1072、“喝醉了”表示他因此陷入错误。这从圣言中“醉酒之人”的含义清楚可知。那些只相信自己所理解的东西，并为此探究信之秘密的人就被称为“醉酒之人”。因为他们通过经由感官所获得的记忆知识或哲学知识来探究这些秘密，所以人性使然，他们不可避免地由此陷入错误。人的思维完全是世俗、肉体和物质的，因为它是从世俗、肉体和物质的事物中生出的；这些事物始终粘附于思维，他的思维观念就建立它们的基础上，并被其包围。因此，出于这类事物思考和推理神性事物，就会陷入错误和歪曲；以这种方式来获取信就像“骆驼穿过针眼”一样不可能。来自这个源头的错误和疯狂在圣言中被称为“醉酒”。更重要的是，在来世，凡推理信之真理并反对它们的灵魂或灵人都变得像醉酒的人，并且行动也像他们。关于他们，蒙主的神性怜悯，容后再述。
就是否拥有仁之信而言，灵人彼此区别非常显著。那些拥有仁之信的人不会推理信之真理；相反，他们会立刻宣称事情就是这样，而且尽可能地通过感官证据、记忆或事实知识和理性分析来证实。可一旦有他们不理解的模糊之物出现，他们就将其搁置一边，决不让这类事物使他们产生怀疑。他们说，他们能理解的东西寥寥无几；因此，若认为某种东西是不真实的，因为他们自己不理解，那简直是疯了。他们就是那些处于仁爱的人。而那些没有仁之信的人只渴望推理一件事是否真实，想知道它是怎么回事。他们说，他们若不知道它是怎么回事，就不能相信它就是如此。仅从这种心态就能立刻知道他们是那种根本没有信的人；这是一个标志，不仅表明他们对一切都抱有怀疑，还表明他们内心是否认者。甚至当被教导事情是怎么回事时，他们仍无动于衷，开始提出各种各样的反对意见，即便这种情况永远持续下去，他们也不会放弃。那些如此无动于衷的人会错上加错。这些人，或像他们这样的人在圣言中被称为“喝醉了酒，或喝了烈酒、浓酒”。
如以赛亚书：
这些人因酒而犯错，因烈酒而迷迷忽忽。祭司和先知因烈酒而犯错。他们被酒吞没，因烈酒而犯错，错解异象。各席上满了呕吐的污秽。祂要将知识指教谁呢？要使谁明白传言呢？是那刚断奶离怀的吗？（以赛亚书28:7-9）
此处明显指这类人。同一先知书：
你们怎能对法老说，我是智慧人的子孙，是古王的后裔？你的智慧人如今在哪里呢？就让他们告诉你吧！耶和华使乖谬的灵搀入埃及中间，他们使埃及一切所做的都出差错，好像醉酒之人在呕吐中走迷了路一样。（以赛亚书19:11，12，14）
此处“醉酒之人”表示那些想要从记忆知识或事实中探究属灵和属天事物的人。“埃及”表示这些知识，这也是为何他自称“智慧人的子孙”。耶利米书：
你们要喝，且要喝醉，要呕吐，且要跌倒，不得再起来。（耶利米书25:27）
“喝醉”表示虚假。
诗篇：
他们摇摇晃晃，东倒西歪，好像醉酒的人，他们的一切智慧都被吞灭。（诗篇107:27）
以赛亚书：
来吧！我去拿酒，我们痛饮烈酒，明日必和今日一样，盛大丰盈之极。（以赛亚书56:12）
这论及与信之真理相反之物。耶利米书：
各坛都要盛满了酒。耶路撒冷的一切居民，都酩酊大醉。（耶利米书13:12-13）
“酒”表示信，“酩酊大醉”表示错误。约珥书：
酒醉的人哪，你们要清醒哭泣；一切好喝酒的人哪，你们都要为新酒哀号；因为酒从你们口中断绝了。有一民族上来侵犯我的陆地；它使我的葡萄树荒凉。（约珥书1:5-7）
这论及在信之真理方面荒废的教会。启示录：
巴比伦叫列族喝她邪淫烈怒的酒。地上的居民喝醉了她淫乱的酒。（启示录14:8，10；16:19；17:2；18:3；19:15）
“淫乱的酒”表示掺假的信之真理，“喝醉”论及它们。同样在耶利米书：
巴比伦曾是耶和华手中的金杯，使全地喝醉。列族喝了她的酒，列族才因此发疯。（耶利米书51:7）
“喝醉”因表示围绕信之真理的疯狂，故也变成代表，亚伦和他的儿子因此被禁止喝酒：
你和你儿子进会幕的时候，清酒、烈酒都不可喝，免得你们死亡，使你们可以区别圣与不圣、洁与不洁。（利未记10:8-10）
在以赛亚书，那些只相信能通过感官证据和事实或记忆知识来理解的东西之人也被称为“饮酒的英雄”：
祸哉，那些在自己眼中有智慧，在自己面前有聪明的人！祸哉，那些饮酒的英雄，调烈酒的壮士! （以赛亚书5:21-22）
他们被称为“在自己眼中有智慧，在自己面前有聪明的人”，是因为那些推理反对信之真理的人自以为比谁都聪明。
然而，那些不在乎圣言和信之真理，因而不愿知道关于信的任何东西，从而否认它的基本教导之人，被称为“非因酒而醉”。以赛亚书：
他们醉了，却非因烈酒。因为耶和华将沉睡的灵浇灌你们，封闭你们的眼。（以赛亚书29:9-10）
这就是他们的品质，这一点从以赛亚书的前后文清楚看出来。在这层意义上“喝醉”的人都以为他们比谁都清醒，但他们却在沉睡。古教会，尤其那些属于上古教会世系的人，开始变成如本节所描述的样子，这一点从前面的阐述（788节）明显看出来。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]1072. The meaning of he became drunk as the fact that they consequently fell into error can be seen from the meaning of a drunkard in the Word. The people called drunkards are those who believe only in what they can grasp [with their senses] and who therefore make investigations into the mysteries of faith. Because they conduct their inquiry by consulting the senses or the academic disciplines or philosophy, the process inevitably leads them into error, human nature being what it is. Our thinking is purely earthbound, body-centered, and matter-based, because it is formed out of earthly, bodily, and materialistic notions, which cling tenaciously to it. Those notions form the foundation and resting place of the concepts that make up our thinking, so to think and reason about the Lord on the basis of such concepts is to lead ourselves into error and perversion. It is as impossible for us to construct a faith for ourselves out of these things as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.{*1} The resulting error and insanity is what the Word calls drunkenness.
As a matter of fact, souls (spirits) in the next life who reason shallowly about religious truth, and against it, come to resemble drunkards and act drunk too. I will have more to say on this later, by the Lord's divine mercy.{*2} [2] It is easy to tell whether or not a spirit has adopted the faith that comes of neighborly love. Those who have adopted it do not debate religious truth but affirm it and also corroborate it by the evidence of the senses, of organized knowledge, and of rational analysis, so far as they can. As soon as any obscurity interferes, they reject whatever they cannot perceive and refuse to let it bring them into doubt. What they are capable of grasping, they assert, is extremely limited, so that it would be insane to view something as untrue simply because they do not comprehend it. These are the people under the influence of charity.{*3} The case is just the opposite with those who do not adopt a faith that results from charity. They lack interest in anything besides arguing whether a thing is true and knowing exactly how matters stand. Unless they can see what the facts of a case are, they say, they cannot believe it to be so. This in itself instantly gives away their lack of belief; it indicates that they not only doubt everything but even deny it at heart. When they do learn how matters stand, they stubbornly raise all kinds of objections, never resting, even if they have to go on arguing forever. And when they stick fast in this way, they heap error on top of error. These people, or their ilk, are those the Word describes as drunk on wine or strong drink,
[3] as in Isaiah:
These err through wine and go astray through strong drink.{*4} Priest and prophet err through strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine; they err from strong drink; they err in their vision; all the tables are full of coughed-up vomit. Just whom will he teach knowledge, and whom will he cause to understand the message? Those weaned off milk? Those pulled from the breast? (Isaiah 28:7-8, 9)
That such people are meant here is self-evident. In the same author:
How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am the offspring of sages, the offspring of the monarchs of old"? Where are your sages now? And have them tell, please. Jehovah has mixed a spirit of perversities in [Egypt's] midst and made Egypt go astray in all its work, just as drunkards go astray in their own vomit. (Isaiah 19:11-12, 14)
Drunkards stand for those who want to explore spiritual and heavenly phenomena by means of facts. Egypt symbolizes factual knowledge, which is why it calls itself the offspring of sages. In Jeremiah:
Drink and get drunk, and vomit, and fall, and do not rise. (Jeremiah 25:27)
The drunkenness stands for falsities.
[4] In David:
They reel and quaver like a drunkard, and all their wisdom is swallowed up. (Psalms 107:27)
In Isaiah:
Come, let me take wine and let us get drunk on strong drink, and tomorrow as on this day there will be great abundance. (Isaiah 56:12)
This is said of concepts that oppose religious truth. In Jeremiah:
Every bottle will be filled with wine, all of Jerusalem's residents with drunkenness. (Jeremiah 13:12-13)
The wine stands for faith, the drunkenness for error. In Joel:
Wake up, drunkards, and cry and howl over the new wine, all you wine drinkers, because it has been cut off from your mouth. For a nation is coming up over my land; it turns my grapevine into a desolation. (Joel 1:5-6, 7)
This is about the church when its religious truth has been devastated. In John:
Babylon has given some of the wine of whoredom's anger to all the nations to drink; those inhabiting the land became drunk on the wine of whoredom. (Revelation 14:8, 10; 16:19; 17:2; 18:3; 19:15){*5} The wine of whoredom stands for religious truth that has been adulterated, which is described as causing drunkenness. Likewise in Jeremiah:
Babylon was a goblet of gold in Jehovah's hand, intoxicating the whole earth. Of her wine the nations drank, therefore the nations go mad. (Jeremiah 51:7)
[5] Since drunkenness symbolized insanity concerning religious truth, it also became a representative condition, one forbidden to Aaron in these words:
Aaron and his sons must not drink wine or intoxicating drink when they are about to enter the tent, or they will die — in order to distinguish between what is holy and what is profane, between what is unclean and what is clean. (Leviticus 10:8-9, 10)
In addition, people who believe nothing but what they grasp through sense experience or factual knowledge are described as "heroic at drinking" in Isaiah:
Doom to those who are wise in their own eyes and discerning in their own sight! Doom to those heroic at drinking wine and to men valiant at mixing strong drink. (Isaiah 5:21-22)
They are called wise in their own eyes and discerning in their own sight because those who argue against religious truth consider themselves wiser than others.
[6] But people who care nothing about the Word or the truth that makes up faith and who are consequently unwilling to learn anything about faith (in this way denying its chief tenets) are described as drunk without wine in Isaiah:
They are drunk, and not on wine; they stagger, and not from strong drink, because Jehovah has poured out a spirit of slumber on you and has sealed your eyes. (Isaiah 29:9-10)
What comes before and after this in Isaiah establishes the fact that these people's character is the one just described. Drunkards of this type imagine themselves more awake than others, but they are in a deep sleep.
At its inception, the ancient church — especially the people in it who came from the stock of the earliest church — had the nature depicted in this verse, as indicated earlier, in the statements of 788.
