約伯倫理 第 1300 章

72. What the authors of errors and what the throng subject to them may rage should be sniffed out. — The leaders of the adverse party are the authors of error, of whom it is said through the Psalmist: 'Contempt was poured out upon their princes; and he caused them to wander in a trackless place and not in the way' (Ps. 107:40). Of whom the Truth Himself says: 'If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch' (Matt. 15:14). But these leaders the army follows — namely, the throng of the wicked, which serves their iniquitous commands.

It is also to be noted that he says the leaders exhort, but the army howls, because clearly those who preside over unbelievers or heretics persuade the wicked things which they enjoin to be held, as it were by reason. But the throng subject to them, because without judgment it follows their voices, while it makes its din through the madness of confusion, is said to howl with a bestial mind. For howling properly belongs to wolves. And because the bands of the reprobate gape only with rapacity against the life and morals of the faithful, they cry out as it were by howling. [Old,

27.] The horse of God therefore smells afar off the exhortation of the leaders and the howling of the army, when every holy preacher considers long beforehand both what the authors of errors may enjoin against the elect, and how monstrously the throng subject to them may rage. This exhortation of the leaders Paul smelled, when he said: 'By sweet speeches and blessings they seduce the hearts of the innocent' (Rom. 16:18). This howling of the army he smelled, saying: 'After my departure grievous wolves shall enter in among you' (Acts 20:29). The exhortation of the leaders Peter smelled, when he warned the disciples concerning certain men, saying: 'In covetousness with feigned words shall they make merchandise of you' (2 Pet. 2:3).

He smelled the howling of the army also, when he sent ahead, saying: 'And many shall follow their lasciviousness, through whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed' (ibid., 2). [Section 17.] 73. What has been said of preachers and teachers is also applied to the faithful.

— Since therefore we have narrated of what sort every holy preacher and leader of the faith in the war of persecution may show himself to be, now let us describe under the figure of this horse each individual soldier of Christ, so that he too who considers that he has not yet attained to the summit of preaching, may nevertheless recognize himself to be expressed by this word of the Lord, if he has already begun to live well; that from this he may gather how known he is to God, should he attain to greater things, whom God signally does not pass over in speaking even of the least. Therefore, retracing each thing that has been said of the horse, let us intimate how the soldier of God advances from his earliest way of life, how he grows up from the least things to the greater, and by what steps he passes from the depths to the heights. Let it be said therefore: