When The Wicked Prosper

Surgentes testes iniqui quae ignorabam interrogabant me. Omnes iniqui qui temporalia bona aeternis praeferunt, cum in hac vita prosperantur, quasi in testimonium contra electos surgunt, quia dum ipsa sua felicitate de visibilibus non loquendo, sed prosperando, testimonnium perhibent, judicium bonorum, quod de aeternis, et invisibilibus bonis dat, convincere student. Unde recte quae ignorabam, inquit, interrogabant me. Mali enim bonos de praesenti felicitate interrogant, quia, cum eis dulcis sit, mirantur, quod illi se ad appetitum ejus non inclinant, Sed qui haec non dulcis, sed amara bonis est, quidquid de ejus laude in medium proferunt, hoc boni per experientiam non cognoscunt. Hugo De Sancte Victore, Miscellanea, Liber II, Tit XLIII Quod temporalis malorum prosperitas, electis testimonium est aeternae felicitatis Source: Migne PL 177.609a

'Evil witnesses rose up and questioned me about things I did not know.' 1 All the wicked who prefer temporal goods to eternal ones, when they prosper in this life, they rise up as a testament against the elect, because while they do not speak of their happiness amid visible things, yet in their prospering they give testimony of it, and they strive to convince with this judgement of good things against eternal and unseen goods. Hence it is rightly said they questioned him about things he did not know. The wicked question the good about present happiness, because while there is sweetness to them in it they wonder why the good do not incline to their desires. But to the good these things are not sweet but bitter, and likewise whatever praise of it is brought before them, for the good through experience know nothing of it. Hugh Of Saint Victor, Miscellanea, Book 2, Chapter 43, That the temporal prosperity of the wicked is a witness to the elect of eternal happiness. 1 Ps 34.11