16. Why should we not believe these to be angelic operations through dispensation of the providence of God, Who maketh good use of both good things and evil, according to the unsearchable depth of His judgments? whether thereby the minds of mortals be instructed, or whether deceived; whether consoled, or whether terrified: according as unto each one there is to be either a showing of mercy, or a taking of vengeance, by Him to Whom, not without a meaning, the Church doth sing “of mercy and of judgment.”39    Ps. ci. 1 Let each, as it shall please him, take what I say. If the souls of the dead took part in the affairs of the living, and if it were their very selves that, when we see them, speak to us in sleep; to say nothing of others, there is my own self, whom my pious mother would no night fail to visit, that mother who by land and sea followed me that she might live with me. Far be the thought that she should, by a life more happy, have been made cruel, to that degree that when any thing vexes my heart she should not even console in his sadness the son whom she loved with an only love, whom she never wished to see mournful. But assuredly that which the sacred Psalm sings in our ears, is true; “Because my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord hath taken me up.”40    Ps. xxvii. 10 Then if our parents have forsaken us, how take they part in our cares and affairs? But if parents do not, who else are there of the dead who should know what we are doing, or what we suffer? Isaiah the Prophet says, “For Thou art our Father: because Abraham hath not known us, and Israel is not cognizant of us.”41    Is. lxiii. 16 If so great Patriarchs were ignorant what was doing towards the People of them begotten, they to whom, believing God, the People itself to spring from their stock was promised; how are the dead mixed up with affairs and doings of the living, either for cognizance or help? How say we that those were favored who deceased ere the evils came which followed hard upon the decease, if also after death they feel whatever things befall in the calamitousness of human life? Or haply do we err in saying this, and in accounting them to be quietly at rest whom the unquiet life of the living makes solicitous? What then is that which to the most godly king Josias God promised as a great benefit, that he should first die, that he might not see the evils which He threatened should come to that place and People? Which words of God are these: “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: concerning My words which thou hast heard, and didst fear before My face when thou didst hear what I have spoken concerning this place and them which dwell therein, that it should be forsaken and under a curse; and hast rent thy garments, and wept before Me, and I have heard thee, saith the Lord of Sabaoth: not so; behold, I will add thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be added unto them in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evils which I am bringing upon this place and upon them that dwell therein.”42    2 Kings xxii. 18–20 He, frightened by God’s comminations, had wept, and rent his garments, and is made, by hastening on of his death, to be without care of all future evils, because he should so rest in peace, that all those things he should not see. There then are the spirits of the departed, where they see not whatever things are doing, or events happening, in this life to men. Then how do they see their own graves, or their own bodies, whether they lie cast away, or buried? How do they take part in the misery of the living, when they are either suffering their own evils, if they have contracted such merits; or do rest in peace, as was promised to this Josiah, where they undergo no evils, either by suffering themselves, or by compassionate suffering with others, freed from all evils which by suffering themselves or with others while they lived here they did undergo?

16. Cur non istas operationes angelicas credimus , per dispensationem providentiae Dei bene utentis et bonis et malis, secundum inscrutabilem altitudinem judiciorum suorum? sive instruantur hinc mentes mortalium, sive fallantur, sive consolentur, sive terrcantur: sicut unicuique vel praebenda est misericordia, vel irroganda vindicta, ab illo cui misericor diam et judicium non inaniter cantat Ecclesia (Psal. C, 1). Ut volet accipiat quisque quod dicam. Si rebus viventium interessent animae mortuorum, et ipsae nos, quando eas videmus, alloquerentur in somnis; ut de aliis taceam, me ipsum pia mater nulla nocte desereret, quae terra marique secuta est ut mecum viveret. Absit enim ut facta sit vita feliciore crudelis, usque adeo ut quando aliquid angit cor meum, nec tristem filium consoletur, quem dilexit unice, quem nunquam voluit moestum videre. Sed profecto quod sacer Psalmus personat, verum est: Quoniam pater meus et mater mea dereliquerunt me, Dominus autem assumpsit me (Psal. XXVI, 10). Si ergo dereliquerunt nos parentes nostri, quomodo nostris curis et rebus intersunt? Si autem parentes non intersunt, qui sunt alii mortuorum qui noverint quid agamus, quidve patiamur? Isaias propheta dicit: Tu es enim pater noster; quia Abraham nescivit nos, et Israel non cognovit nos (Isai. LXIII, 16). Si tanti Patriarchae quid erga populum ex his procreatum ageretur ignoraverunt, quibus Deo credentibus populus ipse de illorum stirpe promissus est; quomodo mortui vivorum rebus atque actibus cognoscendis adjuvandisque miscentur? Quomodo dicimus eis fuisse consultum, qui obierunt antequam venirent mala quae illorum obitum consecuta sunt, si et post mortem sentiunt quaecumque in vitae humanae calamitate contingunt? An forte nos errando ista dicimus, et hos putamus quietos, quos inquieta vita vivorum sollicitat? Quid est ergo quod piissimo regi Josiae pro magno beneficio promisit Deus, quod esset ante moriturus, ne videret mala quae ventura illi loco et populo minabatur? Quae Dei verba ista sunt: Haec dicit Dominus Deus Israel: Verba mea quae audisti, et veritus es a facie mea cum audisti, quae locutus sum de isto loco, et qui commorantur 0605 in eo, ut deseratur et in maledicto sit; et conscidisti vestimenta tua, et flevisti in conspectu meo, et ego audivi, dixit Dominus sabaoth: non sic, ecce ego apponam te ad patres tuos, et apponeris cum pace; et non videbunt oculi tui omnia mala quae ego induco in locum hunc, et qui commorantur in eo (IV Reg. XXII, 18-20). Territus iste Dei comminationibus fleverat, et sua vestimenta consciderat; et fit omnium malorum futurorum de properatura morte securus, quod ita requieturus esset in pace, ut illa omnia non videret. Ibi ergo sunt spiritus defunctorum, ubi non vident quaecumque aguntur aut eveniunt in ista vita hominibus. Quomodo ergo vident tumulos suos, aut corpora sua, utrum abjecta jaceant, an sepulta? Quomodo intersunt miseriae vivorum, cum vel sua ipsi mala patiantur, si talia merita contraxerunt; vel in pace requiescant, sicut huic Josiae promissum est, ubi mala ulla nec patiendo nec compatiendo sustineant, liberati ab omnibus malis quae patiendo et compatiendo, cum hic viverent, sustinebant?