soft salves of flatterers redouble it, they give strength to, and as it were turn it into bones. For what he begins badly, he is daily strengthening for the worse by custom. Therefore let it be said; His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth; in that the rigid habits of evil practices in him are taken from the sin of an ill beginning. Hence it is written in the Proverbs, The young man according to his own way, when he is old, will never depart therefrom. [Prov. 22, 6] Which same ‘bones’ truly ‘will sleep with him in the dust,’ for so long do evil practices endure in him, until they drag him to the dust of death. Since for his ‘bones,’ or evil habits, to ‘sleep with him in the dust’ is for these never to quit him even to the very dust, that is, never to cease from sin even until death. Therefore bad habits, which are once begun, keep hold of him, and daily become more hardened. And they ‘sleep with him in the dust,’ because they are never ended but with his life. But this may be taken in another sense also.
12. For the hypocrite occasionally has something in practice that is strong and vigorous, but whilst he makes believe to have many good points that he is without, he loses even these which he has. Whence it is well said now; His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth. For whereas in his levity
- 478 -
and fickleness he does many things like a child, even in strong ones which he may do he is enervated in sin. Which same ‘bones shall sleep with him in the dust,’ because as all that hypocrisy which he carries on is dust, so too whatever he has in him that is strong is robbed of all its solidity, so that by pretension to virtue he loses that also which there might have been in him of a virtuous nature. And so for ‘his bones’ to ‘sleep with him in the dust’ is even if there be things done well, for them to come to nought together with his evil deeds. It proceeds;
Ver. 12. For when wickedness shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.
[xi]
13. ‘Wickedness is sweet in the mouth’ of the hypocrite, in that evil tastes sweet to him in the thought. For ‘the mouth’ of the heart is the thought, whereof it is written; Deceitful lips spake evil in a double heart. [Ps. 12, 2] Now the evil that is thus sweet in the mouth of the hypocrite is hidden under the tongue, in that the harshness of an evil disposition, which lies hidden in the mind, is concealed under the cloak of a mild address. For the evil would be on the tongue and not under it, if the hypocrite in speaking disclosed the mischievousness of his froward heart. But as is the case with most of the righteous, when they see any persons acting badly, who deserve to be visited with severe rebukes, they put harshness on the tongue, but under the tongue cover the kindness of their feelings; (whence too it is said to Holy Church by the voice of the Spouse; Honey and milk are under Thy tongue. [Cant. 4, 11] For they that shrink from disclosing the sweetness of their inward feeling to the weak, and so in speaking strike them with a degree of harshness, and yet amongst their harsh words secretly as it were let drop a sprinkling of sweetness, these persons clearly have sweetness not on the tongue, but under the tongue, in that amidst the hard words which they utter, they give out some that are sweet and softened, whereby the wounded mind may be cheered and refreshed by kindness;) so with the wicked severally, because they have evil not upon the tongue, but under the tongue, in the words of their mouth they hold out sweet things, and in the thoughts of their heart are plotting mischiefs. For it is hence that Joab held the beard of Amasa with his right hand, whilst secretly putting his left hand to his sword, he shed out his bowels. [2 Sam. 20, 9] For to hold the chin with the right hand is to caress as if in kindness. But he puts his left hand to his sword, who in secret strikes in malice. Hence too it is written concerning their head himself; Under his tongue is mischief and pain. [Ps. 10, 7] For he that doth not display openly the ill that he designs, does not put forth on the tongue the mischief and pain of those, whose destruction he aims at, but keeps them close under the tongue. Now it is rightly added of this hypocrite,
Ver. 13. He will spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his throat.
[xii] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
14. For the evil that he delights in he ‘spares,’ because he does not, by practising penance, hunt it down in himself. Whence too it is added; and forsake it not. For if he had the mind to ‘forsake,’ he would not ‘spare’ it, but would pursue it closely. Now he ‘keeps it within his throat;’ because he so retains it in thought, that he never utters it in speech. It goes on;
Ver. 14. His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within him. [xiii]
- 479 -
15. What bread is in the belly, the same is fulness of earthly gratification in the mind. So let the hypocrite now be filled to the full with the praises tendered him, let him revel in honours, ‘his bread in his belly is turned into the gall of asps,’ because the fulness of transitory enjoyment, in the final Retribution, will be turned to bitterness, in that what here passed for the praise of greatness is discovered to have been ‘the gall of asps,’ i. e. the prompting of evil spirits. For the wicked then perceive that they are infected with the venom of the old serpent, when, being delivered over to avenging flames, they are tormented along with that prompter of theirs. And so this ‘bread’ has one sort of taste in the mouth, and another in the belly, in that the joy of transitory pleasure is sweet, while it is tasted here by a chewing of teeth, as it were, but it turns bitter in the belly, because when the joy is past it is swallowed to his ruing.
