ut do you
fear that you are like Herod, and the thief on Christ's left
hand? You are not, if you have patience. For what was it that
distinguished the thief on the left hand from him on the right
but the patience of the one and the impatience of the other? If
you are a sinner, well; the thief, too, was a sinner; but by his
patience he merited the glorious reward of righteousness and
holiness. Go, and do thou likewise. [Luke 10:37] For you can
suffer nothing except it be either on account of your sins or on
account of your righteousness; and both kinds of suffering
sanctify and save, if you will but love them. And so there is no
excuse left. In short, just as soon as you have confessed that
you are suffering on account of your sins, you are righteous and
holy, even as the thief on the right hand. For the confession of
sins, because it is the truth,[27] justifies and sanctifies, and
so, in the very moment of this confession, you are suffering no
longer on account of your sins, but on account of your innocence.
For the righteous man always suffers innocently. But you are made
righteous by the confession of your merited sufferings and of
your sins. And so your sufferings may truly and worthily be
compared with the sufferings of the saints, even as your
confession may truly and worthily be compared with the confession
of the saints. For one is the truth of all, one the confession of
all sins, one the suffering of all evils, and one the true
communion of saints in all and through all.[28]

CHAPTER VII

THE SEVENTH IMAGE

THE SUPERNAL EVIL, OR THE EVIL ABOVE US

Finally, let us lift up our hearts, and ascend with the Bride
into the mountain of myrrh. [Song of Sol. 4:6] This is Jesus
Christ the Crucified, Head of all saints, and Prince of all
sufferers; of Whom many have written many things, and all all
things, as it is meet.[29] His memory is commended to the Bride,
when it is said, "Set Me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal
upon thine arm." [Song of Sol. 8:6] The blood of this Lamb,
signed upon the threshold, wards off the destroying angel. [Ex.
12:7, 13] By Him is the Bride praised, because "the hair of her
head is as the king's purple"; [Song of Sol. 7:5] that is, her
meditation glows red with the remembrance of the Passion of
Christ. This is that tree which Moses was commanded to cast into
the waters of Marah (that is, the bitterness of suffering), and
they were made sweet. [Ex. 15:23 ff.] There is nothing that