CAPUT XLIII. Quod veri zelatoris sit vigilare, non solum contra saevitiam, sed etiam contra fraudulentiam

CAPUT XLIII. Quod veri zelatoris sit vigilare, non solum contra saevitiam, sed etiam contra fraudulentiam

"Zebulun," it says, "will live by the seashore, and at the harbor of ships, reaching as far as Sidon." So what reason do you think there is for him to live on the shore, if not to fortify the outer edges of the land and, as a stronghold, protect the weaker members of the Church? So he sets himself against the dangers of those he sees worn down by the relentless storms of persecution. For—so that he may always be ready to bring help to those who are shipwrecked—he stays, as it is written of him, at the harbor of ships. For he knows how to warm with gentle consolation those crushed by long temptations, who have suffered a kind of shipwreck and are already almost broken; how to lift them to safety and call them back to something like a harbor of calm.¹ So in this way Zebulun will live by the seashore at the harbor of ships, reaching as far as Sidon. So, extending himself more widely along the seashores and racing this way and that—while he keeps watch on every side for the protection of his own, while he prepares himself everywhere against the enemy's assault—he reaches even as far as Sidon.^✦ Sidon is interpreted as "hunting," by which the fraud of deceptions is rightly enough understood.² So this Zebulun works hard not only to lift up the weak against the rage of those who persecute them, but also to snatch the simple out of the hunters' snare. So he reaches all the way to Sidon when he uncovers the enemy's cunning ambushes, when he exposes the fraudulent schemes of false brothers—whose talk, as the Apostle says, spreads like cancer. For this is the hunters' snare, like a net of malicious spirits hunting simple souls—namely the tongue of flatterers, the tongue of slanderers, of those who sow discord among brothers and stir up anger and quarrels. So Zebulun reaches all the way to Sidon when he thwarts the ambusher's crafty scheme—whether from malicious spirits or from faithless people.³ For we know that this kind of hunting of souls happens, sometimes through the hidden suggestion of demons, sometimes through the open persuasion of people. Still, Zebulun knows how to carefully catch both and carefully expose them.⁴ So he establishes the dwelling of his fortitude facing the sea, on the border of Sidon, so that on one side he may keep watch against the savagery of persecutors, and on the other against the deceit of those who lie in wait—and so that what is written of him may be fulfilled: Zebulun will live on the seashore, at the harbor of ships, reaching all the way to Sidon.