Why is it that the garments of Jericho, its crops, its furniture, and all the other inanimate goods were reduced to ashes — the causes have been stated at q. 38 — [and] the same [causes] cling to the metals, gold, silver, bronze, and iron? Why then were they excepted? This question moved Masius, so that (fol. 110) he denied that those other things were consumed by the fire for a detestation of the Jerichoite religion and an expiation of [its] contagion. But here two things are to be answered.
First. Why gold, silver, and the other metals were preserved is indicated by one cause from the text, v. 19 and 24: namely, that they might be brought into the treasury of the House of God. For it is to be known, first, that before the building of Solomon’s temple, the very tabernacle of the Lord — wherever in the end its place might be — was called the house of the Lord. It is to be known, secondly, that there was a certain treasury of this divine house, in which things were laid up and kept that were consecrated to God himself, as is plain from Num. 31:54 [and] 2 Kings [= 2 Sam.] 8:11. But the question is not yet fully settled. For that doubt still troubles the mind: why were there not brought into this treasury of God the crops (from which [comes] the bread either for sacrifices or for the sustenance of the Levites and Priests)? not oil and wine (from which would be the libations and the Levites’ drink)? not scarlet, purple, and the like (from which the coverings of the tabernacle would be made, as at Exod. 25 and 35)? but the metals, and those only? Abulensis answers (q. 25) that the things which the Gentiles had contaminated by their use, or rather abuse, could not be brought to God’s worship and consecrated unless they had been expiated by the greatest and most efficacious mode of purging. And this [mode] is, that they be cast into the fire and licked by it. For so Num. 31:22: Gold and silver, bronze and iron, and lead and tin, and everything that can pass through the flame, shall be purged by fire. But the things which had to come into the use of the Israelites — whether of the Levitical or of the lay order — from the enemy’s plunder: for these it was enough to be expiated by a lighter atonement, namely by the water of purification. For it is added in the same place: Whatever cannot endure the fire shall be sanctified by the water of expiation. And both modes of expiation had generally been prescribed before, at v. 20: Of all plunder, whether it be a garment, or a vessel, or anything prepared for utensils, of goats’ skins, and hair, and wood, it shall be expiated. Since, therefore, the metals could bear the force of the fire — and they alone could — therefore they were brought into the treasures of the Lord: but, as has been said, only after they had been expiated and thoroughly purged.
Other causes can be brought [forward]. First. Metals are preserved the longest of all things, and are kept without loss or the fault of corruption. Secondly. A temple was one day to be built: many vessels in it were to be cast from various metals. This material, then, the Lord willed to be prepared beforehand, so that it might be ready to hand at that time — just as we read that David also did, 2 Kings [= 2 Sam.] 8, vv. 8, 10, 11; 1 Chron. 22, vv. 2 and 14; ch. 29, vv. 2 and 3. A third cause. In this way the Lord had regard for the resources of the Israelites, lest, when that so-great work [of the Temple] should be raised, they be too far drained by the sheer enormity of the costs. A fourth. Lest, at the very outset of the wars, the Israelites, too laden and heavy with the plunder of gold and silver, should either swell up [with pride] or grow slack for the wars to come. A fifth. What could have turned to the Israelites’ advantage, this the Lord willed to receive from them as a kind of gift and firstfruits of the spoils — foreseeing, perhaps, that they would not of their own accord be so munificent toward his sanctuary in time to come as they once had been (Num. 31, vv. 49 and 50), had not an occasion and a new spur — of command or of exhortation — been added. A sixth. By this deed the same Lord also willed to teach many things.
First. That mercy is always to be joined with justice, and some leniency with punishment (Ps. 100). Where Jericho was destroyed, and a just ruin was to be brought upon its roofs and wealth: yet in the deliverance of certain ones the goodness and clemency of God shone forth. Secondly. That out of every anathema there can arise something that may serve God and be pleasing [to him]. How many things there are in this world most despicable, out of which nevertheless God has chosen for himself the best hearts, the holiest men, the aptest ministers! Run through the crafts, states, and sexes of all: you will find that out of those who, like an anathema, are despised and spat upon, great men have sometimes arisen. And indeed, what is viler and more detestable than sins? Yet hence [came] St. Matthew [the publican]; the vessel of election, St. Paul; St. Magdalene; the good thief; and so many others. Thirdly. That rightly some things which had served impiety are turned into piety and the worship of God, both in men and in other things. So the Apostle, Rom. 6:19: I speak humanly, on account of the weakness of your flesh. For as you presented your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity, unto iniquity: so now present your members to serve justice, unto sanctification. So Philosophy, and the whole [body] of the arts that are called liberal — the encyclopedia — do service to the honor and glory of CHRIST, to be celebrated, defended, and championed. So the shrines of idols [are turned] into the Churches of CHRIST, [and] some rites and ceremonies of the gods are turned to the honor of CHRIST. How I rejoice at times, and gladly praise the triumph of CHRIST over the idols and over all the superstitions of the Gentiles, when in the neighboring village of Bretzenheim, before the temple doors, I see in an old stone Jupiter, Juno, Hercules, and I know not what other gods, holding up water blessed by the Christian rite, and offering that very [water] to those going in and coming out! Fourthly. By us too, gold, bronze, iron — our [gold] — and silver are to be offered to God. What is gold, but the most excellent goods of men: talent, learning, and virtue? What silver, but men’s fame, praise, and glory? What bronze, but bodily soundness, health, and strength? What iron, but the lowest goods of all, which are outside us — moneys, farms, and estates? The distinctions of the ages the Poets of old marked off by these four forms of metals, when they spoke of a golden and a silver, and a bronze and an iron age: why should it not likewise be allowed to distinguish all the kinds of goods [in the same way]? St. Augustine, Epist. 41, to his one-time disciple Licentius: he says, “[If] you had found a golden cup in the earth, you would give it to the Church of
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…of God. You received from God a talent spiritually golden, and do you minister from it to your lusts, and in it toast yourself to Satan?” St. Gregory, book four, epistle 84: “Toward the most sweet mind of my most glorious son the lord Theodore I have a certain complaint: that, though he has received the gift of talent, the gift of estate, [and] the gift of mercy and of charity from the Holy Trinity, yet he is ceaselessly bound by secular affairs, taken up with continual comings-and-goings, and daily neglects to read the words of his Redeemer. And what is Sacred Scripture, but a certain letter of Almighty God to his creature? And surely, if your Grace were established elsewhere, and were receiving the writings of an earthly emperor, you would not rest, you would not be quiet, you would give no sleep to your eyes, until first you had come to know what the earthly emperor had written to you. The Emperor of heaven, the Lord of men and of Angels, has for your life transmitted to you your own letters. And yet, glorious son, you neglect to read those same letters ardently. Study, therefore, I beg, and meditate daily upon the words of your Creator. Learn the heart of God in the words of God, that you may sigh the more ardently for things eternal, that your mind may be kindled with greater longings for the heavenly realms. For so much the greater will his rest then be, when now no rest has been [taken] from the love of his Maker. But that these things may be done, may Almighty God pour into you the Comforter Spirit. May he himself fill your mind with his presence, and by filling relieve it.” But it must be well observed that these gifts should be brought into the House of God, which is the Church (1 Tim. ch. 3) — and especially at this time, when the enemies of it are on every side so many and so hostile. Fifthly. But when we have given these things, there ought to be no elation, no pride, on that account. For truly they had been given to us beforehand by the same Lord (1 Cor. 4); nor did we receive that grace from him by any merits of our own. What? Did gold, silver, bronze, iron deserve — by any excellence or dignity of their own — to be snatched from devastation, fire, and the spoils of the conquerors? To be laid up in the sacred treasury of God? To do service to his honor and worship? Yet than lifeless metals of this kind more excellent were living creatures endowed with soul and life, and so many and so great men, whom either the sword or the flame destroyed. Sixthly. Yet from the filth and dross of our former life we must be purged before we enter into the treasures of the Lord. We must undergo the fire of penance; all our daily words and deeds must be borne into the flame of examination; the furnace also of vexations and of endurance must be entered, by which all our ancient contagion may be boiled away.