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← De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah)/Book 3 · De Arca Noe Morali — Liber 3
Chapter 4ArcaN.3.4

De radicatione arboris sapientiae per fidem.

Rooted in the Earth

The faithless are identified as those who fix their roots in earthly things, ignoring God and the life to come.

The fourth point is that it is rooted through faith. There are three kinds of people: the faithless, the weak in faith, and the faithful. The faithless are the nations who ignore God, who don't believe the Gospel of Christ, and who think there is no other life beyond this one, which is lived temporally here. These people drive their roots into the earth, because the more they desire present things, the less they understand the lasting goods that follow. They chase after earthly things and seek to be happy in this life, because they think that after this life they will be nothing at all. Among the number of these was that fool who is mocked by Eliphaz in the book of Job. I have seen, he says, a fool with deep roots, and I immediately cursed his beauty.✦ A fool is someone who doesn't know what he was made for, who believes there is nothing beyond what he can see, who cannot foresee the evils that await him, and who loves these passing and deceptive goods as though they would last forever.

The Fool's Deep Roots

Scripture portrays the fool who seems firmly rooted in prosperity but is cursed because his momentary goods will give way to evils.

This one sometimes seems firmly rooted while he flourishes for a time, but the wise one immediately curses his beauty, because after these momentary goods he recognizes that he must be seized by evils. The psalmist also says about this fool: The fool said in his heart, 'There is no God,' and then, with his accomplices counted alongside him. The fear of God is not before their eyes, he says. For how can those who don't believe that God exists fear God? From this it follows, then, that those whom the fear of God does not reach cannot attain to the very beginning of wisdom either.

The Rootless Faith-Weak

Those weak in faith are shown to have no true roots, wavering between belief and doubt about future rewards and punishments.

Now, then, let's look at those we listed second: whether they have roots, or where they've put them down. They don't seem to have roots. For they are weak in faith, and though something of the truth has already been made convincing to them, they still waver with a kind of uncertain, wavering judgment of mind about what is reported in sacred speech concerning the future rewards of good or the punishments of evil — they don't entirely reject it, yet they don't fully accept it either.

Envy and the Near-Falling of the Faithful

Even those who begin in fear and desire are shaken when they see the wicked prosper, leading to envy, private doubt, and the near-falling described by the Prophet.

People observe certain things happening in this world from which it can be understood both that God exists and that he cares for human affairs, and that all human deeds, whether good or evil, are being kept for judgment. Considering this, then, they begin to fear what God threatens, and struck by this fear they set out to do what he commands and to avoid what he forbids. And it sometimes happens that after being exercised by this fear for a time, they no longer merely fear what God threatens but also begin, with a certain inward affection, to desire what he promises.1 But when they see the wicked flourishing in this world and many other things in this life happening in such a confused order that it seems the world is in no way governed by God's providence but that all events happen by chance, they immediately begin to envy the peace of sinners and to want to flourish in this world themselves.2 In their private thoughts they say that it's pointless to fear judgment, that there's nothing to the torments of hell and the punishments of the wicked that foolish people have imagined — that these came from fear, not from truth. For surely if God were to weigh human deeds so strictly, he would declare it with such clear signs that no one could ever doubt.34 Finally, it's utterly irrational to abandon certain things for the sake of uncertain ones, and in pursuing invisible realities — which may or may not truly exist, since people may have merely imagined them — to despise the good things that are certain and present, which common human judgment and experience prove to be not only good but also deeply necessary for human nature, especially when God is shown to have created all these things solely for human benefit.56 And so no wrong is done to God if people use the good things he created for no other purpose than that people should enjoy them.7 People like this, who know how to evaluate their faith only by the uncertain outcomes of events, can't be steadfast. For just as they readily believe the word of truth for a time because of a certain lightness of mind, so too they readily fall away from the truth of faith in a time of testing, because when tempted, what is false is easily persuasive to them — which is why they were already doubting even when they seemed to stand firm.8 The Prophet portrayed the character of such people in himself when he said: My feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.✦

The Faithful Vineyard Planted in God

The faithful are contrasted with the faithless: they are rooted and founded in God through faith and love, like a vineyard planted and permanently established by the Lord.

