11. But you, beloved, who possess this faith, or who have begun now newly to have it, let it be nourished and increase in you. For as things temporal have come, so long before foretold, so will things eternal also come, which are promised. Nor let them deceive you, either the vain heathen, or the false Jews, or the deceitful heretics, or also within the Catholic (Church) itself evil Christians, enemies by so much the more hurtful, as they are the more within us. For, lest on this subject also the weak should be troubled, divine prophecy hath not been silent, where in the Song of Songs the Bridegroom speaking unto the Bride, that is, Christ the Lord unto the Church, saith, “As a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my best Beloved36    Proxima in the midst of the daughters.”37    Song of Sol. ii. 2 He said not, in the midst of them that are without; but, “in the midst of daughters. Whoso hath ears to hear, let him hear:”38    Matt. xiii. 9 and whilst the net which is cast into the sea,39    Matt. xiii. 47–50 and gathers together all kinds of fishes, as saith the holy Gospel, is being drawn unto the shore, that is, unto the end of the world, let him separate from the evil fishes, in heart, not in body; by changing evil habits, not by breaking sacred nets; lest they who now seem being approved to be mingled with the reprobate, find, not life, but punishment everlasting,40    Some mss. “that they &c. may find not punishment, but life.” when they shall begin on the shore to be separated.

CAPUT VIII.

11. Ad fidei immobilem observantiam cohortatio. Vos autem, charissimi, qui hanc fidem habetis, vel qui nunc novam habere coepistis, nutriatur et crescat in vobis. Sicut enim venerunt temporalia tanto ante praedicta , venient et sempiterna promissa. Nec vos decipiant vel vani Pagani, vel falsi Judaei, vel fallaces haeretici, nec non in ipsa Catholica mali Christiani, tanto nocentiores, quanto interiores inimici. Quia et hinc ne perturbarentur infirmi, prophetia divina non tacuit, ubi loquens in Cantico canticorum sponsus ad sponsam, id est, Christus Dominus ad Ecclesiam: Sicut lilium, inquit, in medio spinarum, ita proxima mea in medio filiarum (Cant. II, 2). Non dixit, in medio extranearum; sed, in medio filiarum. Qui habet aures audiendi, audiat: et dum sagena quae missa est in mare, et congregat omnia genera piscium, sicut sanctum loquitur Evangelium, trahitur ad littus, id est, ad saeculi finem, secernat se a piscibus malis, corde, non corpore; mores malos mutando, non retia sancta rumpendo: ne qui nunc probati reprobis videntur esse permixti, non vitam, sed poenam reperiant sempiternam, cum coeperint in littore separari (Matth. XIII, 9, 47-50).