約伯倫理 第 658 章

Same verse. — And thirst shall burn against him. 14. When he finds himself bound, the sinner's concupiscence burns the more keenly. — For our ancient enemy, when he ensnares life in sin, thirsts to drink the death of the sinner. This, however, can also be understood otherwise. For the perverse mind, when it beholds itself to have come into sin, seeks by a certain surface of thought to escape the snares of sin; but fearing either the terrors or the reproaches of men, it chooses to die eternally rather than to endure for a time some adversity. Whence it forsakes itself wholly to the vices by which it now feels itself once bound. Of him therefore whose life is constrained in guilt even to the end, the heel is held by a snare.

But because he reckons himself bound by evils, and thereby despairs of his return, by that very despair he burns the more keenly toward the concupiscences of this world; the fervour of desires arises in his mind, and the soul, ensnared by preceding sins, is kindled to yet greater transgressions. Whence it is also added: And thirst shall burn against him. For in his soul thirst burns against him, because whereby he was accustomed to act perversely, thereby he is vehemently kindled to drink in evils. For the ungodly man, to thirst is to covet the goods of this world. Whence our Redeemer also heals a dropsical man before the house of the Pharisee, and when he was disputing against avarice, it is written: Now the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him (Luke xiv, 12;

xvi, 4). What then is it that a dropsical man is healed before the house of the Pharisee, except that through the sickness of another's body, the sickness of the heart is expressed in another? For the dropsical man, the more he drinks, the more he thirsts; and every covetous man multiplies thirst from drinking, because when he has obtained the things he craves, he pants the more after craving others. For he who by obtaining craves the more, of him thirst grows from drinking. There follows: