Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| That the unskilful venture not to approach an office of authority.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter I.
That the unskilful venture not to approach an office of
authority.
No one presumes to teach
an art till he has first, with intent meditation, learnt it. What
rashness is it, then, for the unskilful to assume pastoral authority,
since the government of souls is the art of arts! For who can be
ignorant that the sores of the thoughts of men are more occult than the
sores of the bowels? And yet how often do men who have no
knowledge whatever of spiritual precepts fearlessly profess themselves
physicians of the heart, though those who are ignorant of the effect of
drugs blush to appear as physicians of the flesh! But because,
through the ordering of God, all the highest
in rank of this present age are inclined to reverence religion, there
are some who, through the outward show of rule within the holy Church,
affect the glory of distinction. They desire to appear as
teachers, they covet superiority to others, and,
as the Truth attests, they seek the first
salutations in the market-place, the first rooms at feasts, the first
seats in assemblies (Matth.
xxiii. 6, 7), being all
the less able to administer worthily the office they have undertaken of
pastoral care, as they have reached the magisterial position of
humility out of elation only. For, indeed, in a magisterial
position language itself is confounded when one thing is learnt and
another taught1265
| 1265 In this passage the
phrase magisterium humilitatis has reference to Matt. xx. 25, &c., or Luke xxii. 25, &c.,
and ipsa lingua confunditur to Gen. xi. 7. The meaning appears to be that,
when men seek and attain in a spirit of pride the office which
according to our Lord’s teaching is one of humility, they are
incapable of fulfilling its duties by speaking to others so to be
understood and edify. They are as the arrogant builders of Babel,
whose language the Lord confounded, that they might not understand one
another’s speech. | . Against
such the Lord complains by the prophet,
saying, They have reigned, and not by Me; they have been set up as
princes, and I knew it not (Hos. viii. 4). For those reign of
themselves, and not by the Will of the Supreme Ruler, who, supported by
no virtues, and in no way divinely called, but inflamed by their own
desire, seize rather than attain supreme rule. But them the Judge
within both advances, and yet knows not; for whom by permission he
tolerates them surely by the judgment of reprobation he ignores.
Whence to some who come to Him even after miracles He says, Depart
from Me, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not who ye are
(Luke xiii.
27). The
unskilfulness of shepherds is rebuked by the voice of the Truth, when
it is said through the prophet, The shepherds themselves have not
known understanding (Isai. lvi. 11); whom again the Lord denounces, saying, And they that handle the law
knew Me not (Jer.
ii. 8). And
therefore the Truth complains of not being known of them, and protests
that He knows not the principality of those who know not Him; because
in truth these who know not the things of the Lord are unknown of the Lord; as
Paul attests, who says, But if any man knoweth not, he shall not be
known (1 Cor. xiv.
38). Yet this
unskilfulness of the shepherds doubtless suits often the deserts of
those who are subject to them, because, though it is their own fault
that they have not the light of knowledge, yet it is in the dealing of
strict judgment that through their ignorance those also who follow them
should stumble. Hence it is that, in the Gospel, the Truth in
person says, If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the
ditch (Matth. xv.
14). Hence the
Psalmist (not expressing his own desire, but in his ministry as a
prophet) denounces such, when he says, Let their eyes be blinded
that they see not, and ever bow thou down their back
(Ps. lxviii. 241266
| 1266 In
Hebr. and Engl. lxix. 24. | ). For,
indeed, those persons are eyes who, placed in the very face of the
highest dignity, have undertaken the office of spying out the road;
while those who are attached to them and follow them are denominated
backs. And so, when the eyes are blinded, the back is bent,
because, when those who go before lose the light of knowledge, those
who follow are bowed down to carry the burden of their
sins.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
