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← Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity)/Book 2 · Speculum caritatis — Liber II
Chapter 14SpCar.2.14

Proponuntur quaedam divina testimonia, secundum quae statum suum quisque metiatur.

The Call to Examine Yourself by Scripture

The reader is urged to measure their inner life not by personal opinion but by the standards of Scripture, with conscience as witness, and is given a first cluster of divine sayings on sobriety, anger, service, and the Golden Rule.

So if you want to see more clearly the causes and reasons for your own condition, first examine, with keen scrutiny, the state you've grown into and the character of your life and conduct — not by your own guesswork, but by the standards of Scripture and the lines of heaven's commands, and by the measure of your own calling, with conscience as your witness and with careful inquiry. The Lord himself says: See to it that your hearts are not weighed down with overindulgence and drunkenness and the cares of this life (Luke 21:34).✦ 21. And again: Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says 'Raca' will be liable to the council, and whoever says 'Fool!' will be liable to the fire of hell (Matt. 5:22).✦ 5. And elsewhere: Whoever wants to be greater among you must be the servant of all (Matt. 20:26).✦ 20. Likewise: Whatever you want people to do good to you, do good to them (Matt. 7:12).✦

Apostolic Warnings against Dissension and Worldliness

Paul and the apostles warn against careless speech, drunkenness, entanglement in worldly affairs, and the mutual destruction that comes from biting and devouring one another in community.

7). And: "For every careless word that people have spoken, they will render an account of it on the day of judgment" (Matt.✦ 12). And the apostle Paul says: "Not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and shameless acts, not in strife and jealousy; but put on the Lord Jesus, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Rom.✦ 13). And he himself says: "No one serving as a soldier in God's service entangles himself in worldly affairs" (2 Tim.✦ 2). And to the Galatians: "If you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another" (Gal.✦

Working Quietly and Guarding the Heart

Scripture calls believers to live quietly, work with their own hands, show no partiality, and root out bitter zeal and contentiousness from their hearts.

v). And to the Thessalonians: We ask you, brothers, that you would grow more and more, and make it your aim to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, and to walk honorably before those who are outside, and to be in need of nothing from anyone (1 Thess.✦ iv). In the second epistle also to the same: For if anyone, he says, is unwilling to work, let him not eat either (2 Thess.✦ iii). James also: My brothers, he says, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with partiality toward persons (Jas.✦ ii). Likewise: If you have bitter zeal and contentiousness in your hearts, do not boast. For where there is zeal and contention, there is inconstancy and every evil work (ibid.)✦

Friendship with the World and the Call to Purity

James and Peter warn that friendship with the world makes one God's enemy, forbid mutual disparagement, and call believers as pilgrims to abstain from carnal desires and put off malice, deceit, and slander.

. A little further on: Whoever wishes to be a friend of this world will be made an enemy of God (ibid.).✦ . The same writer, in what follows: Do not disparage one another, my brothers (ibid.).✦ . Let us come to the Prince of the apostles: I beg you, he says, as strangers and pilgrims, to abstain from carnal desires (1 Pet. ii).✦ ii). And in the same Epistle: Putting off all malice, and all deceit, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all slanders (ibid.).✦

Shepherds, Youth, and the Garment of Humility

Peter exhorts all to speak as God's words, tend the flock without domination, submit the young to their elders, clothe themselves with humility, and flee the corruption of worldly desire.

. And further down: If anyone speaks, let it be as the words of God (1 Pet.✦ iv). And a little later, to the shepherds: Tend the flock that is among you, not for shameful profit, nor domineering, he says, over the clergy.✦ Likewise, young people: be subject to your elders.✦ All of you, however, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another (1 Pet.✦ v). The same author, in his second letter: Fleeing the corruption of desire that is in the world (2 Pet.✦

Sobriety, Obedience, and the Test of Love

The beloved disciple and Peter call believers to sobriety, obedience to God's commandments, detachment from the world, and genuine love of brother as the proof of knowing God.

i). And likewise: Be sober and watchful (2 Pet. v).✦ v). Now we must come to that disciple whom Jesus loved: Whoever says he knows God and does not keep his commandments is a liar (1 John ii).✦ ii). And: Do not love the world, he says, nor the things that are in the world (ibid.)✦ . And below: Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John iii).✦

Woes against the Corrupt and the Spiritual Mirror

Jude pronounces woe on those who follow Cain, Balaam, and Korah, and the author then holds up all these scriptural testimonies as a mirror in which the reader must honestly contemplate the face of their soul.

