Caput XI
The Arrows of God's Word
Odo teaches that God's words are sharp arrows, yet many are so possessed by the wicked enemy that no preaching can reach them.
There are, however, many who do not deign to hear the words of God even with the ear of the body, whom the wicked enemy possesses in such a way that he abandons them with no dart of preaching left in them — just as it is said by God to the blessed Job concerning that same enemy: "An archer will not put him to flight" (Job 41:19). The words of God are arrows, as in that passage: "Your arrows are sharp" (Ps.✦ 44:6).
The Bow of Two Testaments
The bow signifies the Old Testament in its rigor and the New Testament in its mercy, and those fully seized by the enemy scorn the words of preachers.
Now the bow, which is made from horn and cord, signifies the Old Testament because of the hardness of its rigor, and the New Testament because of the flexibility of its mercy: because anyone who is fully seized by it already scorns to hear the words of those who preach.
Abandonment to Demons
When sins anger the Lord, He justly abandons the hardened to demons from whom no preacher's exhortation can deliver them.
Therefore, when preceding sins have angered the Lord, he abandons those whom he deserts by just judgment, and through the prophet he says: "I will send among you serpents, basilisks, against which there is no charm" (Jer. 8:17); that is, "I will hand you over to such demons, who by no exhortation of preachers — as if by the spells of enchanters — can be shaken off from you."
Read the original Latin
Sunt autem plerique qui verba Dei nec aure corporis audire dignantur, quos malignus hostis ita possidet, ut eos nullo confessos praedicationis jaculo derelinquat: sicut a Deo ad beatum Job de eodem hoste dicitur: Non fugabit eum vir sagittarius (Job XLI, 19). Sagittae sunt verba Domini, ut est illud: Sagittae tuae acutae (Psal. XLIV, 6). Arcus vero qui ex cornu fit et corda, Vetus Testamentum propter rigoris duritiam, et Novum propter misericordiae flexibilitatem significat: quia quisquis ab illo plene capitur, verba praedicantium jam audire dedignatur. Unde peccatis praecedentibus irascens Dominus, his quos justo judicio deserit per prophetam dicit: Immittam in vobis serpentes regulos, quibus non est incantatio (Jer. VIII, 17); id est talibus daemonibus vos tradam, qui nulla praedicantium exhortatione quasi incantantium carminibus a vobis excutiantur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.45.6 — Your arrows are sharp — peoples fall beneath you — in the heart of the king's enemies.
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