Because I was jealous of sinners when I saw the peace of sinners.✦ And shortly after: 'How,' they say, 'does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?' — because sinners themselves, abundant in the world, have obtained riches.✦ For these people question and doubt, and are tossed about by certain surges of their own thoughts, not knowing which way they should rather incline the judgment of their own mind. They cannot believe, and they do not presume to deny. Their assertion is doubtful, and their faith suspect. But those who are faithful have roots — yet not as unbelievers fix their roots in this world, but they are rooted and founded in God through faith and love. They are the vineyard of the Lord of Sorec, a faithful vineyard, a just vineyard, which the good farmer himself planted — rather, transplanted — because he transferred it from Egypt, and cast out the nations, and planted it.✦✦ Concerning these, the Lord says elsewhere through the prophet: 'I will plant them on their own ground, and I will never again uproot them.'✦

Sending Roots Downward, Bearing Fruit Upward

The faithful cling to God as their soil and homeland, sending roots downward into inner joys and bearing fruit upward in the heavenly homeland, so that faith becomes the root of wisdom.

Our soil and homeland is God, in which we are planted when we cling to him through devotion of mind, saying with the Psalmist: For my part, to cling to God is good, to place my hope in the Lord God.✦ Clearly, we will no longer be uprooted from this soil if we remain in its love right to the end. Concerning this rooting as well, the Holy Spirit says through the prophet: Whatever remains of the house of Judah will send roots downward and will bear fruit upward.✦ For in the remains of the house of Judah the faithful are signified, who send roots downward because they fix every thought of their heart on inner joys. But they bear fruit upward because in the heavenly homeland, which they always seek through love in this life, they afterward receive the gifts of life in recompense. Therefore what unbelievers deny, and what the weak in faith doubt, the faithful both believe and expect. And what unbelievers love, the weak in faith are jealous of; this the faithful flee. Faith, then, is that by which wisdom takes root, because through faith the soul is strengthened and the disposition is firmly established.

The Necessity of Firm Faith

Wavering faith cannot produce perfect fear or love of God; only a firm and unshaken faith keeps devotion from becoming lax and confirms the good things received.

But whoever wavers in faith can be perfect neither in the fear of God nor in the love of God. For we fear what we suspect differently than we fear what we believe. What we believe, we fear perfectly; but what we suspect, this we for the most part neglect to fear, precisely because out of our very doubt we fall into a kind of pernicious security, so that we now believe only what we perceive does not conflict with our own desire to be the just thing, with the result that often our mind, deceived, should suppose this rather to be about to come about which it more desires to happen to itself. So then, so that our fear is neither lax nor our devotion lukewarm, we must hold a firm and unshaken faith, through which, firmly rooted, we may confirm the good things we received in the three preceding sections.

Read the original Latin

Quarto dictum est, quod per fidem radicatur. Tria sunt genera hominum: infideles, infirmi in fide, fideles. Infideles sunt gentes, quae ignorant, Deum quae non credunt Evangelio Christi, qui praeter hanc vitam, qua temporaliter hic vivitur, aliam vitam nullam esse arbitrantur. Hi in terra radices figunt, quia eo magis praesentibus inhiant, quo bona perpetua, quae sequuntur minus noverunt. Terrena ambiunt felices hic esse quaerunt, quia post hanc vitam se nihil futuros esse existimant. De numero istorum fuit stultus ille, qui in libro Job, per Eliphaz subsannatur. Vidi, inquit, stultum firma radice et maledixi pulchritudini ejus statim. Stultus est, qui ignorat ad quid factus sit, qui praeter id quod videt nihil esse credit, qui quae sibi mala restant praevidere nescit, atque haec peritura et falsa quaedam bona, quasi semper sint permansura, diligit.

Hic aliquando firmiter radicatus esse videtur, dum temporaliter floret, sed sapiens ejus pulchritudini statim maledicit, quia post haec momentanea bona ad quae sit mala rapiendus agnoscit. De hoc quoque stulto Psalmista dicit: Dixit insipiens in corde suo, non est Deus; et deinde annumeratis complicibus ejus. Non est, inquit, timor Dei ante oculos eorum. Quomodo enim timere Deum possint, qui esse Deum non credunt? Unde consequenter ostenditur, quod eos, ad quos Dei timor non pervenit, etiam ad ipsum principium sapientiae pertingere non contingit. Nunc jam videamus de iis, quos secundos numeravimus, an sint radicati, aut ubi fixerint radices suas. Non videntur ii habere radices. Infirmi enim in fide sunt, quibus jam aliquid persuasum est de veritate, sed adhuc in quadam ancipiti mentis sententia fluctuantes, iis quae in sacro eloquio de futuris praemiis bonorum, vel poenis malorum referuntur, nec omnino contradicunt, nec prorsus acquiescunt.

Vident enim quaedam in hoc mundo sic geri, ex quibus et Deum esse, et humana curare possit intelligi, et quod cuncta hominum facta, sive bona, sive mala, reserventur ad judicium. Hoc ergo considerantes timere incipiunt, quod minatur Deus, atque hoc timore percussi quod jubet facere, et quod prohibet vitare proponunt, et fit nonnunquam, ut cum ad tempus hoc timore exercitati fuerint, jam non solum timeant quod minatur Deus, sed etiam quodam mentis affectu appetere incipiant quod promittit. Sed cum rursum malos in hoc mundo florere conspiciunt, et multa alia in hac vita, ita confuso ordine volui, ut nequaquam mundus per providentiam Dei gubernari, sed omnium rerum eventus fortuitis subjacere casibus videantur continuo zelare incipiunt pacem peccatorum, et in hoc mundo ipsi quoque florere concupiscunt. Tacitis sibi cogitationibus dicunt, vanum esse timere judicium, nihil esse quod stulti homines de poenis inferni, et de suppliciis malorum confinxerunt, ex timore non ex veritate hoc processisse, cum utique Deus si ita districte facta hominum pensaret, tam manifestis indiciis hoc declararet, ut nemo deinceps ambigere potuisset. Postremo autem valde esse a ratione alienum, pro incertis certa relinquere, et sectando invisibilia quaedam, quae utrum vere sint, an decepti homines ea ita esse finxerunt, nemini unquam scire datum est, certa et praesentia bona, quae commune hominum judicium et sensus probat, non solum bona esse, sed etiam humanae naturae valde necessaria, quadam improba praesumptione contemnere maxime cum haec omnia Deus non nisi ad utilitatem hominum creasse probetur. Et idcirco Deo non fieri injuriam si utantur bonis; quae non ob aliud nisi ut homines eis uterentur creavit. Isti ergo tales, qui fidem suam non nisi secundum incertos rerum eventus pensare noverunt, non possunt esse stabiles, quia sicut quadam mentis levitate facile verbo veritatis ad tempus credunt, ita etiam facile in tempore tentationis a fide veritatis recedunt, quia facile cum tentantur falsum esse persuadetur, unde et prius dubitabant etiam cum stare videbantur. Talium hominum typum in se Propheta expressit cum diceret: Mei autem pene moti sunt pedes, pene effusi sunt gressus mei.

Quia zelavi in peccatoribus pacem peccatorum videns. Et paulo post: Quomodo, inquiunt, scit Deus; et est scientia in Excelso, quia ipsi peccatores et abundantes in saeculo obtinuerunt divitias. Interrogant enim isti, et dubitant, et quibusdam cogitationum suarum aestibus circumferuntur nescientes ad quam partem potius sententiam suae mentis inclinent. Credere non possunt et negare non praesumunt. Assertio dubia est, et fides suspecta. Qui autem fideles sunt, ii radices habent, sed non sicut increduli radices figunt in hoc mundo, sed sunt per fidem et dilectionem radicati et fundati in Deo. Isti sunt vinea Domini Sorec, vinea fidelis, vinea justa, quam ipse bonus agricola plantavit, imo transplantavit, quia de Aegypto transtulit, et ejecit gentes, et plantavit eam. De his alibi Dominus per prophetam dicit: Plantabo eos super humum suam, et non evellam eos amplius.

