VOLUME I - THE
FIRST PART.
________
BOOK II.
From the sixth
verse of the first chapter to the end, he follows out the exposition
according to
the threefold interpretation [historical,
allegorical, moral].
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION.
1. Holy Writ
is set before the eyes of the mind like a kind of mirror, that we may see
our inward face in it; for therein we learn the deformities, therein we
learn the beauties that we possess; there we are made sensible what progress
we are making, there too how far we are from proficiency. It relates the
deeds of the Saints [al. ‘of the strong’], and stirs the hearts of the weak
to follow their example, and while it commemorates their victorious deeds,
it strengthens our feebleness against the assaults of our vices; and its
words have this effect, that the mind is so much the less dismayed amidst
conflicts as it sees the triumphs of so many brave men set before it.
Sometimes however it not only informs us of their excellencies, but also
makes known their mischances, that both in the victory of brave men we may
see what we ought to seize on by imitation, and again in their falls what we
ought to stand in fear of. For, observe how Job is described as rendered
greater by temptation, but David by temptation brought to the ground, that
both the virtue of our predecessors may cherish our hopes, and the downfall
of our predecessors may brace us to the cautiousness of humility, so that
whilst we are uplifted by the former to joy, by the latter we may be kept
down through fears, and that the hearer's mind, being from the one source
imbued with the confidence of hope, and from the other with the humility
arising from fear, may neither swell with rash pride, in that it is kept
down by alarm, nor be so kept down by fear as to despair, in that it finds
support for confident hope in a precedent of virtue.
Ver.6. Now
there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the
Lord, and Satan came also among them.
[ii]
2. It is
interesting to observe the method followed by Holy Writ in delineating, at
the commencement of its relations, the qualities and the issues of the
particular cases. For one while by the position of the place, now by the
posture of the body, now by the temperature of the air, and now by the
character of the time, it marks out what it has coming after concerning the
action which is to follow; as by the position of the place Divine Scripture
sets forth the merits of the circumstances that follow, and the results of
the case, as where it relates of Israel that they could not hear the words
of God in the mount [Ex. 19, 17], but received the commandments on the
plain; doubtless betokening the subsequent weakness of the people who could
not mount up to the top, but enfeebled themselves by living carelessly in
the lowest things. By the posture of the body it tells of future events, as
where in the Acts of the Apostles, Stephen discloses that he saw Jesus, Who
sitteth at the right hand of the Power of God [Acts 7, 55, 56], in a
standing posture; for standing is the posture of one in the act of rendering
aid, and rightly is He discerned standing, Who gives succour in the press of
the conflict. By the temperature of the air, the subsequent event is shewn,
as when the Evangelist was telling that none out of Judaea were at that time
to prove believers in our Lord's preaching, he prefaced it by saying, and
it was winter, for it is written, Because iniquity shall abound, the
love of many shall wax cold. [John 10, 22. Mat. 24, 12.] Therefore he
took care to particularize the winter season, to indicate that the frost of
wickedness was in the hearers' hearts. Hence it is that it is beforehand
remarked of Peter, when on the point of denying our Lord, that it was
cold, and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself. [John 18, 18] For
he was now inwardly unenlivened by the warmth of Divine love, but to the
love of this present life he was warming up, as though his weakness were set
boiling by the persecutors' coals. By the character of the time moreover
the issue of the transaction is set forth, as it is related of Judas, who
was never to be restored to pardon, that he went out at night to the
treachery of his betrayal, where upon his going out, the Evangelist says,
And it was night. [John 13, 30] Hence too it is declared to the wicked
rich man, This night shall thy soul be required of thee; for that
soul which is conveyed to darkness, is not recorded as required in the day
time, but in the night. Hence it is that Solomon who received the gift of
wisdom, but was not to persevere, is said to have received her in dreams and
in the night. Hence it is that the Angels visit Abraham at midday, but when
proposing to punish Sodom, they are recorded to have come thither at
eventide, Therefore, because the trial of blessed Job is carried on to
victory, it is related to have begun by day, it being said,
Now there was
a day, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and
Satan came also among them.
[iii]
3. Now who
are called the sons of God, saving the elect Angels? and as we know of them
that they wait on the eyes of His Majesty, it is a worthy subject of
inquiry, whence they come to present themselves before God. For it is of
these that it is said by the voice of Truth, Their angels do always
behold the face of My Father, Which is in heaven? [Mat. 18. 10] Of
these the Prophet saith, thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten
thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. [Dan. 7, 10] If then they
ever behold and ever stand nigh, we must carefully and attentively consider
whence they are come, who never go from Him; but since Paul says of them,
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that
shall be heirs of salvation? [Heb. 1, 14] in this, that we learn that
they are sent, we discover whence they are come. But see, we add question
to question, and as it were while we strive to unloose the loop, we are only
fastening a knot. For how can they either always be in presence, or always
behold the face of the Father, of they are sent upon external ministration
for our salvation? Which will however be the sooner believed, if we think
of how great subtlety is the angelical nature. For they never so go forth
apart from the vision of God, as to be deprived of the joys of interior
contemplation; for if when they went forth they lost the vision of the
Creator, they could neither have raised up the fallen, nor announced the
truth to those in ignorance; and that fount of light, which by departing
they were themselves deprived of, they could in no wise proffer to the
blind. Herein then is the nature of Angels distinguished from the present
condition of our own nature, that we are both circumscribed by space, and
straitened by the blindness of ignorance; but the spirits of Angels are
indeed bounded by space, yet their knowledge extends far above us beyond
comparison; for they expand by external and internal knowing, since they
contemplate the very source of knowledge itself. For of those things which
are capable of being known, what is there that they know not, who know Him,
to Whom all things are known? So that their knowledge when compared with
ours is vastly extended, yet in comparison with the Divine knowledge it is
little. In like manner as their very spirits in comparison indeed with our
bodies are spirits, but being compared with the Supreme and Incomprehensible
Spirit, they are Body. Therefore they are both sent from Him, and stand by
Him too, since both in that they are circumscribed, they go forth, and in
this, that they are also entirely present, they never go away. Thus they at
the same time always behold the Father's face, and yet come to us; because
they both go forth to us in a spiritual presence, and yet keep themselves
there, whence they had gone out, by virtue of interior contemplation; it may
then be said, The sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord;
inasmuch as they come back thither by a return of the spirit, whence
they never depart by any withdrawal of the mind.
And Satan came
also among them.
[iv]
4. It is a
very necessary enquiry, how Satan could be present among the elect Angels,
he who had a long time before been damned and banished from their number, as
his pride required. Yet he is well described as having been present among
them; for though he lost his blessed estate, yet he did not part with a
nature like to theirs, and though his deserts sink him, he is lifted up by
the properties of his subtle nature. And so he is said to have come before
God among the sons of God, for Almighty God, with that eye with which He
regards all spiritual things, beholds Satan also in the rank of a more
subtle nature, as Scripture testifies, when it says, The eyes of the Lord
are in every place, beholding the evil and the good; [Prov. 15, 3] but
this, viz. that Satan is said to have come before the presence of God, comes
under a grave question with us; for it is written, Blessed are the pure
in heart, for they shall see God. [Matt. 5, 8] But Satan, who can never
be of a pure heart, how could he have presented himself to see the Lord?
5. But it is
to be observed, that he is said to have come before the Lord, but not that
he saw the Lord. For he came to be seen, and not to see. He was in the
Lord's sight, but the Lord was not in his sight; as when a blind man stands
in the sun, he is himself bathed indeed in the rays of light, yet he sees
nothing of the light, by which he is brightened. In like manner then Satan
also appeared in the Lord's sight among the Angels. For the Power of God,
which by a look penetrates all objects, beheld the impure spirit, who saw
not Him. For because even those very things which flee from God's face
cannot be hidden, in that all things are naked to the view of the Most High,
Satan being absent came to Him, Who was present.
Ver. 7,
And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou?
6. How is it
that it is never said to the elect Angels, when they come, 'Whence come ye?'
while Satan is questioned whence he comes? For assuredly we never ask, but
what we do not know; but God's not knowing is His condemning. Whence at the
last He will say to some, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. [Luke 13, 27] In the same way that a man of
truth, who disdains to sin by a falsehood, is said not to know how to lie,
not in being ignorant if he had the will to lie, but in disdaining to tell a
falsehood, from love of truth. What then is it to say to Satan, Whence
comest thou? but to condemn his ways, as though unknown. The light of
truth then knows nought of the darkness, which it reproves; and the paths of
Satan, which as a judge it condemns, it is meet that it should inquire after
as though in ignorance of them. Hence it is that it is said to Adam in his
sin by his Creator's voice, Adam, where art thou? [Gen. 3, 9] For
Divine Power was not ignorant to what hiding place His servant had fled
after his offence, but for that He saw that he, having fallen in his sin,
was now as it were hidden under sin from the eyes of Truth, in that He
approves not the darkness of his error, He knows not, as it were, where the
sinner is, and both calls him, and asks him, saying, Adam, where art
thou? hereby, that He calls him, He gives a token that He recalls him
to repentance; hereby, that He questions him, He plainly intimates that He
knows not sinners, that justly deserve to be damned, Accordingly the Lord
never calls Satan, but yet He questions him, saying, Whence comest thou?
without doubt because God never recalls the rebel spirit to repentance,
but in not knowing his paths of pride, He condemns him; therefore while
Satan is examined [discutitur] concerning his way, the elect Angels
have not to be questioned whence they come, since their ways are known to
God in so much as they are done of His own moving, and whilst they are
subservient to His will alone, they can never be unknown to Him, in so far
as, by His approving eye, it is Himself from Whom and before Whom they are
done. It follows,
Then Satan
answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from
walking up and down in it.
[vi]
7. The
toilsomeness of labour is wont to be represented by the round of circuitous
motion, Accordingly Satan went toiling round about the earth, for he scorned
to abide at peace in the height of heaven; and whereas he intimates that he
did not fly, but that he walked, he shews the weight of sin, by which he is
kept down below. Walking then up and down, he went to and fro
in the earth, for tumbling down from that his soaring in spiritual
mightiness, and oppressed by the weight of his own wickedness, he came forth
to his round of labour. For it is for no other reason that it is said of
his members also by the Psalmist, The wicked walk on every side; for
while they seek not things within, they weary themselves with toiling at
things without. It follows ;
Ver. 8. And
the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is
none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God,
and escheweth evil?
[vii]
8. This
point, viz, that blessed Job is by the voice of God called a perfect and
an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil, having
explained above minutely and particularly, we forbear to rehearse what we
have said, lest while we go over points that have been already examined, we
should be slow in coming to those which have not. This then requires our
discreet consideration, how it is either that the Lord is said to speak to
Satan, or that Satan is said to answer the Lord, for we must make out what
this speaking means. For neither by the Lord Who is the supreme and
unbounded Spirit, nor by Satan, who is invested with no fleshly nature, is
the breath of air inhaled by the bellows of the lungs, after the manner of
human beings, so that by the organ of the throat it should be given back in
the articulation of the voice; but when the Incomprehensible Nature speaks
to an invisible nature, it behoves that our imagination rising above the
properties of our corporeal speech should be lifted to the sublime and
unknown methods of interior speech. For we, that we may express outwardly
the things which we are inwardly sensible of, deliver these through the
organ of the throat, by the sounds of the voice, since to the eyes of others
we stand as it were behind the partition of the body, within the secret
dwelling place of the mind; but when we desire to make ourselves manifest,
we go forth as though through the door of the tongue, that we may shew what
kind of persons we are within. But it is not so with a spiritual nature,
which is not a twofold compound of mind and body. But again we must
understand that even when incorporeal nature itself is said to speak, its
speech is by no means characterized by one and the same form. For it is
after one method that God speaks to the Angels, and after another that the
Angels speak to God; in one manner that God speaks to the souls of Saints,
in another that the souls of Saints speak to God; in one way God speaks to
the devil, ill another the devil speaks to God.
9. For
because no corporeal obstacle is in the way of a spiritual being, God speaks
to the holy Angels in the very act of His revealing to their hearts His
inscrutable secrets, that whatsoever they ought to do they may read it in
the simple contemplation of truth, and that the very delights of
contemplation should be like a kind of vocal precepts, for that is as it
were spoken to them as hearers which is inspired into them as beholders.
Whence when God was imparting to their hearts His visitation of vengeance
upon the pride of man, He said, Come, let us go down, and there confound
their language. [Gen. 11, 7] He saith to those who are close about Him,
Come, doubtless because this very circumstance of never decreasing
from the contemplation of God, is to be always increasing in the
contemplation of Him, and never to depart from Him in heart, is as it were
to be always coming to Him by a kind of steady motion. To them He also
says, Let us go down, and there confound their language. The Angels
ascend in that they behold their Creator; the Angels descend in that by a
strict examination they put down that which exalts itself in unlawful
measure. So then for God to say, Let us go down, and confound their
speech, is to exhibit to them in Himself that which would be rightly
done, and by the power of interior vision to inspire into their minds, by
secret influences, the judgments which are fit to be set forth.
10. It is
after another manner that the Angels speak to God, as in the Revelation of
John also they say, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power,
and riches, and wisdom; for the voice of the Angels in the praises of
God is the very admiration itself of inward contemplation. To be struck
dumb at the marvels of Divine goodness is to utter a voice, for the emotion
of the heart excited with a feeling of awe is a mighty utterance of voice to
the ears of a Spirit that is not circumscribed. This voice unfolds itself
as it were in distinct words, while it moulds itself in the innumerable
modes of admiration. God then speaks to the Angels when His inner will is
revealed to them as the object of their perception; but the Angels speak to
the Lord when by means of this, which they contemplate above themselves,
they rise to emotions of admiration.
11. In one
way God speaks to the souls of Saints, in another the souls of Saints speak
to God; whence too it is again said in the Apocalypse of John, I saw
under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word if God, and
for the testimony which. they held: and they cried with a loud voice,
saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? [Rev. 6, 9. 10.]
Where in the same place it is added, And white robes were given unto
every one of them, and it was said unto them that they should rest for a
little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren that
should be killed as they were should be fulfilled; [Rev. 6, 11] for what
else is it for souls to utter the prayer for vengeance, but to long for the
day of final Judgment, and the resurrection of their lifeless bodies? For
their great cry is their great longing; for everyone cries the less, the
less he desires; and he utters the louder voice in the ears of an
uncircumscribed Spirit in proportion as he more entirely pours himself out
in desire of Him, and so the words of souls are their very desires. For if
the desire were not speech, the Prophet would not say, Thine ear hath
heard the desire of their heart; [Ps. 10, 17] but as the mind which
beseeches is usually affected one way and the mind which is besought
another, and yet the souls of the Saints so cleave to God in the bosom of
their inmost secresy, that in cleaving they find rest, how are those said to
beseech, who it appears are in no degree at variance with His interior
will? How are they said to beseech, who, we are assured, are not ignorant,
either of God's will or of those things which shall be? Yet whilst fixed on
Himself they are said to beseech any thing of Him, not in desiring aught
that is at variance with the will of Him, Whom they behold, but in
proportion as they cleave to Him with the greater ardour of mind, they also
obtain from Him to beseech that of Him, which they know it is His will to
do; so that they drink from Him that which they thirst after from Him. And
in a manner to us incomprehensible as yet, what they hunger for in begging,
they are filled withal in foreknowing; and so they would be at variance with
their Creator's will, if they did not pray for that which they see to be His
will, and they would cleave less closely to Him, if when He is willing to
give, they knocked with less lively longing. These receive the answer
spoken from God, Rest yet for a little season, till your fellowservants
and your brethren be fulfilled. To say to those longing souls, rest
yet for a little season, is to breathe upon them amid their burning
desires, by the very foreknowledge, the soothings of consolation; so that
both the voice of the souls is that desire which through love they
entertain, and God's address in answer is this, that He reassures them in
their desires with the certainty of retribution. For Him then to answer
that they should await the gathering of their brethren to their number, is
to infuse into their minds the delays of a glad awaiting, that while they
long after the resurrection of the flesh, they may be further gladdened by
the accession of their brethren who remain to be gathered to them.
12. It is in
one way that God speaks to the devil, and in another that the devil speaks
to God, For God's speaking to the devil is His rebuking his ways and
dealings with the visitation of a secret scrutiny, as it is here said,
Whence comest thou? But the devil's answering Him, is his being unable
to conceal any thing from His Omnipotent Majesty; whence he says, From
going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. For
it is as it were for him to say what he had been doing, that he knows that
he cannot hide his doings from the eyes of That Being. But we must
understand that, as we learn in this place, God has four ways of speaking to
the devil, and the devil has three ways of speaking to God, God speaks to
the devil in four modes, for He both reprehends his unjust ways, and urges
against him the righteousness of His Saints, and lets him by permission try
their innocence, and sometimes stops him that he dare not tempt them, Thus
he rebukes his unjust ways, as has been just now said, Whence camnest
thou? He urges against him the righteousness of His own elect, as He
saith, Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him
in all the earth? [Job 1, 8] He allows him by permission to put their
innocence to the test, as when He says, All that he hath is in thy power.
[ver. 12] And again He prevents him from tempting, when He says, But
upon himself put not forth thy hand. But the devil speaks to God in
three ways, either when he communicates to Him his dealing, or when he
calumniates the innocence of the elect with false charges, or when he
demands the same innocence to put it to trial. For he communicates his ways
who says, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and
down in it. [ver. 7] He calumniates the innocence of the elect, when he
says, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not Thou made an hedge
about him, and about all his house, and about all that he hath on every
side? [ver. 9, 10] He demands the same innocence to be subjected to
trial, when he says, But put forth Thine hand now and touch all that he
hath and he will curse Thee to Thy face. But God's saying, Whence
comest thou? is His rebuking by virtue of His own goodness that one's
paths of wickedness. His saying, Hast thou considered My servant Job,
that there is none like him in all the earth? is His making the elect,
by justifying them, such as a rebel angel might envy. God's saying, All
that he hath is in thy power, is, for the probation of the Saints, His
letting loose upon them that assault of the wicked one, by the secret
exercise of His power. God's saying, Only upon himself put not forth
thine hand, is His restraining him from an excessive assault of
temptation, even in giving him permission. But the devil's saying, From
going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it,
signifies His inability to conceal from His unseen eyes the cunning of his
wickedness. The devil's saying, Doth Job fear God for nought? is his
complaining against the just within the hiding places of his own thoughts,
his envying their gains, and from envy searching out flaws for their
condemnation. The devil's saying, Put forth Thine hand now and touch all
that he hath, is his panting with the fever of wickedness to afflict the
just. For in that through envy he longs to tempt the just, he seeks as it
were by entreaty to put them to the test. Now then, as we have briefly
described the methods of inward speaking, let us return to the thread of
interpretation, which has been slightly interrupted.
Ver. 8.
Have thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the
earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth
evil?
13. The point
has been already discussed in the foregoing discourse, that the devil
proposed a contest not with Job but with God, blessed Job being set between
them as the subject of the contest; and if we say that Job amid the blows
erred in his speech, we assert what it is impious to imagine, that God was
the loser in His pledge. For, lo, here also it is to be remarked, that the
devil did not first beg the blessed Job of the Lord, but the Lord commended
him to the contempt of the devil; and unless He had known that he would
continue in his uprightness, He would not assuredly have undertaken for
him. Nor would He give him up to perish in the temptation, against whom,
before the temptation was sent, those firebrands of envy were kindled in the
tempter's mind from God's own commendations.
14. But the
old adversary, when he fails to discover any evil of which he might accuse
us, seeks to turn our very good points into evil, and being beaten upon
works, looks through our words for a subject of accusation; and when he
finds not in our words either ground of accusation, he strives to blacken
the purpose of the heart, as though our good deeds did not come of a good
mind, and ought not on that account to be reckoned good in the eyes of the
Judge. For because he sees the fruit of the tree to be green even in the
heat, he seeks as it were to set a worm at its root. For he says,
Ver. 9, 10.
Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast Thou, not made an hedge about him,
and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast
blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in, the land.
15. As if he
said in plain terms, ‘What wonder is it, if he who has received so many
blessings upon earth should behave without offence in return for them? He
would then be really innocent, if he continued good in adversity; but why is
he to be called great, whose every work has its recompense attending upon
him, in all this abundance of good things?’ For the crafty adversary, when
he bethinks himself that the holy man had acted well in prosperity, hastens
by means of adversity to prove him guilty before the Judge. Whence it is
well said by the voice of the Angel in the Apocalypse, The accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before God day and night.
[Rev. 12, 10] Now holy Scripture is often used to set the day for
prosperity, and the night for adversity. Accordingly he ceases not to
accuse us by day and by night; forasmuch as he strives to shew us to be
chargeable one while in prosperity, another while in adversity. In the day
he accuses us, when he slanders us that we abuse our good fortune; in the
night he accuses us, when he shews that we do not exercise patience in
adversity; and therefore because no strokes had as yet touched blessed Job,
he was as it were still wholly without that whereof he might be able to
accuse him by night, but because in prosperity he had thriven in a great
holiness, he pretended that it was in return for his good fortune that he
had done well, lying in the crafty assertion, that he did not keep his
substance for the profit [usum] of the Lord, but that he served the
Lord for the profit [usum] of his substance. For there are some who,
to enjoy God, dea1 with this life like stewards, and there are some who to
enjoy this life would make use of God by the bye. When then he describes
the gifts of Divine bounty, he thinks to make light of the acts of the
resolute doer, that he might impeach [addicat] the heart of him as
though on the score of secret thoughts, whose life he was unable to reprove
on the score of works; falsely asserting that whatever outward innocence of
life there might be, was in compliance not with the love of God, but with
his longing after temporal prosperity. And so knowing nothing of the powers
of blessed Job, and yet being well aware that everyone is most truly tried
by adversity, he demands him for trial, that he who throughout the day of
prosperity had walked with unfailing foot, at least in the night of
adversity might stumble, and by the offence of impatience might be laid low
before the eyes of his commender. Whence he adds,
Ver. 11.
But put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse
Thee to Thy face.
[x]
16. When
Satan has a desire to tempt the holy man, and yet tells the Lord that He
must put forth His hand against him, it is very deserving of notice that
even he, who is so especially lifted up against the Maker of all things,
never claims to himself the power to strike; for the devil knows well that
he is unable to do any thing of himself, for neither in that he is a spirit
does he subsist by himself. Hence it is that in the Gospel, the legion,
which was to be cast out of the man, exclaimed, If Thou cast us out,
suffer us to go away into the herd of swine; [Mat. 8, 31] for what
wonder is it if he, who could not by his own power enter into the swine, had
no power without the Creator's hand to touch the holy man's house?
17. But we
must know that the will of Satan is always evil, but his power is never
unjust, for his will he derives from himself, but his power he derives from
God. For what he himself unrighteously desires to do, God does not allow to
be done except with justice. Whence it is well said in the book of Kings,
the evil spirit of God came upon Saul. [1 Sam. 18, 10] You see that
one and the same spirit is both called the Lord's spirit and an evil Spirit;
the Lord's, that is, by the concession of just power, but evil, by the
desire of an unjust will, so that he is not to be dreaded, who has no power
but by permission; and, therefore, that Power is the only worthy object of
fear, which when It has allowed the enemy to vent his rage, makes even his
unjust will serve the purpose of a just judgment. But he requires that His
hand should be put forth a little; they being external things, of
which he seeks the hurt. For Satan even does not consider himself to
accomplish much, unless he inflicts a wound in the soul, that by so smiting
he may bring one back from that country, from which he lies far removed,
laid prostrate by the weapon of his own pride.
18. But why
is it that he says, if he have not blessed Thee to Thy face? [so
Vulg.] We look, it means, toward that we love, but that we would be quit
of, we turn away our face from it. What then is the face of God, unless the
regard of His favour is set before us to be understood? Accordingly he
says, But put forth Thine hand a little [Vulg. paullullum, E.V.
now], and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy
face. As if he had said in plain words, Withdraw the things which Thou
hast given him, for if he lose Thy gifts, he will no longer seek the regard
of Thy favour, when his temporal good things are taken away. For if he no
longer has the things in which he takes delight, he will despise Thy favour
even to cursing Thee. By which crafty address The Truth Whom he challenges
is in no wise overcome; but that is permitted the enemy to his own undoing,
which may be reckoned to the faithful servant for the increase of his
reward; for which cause it is immediately subjoined,
Ver. 12.
Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth
thine hand.
[xi]
19. We should
mark in the Lord's words the dispensations of heavenly pity, how He lets go
our enemy, and keeps him in; how He looses, and yet bridles him. He allows
him some things for temptation, but withholds him from others. All that
he hath is in thy hand, only upon himself put not forth thine hand. His
substance He delivers over, but still He protects his person, which
notwithstanding after a while He designs to give over to the tempter; yet He
does not loose the enemy to every thing at once, lest he should crush His
own subject [civem] by striking him on every side. For whenever many
evils betide the elect, by the wonderful graciousness of the Creator they
are dealt out by seasons, that what by coming all together would destroy,
may when divided be borne up against. Hence Paul says, God is faithful,
Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with
the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
[1 Cor. 10, 13] Hence David says, Examine me, O Lord, and prove me.
[Ps. 26, 2] As if he said in plain words, ‘first examine my powers, and
then, as I am able to bear, let me undergo temptation.’ But this that is
said, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not
forth thine hand, is also capable of another sense, viz. that the Lord
knew well, indeed, that His soldier was brave, yet chose to divide for him
his contests with the enemy, that, though victory should in every case be
sure to that staunch warrior, yet that from one conflict first the enemy
might return to the Lord defeated, and that then he might grant him another
encounter to be again worsted, so that his faithful follower might come
forth the more incomparable conqueror, in proportion as the vanquished foe
had repaired his forces again for fresh wars with him. It follows,
So Satan went
forth from the presence of the Lord.
[xii]
20. What is
this, that Satan is said to go forth from the presence of the Lord?
For how is it possible to go forth from Him, Who is every where
present? Whence it is that He says, Do not I fill heaven and earth?
[Jer. 23, 24] Hence it is written concerning His Spirit, For the Spirit
of the Lord filleth the world. [Wisd. 1, 7] Hence it is that His Wisdom
saith, I alone compassed the circuit of heaven. [Ecclus. 24, 5]
Hence it is that the Lord says again, The heaven is My throne, and the
earth is My footstool. [Isa. 66, 1] And again it is written of
Him, He meteth out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the
earth in a measure, [Is. 40, 12. Vulg.] for He abides both within and
without the seat, whereon He rules. By His ‘meting out heaven with a span,
and comprehending the earth in a measure,’ He is shewn to be Himself on
every side beyond the circuit of all things which He has created. For that
which is enclosed within is from without held in by that which encloseth
it. "By the throne, therefore, whereon He is seated, it is meant that He is
within and above; by the ‘measure,’ wherewith , ‘He comprehends,’ He is
represented to be beyond and beneath; for whereas the same Being abides
within all things, without all things, above all things, beneath all things,
He is both above by virtue of His Dominion, and beneath by virtue of His
Upholding; without, by His Immensity, and within, by His Subtlety; ruling
from on high, holding together from below; encompassing without, penetrating
within; not abiding by one part above, by another beneath, or by one part
without, and by another part within, but One and the Same, and wholly every
where, upholding in ruling, ruling in upholding; penetrating in
encompassing, encompassing in penetrating; whence He ruleth from above,
thence upholding from beneath, and whence He enfoldeth from without, thence
filling up within; ruling on high without disquietude, upholding below
without effort; within, penetrating without attenuation, without,
encompassing without expansion. So that He is both lower and higher,
without place; He is wider without breadth; He is more subtle without
rarity.
21. Whither
then is there any ‘going forth’ from Him, Who being through the bulk of a
body no where present, is through a Substance unlimited no where absent?
Still, so long as Satan, kept down by the power of His Majesty, was unable
to execute the longing of his wickedness, he, as it were, stood in the
presence of the Lord, but he ‘went forth’ from the presence of the Lord,
because, being freed from above from the pressure of an inward withholding,
he went to the execution of his desire. He went forth from the presence of
the Lord, forasmuch as his evil will, long bound by the fetters of a severe
control, did at length proceed to fulfilment. For, as has been said, whilst
that which he desired he had no power to fulfil, in a manner, he ;stood in
the presence of the Lord,’ because the Supreme Providence restrained him
from the execution of his wickedness, but ‘he went forth from His presence,’
because in receiving the power to tempt, he arrived at the goal, at which
his wickedness aimed, It goes on:
Ver. 13, 14,
15, And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and
drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: And there came a messenger
unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside
them: And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have
slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone
to tell thee.
[xiii]
22. We ought
to observe what times are suited for temptations; for the devil chose that
as the time for tempting, when he found the sons of the blessed Job engaged
in feasting; for the adversary does not only cast about what to do, but also
when to do it. Then though he had gotten the power, yet he sought a fitting
season to work his overthrow, to this end, that by God's disposal it might
be recorded for our benefit, that the delight of full enjoyment is the
forerunner of woe. But we should observe the craft with which the losses
that were inflicted by him are themselves related; for it is not said, ‘the
oxen have been carried off by the Sabeans,’ but ‘the oxen, which have been
carried away, were ploughing,’ with the view doubtless that by mention of
the profit of their labour, his cause for sorrow should be increased; for
the same reason also [LXX.
ai yhlei-ai onoi]
among the Greeks it is not only asses, but asses with young, that are
reported to have been taken away, that while such insignificant animals
might less hurt the mind of the hearer from their value, they might from
their productiveness inflict the sorer wound; and as misfortunes afflict the
mind the more in proportion as, being many in number, they are also suddenly
announced, the measure of his woes was enlarged even through the junctures
at which the tidings arrived. For it follows,
Ver. 16,
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of
God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants,
and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
23. Lest the
loss of his property might not stir up sufficient grief at the hearing, he
urges his feelings to exceed by the very words of the messengers. For it is
to be remarked how craftily it is said, the fire of God, as though it
were said, thou art suffering the visitation of Him, Whom thou desiredst to
appease by so many sacrifices: thou art undergoing the wrath of Him, in
Whose service thou didst daily weary thyself! For in signifying that God,
Whom he had served, had brought upon him his misfortunes, he mentions a sore
point on which he may break forth; to the end that he might recall to mind
his past services, and reckoning that he had served in vain, might be lifted
up against the injustice of the Author. For the godly mind, when it finds
itself to meet with crosses from the hands of man, finds repose in the
consolations of Divine favour; and when it sees the storms of trial gather
strength without, then seeking the covert of trust in the Lord, it takes
refuge within the haven of the conscience. But that the cunning adversary
might at one and the same moment crush the bold heart of the holy man, both
by strokes from man and by despair in God, he both brought tidings at first
that the Sabeans had made an irruption, and announced immediately afterwards
that the fire of God had fallen from heaven, that he might as it were shut
up every avenue of consolation, whereas he shews even Him to be against him,
Who might have solaced his spirit amidst his adversities; so that
considering himself in his trials to be on every side forsaken, and on every
side in a strait, he might burst into reviling with so much the more
hardihood as he did it in the greater desperation. It goes on;
Ver. 17.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans
made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away,
yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am
escaped alone to tell thee.
[xv]
24. Lo again,
lest any thing should be wanting to his grief for the adversity that came of
man, he brings tidings that bands of the Chaldeans had broken in, and lest
the calamity that came from above should strike him with too little force,
he shews that wrath is repeated in the heavens. For it follows;
Ver. 18, 19.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons
and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's
house: And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote
the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are
dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
25. He who is
not laid low by one wound is in consequence stricken twice and thrice, that
at one time or another he may be struck to the very core. Thus the blow
from the Sabeans had been reported, the Divine visitation by fire from
heaven had been reported, tidings are brought of the plundering of the
camels, by man again, and of the slaughter of his servants, and the fury of
God's displeasure is repeated, in that a fierce wind is shewn to have
smitten the comers of the house, and to have overwhelmed his children. For
because it is certain that without the Sovereign dictate the elements can
never be put in motion, it is covertly implied that He, Who let them be
stirred, did Himself stir up the elements against him, though, when Satan
has once received the power from the Lord, he is able even to put the
elements into commotion to serve his wicked designs. Nor should it disturb
us, if a spirit cast down from on high should have the power to stir the air
into storms, seeing that we know doubtless that to those even who are
sentenced to the mines fire and water render service to supply their need.
So then he obtained that tidings should be brought of misfortunes; he
obtained that they should be many in number; he obtained that they should
come suddenly. Now the first time that he brought bad tidings he inflicted
a wound upon his yet peaceful breast, as upon sound members; but when he
went on smiting the stricken soul, he dealt wound upon wound, that he might
urge him to words of impatience.
26. But we
should observe with what craftiness the ancient foe busied himself to break
down the patience of the holy man, not so much by the loss of his substance
as by the very order of the announcements. He, taking pains to announce
first the slight disasters, and afterwards the greater ones, last of all
brought him intelligence of the death of his sons, lest the father should
account the losses of his property of slight importance, if he heard of them
when now childless, and lest it should the less disturb him to part with his
goods, after he had learnt the death of his children, considering that the
inheritance were no more, if he first removed out of the way those who were
reserved to inherit it. So beginning from the least, he announced the worst
intelligence last; that while worse disasters were made known to him in
succession, every wound might find room for pain within his breast. Take
notice of the craft with which so many a weight of ill is announced, both
separately and at the same time suddenly, that his grief being increased
both of a sudden and in point after point, might not contain itself within
the hearer's breast, and that it might so much the more inflame him to utter
blasphemy, as the fire, kindled within him by those sudden and multiplied
tidings, raged in a narrower space.
27. Nor do I
think that this ought to be lightly passed over, that the sons when they
perish were feasting in the house of their elder brother. For it has been
declared above that feasts can scarcely be gone through without
transgression. To speak then of our own concerns and not of theirs, the
lesson we ought to learn is, that what the younger ones do for pleasure's
sake is checked by the control of the elder, but when the elder are
themselves followers of pleasure, then, we may be sure, the reins of license
are let loose for the younger; for who would keep himself under the control
of authority, when even the very persons, who receive the right of control,
freely give themselves to their pleasures? And so while they are feasting
in the house of their elder brother, they perish, for then the enemy gets
more effective power against us, when he marks that even those very persons,
who are advanced for the keeping of discipline, are abandoned to joviality.
For he is so much the more free and forward to strike, as he sees that they
too, who might intercede for our faults, are taken up with pleasure. But
far be it from us to suspect that the sons of so great a man were by
devotedness to feasts given up to the gorging of the belly. But still we
know for certain that though a man, by the observance of self control, may
not pass the bounds of necessity in eating, yet the animated earnestness of
the mind is dulled amidst feasting, and that mind is less apt to reflect in
what a conflict of temptations it is placed, which throws off restraint in a
sense of security. In the eldest brother's day then he overwhelmed the
sons, for the old foe in compassing the death of the younger, seeks an inlet
for their ruin through the carelessness of the elder ones. But as we have
marked with what piercing darts the tidings struck him, let us hear how our
man of valour stands fast amid the blows, It proceeds;
Ver. 20.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon
the ground, and worshipped.
[xvi]
28. There are
some who account it a high degree of philosophical fortitude, if, when
corrected by severe discipline, they are insensible to the strokes, and to
the pains of those stripes. And there are some who feel to such excess the
infliction of the blows, that under the influence of immediate grief, they
even fall into excesses of the tongue. But whoever strives to maintain true
philosophy, must go between either extreme, for the weightiness of true
virtue consists not in dulness of heart, as also those limbs are very
unhealthy from numbness which cannot feel any pain even when cut. Again, he
deserts his guard over virtue, who feels the pain of chastisement beyond
what is necessary; for while the heart is affected with excessive sorrow, it
is stirred up to the extent of impatient reviling, and he who ought to have
amended his misdeeds by means of the stripes, does his part that his
wickedness should be increased by the correction. Agreeably to which,
against the insensibility in the chastised, the words of the Prophet are,
Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them,
but they have refused to receive correction. [Jer. 5, 3] Against the
faintheartedness of the chastened the Psalmist hath it, They will never
stand fast in adversity; [Ps. 140, 10. Vulg.] for they would ‘stand fast
in adversity,’ if they bore calamities with patience, but so soon as they
sink in spirit, when pressed with blows, they as it were lose the firmness
of their footing, amidst the miseries inflicted on them.
29. Thus
because blessed Job observed the rule of the true philosophy, he kept
himself from either extreme with the evenness of a marvellous skill, that he
might not by being insensible to the pain contemn the strokes, nor again, by
feeling the pain immoderately, be hurried madly against the visitation of
the Striker. For when all his substance was lost, all his children gone,
he rose up, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the
ground, and worshipped. In that he rent his mantle, in that
he shaved his head and fell down upon the ground, he shews, we
see, that he has felt the pain of the scourge; but in that it is added that
he worshipped, it is plainly shewn that even in the midst of pain, he
did not break forth against the decree of the Smiter. He was not altogether
unmoved, lest by his very insensibility he should shew a contempt of God;
nor was he completely in commotion, lest by excess of grief he should commit
sin. But because there are two commandments of love, i.e. the love of God,
and of our neighbour; that he might discharge the love of our neighbour, he
paid the debt of mourning to his sons; that he might not forego the love of
God, he performed the office of prayer amidst his groans. There are some
that use to love God in prosperity, but in adversity to abate their love of
Him from whom the stroke comes. But blessed Job, by that sign which he
outwardly shewed in his distress, proved that he acknowledged the correction
of his Father, but herein, that he continued humbly worshipping, he shewed
that even under pain he did not give over the love of that Father.
Therefore that he might not shew pride by his insensibility, he fell down
at the stroke, but that he might not estrange himself from the Striker, he
so fell down as to worship. But it was the practice of ancient times for
everyone, who kept up the appearance of his person by encouraging the growth
of his hair, to cut it off in seasons of mourning; and, on the other hand
that he who in peaceful times kept his hair cut, should in evidencing his
distress cherish its growth. Thus blessed Job is shewn to have preserved
his hair in the season of rest, when he is related to have shaven his head
for the purpose of mourning, that whereas the hand of the Most High was
fallen upon him in all the circumstances of his condition, the altered mien
of penance might even by his own act overcloud him. But such an one,
spoiled of his substance, bereft of his children, that rent his mantle, that
shaved his head, that fell down upon the ground, let us hear what he says!
Ver. 21.
Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
[xvii]
30. Oh! upon
how elevated a seat of the counsels of the heart does he sit enthroned, who
now lies prostrate on the earth with his clothes rent! For because by the
judgment of the Lord he had lost all that he had, for the preserving his
patience he brought to mind that time, when he had not as yet those things
which he had lost, that, whilst he considers that at one time he had them
not, he may moderate his concern for having lost them; for it is a high
consolation in the loss of what we have, to recall to mind those times, when
it was not our fortune to possess the things which we have lost. But as the
earth has produced all of us, we not unjustly call her our mother. As it is
written, An heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they
go out of their mother's womb, till the day that they return to the mother
of all things. [Ecclus. 40, 1]
Blessed Job
then, that he might mourn with patience for what he had lost here, marks
attentively in what condition he had come hither. But for the furtherance
of preserving patience, with still more discretion he considers, how he will
go hence, and exclaims, Naked came lout of my mother's womb, and naked
shall I return thither. As though he said, ‘Naked did the earth bear
me, when I came upon this scene, naked it will receive me back, when I
depart hence. I then who have lost what I had indeed given me, but what
must yet have been abandoned, what have I parted with that was my own?’ But
because comfort is not only to be derived from the consideration of our
creation [conditionis ‘conditoris.’], but also from the justice of
the Creator, he rightly adds,
The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done.
[so V. and lxx.]
[xviii]
31. The holy
man, under trial from the adversary, had lost every thing, yet knowing that
Satan had no power against him to tempt him, saving by the Lord's
permission, he does not say, ‘the Lord hath given, the devil hath taken
away,’ but the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away. For perchance it
would have been a thing to grieve for, if what his Creator had given him,
his enemy had taken from him: but when no other hath taken it away, saving
He Who Himself gave it, He hath only recalled what was His own, and hath not
taken away what was ours. For if we have from Him all that we make use of
in our present life, what cause for grief that by His own decree we are made
to surrender, of Whose bounty we have a loan? Nor is he at any time an
unfair creditor, who while he is not bound to any set time of restitution,
exacts, whenever he will, what he lends out. Whereupon it is well added,
As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done; for since in this life we
undergo things which we would not, it is needful for us to turn the bias of
our will to Him, Who can will nought that is unjust. For there is great
comfort in what is disagreeable to us, in that it comes to us by His
disposal, to Whom nought but justice is pleasing. If then we be assured
that what is just is the Lord's pleasure, and if we can suffer nothing but
what is the Lord's pleasure, then all is just that we undergo, and it is
great injustice, if we murmur at a just suffering.
32. But since
we have heard how the intrepid speaker put forward the vindication of his
cause against the adversary, now let us hear how in the end of his speech he
extols the Judge with benedictions. It follows, Blessed be the Name of
the Lord. See how he concluded all that he felt alight with a blessing
on the Lord, that the adversary might both perceive hence, and for his
punishment under defeat take shame to himself, that he himself even though
created in bliss had proved a rebel to that Lord, to Whom a mortal even
under His scourge utters the hymn of glory.
But be it
observed, that our enemy strikes us with as many darts as he afflicts us
with temptations; for it is in a field of battle that we stand every day,
every day we receive the weapons of his temptations. But we ourselves too
send our javelins against him, if, when pierced with woes, we answer
humbly. Thus blessed Job, when stricken with the loss of his substance and
with the death of his children, forasmuch as he turned the force of his
anguish into praise of his Creator, exclaiming, The Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done; blessed be
the Name of the Lord: by his humility, struck down the enemy in his
pride, and by his patience, laid low the cruel one. Let us never imagine
that our combatant received wounds, and yet inflicted none. For whatever
words of patience he gave forth to the praise of God, when he was stricken,
he as it were hurled so many darts into the breast of his adversary, and
inflicted much sorer wounds than he underwent; for by his affliction he lost
the things of earth, but by bearing his affliction with humility, he
multiplied his heavenly blessings. It follows,
Ver.22. In
all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
33. Since,
when we are laid hold of by distressing trials, we may even in the silent
working of our thoughts, without word of mouth, be guilty of sin; the
testimony both of the lips and of the heart is given to blessed Job. For it
is first said, he sinned not, and then it is afterwards added, nor
charged God foolishly: for he, who uttered nothing foolishly, kept
offence from his tongue, and whereas the words, he sinned not, come before,
it appears that he excluded the sin of murmuring even from his thought, so
that he neither sinned nor spake foolishly, since he neither swelled with
indignation in his silent consciousness, nor gave a loose to his tongue in
reviling. For he does ‘charge God foolishly,’ who, when the strokes of
divine chastisement are fallen upon him, strives to justify himself. For if
he venture in pride to assert his innocence, what else does he, but impugn
the justice of the chastiser? Let it suffice for us to have run through the
words of the history thus far: let us now turn the discourse of our
exposition to investigate the mysteries of allegory. And herein, that it is
written,
Ver.6. Now
there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the
Lord, and Satan came also among them.
ALLEGORICAL
INTERPRETATION
[xx]
34. It is
first to be made out, wherefore any thing is said to be done on a particular
day before the Lord, whereas with Him the progress of time is never marked
by the variation of day and night. For neither does that light, which
without coming enlighteneth whatsoever it chooseth, and without going
forsaketh those things which it rejects, admit any imperfection of
mutability; for, while it abideth unchangeable in itself, it orders all
things that are subject to change, and has in such sort created all
transient beings in itself, that in it they are incapable of transition, nor
is there inwardly in His sight any lapse of time, which with us, without
Him, has its course. Whence it comes to pass that those revolutions of the
world remain fixed in His eternity, which, having no fixedness out of Him
issue into existence [emanant]. Why then in relation to Him is it
said, one day, in that His one day is His eternity? Which same the
Psalmist perceived to be closed by no ending, and to open with no beginning,
where he says, One day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. [Ps.
84, 10. Vulg.]
35. But as
Holy Scripture speaks to those who are brought forth in time, it is meet
that it should use words significant of time, in order that it may lift us
up by so condescending, and that while it relates something that belongs to
eternity after the manner of time, it may gradually transfer to the eternal
world those who are habituated to the things of time, and that that
eternity, which is unknown, while it amuses [blanditur] us with words
that are known, may successfully impart itself to our minds. And what
wonder is it, if in Holy Writ God is not overhasty to disclose the
unchangeableness of His Nature to the mind of man, since after He had
celebrated the triumph [solemnitate] of His Resurrection, it was by
certain progressive steps that He made known the incorruptibility of the
Body which He resumed again. For we have learnt from the testimony of Luke,
that He first sent Angels to some, that were seeking for Him in the tomb;
and again to the disciples who were talking of Him by the way, He Himself
appeared, yet not so as to be known by them, Who indeed after the delay of
an exhortation did shew Himself to be known of them in the breaking of
bread; but at last, entering suddenly, He not only presented Himself to be
known by sight, but to be handled also. For because the disciples still
carried about with them faint hearts, in coming to the knowledge of this
marvellous mystery they were to be nourished by such a method of its
dispensation, that by little and little in seeking they might find some
portion, that finding they might gain growth, and growing they might hold
the faster the truths which they had learnt. Inasmuch then as we are not
led to the eternal world at once, but by a progression of cases and of words
as though by so many steps, this or that is said to be done on a certain day
before Him within, Who views even time itself also out of time.
36. Or
forasmuch as Satan too was there, was it the aim of Holy Scripture, when it
says that this was done on a certain day, to point out that in the light God
beheld the darkness? For we are unable to embrace light and darkness in one
and the same view, in that when the eye is fixed upon darkness, the light is
put to flight, and when the eye is directed to the glittering rays of light,
the shades of darkness disappear. But to that Power, Which in
unchangeableness beholds all things changeable, Satan was present as in the
day, in that It embraces undimmed the darkness of the apostate Angel. We,
as we have said, cannot survey at one view both the objects which we choose
in approval, and those which we condemn in disapproval; for while the mind
is directed to the one subject, it is withdrawn from the other, and when it
is brought back to this latter it is taken off from that, to which it had
attached itself.
37. But
forasmuch as God without changing beholds all things at the same instant,
and without extension embraces all, i.e. both the good that He aids, and
the evil that He judges; both that which thus aiding He rewards, and that
which so judging He condemns; He is not Himself different in the things
which He sets in different order. Accordingly Satan is said to have come
before Him on a day, in that the light of His eternity is proof
against the overclouding of any change; and herein, that the darkness is
made present to Him, he is said to have presented himself among the sons of
God, because in fact the impure spirit is penetrated by the self-same Power
of Righteousness, wherewith the hearts of pure spirits are replenished; and
that being is pierced through with the same ray of light, which is so shed
abroad in them as that they shine.
38. He came
among the sons of God, in that, though they serve God in rendering aid to
the elect, he does this, in putting them to trial. He presented himself
among the sons of God, in that, although they dispense the succours of mercy
to all that labour in this present life, this one unwittingly serves the
ends of His secret justice, while he strives to accomplish the ministry of
their condemnation. Whence it is justly said by the Prophet in the books of
Kings, I saw the Lord sitting upon His throne, and all the host of Heaven
standing by Him, on His right hand and on His left. And it was said,
Wherewith shall I deceive Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead;
And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there
came forth one and stood before the Lord, and said, I will deceive him. And
it was said, Wherewith? and he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying
spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. [1 Kings 22, 19. &c]
For what is
the throne of the Lord, unless we understand the Angelic Powers, in whose
minds enthroned on high He disposeth all things below? And what is the host
of heaven, unless the multitude of ministering Angels is set forth? Why
then is it, that the host of heaven is said to stand on His right hand and
on His left? For God, Who is in such sort within all things, that He is
also without all, is neither bounded on the right hand nor on the left.
However, the right hand of God is the elect portion of the Angels, and the
left hand of God signifies the reprobate portion of Angels. For not alone
do the good serve God by the aid which they render, but likewise the wicked
by the trials which they inflict; not only they who lift upward them that
are turning back from transgression, but they who press down those who
refuse to turn back. Nor because it is called the host of heaven, are we
hindered from understanding therein the reprobate portion of the Angels, for
whatsoever birds we know to be poised in the air, we call them ‘the birds of
heaven.’ And it is of these same spirits that Paul saith, Against
spiritual wickedness in high places. [Ephes. 6, 12] And describing
their head, he says, According to the prince of the power of the air.
[Ephes. 2, 2] On the right hand and on the left hand of God, then, stands
the Angelic Host, forasmuch as both the will of the elect spirits harmonizes
with Divine mercy, and the mind of the reprobate, in serving their own evil
ends, obeys the judgment of His strict decrees. Hence too it is said, that
a spirit of falsehood immediately leaped forth in the midst, to deceive king
Ahab, as his deserts called for. For it is not right to imagine that a good
spirit would ever have served the ends of deceit, so as to say, I will go
forth, and I will be a, lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.
But because king Ahab by his previous sins had made himself worthy to be
cursed with such deception, in order that he who had many times willingly
fallen into sin, might for once unwillingly be caught for his punishment,
leave is given by a secret justice to the evil spirits, that those whom with
willing minds they strangle in the noose of sin, they may drag to the
punishment of that sin even against their will. What then it is there to
describe the Host of heaven as having stood on the right hand and on the
left hand of God, the same it is here to declare Satan to have presented
himself among the sons of God. So on the right hand of God there stood
Angels, for that the sons of God are named; so on His left hand angels are
standing, because Satan presented himself among them.
39. But as we
have determined to search out the hidden senses of the allegory, we not
unfitly take it to mean, that the Lord beheld Satan in the day, in that He
restrained his ways in the Incarnation of His Wisdom; as though it were not
to have seen him, to have for so long borne with his wickedness in the ruin
of the human race. Whence it is straightway said to him by the voice of
God,
Ver. 7.
Whence comest thou?
[xxi]
40. In the
day Satan is demanded of his ways, for that in the light of revealed Wisdom
the snares of the hidden foe are discovered. Because, then, the devil is
rebuked by the Incarnate Lord, and restrained from his baneful license, it
is well subjoined, And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou?
For He then by arraigning attainted the ways of Satan, when by the Advent of
the Mediator restraining the wickedness of his persuasions, He rebuked the
same. And it is not without reason that the sons of God are related to have
stood in the presence of the Lord on this day, forasmuch as it is by the
light of Wisdom illuminating them that all the elect are gathered to the
calling of their eternal country. Who, though Incarnate Wisdom came to
assemble them in actual deed, were yet by virtue of His foreknowledge
already inwardly present to His Divinity. But since the old enemy, at the
coming of the Redeemer, is questioned of his ways, let us hear what he says.
Ver. 7.
From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
[xxii]
41. For from
the time of Adam till the coming of the Lord, he drew after him all the
nations of the Gentiles; he went to and fro in the earth, and walked up
and down in it, in that he stamped the foot-prints of his wickedness
throughout the hearts of the Gentiles. For when he fell from on high he
gained lawful possession of the minds of men, because he fastened them as
willing captives in the chains of his iniquity; and he wandered the more at
large in the world, in proportion as there was no one found who was in all
things free from that his guilt. And his having gone to and fro in the
world as with power, is his having found no man who could thoroughly resist
him. But now let Satan return back, i.e. let the Divine power withhold him
from the execution of his wickedness, since He has now appeared in the
flesh, Who had no part in the infection of sin from the infirmity of the
flesh. He came in humility for the proud enemy himself to wonder at, that
he who had set at nought all the mightiness of His Divinity, might stand in
awe even of the very infirmities of His Humanity. Wherefore also this very
weakness of His human nature is immediately set forth against him with
wonderful significance as an object to confound him; whereas it is said,
Ver. 8.
Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the
earth?
[xxiii]
42. That Job
means by interpretation, ‘Grieving,’ we have already said a little above.
And He is truly called ‘Grieving’ in figure, Who is declared by the
testimony of the Prophet ‘to bear our griefs.’ [Isa. 53, 4] Who has not His
like on the earth; for every man is only man, but He is both God and Man.
He has not His like on earth, because though every son by adoption attains
to the receiving of the Divine nature, yet none ever receives so much, as to
be, by nature, God. He was even rightly styled a servant, because He did
not disdain to take the form of a servant. Nor did His taking the humility
of the flesh injure His sovereignty, for in order that He might both take
upon Him that which He was to save, yet not undergo alteration in that which
He had, He neither lessened the Divine by the Human, nor swallowed up the
Human in the Divine; for although Paul hath it, Who being in the form of
God thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, and
took upon Him the form of a servant; [Phil. 2, 6. 7.] yet to Him it is
‘emptying Himself,’ of the greatness of His Invisible Being to manifest
Himself as Visible; so that the form of a servant should be the covering of
That Which without limitation enters into all things by virtue of Godhead.
Again, God's saying to Satan in figure, Hast Thou considered My servant
Job, is His exhibiting in his despite the Only-Begotten Son as an object
of wonder in the form of a servant. For in that He made Him known in the
flesh as of so great virtue, He as it were pointed out to the adversary in
his pride what it would grieve him to contemplate; but now that He had
brought before him a perfect object for him to admire, it remains that in
order to strike down his pride he should further go on to enumerate its
excellencies. It goes on,
Ver.8. A
perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil.
[xxiv]
43. For there
came among men the Mediator between God and Man, the Man Christ Jesus, for
the giving an example of living, perfect [simplex]; in respect
of His rigour towards the evil spirits, upright; for the
exterminating pride, fearing God; and for the wiping off impurity of
life in His Elect, departing from evil. For it is said of Him by
Isaiah in a special manner, And shall make him of quick understanding in
the fear of the Lord. [Is. 11, 3] And He did in a special manner
depart from evil, who refused to imitate the actions which He found
among men, since, as Peter bears witness, He did no sin, neither was
guile found in His mouth. [1 Pet. 2, 22] It follows;
Ver. 9, 10.
Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Hast not Thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all
that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and
his substance is increased in the land.
The old enemy
knew that the Redeemer of mankind was come to be the conqueror of himself;
and hence it is said by the man possessed in the Gospel, What have we to
do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us
before the time? [Mat. 8, 29] Yet before, when he perceived Him to be
subject to passion, and saw that He might suffer all the mortal accidents of
humanity, all that he imagined concerning His Divinity became doubtful to
him from his exceeding pride. For savouring of nothing else but pride,
whilst he beheld Him in humility, he doubted of His being God; and hence he
has recourse to proof by temptation, saying, If Thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread. [Matt. 4, 3] In this way,
because he saw that He was subject to passion, he did not believe Him to be
God by birth, but to be kept by the grace of God. And for the same reason
too he is in this place said to allege,
Ver. 10.
Hast not Thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all
that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and
his substance is increased in the land.
[xxv]
44. For he
urges that both himself and his house are hedged about by God; because he
could not find an entrance to His conscience by tempting him, He declares
his substance to be hedged about, in that he dares not to attack His elect
servants. He complains that God had blessed the work of his hands, and
that his substance was increased in the land, for this reason, that he
pines at beholding that faith in Him enlarges its bounds, in man's coming to
the knowledge of Him by the preaching of the Apostles. For His substance is
said to be increasing, all the time that by the labours of the preachers the
number of the faithful daily waxes larger. Satan's saying this to God, is
his seeing these things with an envious eye. Satan's saying this to God, is
his grieving at these things with a pining spirit. It proceeds:
Ver. 11. But
put forth Thine hand a little, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse
Thee to Thy face.
45. For He,
Whom he thought in time of tranquillity to be under the keeping of God's
grace, he imagined might be led to sin by means of suffering; as though he
had plainly said, ‘One, Who for the miracles which He works is accounted
God, being put to the test by afflictions, is discovered to be a sinner, and
nothing better,’ So the Lord said to Satan,
Ver. 12. Behold,
all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine
hand.
[xxvii]
46. Whereas
we are examining Holy Scripture under its figurative import, by the hand of
Satan is to be understood not his power, but the extent of his tempting.
All, then, that he hath is given into the hand of the Tempter, and he is
only forbidden to put forth his hand upon him, which nevertheless,
when his substance is gone, is permitted him; for that first Judaea, which
was His possession, was taken from Him in unbelief, and that afterwards His
flesh was nailed to the stock of the Cross, He then Who first underwent the
opposition of Judaea, and afterwards came even to the Cross, in a manner
first lost that He had, and then in His own Person endured the wickedness of
the adversary.
So Satan went
forth from the presence of the Lord.
[xxviii]
47. Just as
it was said above, Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, in
that he attained the objects of his desire; for he was in a certain sense in
His presence, all the time that on account of Him, he failed to accomplish
all that he mischievously thirsted after.
Ver. 13,
And there was a day, when his sons and his daughters were eating and
drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
[xxix]
48. We have
said that the sons and daughters of blessed Job were a representation either
of the order of the Apostles, or of the whole multitude of the faithful.
Now the Lord Incarnate first chose a few out of Judaea unto faith, and
afterwards He gathered to Himself the multitude of the Gentile people. But
who was the eldest son of the Lord, unless the Jewish people is to be
understood, which had been a long time born to Him by the teaching of the
Law which He gave? and who the younger son but the Gentile people, which at
the very end of the world was gathered together? And therefore whereas,
when Satan was unwittingly contributing to the welfare of the human race,
and having corrupted the hearts of those persecutors was demanding warrant
for the Passion of the Lord, the Holy Apostles were as yet ignorant that the
Gentile world were to be gathered to God, and preached to Judaea alone the
mysteries of the Faith. When Satan is said to have gone out from the Lord,
the sons and daughters are described to be feasting in the house of their
elder brother. For it had been commanded them, Go not into the way of
the Gentiles. [Mat. 10, 5] Now after the Death and Resurrection of our
Lord, they turned to preaching to the Gentiles, for which reason too in
their Acts we find them saying, It was necessary that the word of God
should first have been spoken to you, but since ye put it from you, and
judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
[Acts 13, 46] And thus these children of the bridegroom, of whom it is
declared, and that by the voice of the same Bridegroom, The children of
the bridechamber shall not fast as long as the bridegroom is with them,
[Matt. 9, 15] are feasting in the house of their elder brother, for this
reason, that the Apostles still continued to be fed with the sweets of Holy
Scripture in the gathering of the single people of the Jews.
Ver. 14, 15.
And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were ploughing,
and the asses feeding beside them; And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took
all away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and
I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
[xxx]
49. What else
do we take the oxen to mean in figure, but well-doers; what the asses, but
certain men of simple ways? These are properly described to be feeding
beside the oxen, because simple souls, even when they are incapable of
comprehending deep mysteries, are near to the great, inasmuch as they
account the excellencies of their brethren to be their own also by force of
charity; and while envy of the knowledges [sensibus] of others is a
thing unknown, they are never divided at pasture. The asses then take their
food in company with the oxen, in that duller minds, when joined with the
wise, are fed by their understanding. Now the Sabeans mean by
interpretation ‘captivators;’ and who are signified by the name of
‘captivators,’ but the impure spirits who lead all men captive to
infidelity, whom they make subject to themselves? These too strike the
youths [pueros] with the sword, in that they inflict grievous wounds,
with the darts of temptation, upon those whom the constancy of manhood does
not yet maintain in freedom and hardiness. These indeed enter fairly upon
well-doing, but while still in the delicate state of a first beginning, they
are prostrated beneath the unclean spirits that take captive; these are
stricken with the sword of the enemy, in that he pierces them with despair
of life eternal.
50. But what
is this, that the messenger comes with these words, and I only am escaped
alone? Who is this messenger, who, when the rest are destroyed,
‘escapes alone,’ but the prophetic word, which, whilst all the evils happen,
which it foretold, alone returns as it were unharmed to the Lord? For when
it is known to speak the truth concerning the fate of the lost, it is in a
certain sense shewn to live among the dead. It is hence that the servant is
sent to bring down Rebecca, on the occasion of Isaac's marrying; doubtless
because the intervening Prophecy does service in espousing the Church to the
Lord. So when the Sabeans made their assault, one servant alone escaped to
give the tidings, because by means of malignant spirits leading captive weak
minds, that declaration of Prophecy was confirmed, which, in foretelling the
same captivity, saith, Therefore My people are gone into captivity,
because they have no knowledge. [Is. 5, 13] The prophecy therefore is
in a manner preserved safe, when the captivity, which it foretold, is
brought to light. It proceeds,
Ver. 16.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of
God is fallen from Heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants,
and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
51. All, who
held the office of preaching in the Synagogue, were rightly named, 'the
heavens,' plainly because they were supposed to be imbued with heavenly
wisdom; and for this reason, when Moses was urging the Priests and the
people to take heed of his words of admonition, he exclaimed, Give ear, O
ye Heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth;
[Deut. 32, 1] evidently signifying by the Heavens the order of rulers, and
by the earth the people under them. There is then in this place no
unfitness in interpreting the Heavens to mean either the Priests or the
Pharisees, or the Doctors of the Law, who, to the eyes of men, while they
attended on heavenly duties, seemed as it were to shed light from on high.
Now because they were greatly stirred up in opposition to our Redeemer, it
was as though ‘fire fell from heaven;’ whilst from those very men, who were
accounted teachers of the truth, the flames of envy burst out, to the
deceiving of the ignorant people. For we know from the testimony of the
Gospel, that through envy at the truths which He taught they sought an
opportunity for His betrayal, but that from fear of the people they dared
not make known what they went about. Hence too it is therein written, that
in order to dissuade the people they say, Have any of the rulers or of
the Pharisees believed on Him? but this people, who knoweth not the Law,
are cursed. [John 7, 48. 49.] But what do we understand by the sheep
and the servants, save all inoffensive, but still as yet fainthearted
persons, who, while they feared to undergo the persecution of the Pharisees
and the Rulers, were devoured by the fires of infidelity. So let it be
said; The fire of God is fallen from Heaven, and hath burned up the sheep
and the servants; i.e. the flame of envy hath come down from the hearts
of the rulers, and burnt up all that there was of good springing up in the
people; for while the wicked rulers are claiming honour to themselves in
opposition to the Truth, the hearts of their followers are turned from every
right way. And here too it is well added, And I only am escaped alone to
tell thee; for whereas the predicted case of wickedness is fulfilled,
that word of prophecy escapes the extinction of falsehood, wherein it is
said, yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them [Is. 26, 11];
as though it were plainly expressed, ‘not only are the wicked afterwards
tormented by fire sent in vengeance, but even now they are consumed
therewith through envy;’ in that they who are hereafter to be visited with
the punishment of just retribution, inflict upon themselves here the
tortures of envy. And thus the servant flies and returns alone, and
announces that the sheep and the servants have been destroyed by fire, when
Prophecy in forsaking the Jewish people shews that she has declared the
truth, saying, Jealousy has taken hold of a people without knowledge;
as though it said in plain words, ‘when the people would not make out the
words of the Prophets, but gave their belief to the words of the envious,
the fire of jealousy consumed them, seeing that they were burnt in the fire
of other men's envy.’ It goes on,
Ver. 17.
Whilst he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans
made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away,
yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am
escaped alone to tell thee.
[xxxii]
52. Knowing
that the Chaldeans are to be interpreted ‘fierce ones,’ who else are
represented by the name of Chaldeans but the stirrers of that of the
persecution, who burst out even in open cries of malice, saying, Crucify
Him! Crucify Him! [Luke 23, 21.] These made themselves into three
bands, when the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees came severally to
put questions. [Mk. 15, 13. 15.] Assuredly they were vanquished by the
mouth of Wisdom, but forasmuch as we must suppose that they drew some
foolish ones after them, having made themselves into bands, they carried
away the camels; for each set of them poisoned the hearts of the foolish
according to the evil notions, with which it was itself embued; and while by
their persuasions they drag them to destruction, it was as if they led
captive the crooked [tortuosas] minds of the weaker sort. Thus when
the Lord preached in Samaria, there were many of the Samaritans that were
joined to the heritage of that our Redeemer. But did not they, who, on the
ground of the seven husbands of one woman that were dead, tempted the Lord
against the hope of resurrection, do their best to bring back the believing
Samaritans from their faith, who plainly knew nothing of the hope of a
resurrection? Who, while they receive some things out of the Law, and
disregard others, do as it were, after the manner of camels, ruminate indeed
like a clean animal, but like an unclean animal do not cleave the hoof.
Though camels which ruminate, yet do not cleave the hoof, are likewise a
representation of those in Judaea, who had admitted the historical fact
after the letter, but could not spiritually discern the proper force
thereof. Upon these the Chaldeans seize in three bands, in that the
Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees, by their evil persuasions, turn them
aside from all right understanding. And at the same time they smite the
servants with the sword; for though there were those among the people who
were now capable of exercising reason, yet these they met not with force of
reasoning, but with authoritativeness of power; and while they desire to be
imitated as rulers by their subjects, notwithstanding if their followers can
understand somewhat, yet they drag them to destruction by the prerogative of
assumed authority. And it is fitly that one servant escapes from them to
bring the tidings, in that when the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees do
wickedly, that word of Prophecy, whilst forsaking them, is established sure,
which saith, And they that handle the Law knew me not. [Jer. 2, 8]
The account proceeds,
Ver. 18, 19.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons
and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's
house: And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote
the four corners of the house, and it fell upon thy children, and they are
dead.
[xxxiii]
53. We have
said a little above that by the sons and the daughters we understand the
Apostles that preached, and the people under them; who are said to be
feasting in their eldest brother's house, for that it was in the lot of the
Jewish people still that they were fed with the sweets of the sacred truths
preached. And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness.
The wilderness is the heart of unbelievers, which being forsaken by the Lord
is without an inhabitant to tend it. And what is the great wind, but strong
temptation? Accordingly there came a great wind from the wilderness; for at
the Passion of our Redeemer there came from the hearts of the Jews strong
temptation against His faithful followers. The wilderness may likewise not
unaptly be taken for the forsaken multitude of impure spirits, from whom
came a wind and smote the house, in that they were the source whence the
temptations proceeded, and overturned the hearts of the persecutors.
54. But this
house wherein the sons were feasting was builded on four corners. Now we
know the three orders of Rulers in the Synagogue, viz. the Priests, the
Scribes, and the Elders of the people; to whom if we add the Pharisees
likewise, we shall have found the four corners in this house. There came
then a wind from the wilderness., and smote the four corners of the house;
in that temptation burst forth from the unclean spirits and stirred up the
minds of the four orders to the wickedness of persecution. That house fell
and overwhelmed His children, forasmuch as when Judaea fell into the cruelty
of persecuting our Lord, it overwhelmed the faith of the Apostles with fears
of despair. For they had only to see their Master laid hold of, and, lo,
they fled every way, denying Him. And though the Hand within did by
foreknowledge hold their spirits in life, yet meanwhile carnal fear cut them
off from the life of faith. They then who forsook their Master, when Judaea
raged against Him, were as if killed by the house being overthrown, when its
corners were smitten. But what do we think became of the flock of the
faithful at that time, when, as we know, the very rams took to flight? Now
in the midst of these events one escaped to bring tidings, in that the word
of Prophecy, which had given warning of these things, approves itself to
have been confirmed in saying of the persecuting people, My beloved one
hath done many crimes in Mine house [Jer. 11. 15. Vulg.]; of the
preachers, who though good yet fled at the Passion, My neighbours stood
afar off; [Ps. 38, 12] saying again of the whole number, who were
greatly afraid, Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.
[Zech. 13, 7] It proceeds;
Ver. 20.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle.
[xxxiv]
55. When his
sons were destroyed in the ruin of the house, Job arose, because when Judaea
was lost in unbelief, and when the Preachers were fallen in the death of
fear, the Redeemer of mankind raised Himself from the death of His carnal
nature; He shewed in what judgment He abandoned His persecutors to
themselves. For His rising is the shewing with what severity He forsakes
sinners, just as His lying down is the patient endurance of ills inflicted.
He rises then, when He executes the decrees of justice against the
reprobate. And hence He is rightly described to have rent his mantle. For
what stood as the mantle of the Lord, but the Synagogue, which by the
preaching of the Prophets clung to the expectation of His Incarnation? For
in the same way that He is now clothed with those by whom He is loved, as
Paul is witness, who says, That He might present it to Himself a glorious
church, not having spot nor wrinkle [Eph. 5, 27]; (for that which is
described as having neither spot or wrinkle is surely made appear as a
spiritual robe [vestis rationalis]; and at once clean in practice,
and stretched in hope;) so when Judaea believed Him as yet to be made
Incarnate, it was no less a garment through its clinging to Him.
56. But
because He was looked for before He came, and coming, taught new truths, and
teaching, wrought wonders, and working wonders, underwent wrongs, He rent
His mantle, which He had put on Him, seeing that in Judaea some he
withdrew from unbelief, whilst some He left therein. What then is the rent
mantle but Judaea divided in contrary opinions? For, if His mantle had not
been rent, the Evangelist would not have said that, at the preaching of our
Lord, there arose strife among the people; For some said, He is a good
man; others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the people. [John 7, 12] For
that mantle of His was rent, in that being divided in opinions it lost the
unity of concord. It proceeds; And shaved his head, and fell down upon
the ground, and worshipped.
[xxxv]
57. What is
signified by the hair that was shorn but the minuteness [sublilitas]
of Sacraments? what by the head but the High Priesthood? Hence too it is
said to the prophet Ezekiel, And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp
knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head, and
upon thy beard; [Ezek. 5, 1] clearly that by the Prophet's act the
judgment of the Redeemer might be set out, Who when He came in the flesh
‘shaved the head,’ in that he took clean away from the Jewish Priesthood the
Sacraments of His commandments; ‘and shaved the beard,’ in that in forsaking
the kingdom of Israel, He cut off the glory of its excellency. And what is
here expressed by the earth, but sinful man? For to the first man that
sinned the words were spoken; Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return. [Gen. 3, 19] By the name of the earth then is signified the
sinful Gentile world; for whilst Judaea thought herself righteous, it
appears how damnable she thought the Gentile world, as Paul is witness, who
saith, We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles.
[Gal. 2, 15] Therefore our Mediator, as it were, shaved His head, and
fell down upon the earth, seeing that in forsaking Judaea, whilst He
took away His Sacraments from her Priesthood, He came to the knowledge of
the Gentiles. For He ‘shaved the hair from His Head,’ because He took away
from that His first Priesthood the Sacraments of the Law. And He fell upon
the earth, because He gave Himself to sinners for their salvation; and while
He gave up those who appeared to themselves righteous, He took to Himself
those, who both knew and confessed that they were unrighteous. And hence He
Himself declares in the Gospel, For judgment I am come into this world,
that they that see not might see, and that they which see might be made
blind. [John 9, 39] And hence the pillar of the cloud, which went
before the people in the wilderness, shone with a radiant flame of fire not
in the day but in the night; for this reason, that our Redeemer, in giving
guidance to those that followed Him by the example of life and conduct,
yielded no light to such as trusted in their own righteousness, but all
those who acknowledged the darkness of their sins, He shone with the fire of
His love. Nor, because Job is said to fall on the earth, let us account
this to be an unworthy representation of our Redeemer. For it is written,
The Lord sent a Word into Jacob, and it hath fallen [E.V. lighted]
upon Israel. [Is. 9, 8] For Jacob means one that overthrows
another, and Israel, one that sees God. And what is signified by
Jacob but the Jewish people, and by Israel but the Gentile world? For in
that very One Whom Jacob aimed to overthrow by the death of the flesh, the
Gentile world, by the eyes of faith, beheld God. And thus the Word, that
was sent to Jacob, lighted upon Israel; for Him whom the Jewish people
rejected when He came to them, the Gentile world at once owned and found.
For concerning the Holy Spirit it is written, The Spirit of God fell upon
them. [Acts 11, 15]
58. And for
this reason either the Word of God or the Holy Spirit is said to fall in
Holy Scripture, to describe the suddenness of His coming. For whatever
rushes down or falls, comes to the bottom directly. And therefore it is as
if the Mediator had fallen upon the earth, that without any previous signs
He unexpectedly came to the Gentiles. And it is well said, that He fell
down upon the earth and worshipped, in that whilst He Himself undertook
the low estate of the flesh, He poured into the hearts of believers the
breathings of humility. For He did this, in that He taught the doing of it,
in the same way that it is said of His Holy Spirit, But the Spirit itself
maketh request [Vulg. postulat] for us with groanings which
cannot be uttered. [Rom. 8, 26] Not that He petitions, Who is of
perfect equality, but He is said to make request for no other reason than
that He causes those to make request whose hearts He has filled: though our
Redeemer, moreover, manifested this in His own Person, Who even besought the
Father when He was drawing nigh to His Passion. For what wonder if, in the
form of a servant, He submitted Himself to the Father by pouring out His
supplications to Him, when in the same He even underwent the violence of
sinners, to the very extremity of death. It proceeds:
Ver.21.
Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
59. The
mother of our Redeemer, after the flesh, was the Synagogue, from whom He
came forth to us, made manifest by a Body. But she kept Him to herself
veiled under the covering of the letter, seeing that she neglected to open
the eyes of the understanding to the spiritual import thereof. Because in
Him, thus veiling Himself with the flesh of an human Body, she would not see
God, she as it were refused to behold Him naked in His Divinity. But He
‘came naked out of His mother's womb,’ because when He issued from the flesh
of the Synagogue, He came openly manifest to the Gentiles; which is
excellently represented by Joseph's leaving His cloak and fleeing. For when
the adulterous woman would have used him to no good end, he, leaving his
cloak, fled out of the house; because when the Synagogue, believing Him to
be simply man, would have bound Him as it were in an adulterous embrace, He
too left the covering of the letter to its eyes, and manifested Himself to
the Gentiles without disguise for the acknowledgment of the Power of His
Divinity. And hence Paul said, But even to this day, when Moses is read,
the vail is upon their hearts [2 Cor. 3, 15]; for this reason, that the
adulteress kept the cloak in her own hands, but Him, Whom she wickedly laid
hold of, she let go naked. He then Who coming from the Synagogue plainly
disclosed Himself to the faith of the Gentiles, ‘came naked out of His
mother's womb,’ But does He wholly give her up? Where then is that which
the Prophet declares, For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the
sea, yet a remnant of them shall return? [Is. 10, 22] where that which
is written, Until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all
Israel shall be saved? [Rom. 11, 25. 26.] The time will be, then, when
He will shew Himself clearly to the Synagogue also. Yes, the time will
doubtless come in the end of the world, when He will make Himself known,
even as He is God, to the remnant of His People. Whence it is likewise
justly said in this place, and naked shall I return thither. For he
‘returns naked to His mother's womb,’ when, at the end of the world, He, Who
being made Man in time is the object of scorn, is revealed to the eyes of
His Synagogue as God before all worlds. It proceeds; -
Ver. 21.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so
is it come to pass; blessed be the Name of the Lord.
[xxxvii]
60. Our
Redeemer, in that He is God, gives all things with the Father; but in that
He is Man, He receives at the hands of the Father, as one among all.
Therefore let Him say of Judaea, so long as she believed in the mystery of
His Incarnation to come, the Lord hath given. Let Him say of her,
when she slighted the looked for coming of His Incarnation, the Lord hath
taken away. For she was ‘given,’ when in the persons of a certain
number she believed what was to be; but she was ‘taken away,’ as the just
desert of her blindness, when she scorned to hold in veneration the truths
believed by those.
61. But let
Him instruct all that believe in Him, that when under scourges they may know
how to bless God, in the words that are added, As it hath pleased the
Lord, so is it done [not in E.V.]; blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Whence likewise, as the Gospel is witness, when He is described to be
drawing near to His Passion, He is said to have taken bread and given
thanks. And so He gives thanks Who is bearing the stripes of the sins of
others. And He, Who did nothing worthy of strokes, blesses humbly under the
infliction of them, doubtless that He might shew from hence what each man
ought to do in the chastisement of his own transgressions, if He thus bears
with patience the chastisement of the transgressions of others, that He
might shew hence what the servant should do under correction, if He being
equal gives thanks to the Father under the rod. It proceeds;
Ver. 22.
In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
62. ‘That he
neither sinned, nor charged God foolishly,’ Peter, as we have said, above
testifies of Him in plain terms, saying, Who did no sin, neither was
guile found in His mouth. [1 Pet. 2, 22] For guile in the mouth is so
much the more senseless folly with God, the more that in the eyes of men it
passes for crafty wisdom, as Paul bears witness, saying, The wisdom of
this world is foolishness with God. [1 Cor. 3, 19] Forasmuch then as
there was no guile in His mouth, verily He said nothing foolishly. The
Priests and the Rulers believed that He charged God foolishly, when, being
questioned at the time of His Passion, He testified that He was the Son of
God. And hence they question, saying, What further need have we of
witnesses? Behold now we have heard His blasphemy. [Mat. 26, 65] But
He did not charge God foolishly, in that speaking the words of truth, even
in dying He brought before the unbelievers that concerning Himself, which He
soon after manifested to all the redeemed by rising again.
MORAL INTERPRETATION.
63. We have
briefly gone through these particulars, regarded under the view of
representing our Head. Now, as they tend to the edification of His Body,
let us explain them to be considered in a moral aspect; that we may learn
how that, which is described to have been done in outward deed, is acted
inwardly in our mind. Now when the sons of God present themselves before
God, Satan also presents himself among them, in that it very often happens
that that old enemy craftily blends and unites himself with those good
thoughts, which are sown in our hearts through the instrumentality of the
coming of the Holy Spirit, to disorder all that is rightly conceived, and
tear in pieces what is once wrongly disordered. But He, Who created us,
does not forsake us in our temptation. For our enemy, who hid himself in
ambush against us, He makes easy to be discovered by us, through the
illumination of His light. Wherefore He saith to him immediately, Whence
comest thou?
[xxxix]
64. For His
interrogating the crafty foe is the discovering to us his ambush, that where
we see him steal into the heart, we may watch against him with resolution
and with caution.
Ver. 7.
Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth,
and from walking up and down in it.
[xl]
65. Satan's
going to and fro in the earth is his exploring the hearts of the
carnal, and seeking diligently whence he may find grounds of accusation
against them. He ‘goeth round about the earth,’ for he comes about the
hearts of men, that he may carry off all that is good in them, that he may
lodge evil in their minds, that he may heap up on that he has lodged, that
he may perfect that he has heaped, that he may gain as his fellows in
punishment those whom he has perfected in sin. And observe that he does not
say that he has been flying through the earth, but that he has been
walking up and down in it; for, in truth, he is never quick to leave
whomsoever he tempts; but there where he finds a soft heart, he plants the
foot of his wretched persuasion, so that by resting thereon, he may stamp
the prints of evil practice, and by a like wickedness to his own may render
reprobate all whom he is able; but in despite of him blessed Job is
commended in these words;
Ver.8.
Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the
earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth
evil?
[xli]
66. To him,
whom Divine Inspiration makes strong to meet the enemy, God gives praise as
it were in the ears of Satan; for His giving him praise is the first
vouchsafing virtues, and afterwards preserving them when vouchsafed. But
the old enemy is the more enraged against the righteous, the more he
perceives that they are hedged around by the favour of God's protection.
And hence he rejoins, and says,
Ver. 10.
Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not Thou made an hedge about him, and
about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast
blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
[xlii]
67. As though
he plainly said; ‘Wherefore dost Thou extol him whom Thou stablishest with
Thy protection? for man would deserve Thy praises, while Thou despisest me,
if he withstood me by his own proper strength.’ Hence also he immediately
demands on man's head with evil intent, what man's Defender concedes though
with a merciful design. For it is added,
Ver. 11.
But put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath; and he will curse
Thee to Thy face.
[xliii]
68. For when
we yield plentifully the fruits of virtue, and when we are flourishing in
uninterrupted prosperity, the mind is somewhat inclined to be lifted up, so
as to imagine that all the excellency that she hath comes to her from
herself. This same excellency, then, our old enemy with evil intent desires
to lay hands on, whilst God no otherwise than in mercy allows it to be
tried; that while the mind, under the force of temptation, is shaken in the
good wherein it exulted, learning the powerlessness of its own frail
condition, it may become the more strongly established in the hope of God's
aid; and it is brought to pass by a marvellous dispensation of His Mercy,
that from the same source, whence the enemy tempts the soul to destroy it,
the merciful Creator gives it instruction that it may live; and hence it is
rightly added,
Ver. 12.
Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth
thine hand.
[xliv]
69. As if He
said in plain words; ‘I give thee so to try the good that is in each one of
Mine Elect by temptation from without, that thou mayest acquaint thine own
self that I keep him holding on to Me by the inward root of the mind; and
hence it is rightly added,
So Satan went
out from the presence of the Lord.
[xlv]
70. For in
that he is not suffered to prevail so far as to withdraw the heart, being
thus shut out from the interior, he roams without. Who, even if he very
often work confusion in the virtues of the soul, herein does it without, in
that, through God's withholding him, he never wounds the hearts of the good
to their utter ruin. For he is permitted so far to rage against them as may
be necessary, in order that they, thus instructed by temptation, may be
stablished, that they may never attribute to their own strength the good
which they do, nor neglect themselves in the sloth of security, loosing
themselves from the bracings of fear, but that in keeping guard over their
attainments they may watch with so much the greater prudence, as they see
themselves to be ever confronting the enemy in the fight of temptations.
Ver. 13, 14,
15. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and
drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: And there came a messenger
unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside
them: and the Sabeans fell upon them; yea, they have slain the servants
with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
[xlvi]
71. In the
hearts of the Elect wisdom is first engendered, before all the graces that
follow; and she comes forth as it were a first born offspring by the gift of
the Holy Spirit. Now this wisdom is our faith, as the Prophet testifies,
saying, If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not understand [E.V.
be established]. [Is. 7, 9] For then we are truly wise to
understand, when we yield the assent of our belief to all that our Creator
says. Thus the sons are feasting in their eldest brother's house, when the
other virtues are feasted in faith. But if this latter be not first
produced in our hearts, all besides cannot be good, though it may seem to be
good. The sons feast in their eldest brother's house, so long as our
virtues are replenished with the good of holy writ, in the dwelling place of
faith; for it is written, without faith it is impossible to please God
[Heb. 11, 6]; and so our virtues taste the true feasts of life, when they
begin to be sustained with the mysteries [sacramentis] of faith. The
sons feast in their eldest brother's house, in that except the other
virtues, filling themselves with the feast of wisdom; do wisely all that
they seek to do, they can never be virtues.
72. But
observe, while the good that we do is fed with the rich fare of wisdom and
of faith, our enemy carries off the oxen that are plowing,
and the asses feeding beside them, and kills the servants with the
sword. What are the oxen plowing, except we understand our
serious thoughts, which while they wear [conticiunt] the heart with
diligent tillage, yield abundant fruits of increase? and what do we take to
be the asses feeding beside them, but the simple emotions of the
heart, which, whilst carefully withheld from straying in double ways, we
feed in the free pasture of purity? But oftentimes the crafty enemy, spying
out the serious thoughts of our heart, corrupts them under the cloak of that
beguiling pleasure which he insinuates; and when he sees the simple emotions
of the heart, he displays the subtleties and refinements of discoveries,
that while we aim at praise for subtlety, we may part with the simplicity of
a pure mind; and though he has not the power to draw us to a deed of sin,
nevertheless by secret theft [subripiens] he spoils the thoughts of
good things through his temptations, that while he is seen to trouble the
good that is in their mind, he may seem as though he had completely made
spoil of it. By the oxen ploughing may also be understood the intents of
charity, whereby we endeavour to render service to others, when we desire to
cleave the hardness of a brother's heart by preaching; and by the asses
also, for that they never resist with a mad rage those that are loading
them, may be signified the meekness of patience, and oftentimes our old
enemy, seeing us anxious to benefit others by our words, plunges the mind
into a certain sleepy state of inactivity, that we are not disposed to do
good to others, even though our own concerns leave us at liberty.
Accordingly he carries away the oxen that are ploughing, when, by
insinuating sloth that causes negligence, he breaks the force of those
inward purposes, which were directed to produce the fruit of a brother's
welfare, and although the hearts of the Elect keep watch within the depths
of their own thoughts, and, getting the better of it, take thought of the
mischief, which they receive at the hands of the tempter; yet by this very
circumstance, that he should prevail over the thoughts of good things though
but for a moment, the malicious enemy exults in having gotten some booty.
73. Now
oftentimes, when he sees the mind in a readiness to endure, he contrives to
find out what it loves the best, and there sets his traps of offence; that
the more the object is beloved, our patience may be the sooner disquieted by
means of it. And indeed the hearts of the Elect ever return heedfully to
themselves, and chastise themselves sorely, even for the slighest impulse to
go wrong, and whilst by being moved they learn how they should have stood
fast, they are sometimes the more firmly established for being shaken. But
the ancient enemy, when he puts out our purposes of patience, though but for
a moment, exults that he has, as it were, carried off the asses from the
field of the heart. Now in the things which we determine to do we carefully
consider, with the watchfulness of reason, what is proper, and to what
cases. But too often the enemy, by rushing upon us with the sudden impulse
of temptation, and coming unawares before the mind's looking out, slays as
it were with the sword the very servants that are keeping watch, yet one
escapes to tell that the rest [alia] is lost; for in whatsoever the
mind is affected by the enemy, the discernment of reason ever returns to it,
and she doth in a certain sense shew that she hath escaped alone, which doth
resolutely consider with herself all that she has undergone. So then all
the rest perish, and one alone returns home, when the motions of the heart
are in the time of temptation put to rout, and then discernment comes back
to the conscience; that whatever the mind, which has been caught by a sudden
onset, calculates that she has lost, she may recover, when bowed down with
heartfelt contrition.
Ver. 16.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of
God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants,
and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
[xlvii]
74. What is
signified by sheep but the innocency of our thoughts? what is signified by
sheep, but cleanness of heart in the good? Now we have said a little above
that we speak of the aerial ‘heaven,’ whence too we name the birds of
heaven. And we know that the impure spirits, that fell from the ethereal
heaven, roam abroad in the mid space between this heaven and earth. These
are the more envious that the hearts of men should mount up to the realms of
heaven, that they see themselves to have been cast down from thence by the
impurity of their pride. Forasmuch then as the glances of jealousy burst
forth from the powers of the air against the purity of our thoughts, ‘fire
fell from heaven upon the sheep;’ for oftentimes they inflame the pure
thoughts of our minds with the fires of lust, and they do as it were consume
the sheep with fire, when they disorder the chaste feelings of the mind with
the temptations of sensuality. This is called the fire of God, for it owes
its birth, though not to the making, yet to the permission of God. And
because by a sudden onset they sometimes overwhelm the very cautions of the
mind, they slay with the sword as it were the servants that are their
keepers. Yet one escapes in safety, so long as persevering discernment
reviews with exactness all that the mind suffers, and this alone escapes the
peril of death; for even when the thoughts are put to rout, discretion does
not give over to make known its losses to the mind, and as it were to call
upon her lord to lament.
Ver. 17.
While he was yet speaking there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans
made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away,
yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am
escaped alone to tell thee.
75. By the
camels, which have a clean mark, in that they ruminate, and an unclean, in
that they do not cleave the hoof, are meant, as we have already said above,
the godly stewardships of temporal things, in which in proportion as the
charge is more extensive, the more doth the enemy multiply his plots against
us. For every man who is set over the management of temporal affairs, is
the more largely open to the darts of the hidden foe. For some things he
aims to do with an eye to the future, and often whilst, thus cautious, he
forecasts future events with exactness, he incautiously neglects to regard
present evils. Often while his eye is on the present, he is asleep to the
anticipation of coming events. Often in doing some things slothfully, he
neglects what should be done with energy. Often in shewing himself
overactive in the execution, by the very restlessness of his mode of acting
he hurts the more the interests of his charge. Again, sometimes he strives
to put restraint upon his lips, but is prevented keeping silence by the
requirements of his business. Sometimes, whilst he restrains himself with
excessive rigour, he is silent even when he ought to speak. Sometimes,
while he gives himself more liberty to communicate necessary things, he says
at the same time what he should never have given utterance to. And for the
most part he is embarrassed with such vast complications of thoughts, that
he is scarce able to bear the mere things, which with foresight he ponders
in his mind, and while he produces nothing in deed, he is grievously
overburdened [insudat] with the great weight upon his breast. For as
that is hard to bear which he is subject to within his own bosom, even while
unemployed and at rest from work without, he is yet wearied. For very
frequently the mind as it were views coming events, and every energy is
strung to meet them; a vehement heat of contention is conceived, sleep is
put to flight, night is turned into day, and while the bed holds our limbs
which are outwardly at rest, the cause is inwardly pleaded with vehement
clamours in the court of our own heart. And it very often happens that
nothing comes to pass of the things foreseen, and that all that thinking of
the heart, which had so long been strung up in preparation to the highest
degree of intensity, proves vain, and is stilled in a moment. And the mind
is so much the longer detained from necessary concerns, as it thinks on
trifles to a wider extent. Forasmuch therefore as the evil spirits one
while deal a blow against the charges of our stewardship by a slothful or a
headlong mode of action, at another time throw them into disorder by a
backward or an unchecked use of speech, and are almost always burthening
them with excessive loads of care, the Chaldeans in three bands carry off
the camels. For it is as it were to make three bands against the camels, to
spread confusion amidst the business of earthly stewardship, now by
unwarranted deed, now by overmuch speech, now by unregulated thought, so
that while the mind is striving to direct itself effectually to outward
ministrations, it should be cut off from the consideration of itself, and
know nothing of the injuries which it sustains in itself, in the same
proportion that it exerts itself in the affairs of others with a zeal above
what is befitting. But when a right mind undertakes any charge of
stewardship, it considers what is due to self and what to neighbours, and
neither by excess of concern for others overlooks its own interests, nor by
attention to its own welfare, puts behind the affairs of others. But yet it
very often happens that while the mind is discreetly intent upon both, while
it keeps itself clear for the utmost precautions, both as regards itself and
the things which have been entrusted to it, still being thrown into
confusion by some unexpected point in any case that arises, it is so hurried
away headlong, that all its precautions are overwhelmed thereby in a
moment. And hence the Chaldeans strike with the sword the servants that
were the keepers of the camels. Yet one returns; for amidst all this the
rational thought of discretion meets the eyes of our mind, and the soul,
taking heed to herself, is led to comprehend what she has lost within by the
sudden onset of temptation. It follows;
Ver. 18, 19.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons
and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s
house: And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote
the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are
dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
[xlix]
76. As we
have before said, ‘the wilderness’ is the deserted multitude of impure
spirits, which when it forsook the felicity of its Creator, as it were lost
the hand of the cultivator. And from the same there came a strong wind, and
overthrew the house; in that strong temptation seizes us [n] from the
unclean spirits, and overturns the conscience from its settled frame of
tranquillity. But this house stands by four corners for this reason, that
the firm fabric of our mind is upheld by Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude,
Justice. This house is grounded on four corners, in that the whole
structure of good practice is raised in these four virtues. And hence do
four rivers of Paradise water the earth. For while the heart is watered
with these four virtues, it is cooled from all the heat of carnal desires.
Yet sometimes when idleness steals on [o] the mind, prudence waxes cold; for
when it is weary and turns slothful, it neglects to forecast coming events.
Sometimes while some delight is stealing on [p] the mind, our temperance
decays [q]. For in whatever degree we are led to take delight in the things
of this life, we are the less temperate to forbear in things forbidden.
Sometimes fear works its way into the heart and confounds the powers of our
fortitude, and we prove the less able to encounter adversity, the more
excessively we love some things that we dread to part with. And sometimes
self-love invades the mind, makes it swerve by a secret declension from the
straight line of justice: and in the degree that it refuses to refer itself
wholly to its Maker, it goes contrary to the claims of justice. Thus ‘a
strong wind smites the four corners of the house,’ in that strong
temptation, by hidden impulses, shakes the four virtues; and the corners
being smitten, the house is as it were uprooted; in that when the virtues
are beaten, the conscience is brought to trouble.
77. Now it is
within these four corners of the house that the sons are feasting,
because it is within the depths of the mind, which is carried up to the
topmost height of perfection in these four virtues especially, that the
others like a kind of offspring of the heart take their food together. For
the gift of the Spirit, which, in the mind It works on, forms first of all
Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, in order that the same mind may be
perfectly fashioned to resist every species of assault, doth afterwards give
it a temper in the seven virtues, so as against folly to bestow Wisdom,
against dulness, Understanding, against rashness, Counsel, against fear,
Courage, against ignorance, Knowledge, against hardness of heart, Piety,
against pride, Fear.
78. But
sometimes, whilst the mind is sustained with the plenitude and richness of a
gift so large, if it enjoys uninterrupted security in these things, it
forgets from what source it has them, and imagines that it derives that from
itself, which it sees to be never wanting to it. Hence it is that this same
grace sometimes withdraws itself for our good, and shews the presumptuous
mind how weak it is in itself. For then we really learn whence our good
qualities proceed, when, by seemingly losing them, we are made sensible that
they can never be preserved by our own efforts. And so for the purpose of
tutoring us in lessons of humility, it very often happens that, when the
crisis of temptation is upon us, such extreme folly comes down upon our
wisdom, that the mind being dismayed, knows nothing how to meet the evils
that are threatened, or how to make ready against temptation. But by this
very folly, the heart is wisely instructed; forasmuch as from whatever cause
it turns to folly for a moment, it is afterwards rendered by the same the
more really, as it is the more humbly, wise; and by these very means,
whereby wisdom seems as if lost, it is held in more secure possession.
Sometimes when the mind lifts itself up in pride on the grounds of seeing
high things, it is dulled with a remarkable obtuseness in the lowest and
meanest subjects; that he, who with rapid flight penetrated into the highest
things, should in a moment see the very lowest closed to his understanding.
But this very dulness preserves to us, at the very time that it withdraws
from us, our power of understanding. For whereas it abases the heart for a
moment, it strengthens it in a more genuine way to understand the loftiest
subjects. Sometimes while we are congratulating ourselves that we do every
thing with grave deliberation, some piece of chance takes us in the nick,
and we are carried off with a sudden precipitancy; and we, who believed
ourselves always to have lived by method, are in a moment laid waste with an
inward confusion. Yet by the discipline of this very confusion we learn not
to attribute our counsels to our own powers; and we hold to gravity with the
more matured endeavours, that we return to the same as if once lost.
Sometimes while the mind resolutely defies adversity, when adverse events
rise up, she is struck with violent alarm. But when agitated thereby, she
learns to Whom to attribute it, that on any occasion she stood firm; and she
afterwards holds fast her fortitude the more resolutely, as she sees it now
gone as it were out of her hand the moment that terror came upon her.
Sometimes whilst we are congratulating ourselves that we know great things,
we are stunned with a blindness of instantaneous ignorance [q]. But in so
far as the eye of the mind is for a moment closed by ignorance, it is
afterwards the more really opened to admit knowledge, in that in fact being
instructed by the stroke of its blindness, it may know also from whom it has
its very knowing. Sometimes while ordering all things in a religious
spirit, when we congratulate ourselves that we have in abundant measure the
bowels of pious tenderness, we are struck with a sudden fit of hardness of
heart. But when thus as it were hardened, we learn to Whom to ascribe the
good dispositions of piety which we have; and the piety, which has been in a
manner extinguished, is recovered with more reality, seeing that it is loved
with fuller affection as having been lost. Sometimes while the mind is
overjoyed that it is bowed under the fear of God, it suddenly waxes stiff
under the temptations of pride. Yet immediately conceiving great fears that
it should have no fear, it speedily turns back again to humility, which it
recovers upon a firmer footing, in proportion as it has felt the weight of
this virtue by seeming to let it go.
