1 Samuel 13:7

But the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead. Those who are more perfect, under the pressures of enduring temptations, set aside all the affairs of the world, in which the reprobates descend and slip into the world, and whose snares either try to catch them or they are usually caught when tempted; they also surpass the swelling pride, on account of which Satan descended from heaven with his followers, healthily inclined; for the obstacles of such vices, the Jordan River, not only by its name, because it is called their descent or apprehension—namely of the unclean, whether men or demons—but also by its nature, flowing into the Dead Sea and losing its praiseworthy waters, symbolically shows. Because certainly all worldly enticements and the flood of carnal concupiscence are extinguished in the lowest darkness of perpetual death. Indeed, those who traverse this Jordan, that is the apprehension and descent of the wicked, enter the land of Gad and Gilead, that is, the land of the prepared and the heap of testimony; because they ascend to a mind endowed with the constant exercise of virtues, and always fruitful in good works, which bear praiseworthy testimony about themselves. And it is fitting that those who are said to cross over the opposing river of vices are called Hebrews, that is, those who cross over. And to whom one says, seeing the wicked exalted and lifted up above the cedars of Lebanon, "I passed by, and behold, he was not." And elsewhere: "And with my God, I shall leap over a wall."

13. If indeed we first wish to understand this according to the letter, these Hebrews are understood to have been both terrified with fear and to have fled to their enemies. For not long after, in Jonathan's open victory, it is written: 'The Hebrews who had been with the Philistines yesterday and the day before and had gone up with them into the camp turned back to be with Israel, who were with Saul and Jonathan' (1 Sam. 14:21). But what is signified by this event, except what we observe happening daily in the holy Church: that the life of the good is safe and most cautious, while that of the negligent is reckless impatience? They are indeed weak yet bold, eager for the affairs of the world, but feeble for enduring the war of temptation. And if we examine our own affairs in this regard, very many such people are found in monasteries. They dwell indeed in the calm of the harbor, but they by no means consider the storms of the open sea and the whirlwinds of tempests. And when they esteem themselves to be acting as mighty men outside, they go out readily to the most grievous battles of temptations—powerless against strong adversaries. Improvident indeed in reason, weak in strength: just as they do not understand the deceits of cunning temptation, so also they do not escape the open snares of enticements. They therefore cross the Jordan, because they are bent toward committing the shameful deeds of the flesh. Jordan is indeed interpreted as "their descent." Those therefore who abandon justice fall from the high mountain of virtues. Because therefore each of the weak willingly desires the enticements of the world which they see, in their type the Hebrews are said not to have been carried across the Jordan, but to cross the Jordan. To cross over is indeed the act of one who wills it. Therefore those cross the Jordan who are turned toward carnal pleasures by voluntary and hasty deliberation. Moreover, those can be understood to cross the Jordan who newly begin to sin, but by sinning surpass the wickedness of other sinful men. For they would reach the level of their descent by stopping there, not by crossing beyond, if they committed evils equal to others and did not surpass them by daring. And because they find their equals even in a more wicked life, they are rightly said to arrive at the land of Gad and Gilead, across the Jordan. For they dwell as it were across…