§16Cur non istas operationes angelicas credimus per dispensationem prouidentiae dei bene utentis et bonis et malis secundum inscrutabilem altitudinem iudiciorum suorum? siue instruantur hinc mentes mortalium siue fallantur siue consolentur siue terreantur, sicut unicuique uel praebenda est misericordia uel inroganda uindicta ab illo, cui misericordiam et iudicium non inaniter cantat ecclesia.
Why do we not believe that those are angelic operations through the dispensation of the providence of God, who makes good use of both the good and the evil according to the inscrutable depth of his judgments? Whether the minds of mortals are instructed hereby, or deceived, or comforted, or terrified, according as mercy is to be shown or vengeance inflicted upon each one by him to whom the Church sings, not in vain, of mercy and judgment.
ut uolet accipiat quisque quod dicam.
Let each one receive what I say as he will.
si rebus uiuentium interessent animae mortuorum et ipsae nos, quando eas uidemus, adloquerentur in somnis, ut de aliis taceam, me ipsum pia mater nulla nocte desereret, quae terra marique secuta est, ut mecum uiueret.
If the souls of the dead were present in the affairs of the living, and if they themselves, when we see them, spoke to us in dreams, to say nothing of others, my own pious mother would not leave me for a single night, she who followed me by land and sea that she might live with me.
absit enim, ut facta sit uita feliciore crudelis usque adeo ut, quando aliquid angit cor meum, nec tristem filium consoletur, quem dilexit unice, quem numquam uoluit maestum uidere.
For far be it that she should have become so cruel by a happier life that, when anything afflicts my heart, she would not comfort her sad son, whom she loved uniquely and whom she never wished to see sorrowful.
sed profecto quod sacer psalmus personat, uerum est: quoniam pater meus et mater mea dereliquerunt me, dominus autem adsumpsit me.
But surely what the sacred psalm sounds is true: "For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord has taken me up." If therefore our parents have forsaken us, how are they present in our cares and affairs?
si ergo dereliquerunt nos parentes nostri, quomodo nostris curis et rebus intersunt? si autem parentes non intersunt, qui sunt alii mortuorum, qui nouerint, quid agamus quidue patiamur? Esaias propheta dicit: tu es enim pater noster, quia Abraham nesciuit nos, et Israhel non cognouit nos. si tanti patriarchae, quid erga populum ex eis procreatum ageretur, ignorauerunt, quibus deo credentibus populus ipse de illorum stirpe promissus est, quomodo mortui uiuorum rebus atque actibus cognoscendis adiuuandisque miscentur? quomodo dicimus esse eis consultum, qui obierunt, antequam uenirent mala, quae illorum obitum consecuta sunt, si et post mortem sentiunt quaecumque in uitae humanae calamitate contingunt? an forte nos errando ista dicimus et hos putamus quietos, quos inquieta uiuorum uita sollicitat? quid est ergo, quod piissimo regi Iosiae pro magno beneficio promisit deus, quod esset ante moriturus, ne uideret mala, quae uentura illi loco et populo minabatur? quae dei uerba ista sunt.
And if parents are not present, who are the other dead who know what we are doing or what we are suffering? The prophet Isaiah says: "For thou art our father, because Abraham has not known us, and Israel has not recognized us." If such great patriarchs were ignorant of what was being done toward the people procreated from them, to whom, because they believed in God, the people itself was promised from their stock, how are the dead mixed up in knowing and helping the affairs and acts of the living? How do we say that those who died before the evils came which followed their death were spared, if even after death they feel whatever happens in the calamity of human life? Or perhaps do we say this in error, and do we think those are at rest whom the restless life of the living disquiets? What is it then that God promised to the most pious king Josiah as a great benefit, that he should die beforehand, lest he should see the evils which he threatened would come upon that place and people?
haec dicit dominus deus Israhel: uerba mea, quae audisti et ueritus es a facie mea, cum audisti, quae locutus sum de loco isto et qui commorantur in eo, ut deseratur et in maledicto sit, et conscidisti uestimenta tua, et fleuisti in conspectu meo, et ego audiui, dixit dominus sabaoth. non sic, ecce ego adponam te ad patres tuos, et adponeris cum pace; et non uidebunt oculi tui omnia mala, quae ego induco in locum hunc et qui commorantur in eo.
Which words of God are these: "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: My words which you heard and feared before my face, when you heard what I spoke of this place and those who dwell in it, that it should be desolated and cursed, and you rent your garments, and wept in my sight, and I have heard, says the Lord of hosts.
territus iste dei comminationibus fleuerat et sua uestimenta consciderat; et fit omnium malorum futurorum de properatura morte securus, quod ita requieturus esset in pace, ut illa omnia non uideret.
Not so, behold I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the evils which I bring upon this place and those who dwell in it." Terrified by these threats of God, he had wept and rent his garments; and he is made secure from all future evils by his impending death, because he would so rest in peace that he would not see all those things.
ibi ergo sunt spiritus defunctorum, ubi non uident quaecumque aguntur aut eueniunt in ista uita hominum.
Therefore, the spirits of the deceased are in that place where they do not see whatever is done or happens in this life of men.
quomodo ergo uident tumulos suos aut corpora sua, utrum abiecta iaceant, an sepulta? quomodo intersunt miseriae uiuorum, cum uel sua ipsi mala patiantur, si talia merita contraxerunt, uel in pace requiescant, sicut huic Iosiae promissum est, ubi mala ulla nec patiendo nec conpatiendo sustineant, liberati ab omnibus malis, quae patiendo et conpatiendo, cum hic uiuerent, sustinebant?
How then do they see their graves or their bodies, whether they lie cast out or buried? How are they present in the misery of the living, when they either suffer their own evils, if they have contracted such merits, or rest in peace, as was promised to this Josiah, where they endure no evils either by suffering or by compassion, being delivered from all evils which they endured by suffering and compassion when they lived here?