Footnotes:
{*1} The mention of a camel going through the eye of a needle is an allusion to Matthew 19:24; Mark 10:25; and Luke 18:25. See also note 1 in 128. [LHC]
{*2} Aside from a few brief mentions of behavior resembling drunkenness in the other life (see Heaven and Hell 379, the 1758 work Sacred Scripture 118, and True Christianity 276), Swedenborg does not discuss this phenomenon further. In three other passages the current section is itself cross-referenced: Heaven and Hell 356:10, 365 footnote h; and his 1758 work New Jerusalem 51. [LHC]
{*3} This acceptance of the limitations of one's own comprehension on the part of those under the influence of charity contrasts strikingly with the modern skepticism that was becoming predominant in Swedenborg's time, whereby anything that could not be "grasped" through rational or sensory means was dismissed as false or unimportant. See further the description of skepticism in the next paragraph of the text. [RS]
{*4} "Err" here and "go astray" both here and in the next quotation are translations of the Latin verbs errare and aberrare. The reason Swedenborg emphasizes them with italics in these verses is presumably that they are related to error as the inner meaning of drunkenness, a meaning Swedenborg outlined in subsection 1. [LHC]
{*5} The two clauses of this excerpt are direct quotations of Revelation 14:8 and 17:2. The other verses cited by Swedenborg are "see also" references. On Swedenborg's quoting practices, see page 4 [NCBSP: In the Printed Edition]. [LHC]
Potts(1905-1910) 1072
1072. And was drunken. That this signifies that he thereby fell into errors, is evident from the signification of a "drunkard" in the Word. They are called "drunkards" who believe nothing but what they apprehend, and for this reason search into the mysteries of faith. And because this is done by means of sensuous things, either of memory or of philosophy, man being what he is, cannot but fall thereby into errors. For man's thought is merely earthly, corporeal, and material, because it is from earthly, corporeal, and material things, which cling constantly to it, and in which the ideas of his thought are based and terminated. To think and reason therefore from these concerning Divine things, is to bring oneself into errors and perversions; and it is as impossible to procure faith in this way as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The error and insanity from this source are called in the Word "drunkenness." Indeed the souls or spirits who in the other life reason about the truths of faith and against them, become like drunken men and act like them; concerning whom, of the Lord's Divine mercy hereafter. [2] Spirits are perfectly well distinguished from each other, as to whether they are in the faith of charity or not. Those who are in the faith of charity do not reason about the truths of faith, but say that the thing is so, and also as far as possible confirm it by things of sense and of memory, and by the analysis of reason; but as soon as anything obscure comes in their way the truth of which they do not perceive, they defer it, and never suffer such a thing to bring them into doubt, saying that there are but very few things they can apprehend, and therefore to think that anything is not true because they do not apprehend it, would be madness. These are they who are in charity. But-on the contrary-those who are not in the faith of charity desire merely to reason whether a thing be so, and to know how it is, saying that unless they can know how it is, they cannot believe it to be so. From this alone they are known at once as being in no faith, a mark of which is that they not only doubt concerning all things, but also deny in their hearts; and when they are instructed how the case is, they still cling to their disbelief and start all kinds of objections, and never acquiesce, were it to eternity. Those who thus persist in their contumacy heap errors upon errors. [3] These, or such as these, are they who are called in the Word "drunken with wine or strong drink." As in Isaiah:
These err through wine, and through strong drink are gone astray; the priest and the prophet err through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are gone astray through strong drink; they err in vision; all tables are full of vomit and filthiness. Whom will He teach knowledge? and whom will He make to understand the report? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts (Isa. 28:7-9). That such are meant here is evident. Again:
How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? where then are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now; Jehovah hath mingled a spirit of perversities in the midst of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in every work thereof, as a drunken man goeth astray in his vomit (Isa. 19:11-12, 14). A "drunken man" here denotes those who desire, from memory-knowledges [scientifica], to investigate spiritual and celestial things. "Egypt" signifies these knowledges, and therefore calls itself the "son of the wise." In Jeremiah:
Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more (Jer. 25:27), meaning falsities. [4] In David:
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their wisdom is swallowed up (Ps. 107:27). In Isaiah:
Come ye, I will take wine, and we will be drunken with strong drink; and there shall be tomorrow, as this day, great abundance (Isa. 56:12), said of what is contrary to the truths of faith. In Jeremiah:
Every bottle shall be filled with wine; all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness (Jer. 13:12-13);
"wine" denotes faith; "drunkenness" errors. In Joel:
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth; for a nation is come up upon My land; he hath laid My vine waste (Joel 1:5-7), said of the church when vastated as to the truths of faith. In John:
Babylon hath made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. They that dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her fornication (Rev. 14:8, 10; 16:19; 17:2; 18:3; 19:15). The "wine of fornication" means adulterated truths of faith, of which "drunkenness" is predicated. So in Jeremiah:
Babylon hath been a golden cup in the hand of Jehovah, that made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations are mad (Jer. 51:7). [5] Because "drunkenness" signified insanities about the truths of faith, it also became representative and was forbidden to Aaron and his sons, thus:
Drink no wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tent of meeting, that ye die not; that ye may put a difference between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean (Lev. 10:8, 9). Those who believe nothing but what they apprehend by things of sense and memory [scientifica] are also called "heroes to drink." In Isaiah:
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and intelligent before their own faces! Woe unto them that are heroes to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink! (Isa. 5:21, 22). They are called "wise in their own eyes and intelligent before their own faces" because those who reason against the truths of faith think themselves wiser than others. [6] But those who care nothing for the Word and the truths of faith, and thus are not willing to know anything about faith, denying its first principles, are called "drunken without wine." In Isaiah:
They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink; for Jehovah hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes (Isa. 29:9-10). That such is their quality is evident from what goes before and what follows, in that Prophet. Such "drunken men" think themselves more wide awake than others, but they are in deep sleep. That the Ancient Church in the beginning was such as is described in this verse, especially those who were of the stock of the Most Ancient Church, is evident from what has been said before (n. 788).
