約伯倫理 第 975 章

53. Lamentable is the state of the soul when enemies rush into it, the wall of faith being broken, or the fence of discipline destroyed. — What in this place is called by the name of a wall, if not the Redeemer of the human race? Of whom, for the building up of the holy Church, it is said through the prophet: A wall and a bulwark shall be set in her (Isa. xxvi, 1). For he is a wall to us, who forbids the course of malignant spirits from reaching to our hearts. He who set also a bulwark for our faith, because, before he showed himself through the flesh, he sent the prophets, the preachers of his mystery. Rightly indeed are they called by the name of a bulwark (fore-wall), because, while they preached the Lord who was to follow, they stood as it were before the wall.

But the wall is, as it were, broken when, by the persuasions of the depraved, the faith which is in our Redeemer is scattered in the heart of certain ones. And when power is granted to the perverse in this life, what else is opened but the door of error? As, then, with the wall broken and the door opened, the evil rush upon the good, when, having received power for a time, the perverse endeavour to destroy, even in the hearts of certain ones, the very defences of the faith. Of whom it is fitly said: And they are rolled down unto my miseries, because, namely, first unto their own. For unless by living perversely they first fell unto their own miseries, they would by no means afterward persuade others unto them as well.

But the reprobate, after their own, are also rolled down unto our miseries, when they draw unto those evils in which they are already entangled certain ones who were united to us. 54. It can also be understood by the name of a wall the defence of discipline; Solomon attesting it, who says: I passed by the field of the slothful man, and by the vineyard of the foolish man; and behold, nettles had wholly filled it, thorns had covered its face, and the fence of stones was destroyed (Prov. xxiv, 30, 31). For to pass by the field of the slothful man and by the vineyard of the foolish man is to inspect anyone's life with negligence, and to consider his works.

Which nettles or thorns fill, because in the heart of the negligent there sprout up itching earthly desires and the prickings of vices; since indeed it is written: In desires is every idle man (Prov. xxi, 25, according to the Septuagint). The fence of stones was destroyed, that is, the discipline of the fathers was dissolved from his heart. For because, the fence of stones being destroyed, he saw that discipline was dissolved, he straightway there added by way of continuation: Which when I had seen, I laid it up in my heart, and by the example I learned discipline (Prov. xxiv, 32). As, then, with the wall broken, the enemy enters in, when, by the crafty persuasion either of malignant spirits or of depraved men, the defences of discipline are scattered in the heart.

But when the vigour of that same discipline is loosed in the heart of the reprobate, before their eyes all the works of honourable men are held in contempt, and they reckon to be nothing whatever they see of the virtues of the elect. Whence it is subjoined: