Verse 21. Neither did anything remain of his food. 25. His food is all that he coveted with perverse desire. But when the hypocrite is stricken, nothing remains of his food, because when he himself is led to eternal torments, he is estranged from all the goods he here possessed. Whence it is still further added: Ibid.—Therefore nothing shall remain of his goods. For if anything of his goods remained to him, he would carry away with himself what he had possessed. But because, coveting all things, he would not fear the Judge, being withdrawn from this life, he goes naked to the Judge. Yet for the wicked man, as regards retribution, it is a lesser thing that he is tortured in the punishment that follows, if at least he is permitted to be free in this life. But there is no freedom in guilt, for it is written:
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UbispiritusDomini, ibilibertas ( IICor. iii, 17). Etple- rumqueperversaementiipsasuaculpafitpoena. Undeetrectesubjungitur:
«Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty» (2 Cor. 3:17). And very often the guilt itself becomes the punishment of the perverse mind. Whence it is also rightly subjoined: