No More Learning

For they aim to get themselves an earthly name, they wish above all things to grow and increase in temporal goods, they are daily advancing with the tide of transient things to the goal of death; but they think not to take account of the things of mortality upon the principles of their mortal nature. The life of the flesh is failing minute by minute, and yet the desire of the flesh is growing; property gotten is snatched off by an instant end, yet the eagerness in getting is not ended the more; but when death withdraws the wicked, then indeed their desires are ended with their life. And the eyes of these fail them through the Avenging of the Most High, for that they would not fail here by their own determination to earthly gratification. These same eyes of such persons the Psalmist had seen closed to their former enjoyment, when he said, In that day all their thoughts perish. [Ps. 146, 4] For they meet at once with eternal woes they had never thought on, and on a sudden lose the temporal goods, they had long while held and dealt with. And for these ‘all refuge shall perish,’ in that their iniquity finds not where to hide itself from the visitation of the searching Judge. For now, when the wicked undergo some slight mishaps or evil chances, they find a hiding-place for refuge, in that they forthwith have recourse to the enjoyment of earthly objects of desire. For that poverty torment them not, they beguile the spirit with riches. Or lest the contempt of their neighbours sink them, they exalt themselves with titles. If the body is cloyed with satiety, it is pampered with the variety of viands set before it. If the mind is weighed down by any impulse to sadness, it is immediately relieved by the beguilements of sportiveness being introduced. Here therefore they have as many places of refuge as they make for themselves entertainments of delight; but one time ‘refuge shall perish from them,’ in that their soul, when all these are gone, sees only itself and the Judge. Then the pleasure is withdrawn, but the guilt of pleasure is preserved; and ere long the miserable wretches learn by their perishing that they were perishable things they had possession of. Yet these as long as they live in the body never cease to seek after things of a nature to do them harm. Whence it is still further added,
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And their hope shall be the abomination of the soul.
[xxiv]
42. What does the sinner hope for here in all his thoughts saving to surpass others in power, to go beyond all men in the abundance of his stores, to bow down his rivals in lording it over them, to display himself as an object of admiration to his followers, to gratify anger at will, to make himself known as kind and gracious when he is commended, whatever the appetite longs for to offer to it, to acquiesce in all that pleasure dictates by the fulfilling of the thing? Well then is their hope said to be ‘the abomination of the soul,’ for the very same objects which carnal men go after, all spiritual persons abominate, according to the sentence of righteousness. For that which sinners account pleasure, the righteous, surely, hold for pain. Therefore the hope of the wicked is the abomination of the soul, for the spirit is wasted while the body is at ease. For as the flesh is sustained by soft treatment, so is the soul by hard dealing; soothing appliances cherish the first, harsh methods exercise the last. The one is fed with enjoyment, the last thrives on bitterness. And as hardships wound the flesh, so softness kills the spirit, as things laborious kill the one, so things delightful destroy the other. Therefore the hope of carnal men is said to be the abomination of the soul; in that the spirit perishes for ever by the same means whereby the flesh lives pleasantly for a while.
43. Now Zophar would have said this aright, if blessed Job had not proclaimed it all more fully even by living accordingly. But whereas he sets himself to give an holier man admonition concerning the way of living, and to instruct one more skilled than himself with the tutorage of wisdom, he by his own act makes the weight of his words light, in that by letting in indiscreetness he undoes all that he says; in that he is pouring on the liquid element of knowledge into a full vessel. For the treasures of knowledge are possessed by the indiscreet just as treasures of corporal substance are often in the possession of fools. For some that are sustained by a full measure of earthly goods at times give largely even to those that have, that they may themselves seem to have them in fuller measure than all men. So the wicked, since they are imbued with truth, speak in some respects right even to those that are more light than they are, not that they may instruct others that hear them, but that they may make it appear with what a fund of instruction they are furnished. For they hold that they excel all men in wisdom, therefore they imagine that there is nothing that they can say to any man beyond the measure of their greatness. Thus all the wicked, thus all heretics are not afraid to instruct their betters with a high tone, in that they look upon all as inferior to themselves. But Holy Church recalls everyone that is high minded from the height of his self esteem, and fashions him anew by the hand of discretion in the jointing of equality. Whence blessed Job, who is a member of the same Holy Church, seeing that the mind of his friend was swoln and big in words of instruction which he delivered, thereupon answered, saying,
Chap. xii. 2. No doubt but ye are the only men, and wisdom shall die with you. [xxv]
44. Whosoever reckons himself to excel all men in the faculty of reason, what else does such a man but exult that he is the ‘only Man? ’ And it often happens that when the mind is borne on high through pride, it is uplifted in contempt of all men, and in admiration of self. For self-applause springs up in the imagination, and folly is itself its own flatterer for singularity of wisdom. It
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ponders all that it has heard, and considers the words that it utters; and it admires its own, and scoffs at those of others. He then, who thinks that he only is wise, what else is this but that he believes that that same ‘wisdom dies with him? ’ For what he denies to be with others, ascribing to himself alone, he doth, in truth, confine within the period of his brief span. But we are to consider what exact discretion the holy man employs, in order that the arrogance of his friends in the fulness of pride might be brought within bounds, in that he adds forthwith,
Ver. 3. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you.
[xxvi]
45. For who is ignorant how greatly the practice and the knowledge of blessed Job excels the knowledge that his friends have? Now in order to correct their pride, he asserts that he is ‘not inferior’ to them, and lest he should transgress the limits of his own humility, he keeps to himself that he is superior to them; not by setting himself above, but by equalling himself to them, he points out what they should learn concerning themselves, who are far unlike to him; that whereas that wisdom which is high is voluntarily bowed down, the knowledge which lies grovelling may never erect itself against the nature of its powers, and he does well that he immediately recalls these to a sense of their equal condition, reflecting that they are swoln to excess as if for singurality in greatness, when he afterwards proceeds,
Yea, who knoweth not such things as these that ye know?
[xxvii]
46. As though he said in plain words; Since what ye say is known to all men, wherefore are ye puffed up by the knowledge contained in your sayings, as of singular merit? Therefore whereas in bringing back the pride of the self-conceited to a common level of equality, he has reproved with a full correction, he now breaks out into statements of instruction; that his friends having been humbled first might learn the weightiness of Truth, and how reverently they should hear it. It proceeds,
Ver. 4. He that is mocked of his neighbour as I am, calleth upon God, and He answereth him.
[xxviii]
47. Oftentimes the frail mind, when it is welcomed by the breath of human regard on the score of good actions, runs out into outward delights, so that it lays aside what it inwardly desires, and willingly lies all loosely in that which it gives ear to without. So that it does not so much delight to become as to be called blessed; and whereas it gapes after the words of applause, it gives over what it had begun to be; and so it is severed from God by the same means by which it appeared to be commendable in God. But sometimes it presses forward in good practice with a constant heart, and yet is pushed hard by the scoffs of men; it does admirable deeds, and gets only abuse; and he that might have been made to go forth without by commendations, being repulsed by insults, returns back again into himself; and stablishes himself the more firmly in God, that he findeth no place without when he may rest in peace: for all his hope is fixed in his Creator. And amidst scoffs and revilings, the interior Witness is alone implored. And his soul in his distress becomes God’s neighbour, in proportion as he is a stranger to the favour of man’s esteem. He forthwith pours himself out in prayer, and being pressed without, he is refined with a more perfect purity to
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penetrate into all within. Therefore it is well said at this time, He that is mocked of his neighbour as I am, will call upon God, and He will hear him. For whilst the wicked reproach the soul of the good, they are shewing them Whom to seek as the Witness of their actions. And while their soul in compunction braces itself in prayer, it is united within itself to the hearing of the Most High, by the same act whereby it is severed from the applause of man without itself. But we ought to note how thoughtfully the words are inserted, as I am. For there be some men whom both the scoffings of their fellow-creatures sink to the ground, and yet they are not such as to be heard by the ears of God. For when mocking issues against sin, surely no virtuous merit is begotten in that mocking. For the priests of Baal, when they called upon him with clamorous voices, were mocked by Elijah, when he said, Cry aloud; for he is a god either he is talking, or he is staying on a journey. [1 Kings 18, 27] But this mocking was conducive to the service of virtue, in that it came by the deserts of sin. So that it is advisedly said now, He that is mocked of his friend, as I am, calleth upon God, and He heareth him. For the mockery of his fellow-creatures makes Him God's neighbour, whom innocency of life keeps a stranger to his fellow-creatures’ wickednesses. It proceeds,
For the upright man’s simplicity is laughed to scorn.
[Missing pages 614 and 615 of the original text. ]
with proud scornings; for they mark that that is wholly wanting to them without, which they pant after themselves with their best endeavours. Therefore they look down upon them as fools, who are without those things, by the having or merely loving of which they themselves in truth are perishing; and they take those for dead, whom they observe in no sort to live with themselves after the flesh. For he that dies from the desires of this world, is of course held by earthly minds to be utterly dead. Which is well represented by the miracle of our Redeemer when He frees a man from an unclean spirit, concerning which same it is written: And the spirit cried and rent him sore, and came out of him, and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, he is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up, and he arose: [Mark 9, 26. 27. ] for he looks like one dead that is set free from the power of an evil spirit. For whosoever has already got the better of earthly desires, makes the life of carnal conversation extinct in himself; and he seems dead to the world, in that he lacks the wicked one that possessed him, who urged him by impure desires; and many call him dead, in that they who know not how to live spiritually, look upon him who does not follow carnal good to be wholly lifeless.
51. But because the very scoffers at the simple ones are themselves too enrolled under the name of Christians, being overruled by reverence for religion, they are ashamed to make a display of the sin of open scoffing. Whence it happens that full of pride in themselves, and in silence, they scoff at those whom they take to be utterly mean and abject from their simplicity. Therefore it is well expressed, A lamp is despised in the thought of the rich; for all the proud, whereas they are unskilled to estimate the blessings to come, as we have said above, account him almost as nothing whom they do not see to be possessed of that which they are devoted to. For it often happens that each one of the Elect, who is being conducted to eternal bliss, is overwhelmed here with unintermitted calamity, there is no plentifulness of stores that buoys him up, no lustre from titles that makes him conspicuous, no crowd of followers falls to his lot, no pomp of raiment makes him
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a figure in the eyes of men, but he is regarded as an object of contempt by all men, and accounted unworthy of the regard of this world. Yet in the eyes of the hidden Judge he is bright with virtues, and full of lustre from the merits of his life; he dreads to be honoured, he never shrinks from being despised, he disciplines the body by continence, he is fattened by love alone in the soul, he ever
sets his mind to bear with patience, and standing erect on the ground of righteousness, he exults in the insults he receives, he compassionates the distressed from his heart, he rejoices in the successes of the good as in his own, he carefully ruminates the provender of the sacred word in his heart, and when examined he is unskilled to give a double answer; ‘a lamp’ because he is bright within, ‘despised’ because he is not luminous without. Inwardly he glows with the flame of charity, without he shines with no gloriousness of luster. Therefore he shines and is despised, who, while he glows with virtue, is accounted vile. Hence it is that his own father looked down upon holy David, when he refused to present him to the eyes of the Prophet Samuel, He, when he had brought cut seven sons to receive the grace of anointing, being questioned by the Prophet whether he had gone through the whole number of his children, answered with despair enough, There remaineth yet a little boy that keepeth the sheep; and when he was brought forward and chosen, he heard the words, Man looketh in the face, but the Lord searcheth the heart. [1 Sam. 16, 10. &c. ] Thus David was a lamp by his innocency, but yet a lamp greatly despised, in that he gave no light to those that regard the outside appearance. But be it known that every righteous man is either without temporal glory, or if he has it, he breaks it beneath himself, that he may freely rise on high above his own honour, lest overcome by enjoyment he be brought down beneath it. It is hence that that illustrious Preacher lowered the glory of his Apostleship before the eyes of men, saying, We have not used
