約伯倫理 第 1361 章

33. The members of the devil are cut off when sinners are separated from his body to be joined to Christ. Preachers are merchants. — This Leviathan is cut off as often as, by the sword of the divine word, his members are separated from him. For when the wicked hear the word of truth, and, struck with holy fear, hold themselves back from the imitation of the ancient enemy, he himself is divided in his body, from which those who had wrongly clung are withdrawn. And He names as friends those whom above He calls maidservants; He also calls merchants those whom He had called friends. For the holy preachers are first maidservants through fear, then friends through faith, and at the last also merchants through action. For to these very weak ones it is said:

'Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom' (Luke XII, 32). And to these same, growing strong, it is said: 'But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of My Father I have made known to you' (John XV, 15). And to these same, at the last, proceeding to the operation of the business, it is commanded: 'Going into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature' (Mark XVI, 15). For in the preaching of faith a certain kind of business is conducted, while the word is given, and faith is taken from the hearers. They do, as it were, a certain business, who advance preaching and bring back faith from the peoples. They impart faith, and straightway take up their holy life.

For if the preaching of the just had not been a business, surely the Psalmist would not say: 'Take a psalm, and give the timbrel' (Ps. LXXX, 2). For in a timbrel the hide is dried that it may sound. What then is it to say: 'Take a psalm, and give the timbrel,' but 'Receive the spiritual song of the heart, and render the temporal mortification of the body'? If supernal preaching had not been a business, by no means would Solomon, under the figure of a valiant woman, say of the holy Church: 'She made a fine linen garment and sold it, and delivered a girdle to the Canaanite' (Prov. XXXI, 24). For what is signified by the cloth of the fine linen, but the subtle weaving of holy preaching? In which one rests softly, because in it the mind of the faithful is refreshed by supernal hope.

Whence also to Peter animals are shown in a linen sheet (Acts X, 11), because the souls of sinners, mercifully gathered together, are contained in the gentle rest of God. This linen sheet, therefore, the Church made and sold, because the faith which by believing she had woven she gave by speaking, and from the unbelievers received the life of upright conversation. She also delivered a girdle to the Canaanite, because through the rigor of demonstrated justice she girded fast the loose works of heathenism, so that this which is enjoined might be held by living: 'Let your loins be girt about' (Luke XII, 35). His preachers, therefore, the Lord finds as maidservants by seeking, makes them friends by exchange, displays them as merchants by enriching.

For those who first, being weak, feared the threats of the world, afterward ascend to the knowledge of divine counsels. And, enriched with virtues, they are brought even to the exercising of the business of faith, so that they cut into the members of this Leviathan by rebuking and persuading the more severely, the more, having been made friends, they more truly join themselves to the love of truth, and withdraw from him the souls of sinners the more swiftly, the more, having been made suitable merchants, they display within themselves the most ample storehouses of virtues. For because through the preachers of God the property possessed by this Leviathan is very laudably divided, the voice of truth promises through the prophet, saying: 'And if thou wilt separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth' (Jer. XV, 19).

For he separates the precious from the vile who sunders human minds from the reprobate imitation of the ancient enemy. Rightly is he called the mouth of God, because through him without doubt the divine utterances are formed. There follows: