But because, placed in the wound of his sorrow, he was accused by his rebuking friends of having acted impiously, of having been violent to his neighbors and an oppressor of the poor, the holy man, caught between the scourges of God and the words of human reproach, saw his mind gravely shaken and driven toward the pit of despair; he who could at any moment have fallen, had he not recalled his good deeds to memory, so that his spirit might be led back to hope, lest, crushed by words and wounds, he perish in despair. Therefore, when he recounts his good deeds, he does not desire, as it were, to become known to others by way of praise, but he restores his spirit to hope.
And so the just, as they sometimes speak of the good deeds they do without arrogance, so without any zeal for private glory they rebuke the tongues of those who disparage them, because they speak harmful things. But when the tongues of detractors cannot be corrected, they must be borne with equanimity through all things. Nor is the speech of slander to be feared, lest, while the reproach of the perverse is dreaded, the way of right action be abandoned. Whence now it is said to the prophet Ezekiel: 'Fear not their words, for they are unbelievers and subverters with thee' (Ezek. 2:6). 21. But they would be less evil if those who are unbelievers had not also been subverters.
For because they themselves believe neither in the rewards of the heavenly kingdom nor in the punishments of hell, abandoned in their own depravities, they subvert others too by both word and deed, so that no one else may attain the kingdom which they themselves are unwilling to seek. For when they have perceived that certain more tender souls are beginning to do good and already avoiding evil, sometimes by mocking what is promised in heaven, sometimes by despising what Almighty God threatens concerning the punishments of hell, sometimes by praising temporal goods and promising with cunning persuasion the delights of the present world, they turn aside the minds of the innocent and pervert their paths. They rejoice if they can recall any from life and drag them to death; they delight in their own depravities, and exult even in those of others.
Truly their own punishment does not suffice for these who act so that they may not die alone. But if perhaps they find some just man of such great virtue that they do not presume to speak against him, because they cannot be subverters, they at once become scorpions. For the scorpion advances by stroking, but strikes with its tail; nor does it bite from the front, but harms from behind. Scorpions, then, are all the flattering and malicious who indeed do not resist the good to their face, but as soon as they have withdrawn they disparage them, inflame others whom they can against them, inject whatever harm they can, and do not cease secretly to bring in deadly things. Scorpions, then, are those who appear flattering and harmless to the face, but behind the back carry that from which they pour out venom.
For those who strike in secret, as it were, drag on death latently. Whence also it is said through the Psalmist: 'They surrounded me like bees, and they blazed up like fire among thorns' (Ps. 117:12). For bees have honey in their mouth, a wounding sting in the tail. And all who flatter with the tongue but strike latently out of malice are bees, because by speaking they set forth the sweetness of honey, but by striking secretly they inflict a wound. But those who do such things blaze up like fire among thorns, because through the flames of detractors the life of the just is not consumed, but if there were any thorns of sins in them, these are burned up. Let it be said, then: 'They are unbelievers and subverters with thee, and thou dwellest with scorpions.'
Unbelievers, namely, toward God; subverters, indeed, toward the weaker among their neighbors; but scorpions even toward the strong and robust. Against these, though they do not presume to contradict them to their face, yet from concealment they inflict the wound of disparagement. Indeed they are unbelievers and subverters and scorpions all at once, because they both do not believe the things of God when heard, and subvert those whom they prevail over from good morals, and strike with hidden machinations those whom they cannot bend. 22. In this matter this too is to be noted, that when it is said to the prophet, 'They are unbelievers and subverters with thee, and thou dwellest with scorpions,' a medicine of consolation is offered to us, who are often wearied of living because we are unwilling to dwell with the wicked.
For we complain as to why not all who live with us are good. Unwilling to bear the evils of our neighbors, we decree that all ought already to be holy, while we are unwilling to be such as to bear with what comes from our neighbors. But in this matter it is plainer than light that, while we refuse to bear with the wicked, we ourselves are still greatly lacking in goodness. For no one is perfectly good unless he has been good even among the wicked. Hence blessed Job asserts of himself, saying: 'I was a brother to dragons, and a companion to ostriches' (Job 30:29). Hence the apostle Paul says to his disciples: 'In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world' (Phil. 2:15). Hence Peter, shepherd of the Lord's flock, says:
'He delivered righteous Lot, oppressed by the wicked conduct of the abominable; for in seeing and hearing he was righteous, dwelling among those who from day to day tormented the soul of the just man with unrighteous deeds' (2 Pet. 2:7-8). But often, when we complain about the life of our neighbors, we try to change our place, to choose the seclusion of a more remote life—evidently not knowing that if the spirit be lacking, the place does not help. For the same Lot of whom we speak stood holy in Sodom, but sinned on the mountain (Gen. 19). But that places do not fortify the mind, the very first parent of the human race bears witness, who fell even in paradise (Gen. 3). But all that we say from earth is of little worth. For if a place could have saved, Satan would not have fallen from heaven.