16. Or indeed forasmuch as bread is not unsuitably taken for the sense of the Holy Scriptures, which refreshes the mind and furnishes it with the sinews of right practice, and the hypocrite generally makes it his object to be well instructed in the mysteries of Holy Writ, not that he may live by them, but that it may appear to the rest of the world how learned he is, his ‘bread in his bowels is turned into the gall of asps,’ in that whilst he boasts of the knowledge of the Sacred Law, he converts the draught of life into a cup of poison to himself, and dies in a state of reprobation from the same cause, whence he appeared to derive instruction unto life. Nor is this again unfitly taken to be the meaning, that while the hypocrite sometimes applies himself to the word of instruction for display, being blinded by God’s judgment, he takes in a wrong sense that very word which he seeks in a wrong spirit. But when he falls into heretical error, it is his fate, that as by the ‘gall of asps,’ so the unhappy wretch perishes by ‘bread;’ and in his own self instruction he finds death, because in the words of life he never sought life. But it often happens that the sentences of divine warning, even if they be understood rightly by the hypocrite, forasmuch as he neglects to observe them in practice, are lost to him even before the course of the present life is at an end, so that it is taken from him to know, what while he knew he refused to practise. Hence it is added; Ver. 15. The riches he hath swallowed down, he shall vomit up, and God shall cast them out of his belly.
[xiv]
17. The hypocrite desires to know the revelations of God, yet not to practise them. He would speak sagely, but not live so. For this reason, then, that he does not do what he knows, even that which he knows he loses, that forasmuch as he does not unite pure practice with his knowledge, contemning purity of right practice he loses the knowledge also. Therefore the ‘riches’ of the Sacred Law, which he ‘swallowed’ in reading, he vomits in forgetting, and God ‘casts them out of his belly,’ in that what he would not observe to do, by a righteous judgment He roots out of his recollection, that at all events he should not keep the precepts of God in the tongue, which he kept not in his life. Whence it is said by the Prophet; But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, and that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? [Ps. 50, 16] Which words of instruction if it ever at any time chance that the hypocrite should seem to retain in his mouth until the end, he will be condemned the more on the very grounds, whereon not even a bad man is ever deprived of the good gift of God. For it is written; To those that remember His commandments to do them. [Ps. 103, 18] He then that keeps His commandments in mind, but never does them, such an one holds in the words of instruction the sentences whereby he is condemned.
- 480 -
18. For hence it is written in Zechariah; What seest thou, Zechariah? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. This said he to me; This is the curse that goeth over the face of the whole earth. For everyone that stealeth shall be judged as on this side according to it. [Zech. 5, 2. 3. ] For what is a ‘flying roll’ saving Holy Writ, which whilst it tells us of heavenly themes, lifts up the bent of the mind to things on high; for while we see that it is above us, we leave minding, i. e. desiring things below. And it is described as having ‘a breadth of ten cubits’ and a ‘length of twenty cubits,’ in that the breadth of our practice is single, and the long expectance of hope is extended to double, since in return for our good practice both here there is peace of mind, and there eternal joys in store for us, as Truth bears witness, Who saith; And everyone that hath forsaken houses or lands, &c. shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. [Matt. 19, 29] For the number one hundred is completed by the number ten multiplied ten times. Thus he gets back an hundredfold [perhaps ‘an hundredfold here. ’ (reading Hic. )], who, though he has nothing, by the mere perfection of his mind alone, no longer seeks to possess any thing in this world. And in this way, since by this same we have a double measure paid back to us for a single one, that roll is justly drawn out through twenty cubits in length, which is carried out in breadth through ten. But because these very sacred oracles stand for eternal condemnation to those who either will not acquaint themselves with them, or in any wise when made acquainted with them set them at nought, it is rightly said of this roll, This is the curse, which goeth forth over the face of the whole earth. And wherefore it is called a curse is added; For everyone that is a thief, as it is therein written, shall be judged. Therefore the hypocrite, as he cares not to live after the words of the law which he knows, and seeks golden opinions by store of instruction, will be ‘a thief to be judged,’ since by this, that he speaks just words, he usurps to himself the praise of the just man’s life. Concerning whom it is still farther added rightly,
Ver. 16. He shall suck the head of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
[xv]