iii). Judas also, the apostle: "Woe to them," he says, "who have gone in the way of Cain, and have poured themselves out in the error of Balaam for reward, and have perished in the rebellion of Korah." These are spots at their own feasts, banqueting without fear (Jude 12).1 And a little further on: "These are grumblers, complainers, walking after their own desires" (ibid. xvi). And below: "Hating even the garment stained by the flesh" (ibid. xxiii). Therefore, setting before you these and similar testimonies of evangelical and apostolic teaching as a kind of spiritual mirror, contemplate the face of your soul more carefully — and if you still find yourself drifting amid feasts, frequently growing hot with wine, entangled in worldly business, stretched thin by the cares of the world, and lying low under the desires of the flesh; if you fill your days with quarrels and gossip, tearing at the flesh of your brother with the foul bites of slander; if you are dissolved in sluggish idleness, restless as though pricked by every sort of goad, fluttering about here and there in restless wandering; and if you secure the delights of your belly not by your own labor but by the blood and sweat of the poor; if, finally, you are frequently stained by anger, impatience, envy, and disobedience; if you are more anxious about your belly than about your mind, and without ceasing overstep the bounds of your profession — if, then, in all these things you walk sleek and bloated, please do not boast much about your little tears. For perhaps — so that we too may say something by the natural philosophers — when the veins are swollen with wine and the vapors of various foods and flavors rise up, and the moisture of the head increases, tears flow more easily. Or certainly, if you are pierced with compunction by the fear of God or by devotion in this state, do not abuse so great a grace of God so shamelessly as to wallow more securely in your filth. And do not, by your lukewarmness, drive God — who by this very sign does not seem to have utterly cast you off from the warmth of His own heart — to bring up your vomit, so that your last state becomes worse than your first.✦2345

Daily Experience Confirms the Danger

The author closes by affirming that the spiritual dangers just described are confirmed by the daily experience of many.

That this happens to many people, we are taught by daily experience.

Read the original Latin

Proinde si visitationis tuae causas, ac rationes velis lucidius intueri, primo statum, in quem profecisti, sagaci inspectione discutito, ac vitae morumque tuorum qualitatem; non secundum propriam conjecturam, sed secundum regulas Scripturarum, et coelestium praeceptorum lineas, propriaeque professionis normam, teste conscientia, subtili inquisitione examina. Ait nempe Dominus: Videte, ne graventur corda vestra in crapula, et ebrietate, et curis hujus vitae (Luc. xxi). Et item: Omnis qui irascitur fratri suo, reus erit judicio, et qui dixerit, raca, reus erit concilio: et qui dixerit, fatue, reus erit gehennae ignis (Matth. v). Et alias: Qui voluerit inter vos major esse, sit omnium servus (Matth. xx). Item: Quaecunque vultis ut faciant vobis homines bona, et vos facite illis (Matth.

vii). Et: De omni otioso sermone quem locuti fuerint homines, reddent de eo rationem in die judicii (Matth. xii). Ait et apostolus Paulus: Non in comessationibus et ebrietatibus, non in cubilibus et impudicitiis, non in contentione et aemulatione; sed induimini Dominum nostrum Jesum, et carnis curam ne feceritis in desideriis (Rom. xiii). Et ipse: Nemo militans Deo, implicat se negotiis saecularibus (II Tim. ii). Et ad Galatas: Si invicem mordetis et comeditis, videte ne ab invicem consumamini (Gal.

v). Et ad Thessalonicenses: Rogamus vos, fratres, ut abundetis magis, et operam detis, ut quieti sitis, et ut vestrum negotium agatis, et ut operemini manibus vestris, et ut honeste ambuletis ad eos, qui foris sunt, et nullius aliquid desideretis (I Thess. iv). In secunda quoque Epistola ad eosdem: Quia si quis, inquit, non vult operari, nec manducet (II Thess. iii). Jacobus quoque: Fratres mei, inquit, nolite in personarum acceptione habere fidem Domini nostri Jesu Christi (Jac. ii). Item: Si zelum amarum habetis, et contentiones in cordibus vestris, nolite gloriari: ubi enim zelus et contentio, ibi inconstantia et omne opus pravum (ibid.)

. Et paulo post: Quicunque voluerit amicus esse hujus saeculi, inimicus Dei constituetur (ibid.) . Idem in consequentibus: Nolite detrahere alterutrum, fratres mei (ibid.) . Veniamus ad apostolorum Principem: Obsecro vos, inquit, tanquam advenas et peregrinos, abstinere vos a carnalibus desideriis (I Petr. ii). Et in eadem Epistola: Deponentes omnem malitiam, et omnem dolum, et simulationes, et invidias et omnes detractiones (ibid.)

. Et infra: Si quis loquitur, quasi sermones Dei (I Petr. iv). Et post pauca ad pastores: Pascite qui in vobis est gregem, non turpis lucri gratia, neque dominantes, inquit, in clero. Similiter adolescentes subditi estote senioribus. Omnes autem invicem humilitatem insinuate (I Petr. v). Idem in secunda Epistola: Fugientes ejus, quae in mundo est, concupiscentiae corruptionem (II Petr.

i). Et item: Sobrii estote et vigilate (II Petr. v). Jam nunc ad illum discipulum quem diligebat Jesus, veniendum est: Qui dicit se nosse Deum, et mandata ejus non custodit, mendax est (I Joan. ii). Et: Nolite, inquit, diligere mundum, neque ea quae in mundo sunt (ibid.) . Et infra: Omnis qui odit fratrem suum, homicida est (I Joan.