Humus namque, et patria nostra Deus est, in quo plantamur, quando ei per devotionem mentis adhaeremus dicentes cum Psalmista: Mihi autem adhaerere Deo bonum est, ponere in Domino Deo spem meam. De qua videlicet humo amplius non evellimur, si usque in finem in ejus dilectione permanemus. De hac quoque radicatione Spiritus sanctus per prophetam dicit: Quodcunque reliquum fuerit de domo Judae mittet radices deorsum, et faciet fructum sursum. In reliquiis enim domus Judae fideles significantur, qui radicem deorsum mittunt, quia omnem cogitationem cordis sui ad interna gaudia defigunt. Fructum autem sursum faciunt, quia in superna patria, quam in hac vita per amorem semper requirunt, vitae dona postmodum in retributione percipiunt. Quod ergo infideles negant, et de quo infirmi in fide dubitant, fideles et credunt et exspectant. Et quod infideles diligunt, infirmi autem in fide zelant, hoc fideles fugiunt. Fides igitur est, per quam radicat sapientia, quia per fidem firmatur animus, et constabilitur affectus.

Qui autem in fide haesitat, hic neque in timore Dei, neque in amore Dei perfectus esse potest. Aliter enim timemus quod suspicamur, aliter timemus quod credimus. Quod credimus, perfecte timemus; quod autem suspicamur, hoc plerumque idcirco timere negligimus, quia ex ipsa nostra dubitatione in quamdam perniciosam securitatem cadimus, ut jam id solum esse justum credamus, quod a nostra cupiditate non discordare cernimus, ita ut saepe mens nostra decepta hoc potius venturum esse existimet, quod magis sibi evenire desiderat. Ut igitur nec timor remissus, nec affectus tepidus sit, necesse est ut firmam et inconcussam fidem habeamus, per quam firmiter radicati ea, quae in tribus praecedentibus accepimus bona confirmemus.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Job.5.2-Job.5.3 — Surely resentment kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple one. Job.5.3 — I have seen a fool taking root, and I cursed his dwelling suddenly.
  2. ↩Ps.73.2 — But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.
  3. ↩Ps.72.3 — May the mountains bear peace to the people, and the hills in righteousness
  4. ↩Ps.72.11 — And all kings shall bow down before him; all nations shall serve him.
  5. ↩Isa.5.1-Isa.5.7 — Let me sing for my beloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. Isa.5.2 — He dug it up and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in its midst, and also hewed out a wine vat in it. He waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced wild grapes. Isa.5.3 — And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray, between me and my vineyard. Isa.5.4 — What more was there to do for my vineyard, and I did not do it in it? Why did I expect it to produce grapes, and it produced wild grapes? Isa.5.5 — And now I will make known to you what I am doing to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be for burning; I will break down its wall, and it will be for trampling. Isa.5.6 — I will make it a wasteland; it will not be pruned or hoed, and thorns and briers will grow up. And I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. Isa.5.7 — For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is his delightful planting. He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
  6. ↩Ps.80.9 — You uprooted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
  7. ↩Amos.9.15 — And I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted from their land that I have given them, says the LORD your God.
  8. ↩Ps.73.28 — But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may proclaim all your works.
  9. ↩Isa.37.31 — And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩affectu mentis: rendered 'inward affection' to capture the interior movement of the soul toward God's promises without sentimentalizing it.
  2. 2 ↩zelare pacem peccatorum: rendered 'envy the peace of sinners' — the Latin zelare can mean both 'envy' and 'be jealous of'; the sense here is resentful envy of sinners' apparent prosperity.
  3. 3 ↩vanum esse timere judicium: rendered 'it is pointless to fear judgment' — vanum carries the sense of futility or emptiness.
  4. 4 ↩districte ... pensaret: rendered 'weigh so strictly' — the Latin suggests exact, severe reckoning of deeds.
  5. 5 ↩pro incertis certa relinquere: rendered 'abandon certain things for the sake of uncertain ones' — the paradox of trading the known for the unknown is preserved.
  6. 6 ↩improba praesumptione contemnere: rendered 'to despise ... with a kind of reckless presumption' — improba suggests moral recklessness, not mere mistake.
  7. 7 ↩Deo non fieri injuriam: rendered 'no wrong is done to God' — the theological claim is that using created goods as intended is not an offense against the Creator.
  8. 8 ↩mentis levitate: rendered 'lightness of mind' — suggests instability and lack of depth, not intellectual lightness.

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