19. The ‘asp’ is a small serpent, but the ‘viper’ hath more length of body. And asps produce eggs, and their young are hatched from the eggs. But when vipers have conceived, their ‘young ravin in their womb, which bursting the parents’ sides issue out of their bellies. Hence too it is called the ‘viper,’ because it is a ‘parent [vi parit. ] by violence. ’ Thus the viper is so produced that it comes forth by violence, and is brought into the world by the killing of the mother. What then is represented by the little asps, saving the hidden suggestions of impure spirits, who steal upon [Ben. ‘surripiunt,’ Steal from, both others ‘surrepunt. ’] the hearts of men by slight prompting at first, and what by the ‘viper’s tongue’ save the violent temptation of the devil? For at first he steals upon them gently, but afterwards he drags them even by force. And so he ‘sucks the poison of asps,’ in that the little beginning of secret suggestion is first produced in the heart, but ‘the viper’s tongue slayeth him,’ in that afterwards the captive soul is killed by the venom of violent temptation. In the first case unclean spirits speak to the heart of man with their crafty counsels, and these, while they persuade with gentleness, as it were infuse the poison of asps. Whence it is written, They break asps eggs, and weave the spider’s web; He that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is hatched breaketh out into a basilisk. [Is. 59, 5] Since to ‘break asps’ eggs,’ to wicked men is, to manifest by evil deeds the counsels of evil spirits, which lurk in their hearts. Moreover, to ‘weave spiders’ webs’ is, on account of the lust of this world, to be busied in any temporal employments. Which, whilst they are established with no stedfastness, assuredly are carried off by the wind of a mortal
- 481 -
life. And it is well added; He that eateth of their eggs dieth. In that he that admits the counsels of impure spirits kills the life of his soul in him. ‘And that which is hatched, breaketh out into a basilisk,’ in that the suggestion of the bad spirit which is covered up in the heart, is nursed unto full iniquity. For ‘basilisk’ [‘Regulus,’ which is a translation of the Greek Basiliscov. see Plin. viii. 21. ] means the king of serpents, and who is the head of the sons of perdition, save Antichrist?
Therefore ‘that, which is hatched, will break out into a basilisk,’ in that he who harbours in himself the counsel of the ‘asp’ to nourish them to life, being made a member of the wicked head, is engrafted into the body of Antichrist. Of which hypocrite it is said, He shall suck the head of asps, and the viper’s tongue shall slay him, in that when he gladly welcomes the evil suggestion of our old enemy, afterwards he surrenders himself vanquished to his forcible temptations. Hence too in Paradise, to man when he was standing, he brought in words of soft suggestion, but him whom he once caught away to the act of consent, now henceforth he forces on even resisting him, and conquered by the gratifications of his corrupt state of being, kills him well nigh by dint of violence. But perhaps we may be able to make out the meaning of these same sentences by a contrary mode of interpretation. Thus because the ‘asp’ kills quickly by its venom, but the ‘viper’ more slowly, by the ‘asp’ we have denoted a violent and instantaneous temptation, but by the ‘viper’ a gentle and prolonged one. And hence to the one death is said to lie in the ‘sucking of the head,’ but to the viper ‘in the tongue,’ in that a sudden temptation often as soon as it arises kills the soul off its guard, but a lengthened temptation, because it is longer recommending evil things by the suggesting of them, kills as does a viper with its tongue. And because every hypocrite, being penetrated with the suggestion of evil spirits, as with the poison of serpents, never considers what are the gifts from above of the Holy Spirit, while he spreads abroad the bent of the heart in golden opinions without, it is rightly added;
Ver. 17. He shall not see the streamlets of the torrent river of honey and butter. [xvi]
20. The Lord saith in the Gospel; He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [John 7, 38. 39. ] Where the Evangelist subjoins, saying, But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. And so ‘the streamlets of the river’ are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Charity is ‘a streamlet of the river,’ faith is ‘a streamlet of the river,’ hope is ‘a streamlet of the river. ’ But because no hypocrite ever loves either God or his neighbour, when he makes the transitory glory of the world his aim, he does not see the streamlets of the river, in that he is not watered with the overflowing of charity. Whereas the hypocrite goes after present gains, he disregards future blessings, and not having faith, he sees not in the mind ‘the streamlet of the river,’ inasmuch as faith is the evidence of things not seen. [Heb. 11, 1] And while the hypocrite clings to the things that are seen, he makes light of those, which are not seen, therefore he does not see the ‘streamlets of the river’ in desire, in that he is taken up with visible things alone. And it is written, For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? [Rom. 8, 24] He then would have seen ‘streamlets of the river’ if he had shut his eyes to the glory of this world, and opened them to the love of the heavenly country. And observe that he does not say ‘streams,’ but ‘streamlets. ’ For the ‘streamlets of the river’ may be taken for those spiritual gifts, which trickle in such fine streams from heavenly sources into the soul of him that loveth, that they can never be compassed by the mouth of the flesh. For it is often the case that the spirit of him that loves is filled with such a mighty gift of contemplation, that it has power to see what it has not power to utter. Now the ‘torrent river’ is the inundation of the Holy Spirit itself, which in
- 482 -