79. When the
house, then, is overthrown, the sons perish; because when the conscience is
disturbed under temptation, the virtues that are engendered in the heart,
for any advantage from ourselves knowing them, are speedily and in the space
of a moment overwhelmed. Now these sons live inwardly by the Spirit, though
they perish outwardly in the flesh; because, forsooth, although our virtues
in the time of temptation be disordered in a moment, and fall from the
safety of their seat, yet by perseverance in endeavour they hold on
unimpaired in the root of the mind. With these the three sisters likewise
are slain, for in the heart, sometimes Charity is ruffled by afflictions,
Hope shaken by fear, Faith beaten down by questionings. For oftentimes we
grow dull in the love of our Creator, while we are chastened with the rod
beyond what we think suitable for us. Often while the mind fears more than
need be, it weakens the confidence of its hopes. Often while the intellect
is exercised with endless questionings, faith being staggered grows faint,
as though it would fail. But yet the daughters live, who die when the house
is struck. For notwithstanding that in the seat of the conscience the
disorder by itself tells that Faith, Hope, and Charity, are almost slain,
yet they are kept alive in the sight of God, by perseverance in a right
purpose of mind; and hence a servant escapes alone to tell these things, in
that discretion of mind remains unhurt even amid temptations. And the
servant is the cause that Job recovers his sons by weeping, whilst the mind,
being grieved at what discretion reports, keeps by penitence the powers
which it had in a manner begun to part with. By a marvellous dispensation
of Providence are we thus dealt with, so that our conscience is at times
struck with the smitings of guilt. For a person would count himself
possessed of great powers indeed, if he never at any time within the depth
of his mind felt the failure of them [see S. Macarius, Hom. xv.]. But when
the mind is shaken by the assaults of temptation, and is as it were more
than enough disheartened, there is shewn to it the defence of humility
against the arts of its enemy, and from the very occasion, whence it fears
to sink powerless, it receives strength to stand firm. But the person
tempted not only learns from Whom he has his strength, but is made to
understand with what great watchfulness he must preserve it. For oftentimes
one, whom the conflict of temptation had not force to overcome, has been
brought down in a worse way by his own self-security. For when anyone
awearied relaxes himself at his ease, he abandons his mind without restraint
to the corrupter. But if, by the dispensations of mercy from above, the
stroke of temptation falls upon him, not so as to overwhelm him with a
sudden violence, but to instruct him by a measured approach, then he is
awakened to foresee the snares, so that with a cautious mind he girds
himself to face the enemy in fight. And hence it is rightly subjoined,
Ver. 20.
Then Job arose.
[l]
80. For
sitting betokens one at ease, but rising, one in a conflict. His rising,
then, when he heard the evil tidings, is setting the mind more resolutely
for conflicts, after the experience of temptations, by which very
temptations even the power of discernment is the gainer, in that it learns
the more perfectly to distinguish good from evil. And therefore it is well
added,
And rent his
mantle.
[li]
81. We ‘rend
our mantle,’ whenever we review with a discriminating eye our past deeds;
for unless with God our deeds were as a cloak that covered us, it would
never have been declared by the voice of an Angel, Blessed is he that
watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his
shame [Rev. 16, 15]; for ‘our shame’ is then ‘seen,’ when our life,
appearing worthy of condemnation in the eyes of the righteous in judgment,
has not the covering of after good practice. But because, as often as we
are tempted with guilt, we are prompted to mourning, and being stirred by
our own lamentations, open the eyes of the mind to the more perfect
perception of the light of righteousness, we as it were rend our mantle in
grief, in that in consequence of our weeping discretion being strengthened,
we chastise [r] all that we do with greater strictness, and with wrathful
hand. Then all our high-mindedness comes down, then all our overcunningness
is dropped from our thoughts; and hence it is added,
And shaved his
head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped.
[lii]
82. For what
do we understand in a moral sense by hair, but the wandering thoughts of the
mind? and hence it is elsewhere said to the Church, Thy lips are like a
thread of scarlet; and thy speech is comely; [Cant. 4, 3] for a thread [vitta
Vulg.] binds the hairs of the head. So the lips of the Spouse are
like a thread, in that by the exhortations of Holy Church all dissipated
thoughts in the minds of her hearers are put in bands, that they may not
roam at large, and be spread abroad amongst forbidden objects, and thus
spread abroad, lie heavy on the eyes of the mind, but may as it were gather
themselves to one direction, in that the thread of holy preaching binds
them. Which also is well represented to be of scarlet; for the
preaching of the Saints glows only with charity. And what is signified by
the head, but that very mind, which is principal in every action? Whence it
is elsewhere said, And let thy head lack no ointment [Eccl. 9, 8];
for ointment upon the head is charity in the heart; and there is lack
of ointment upon the head, when there is a withdrawal of charity from the
heart. The shaving of the head then is the cutting off all superfluous
thoughts from the mind. And he shaveth his head and falls upon the earth,
who, restraining thoughts of self-presumption, humbly acknowledges how weak
he is in himself.
83. For it is
hard for a man to do great things, and not to harbour confident thoughts in
his own mind on the score of his great doings. For from this very fact,
that we are living in strenuous opposition to our vices, presumptuous
imaginations are engendered in the heart; and while the mind valorously
beats down the evil habits without her, she is very often inwardly swoln
within herself; and now she accounts herself to have some special merits,
nor ever imagines that she sins in the conceits of self-esteem. But in the
eyes of the severe Judge she is so much the worse delinquent, as the sin
committed, in proportion as it is the more concealed, is well nigh
incorrigible; and the pit is opened the wider to devour, the more proudly
the life we lead glories in itself. Hence, as we have often said before, it
is brought to pass by the merciful dispensations of our Creator, that the
soul that places confidence in itself is struck down by a providential
temptation; that being brought low it may find out what it is, and may lay
aside the haughtiness of self-presumption. For as soon as the mind feels
the blow of temptation, all the presumption and swelling of our thoughts
abates.
84. For when
the mind is lifted up in pride, it breaks out as it were into usurpation
[s]. And it has for the attendants of its tyrannical power, its own
imaginations that flatter it. But if an enemy assaults the tyrant, the
favour of those attendants is speedily at an end. For when the adversary
finds entrance the attendants fly, and fall away from him in fear, whom in
time of peace they extolled with cunning flattery. But, when the attendants
are withdrawn, he remains alone in the face of the enemy; for when high
thoughts are gone, the troubled mind sees itself only and the temptation,
and thus upon healing of evil tidings, the head is shaved, whensoever under
the violent assault of temptation the mind is bared of the thoughts of
self-assurance. For what does it mean that the Nazarites let their hair
grow long, saving that by a life of special continency proud thoughts gain
ground? And what does it signify, that, the act of devotion over, the
Nazarite is commanded to shave his head, and cast the hair into the
sacrificial fire, but that we then reach the height of perfection, when we
so overcome our external evil habits, as to discard from the mind even
thoughts that are superfluous? To consume these in the sacrificial fire is,
plainly, to set them on fire with the flame of divine love; that the whole
heart should glow with the love of God, and burning up every superfluous
thought, should as it were consume the hair of the Nazarite in completing
his devotion. And observe that he fell upon the earth and worshipped; for
he sets forth to God the true worship, who in humility sees that he is dust,
who attributes no goodness to himself, who owns that the good that he does
is from the mercy of the Creator; and hence he says well and fitly,
Ver. 21. Naked
came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
[liii]
85. As if the
mind when tempted and taken in the powerlessness of its weak condition were
to say, ‘Naked I was by grace first begotten in the faith, and naked I shall
be saved by the same grace in being taken up into heaven [in assumptione].’
For it is a great consolation to a troubled mind, when, smitten with the
assaults of sin, it sees itself as it were stripped of all virtue, to fly to
the hope of Mercy alone, and prevent itself being stripped naked in
proportion as it humbly thinks itself to be naked and bare of virtue, and
though it be perchance bereaved of some virtue in the hour of temptation,
yet acknowledging its own weakness, it is the better clad with humility
itself, and is stronger as it is laid low than as it was standing, in that
it ceases to ascribe to itself without the aid of God whatever it has. And
hence it also at once owns with humility the hand of Him Who is both Giver
and Judge, saying,
The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away.
[liv]
86. Observe
how he grew great by the discipline of temptations, who both in the
possession of the virtue acknowledges the bounty of the Giver, and in the
disorderment of his fortitude, the power of the Withdrawer; which fortitude
nevertheless is not withdrawn, but is confounded and loses heart, that the
assaulted mind, while it dreads every instant to lose the quality as it
seems, being alway made humble, may never lose it.
As it hath
pleased the Lord, so is it done; Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
[lv]
87. In this
circumstance, viz. that we are assaulted with inward trouble, it is meet
that we refer the thing to the judgment of our Creator, that our heart may
resound the louder the praises of its Maker, from the very cause that makes
it, on being smitten, the more thoroughly to consider the impotency of its
frail condition. Now it is justly said,
Ver. 22.
In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly:
[lvi]
88. In that
the mind in grief ought to watch with wariness and diligence, lest, when the
temptation prompts it within, it break forth inwardly into the utterance of
forbidden words, and murmur at the trial; and lest the fire, which burns it
like gold, by the excesses of a lawless tongue, may turn it to the ashes of
mere chaff.
89. Now
nothing hinders that all that we have said concerning virtues, be understood
of those gifts of the Holy Spirit which are vouchsafed in [vid. chap. 91.]
manifestation of virtue, for to one is given the gift of Prophecy, to
another different kinds of tongues, to another the gifts of healing. But
forasmuch as these gifts are not always present in the mind in the same
degree, it is clearly shewn that it is for our good that they are sometimes
withdrawn, lest the mind should be lifted up in pride. For if the Spirit of
Prophecy had always been with the Prophets, plainly the Prophet Elisha would
never have said, Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her, and the
Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. [2 Kings 4, 27] If the
Spirit of Prophecy had been always present to the Prophets, the Prophet Amos
when asked would never have said, I am [so Vulg.] no Prophet;
where he also adds, neither a Prophet's son, but I am an herdsman and a
gatherer of sycamore fruit. [Amos 7, 14.] How then was he no Prophet,
who foretold so many true things concerning the future? or in what way was
he a Prophet, if he at the time disowned the truth concerning himself? Why,
because, at the moment that he was called in question [requisitus],
he felt that the Spirit of Prophecy was not with him, he bore true testimony
concerning himself, in saying; I am not a Prophet. Yet he added
afterwards, Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Therefore thus
said the Lord, Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy
daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line;
and thou shalt die in a polluted land. [ver. 16, 17.] By these words of
the Prophet it is plainly shewn, that while he was bearing that testimony
about himself he was filled, and on the instant rewarded with the Spirit of
Prophecy, because he humbly acknowledged himself to be no Prophet. And if
the Spirit of Prophecy had always continued with the Prophets, the Prophet
Nathan would never have allowed King David, when he consulted him about the
building of the Temple, what a little while after he was to refuse him.
90. And
hence, how justly is it written in the Gospel, Upon Whom thou shalt see
the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He Which baptizeth
with the Holy Ghost. For the Spirit descends into all the faithful, but
remains in the Mediator alone, in a special manner. For He has never left
the Human Nature of Him, from Whose Divine Nature He proceedeth. He remains
therefore in Him, Who only can both do all things and at all times. Now the
faithful, who receive Him, since they cannot always retain the gifts of
miracles, as they desire, testify that they have received Him as it were in
a passing manifestation. But whereas on the other hand it is said by the
mouth of Truth concerning the same Spirit to the Disciples, For He
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you, [John 14, 17] how is it, that
this same abiding of the Holy Spirit is by the voice of God declared to be
the sign of the Mediator, where it is said, Upon Whom thou shalt see the
Spirit descending, and abiding on Him? If then according to the words
of the Master He abideth in the disciples also, how will it be any longer a
special sign, that He abides in the Mediator? Now this we shall learn the
sooner, if we discriminate between the gifts of the same Spirit.
91. Now there
are some of His gifts, without which life is never attained; and there are
others whereby holiness of life is made known for the good of other men.
For meekness, humility, faith, hope, charity, are gifts that come from Him,
and they are such as man can never reach to life without. And the gift of
Prophecy, healing, different kinds of tongues, the interpretation of tongues
[sermonum], are His gifts; yet such as shew forth the presence of His
power for the improvement of all beholders. In the case of these gifts
then, without which we can never attain to life, the Holy Spirit for ever
abides, whether in His preachers, or in all the Elect; but in those gifts
whereof the object is not the preservation of our own life, but of the lives
of others through the manifestation of Him, He by no means always abides in
the Preachers. For He is indeed always ruling their hearts to the end of
good living, yet does not always exhibit the signs of miraculous powers by
them, but sometimes, for all manifestation of miracles, He withdraws Himself
from them, in order that those powers, which belong to Him, may be had with
greater humility, in the same degree that being in possession they cannot be
retained.
92. But the
Mediator of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, in all things hath Him both
always and continually present. For the same Spirit even in Substance
proceeds from Him. And thus, though He abides in the holy Preachers, He is
justly said to abide in the Mediator in a special manner, for that in them
He abides of grace for a particular object, but in Him He abides
substantially for all ends. For as our body is cognizant of the sense of
touch only, but the head of the body has the use of all the five senses at
once, so that it sees, hears, tastes, smells, and touches; so the members of
the Supreme Head shine forth in some of the powers, but the Head Itself
blazes forth in all of them. The Spirit then abides in Him in another sort,
from Whom He never departs by reason of His Nature. Now those of His gifts,
by which life is attained, can never without danger be lost, but the gifts,
whereby holiness of life is made evident, are very often withdrawn, as we
have said, without detriment. So then the first are to be kept for our own
edification, the latter to be sought for the improvement of others. In the
case of the one let the fear alarm us, lest they perish, but in the other,
when they are withdrawn for a season, let humility be our consolation, for
that they may chance to lift up the mind to entertain pride. Accordingly
when the power of miracles which had been vouchsafed is withdrawn, let us
exclaim as is right, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed
be the Name of the Lord. For then, and only then, we really shew that
we have held in a right spirit all that we had given us, when we bear with
patience the momentary withdrawal thereof.
BOOK III