Whence the Psalmist, perceiving that there are temptations everywhere in this world, sought a place to which he might flee, but without God he could not find one fortified. For which reason he asked that God himself might become for him the place he sought, saying: 'Be thou to me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, that thou mayest save me' (Ps. 30:3). Therefore neighbors are everywhere to be endured, because he cannot become an Abel whom the malice of Cain does not exercise. 23. But there is one thing for which the fellowship of the wicked must be avoided: lest, if perhaps they cannot be corrected, they draw one to imitation; and while they themselves are not changed from their malice, they pervert those who have been joined to them. Whence Paul says: 'Evil conversations corrupt good morals' (1 Cor. 15:33).
And as it is said through Solomon: 'Be not a friend to an angry man, nor walk with a furious man, lest perhaps thou learn his ways, and take a stumbling-block to thy soul' (Prov. 22:24-25). Just as, then, perfect men ought not to flee perverse neighbors—since they both often draw them to rectitude and are themselves never drawn to perversity—so the weaker ought to shun the company of the depraved, lest they take delight in imitating the evils which they frequently behold and cannot correct. For thus, by hearing the words of our neighbors, we daily take them into the mind, just as by blowing and breathing we draw air into the body.
And just as bad air, drawn in by continual breathing, infects the body, so perverse speech, continually heard, infects the mind of the weak, so that it melts away in the delight of depraved action and in the iniquity of continual talk. There follows: 'Fear not their words, and be not dismayed at their faces, for they are a provoking house' (Ezek. 2:6). 24. For this reason the good are to be feared, lest they be offended, lest perhaps through them he be provoked to anger who always dwells in their hearts. For, as was said above, if we offend the wicked, we ought by no means to fear, since our action displeases those whom not even the justice of the Creator pleases. What then is to be feared, if those are ungracious to us who are not beloved by God? Whence rightly it is now said:
'Fear not their words, and be not dismayed at their faces, for they are a provoking house.' As if it were openly said: They would be to be feared, were it not that they provoke me in their deeds. Concerning these it is further added: (v. 7) 'Thou shalt speak my words to them, if perhaps they will hear, and cease, for they are provokers.' 25. Everyone who sins, what else does he do than provoke against himself the wrath of his Creator? And we know that as often as we transgress by deed, by word, by thought, so often we provoke God against us. Yet he bears with us, and mercifully waits, granting patience through himself, and through his preachers offering us the word of exhortation.
But everyone who preaches right things, if he is heard, appeases the anger of the provoked Creator over the transgressing people. Whence it is necessary that he himself ought not to do evil, which is wont to provoke in the people the fury of their Creator. For which reason it is also added: (v. 8) 'But thou, son of man, hear whatsoever I speak to thee, and be not thou provoking, as that house is provoking.' 26. That is, do not yourself do the evils which you behold being done, lest you yourself commit that which you are sent to forbid. For every preacher ought always to weigh with intent mind, lest he who is sent to raise up the fallen should himself fall with the fallen in the depravity of his work, and lest Paul's sentence should strike him, which says: 'Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself' (Rom.
2:1). Whence Balaam, filled with the Spirit of God for speaking, yet held in carnal life by his own spirit, speaks of himself, saying: 'The hearer of the words of God has said it, who knows the doctrine of the Most High, and beholds the visions of the Almighty, who falling has his eyes open' (Num. 24:4, 16). He had his eyes open while falling, who saw the right thing he should say, but scorned to live rightly—falling, that is, in perverse deed, and having his eyes open in holy preaching. 27. There is, however, another way in which it can be understood why blessed Ezekiel, who is sent to preach, is forbidden to be provoking.
For unless he obeyed when he was commanded to speak the words, he would provoke the Almighty Lord by his silence, just as the people provoke him by their perverse deed. For as the wicked provoke God because they speak or do evil things, so sometimes the good provoke him because they keep silent about good things. For those the fault is to do perverse things; for these, to keep silent about right things. In this, therefore, the good together with the wicked also provoke God, because when they do not rebuke perverse things, they grant by their silence license for those things to go forth. There follows: 'Open thy mouth, and eat whatsoever I give thee' (Ezek. 2:9). 28. We open our mouth when we speak right things;
and we eat what we receive from God, because the food of life is both bestowed and increased in our senses when we begin to preach. Whence another prophet says: 'I opened my mouth, and drew in the spirit' (Ps. 118:131). For he would not draw in the spirit unless he opened his mouth, because unless he devoted himself to preaching to his neighbors, the grace of spiritual doctrine would not have grown in him. There follows: (v. 9) 'And I saw, and behold a hand sent to me, in which was a rolled-up book; and he spread it before me, which was written within and without.' 29. Just as by the prophet the order of preachers, so by the book which he received the pages of Sacred Scripture are signified.
