For if we carry the eyes of our
imagination
from the very commencement of the human race up to the present time in which we now are, we see how short all was that was of a nature to come to an end.
St Gregory - Moralia - Job
But all such persons, while they give themselves up to pride, at once in imagination mount above those, with whom they are placed, and are far from ever being united to the citizens above.
Thus the ephah is said to be ‘lifted up between earth and heaven,’ in that all covetous persons through pride and vain glory at once despise their neighbours at their side, and never lay hold of the things above, which are beyond them; and so they are carried ‘between the earth and the heaven,’ in that they neither keep equality of brotherhood in this lower world by charity, nor yet are able to attain the world above by setting themselves up.
And I said to the Angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
and he said, To build it an house in the land of Shinar.
That same ephah has a ‘house built it in the land of Shinar,’ for ‘Shinar’ is rendered ‘their ill savour;’ and as there is a sweet savour from virtue, as Paul bears witness, who saith; and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place; For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ; [2 Cor.
2, 14] so reversely there is an ill savour from vice.
For covetousness is the root of all evil.
[1 Tim.
6, 10] And whereas every thing evil is engendered by avarice, it is meet that the house of avarice should be erected in ‘ill savour.
’ Moreover it is necessary to be known that ‘Shinar’ is a very wide valley, wherein the tower was begun to be built by men giving themselves to pride, which, when the diversity of tongues was brought to pass, came to destruction; which same tower was called Babylon, forsooth on account of that very confusion of minds and tongues: nor is it inappropriately that the ‘ephah’ of avarice is placed there, where ‘Babylon,’ i.
e.
‘confusion,’ is building, in that whereas it is certain that from avarice and impiety all things bad have their origin, this same avarice and impiety are rightly described as dwelling in confusion.
66. We have said these things in few words out of course, that we might shew that the weight of sin is set forth by the ‘plate of lead. ’ Yet these very words of blessed Job are also applicable to Holy Church, who while keeping the two testaments of sacred revelation, as it were begs a second time that her words should be written, saying, Oh! that my words were now written! Oh! that they were printed in a book! Which same, in that she speaks with a strong sentence at one time to hearts heavy from the weight of avarice, at another time to hardened hearts, ‘writes with a pen of iron upon a plate of lead,’ or, surely, ‘upon the flint. ’ Now we say with justice that blessed Job uses the accents of our Redeemer and His Church, if we find any thing that he says explicitly of that same Redeemer of us men; for how is it to be believed that he teaches us any thing connected with Him in a figure, if he does not point Him out to us in express words? But now let him disclose to us what he is sensible of concerning Him, and let him take away from us all misgivings in our thoughts. It goes on;
- 468 -
Ver. 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth.
[LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
67. For he who does not say, ‘Creator,’ but ‘Redeemer,’ expressly tells of Him, Who after He created all things, appeared Incarnate amongst us, that He might redeem us from a state of bondage, and by His Passion set us free from death everlasting; and mark with what sure faith he makes himself secure in the power of His Divine Nature, of Whom it is said by Paul, For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. [2 Cor. 13, 4] For he says, For I know that my Redeemer liveth. As if he said in express terms; ‘The unbelievers may know that He was scourged, mocked, struck with the palms of the hand, covered with a crown of thorns, besmeared with spittings, crucified, dead: I, with sure faith, believe Him to live after death; I confess with unreserved voice, ‘that my Redeemer liveth,’ Who died by the hands of wicked men. ’ And how, O blessed Job, through His Resurrection, thou trustest to the resurrection of thine own flesh, declare, I pray, in open speech. It goes on;
And that I shall rise at the last day from the earth.
[lv]
68. That is, because the resurrection which He manifested in His own Person, He will one day bring to pass in ourselves as well; for the resurrection, which He exhibited in Himself, He pledged to us; seeing that the members follow the glory of their Head. Thus our Redeemer underwent death, that we might not fear to die; He manifested the resurrection, that we might have a sure hope that we are capable of rising again. And hence He would not have that death to be of more than three days’ duration, lest if the resurrection were deferred in Him, it should be altogether despaired of in ourselves; and this is rightly said of Him by the Prophet; He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up the head. [Ps. 110, 7] For He in a manner condescended to drink of that current as it were of our suffering, not in an abiding place, but ‘in the way,’ in that He met death in a transitory way, i. e. for three days, and in that death which He met He did not, like ourselves, remain unto the end of the world. And so, whereas He rose again on the third day, what then is to come after in His body, i. e. in the Church, He makes appear; for He shewed in example, what He promised in reward, that as believers knew and owned that He had Himself risen again, so they might hope for the rewards of the resurrection in themselves at the end of the world. Lo, we, through the death of the flesh, remain in the dust until the end of the world, but He on the third day budded into life from the dryness of death, that by the very renewal of His flesh by itself He might shew the power of His Divine Nature. Which is well shewn in Moses by the twelve rods placed in the Tabernacle: for when the priesthood of Aaron, who was of the tribe of Levi, was despised, ‘and the tribe was not accounted worthy to offer up burnt-offerings, twelve rods according to the twelve tribes were ordered to be put in the Tabernacle, and, lo, the rod of Levi budded, and shewed what efficacy Aaron had in the office. [Num. 17, 8] By which same sign what is conveyed, but that all we who lie in the arms of death until the very end of the world, remain like the rest of the rods in a state of barrenness? But when all the rods remained in a state of dryness, the rod of Levi returned to flowering, in that the body of our Lord, i. e. our true Priest, being set in the dryness of death, burst into the flower of the Resurrection. By which same flowering Aaron is rightly known to be the Priest, in that by this glory of the Resurrection our Redeemer, Who sprung from the tribe of Judah and Levi [Luke 1; 5, 36], is shewn to be an Intercessor in our behalf. And so, lo! the rod of
- 469 -
Aaron buds now after dryness, but the rods of the twelve tribes remain in a dry state, in that already indeed the body of the Lord lives after death, but our bodies are kept back from the glory of the resurrection until the end of the world. Whence he carefully introduced this same delay, by saying, And that I shall rise at the last [novissimo] day from the earth.
69. Therefore we have a hope of our own resurrection, by considering the glory of our Head. But lest anyone say perhaps merely in the secret thought of his heart, that it was in this way that He rose again from the dead, viz. that being God and Man in one and the same Person, the death, which He underwent in His Human Nature, He overcame by His Divine Nature, while we, who are mere men, are not able to rise from the curse of death; it happened rightly that, in the season of His resurrection, the bodies of many of the Saints arose at the same time, that both in Himself He might shew us an example, and by the resurrection of others who were like to ourselves in respect of a mere human nature, He might give us a sure confirmation, that whereas man despaired of his obtaining what He that was God and Man had exhibited in His own Person, he might presume that that was capable of being brought to pass in his own case, which he knew to have been brought about in the case of those very persons, who he doubted not were but simple human beings.
70. But there are some who, observing that the spirit is parted from the flesh, that the flesh is turned into corruption, that its corruption is reduced to dust, that this dust is so dissolved into elementary parts that it is incapable of being seen by the eyes of man, despair of the possibility of the resurrection being brought to pass, and whilst they gaze on the dry bones, they distrust its being possible for these to be clothed with flesh, and again flushing into life; which persons, if they do not hold the resurrection of the body on the principle of obedience, ought certainly to hold it on the principle of reason. For what does the universe every day, but imitate in its elements our resurrection? Thus by the lapse of the minutes of the day the temporal light itself as it were dies, when, the shade of night coming on, that light which was beheld is withdrawn from sight, and it daily rises again as it were, when the light that was withdrawn from our eyes, upon the night being suppressed is renewed afresh. For the progress of the seasons too, we see the shrubs lose the greenness of their foliage, and cease from putting forth fruit; and on a sudden as if from dried up wood, by a kind of resurrection coming we see the leaves burst forth, the fruit grow big, and the whole tree clothed with renewed beauty; we unceasingly behold the small seeds of trees committed to the moistness of the ground, wherefrom not long afterwards we behold large trees arise, and bring forth leaves and fruit. Let us then consider the little seed of any tree whatever, which is thrown into the ground, for a tree to be produced therefrom; and let us take in, if we are capable of it, where in that exceeding littleness of the seed that most enormous tree was buried, which proceeded from it? where was the wood? where the bark? where the verdure of the foliage? where the abundance of the fruit? Was there any thing of the kind perceived in the seed, when it was thrown into the ground? [Comp. S. Chrys. on 1 Thess. 4, 15] And yet by the secret Artificer of all things ordering all in a wonderful manner, both in the softness of the seed there lay buried the roughness of the bark, and in its tenderness there was hidden the strength of its timber, and in its dryness fertility of productiveness. What ‘wonder, then, if that finest dust, which to our eyes is resolved into the elements, He, when He is minded, fashioneth again into the human being, Who from the finest seeds resuscitates the largest trees? And so, seeing that we have been created reasoning beings, we ought to collect the hope of our own resurrection from the mere aspect and contemplation of the objects of nature. But forasmuch as the faculty of reason was deadened in us, the grace of the Redeemer came in for an example. For our Creator came, He took death upon
- 470 -
Him, He exhibited the Resurrection, in order that we, who would not hold the hope of the Resurrection by reason, might hold it by His succour and example; and so let blessed Job say; I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that I shall rise at the last day from the earth. And let any one that despairs of the possibility that the power of the Resurrection should be brought to pass in himself, blush at the words of a believing person set in the midst of the Gentile world, and let him reflect with what a weight of punishment he deserves to be stricken, if he still does not believe his own resurrection, who now knows the resurrection of the Lord which has taken place, if even he believed his own, who as yet expected the resurrection of the Lord Jesus to be brought to pass.
