THE FIFTH IMAGE
THE BLESSING ON OUR LEFT HAND
Here are our adversaries who are yet in this life; for in the
foregoing image we considered those who are already damned and
given over to devils. These we must regard with other feelings,
and find in them a twofold blessing. The first is this, that
they abound in temporal goods, so that even the prophets were
well nigh moved to envy thereby; as we read in Psalm lxii, "But
as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh
slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the
prosperity of the wicked" [Ps. 73:2 f.]; and again, "Behold,
these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in
riches." [Ps. 73:12] And Jeremiah says, "Righteous art Thou, O
Lord, when I plead with Thee: yet let me talk with Thee of Thy
judgments: wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?
Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?" [Jer.
12:1] Why does He lavish and waste so many blessings upon them
except to comfort us thereby, and make us to know how good He is
to "such as are of a clean heart"? as it is said in that same
Psalm lxxii. If He is so good to the wicked, how good will He not
be to the good? [Ps. 73:1] Except that He does not vex the wicked
with any evil, yet afflicts the good with many evils, in order
that they may acknowledge His goodness to them not only in the
present blessings, but even in those that are hidden and yet to
come, and that they may say, with the same Psalmist, "But it is
good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord
God." [Ps. 73:28] Which is as though he said. Even though I
suffer certain things, from which I see that those men are free,
nevertheless I trust that God is far more good to me than He is
to them. Thus the blessings which we see the wicked enjoy become
to us an incentive to hope for those blessings which are not
seen, and to despise the evils which we suffer. Even as Christ,
in Matthew vi, bids us behold the foul of the air and the lilies
of the field, saying, "Wherefore if God so clothe the grass,
which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He
not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" [Matt. 6:26 ff.]
Hence, by this comparison of the blessings in which the wicked
abound with the evils that we suffer, our faith is exercised, and
our consolation is placed in God alone, which is the only holy
consolation. So doth He make all things work together for good
unto His saints. [Rom. 8:28]
The other blessing, which is more marvelous, is this, that the
evils of our adversaries become blessings to us, under the
providence of God. For though their sins are a stumbling-block to
the weak, to such as are strong they are an exercise of virtue,
and an opportunity for conflict and the amassing of greater
merit.[61] For, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for
when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life." [Jas.
1:12] What greater temptation can there be than a host of evil
examples? For this reason, indeed, the world is called one of the
enemies of God's saints, because with its allurements and ungodly
works it incites, provokes, and entices us from the way of God to
its own way. As we read in Genesis vi, "The sons of God saw the
daughters of men, that they were fair, and they were made flesh."
[Gen. 6:2,3] And in Numbers xxv, "The people of Israel began to
commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab." [Num. 25:1] So it is
good for us to be always oppressed with some trouble or other,
that we may not, in our weakness, stumble at the offences of the
world, and fall into sin. Thus Lot is praised by Peter, in II.
Peter ii., because he suffered many things because of the evil
example of the people of Sodom, so that he made progress thereby
in his righteousness. [2 Pet. 2:8] It must needs be that these
offences come, which furnish us an occasion for conflict and for
victory; but woe unto the world because of offences! [Matt. 18:7]
But if God procures us such great blessings in the sins of
others, should we not with our whole heart believe that He will
work, us much greater blessings in our own troubles; even though
our flesh and blood judge it to be otherwise!
Nor does the world confer a smaller blessing on us from another
side of its evils; namely, its adversities. For, when it is
unable to swallow us up with its allurements, and through its
offences to make us one with itself, it endeavors through
sufferings to drive us out, and through pains to cast us forth;
always laying snares for us by the example of its sins, or else
visiting its fury upon us through the torment of its pains. This
is indeed that fabled monster, Chimaera,[62] with the head of a
maiden, seductive, the body of a lion, cruel, and the tail of a
serpent, deadly. For the end of the world, both of its pleasures
and its tyranny, is poison and death everlasting. Hence, even as
God grants us to find our blessings in the sins of the world, so
also its persecutions, that they may not remain fruitless and in
vain, are appointed unto us to increase our blessings; so that
the very things that work us harm are turned to our profit. As
St. Augustine says, concerning the innocents slain by Herod,
"Never could he have done them so much good with his favor as he
did with his hatred." And St. Agatha,[63] the blessed martyr,
went to prison as to a banquet chamber; "for," said she, "except
thou cause my body to be well broken by thy executioners, my soul
will not be able to enter paradise, bearing the victor's palm;
even as a grain of wheat, except it be stript of its husk, and
well beaten on the threshing-floor, is not gathered into the
barn."
But why waste words here, when we see the whole of the
Scriptures, the writings and sayings of all the Fathers, and the
lives and acts of all the saints, agreeing together in this
matter; namely, that they who bring the most harm upon believers
are their greatest benefactors, if only we bear with them in the
right spirit. As St. Peter says, "And who is he that will harm
you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" [1 Pet. 3:13] And
Psalm lxxxviii, "The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son
of wickedness afflict him." [Ps. 89:22] How is it that he shall
not harm us, seeing that oftentimes he even kills us? Because,
forsooth, in harming us he is working us the very greatest gain.
[Rom. 8:36] Thus we find ourselves every way dwelling in the
midst of blessings, if we are wise, and yet, at the same time,
also in the midst of evils. So wondrously are all things tempered
together under the rule of the goodness of God.