exuberant outpouring is gathered in the soul of him in contemplation, when his mind is full beyond what he is able to comprehend. And it is necessary to be known, that when the grace of the Holy Spirit bathes us, it fills us with ‘honey and butter’ equally. For ‘honey’ falls from above, but ‘butter’ is drawn from the milk of animals, and so ‘honey’ is from the air, ‘butter’ from the flesh. But the Only-begotten Son of the Most High Father, while He is God above all things, was made Man one among all things. Who when he replenished us with the sweetness of His Divine Nature and the mystery of His Incarnation, satisfied us with ‘honey and butter’ at once. And so seeing that the Holy Spirit rejoices the soul It has filled, at once with the sweetness of His divinity and the belief of His Incarnation, these are described as ‘the streamlets of the torrent river of honey and butter’ together, in that they both refresh the soul with sweetness by the exalted knowledge of God, and anoint it with the mystery of the Benefit [Charismatis] by the grace of the Incarnation. But whereas this hypocrite, being dissipated in outward regards, does not taste these interior gifts, he adjoins to what after punishments he is tending, in that it is added;
Ver. 18. He shall pay for all the things that he hath done, nor yet shall he be consumed. [xvii] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
21. For he ‘pays’ in torment for those desires, which he retained here contrary to right, and being consigned to avenging flames, he is always dying, in that he is always kept alive in death. For he is never consumed in death, in that if his life in dying were consumed, his punishment likewise would be brought to an end together with his life; but that he may be tormented without end, he is forced to live on without end in punishment, that he whose life here was dead in sin, may have his death there living in punishment. Let him say then; He shall pay for all the things that he hath done, nor yet shall he be consumed, forasmuch as he is tormented, and not put out, he dies and lives, he is falling away and holding on, always finishing, without being finished. These things are very terrible in the healing of the ear only, how infinitely more terrible in the enduring of them! Now because the multiplicity of his wickedness demands that he should never be without punishment, it is fitly added;
According to the multitude of his inventions shall he also suffer.
[xviii]
22. For whereas he found out many things in order to sin, he is tormented with new inventions in punishment. Since what he could not have suspected here, he is made sensible of there, when he is given over to vengeance. For as the Elect in exercising themselves in good works, sometimes set themselves to do more than the Lord thought fit to bid them, (for virginity of the flesh is no where commanded, but only commended; since if it were commanded, then it would follow that wedlock must henceforth be deemed sin, and yet there are many strong in the virtue of virginity, so as to render more in service than they received in command,) so very commonly the wicked are each practised in bad ways, so that they find out in evil doing more for them to do than by the practice of the lost they received examples of wickedness. And hence they are stricken with the torments of an ampler retribution, in that they too of their own heads invented practices on an ampler scale, which they deserve to be stricken for. And so it is well said, According to the multitude of his inventions shall he also suffer. For he would not find out new wickedness, except he also sought it; and he would not seek it, except he was eager to do it of set purpose. Therefore in his tormenting the excessiveness of evil devising is taken into account, and he receives the pain of a worthy
- 483 -
recompense.
And although the woe of all the damned is infinite, yet they have worse torments inflicted upon them, who invented many things in wicked ways by their desires as well. Now since Zophar has brought in the punishment of this hypocrite, he immediately adds his sin, nor does he describe anyone in particular, but that from which all sins have their origin. For it is written, Covetousness is the root of all evil. [1 Tim. 6, 10] He then, whom covetousness is described as having dominion over, surely is proved to be subject to all evil propensities. Thus he subjoins, Ver. 19, 20. Because he hath broken down and laid bare the house of the poor, because he hath violently taken it away and not builded it, neither is he satisfied in his belly.
[xix]
23. He ‘breaks in pieces and lays bare the house of the poor,’ who is not ashamed as well to rob out of avarice him whom he crushes by power. ‘He violently taketh it away and doth not build it. ’ As if it were expressed in plain words; ‘He that ought to have builded it, he over and above takes it away. ’ For the Lord Who is to come in judgment, shall say to the reprobate, For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in; naked, and ye covered Me not, &c. [Matt. 25, 42. 43. ] as the consequence of which sin it is added, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. If then he is sentenced to so great a penalty, who is convicted merely of not having given away his own, with what punishment does not that man deserve to be stricken, who is proved to have taken the things of others also? And so he ‘took it away and did not build it up,’ in that he not only never gave any thing of his own, but also took away what was another’s. Now it is well added; Surely his belly shall not be satisfied. For the ‘belly’ of the wicked man is avarice, in that there is collected together in it whatsoever is swallowed with wrong desire. But it is plain that avarice is not extinguished, but increased by the objects desired. For like fire, when it has got fuel to feed on, it increases; and from the same cause that the flame appears to be restrained for a moment, it is seen a little while after to spread itself out. And it often happens that when Almighty God is greatly wroth with the covetous soul, He first lets all things accrue to it according to its wish, and afterwards takes it away in vengeance, that it may undergo eternal punishments on account of them. And hence it is added;
And when he shall have that which he desired, he shall not be able to possess it.
