First. Those whom one receives into [one’s] faith, fellowship, and protection, one ought to guard diligently and swiftly, when the matter and need demands — as our Joshua did, who procrastinated in nothing, but made the whole night’s journey, keeping watch, with his men. In Livy (Decade 1, book 3), when alarmed messengers had come to Rome from Tusculum [reporting] that the Aequi were [as] enemies in the Tusculan territory, the merit of the Tusculan people caused shame at delaying help; both Consuls were at once sent with an army, overcame the enemy, [and] freed the allies.
Second. If, for the sake of bringing help to the bodies of allies, our Joshua rightly undertook so much speed, watchfulness, [and] labor, how much ought to be undertaken by all Joshua-like [men], that they may aid the souls of [their] neighbors — to free them from the most foul Kings of the Chananaeans (that is, of the evil demons), from [their] assault and siege?
Third. The good author of civil doctrine [Lipsius] (book 5, chapter 15): “In war, I praise foresight in a leader; but cautious and delaying leaders will commit themselves to fortune in no place, except so far as necessity compels. I despise indeed those who do everything fiercely and over-hastily, and [who are] better at despising than at guarding against enemies — though often pleasing to the common crowd, because, to the stupid or barbarous, delay [seems] servile, [and] to execute at once [seems] kingly.” These [things] are most true. But [it is] neither fiercely nor over-hastily [that he acts], who postpones his own convenience to necessity, who prefers the safety of [his] allies to his own security and quiet — who, finally, has God as [his] rouser and helper, and consults Him first through prayers, prudent deliberation, counsel, and sedulous circumspection of all things. And in this [sense] all delay is truly servile, but to execute at once is truly kingly. He [acts] not, as Caesar once [said], “I came, I saw, I conquered,” but as the most praiseworthy Emperor of our age — when he subdued the Kings and petty Kings of the heretics in the year 1547 — that Charles the Fifth said: “I came, I saw, God conquered.”
Fourth. In all dangers, even those of war, one must approach God with great confidence, and with earnest prayers. For if it shall be expedient, He will dishearten the enemy with panic terrors, [and] hurl upon them stones of hail from the heavens; He will command at will the elements, and even the heavens themselves, and the Angels set over the heavens. The histories of Christians are full of celestial commands and helps of this kind. 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 7, verse 10: “And it came to pass, when Samuel was offering the holocaust, [that] the Philistines began battle against Israel; but the Lord thundered with a great crash on that day over the Philistines, and terrified them, and they were cut down by the children of Israel.” [It is] well-known, from Eusebius (book 5 of the History, chapter 5) [and] Tertullian (in the Apology, and To Scapula), how a legion of Christians by [their] prayers obtained rain for its army, and lightnings against the enemy —
so that on that account it was surnamed, by the Emperor Antoninus (Gentile though he was), κεραυνοβόλος (keraunobolos), “the lightning-hurler” [the Thundering Legion]. How, against the formidable forces of the Persians besieging Nisibis, did St. James, the Bishop of that city, send an immense force of flies and gnats? How, against Attila, when he was besieging Orléans, did St. Aignan the Bishop rouse up thunders and lightnings? How, at the pious supplication of Theodosius, did the Lord do those [things] which Sozomen relates (book 7), and on account of which the Gentile Poet [Claudian] exclaims (book 1, on the third consulship of Honorius):
O too-beloved of God! for whom Aeolus pours forth armed storms from [his] caves; for whom the upper air does military service; and the winds come, conspired together, at the [trumpet-]call.
But in the books of Maccabees (1 Macc. ch. 6; 2 Macc. ch. 10), in the former Anti-Turkish Oration, and in Judith, [there is] more about this.
Fifth. The Sun and Moon — bodies destitute of all reason, sense, and life — at once obey the nod of God. And shall man, distinguished with life, sense, [and] reason, be disobedient to His so many and so luminous admonitions and precepts?
Sixth. The Lord obeys the voice of a man. And will man not obey the words of the Lord? O the pride! O the madness! Nay, let us men rather obey gladly and eagerly even the voice of [other] men, for God’s sake. And even now, in the consecration of the [Eucharistic] Sacrament, God seems wholly to obey the voice of a man, as our Osorius explains (volume 4, sermon on the return of Spain from the English war, page 203).
Seventh. The Sun and Moon stood still, so that the Israelites might conquer their enemies. But for us they are even now moved assiduously and perpetually — lest we be conquered by our [enemies] — by a certain beautiful and holy alternation; and afterward, for all eternity, they shall stand still, that they may furnish to the conquerors a most pleasant light and glory, without any danger, labor, or fear (Isaiah 30:26).
Eighth. The Rabbis who say that the Sun sings a solemn song to God each day, and in that manner which I expounded above, teach indeed how good, holy, and useful is the custom of those who, when they hear the clocks striking each hour, praise God with some brief little prayer — whether with the mouth or only with the heart — and say, for example, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning of the past hour, so now in the beginning of this [hour], and always, and unto the ages of ages, Amen.” Or, if perchance one is very busy, let him, with the swiftest lifting of [his] mind to God, say at least this: “And now — [it is] always to be understood — glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,” as he willed it to be in the morning or at other times before. Or indeed any other similar [ejaculation] — as among the more pious Germans that [prayer]: “May God give us a happy hour.”
Ninth. The Sun, among the Hebrews, is called shemesh; among the Chaldaeans, shimsha — so that by its very name it may at once display and show what its nature is, what [its] office, what [its] occupation. For shamash is “to minister, to perform a duty, and to serve” (Genesis 14; 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 16; Daniel 7). Whence also, in the new Syriac Testament, meshamshana is “a minister [deacon].” Away, then, with all those blind and unhappy [men] — whether Heathen or heretics — who thought the Sun, [or] Phoebus, [to be] God. And away, too, with those among the Philosophers who [hold] that it is moved by God not freely, but necessarily…
(col. 1045)
…[those who hold] that [the Sun] is moved by God not freely, but by necessity. It is the minister of God, and a minister for the use of men. God, most freely, by His own decision, commands that it be moved; and, like a good minister, it at once complies. Does He command it to stand? It, like a most obedient minister, at once stands. Does He command it to shine? It shines (Genesis 1). To withdraw its light? It withdraws it (Matthew 27). To run forward? It runs (Genesis 1). To run backward? It runs back (Isaiah 38). “When you see the Sun rising,” says St. Chrysostom (homily to the people of Antioch), “admire the Creator. When you see it hiding itself and vanishing, learn the weakness of [its] nature, and do not adore it as God. For God inserted the demonstration of the weakness of nature not from this [the eclipse] alone, but also commanded all His servants [the heavenly bodies] to obey [men’s] commands — so that, if not from their appearance, then from their servitude, you might recognize, and from those who command them might learn, that they are all your fellow-servants.” Therefore Joshua says, “Let the Sun stand against Gabaon, and the Moon against the valley of Aijalon.” And again the Prophet Isaiah made it go back in the contrary [direction], under King Hezekiah. Let us imitate that Sun. Those great and illustrious Suns of the earth, the Apostles, imitated it — who, at the voice of Christ Jesus, now indeed remained at Jerusalem in Judaea (Acts 1), now ran through and back over the whole circuit of this world and illumined it; and, when the Lord willed, left it in darkness, and as it were in an eclipse of its errors (Acts 16, verse 6).
Tenth. How inconstant is the fortune of kings! The five Kings of the Chananaeans — a little before so powerful, hedged about with so great a retinue, so formidable to the Gabaonites, abounding in such great resources and troops of soldiers — how, in a brief moment of time, are they broken, abandoned, trembling, helpless, and alone? They who, in splendid palaces, on thrones gleaming with gold and bronze, by a mere nod ordered others to be shut up in prisons and darkness — behold, now, miserably fleeing, they seek out a dark cave and hide themselves in it; there, if it were permitted them to remain [safe] from the enemy, they would reckon themselves happy and blessed. Hear the most wholesome chorus in Seneca’s Thyestes (act 3):
You to whom the ruler of sea and earth has given the great right of death and life, lay aside [your] puffed-up and swollen looks. Whatever a lesser [man] dreads from you, a greater Lord threatens against you. Every kingdom is under a heavier kingdom. Whom the rising day has seen in pride, the setting day has seen laid low. Let no one trust too much in prosperity; let no one despair of better things when fallen. Clotho mingles these with those, and forbids fortune to stand still: she whirls every fate. No one has had the gods so favorable that he could promise himself a tomorrow. God turns our affairs, hurried along in a swift eddy.
See, afterward, how these [kings] were trodden under and hanged.
Eleventh. While one presses a great affair, it is not [the part] of a prudent [man] to delay for the sake of some lesser [matter], and to be held back by it. Joshua heard that the five Kings were in the cave; if he had at once run to them, a great occasion for cutting down the enemy would have slipped away. But he does not [do so]. That [report], indeed,
he hears most gladly; and, lest the chance slip away, he most prudently provides by setting guards [over the cave]; yet he does not prefer a little portion of the victory to the whole, and goes on to press his well-begun [pursuit]. We, most imprudent — when we ought to seek the eternal goods in this world — cling to the perishable and fleeting [things]; an empty human glory holds us back from the divine and solid [one]; slight and deceitful little pleasures [hold us back] from the greatest and truest pleasures of the blessed. Like that ancient Medea, the devil deals with us: he scatters on the way [things] by love of which we are too much seized, that we may be occupied in gathering them, and held back, and fall away from our purpose. Let us therefore think that [word] said to us by our true Joshua (verse 19): “But you, do not stand still, but pursue the enemy,” etc.
Twelfth. How happy a panoply [full armor] for men is the help of God! Not even one of the Israelites perished in so great a war, but all returned to the camp with peace and safety. Foolish and silly men seek, against the strokes of swords and guns, amulets — superstitious papers and periapts [charms worn on the body], by the appearance of which the demon sometimes (that he may the more bewitch them) averts some blows and wounds; but afterward, when he holds them wholly ensnared in his nets, he keeps them weighed down with the gravest sins, and brings death upon them — both of the body (the temporal [death] which they wished to flee) and of the soul (the everlasting [one], about which they did not trouble themselves) — as a great supply of examples among soldiers and very many others affords; of which our Del Rio brings forth two (book 2 of the Magical Disquisitions, question 21). What is narrated among the Poets — that Achilles, because he had been dipped in the Stygian waters, was invulnerable except in the heel, which drank in the wound and death — has its place in these superstitious and vain men, who arm themselves against swords and gun-barrels with characters [magic signs] and periapts: namely, they immerse themselves in the Stygian waters [and] hand themselves over to the power of the devil; and yet in the heel — that is, at the last time of life — they receive a wound and death. But he whom God guards, to whom He wills to be favorable, can — if it conduces to his salvation and to the glory of God Himself — be wounded in no part of his body, and returns safe and unharmed from every battle. Let such a one say, with confident mind, from Psalm 26 [27]: “The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid? While the harmful draw near upon me, to eat my flesh — [those] my enemies who trouble me have themselves been weakened and have fallen. If camps stand together against me, my heart shall not fear; if a battle rise up against me, in this will I hope.” And from Psalm 36 [37]: “The unjust shall perish together; the remnants of the impious shall perish. But the salvation of the just is from the Lord, and He is their protector in the time of tribulation. And the Lord will help them and free them; and He will rescue them from sinners and will save them, because they have hoped in Him.” See the harmony [synopsis], book 1 of Maccabees, chapter 4, folio 644.
Thirteenth. Since our whole life must be a fight against the Chananaeans, the Kings of the lower world, that [thing] must be striven for from God by prayers, even most earnestly: that, when the whole battle has been fought, none of us may be found to have fallen, none be missing, none be mutilated in any member by some sin not healed by penance,…
(col. 1047)
…or be wounded. “You see,” says Origen (homily 12), “that he who serves as a soldier under Jesus ought to return unharmed from the battle, and ought nowhere, from the fiery [darts] of the malignant one, to receive a wound — [ought] not to be polluted in heart, not stained in thought; not, through anger, through desire, or through any other occasion whatever, to give place to the demonic wounds.”
