and will take occasion to abandon all restraint even more. We will see when
CHAPTER 1: The Calling and Preparation of the Twelve
and will take occasion to abandon all restraint even more. We will see when there is some false doctrine preached, that many who had professed complete unity with the church, will nevertheless lend an ear to the heretics: and if there is some evildoer who wants to break order and civil government, others will cast off all restraint and openly support him. This is why God wants his church to be mixed in this way, and for there to be wicked people, despisers, profane and dissolute people, mixed among the good and faithful. And not only does he want this to happen to the common people, but to those who preside, and who are in a higher degree of honor, who ought to serve as examples. As it is said that Antichrist will sit in the sanctuary of God: as also S. Paul says, that among the shepherds and those who will be called to this office, there will be many ravening wolves, who will be ready to devour the flock. And he even speaks to men whom he himself had chosen and called, and said to them: Of you and of your company such shall come forth. In this way God tests the constancy and pure simplicity of our faith, when he lets Satan go free, to create such confusion in his church. However, he also keeps us humble, teaching us to pray that he would deliver us from all scandals, and that he does not allow things to go into decline. For we would be nonchalant if we thought that things should get better and better: we would scarcely think of praying to God, nor having recourse to him. But when we see that we are subject to such frailty, that we must be mixed among the wicked and despisers of God, who will cause a lot of scandal among us, this leads us to sigh, and to pray to God that he does not allow things to dissipate: but that he would hold out his restraining hand, that he advances more and more the good that he has already begun: and not only continuing the good he has begun, but confirming and increasing it. Here is therefore a point that we have to note here: that Judas was elected from the number of the apostles, even so that if today those who are esteemed above others should fall, this does not prevent us from always remaining steadfast in obedience to our God: that we do not depend on men, and that we do not say: How can this be? that such a man who was thought to be a pillar of the faith, carried himself so disloyally, that he wickedly renounced the doctrine he had professed for so long, that he became altogether an apostate. And what can we expect from now on? What path can we safely follow? So that we may not be troubled on this account, here is Judas before our eyes, who was elected apostle: and yet when he fell and went to perdition, the church remained firm. For it was preserved by the power of the Spirit of God. So when we see some fall who had been regarded almost as angels, let us know that God will have pity on his own: and that what