§21Nisi si haec Deo ignorante gesta sunt aut non permittente ipso omnia ista uenerunt: doceat indocibiles et admoneat inmemores scriptura diuina quae loquitur dicens: quis dedit in direptionem Iacob et Israhel eis qui praedabantur illum? nonne Deus cui peccauerunt et noluerunt in uiis eius ambulare neque audire legem eius? et superduxit super eos iram animationis suae. et alibi testatur ac dicit: numquid non ualet manus Dei ut saluos faciat aut grauauit aurem ut non exaudiat? sed peccata uestra inter uos et Deum separant et propter peccata uestra auertit faciem a uobis ne misereatur. delicta nostra reputemus, actus nostri et animi secreta uoluentes conscientiae merita ponderemus.
Or unless indeed these things were done without God's knowledge, or all these troubles came without His permission: let the divine Scripture, which speaks and says, teach the unteachable and admonish the forgetful: "Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not God, against whom they sinned, and would not walk in His ways, neither be obedient unto His law? And He has poured upon them the fury of His anger." And in another place it testifies and says: "Is the Lord's hand shortened, that it cannot save? Or is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear? But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and because of your sins He has hid His face from you, lest He should have mercy." Let us reflect upon our transgressions, and, revolving our actions and the secrets of our minds, let us weigh the merits of our conscience.
redeat in cor nostrum non ambulasse nos in uiis Domini, abiecisse legem Dei, praecepta eius et monita salutaria numquam seruare uoluisse.
Let it return to our hearts that we have not walked in the ways of the Lord, that we have cast away the law of God, and that we have never been willing to keep His commandments and saving admonitions.
§22Quid de eo boni sentias, quem timorem fuisse aput eum, quam fidem credas, quem corrigere nec metus potuit, quem persecutio ipsa non reformauit? alta et recta ceruix nec quia cecidit inflexa est: tumens animus et superbus nec quia uictus est fractus est.
What good can you think of him, what fear can you believe was in him, what faith, whom even fear could not correct, whom the persecution itself did not reform? His neck, lofty and erect, is not bent because he has fallen; his mind, swollen and proud, is not broken because he has been overcome.
iacens stantibus et integris uulneratus minatur et quod non statim Domini corpus inquinatis manibus accipiat aut ore polluto Domini sanguinem bibat, sacerdotibus sacrilegus irascitur.
Wounded and prostrate, he threatens those who stand and are whole; and because he does not immediately receive the Lord's body with defiled hands, or drink the Lord's blood with a polluted mouth, the sacrilegious man is angry with the priests.
adque — o tuam nimiam, furiose, dementiam! — irasceris ei qui abs te iram Dei auertere nititur, ei minaris qui pro te Domini misericordiam deprecatur, qui uulnus tuum sentit quod ipse non sentis, qui pro te lacrimas fundit quas ipse forsitan non fundis.
And—oh, your excessive madness, frantic man!—you are angry with him who strives to turn away the wrath of God from you; you threaten him who deprecates the Lord's mercy for you, who feels your wound which you yourself do not feel, who sheds tears for you which you perhaps do not shed yourself.
oneras adhuc crimen et cumulas et cum ipse sis inplacabilis ad antistites et sacerdotes Dei, putas circa te Dominum posse placari?,.
You still load and heap up your crime; and when you yourself are implacable toward the bishops and priests of God, do you think that the Lord can be appeased toward you?
§23Accipe potius et admitte quae loquimur.
Rather receive and admit what we say.
quid surdae aures salutaria praecepta non audiunt quae monemus? quid caeci oculi paenitentiae iter non uident quod obtendimus? quid praeclusa et alienata mens remedia uitalia non conspicit quae de scripturis caelestibus et discimus et docemus? aut si incredulis quibusdam minor fides est futurorum, uel praesentibus terreantur.
Why do deaf ears not hear the saving precepts which we advise? Why do blind eyes not see the way of repentance which we point out? Why does a closed and alienated mind not perceive the vital remedies which we both learn and teach from the heavenly Scriptures? Or if some unbelieving ones have less faith in things to come, let them at least be terrified by things present.
ecce eorum qui negauerunt quae supplicia conspicimus, quos eorum tristes exitus flemus! nec hic esse sine poena possunt, quamuis necdum [poenae] dies uenerit.
Behold, what punishments of those who denied do we see, whose sad ends do we bewail! Nor can they be here without punishment, although the day of punishment has not yet come.
plectuntur interim quidam, quo ceteri dirigantur.
Some are punished in the meantime, so that the rest may be corrected.
exempla sunt omnium tormenta paucorum.
The torments of a few are examples for all.
§24Vnus ex his qui sponte Capitolium negaturus ascendit postquam Christum negauit obmutuit.
One of those who of his own accord went up to the Capitol to deny Christ, became dumb after he had denied Him.
poena inde coepit unde coepit et crimen, ut nec rogare iam posset qui uerba ad precum misericordiam non haberet.
The punishment began where the crime also began, so that he could no longer even entreat, having no words for prayers of mercy.
alia in balneis constituta – hoc enim crimini eius et malis deerat, ut et ad balneas statim pergeret quae lauacri uitalis gratiam perdidisset – sed illic ab inmundo spiritu inmunda correpta laniauit dentibus linguam quae fuerat uel pasta inpie uel locuta.
Another, a woman, being in the baths—for this was lacking to her crime and her misfortunes, that she should go immediately to the baths who had lost the grace of the saving washing—but there, being seized, unclean as she was, by an unclean spirit, she tore with her teeth the tongue which had either impiously eaten or spoken.
postquam sceleratus cibus sumptus est, in perniciem suam rabies oris armata est.
After the polluted food was taken, the madness of her mouth was armed to her own destruction.
ipsa sui carnifex extitit nec diu superesse postmodum potuit, dolore uentris et uiscerum cruciata defecit.
She became her own executioner, nor could she survive long afterward; tormented with pain of her belly and bowels, she expired.