71. But see, I hear of the resurrection, but it is the effect of the resurrection that I am searching out. For I believe that I shall rise again, but I wish that I might hear what kind of person; since it is a thing I ought to know, whether I shall rise again perhaps in some other subtle or ethereal body, or in that body wherein I shall die. But if I shall rise again in an ethereal body, it will no longer be myself, who rise again. For how can that be a true resurrection, if there may not be true flesh? so that plain reason suggests, that if it shall not be true flesh, assuredly it will not be a true resurrection; for neither can it be rightly termed a resurrection, when it is not what fell that rises again. But in this too for us, O blessed Job, do thou remove these clouds of misgiving, and whereas through the grace of the Holy Spirit vouchsafed thee thou hast begun to speak to us of the hope of our resurrection, shew in plain words if our flesh shall really rise again. It follows,
Ver. 26. And I shall be again encompassed with my skin. [lvi]
72. Whereas the ‘skin’ is expressly named, all doubt of a true resurrection is removed; in that our body will not, as Eutychius the Bishop of Constantinople wrote, in that gloriousness of the resurrection be impalpable, and more subtle than the wind and air: for in that gloriousness of the resurrection our body will be subtle indeed by the efficacy of a spiritual power, but palpable by the reality of its nature; whence also our Redeemer, when the disciples doubted of His resurrection, shewed them His hands and feet, and offered His bones and flesh to be touched, saying, Handle Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have. [Luke 24, 39] And when, being placed in the city of Constantinople, I brought before Eutychius this testimony of truth from the Gospel, he said, ‘For this reason the Lord did this, that He might take away all doubt of the resurrection from the hearts of the disciples. ’ To whom I said; ‘This is a very extraordinary thing that you assert, that doubting should arise to ourselves from the same quarter, whence the hearts of the disciples were cured of doubting. ’ For what can be said worse than that that is made doubtful to us relating to His true flesh, whereby His disciples were restored anew to faith from all doubting? For if He is declared not to have had that, which He manifested; from the same source, from whence the faith of His disciples is confirmed, ours is destroyed. And he further added, saying,
‘He had that body which He shewed a palpable body; but after the hearts of those that handled it were confirmed, all that in the Lord which was capable of being handled, was reduced into a certain subtle quality. ’ To which same I answered, saying; ‘It is written, Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him. [Rom. 6, 9] If then there was aught in the Body which was capable of being altered after His resurrection, contrary to the truly spoken declaration of Paul, the Lord after His resurrection returned into death; and what fool even would venture to say this, save he that denies the true resurrection of His flesh? ’ Then he objected to me, saying, ‘Whereas it is written; Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, [1 Cor.
- 471 -
15, 50] by what means is it to be supposed that the flesh truly rises again? ’ To whom I say; ‘In Holy Writ flesh is named in one way according to nature, and in another way according to sin or corruption. ’ For there is flesh according to nature, as where it is written, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. [Gen. 2, 23] And, The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. [John 1, 14] But there is flesh according to sin, as where it is written, My Spirit shall not always abide in those men, for that they are flesh. [Gen. 6, 3] And as the Psalmist saith; For He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. [Ps. 78, 39] Whence too Paul said to the disciples; But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. [Rom. 8, 9] For it was not that these persons were not in the flesh, to whom he was sending letters, but for that they had subdued the motions of carnal passions, henceforth, free through the efficacy of the Spirit, they ‘were not in the flesh. ’ Therefore in respect to what Paul says, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, he would have flesh to be understood as applied to sin, not flesh as applied to nature. Hence directly afterwards that he was speaking of flesh after sin he makes plain, by adding; Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Therefore in that glory of the heavenly kingdom there will be flesh according to nature, but not flesh according to the desire of the passions; in that the sting of death being overcome, it will reign in eternal incorruptibility. ’
73. To which words the same Eutychius directly answered that he assented, yet still he denied that the body could rise again a palpable body. Who in the treatise too which he had written concerning the resurrection, had put in the testimony of the Apostle Paul, when he says; That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain. [1 Cor. 15, 36. 37. ] Being eager to shew this, that the flesh will either be impalpable [Nearly all MSS. read, ‘palpabilis,’ which, if right, must come under the following negative], or will not be itself identically, seeing that the holy Apostle, when treating of the glory of the resurrection, says that ‘it was not sown the body that it shall be. ’ But the answer to this is soon made. For the Apostle Paul, when he says, Thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, is telling us of what we see; viz. that the grain, which is sown without a stalk or leaves, springs up with a stalk and leaves; so that he, in heightening the glory of the resurrection, did not say that what it was is wanting to it, but that what it was not is present: but this man, whereas he denies the real body to rise again, does not say that what was wanting is there, but that what it was is wanting.
