|
WE ought then carefully to notice this threefold order, and with a wise
discretion to analyse the thoughts which arise in our hearts, tracking out
their origin and cause and author in the first instance, that we may be
able to consider how we ought to yield ourselves to them in accordance with
the of those who suggest them so that we may, desert as the Lord's command
bids us, become good money-changers, whose highest skill and whose
training is to test what is perfectly pure gold and what is commonly termed
tested, or what is not sufficiently purified in the fire; and also with
unerring skill not to be taken in by a common brass denarius, if by being
coloured with bright gold it is made like some coin of great value; and not
only shrewdly to recognize coins stamped with the heads of usurpers, but
with a still shrewder skill to detect those which have the image of the
right king, but are not properly made, and lastly to be careful by the test
of the balance to see that they are not under proper weight. All of which
things the gospel saying, which uses this figure, shows us that we ought
also to observe spiritually; first that whatever has found an entrance into
our hearts, and whatever doctrine has been received by us, should be most
carefully examined to see whether it has been purified by the divine and
heavenly fire of the Holy Ghost, or whether it belongs to Jewish
superstition, or whether it comes from the pride of a worldly philosophy
and only externally makes a show of religion. And this we can do, if we
carry out the Apostle's advice, "Believe not every spirit, but prove the
spirits whether they are of God." But by this kind those men also are
deceived, who after having been professed as monks are enticed by the grace
of style, and certain doctrines of philosophers, which at the first blush,
owing to some pious meanings not out of harmony with religion, deceive as
with the glitter of gold their hearers, whom they have superficially
attracted, but render them poor and miserable for ever, like men deceived
by false money made of copper: either bringing them back to the bustle of
this world, or enticing them into the errors of heretics, and bombastic
conceits: a thing which we read of as happening to Achan in the book of
Joshua the son of Nun, when he coveted a golden weight from the camp of
the Philistines, and stole it, and was smitten with a curse and condemned
to eternal death. In the second place we should be careful to see that no
wrong interpretation fixed on to the pure gold of Scripture deceives us as
to the value of the metal: by which means the devil in his craft tried to
impose upon our Lord and Saviour as if He was a mere man, when by his
malevolent interpretation he perverted what ought to be understood
generally of all good men, and tried to fasten it specially on to Him, who
had no need of the care of the angels: saying, "For He shall give His
angels charge concerning Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways: and in their
hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against
a stone," by a skilful assumption on his part giving a turn to the
precious sayings of Scripture and twisting them into a dangerous sense, the
very opposite of their true meaning, so as to offer to us the image and
face of an usurper under cover of the gold colour which may deceive us. Or
whether he tries to cheat us with counterfeits, for instance by urging that
some work of piety should be taken up which as it does come from the true
minds of the fathers, leads under the form of virtue to vice; and,
deceiving us either by immoderate or impossible fasts, or by too long
vigils, or inordinate prayers, or unsuitable reading, brings us to a bad
end. Or, when he persuades us to give ourselves up to mixing in the affairs
of others, and to pious visits, by which he may drive us away from the
spiritual cloisters of the monastery, and the secrecy of its friendly
peacefulness, and suggests that we take on our shoulders the anxieties and
cares of religious women who are in want, that when a monk is inextricably
entangled in snares of this sort he may distract him with most injurious
occupations and cares. Or else when he incites a man to desire the holy
office of the clergy under the pretext of edifying many people, and the
love of spiritual gain, by which to draw us away from the humility and
strictness of our life. All of which things, although they are opposed to
our salvation and to our profession, yet when covered with a sort of veil
of compassion and religion, easily deceive those who are lacking in skill
and care. For they imitate the coins of the true king, because they seem at
first full of piety, but are not stamped by those who have the right to
coin, i.e., the approved Catholic fathers, nor do they proceed from the
head public office for receiving them, but are made by stealth and by the
fraud of the devil, and palmed off upon the unskilful and ignorant not
without serious harm. And even although they seem to be useful and needful
at first, yet if afterwards they begin to interfere with the soundness of
our profession, and as it were to weaken in some sense the whole body of
our purpose, it is well that they should be cut off and cast away from us
like a member which may be necessary, but yet offends us and which seems to
perform the office of the right hand or foot. For it is better, without one
member of a command, i.e., its working or result, to continue safe and
sound in other parts, and to enter as weak into the kingdom of heaven
rather than with the whole mass of commands to fall into some error which
by an evil custom separates us from our strict rule and the system purposed
and entered upon, and leads to such loss, that it will never outweigh the
harm that will follow, but will cause all our past fruits and the whole
body of our work to be burnt in hell fire. Of which kind of illusions it
is well said in the Proverbs: "There are ways which seem to be right to a
man, but their latter end will come into the depths of hell," and again
"An evil man is harmful when he attaches himself to a good man," i.e.,
the devil deceives when he is covered with an appearance of sanctity: "but
he hates the sound of the watchman," i.e., the power of discretion which
comes from the words and warnings of the fathers.
|
|