Besides [Praeter] the mortal [temporal] [things] which pertain to the office of a skilled Leader, or to [general] industry — [a] question which I chiefly expounded [in] the first and second exposition — [there is] never to be spurned that kind of doctrine which contains a useful allegory. To me, therefore, [it] seems [that] our true Joshua, CHRIST the Lord, sends spies in a twofold [bifariam] manner, that he may introduce us into the land of promise: namely, with respect to the whole Church, and to the proper [individual] soul of each of us. And in each mode indeed the Angels themselves are certain spies, even if often invisible, as Origen notes, hom. 3. But in the former mode, before he descended onto these lands from the heavens by [his] domicile [the Incarnation], our Joshua brought [it about] that, for exploring the minds of men, two spies as it were went before — namely, nature [natura], that is νόμος [nomos, “law”], and [the law] of Moses. By each law he perceived [that] the blindness of men was great, [their] infirmity, [their] pravity; he perceived [their] great pride, security [complacency], negligence. And then, that he might bring a remedy for so great evils, the Son of GOD descended. Thus among the Jews he sent ahead also, as spies, the Prophets [and] St. John the Baptist; among the Gentiles, the Sibyls. Nay, even now, when he wills [someone] today to come by faith into a certain region, he sends off before [ablegat] the Apostles, and apostolic-spirited men, to whom is the care of prudently surveying all [things]. By the latter mode, when — through grace and better chrisms [gifts] — he wills to penetrate into our minds, he sends [immittit] certain rays into our minds, and excites our wills by various motions — of fear, or of love, or of any other affection. But there happens, through them, the exploration of our souls. For if we resist [obsistimus], we are rendered unworthy of so great a good; if we yield [cedimus], he comes to us, and remains with us, felicitating [making happy] our souls with various and great gifts. For what [is] this world, and what [is] the sinner’s soul, but a certain Jericho [hiericho]? For both this [world] and that [soul] — [with] the exundation [overflowing] of vices, and the perpetual variation and loss of light — [are they] not—
(col. 333, top — Q VII close)
—[do they] not make [men] lunatics? Do they not corrupt and enervate [with their] amenity, and odors of delights, and excessive loves? But [those] to whom the business of exploring is given, let them chiefly provide two [things]: first, that they be not the vilest and most abject [men], but men [that are] chief and clear [famous] — not as to earthly wealth and dignities, but as to those [things] which notable and solid virtue affords. Let them be chaste in life, upright in morals, praised in reputation, instructed in doctrine, inflamed with zeal — finally, preeminent by the gifts necessary for so great, and so arduous [and] useful, a duty. Then let them not be solitary [solitarii], as far as can be [done]. Elegantly a certain Hebrew [said] אבי לכרי איבי [reading uncertain] — that is, “I alone, not I” [Ego solus, non ego]; and, [in the manner] of our proverbs, “one man, no man” [unus homo, nullus homo]. Therefore also the Lord instituted the college of Apostles, and sent the disciples two-by-two [binos], Luke 10:1 — “before his face, and [into every] place whither he himself was to come” — so that, at least on this account, I can never give sufficiently great thanks to GOD, who deigned to call me into the Society of JESUS his Son, and of our Saviour, immeasurably —
(col. 334, top — Q VII close, cont.)
—[caring] nothing such at all, and [being] wholly unworthy [of it]. But about the utility of the sociable life [socialis vita], D. Bernard treats, serm. 23 on the Canticles; [and] Quintilian bk. 1 ch. 5. And this GOD wholly does always. Secretly from themselves [Clam ipsis], as I said (quest. 6), Joshua sends the spies — because, without all our merit, and without any petition, before all our cogitation, [he] procures all [things] which are to our felicity, calls [us] to faith, applies torches [faces] to the intellect and goads [stimulos] to our will, and largesses [bestows] on us the first grace. Divine Augustine, serm. 106 On the Seasons, interprets the two spies [as] the two [precepts] of the true Joshua — “the precepts of charity,” namely toward God and neighbor. Beautifully also the Ordinary Gloss: “Morally,” it says, “confessors [confessarii] can be called spies, because they ought diligently to explore the consciences of sinners, and thus they enter the house of the harlot woman — that is, the conscience of the sinful person — which they save [lead back] unto rectitude of morals by their counsels.”