1. The beginning of the book in the prophet Ezekiel, closed up with great obscurities and bound with certain knots of mysteries, we have discussed in eight homilies, by the bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the things that follow are plainer and less difficult. We speak therefore to your charity, giving thanks to the same Almighty God, because after so many shady thickets of woods, we have at last come out gladly to the open fields, in which we may set the fearless foot of our discourse with free steps. For behold, after the prophet, having contemplated the likeness of the glory of the Lord, fell upon his face, he adds: (Ezek. 2:1): 'And I heard the voice of one speaking, and he said to me: Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee.' Where it is still further added:
Verse 2: 'And the spirit entered into me after that he spoke to me, and he set me upon my feet.' 2. Behold, the divine voice commanded the prostrate prophet to rise. But he could by no means rise, unless the Spirit of Almighty God had entered into him, because by the grace of Almighty God we are indeed able to strive toward good works, but we cannot fulfill them, unless he himself who commands also helps. Thus Paul, when he admonished his disciples, saying, 'With fear and trembling work out your own salvation' (Phil. 2:12), immediately added who it was that worked these very good things in them, saying: 'For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish, according to good will' (Ibid. 13). Hence it is that Truth himself says to his disciples:
'Without me you can do nothing' (John 15:5). But in these matters it is to be considered: if our good works are so the gifts of Almighty God that there is nothing of ours in them, why do we seek an eternal recompense as though for our merits? But if they are so ours that they are not gifts of Almighty God, why do we give thanks to Almighty God for them? But it must be known that our evils are ours alone; our good works, however, are both Almighty God's and ours, because he by inspiring goes before us that we may will, who by helping follows after us lest we will in vain, but may be able to fulfill what we will. Therefore, grace going before and good will following after, that which is the gift of Almighty God becomes our merit.
This Paul well explains in a brief sentence, saying: 'I have labored more than all they' (1 Cor. 15:10). And lest he should seem to have attributed to his own power what he had done, he added: 'Yet not I, but the grace of God with me' (Ibid.). For because he was gone before by the heavenly gift, he acknowledged himself as it were a stranger to his own good work, saying, 'Yet not I.' But because the preventing grace had made free will within him toward good, whereby with free will he followed after that same grace in the work, he added: 'But the grace of God with me' (Ibid.). As if he said: In the good work I have labored — not I, but also I. For in that I was gone before by the Lord's gift alone, not I; but in that I followed after the gift by my will, I also.
These things therefore having been said briefly against Pelagius and Coelestius, let us return to the order of exposition. 'Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee' (Ezek. 2:1). 5. We must note the order of the speech and of the work, because first the likeness of the glory of the Lord appears that it may cast down, afterward it addresses that it may raise up, then it sends the spirit of superabundant grace and lifts up, and sets upon the feet. For unless we saw something of eternity in our mind, we should never fall upon our face in penitence. But when we are now lying, the voice of the Lord consoles us that we may rise up in work, which nevertheless we cannot do by our own power.
Therefore his Spirit fills and lifts us up, and sets us upon our feet, so that we who lay prone in penitence for our fault may afterward stand upright in good work. But what the prophet, now standing, heard, he adds, saying: Verses 2, 3: 'And I heard one speaking to me, and saying: Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to the apostate nations, that have departed from me.' 4. Thus the prophet describes his own things, so that he may signify ours. For what is this (Part 1, distinction 50) which is said to him lying: 'Stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee'? For he who was speaking to the man lying, why does he promise to speak only to him standing? But it must be known that some things are those which we ought to hear lying, others those we ought to hear standing.
For to the one lying it is said that he should rise, but to the one standing it is commanded that he should set out to preaching. For as yet, to those lying in the confusion of infirmity, the authority of preaching ought not to be given. But when we now rise up in good work, when we now begin to stand upright, it is fitting that we should be sent into preaching to win others. Standing therefore, the prophet saw the spiritual vision, and fell; but falling, he now received the word of admonition that he should rise; and rising, he heard the precept that he should preach. For we who as yet stand upon the summit of pride, when we now begin to feel something of the fear of eternity, it is fitting that we should fall to penitence.
And when, subtly recognizing our infirmity, we lie humbly, we are commanded through the consolation of the divine word to rise to strong works. And when we now persist in the solidity of good works, it is necessary that from that whereby we have corrected ourselves, we should now, preaching, lift up others also. To the one lying, therefore, it is not commanded that he go to preaching, lest any weak person destroy by his deed what he is able to build up by word. Whence rightly also it is said through the Psalmist: 'He brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs; he set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps; and he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God' (Ps. 39:3-4).
For first he is brought out of the mire of wickedness, that his feet may be made firm upon the rock through faith. But because right operation ought to follow right faith, his steps were directed, so that after the direction of his steps, that is, after the perfection of good work, he might receive also in his mouth the new song of preaching. Thus Saul, while, overcome, he was going to Damascus (Acts 9:3), was cast down by the voice of the Redeemer and lay prostrate. And he who was to be a preacher did not yet, however, hear what he had seen so that he might preach it, but to him lying it is said: 'Enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do' (Ibid. 6). Lying therefore, he could hear only this, that rising he might learn what he was to hear; but rising, he learned this, that he might preach what he had come to know. 5.
But we must inquire why Ezekiel and Paul fall upon their face, whereas of the rider of the horse, that is, of him who is exalted in the glory of this world, it is said: 'That the rider may fall backward' (Gen. 49:17)? And again of the persecutors of the Lord it is written: 'They went backward, and fell to the ground' (John 18:6). What is this, that the elect fall upon their face, and the reprobate fall backward, save that everyone who falls behind himself falls there without doubt where he does not see; but he who falls before himself falls there where he sees? The wicked therefore, because they fall in invisible things, are said to fall behind themselves, because they fall down there where they cannot now see what then follows them.
But the just, because they cast themselves down of their own accord in these visible things, that they may be raised up in invisible things, as it were fall upon their face, because, pricked with fear, seeing, they are humbled. 6. But it is to be noted what is said: 'I send thee to the children of Israel, to the apostate nations, that have departed from me.' For just as men depart from God in two ways, so in two ways men become apostates from God. For each one departs from his Maker either by faith or by work. As therefore he who departs from the faith is an apostate, so he who returns to the perverse work which he had forsaken is, without any doubt, reckoned an apostate from Almighty God, even though he may seem to hold the faith.
For the one without the other is of no avail, because neither does faith avail without works, nor works without faith, unless perhaps they be done for the receiving of faith; as Cornelius first merited to be heard for his good works before he was a believer (Acts 10:4). From which it is gathered that he was doing good works for the receiving of the faith. For to him, to whom it is said by the angel: 'Thy prayers and thy alms are ascended for a memorial in the sight of God' (Ibid.), and presently, for that same ascension, it is commanded that he should send to Simon, who coming to him ought to preach, it is evident that he asked for that whereby he merited to be heard. There follows: Verse
3, 4: 'Their fathers have transgressed my covenant even unto this day, and the children are of a hard face and an untamable heart, to whom I send thee.' 7. Behold, here is one fault of pride, because they transgressed the covenant. Behold another of obstinacy, because 'even unto this day.' Behold in the iniquity of the children the grievous fault of shamelessness, because 'of a hard face,' since they now no longer blush for the evils which they do, and never, even after their faults, return to penitence, because they are 'of an untamable heart.' But since those to whom the prophet is sent are of so great depravity and so great obstinacy, who now does not see that the person of the prophet may be despised by such perverse men? But behold, authority is given to his person, when it is added: Verse 4:
'And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord God.' As if it were openly said: Because thou wilt be despised in thyself, it is necessary that thou speak from my voice. Lest thou thyself who art sent be contemned, uttering my words, show who sent thee. There follows: Verse 5: 'If so be they will hear, and if so be they will forbear, for it is a provoking house.' 8. Since it is certain that Almighty God knows all things, it is greatly to be wondered why it is said: 'If so be they will hear, and if so be they will forbear.' Wherefore it must be known by us that this doubt of God's speech descends not from ignorance, but from some signification. For who knows not that he who made and sees all things knows all things? And Truth himself in the Gospel says of the preachers of Antichrist:
'They shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to lead into error (if possible) even the elect' (Matt. 24:24). Why is this said under a doubt, since what is to come is foreknown by the Lord? But it is one of two: because if they are the elect, it cannot be done; but if it can be done, they are not the elect. And yet it is said: 'That they may be led into error, if it be possible, even the elect.' This doubt therefore of the Lord's discourse was a designation of temptation from the hearts of the elect, because those who are elect to persevere shall be tempted to fall through the signs of the preachers of Antichrist. By this therefore which is said, 'If it be possible,' this is expressed, that the elect shall be tempted in heart. For they waver, but do not fall.
It is said therefore, 'If it be possible,' because they shall tremble; and yet they are called elect, because they shall not fall. The doubt of the discourse from the Lord therefore expresses in the elect the trembling of the mind. And he names them both elect, because he discerns that they persist in faith and good work. Whence here also it is said: 'If so be they will hear, and if so be they will forbear.' For by this which is said, 'If so be,' it is shown that out of a great multitude few shall hear. By the doubt therefore of God's discourses what else is signified, save the fewness of hearers? 9. But it is to be noted that, after he had spoken the evils of the deceased parents, sending the prophet to the children, he says: 'If so be they too will hear, and if so be they will forbear.'
What is it to say 'they too,' save that their fathers who died in fault refused to hear? Let us weigh, I pray, what power there is in this apparent defect of the Lord's discourse, that he should say: 'If so be they too will hear.' To us, to us this is openly said, who, afflicted, besieged, shut in, have lost all the goods we had in this world. We see cities overthrown, camps overturned, fields depopulated, churches undermined; and yet still we follow our parents in iniquities, we are not changed from that elation of theirs which we have seen. And they indeed sinned amid joys, but we, which is more grievous, sin even amid scourges. But behold, Almighty God, judging iniquities, has now taken away our forebears, has now called them to judgment.
Us he still awaits unto penitence, us he sustains that we may return. And he who has now exercised judgment upon them offers to us the long-suffering of his patience, lest he destroy us together with our forebears, saying: 'If so be they too will hear, and if so be they will forbear, for it is a provoking house.' 10. Every soul, even after receiving the faith, either remaining in its perversity or returning to it, is called a provoking house, because by evil ways it drives from itself God, whom by faith it had received as an inhabitant. For a house is inhabited by a lord. If therefore a house, why provoking? But if provoking, why a house, which surely is now not inhabited? But a house, because in it God had begun to dwell through faith;
but it is provoking, because, driven out by evil ways, he departed from it, so that it remains empty, which before the heavenly inhabitant was filling. Whence also, as we have learned by the voice of Truth, the most wicked spirit, returning with seven others, found the house swept clean (Matt. 12:44-45), because it fills a mind that is a stranger to virtues. There follows: (same passage): 'And they shall know that a prophet hath been in the midst of them.' 11. For the wicked to know the good is wont either to profit toward the help of salvation, or toward the testimony of damnation. Let them know therefore that a prophet has been in the midst of them, so that, having heard the preaching, they may either be helped that they rise, or be so damned that they lack excuse. There follows: Verse 6:
'Thou therefore, son of man, fear them not, neither be afraid of their words, for they are unbelievers and subverters with thee, and thou dwellest with scorpions.' 12. It is plain to how perverse men he is sent in preaching, who is admonished not to fear. And because wicked men do other unjust things to those who speak good things to them, and still threaten other things, on account of those things which they do it is said: 'Fear them not'; and on account of that which they threaten, it is added: 'Neither be afraid of their words.' Or certainly, because the reprobate both bring evils upon the good and always disparage their acts, the prophet, being sent, is admonished lest he either dread their cruelty or fear their words. In this therefore which is said, 'Fear not,' the authority of preaching is given to the prophet.
And because all we who live in God are the instruments of truth, so that often he speaks to me through another, and often to others through me; so the authority of the good word ought to be within us, that both he who is set over may freely say right things, and he who is subject may not refuse humbly to receive them. For the good which is said by a greater to a lesser is then truly good, if it be said humbly. For if rightness of feeling should lose humility of speaking, it has corrupted the root of the sense in the branch of the tongue. Which fault indeed is now not from the branch, but from the root, because unless the heart swelled up, the tongue would by no means be proud. There ought therefore to be in the one who is over, humble authority for speaking, but in the lesser, free humility.
But often in men the very order of speaking is confounded, as we have also said far above. For sometimes one speaks through the swelling of elation, and thinks that he speaks by the authority of freedom; and sometimes another keeps silent through foolish fear, and supposes that he keeps silent through humility. The former, attending to the place of his rule, does not measure the sense of his swelling; the latter, considering the place of his subjection, is afraid to say the good things which he feels, and is ignorant how greatly he is made guilty against charity by keeping silent. 13. Thus indeed pride cloaks itself under authority, and human fear under humility, so that often neither can the former consider what he owes to God, nor the latter what he owes to his neighbor.