[xx]
24. For it is a mark of greater indignation, when that thing is given which is desired amiss, and therefrom there ensues sudden retribution, because he got that likewise, which he went after when God was wroth the while. And hence it is said by the Psalmist, where the people are described as having lusted after flesh for food in a wrong way; But while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the most of them. [Ps. 78, 30. 31] For the judgments of God are used to be slower in appearing, when wrong wishes are hindered that they should not be put in execution. For the quicker that a bad wish is suffered to be fulfilled, it is usually punished the more speedily in proportion. And so by the very act, whereby the hypocrite is aggrandized in haste to become powerful, it is brought to pass with proportionate rapidity, that he should not be. For the trees too that grow slower, last to number many years, and those which make way in a short space of time, wither the sooner, and in a manner, whilst they are hasting to be, they are going the way not to be. It goes on;
- 484 -
Ver. 21. There shall none of his meat be left.
[xxi]
25. ‘His meat’ is all that he coveted with wrong desire; but when the hypocrite is struck, ‘there is none of his meat left,’ in that when he is himself carried to eternal punishments, he is parted from all the good things that he had gotten here. And hence it is yet further added;
Therefore shall nought remain from his goods.
For if ‘aught did remain of his goods,’ he would take along with him the things that he had possession of. But because while going after every thing, he would not fear the Judge, upon being removed out of this life, he goes naked to the Judge. To which same wicked man, it is but little for his recompensing that he is tormented in after punishment, if only in this life he is let to go free. But there is no liberty in sin, seeing that it is written; where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; [2 Cor. 3, 17] and to the wicked soul usually its very own sin becomes its own punishment. And hence it is rightly added;
In the fulness of his sufficiency, he shall be in straits.
[xxii]
26. For first from avarice he pants to heap together things he covets, and when he has gathered together a great multitude as it were in a kind of belly of avarice, ‘in the fulness of his sufficiency, he is in straits,’ in that whilst he is full of anxiety how he may keep the things he has gotten, his own fulness itself straitens him. For the field of a certain rich man had brought abundant fruits, but because he had not where to lay up such stores, he said, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do; I will pull down my barns, and build greater. [Luke 12, 17. 18. ] He then who from being straitened by his abundance said, What shall I do? was in a fever as if oppressed with a quantity of food. Let us consider with what longings he desired his land might produce abundant crops. Behold now his wishes are completed, seeing that the land did bring him abundant fruits. But forasmuch as there are not places enough to stow it away, the rich man being greatly aggrandized knows not what he should do. O straitness caused by ‘fulness of sufficiency! ’ By the abundance of his land the mind of the covetous man is straitened. For when he says, What shall I do? he clearly shews that, surcharged with the engrossments of his desires, he went heavily under a kind of bundle of stores; and so it is well said, In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits. Since the mind of the covetous man, which had before looked for rest from plenty, was afterwards put to worse trouble for the keeping thereof. And hence it is also yet further added;
He shall burn with heat, and every woe shall come down upon him.
[xxiii]
27. For first he had sorrow in the mere wearying of his own concupiscence how to snatch hold of the things coveted, how to secure one sort by arts of flattery, another sort by means of threats; but after that having possessed himself of the gifts of fortune he has attained his desire, another annoyance wears him down, viz. that it is with fear and anxiety he keeps safe that which he remembers it cost him infinite trouble to acquire. On every side he dreads conspirators, and fears
- 485 -
to be himself subjected to the very thing that he has done to others. One more powerful he is afraid of, lest he be exposed to violence from him; a poor man, when he sees one, he looks on as a thief. The things themselves which he has hoarded up, he is at great pains about, lest by the failure of their own inherent nature they be consumed by neglect. In all these particulars then, because fear by itself is punishment, the unhappy wretch suffers things as great as he fears to suffer. And after this he is yet further brought to hell, and given over to eternal torments. Therefore ‘every woe cometh down upon him,’ who is at once consumed first here by the punishment of coveting, afterwards by the trouble of safe keeping, and there at some future time by the punishment of retributive wrath.