iii). Judas quoque apostolus: Vae illis, inquit, qui in via Cain abierunt, et errore Balaam mercede effusi sunt, et in contradictione Core perierunt. Hi sunt in epulis suis maculae convivantes (Judae xi). Et post pauca: Hi sunt murmuratores, querulosi, secundum desideria sua ambulantes (ibid. xvi). Et infra: Odientes et eam, quae carnalis est, maculatam tunicam (ibid. xxiii). Haec ergo, et his similia, evangelicae et apostolicae doctrinae testimonia, tibi quasi quoddam speculum spiritale proponens, vultum animae tuae sollicitius contemplare, et si adhuc inveneris temetipsum fluitare epulis, mero crebrius incalescere, saecularibus negotiis implicari, distendi curis mundi, ac carnis desideriis incubare; litibus et fabulis occupare diem, impuris detractionum morsibus fraternam lacerare carnem; inerti dissolutum otio, quasi quibuslibet stimulis inquietatum, mobili discursione huc atque illuc volitare; et non proprio labore, sed sanguine et sudore pauperum ventris delicias comparare; si denique ira, impatientia, invidia, inobedientia crebrius maculari; et sollicitius curam ventris, quam mentis agere, metas professionis tuae sine cessatione transgredi; si igitur in his omnibus nitidus ac crassus incedas, noli, quaeso, de tuis lacrymulis multum gloriari; quia forte ut et nos aliquid secundum physicos dicamus, tumescentibus mero venis, ac diversis ciborum saporumve nidoribus, humore capitis succrescente, facilius elabuntur; vel certe, si Dei timore, vel affectu in hoc statu compungaris, noli tanta Dei gratia tam impudenter abuti, ut securius in tuis sordibus voluteris: et Deum qui nequaquam te adhuc a calore viscerum suorum hoc videtur indicio penitus abjecisse, tuo tepore compellas ad vomitum, et fiant novissima tua pejora prioribus.

Quod multis evenire quotidianis experimentis perdocemur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Luke.21.34 — But be on your guard, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.
  2. ↩Matt.5.22 — But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever says to his brother 'Raca' will be liable to the council; and whoever says 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.
  3. ↩Matt.20.26 — It shall not be so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,
  4. ↩Matt.7.12 — Therefore, whatever you want people to do to you, do also to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.
  5. ↩Matt.12.36 — But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they will give an account for it on the day of judgment.
  6. ↩Rom.13.13-Rom.13.14 — Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. Rom.13.14 — But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its desires.
  7. ↩2Tim.2.4 — No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the affairs of civilian life, in order to please the one who enlisted him.
  8. ↩Gal.5.15 — But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, lest you be consumed by one another.
  9. ↩1Thess.4.10 — And indeed you are doing this toward all the brothers throughout all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.
  10. ↩2Thess.3.10 — For even when we were with you, this we commanded you: if anyone is not willing to work, neither let him eat.
  11. ↩Jas.2.1 — My brothers, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.
  12. ↩Jas.3.14-Jas.3.16 — But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. Jas.3.15 — This is not the wisdom that comes down from above; it is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. Jas.3.16 — For where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice.
  13. ↩Jas.4.4 — Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity toward God? Whoever therefore chooses to be a friend of the world is constituted an enemy of God.
  14. ↩Jas.4.11 — Do not speak against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
  15. ↩1Pet.2.11 — Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the fleshly desires that wage war against the soul.
  16. ↩1Pet.2.1 — Therefore, having put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,
  17. ↩1Pet.4.11 — If anyone speaks, let them speak as the oracles of God; if anyone serves, let them serve as from the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
  18. ↩1Pet.5.2 — Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion but willingly, according to God; not for dishonest gain but eagerly.
  19. ↩1Pet.5.5 — Likewise, younger people, submit to the elders. And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
  20. ↩1Pet.5.5 — Likewise, younger people, submit to the elders. And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
  21. ↩2Pet.1.4 — Through these he has granted to us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
  22. ↩1Pet.5.8 — Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
  23. ↩1John.2.4 — The one who says, "I have come to know him," and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
  24. ↩1John.2.15 — Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
  25. ↩1John.3.15 — Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
  26. ↩Matt.12.45;Luke.11.26 — Then it goes and takes with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and entering in, they dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So it will be also with this evil generation. Luke.11.26 — Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and entering they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩maculae rendered as "spots" in the sense of blemishes or stains on the community, following the Vulgate's metaphor.
  2. 2 ↩speculum spiritale rendered as 'spiritual mirror' — a key image in this book (Speculum Caritatis), where the testimonies of Scripture serve as a mirror in which the soul examines itself.
  3. 3 ↩compungaris rendered as 'pierced with compunction' — preserving the devotional term for sorrow pierced by grace.
  4. 4 ↩The final phrase 'fiant novissima tua pejora prioribus' echoes the warning of Matthew 12:45 / Luke 11:26 — the last state worse than the first.
  5. 5 ↩lacrymulis rendered as 'little tears' — diminutive conveying the author's skepticism about the spiritual value of tears produced by indulgence rather than genuine compunction.

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