this power, when we might have been burthensome as the Apostles of Christ, but we made ourselves little children among you. [1 Thess. 2, 6. 7. ] But the swelling of the neck still remained in the heart of the hearers of that same person, when they said, For his letters say they are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. [2 Cor. 10, 10] For him who they knew could say such things they determined could not live in common with themselves, and when they both saw him lowly in his mode of life and high in his tone of speech, their pride drove them on, that him whose writings had made him to be feared, his words in presence should make an object of little account. What then was Paul, saving ‘a lamp despised in the thought of the rich,’ who by the same act whereby he set forth a lesson of humility, got the affronts of highmindedness from ill-instructed disciples. For in a dreadful way, the sickness of those so filled with pride was increased by the same means, whereby it ought to have subsided; while the proud mind of carnal persons rejected, as if it were worthy of scorn that which their master set forth as deserving of imitation. Was not he ‘a lamp despised,’ who when he shone forth with so many virtues, underwent such adverse treatment at the hands of his persecutors? He discharges his mission in chains, and his bonds are made known in all the palace, he is beaten with rods, he is beset with numberless dangers from his own race and from the Gentiles; at Lystra he is battered with stones, he is dragged by the feet without the city, in that he is taken for dead. But to what point is this ‘lamp despised? ’ Up to what point is it held contemptible? Does it never at any point unveil its lustre? Does it never shew, with what excess of brightness it glows? It does shew clearly. For when it is said that the ‘lamp is despised in the thought of the rich,’ it is therefore added,
Prepared for an appointed time. [xxxi]
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52. For the ‘appointed time’ for ‘the despised lamp’ is the predestined Day of final Judgment, wherein it is shewn how each one of the righteous, who is now contemned, shines bright in greatness of power. For then they come as judges with God, who now are judged unjustly for
God's sake. Then their Light shines over so much the wider space, the more cruelly the persecutor's hand confines and fetters them now. Then it will be made clear to the eyes of the wicked, that they were supported by heavenly power, who forsook all earthly things of their free will. Whence Truth saith to His own Elect; Ye which have followed Me, in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. [Mat. 19, 28] Not that the court of the interior Assize will have no more than twelve judges, but, surely, that by the number twelve the amount of the whole is described; for whosoever being urged by the incitement of divine love, has forsaken all that he possessed here, shall doubtless
attain there to the height of judicial power; that he may then come as judge in company with the Judge, who now by consideration of the Judgment chastens himself with voluntary poverty. For hence it is that it is said by Solomon concerning the spouse of Holy Church, Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. [Prov. 31, 23] Hence Isaiah says, The Lord will come to judgment, with the elders of His people. [Is. 3, 14] Hence Truth proclaims these same Elders now no longer servants but friends. Henceforth I call you not servants, but I have called you friends. [John 15, 15] And the Psalmist regarding these same saith, Honourable also are thy friends unto me, O God. [Ps. 139, 17] And whilst he beheld their loftiness of mind, and how they trod down with the heel of the foot the glory of the world, he thereupon added, How stablished is their rule! And that we might not think that they be few, who we learn thus advance even to the summit of such high perfection, he thereupon added, If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. For as many persons, then, as now wittingly abase themselves for the love of the Truth, so many lamps shall then blaze forth in the Judgment. Therefore let it be justly said, A lamp despised in the thought of the rich, prepared for the appointed time; for the soul of every righteous man is despised as abject, when in passing through life he is without glory; but he is beheld as an object to admire, when he shines from on high.
[ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION]
53. Amid these things it is good to lift the eye of the mind to the paths of our Redeemer, and to proceed step by step from the members to the head. For He did Himself prove truly ‘a lamp’ to us, Who by dying upon the Cross for our redemption, poured light through the wood into our
benighted minds. John had attained to see that we are lightened by this Lamp, when he said, That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. [John 1, 9] Yet he saw it ‘despised in the thought of the rich,’ when he soon after brought in, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. [ver. 11] Herod desired to examine into the flames of this Lamp, when he longed to see the miracles of that One, as it is written, For he was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he had heard many things of Him, and he hoped to have seen some miracles done by Him. [Luke 23, 8] But this Lamp did not shine forth before his eyes with a single ray of light, in that to him, who sought Him not from piety but from curiosity, He exhibited nothing wonderful concerning Himself. For our Redeemer when He was questioned held His peace, when He was looked for, He scorned to shew forth His miracles, and keeping Himself to Himself in secret, those whom He found looking for outward things He left in their ingratitude without, rather choosing to be openly despised by those who were led by pride, than to be commended with empty voice by those that did not believe. And hence this ‘Lamp’ is straightway ‘despised,’ according to what is
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there added, And Herod with his men of war set Him at nought, and mocked Him, and arrayed Him
in a gorgeous robe. [Luke 23, 11]
54. Yet the ‘despised lamp,’ which is subject to scoffings on earth, flashes judgment from heaven. Hence it is justly added here, prepared for an appointed season. Concerning which same season He saith by the Psalmist, When I shall receive the time, I will judge uprightly. [Ps. 75, 2] Hence in the Gospel ‘Truth’ declareth, saying, My time is not yet come. [John 7, 6] Hence Peter saith, Whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restitution of all things. [Acts 3, 21] Therefore the ‘Lamp’ which is now ‘despised’ is ‘prepared’ for its coming ‘at the appointed season. ’ For He by Himself judgeth sin on the last Day, Who now bears with the scoffs of sinners, and then He brings out severity the more rigorously, the more mildly He now spreads low His patience in calling sinners. For he that awaits long while for some to be converted, if they be not converted, torments them without revoke. Which same truth he conveys by the Prophet in few words, saying, I have long time holden my peace, I have been still and refrained myself; now will I cry like a travailing woman. [Is. 42, 14] For as we have already before said, a woman in travail with pain gives forth that which she bore for long in her inner parts, He then that for long time held his peace, ‘crieth like a travailing woman,’ in that the Judge that shall come, who for long bore with the deeds of men without taking vengeance, sooner or later brings to light with hotness of examination, as if with pain of mind, the sentence of direful visiting which He kept within. Therefore let none despise this Lamp, when it is out of sight, lest He burn up His despisers when He shineth from heaven. For to whomsoever He does not now burn to give pardon, He shall then assuredly burn to award punishment. Therefore because by grace from above we are vouchsafed the season of our calling, whilst there is still the room left, let us by altering our ways for the better flee from the wrath of Him, Who is every where present. For him alone that visitation fails to find, whom correction keeps in hiding.
55. Let it suffice for us by the Lord's bounty to have now run through these particulars in two volumes [corporibus]. For because we cannot embrace in a brief exposition the following parts of the sacred book, drawn out in the stream of mysteries, we must of necessity reserve them for other sheets, that the reader may return the more ardent to the task of reading, in proportion as he has breathing given him by the interruption of what is read.
PART III. BOOK XI.
In which the twelfth chapter, from the sixth verse, the thirteenth, and the first four verses of the fourteenth, are explained, a different style being adopted for the time.
[i] [HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION]
1. THOUGH in a long work variableness of style ought not to be a matter of blame, yet lest any should censure me for change in my way of expressing myself, in the Epistle which was prefixed to these books, I gave the reasons 1 why I never brought the third part of this Work up to a likeness and accordance with the others by amending it. And while these are omitted, there is this added
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further, that the interpretation of this same part begins from the verse in which it is said, The tabernacles of robbers have plenty, &c. and reaches down in the handling thereof to that which is written, Their sweetness shall be through the worm, &c. which in fact includes so much, that it is impossible all should be comprised in one volume, except it be reduced to great brevity; and so let anyone that is free from other employments read the other parts that are given in a multiplied form, but for him, who has no time to read with diligent application, the shortness of this part may be to his mind, wherein we do not so much deliver what we have in our mind, as mark what there is to deliver. Therefore, whereas I have herein left many things such as they were received from me by word of mouth, take kindly, reader, this change of style, in that to people eating often the same meats, a difference in the mode of cooking is acceptable. But as you take the several parts to read, make it your business ever to recall to mind that original of the case which I have set forth; how that both by blessed Job, who is called ‘Grieving,’ are denoted the sufferings of our Lord and of His Body, i. e. the holy Church, and that his friends bear the likeness of heretics, who, as we have often said already, whilst they strive to defend, only offend God; and these, whilst they falsely abet, forcibly wound the souls of Saints. Yet not that in all which they say they are void of understanding in knowledge of the truth, but for the most part they blend what is wise with what is foolish, and the true with the false; that while they first propose somewhat on the side of truth, they may easily draw aside into falsehood. And hence too, what the friends of blessed Job utter is one while worthy of contempt, and at another time deserves admiration, which same the holy man whilst sometimes discarding he condemns it, sometimes approving admits, and turns to the account of righteousness even the very things, which, though right, are not by them rightly delivered; and so he scorns them, when they scorn his destitution, and, placed upon a dunghill in the body, he shews on how high a summit of virtue he is seated within, when he records that this life’s riches are nought, which he describes to be abundantly bestowed even on the sons of perdition, saying;
Ver. 6. The tabernacles of robbers have plenty, and they provoke God with boldness; when He hath given all into their hand.
[ii]
2. It is easy for a man, at the time, to despise riches, when he has them, but it is hard to hold them worthless, when he lacks them. Hence it is clearly shewn, how great a contempt of earthly things was lodged in the breast of blessed Job, who then declares that all is nought which the lost enjoy in plenty, at the time when he had lost every thing. Thus he says, The tabernacles of robbers have plenty, and they provoke God with boldness; for it very commonly happens that bad men set themselves up the more against God, even the more they are enriched by His bounty contrary to their desert, and they that ought to be impelled by good gifts to better conduct, are rendered worse men by the blessings.
3. But we have to make out how they are called ‘robbers,’ whereas it is thereupon added, When He hath given all into their hands. For if they are robbers, then they took by force, and there is no doubt that God is no abettor of those that use force. In what sense then does He Himself bestow what they that are robbers carry off by wicked means? We are to know then that what Almighty God in His mercy vouchsafes is one thing, and another thing what in His wrath He suffers men to have; for that which robbers do contrary to right the Equal Dispenser no otherwise than justly permits to be done by them, that both the man who is let to rob being blinded in mind may increase his guilt, and that he who suffers from his robbing, may now in the mischief thereof be chastised
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for some sin, which he had been guilty of before. For look, a man taking post in the pass of a mountain lies in wait for travellers passing by; now he that is taking his journey perchance has done some wickedness at one time or another, and Almighty God requiting him his evil-doing in the present life, and giving him into the hands of the lier-in-wait, suffers him either to be spoiled of his goods, or even to be killed. And so what the robber unjustly aimed at, the same the Equitable Judge justly permitted to be done, that both the one might be repaid what he had done contrary to justice, and the other might one time or another receive the worse chastisement, by whose voluntary deed of atrocity Almighty God brought just vengeance for sin upon the head of another. He is cleansed that suffers the wrong: in the case of him that does the wrong guilt is accumulated; that either from the very depth of wickedness he may one day be brought back to repentance, or else be visited with eternal damnation, aggravated in proportion as he was borne with for long in his sin. With the first He deals in mercy that he may bring his sins to an end, with the other in severity that he may greatly add thereto, unless he betake himself to repentance; in the one evil deeds are wiped away while he suffers violence, in the other they are accumulated while he offers it. Therefore it is meet and right that Almighty God suffer that to be done which He forbids to be done, that by the very same act, whereby He now awaits and bears with the unconverted for long, He may one day smite them the worse. Therefore it is rightly said, The tabernacles of robbers are in plenty, and they provoke God with boldness; when He giveth all into their hand; for what the wicked take away, He does Himself give them, Who might have withstood them in their rapine, if He had been minded to pity them.
[MORAL INTERPRETATION]
4. Yet this may likewise be understood of spiritual things. For it very often happens that some have gifts of teaching vouchsafed them, yet they are swoln with the same, and have a desire to appear great by comparison with others. And to ‘provoke’ Almighty God is to be lifted up amongst our neighbours on the score of His gifts.
Which same also are not unjustly called ‘robbers,’ in that whilst they speak what they never do, they take away the words of the righteous to serve the turn of their own speech. But because those very words heavenly Grace vouchsafes to some persons, whose lives notwithstanding it leaves in a course of wickedness, in themselves they are ‘robbers;’ but yet the good that is theirs they have gotten from above. It goes on;
Ver. 7, 8. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fouls of the air, and they shall tell thee. Or speak to the earth, and it shall answer thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
[iii]
5. What are we to understand by ‘the beasts,’ but men of slow parts; and what by ‘the fowls of the air,’ but those that are skilled in high and sublime truths? For of ‘the beasts,’ i. e. the dull of sense, it is written; Thine animals [V. so] shall dwell therein. [Ps. 68, 10] And forasmuch as those, who have minds for sublime themes, soar among the words of the Redeemer, it is written, So that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. [Matt. 13, 32] And what by ‘the earth,’ saving men whose taste is for earthly things? Hence too it is said to the first man on his forsaking the things of heaven, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. [Gen. 3, 19] What are we to understand by ‘the fishes of the sea,’ but the inquisitive ones of this world, concerning whom the Psalmist saith, The fish of the sea, that pass through the paths of the seas. [Ps. 8, 8] Which same
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busy themselves in large researches into things, as it were in undiscoverable floods. Now what all these teach upon being so interrogated, he adds, saying,
Ver. 9. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?
[iv]
6. As if he said in plain terms; ‘Whether you ask the dull of understanding, or persons full of the loftiest subjects, or those devoted to earthly ways, or the men busied with investigations that belong to this world, all of them acknowledge God to be the Creator of all things, and with one consent agree about His Power, though they do not with one consent live in submission to it. For that which the righteous man speaks by his way of living too, that the unrighteous man generally is constrained to own concerning God by his voice alone, if not otherwise; and it comes to pass that evil-doers, by attesting Him, do homage to the Creator of all things, Whom by their deeds they rebel against, in that Him, Whom they have dared to fight against by their lives, they cannot deny to be the Creator of all things.
[LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
Yet this same may also be understood to good purpose after the mere form of the letter alone; in that every creature, when it is looked at, as it were utters a voice of its own, bearing witness by that mere form which it has. We ask ‘the beasts,’ or ‘the fowls of the air,’ ‘the earth,’ or ‘the fish,’ whilst we view them, and these answer us with one accord, that ‘the Hand of the Lord hath wrought all things,’ in that whilst they present their lineaments to our eyes, they bear witness that they are not from themselves. For by the mere circumstance that they are created, by the figure they present, they render as it were the voice of confession to their Creator, Who, as He created all things, likewise ordained how they should be conducted. Hence it is added,
Ver. l0. In Whose Hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man.
[v]
7. For by the ‘Hand’ Power is denoted. Thus ‘the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind,’ is in the Power of Him, from Whom it has its being, that He Himself should appoint in what condition it should be, Who vouchsafed that to be, which was not. But by ‘the soul of every living thing’ may be denoted the life of beasts. Now Almighty God quickens the soul of beasts to the extent of the corporeal senses, but man’s spirit He draws out to a spiritual understanding; and thus ‘in His Hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all flesh of men,’ in that both the one, He bestows this power on the soul that it should give life to the flesh, and in the other He quickens the soul to this degree, that it should attain to the understanding of eternity. But we are to bear in mind that in Holy Writ ‘the spirit of man’ is wont to be put in two ways. For sometimes ‘the spirit’ is put for the soul, sometimes for spiritual agency. Thus ‘the spirit’ is put for the soul,
as it is written of our own Head Himself, And He bowed His Head, and gave up His Spirit [spiritum, Vulg. ]. [John 19, 30] For if the Evangelist had called any thing else ‘the spirit’ saving the soul, then surely upon that spirit departing, the soul would have remained. Moreover, the term ‘spirit’ is used for spiritual agency, as where it is written, Who maketh His Angels spirits, His Ministers a flaming fire. [Ps. 104, 4] For Preachers are occasionally called ‘Angels,’ i. e. ‘bearers of tidings,’ in Holy Writ, as where it is said by the Prophet, The priest’s lips keep knowledge, and they
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seek the law from his mouth: for he is the Angel [V. Angelus] of the Lord of Hosts. [Mal. 2, 7] Thus Almighty God ‘maketh His Angels spirits,’ in that He changeth His Preachers into spiritual men. But in this passage, if by ‘the soul of every living thing,’ the mere life of the body is denoted, by the ‘spirit of all flesh of man,’ there is set forth the agency of a spiritual understanding. It goes on; Ver. 11. The ear trieth words, and the mouth of the eater savour.
[vi]
8. There is scarce a person that is ignorant that the five senses of our body, viz. of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching, in all their operations of perceiving and discriminating derive the power of perception and discrimination from the brain. And whereas there is but one judge that presides within, viz. the percipient faculty of the brain, yet by their proper passages he keeps five senses distinct, God causing great marvels, so that neither the eye should hear, nor the ear see, the mouth take in scent, the nose taste, nor the hands smell; and whereas all things are determined by the one faculty of the brain. Yet no one of the senses can do aught but what it received by the Creator’s appointment. And so by these corporeal and external arrangements we are left to gather the interior and spiritual ones; so that by that which is open to the eye in us, we ought to pass on to the secret thing that is in us, and escapes our eyes. For we are to observe, that whereas there is one Wisdom, it dwells in one man less, in another more. To one it gives this function, to another that; and in the manner of the brain, it uses ourselves like so many senses, that though in itself it bears no dissimilitude to itself, yet by us it is ever working different and dissimilar operations, so as for this man to receive the gift of wisdom, and that the gift of knowledge; one to have kinds of tongues, and another the grace of healing.
9. But in these words wherein blessed Job saith, The ear trieth words, and the mouth of the eater savour, he seems likewise to imply something about the Elect and the damned; for the words of wisdom, which the children of perdition hear, the Elect not only hear but taste too, that that should have a savour for them in the heart, which conveys no sound to the minds of the damned, but only to their ears. For it is one thing to hear food named only, and another thing to taste of it also; then the Elect so hear of the meat of wisdom, that they taste of it, in that what they hear is full of relish to them in their very marrow [medulitus] from love; but the knowledge of the reprobate extends only to the cognizance of the sound, so that they hear indeed of virtues, but yet from coldness of heart they know nothing what a relish they have. By which same words blessed Job condemns the inexperience of his friends, and the presumption of all that are puffed up for their learning in wisdom, in that it is one thing to know somewhat concerning God, and another to taste with the mouth of understanding the thing that is known. Therefore it is well said, Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth of the eater savour? As if it were said to the presumptuous in plain words, ‘The words of instruction, which came to you only so far as to the ear, to me touch the mouth of understanding likewise in the inward savour. ’ But because a weak age, even when it hath a right sense, should not spring forth with incautious haste to preach, it is rightly added;
Ver. 12. With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.
[vii]
10. For these sayings are set fast in the root of wisdom, which by continuance in living, are also made strong by the practice of deeds. But because there are many to whom at once longer life is
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given, and yet no grace of wisdom vouchsafed, it is further shewn with propriety on whose decision the gifts themselves depend, whilst it is added;
Ver. 13. With Him is wisdom and strength: He hath counsel and understanding.
[viii]
11. We not unfitly interpret these words of the Only begotten Son of the Supreme Father, so as to understand Him to be Himself ‘the Wisdom and Strength of God. ’ For Paul also bears testimony to our interpretation, in the words, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. [1 Cor. 1, 24] Who is ever ‘with Him,’ in that, In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [John 1, 1] But God ‘hath counsel and understanding;’ ‘counsel,’ in that He orders His own matters, ‘understanding,’ in that He knows ours. By the naming of ‘counsel’ may also be denoted the mere delay of secret judgment alone, as that He is sometimes slow in striking offenders, not because the sin of bad men is not seen, but that their sentence of condemnation, which is delayed for the practising of penance, may seem as if out of counsel slow to issue forth. And so what the public declaration one day reveals without, that lay hid with the Almighty Lord in counsel before the world began. It proceeds;
Ver. 14. If He break down, there is none that can build again: if He shut up a man, there is none that can open.
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12. Almighty God ‘breaks down’ the heart of man, when He forsakes it; He ‘builds it up,’ when He fills it. For He does not destroy man’s soul by consummation of war, but by withdrawing Himself from it; in that when it is left to itself, it wants nothing to its own ruin. Whence it commonly happens, that when the heart of the hearer, in due of his sins, is not filled with Almighty God’s grace, it is in vain that he is outwardly admonished by the preacher. For every mouth that speaks is but mute, if He does not utter a voice in the heart within, Who inspires the words that are admitted into the ears. Hence the Prophet saith, Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. [Ps 127, 1] Hence Solomon saith, Consider the work of God; for who can set him right whom He hath despised? [Eccles. 7, 13] Nor is it strange, if the preacher is not attended to by the reprobate soul, since it sometimes happens that the Lord Himself, in the things which He speaks, is withstood by the tempers of those that withstand Him. For hence it is that Cain could be admonished even by the voice of God, yet could not be changed, because as due to the sin of his evil heart, within God had already forsaken the soul, to which outwardly He addressed words to serve for a testimony. And it is well added, If He shut up a man, there is none that can open; in that every man, whereinsoever he does wrong, what else does he but make for himself a prison- house of his own conscience, that guiltiness of soul may oppress him even though no man accuse him without? And when by the judgment of God he is left in the blindness of his evil heart, he is as it were shut up within himself, that he may never find a place of escape, which he never deserves to find. For it often happens that there are persons who long to quit their bad practices, but because they are weighed to the ground by the burthen of them, being shut up in the prison-house of bad habit, they are unable to go forth of themselves. And there are some that anxiously desiring to visit their own offences with punishment, turn into worse offences what they reckon themselves to be doing aright; and it is brought to pass in a lamentable way, that what they take for their going out they find to be their imprisoning. Thus the reprobate Judas, when he inflicted death upon himself
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to spite sin, was brought to the punishment of eternal death, and repented of sin in a more heinous way than he had committed sin.
13. Therefore let it be said, If He shutteth up a man, there is none that can open. For as no man withstands His bountifulness in calling, so no one withstands His justice in forsaking; and so for God to ‘shut up’ is, not to open to those that are shut up; and hence it is said to Moses concerning Pharaoh, I will harden his heart. [Gen. 27, 5] For God is said to harden the heart in executing justice, when He does not soften the reprobate heart in bestowing grace. And so He ‘shuts up’ the man, whom He leaves in the darkness of his own practices. For Isaac desired to open this shutting up to his first-born son, when he endeavoured to set him before his brother in blessing him. But the son whom the father desired, the Lord rejected; and him, whom the Lord desired, the father blessed even against his will; that he, who had sold his birthright to his brother for a meal, might not get the blessing of the first-born, which he had relinquished through a gluttonous appetite; who, whilst that aiming at earthly objects, following after transitory things, he desired to inherit the blessing, was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears [Heb. 12, 17]; for tears have no fruit, which are spent on regretting with sighs things destined to perish. And so Isaac could not open even to his son, whom Almighty God by a just judgment shut up in the prison-house of his evil heart. It proceeds;
Ver. 15. If He withholdeth the waters, all things are dried up. If He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth.
[x]
14. If ‘water’ be understood of knowledge for preaching, as when it is written, The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as an overflowing brook [Prov. 18, 4]; when ‘water is withheld, all is dried up,’ in that if the knowledge of the preacher is withdrawn, the hearts of those that might have flourished in eternal hope, are forthwith ‘dried up,’ that they should remain in hopeless barrenness, whilst, in love with transitory things, they care not to look for those which shall abide. But if by the term of ‘water’ the grace of the Holy Spirit is denoted, as it is said by the voice of truth in the Gospel, He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water [John 7, 38]; in which place the Evangelist immediately added, But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe in Him should receive; a suitable sense is laid open in these words wherein he saith, Behold He withholdeth the waters, and all things are dried up; in that if the grace of the Holy Spirit be withdrawn from the hearer’s mind, the sense is at once ‘dried up,’ which already through hope seemed to be green in the hearer. But forasmuch as he does not mention ‘water’ but ‘waters,’ by the plural designation, he refers to the sevenfold grace of spiritual gifts, inasmuch as everyone is filled, so to speak, with as many waters as he is replenished with gifts, of which it is fitly added,
Also if He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth.
15. For what is ‘the earth’ taken for, but the sinner, to whom it is said in sentence, Dust [Lat. Terra] thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return? Thus the earth remains immoveable when the sinner scorns to obey the precepts of the Lord, when he erects the neck of pride, and shuts the mind’s eyes to the light of truth. But whereas it is written, His feet stood, and the earth was moved [Hab. 3, 6. see lxx]; in that when Truth is rooted in the heart, the immoveableness of the mind is stirred; if the grace of the Holy Spirit, by bestowal from above, is infused according to the voice of
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the preacher, instantly the earth is ‘overturned,’ in that the obduracy of the guilty soul is changed from the stubbornness of its immobility, that it should afterwards bow down itself in weeping to the precepts of the Lord, as much as it afore time erected the neck in swelling high against the Lord. For you may see that the earth of the human heart, when the water of God’s blessing is poured upon it, afterwards gladly bears injuries, which before it outrageously inflicted; afterwards even gives its own, whereas before it even laid hands on the things of others; afterwards tortures the flesh by practising abstinence, whereas before, in the plenishing of the flesh, it let itself loose in the deadly gratifications of gross sensualities; afterwards loves its very persecutors, whereas before it refused to love even those that loved itself. When, then, the human soul watered by God’s bounty begins to act contrary to what was its wont, ‘the earth is overturned,’ in that the part is put down, which before reared itself on high, and the face is lifted upwards, which was before weighed down deeply below.
16. It seems well in illustration of this point to bring forward Paul as one among many. Who when he was on his way to Damascus armed with letters against Christ [Acts 9, 1], being on his journey watered with the grace of the Holy Spirit, was changed on the spot from that bloodthirsty purpose which he had, and afterwards received those strokes in Christ’s behalf, which he was journeying with the intention of inflicting upon Christians; and he who before, when living after the flesh, strove to deliver the Saints of the Lord over to death, is afterwards rejoiced to offer the sacrifice of his flesh for the life of the Saints. Those cold-blooded purposes of cruelty are turned into the warmth of pity; and he that aforetime was a blasphemer and a persecutor, afterwards becomes a humble and compassionate preacher. [1 Tim. 1, 13] He, who accounted it great gain to him to slay Christ in His Disciples [Acts 9, 1], now holds ‘Christ to be his life, and to die gain;’ [Phil. 1, 21] and so when He ‘sendeth out the waters, the earth is overturned,’ in that the mind of Paul, the moment he received the grace of the Holy Spirit, altered the fixture of his stubbornness and cruelty. Contrary to which the Lord utters the complaint against Ephraim, by the Prophet, saying, Ephraim is a cake under the ashes [V. so] not turned. [Hos. 7, 8] For a cake under the ashes, that hath ashes upon it, lays the cleaner side flat to the ground, and has the upper side the fouler, in proportion as it carries the ashes upon it. And so with the mind that harbours earthly thoughts, what else does it carry upon itself but a load of ashes? But if it will be ‘turned,’ the clean surface, which it had kept downwards, it brings back to the top, when it has shaken off the ashes that it had upon it. If therefore we shake off from the mind the ashes of earthly thoughts, as it were we ‘turn the cake under the ashes,’ that that bent of our mind may henceforth go to the rear, which the ashes of grovelling thought before overlaid, and the clean face come to the top, that our right bent of mind may not henceforth be surcharged with the weight of earthly desire. Which we can never do, except we be bedewed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, in that when Almighty God ‘sendeth out the waters, they will overturn the earth. ’ It proceeds;
