The Simple and the Crafty

Admonition 12. The simple are to be admonished in one way, and the insincere in another. The simple are to be praised for making a point of never saying what is false, but they are to be admonished to know how to keep silent, at times, about what is true. For just as falsehood has always harmed the one who speaks it, so hearing the truth has sometimes harmed some people. That is why the Lord, tempering his speech with silence before his disciples, says, “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” So the simple are to be admonished that, as they always avoid deceit to good purpose, so they should always speak the truth to good purpose. They are to be admonished to add prudence to the goodness of simplicity, so that they may have the security of simplicity without losing the watchfulness of prudence. That is why the teacher of the Gentiles says, “I want you to be wise in what is good, but simple concerning evil.” Hence the Truth in person admonishes his elect, saying, “Be wise as serpents, but simple as doves.” For in the hearts of the elect the wisdom of the serpent ought to sharpen the simplicity of the dove, and the simplicity of the dove ought to temper the wisdom of the serpent; so that they are neither led astray by prudence into cunning, nor grow sluggish, through simplicity, in using their understanding. [a]

But on the other hand, the insincere are to be admonished to learn how heavy the labor of duplicity is, which they bear in their guilt. For while they are afraid of being found out, they are always looking for dishonest defenses and are shaken by fearful suspicions. But no defense is safer than sincerity, nothing easier to say than the truth. For when the heart has to defend its deceit, it is worn out with hard labor. That is why it is written, “The labor of their own lips will cover them.” For what now fills them will then cover them, since it will then press down with sharp retribution the one whose soul it now lifts up with a mild unrest. Hence it is said through Jeremiah, “They have taught their tongue to speak lies, and they weary themselves to commit wickedness.” It is as if it were said plainly, “Those who could have been friends of truth without labor, labor to sin; and, refusing to live in simplicity, they labor to bring about their own death.” [d]

For commonly, when they are caught in a fault, they shrink from being known for what they are, hide themselves under a veil of deceit, and try to excuse their sin, which is already plainly seen. So it often happens that someone who takes care to reprove their faults is led astray by the mists of falsehood surrounding them, and finds he has almost lost what he held only a moment ago as certain about them. That is why it is rightly said through the prophet, under the figure of Judah, to the soul that sins and excuses itself, “There the hedgehog had her nest.” For the name of hedgehog stands for the duplicity of a mind that is insincere and cunningly defends itself. When a hedgehog is found, its head can be seen, its feet show, and its whole body is in view. But as soon as it has been caught, it gathers itself into a ball, draws in its feet, and hides its head; and everything that was all in view a moment before is lost together within the hands of the one who holds it.

That is just how insincere minds are when they are seized in their wrongdoing. The hedgehog’s head is seen, because it is plain from what beginning the sinner went on to his crime; the hedgehog’s feet are seen, because it is found out by what steps the wickedness was carried out. And yet, by suddenly bringing out excuses, the insincere mind gathers in its feet, since it hides every trace of its wickedness. It draws in its head, because by strange defenses it makes out that it never even began any evil. And it stays like a ball in the hand of the one who holds it. For the one who takes it to task suddenly loses all he had just come to know, and holds a sinner rolled up within his own conscience; and though he had seen the whole of him when he was caught, he is now deceived by the evasions of a dishonest defense and knows just as little of the whole of him. So the hedgehog has her nest in the reprobate, because the duplicity of a crafty mind gathers itself up within itself and hides in the darkness of its self-defense.

Let the insincere hear what is written: “Whoever walks in simplicity walks securely.” For simplicity of conduct is indeed an assurance of great security. Let them hear what is said by the mouth of the wise man: “The holy spirit of discipline will flee from deceit.” Let them hear what is affirmed again by the witness of Scripture: “His communing is with the simple.” For God’s communing is his revealing of secrets to human minds by the light of his presence. So he is said to commune with the simple, because he enlightens with the ray of his visitation, concerning heavenly mysteries, the minds of those whom no shadow of duplicity darkens. But it is a particular evil of the double-minded that while they deceive others by their crooked and double conduct, they boast as though they were far more prudent than others; and because they do not consider the strictness of retribution, they exult, wretched as they are, in their own losses. But let them hear how the prophet Zephaniah holds the power of God’s rebuke over them, saying, “Look, the day of the Lord is coming, great and terrible, the day of wrath, that day; a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and whirlwind, a day of trumpet and clangor, against all the fortified cities and against all the lofty corners.” [f]

For what is meant by fortified cities but minds that are suspicious and always surrounded by a false defense, minds that do not let the darts of truth reach them whenever their fault is attacked? And what is meant by lofty corners, since at a corner the wall is always double, but insincere hearts? While they shun the simplicity of truth, they are in a way doubled back on themselves in the crookedness of duplicity; and, what is worse, from the very fault of their insincerity they lift themselves up in their thoughts with pride in their own prudence. So the day of the Lord comes full of vengeance and rebuke against the fortified cities and against the lofty corners, because the wrath of the last judgment both destroys human hearts that have been shut against the truth by their defenses, and unfolds those that have been folded up in their duplicities. For then the fortified cities fall, because souls that God has not entered will be damned. Then the lofty corners tumble down, because hearts that raise themselves up in the prudence of insincerity are thrown down by the sentence of righteousness.