Fourteenth. But the dogs mutter against us — envious heretics, slanderers; they put forth venomous tongues against us; they fabricate accusations [and] load [us] with lies. This must be borne patiently; and it is scarcely [to be] prayed against — that it not happen — except out of pity for them. For to whom of the saints has this privilege [of immunity] been given? Even Christ the Lord was called “a gluttonous man and a wine-drinker” (Matthew 11, verse 19), and likewise a raiser-up of demons “by Beelzebub” (the same St. Matthew, chapter 12, verse 24), [and] “having a demon” (John 7, verse 20). “Blessed are you,” says the Lord, “when men shall have reviled you, and persecuted you, and said all evil against you, lying, for my sake: because your reward is copious in the heavens. For so they persecuted the Prophets who were before you” [Matt. 5:11–12]. Yet these dogs never mutter effectively — so as, namely, to prove what they lie about. They bark and bay, but in vain. Truth can only be pressed [down], not crushed. Psalm 30 [31]: “I have become like a broken vessel, for I have heard the reviling of many dwelling round about. While they came together against me, they took counsel to take my life. But I have hoped in Thee, O Lord; I said, Thou art my God, my lots are in Thy hands. Snatch me from the hand of [my] enemies, and from those who persecute me. Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant; save me in Thy mercy. O Lord, let me not be confounded, for I have called upon Thee. Let the impious be ashamed, and be brought down to hell; let the deceitful lips be made dumb, which speak iniquity against the just [man], in pride and in abuse.”
Fifteenth. The severity of God toward the impious is to be considered. Whenever He ascends His tribunal, all power, splendor, [and] majesty vanish before Him. Kings, by His sentence, are cast down from [their] throne, shut up in prisons, hanged, hidden in the darkest caves, and marked with everlasting ignominy — as you see in the tragedy of these [kings].
Sixteenth. When the saints have received power from God, they sometimes use the greatest authority and severity against the impious — which would be judged, as it were, savage and almost barbarous, were it not done by divine judgment and instinct. For what [is it] for men to tread upon the heels or bodies — nay, the very necks — of other men of the same nature, indeed of Kings? [What is it] to order [them] to be trodden by many? O the supreme power! Concerning this, Psalm 149: “The saints shall exult in glory; they shall rejoice in their beds. The high praises of God [shall be] in their throat, and two-edged swords in their hands: to execute vengeance on the nations, rebukes among the peoples; to bind their Kings in fetters, and their nobles in iron manacles; and that they may execute upon them the judgment that is written: this glory is for all His saints.” And therefore, as to the severity of Pope Gregory VII against the Emperor Frederick, what is it that our heretics keep bandying about with such great outcries? See Bellarmine (volume 1, book 4 On the Roman Pontiff, chapter 13).
[Translator’s note: “the Emperor Frederick” as printed; Gregory VII’s famous antagonist was the Emperor Henry IV.]
Seventeenth. Let us also learn to trample our spiritual enemies, and to set [our] feet upon their heads and necks — as is said in Psalm 90 [91:13]: “Thou shalt trample the Lion and the Dragon.” “Let us pray,” says Origen (homily 12), “that our feet too may be such — so beautiful, so strong — that they may be able to tread upon the necks of [our] enemies, [and] so to tread the head of the serpent that it cannot bite our heel.” And afterward: “And would that my Lord Jesus, the Son of God, might grant me this, and bid me trample under foot the spirit of fornication, and tread upon the necks of the spirit of anger and fury, and trample the demon of avarice, trample boastfulness, and crush under foot the spirit of pride; and, when I shall have done these things, [would that I might] attribute the sum of the work done not to myself, but to His cross — following Paul, who says that ‘through it the world is crucified to me’” [Gal. 6:14]. It behooves the seed of the woman to crush — and the woman, through her seed, to crush — the head of the infernal serpent (Genesis 3, verse 15).