74. Upon this, then, we being led on in long disputing on this point, we began to recoil from one another with the greatest animosity, when the Emperor Tiberius Constantine, of religious memory, bringing myself and him to a private audience, learnt what dispute was being carried on between us, and weighing the statement of both sides, and by his own allegations as well disproving that same book which he had written concerning the resurrection, determined that it ought to be consumed in the flames. Upon our leaving whom, I was seized with a grievous sickness, while to that same Eutychius sickness and death shortly followed. And when he was dead, because there was well nigh no one who followed his statements, I held back from prosecuting what I had commenced, lest I should seem to be darting words at his ashes, but while he was still alive, and I sick of violent fever, I if any of my acquaintance went to him for the sake of greeting him, as I learnt from their relation, he used to take hold on the skin of his hand before their eyes, saying, ‘I confess that we shall all rise again in this flesh;’ which as they themselves avowed he was before wont altogether to deny.
- 472 -
75. But let us, laying aside these considerations, minutely search out in the words of blessed Job, if there will be a true resurrection, and the true body in that resurrection; for, lo, we are no longer able to doubt of the hope of the resurrection, in that he says, And that I shall rise at the last day from the earth. Moreover he has removed all doubting of the true renewal of the body, in that he says, And I shall be again encompassed with my skin. And he still further adds, with the view of removing the misgivings of our thought;
And in my flesh shall I see God.
[lvii]
76. Mark, he owns the resurrection, ‘the skin,’ ‘the flesh,’ in explicit words. What is there left then, by which our mind should have occasion to doubt? If this holy man then before the fact of the Lord’s resurrection, believed in the flesh being destined to be brought back to its entire state, what will be the guilt of our doubting, if the true resurrection of the flesh not even after the proof of our Redeemer obtains credit? For if after the resurrection there will not be a palpable body, surely another person rises again than dies: which is profane to say; viz. to believe that it is I who die, and another that doth rise again [ABCD, ‘another shall rise. ’]. Wherefore I entreat thee, blessed Job, add how thou art minded, and remove from us all ground of scruple on this point. It follows;
Ver. 27. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.
77. For if, as certain votaries of false opinions believe, after the resurrection there shall be no palpable body, but the subtle quality of an invisible body shall be called the flesh, though there be no substance of flesh, then surely he that dies is one person, and he that rises again is another. But blessed Job destroys this assertion for them by a truthtelling voice, in that he says, Whom I shall see for myself; and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. But we, following the faith that blessed Job held, and truly believing the palpable Body of our Redeemer after His resurrection, confess that our flesh after the resurrection will be at once both the same and different, the same in respect of nature, different in respect of glory, the same in its reality, different in its power. Thus it will be subtle, in that it will be incorruptible; it will be palpable, in that it will not lose the essence of its very and true nature. But that same assurance of the resurrection the holy man subjoins with what sure hope he holds it, with what certainty he awaits it. It goes on;
This my hope is laid up in my bosom.
[lviii]
18. We suppose that we hold nothing more surely than what we have in our bosom; and so he kept ‘hope laid up in his bosom,’ in that he laid hold beforehand on true certainty concerning the hope of the resurrection. But whereas he made known that the day of the resurrection would come, he now, whether in his own voice, or in a figure of the holy and universal Church, reproves the deeds of the wicked, and foretells the Judgment which ensues on the day of the resurrection. For he straightway adds;
Ver. 28, 29. Wherefore then do ye now say, Let us persecute him, and find out the root of the word against him? Fly therefore from the face of the sword, for the sword is an avenger of wickedness; and know that there is a judgment.