28. But it is wonderful security of the heart, not to seek what does not belong to us, but to rest content with each day’s sustenance day by day. From which same security it is that the Rest everlasting also arises, seeing that from a good and quiet frame we pass to eternal delights. Contrariwise lost sinners are at once worn down here in desires, and there in torments. And from the labour of taking thought there arises to them the labour of pain, in that by the fever of avarice they are drawn into the fire of hell. And because, as we have already often said, it often happens that the wicked man, the sooner he attains his object, is the more easily carried off to torment, it is added in the form of a wish.
Ver. 23. Would that his belly might be filled, that God might cast the fury of His wrath upon him, and rain His war upon him.
[xxiv]
29. The Lord ‘rains His war’ upon this hypocrite, when he smites his deeds with the swords of His judgments. Thus for God to ‘rain war,’ is His pressing hard to destruction the life of the wicked man by His strict sentences from on high. God ‘raining war’ is His smiting the hearts that are lifted up against Himself, and His wounding the blasted soul with the darts of His judgments, as with a kind of thickening drops of rain, that when he is now carried off to judgment, one while he should remind himself how he coveted wickedly, and more wickedly set himself to heap together the things he coveted, at another time grieve that he is parted from the things thus heaped together, and one day feel the very fire of retribution, which, that he might not live well, he was too indifferent to foresee. It goes on;
Ver. 24. He shall flee from the iron weapons; and rush upon the bow of brass. [xxv]
30. We ought to know, that avarice sometimes steals upon men from pride, and sometimes from apprehension. Thus there are some who whilst they aim to appear with greater power, are kindled to the going after the things of others; and there are some, who while they are afraid lest the necessaries of the aids of life should be wanting to them, freely give their minds to covetousness, and go after the things of others when they fancy that their own may not be enough for them. Now all necessity is not unaptly termed ‘iron,’ in that it pains the life of him that wants with the wound of grief, as it is likewise expressed concerning the necessities of him, who, being sold by his brethren, led an afflicted life; The iron entered into his soul. [Ps. 105, 18] What then are ‘the iron weapons’ but necessities of the present life, which press hard upon, and push to extremity, the life of the needy? Since iron is consumed by rust, but brass is naturally more difficult to be consumed
- 486 -
by it. Therefore by ‘iron’ there is represented present necessity which is transient, but by ‘brass’ the eternal doom. And whereas the judgment Above is not heeded by the mind of the wicked man, it is justly likened to a ‘bow,’ since it strikes as it were out of ambush, whilst the person that is struck does not observe it. And thus, He shall flee from the iron weapons, and rush upon the bow of brass; in that whilst from dreading present necessities, he seizes things without number, through maliciousness he is exposing himself before the severe strokes of the final judgment; and, while he ‘fleeth the weapons of iron,’ he is encountered by the arrows from the bow of brass, in that, while foolishly providing against the ills of time, he is struck by eternal doom. For whosoever with guilt fleeth the hardness of need here, meets there an everlasting duration of just retribution. But before the time that he is hurried off to judgment, what are the things which this wicked man is busied in here, he yet further informs us. It goes on;
Ver. 25. He is drawn and cometh out of his sheath, yea, lightening in his bitterness.
[xxvi]
31. This wicked man lays plots in arts of robbery on his neighbours. And whilst he is plotting mischief in the thoughts of his heart, it is as if ‘the sword were still in its sheath;’ but when he wickedly executes the mischief, which he has contrived, he ‘cometh out of his sheath,’ in that he is brought out to view, from the secresy of his thoughts, in the wickedness of evil doing. He is shewn to light in the deed, such as he was, hidden from view, in the thought. And observe that he says, drawn and cometh out; i. e. ‘drawn’ by the deceiver, but ‘coming out’ by the act of his own free will. For he that is ‘drawn’ unquestionably follows one that draws him. But he that ‘cometh forth,’ seems to act according to his own will. That man, then, who is at once drawn to the several wicked practices by our old enemy, and yet fast bound in the desire of them by his own free will, is described as ‘drawn and coming forth from his sheath,’ since this thing, that he issues forth from the bad thought to the worst enacting, belongs at once to the wickedness of that spirit that prompted, and of him that consented by an act of his own will.