Elliott(1983-1999) 1072
1072. 'He was drunk' means that he consequently sank into errors. This is clear from the meaning of 'a drunken man' in the Word. Those people are called drunk who do not believe anything except that of which they have a mental grasp, and who for that reason probe into mysteries of faith. And because they probe into them by means of knowledge, either factual or philosophical, acquired through the senses, man being what he is inevitably sinks as a consequence into errors. Man's thought is altogether earthly, bodily, and material because it is born of things that are earthly, bodily, and material which cling to it all the time and which the ideas comprising his thought are based on and encompassed by. Consequently to think and reason about Divine matters from such things is to run into errors and perversities, and from that position it is as impossible to acquire faith as it is 'for a camel to go through the eye of a needle'. The error and insanity that result are in the Word called 'drunkenness'. What is more, souls or spirits in the next life who reason about and against the truths of faith become like drunken men and behave as these do. These people will in the Lord's Divine mercy be described later on.
[2] Spirits are clearly distinguished from one another as to whether they possess, or do not possess, faith that inheres in charity. Those who possess such faith do not engage in reasoning about the truths of faith. Instead they immediately declare them to be true, and also confirm them, so far as they are able, by means of sensory evidence, factual knowledge, and analytical arguments. But as soon as something obscure comes up which they do not perceive they lay it aside and never allow anything like that to lead them into doubt. They say that the things they are able to grasp are very few and that therefore to think that something is not true because they themselves do not grasp it would be madness. These people are those who are governed by charity. But those who do not possess faith inhering in charity have no other desire than to reason whether a thing is true and to know how it is so. They say that if they cannot know how it is so, they are unable to believe that it is so. From this attitude of mind alone they are instantly recognized as those who have no faith at all, and it is a sign not only that they entertain doubts about everything but also that at heart they are deniers. And even when they are informed as to how something is so they remain unmoved and raise all kinds of objections, and would never give up even if this went on for ever. Those who are thus unmoved pile up errors upon errors. These people, or such as they, are in the Word called 'drunk from wine or strong drink'.
[3] As in Isaiah,
These err through urine, and go astray through strong drink. The priest and the prophet err through strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine, they err from strong drink. They err in vision. All tables are full of vomit. Whom will He teach knowledge, and whom will He cause to understand the report? Those weaned from milk, those torn away from the breasts? Isa 28:7-9.
Such people are clearly meant here. In the same prophet,
How do you say to Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of kings of old? Where are your wise men now? Let them, I pray, tell you. Jehovah has mingled in the midst of her a spirit of perversity, and they have made Egypt err in all her works, as a drunken man errs in his vomit. Isa 19:11, 12, 14.
'A drunken man' stands for people who wish from facts to probe into spiritual and celestial things. 'Egypt' means facts, which also is why he calls himself 'a son of the wise'. In Jeremiah, Drink and get drunk, and vomit, and fall, and do not get up again. Jer 25:27. This stands for falsities.
[4] In David,
They reel and stagger like a drunken man, and all their wisdom will be swallowed up. Ps 107:27.
In Isaiah,
Come, I will get wine, and we will be drunken from strong drink, and tomorrow will be like this day, a great abundance. Isa 56:12.
This has reference to things that are contrary to the truths of faith. In Jeremiah,
Every wineskin will be filled with wine, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness. Jer 13:12, 13.
