Caput XXII
The Danger of Impunity
The spiritually discerning person recognizes that God's delay in punishing sin is itself a sign of coming judgment, not a license to sin.
The spiritual person, according to the Apostle, discerns all things, but the unspiritual person does not perceive what is spiritual.✦ And so these people, measuring nothing by the faith, because their contempt is not immediately rebuked by some clear sign of manifest vengeance, neglect to tremble at the judgment to come — since they do not experience it in the present — and for that reason they are headlong toward sinning, but slow to correct themselves. Whence it is written: evils are multiplied on the earth because sentence is not quickly pronounced against offenders. And certainly they are condemned with a worse punishment then, when no adversity is set against them — because, as it is said in the twenty-sixth book of the Moralia, God reserves for eternal punishment those whom He does not restrain from their own depravities through temporal afflictions. Hence it is written: He struck His enemies in the back, not in the present, and He gave them reproach — not temporary, but everlasting (Ps. LXXVII, 66). In the same way, holy Noah condemned his wicked son — not in the son himself, but in the posterity of his seed.✦ Therefore let not rebels flatter themselves about impunity, because now God is permitted to prevail more penally, and it is a sign of manifest damnation when, with no opposition hindering their efforts, the outcome that follows favors them.
A Warning from a Doctor's Death
A priest's excommunication of a contemptuous doctor, who died immediately after drinking in defiance, serves as a visible sign of God's present judgment on those who demand signs rather than faith.
For indeed, because God — as it is written — leaves no time without testimony of His power, He punishes many even in our own age with a vengeance to be feared, as that case was.1 Some years before this, when the feast of Saint Andrew had fallen on the first Sunday of the Lord's Advent, a certain priest — just as the precentor of the church of Tours claims — ordered his parishioners to hear both Masses.2 Among them was a doctor who, having heard the first Mass, left. When the priest rebuked him sharply, the doctor responded gravely.3 And the priest excommunicated him. But the doctor, angry, went home, and in contempt of the excommunication he soon took a drink, and at once began to be tormented, until he breathed out his soul. If those people had seen this, perhaps they would have feared — the ones to whom that reproach applies: 'A wicked and adulterous generation seeks a sign' (Matt. 12:39).
Learning to Fear God Through Affliction
Most people only learn to fear God when adversity—whether their own or another's—makes His power visible.
As that line from Job says: "You see my wound, and you are afraid" (Job 6:21) — because most people don't know how to fear God, unless they've been frightened by adversity experienced either in themselves or in others.✦45
Read the original Latin
Spiritalis, juxta Apostolum, omnia dijudicat, sed animalis homo non percipit spiritalia. Quapropter et isti nihil secundum fidem metientes, pro eo quod contemptus eorum non statim per aliquod manifestae ultionis signum redarguitur, negligunt futurum examen contremiscere, quod ad praesens non experiuntur, et idcirco ad peccandum sunt praecipites, ad corrigendum vero difficiles. Unde scriptum est, quia propter hoc multiplicantur mala in terra, quod non cito profertur sententia contra delinquentes. Et certe tunc pejore ultione damnantur, cum eis nulla adversitate resistitur: quia videlicet ut in Moralium libro XXVI dicitur, eos Deus ad supplicium aeternum reservat, quos per temporales afflictiones a suis pravitatibus non refrenat. Hinc scriptum est: Percussit inimicos suos in posteriora, non in praesenti, et opprobrium, non temporale, sed sempiternum dedit illis (Psal. LXXVII, 66). Hinc sanctus Noe filium suum reprobum, non in ipso, sed in posteritate seminis ejus damnavit. Non ergo rebelles sibi de impunitate blandiantur, quia nunc Deus magis poenaliter praevalere permittitur, et manifestae damnationis indicium est, quando conatibus eorum nulla contrarietate impediente subsequens favet effectus.
Etenim quia Deus, ut scriptum est, nullum tempus sine testimonio suae virtutis derelinquit, multos etiam nostra aetate pavenda ultio punit, ut illud fuit. Cum ante hos annos sancti Andreae solemnitas in prima Dominica Dominici Adventus concurrisset, quidam sacerdos, sicut Turonicae ecclesiae praecentor, asserit pagensibus suis utrasque missas audire praecepit. Inter quos erat quidem medicus, qui audita prima missa discessit. Quem cum sacerdos increpasset, grave ei respondit. Et ille excommunicavit eum. At vero medicus ad domum suam iratus discessit, et in contemptum excommunicationis mox potum accepit, atque protinus vexari coepit quousque animam exhalaret. Si isti hoc vidissent forsitan timuissent, quibus illa exprobratio congruit: Generatio prava et adultera signum quaerit (Matth. XII, 39).
Ut illud Job: Videntes plagam meam timetis (Job VI, 21), quia plerique Deum timere nesciunt, nisi cum vel in se, vel in aliis experta adversitate terrentur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.2.14-1Cor.2.15 — But the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1Cor.2.15 — The spiritual person discerns all things, yet is discerned by no one.
- ↩Gen.9.24-Gen.9.27 — When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. Gen.9.25 — And he said, 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.' Gen.9.26 — And he said, 'Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be a servant to them.' Gen.9.27 — May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be a servant to them.
- ↩Job.6.21 — For now you have become nothing to him; you see calamity and you are afraid.
Notes
- 1 ↩The second 'ut' (token 20) introduces a result/comparative clause ('as that was'), referring back to the punishment just described.
- 2 ↩'Cum' with the pluperfect subjunctive 'concurrisset' is rendered temporally ('when'), though a causal reading ('since') is also possible.
- 3 ↩'Cum' with the pluperfect subjunctive 'increpasset' rendered temporally; 'grave' functions adverbially ('gravely/sharply') modifying 'respondit'.
- 4 ↩Citation resolved to Job 6:21 (Vulgate numbering); the Vulgate text reads 'Vides plagam meam et timetis.' Candidate allusion retained pending Moses final resolution.
- 5 ↩'To fear God' rendered as 'fear God' in the sense of reverential awe, not mere terror — preserving the theological weight of the fear of the Lord.
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