32. The terribleness of whose power is further shewn, where it is immediately added, Yea, lightening in his bitterness. For when the lightning comes suddenly from above, when it shines with terribleness before our eyes, it displays shining brightness, and strikes the object before it. Thus, thus is it with the wicked man, when he has secured to himself the glory of the present life: by the same cause by which he is shewn to view bright by power in the present world, it is brought to pass that he is blasted at the last. For the wicked man’s as it were ‘lightening,’ is his shining in this life’s honour; but whereas the splendour of that glory is consigned to the eternal woes of hell, it is rightly said in this place, ‘Yea, lightening in his bitterness. ’ For he that now seems as though he took delight in striking by terribleness and brightness, for this cause afterwards undergoes punishments for everlasting. And indeed it is written of a certain rich man that he ‘fared splendidly’ every day. Now it is one thing to shew ‘splendidly,’ and another to ‘lighten;’ for sometimes there is splendour without striking, but splendour with striking is described by the title of ‘lightning. ’ He then who being placed in power does injury to others, is not unaptly entitled ‘lightening,’ in that from the same means whereby he is himself exalted against the good, as it were by the light of glory, the life of the good is made to feel torture. It goes on;
Terrible ones shall come and go over him.
[xxvii]
- 487 -
33. Who are here called ‘terrible ones’ except evil spirits, who are to be feared and avoided by godly minds? And whereas those same evil spirits are to be believed to attach themselves severally to certain particular vices, when this wicked man seems to quit for a moment one set of faults, and begins to commit another, then surely ‘the terrible ones come and go over him,’ in that the soul of the bad man though one set of bad habits abandons, yet another takes possession of it. For you may often see the bad man, who is set in earthly power, agitated with furious passion, and executing all that his rage suggests; and when his fury is gone, then directly lust ravages his soul; when lust is stopped for a time, self-exaltation as on the ground of continency is immediately made to take its place in his heart, and that he may be feared by others, he aims to shew himself as an object of terror. But when the occasion requires that he should say any thing with double-dealing, laying aside in a certain sort the terribleness of pride, he flatters with an easy address, and when he ceases to shew himself proud, he does not dread to turn double-dealing. And so it is rightly said of him, in whose mind one vice continually takes the place of another, Terrible ones come and go upon him; since for all the evil habits that he is borne down with departing and taking each other’s place, his soul is as it were overrun by as many evil spirits going and returning. But it is these things which he does in act, that issue outwardly by parts and pieces, for on his soul he has all things bad tied fast at once and together. Hence it is added;
Ver. 26. All darkness is hid in his secret places.
[xxviii]
34. For though the hypocrite exhibits good actions on the surface, yet a certain ‘darkness’ of evil deeds appears in him; yet it less comes forth in act, than lies buried in his secret thought. For he who does not fulfil all things at once in execution, does in his heart in silence hold all things that may do mischief. Thus ‘all darkness’ is said to be ‘hid in his secret places,’ in that though he does not exhibit to view all things evil in himself, yet he aims to bring down all upon his fellow- creatures. Now let him add the retribution, which this soul so reprobate shall be visited with. It goes on;
A fire that is not kindled shall consume him.
[xxix]
35. Most wonderfully in these few words is the fire of hell set forth! For bodily fire, in order to become fire, stands in need of bodily fuel; and when it is necessary for it to be preserved, as we well know, it is nourished by wood heaped upon it, neither can it be, except by being kindled, nor live, save by being cherished. But contrarily the fire of hell, whilst it is a bodily fire, and bodily consumes the children of perdition that are cast into it, is neither kindled by human effort, nor kept alive by wood, but being once made to be, it lasts unextinguishable: at one and the same time it needs no kindling, and lacks not heat. And so it is well said of this wicked one; A fire not kindled shall consume him; in that the justice of the Almighty, foreseeing future events, did from the very beginning of the world create the fire of hell, which should once begin in the punishment of the wicked, but never end its heat even without fuel. But it is necessary to know, that all the children of perdition, as they sinned in Spirit and flesh conjointly, are there tormented in spirit and flesh alike. Hence it is said by the Psalmist, Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of Thine anger. [Ps. 21, 9] The Lord shall confound them in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. For
- 488 -
an ‘oven’ is heated within; but he who is ‘devoured by fire’ begins to be consumed from the outside. Thus that holy Scripture might shew that the lost burn both within and without, it testifies that they are at once ‘devoured by fire,’ and ‘made as a fiery oven,’ that by fire they should be tormented in the body, and by grief burn in spirit. Hence in this place too, when it is declared of the ungodly man that a fire that is not kindled shall consume him, it is forthwith added concerning his spirit;
Being left in his tabernacle, it shall go ill with him.