For the former, while he beholds those who are subject to him, and does not attend to him to whom all are subject, is lifted up in elation, and glories in his elation as though in authority. But the latter sometimes, while he fears lest he lose the favor of a greater, and through this suffer some temporal loss, conceals the right things which he understands, and silently within himself names that very fear by which he is constrained 'humility.' But him to whom he wishes to say nothing, by keeping silent he judges in his thought; and it comes to pass that from that whereby he esteems himself humble, he is thence the more grievously proud. Freedom and pride, therefore, humility and fear, must always be discerned, lest either fear feign itself humility, or pride feign itself freedom.
Ezekiel therefore, because he was sent to speak not only to the people, but also to the elders, lest he should believe incautious fear to be humility, is admonished that he ought not to fear, when it is said: 'Fear them not.' And lest perhaps he dread the words of their disparagement, it is added: 'Neither be afraid of their words.' 14. But why he ought not to fear the tongues of disparagers, the cause also is subjoined, when it is immediately added: 'For they are unbelievers and subverters with thee, and thou dwellest with scorpions.' For those to whom he was sent to speak would have to be feared, if by faith and by work they had pleased Almighty God.
But because they are unbelievers and subverters, disparaging in their words, they are not to be feared, because it is very foolish if we seek to please those whom we know not to please the Lord. But the judgments of the just ought to be held in dread and reverence, because they are the members of Almighty God: this they reprove on earth, which the Lord rebukes from heaven. For the disparagement of the perverse is the approbation of our life, because it is now shown that we have something of justice, if we begin to displease those who do not please God. For no one can in one and the same thing be pleasing to the Almighty Lord and to his enemies. For he denies himself a friend to God, who pleases God's enemy.
And he will be an adversary to the enemies of truth, who is subjected to that same truth in his mind. Whence holy men, inflamed with the rebuke of a free voice, do not fear to stir up to their own hatreds those whom they know not to love God. This the Prophet, ardently displaying, offered as it were as a gift to the Creator of all, saying: 'Have I not hated them, O God, that hated thee, and pined away because of thy enemies?' (Ps. 138:21). 'I have hated them with a perfect hatred, and they have become enemies to me' (Ibid. 22). As if he openly said: Consider how much I love thee, I who do not dread to stir up against me the enmities of thy foes. Hence indeed he says: 'They that repaid me evil for good detracted from me, because I followed after justice' (Ps. 37:21).
It is a very good thing that the just man renders, when with a free voice he contradicts evildoers. But the perverse repay evil for good when they disparage the just, because they preserve their opposition against those who defend justice. For the just look not at human judgments, but at the examination of the eternal Judge, and therefore they despise the words of disparagers. Hence indeed Paul used to say to the disparaging Corinthians: 'But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man's day' (1 Cor. 4:3). And he who, finding nothing in his heart whereby he could reprove himself, added: 'But neither do I judge myself.' Yet seeing that even his own judgment would not suffice him for the perfection of sanctity, he subjoined: 'But I am not thereby justified.'
But why he did not even trust himself concerning himself, he rendered the cause when he subjoins: 'But he that judgeth me is the Lord' (Ibid. 4). As if he openly said: Nor is my own judgment concerning myself to be trusted, because he judges me, whose judgment I do not comprehend. Hence blessed Job, when through the tongues of disparaging friends he suffered, amid the pains of his wounds, the darts of words, immediately in thought had recourse to his conscience, and where he had a firm mind, he asserted, saying: 'For behold, my witness is in heaven, and he that knoweth my conscience is on high' (Job 16:20). Who also subjoined: 'My friends are full of words; to God doth my eye drop tears' (Ibid. 21). 15.
For in everything that is said of us, we ought always silently to have recourse to our mind, to seek the inner witness and judge. For what does it profit if all praise us, while conscience accuses? Or what will it be able to hurt if all disparage us, and conscience alone defends us? Blessed Job therefore, persisting with an unbent mind amid the tongues of disparagers, because he saw himself assailed on earth by false words, sought a witness in heaven. Hence Isaiah says: 'O my people, they that call thee blessed, the same deceive thee, and destroy the way of thy steps' (Isa. 3:12). Which people, lest it should heed the words of its praise, and perish more deeply in its faults, is at once told whom it should look to, whose judgment it should dread, when it is added:
'The Lord standeth up to judge, and he standeth to judge the peoples' (Ibid. 13). As if it were openly said: Why dost thou follow human judgments, thou who knowest that the heavenly Judge stands over thee? 16. Hence it is that Truth denies John the Baptist to be a reed shaken with the wind, saying: 'What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind?' (Matt. 11:7 ff.). And that he said this by denying, not by affirming, the words subjoined bear witness. For he says: 'But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold, they that are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings.' But a reed shaken with the wind is now raised up by the blasts, now bent down by the blasts.
