Chapter IV.
Why did Moses call the Levites firstborns and redeemers, and designate their cities as redeeming ones? Why is it not absurd for the pious to cohabit with the wicked? On the two virtues in God, mercy and justice, and their ministers; and on how the departure from evil always leads to the entrance of virtue, and vice versa; as is proven by examples in the Gospels.
Therefore, therefore, Moses called the firstborns and redeemers of the other Levites (Numbers 3:12); because mature and useful men of a certain old age prefer one senility of the soul, another redemption. Hence Moses also indicated the cities of the Levites as redeemers in the Old Testament (Numbers 35:6); because he who takes refuge in that soul in which the Word of God dwells, which is fortified and surrounded like a city, acquires perpetual freedom for himself. For just as in the cities of the Levites there was a remission of punishments, so that if anyone took refuge there who had not committed voluntary murder, no one was allowed to kill him as long as he stayed within the cities of the Levites; in the same way, if someone repents of their own sin, which they either committed thoughtlessly or unwillingly, and attaches themselves to the Levites as residents, and does not think that they should separate themselves from those teachers who dispense God's commandments, the law itself frees them from all punishment and penalty for the crime committed.
14. And do not think it absurd that criminals live together with the pious and the sullied live among the sacred. For those who have been contaminated by the contagion of sins need to be purified. And in a way, a different kind of cause converges. For just as the Levites, having renounced worldly pleasures, are exiles from guilt, so the guilty of blood are fugitives from their homeland. But there is this difference, that the former abandons his own out of fear of the law, while the minister of God renounces the company of humans for the sake of passions and, in pursuit of virtue, rejects the enticements of the flesh. Moreover, this does not deviate from the truth, that he, as it were, imposes certain hands on himself, in order to kill the pleasures of his own body and bring about the destruction of his flesh. Moses indeed killed the Egyptian and became a fugitive from the land of Egypt, in order to avoid the tyrant of that land. But he would not have killed that Egyptian man before he had first killed the Egyptian man of spiritual wickedness within himself, and had renounced the luxury of regal honors, considering the reproach of Christ a greater inheritance than the treasures of Egypt. What seems like a disgrace to foolish people is, for us, the power and wisdom of God in the cross of the Lord.
15. Besides, there are two main kinds of virtues in God, one by which He forgives and another by which He punishes. Sins are forgiven through the word of God, whose levite is the interpreter and executor as well (23, q. 5, cap. Remittuntur; et de Poenit. dist. 1, cap. Verbum Dei): they are also forgiven through the office of the priest and the sacred ministry. They are also punished by humans, such as judges who have temporary authority, as the Apostle teaches, saying: Do you not fear the power? Do good, and you will have praise from it; for he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. (Rom. XIII, 4). Sins are punished even by nations, as we read (Isa. XIII, 17); for oftentimes, by God's command, aliens are raised up to punish the people of the Jews for the offense against the divine majesty. Nor is he who unwillingly commits homicide outside of his office. For the law says of him: Because God has given him into his hands. Therefore, his hands have served as instruments for divine vengeance. The Levite is therefore a minister of forgiveness; but the one who, though not by his own decision but against his will, commits homicide, is a minister of divine vengeance.
16. Also consider this, that when the wicked is killed, Christ is infused. And where abomination is abolished, sanctification is gathered; for the Lord said: In that day when I slew all the firstborn of Egypt, I sanctified unto me all the firstborn of Israel (Num. III, 13). Which you do not apply to the one day of affliction of Egypt, but to all time. For when wickedness is renounced (32, q. I, cap. Cum renuntiatur), immediately virtue is acquired. For the one who has departed from wickedness works the entrance of virtue: and with the same eagerness with which the crime is excluded, innocence is joined. You have this in the Gospel (John 13:2): because when Satan entered into the heart of Judas, Christ departed from him, and in the moment in which he received him, He lost him. Finally, it is written: And after the morsel, Satan entered into him (Ibid., 27). Therefore, Jesus said to him: What you are doing, do quickly. What is this? That because Satan had entered into him, he would depart from Christ. Therefore, he is cast out and excluded, because he can no longer be with the Lord Jesus, as he had begun to be with the devil: for there is no communion of Christ with Belial. Hence, immediately being expelled by command, he departed, as we read, with the Evangelist saying: He received the morsel, and immediately went out (Ibid., 30); for it was night. He not only went out, but immediately and in the night he went out. And it is not surprising that he had the darkness of night who abandoned Christ. Truly, just as he was received by the devil, he was excluded from Christ; so Zacchaeus, renouncing greed, received Christ. And rightly seeing his eagerness, that he had climbed up a tree to see Jesus passing by, the Lord says: Zacchaeus, hurry down, for today I must stay at your house. And he hurried down and joyfully welcomed him. But by receiving Christ he excluded greed, banished treachery, renounced deceit. For Christ does not enter otherwise, than to exclude vices; because he does not dwell with errors. Finally, he threw the moneylenders out of the temple, because he himself wanted to dwell there. Therefore, Zachaeus understanding this, that he could not receive Christ with his old affection, commanded his former vices to leave his home, so that Christ would enter. Therefore, while the Pharisees were murmuring because the Lord Jesus had gone to stay with a sinner, he said to the Lord: Behold, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold (Luke 19:8). In this, he responded to those who said that a sinner should not offer hospitality to Christ: This is to say, I am no longer a tax collector, I am not that Zacchaeus, I am not a robber, I am not a fraudster. I return what I took, I return what I used to steal. Now I give to the poor, whom I used to strip: now I offer my own, whom I used to rob. The sins fled after Christ entered. The blindness of all carnal passions has been dispelled, where the light of eternal life has been infused.