But the book is rolled up: the obscure utterance of Sacred Scripture, which is wrapped up in the profundity of its sentences, so that it is not easily penetrated by the understanding of all. But the book is spread out before the prophet, because before preachers the obscurity of the sacred utterance is opened. The hand of God had held out the rolled-up book when it said to the apostles: 'The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and oversowed tares in the midst of the wheat, and went away. But when the blade had grown and brought forth fruit, then appeared also the tares' (Matt. 13:24 ff.) and the rest, which your charity remembers even while I hold it back.
But he spread out the book which he had shown rolled up, when he expounded this which he had spoken through riddles, saying: 'He that sows the good seed is the Son of man. And the field is the world. But the good seed are the children of the kingdom; and the tares are the children of the wicked one. And the enemy that sowed them is the devil. But the harvest is the consummation of the age, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be in the consummation of the age' (Matt. 13:37 ff.). The rolled-up book, then, is spread out when what had been set forth obscurely is opened by breadth of understanding. The Truth spread out the rolled-up book when he wrought in the disciples that which is written:
'Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures' (Luke 24:45). 30. Concerning which book it is further added: 'Which was written within and without.' For the book of the sacred utterance is written within through allegory, without through history; within through the spiritual understanding, without through the simple sense of the letter, still suited to the weak. Within, because it promises invisible things; without, because by the rectitude of its precepts it orders visible things. Within, because it pledges heavenly things; without, because it prescribes how earthly and contemptible things are, whether to be used in practice or to be fled from desire. For it speaks of one thing concerning heavenly secrets, and commands another in outward actions.
And indeed the things which it commands outwardly are plain, but those which it relates concerning inward things cannot be fully grasped. Whence it is written: 'Stretching out the heaven like a skin, who coverest with waters its upper parts' (Ps. 103:2-3). For what is signified by the name of heaven but Sacred Scripture? From which shine for us both the sun of wisdom, and the moon of knowledge, and, from the ancient Fathers, the stars of examples and virtues. And this is stretched out like a skin, because, formed by its writers in the language of the flesh, it is unfolded before our eyes by being expounded through the words of teachers. But what is signified by the name of waters but the most holy choirs of angels? Of whom it is written: 'And let the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord' (Ps. 148:4).
The Lord covers with waters the upper parts of this heaven, because the heights of the sacred utterance—that is, those things which it relates concerning the nature of the divinity or concerning the eternal joys—are, while we still know them not, known in secret to the angels alone. This heaven, then, is both stretched out before us, and yet its upper parts are covered with waters, because both certain things of the sacred utterance are already full for us through the opening of the spirit, and certain things which can be manifest to the angels alone are still kept hidden from us.
Yet of those hidden things we already perceive a part through spiritual understanding, we have already received the pledge of the Holy Spirit, because we both do not yet know these things fully, and yet love them from the marrow, and in many spiritual senses which we have already come to know, we are fed on the food of truth. 31. Let it be said, then: 'Which was written within and without,' because in the sacred utterance the strong are satisfied by the more hidden and sublime sayings, and we little ones are nourished by the more open precepts. Whence it is written: 'The high mountains for the harts, the rock a refuge for the hedgehogs' (Ps. 103:18). Let the mountains have understanding, who already know how to make the leaps of contemplation.
But let the rock be a refuge for the hedgehogs, because we little ones, covered with the thorns of our sins, though we cannot understand the high things, are saved in the refuge of our rock—that is, in faith in Christ. Whence to certain ones it is said: 'I judged not myself to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified' (1 Cor. 2:2). As if he said: Because I judged that you could not grasp the lofty mysteries of the divinity, I spoke to you only the weak things of his humanity. There follows: 'And there were written in it lamentations, and song, and woe.' 32. That song is sometimes used in a good sense, sometimes in a bad, there is no doubt, because we can speak of both a joyful song and a mournful song.
But following the usage of Sacred Scripture, which almost always sets down 'song' in matters of prosperity, we take the song spoken of in this place as spoken in a good sense. For when Almighty God had freed his people from the Red Sea, it is written: 'Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord' (Exod. 15:1). And when he had made David victorious over his enemies, it is written: 'David spoke to the Lord the words of this song' (2 Sam. 22:1). Solomon also says: 'Vinegar upon nitre, and he that sings songs to a very bad heart' (Prov. 25:20). For if vinegar is put upon nitre, the nitre at once seethes and boils over.