But every weak mind, which is either cast down by disparagement or exalted by praises, is a reed shaken with the wind. Which John was not, because he held the summit of his mind unbending amid the praises of men and their disparagements. 17. But the matter needs great inquiry: when we hold the way of right work, whether we ought always to despise the words of disparagers, or certainly sometimes to restrain them. Concerning which it must be known that just as we ought not by our own zeal to stir up the tongues of detractors, lest they themselves perish, so we ought equanimously to tolerate them when stirred up through their own malice, that merit may grow for us;
but sometimes even to restrain them, lest, while they spread evil things about us, they corrupt the hearts of the innocent, who could hear us unto good things. Hence indeed it is that John rebukes the tongue of his detractor, saying: 'He who loves to hold the pre-eminence among them, Diotrephes, receiveth us not; for this cause, if I come, I will admonish his works which he doth, prating against us with malicious words' (3 John 9-10). Hence again Paul speaks of the detracting Corinthians, saying: 'His epistles, they say, are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible; let him that is such an one think this, that such as we are in word by epistles when absent, such also will we be indeed in deed when present' (2 Cor. 10:10-11). 18.
For those whose life is set as an example for imitation ought, if they can, to restrain the words of those disparaging them, lest those who could hear their preaching should not hear it, and, remaining in perverse ways, should scorn to live well. But in this matter it is necessary, with subtle inquiry, that the mind examine itself, lest perhaps it seek the glory of its own praise, and our thought feign that we seek the gains of souls. For often the mind is fed by the praise of its own name, and, as it were under the pretext of spiritual gains, when it has come to know good things said of itself, it rejoices.
And often a man grows angry against those who disparage him, under the pretext of defending his own glory, and pretends to himself that he does this out of zeal for those whose hearts the detractor's speech unsettles and turns from the good path. Those men, therefore, ought to take great care that the words of detractors do not prevail against their reputation, who, subtly examining their own conscience, find in it that they have nothing of the love of private glory. 19. For this is why the just and perfect sometimes proclaim their own virtues and recount the good things they have received from God—not that they themselves may profit by displaying them before men, but that by their own example they may draw to life those to whom they preach.
Hence the apostle Paul relates to the Corinthians how often he was beaten with rods, how often stoned, how often he suffered shipwreck, how much he endured for the truth, that he was caught up to the third heaven and led into paradise (2 Cor. 11:25), in order to turn their minds away from false preachers—so that, by making known what manner of man he was, those men might become worthless in their eyes whom he had learned they wickedly venerated. When the perfect do this, that is, when they speak of their own virtues, in this also they are imitators of Almighty God, who speaks his own praises to men that he may be known by men. For since through his Scripture he commands, saying, 'Let another praise thee, and not thine own mouth' (Prov. 27:2), how does he himself do what he forbids?
But if Almighty God were to keep silent about his own virtues, no one would recognize him; if no one recognized him, no one would love him; if no one loved him, no one would return to life. Whence also it is said of him through the Psalmist: 'He will declare the might of his works to his people, that he may give them the inheritance of the nations' (Ps. 110:6). Therefore they declare their own virtues, not that he himself may profit by his praises, but that those who come to know him through his praise may attain to the everlasting inheritance. And so the just and perfect are not blameworthy only when they utter words of self-reproach, but also when they speak of the virtues they possess to the weak, because through the life they recount they seek the souls of others for life. 20.
Concerning these, however, it must be known that they never disclose their good deeds unless, as I have said, either the benefit of their neighbors or some pressing necessity compels them. Hence the apostle Paul, when he had recounted his own virtues to the Corinthians, added: 'I have become foolish; you compelled me' (2 Cor. 12:11). But it sometimes happens that, compelled by necessity, in the good deeds they relate of themselves they seek not the benefit of others but their own, as blessed Job recounts his deeds, saying: 'I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame; I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out most diligently' (Job 29:15-16). And many other things which he recalls having often done.