Ver. 16. With Him is strength and wisdom. [xi]
17. A little above it had been said, With Him is wisdom and strength; but now it is said, With Him is strength and wisdom. For because Almighty God, when in the mystery of pitifulness He was made Man, first gave the lesson of mildness, and afterwards at the Judgment He shews what strength He is of; it is rightly done that in the place above Wisdom is mentioned before Strength, when the thing is spoken of the Only Begotten Son of the Father, With Him is Wisdom and
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Strength. But forasmuch as when He cometh to judge, He will appear in the terribleness of His power, and the damned being cast off, will manifest to His Elect in His everlasting kingdom, how He is ‘the Wisdom’ of the Father, it is lightly said in the subsequent sentence, that with Him is first ‘strength’ and then ‘wisdom. ’ Thus in the first words wherein he saith, With Him is wisdom and strength; he plainly shews, that what He taught in mildness how to believe, in the power of the Judgment He will exhibit in terribleness. But in the subsequent words, wherein He saith, With Him is strength and wisdom; He makes it clearer than the day, that He first destroys reprobate men in the Judgment by dint of power, and afterwards shines into the souls of the Elect with the perfect light of the eternal kingdom. But because before the day of final Judgment, He never ceases daily to judge the deeds of mortal men by His secret awards, He comes back to that which is done in this present time, where it is added;
Ver. 16, 17. He knoweth both the deceiver and deceived, He bringeth counsellors to a foolish end, and the judges to dulness.
[xii]
18. Whereas every man that strives to deceive his neighbour is wicked, and ‘Truth’ saith to the wicked, I never knew you, depart from Me ye that work iniquity [Matt. 7, 23]; in what sense is it said here, that ‘the Lord knoweth the deceiver? ’ But forasmuch as God’s ‘knowing’ sometimes means His taking cognizance, sometimes His approving, He at once knows a wicked man, in that in taking cognizance He judges him, (for He would never judge any wicked man, if He did not take cognizance of him,) and yet He does not know a wicked person, in that He does not approve his doings. And so He both knows him, in that He finds him out, and knows him not, in that He doth not acknowledge him in a likeness to His own Wisdom. As it is said of any truthful man, that he does not know falsehood, not because, when any thing false is said even by others, he is too blind to find fault with it, but this very falsehood he at once knows in the tracing out, and knows not in the affection of the heart, so as not to do that himself, which he condemns the doing of in others. And it may often happen that persons, busy in artful contrivances, spread the nets of their wickedness for another’s life, and when he, in ignorance of it, is seen to be taken by the snares, perchance it is questioned whether such things are seen from above, and men wonder, why it is, if God does see them, that He suffers them to be done. But He knoweth the deceiver and the deceived. For ‘He knoweth the deceiver,’ in that generally He sees former sins of his, and by a just judgment suffers him to fall into others also. ‘He knoweth the deceiver,’ in that, left in the hand of his own doings, He forsaketh him, that he may be precipitated into worse ones, as it is written, He that is unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is filthy let him, be filthy [Lat. grow filthy] still. [Rev. 22, 11] Moreover ‘He knoweth the deceived’ too, in that men often do evil things that they know; and therefore they are suffered to be ‘deceived,’ so as further to fall into evil things which they know not. However, this is used to be done to the deceived sometimes for their purifying, sometimes as the beginning of vengeance.
19. He bringeth counsellors also to a foolish end, when they do any thing good even, with no good purpose, but are going after the recompensing of a temporary reward. For, if the Only-begotten Son of the Most High Father, because hereby, that He was made Man, He preached eternal truths, is therefore called the Angel of great counsel, we rightly interpret ‘the counsellors,’ those preachers, who furnish the ‘counsel’ of life to their hearers. But when any preacher preaches the truths of eternity for this, that he may acquire temporal gains, assuredly he is ‘brought to a foolish
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end,’ in that he is aiming to reach that point by laborious effort, whence he ought to have fled in uprightness of mind.
20. And it is rightly added, And the judges to dulness. For all that are set over the examination of other men’s conduct, are rightly called ‘judges;’ but when he that has this oversight does not diligently examine the lives of those under his authority, nor acquaint himself whom he should correct, and how, ‘the judge is brought to dulness,’ in that he, who should have judged things that were ill done, never finds out those things which are to be judged. It proceeds;
Ver. 18. He looseth the belt of kings, and girdeth their reins with a cord.
[xiii]
21. They that know how to regulate aright the motions of their members, are not unjustly called ‘kings. ’ But when the mind is touched with pride on the grounds of that very continence, it very often happens that Almighty God, deserting its pride, suffers it to fall into uncleanness of practice. And so ‘He looseth the belt of kings,’ when in the case of those who seemed to regulate their members aright, on account of the sin of pride he undoes the girdle of chastity. Now what is meant by ‘a cord,’ but sin? As Solomon says, His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. [Prov. 5, 22] And because fleshly gratification has its dominion in the ‘reins,’ the strict Judge of the conscience, Who ‘looseth the belt of kings,’ ‘girdeth their reins with a cord,’ that, when the girdle of chastity is undone, then the gratification of sin should have dominion over their members, so that those whom pride pollutes in secret, He may shew even publicly to be as abominable as they are. It goes on,
Ver. 19. He leadeth the priests inglorious, and overthroweth the mighty.
[xiv]
22. The great glory of the priest is the righteousness of those that are subject to him. Whence the excellent preacher saith well to his disciples; For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord? [1 Thess.