Declare blessed one who is prudent in his words and tries not to say what he might regret. In fact, one who guards his mouth and tongue keeps himself from trouble.^[1] This also agrees with the words of James, If one does not err in speech, he is a perfect person.^[2] But you might ask us, how can he say that one who does not offend in speech is perfect, since the apostle had just said, We all fall short in many respects?^[3] And Solomon says, There is no one on earth so just that he does only good and never sins.^[4] And the psalmist, I said with dismay, ‘Everyone is false.’^[5] And John the Evangelist, If we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.^[6] To which it can be replied that there are different kinds of falling short, since the elect fall short in a different way than reprobates, according to Solomon’s testimony: Because if the just person falls seven times, he gets up, but the impious succumb to disaster.^[7] Indeed, if the just individual falls short through the weakness of the flesh or through ignorance, he does not cease to be just, since, as this type of failure is daily and inevitable, so also is the remedy of prayer and good works always at hand. This immediately raises up the just individual who sins, so that he does not end up staining or ruining the wedding garment^[8] of charity and faith with the dirt of vice.

The last story that is related in the book of Numbers is the one in which the Lord commands Moses to give orders to the children of Israel,^[1] that when they have entered the holy land they may know how to take possession of its inheritance and that they should observe the boundaries of their limits in these things. And after this, with the Lord now describing this, it is said, toward Africa, that is, toward the west, the boundary of that place should be observed, and of that place toward the east, and thus the Lord indicates through the four regions of the sky certain names that the people of God ought to keep in that earthly Judea.

Thus one of the more simple hearers will say that here there are things that are necessary and useful even according to the letter, in that no one should go beyond the borders that have been appointed through the Lord’s command and one tribe should not dare to violate the boundaries of another. And what will we do when no possibility remains for the Jews, not merely to invade the borders of another nation in these lands but even of possessing them at all? For they have been banished from that land, they are exiles and refugees, and those who now possess and guard the boundaries are not those whom the divine law appointed but those whom they have entrusted the rights of victors. What, I ask, will we do, who read these things in the church? If we read them according to the sense of the Jews, they will seem superfluous to us and pointless.

But I am one who reads what is written about Wisdom: I went out after her as a tracker. I want to go out after her, and since I do not find her in the physical realities, I desire to pursue her tracks and investigate where she is going and to see into which rooms she leads my understanding. For I think that if I am able to follow her with care and to investigate her ways, she will give me some opportunities from the Scriptures to understand how it is, even in these passages we need to explain, if we believe what Paul says in a mystery, that those who serve through the law are serving the shadow and image of heavenly things.^[2] And if, no less in accordance with the judgment of that man, the law, of which this reading that we have in hand is a portion, contains a shadow of the good things to come,^[3] it seems logical and necessary that everything that is described in the law, as it were concerning earthly things, is a shadow of the good things of heaven; and the whole inheritance of that land, which is called the holy land^[4] and the good land,^[5] is an image of the good things of heaven. These things, as we have said, that are mentioned as good things on earth contain a shadow and an image of these.

Therefore, although wicked people press forward to keep the feast and praise God as though they were at a feast and intrude into the church of the saints, yet God confutes them, saying to the sinner, Why do you speak of my decrees?^[1] And the gentle Spirit rebukes them, saying, Praise is not attractive in the mouth of sinners, neither does sin have anything in common with the praise of God; for the sinner has a mouth speaking perverse things, as the proverb says, The mouth of the wicked answers evil.^[2] For how is it possible for us to praise God with an impure mouth, since things that are contrary to each other cannot coexist? For what communion has righteousness with iniquity, or what fellowship is there between light and darkness?^[3] So exclaims Paul, a minister of the gospel. Thus it is that sinners, and all those who have alienated themselves from the catholic church, heretics and schismatics, since they are excluded from glorifying God with the saints, cannot properly even continue as observers of the feast.

What did the Savior say to the devil? And Jesus ordered him, ‘Be silent, and come out of this man.’^[1] Truth does not need false confirmation. I have not come to be recognized by your testimony but to cast you out of one of my creatures. ‘A compliment from a sinner is unseemly.’ I have no need of the testimony of one to whom I wish every kind of suffering. Be quiet. Your silence itself praises me. I do not want your voice to praise me, but your torment. Your every suffering honors me. Should I be happy that you praise me? No, I am happy that you go. ‘Be silent, and come out of this man.’^[2] It is as though he said, Get out of my house. What are you doing in my dwelling? I want to enter. You, be silent and leave this man, this rational being. Come out of this man: leave to me this dwelling prepared for me. The Lord wants his own dwelling: leave this man, therefore, this rational being.

The old song sings about sexual lust, the new song sings of divine love.^[1] If your song is moved by lust, then you are singing an old song. Let the words of the new song resonate in your mouth, but if you are sinner there is no such thing as beautiful praise on your lips. It is best to be renewed and chastened than to continue singing the same old song. If, in fact, you have become a new person, even if you remain silent and your singing never reaches human ears, your heart elevates the new inner song^[2] so that it reaches the ear of God who has restored you. You love, and, even if you are silent, your love is itself a voice that sings to God.

Of those then who seem to acquire some show of knowledge or of those who while they devote themselves diligently to reading the sacred volume and to committing the Scriptures to memory, yet do not leave behind carnal sins, it is well said in Proverbs: As a golden ring in a swine’s snout, so is the beauty of an evil-disposed woman.^[1] For what does it profit someone to gain the ornaments of heavenly eloquence and the most precious beauty of the Scriptures if by clinging to filthy deeds and thoughts he destroys it by burying it in the foulest ground or defiles it by the dirty wallowing of his own lusts? For the result will be that which is an ornament to those who rightly use it is not only unable to adorn them but becomes dirty by the increased filth and mud. For from the mouth of a sinner praise is not attractive. In fact, the prophet says about souls like this, Why do you declare my right-eous acts and take my covenant in your lips?^[2] They never possess in any lasting way the fear of the Lord of which it is said, The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom.^[3] And yet, they try to get at the meaning of Scripture by continual meditation on them. Thus, it is appropriately asked about them in Proverbs: What use are riches to a fool? For a senseless person cannot possess wisdom.^[4]