28. Here then shall these
persons in their turn be in another more sublime degree of
righteousness outdone, by them who shall so order themselves, that
every day they shall betake them into the fields as unto pasture,
and at what time they shall find it, pick up their meal, and having
allayed their hunger, return. But plainly, on account of the
keepers of the fields, how good were it, if the Lord should deign
to bestow wings also, that the servants of God being found in other
men’s fields should not be taken up as thieves, but as starlings
be scared off. As things are, however, such an one will do all he
can to be like a bird, which the fowler shall not be able to catch.
But, lo, let all men allow this to the servants of God, that when
they will they should go forth into their fields, and thence depart
fearless and refreshed: as it was ordered to the people Israel by
the law, that none should lay hands on a thief in his fields,
unless he wanted to carry any thing away with him from thence;2567
for if he
laid
hands on nothing but what he had eaten, they would let him go
away free and unpunished. Whence also when the
disciples of the
Lord plucked the
ears of corn, the
Jews calumniated them on the
score of the
sabbath2568
rather than of
theft. But how is
one to manage about those times of year, at which
food that can be
taken on the spot is not found in the fields? Whoso shall attempt
to take home with him any thing which by cooking he may prepare for
himself, he shall, according to these persons’ understanding of
it, be accosted from the Gospel with, “Put it down; for this the
birds do not.”
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