'Wine' stands for faith, 'drunkenness' for errors. In Joel,
Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, over the new urine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is coming up over My land; it is turning My vine into a desolation. Joel 1:5-7.
This refers to the Church vastated as regards truths of faith. In John,
Babylon caused all nations to drink from the wine of the anger of whoredom. The inhabitants of the earth have got drunk with the wine of whoredom. Rev 14:8, 10; 16:19; 17:2; 18:3; 19:15.
'The wine of whoredom' stands for adulterated truths of faith, to which 'drunkenness' has reference. Similarly in Jeremiah,
Babel was a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, making all the earth drunken. The nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations are mad. Jer 51:7.
[5] Since 'drunkenness' meant inanities surrounding truths of faith, it also became representative; and Aaron was forbidden to be drunk, as the following shows,
Aaron and his sons were not to drink wine and intoxicating drink when they entered the Tent [of Meeting] lest they died, so that they might distinguish between what was holy and what was unholy, what was unclean and what was clean. Lev 10:8-10.
People who believe nothing except what they grasp through sensory evidence and factual knowledge are also called in Isaiah 'heroes at drinking',
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and in their own sight intelligent! Woe to heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink! Isa 5:21, 22.
They are called 'wise in their own eyes, and in their own sight intelligent' because people who reason against truths of faith imagine that they are wiser than everybody else.
[6] People however who pay no attention to the Word and the truths of faith, and thus who are unwilling to know anything about faith, and so deny its fundamental teachings, are called 'drunk without wine'. In Isaiah,
They were drunk but not with strong drink. For Jehovah has poured upon you a Spirit of sleep, and has closed your eyes. Isa 19:9, 10.
That they are such is clear from what comes before and after this description of them in the prophet. People who are 'drunk' in this sense imagine that they are more alert than anybody else, yet they are in a deep sleep. The fact that the Ancient Church when it began was such as is described in this verse, especially those who belonged to the stock of the Most Ancient Church, becomes clear from what has been stated already in 788.
Latin(1748-1756) 1072
1072. Quod 'inebriatus est' significet quod inde in errores lapsus, constat a significatione 'ebrii' in Verbo; ebrii vocantur qua nihil credant nisi quod capiant, et ideo inquirant in mysteria fidei, quod quia fit per sensualia aut scientifica aut philosophica, qualis homo est, non potest aliter quam ut inde in errores labatur; cogitatio hominis non est nisi terrestris, corporea et materialis, quia est ex terrestribus, corporeis et materialibus, quae jugiter adhaerent et in quibus ideae cogitationis ejus fundantur et terminantur; quare ex illis de Divinis cogitare et ratiocinari, est se in errores et perversa ferre, et tam impossibile est inde fidem sibi comparare, sicut est 'camelo transire per foramen acus': error et insania quae inde, in Verbo appellatur 'ebrietas': immo etiam animae seu spiritus in altera vita qui ratiocinantur de veris fidei et contra illa, fiunt sicut ebrii, seque similiter gerunt, de quibus, ex Divina Domini Misericordia, in sequentibus. [2] Dignoscuntur manifeste spiritus, num in fide charitatis sunt vel non; qui in fide charitatis sunt, illi de veris fidei non ratiocinantur, sed dicunt ita esse, et quoque confirmant per sensualia, scientifica; et analytica rationis quantum possunt; sed ut primum obscurum quid intervenit quod non percipiunt, hoc rejiciunt, nec usquam admittunt ut tale eos in dubitationem ferat, dicentes paucissima esse quae capere possint, et ideo cogitare non verum esse quia non capiunt, vesanum esse; hi sunt qui in charitate