And a perverse mind, when it is corrected by rebuke, or persuaded to good by the sweetness of preaching, is made worse by the correction; and is thereby kindled into the iniquity of murmuring, whence it ought to have been restrained from iniquity. Through Elihu also it is said of the ungrateful man who despairs of himself: 'And he said not, Where is he that made me, who gave songs in the night?' (Job 35:10). For 'songs in the night' is joy in tribulation. We take 'song in the night' when in present distresses we console ourselves with future joys. The apostle showed us song in the night when he said: 'Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation' (Rom. 12:12). David indicates that he has song in the night, saying:
'Thou art my refuge from the distress that has surrounded me; my exultation, deliver me from those that surround me' (Ps. 31:7). For he who relates that he is surrounded by distresses, and yet names God as his exultation, without doubt sings a song in the night. Since, therefore, Sacred Scripture has almost always been accustomed to set 'song' in a good sense, so it ought to be understood by us also in this place. 33. But 'woe' in Sacred Scripture is more often wont to be understood of eternal grief than of present. Whence it is written: 'Woe to the wicked unto evil; for the reward of his hands shall be given him' (Isa. 3:11). And blessed Job speaks, saying: 'If I be wicked, woe is me; but if just, I shall not lift up my head, being filled with affliction and misery' (Job 10:15).
For the affliction of the just is temporal. The 'woe,' then, which he spoke, he distinguished from temporal affliction, in that he declared the just man to have affliction and the wicked man to have 'woe.' Through his very self the Truth also says: 'Woe to the world because of scandals' (Matt. 18:7), and, 'Woe to you that laugh, for you shall weep' (Luke 6:25). And, 'Woe to them that are with child and that give suck in those days' (Luke 21:23). We must therefore ponder how these three are written in the sacred volume: lamentations, song, and woe. 34. Lamentations, namely, because in it is written the penitence of sinners. Song, because in it are foretold the joys of the just. But woe, because there is expressed the damnation of the reprobate. If, then, you sin,
punish it by the lamentations which are written in this volume: 'Rend your hearts, and not your garments' (Joel 2:13). And again: 'Be afflicted, and mourn; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to sorrow' (James 4:9). But that you may grow glad concerning the promise of the joy that follows, learn the songs of eternal praise which are written in this volume: 'Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord; for ever and ever they shall praise thee' (Ps. 83:5). And as it is said by a certain wise man concerning the heavenly Jerusalem: 'And all her streets shall be paved with precious and clean stone, and through all her lanes alleluia shall be sung' (Tob. 13:22).
This song of the heavenly homeland its citizens had come to announce to us, who cried out in harmony: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will' (Luke 2:14). But if you still cling with your mind to the present world, if you still take delight in earthly pleasures, you cannot love the eternal joys which you hear of. Know, then, in this volume the 'woe' which is written in it, and expel from your soul through fear that which you love, so that you may be able of your own judgment to love the song which you read. For there, under the appearance of one condemned man, the whole multitude of the reprobate is expressed, when it is said by the voice of Truth: 'Bind his feet and hands, and cast him into the outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth' (Matt. 22:13).
For then the reprobate fall into the outer darkness, because now they of their own will have cast themselves down into the inner ones, so that they follow not the light of truth either by believing or by working well. In which they are commanded to be cast bound in feet and hands, because now, while it is the time of working and running, they were unwilling to have their hands and feet free in good action. There the 'woe' of the reprobate is written: 'Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched' (Isa. 66:24). There it is said to the damned and rejected: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matt. 25:41). In this volume, therefore, are contained written all things that build up, all that instruct.
For you have sinned, and now it repents you to have strayed into unlawful things, that you may be taught to do penance—there you find lamentations. If you desire to lift up your mind with the hope of heavenly joys, there you find for your consolation the song. But if you have both perpetrated evils, and it does not repent you to have perpetrated these, but you lift up the neck of your mind, you bow to no lamentations of penitence, you are corrected by no expectation of heavenly joys—then, whether you will or not, there you shall hear the 'woe' written, so that he whom neither fear humbles to penitence nor hope lifts to the heavenly rewards may even now foresee the penalty of his own damnation, and without excuse fall into eternal punishment. 35.
What then, brethren, what is to be done by us wretched ones, save that we awake to the words of this volume, and punish with weeping the evils which we remember having done, so that through the lamentations of penitence we may attain to the song of life? Lest, if we are unwilling now to be afflicted by doing penance, we afterward feel the 'woe' without end. Nor let the multitude of our wounds cast us down into despair, because greater is the power of the physician than the magnitude of our sickness. For what is it that he cannot restore to health, who was able to create all things out of nothing? For the Only-begotten is coeternal with the Almighty Father, who lives and reigns with him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.