XLVIIII. De coecitate maleficiorum.

XLVIIII. De coecitate maleficiorum.

For those who look to creatures as if they were scriptures, and who strive to speak many things about creatures as if they were scriptures, worship the Devil instead of God and serve him; therefore, he also clings to them, saying, "Whatever you ask of me, I will give to you." Hence, the wretched one who serves the Devil says of himself: "I find all my salvation in creatures." If I were always to look to God, and if I didn’t provide for myself any good things, God, if it pleased Him, would take away everything I have. So what would I have then? So, whatever I want, I will search for it in created things. For I don't consider it a sin to be in his presence. The worst deceiver speaks within himself about these things, and he is initiated into the worst and most perverse arts; from this, both body and soul are destroyed, because he follows the fall of the first angel, and because he makes himself even lower than the Devil when he trusts in irrational creatures, which he did not create, since he relied on himself. But whoever wants to serve God purely and worthily should avoid such fantasies and illusions, neither disturb himself nor overturn other creatures into contrary diversities; for if he gazes upon creatures with evil desires, he blinds the sight of his own soul; and if he commits wrongful, contrary, and wicked acts with them, even those against nature and the health of man, he sends his soul to destruction. Let those who desire to cling to their Creator disdain to do what is wrong. These things are said about the souls of the repentant, to be purified and saved; they are faithful, and let the faithful pay attention to them, and let them keep these in mind as good knowledge. But I also saw other spirits of that multitude, who were crying out and shouting: "Lucifer will be enriched with many honors; and we will be glorified with him." These people promote greed to others, and they encourage them to always seek more and greater things. About the punishments of greed and the purgatorial fires. And I saw a fiery air, which was burning with the greatest heat, and in which the tiniest and sharpest worms were being driven about like leaves in the wind. In this air were the souls of those who lived in the world, serving greed, and who always had a desire to gather whatever they could from others. Because of their unending craving for greed, which they had within themselves, they suffered the fire of this air; and because of the many harms and torments they inflicted on others in this way, they were tormented by the bitterness of the worms.