[xxx]
36. The ‘tabernacle’ of the wicked man is his flesh, in that he inhabits it in joyfulness, and, if it were possible, wishes he might never quit it. But the righteous, as they place their delight in the prospect of heavenly rewards, and have their conversation in heaven, while they are still in the flesh are as if they were no longer in the flesh, in that they are not fed with any gratification of the flesh. And hence it is said to some persons; But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit [Rom. 8, 9]: not that they were not in the flesh, who by the epistles of their master received charges of exhortation; but it is in a manner to be no longer ‘in the flesh,’ not to own aught connected with the love of fleshly objects. But on the other hand this wicked man, because he set all his delight in a fleshly life, ‘dwelt in the tabernacle’ of the flesh. Which very flesh when he shall receive back in the resurrection, he shall burn along with it delivered over to the fires of hell. Then be longs to be brought out of it; then he seeks, if he might be able, to escape from his torments; then be begins to wish he could get quit of that which he loved: but because he preferred that flesh to God, it is brought to pass by the judgment of God, that by it he is more fully tormented in the fire. Here then he has no mind to leave it, and yet is severed from it, and there he wishes to leave it and yet is kept in it for punishments. And so for the increase of his torments, he is at once both removed out of the body here against his will, and held fast in the body there when he would not. Therefore because his spirit in torment longs [So A. B. C. D. —Ben. ‘shall long. ’ lewpetrian Sept. ] to get rid of the flesh, which it set before itself in loving amiss, and has not the power, it is lightly said here, being left in his tabernacle it shall go ill with him. Of whose accusing it is directly said;
Ver. 27. The heavens shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
[xxxi]
37. What do we understand by ‘the heavens,’ but the righteous, and what by ‘the earth,’ but sinners? And hence in the Lord’s prayer we pray; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven, meaning this, that the will of our Creator, in the same way as it is accomplished in all the righteous, may also be fulfilled in all sinners as well. Moreover of the righteous it is said, The heavens declare the glory of God [Ps. 19, 1]. And to man when he sinned the sentence is pronounced, Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt return. And so of this ungodly man, when dragged to that awful judgment; ‘the heavens reveal his iniquity, and the earth rises up against him,’ that that man, who here never spared either the good or the bad, should in that tremendous inquest have the life of the righteous and of sinners alike accusing him. And of the two indeed it is worse if a man injure the good rather than sinners; and hence it is said by the Prophet, For her blood is in the midst of her: she poured it upon the smoothest rock [super limpidissimam petram V. ]; she poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust: [Ez. 24, 7] by ‘the ground’ and ‘the dust’ indeed denoting sinners, but by the ‘very smooth rock,’ the righteous man, who is not made rough by the hard grazes of sins;
- 489 -
and so ‘the blood is poured upon the very smooth rock,’ when the wickedness of a bloodthirsty mind rages in the afflicting of the righteous soul. While then it is worse unjustly to distress the righteous than the unrighteous, yet it is much worse to hurt the righteous and unrighteous together; and therefore whereas the wicked have injured both the good and the bad alike, in the accusing to damnation, ‘the heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him, because he at one and the same time set himself against those who savoured the things of heaven, and oppressed those who savoured of things below. But it may be that by ‘the earth’ we have denoted not the sinful and reprobate, but those that being busied in earthly courses, by the help of alms and of tears attain to eternal life. Concerning whom it is said by the Psalmist, when the Lord is proclaimed as coming to Judgment, He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth that He may Judge His people. [Ps. 50. 4] For He ‘calls the heavens from above,’ when they, who, leaving all that they had, held on the tenour of the heavenly life, are called to sit with Him in judgment, and come with Him as judges; but ‘the earth is called from above,’ when they who were tied down to earthly courses of action, yet sought therein for heavenly more than for earthly profit and advantage, to which persons it is said, I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed Me. So ‘the heaven reveals the wickedness’ of the hypocrite, and ‘the earth rises up against him,’ in that both they who come in company with God as judges, and they who through the ordeal of the Judgment are set free, become the witnesses of his iniquity. Thus nought of the things he has committed is hidden from sight in the time of condemnation, and if indeed many of his deeds are now concealed from his fellow-creatures by double-dealing, yet in the day of condemnation; whatever there was that lay hidden within him, it is brought to light. Hence it is fitly added;
Ver. 28. The shoot of his house shall be disclosed, and he shall be taken away in the day of God’s wrath.
[xxxii]
38. ‘The shoot of his house is disclosed,’ when every thing bad that sprung up in his consciousness is shewn to view. For now the ‘shoot of the hypocrite’s house’ remains hidden from sight, in that though his practice appears good in the delineation, yet the intent lies hidden. Since it is one thing what he does, and another thing what he has in view. But when, at the coming of the Judge, each man’s conscience shall be brought forward for its testimony, (whence it is written, Their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another, [Rom. 2, 15]) then the ‘shoot of the hypocrite’s house is herein disclosed,’ because the evil design is laid bare in his heart. ‘And he shall be taken away in the day of God’s wrath,’ in that when the indignation of the Judge is revealed, being given to avenging fires, he is parted from His sight. For he that, whilst he lived, would not take thought of the highest things, being forced down by the weight of his sins, shall fall from the face of the Judge into the depths of punishment.