sunt: contra autem illi qui non in fide charitatis sunt, ii non nisi quam ratiocinari volunt num ita sit, et scire quomodo se habet, dicentes, nisi scire possint quomodo se habet, quod non credere possint quod ita sit; ilico ex hoc solum noscuntur, quod in nulla fide sint, et indicium est quod non solum dubitent de omnibus, sed etiam quod corde suo negent; dumque instruuntur quomodo se habet, usque inhaerent, et movent contra illa omnes scrupulos, et nusquam quiescunt, si vel foret in aeternum; et qui ita inhaerent, cumulant errores super errores; hi sunt, seu tales, qui vocantur 'ebrii a vino aut sicera' in Verbo; [3] ut apud Esaiam, Hi per vinum errant, et per siceram aberrant; sacerdos et propheta errant per siceram; absorpti sunt a vino, errant a sicera, errant in visione,... omnes mensae sunt plenae vomitu egestionis.... Quemnam docebit scientiam, et quem intelligere faciet auditionem? ablactatos a lacte, evulsos ab uberibus, xxviii 7-9; hic quod tales intelligantur, constat: apud eundem, Quomodo dicitis ad Pharaonem, Filius sapientum ego, filius regum antiquitatis? ubi nunc sapientes tui? et indicent quaeso. Jehovah miscuit in medio ejus spiritum perversitatum, et errare fecerunt Aegyptum in omni opera ejus, quemadmodum errat ebrius in vomitu suo, xix 11, 12, 14; 'ebrius' pro illis qui ex scientificis volunt investigare spiritualia et caelestia; 'Aegyptus' significat scientifica, quare etiam se vocat 'filium sapientum': apud Jeremiam, Bibite et inebriamini, et vomite, et cadite, et non resurgatis XXV 27;[4] pro falsis: apud Davidem, Circumaguntur et motitantur sicut ebrius, et omnis sapientia eorum absorbetur, Ps. cvii 27;
apud Esaiam, Venite, sumam vinum, et inebriabimur sicera, et erit sicut hoc die cras, magna abundantia, lvi 12;
praedicatur de iis quae sunt contra vera fidei: apud Jeremiam, Omnis uter implebitur vino;... omnes habitatores Hierosolymae ebrietate, xiii 12, 13;
'vinum' pro fide, 'ebrietas' pro erroribus: apud Joelem, Expergiscimini ebrii et flete, et ejulate omnes bibentes vinum, super mustum, quia excisum est ex ore vestro; quia gens ascendit super terram Meam,... ponit vitem Meam in desolationem,i 5-7;
de vastata Ecclesia quoad vera fidei: apud Johannem, Babylon {1}... ex vino irae scortationis potavit omnes gentes: inebriati sunt vino scortationis inhabitantes terram, Apoc. xiv 8, 10; xvi 19; xvii 2; xviii 3; xix 15;
'vinum scortationis' pro adulteratis veris fidei, de quibus 'ebrietas' praedicatur: similiter apud Jeremiam, Calix auri Babel in manu Jehovae, inebrians omnem terram, de vino ejus biberunt gentes, ideo insaniunt gentes, li 7. [5] Quia 'ebrietas' significabat insanias circa vera fidei, etiam repraesentativa facta, et prohibitum Aharoni ita, Aharoni et filii ejus non vinum et potum inebriantem bibent, cum intrarent tentorium, ne morerentur, ad discernendum inter sanctum et profanum, immundum et mundum, Lev. x 8, 9, [10]. Qui nihil credunt, nisi quae capiunt per sensualia et scientifica, vocati quoque sunt 'heroes ad bibendum,' apud Esaiam, Vae sapientibus in oculis suis, et coram faciebus suis intelligentibus; vae heroibus ad bibendum vinum, et viris roboris ad miscendum siceram, V 21, 22;
vocantur 'sapientes in oculis suis, et coram faciebus suis intelligentes,' quia qui contra vera fidei ratiocinantur, ii plus aliis sapere se putant. [6] Qui autem nihil curant Verbum et vera fidei, et sic nihil scire volunt de fide, negantes sic principia, vocantur 'ebrii sine vino,' apud Esaiam, Inebriati sunt et non vino, titubant et non sicera; nam effudit super vos Jehovah spiritum soporis, et obstruxit oculos vestros, xxix 9, 10;
quod tales sint, constat a praecedentibus et sequentibus apud Prophetam; tales 'ebrii' putant se plus vigiles esse aliis, sed sunt in alto sopore. Quod Ecclesia Antiqua in principio fuerit qualis describitur in hoc versu, imprimis ii qui ab Antiquissimae Ecclesiae prosapia fuerunt, constare potest ab illis quae prius n. 788 dicta sunt. @1 This quotation is compounded from several of the refs. given.$