- 473 -
79. For in the first sentence he reproved the deeds of the wicked, while in the following he made known the punishments proceeding from the Divine judgment, Thus he saith, Wherefore then do ye now say; Let us persecute him and find out the root of the word against him? Wicked persons, because they hear with wrong earnestness things well put forth, and seek to find in the tongue of the righteous an inlet for accusation, what else do they but ‘seek the root of the word against him,’ from which same they may take the commencement of speaking, and in the accusing of him expand the branches of evil talkativeness? But when the holy man meets with such things at the hands of wicked men, it is not against them but rather for them that he feels sorrow, and reproves the things wickedly harboured in the heart, and shews them evil for them to escape, saying, Fly therefore from the face of the sword; for the sword is the avenger of wickedness; and know that there is a judgment. Everyone that does wicked things, even herein, that he is too indifferent to fear this, does not know of there being a judgment of God. For if he did know that this was a thing to be feared, he would never do things that are destined to be punished in it. For there are very many who know that there is a final Judgment as far as the words go, but by acting wickedly they bear witness that they do not know it. Since whereas he does not dread this as he ought, he does not yet know with what a tempest of terror it will come. For if he had [al. ‘he who had’] been taught to estimate the weight of the dreadful scrutiny, surely in fearing he would guard against the day of wrath. Moreover, ‘to fly from the face of the sword,’ is to propitiate the sentence of the strict visitation before it appears. For the terribleness of the Judge cannot be avoided saving before the Judgment. Now He is not discerned, but is appeased by prayers. But when He shall sit on that dreadful inquest, He is both able to be seen and not able any longer to be propitiated; in that the doings of the wicked which He bore long while in silence, He shall pay back all of them together in wrath. Whence it is necessary to fear the Judge now, while He does not yet execute judgment, while He bears patiently for long, while He still tolerates the wickedness that He sees, lest when He has once plucked out His hand in the awarding of vengeance, He strike the more severely in judgment, in proportion as He waited longer before judgment.
BOOK XV.
In which there is a brief explanation given of the twentieth and twenty first chapter of the Book of Job.
THAT the friends of blessed Job could never have been bad men, the words of Zophar the Naamathite bear witness, who on hearing from his lips the terribleness of the Judgment to come, adds directly;
Ver. 1. Therefore do my thoughts changefully succeed one another, and my mind is transported diverse ways.
[i] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
1. As though he said in plain words; ‘Because I see the terribleness of the last Judgment, therefore I am confounded in a state of consternation by the tumults of my thoughts. ’ For the mind spreads itself wider in its range of thought, the more it considers how dreadful that is which threatens it. And ‘the mind is transported diverse ways,’ when with anxious alarm she weighs and considers, one while the evil she has done, at another time the good she has left undone, now all the blameable
- 474 -
practices that she remains in, and now the right habits that she sees to be lacking to her. But though the friends of blessed Job, instructed by habituation to his life, knew how to live well, yet, being uninstructed to form an exact estimate of God’s judgments, that anyone of the righteous can be susceptible of ills here below, they did not believe possible. And hence they imagined that holy man to be wicked, whom they saw scourged, and, in consequence of this suspicion, it came to pass that they slipt aside into the upbraiding of him as well, whereunto nevertheless they do not descend, save under the guise of a kind of respect. Hence Zophar adds in these words;
Ver. 3. The lesson whereby thou dost reproach me I will hear; and the spirit of my understanding wilt answer me.
[ii]
2. As though he said in plain words; ‘Thy words indeed I hear, but whether they were delivered aright, I discern by the spirit of my understanding. ’ For they that disregard the words of the teacher, employ his teaching not for an assistance but for an occasion of contention, rather that they may criticise the things heard than to follow them. This then being premised with a sort of restraint, he now springs out into the open reviling of the blessed man, when he adds;
Ver. 4, 5. I know this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.
[iii]
3. Now it is clear to be seen that being puffed up with the spirit of his understanding, he warps the sentences, which he pronounces against the ungodly, to the reproving of blessed Job. For in him whom he first saw following right ways, and afterwards undergoing punishment, he reckons all that he saw to have been but hypocrisy, in that he did not believe it possible for a just servant to be put to distress by a just God. But those same sentences, which, being right, he did not pronounce in a right way, let us go through, weighing them with earnest intentness of mind; and setting at nought what he says untrue against blessed Job, let us consider how true are the things he speaks, if he were speaking them against the ungodly. I know this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short. Going to tell the shortness of the present life, he carried back the eye of the interior to the outset of the commencement, in order to collect from the past how nothing all things are, that while they continue to be, seem to be something.
For if we carry the eyes of our imagination from the very commencement of the human race up to the present time in which we now are, we see how short all was that was of a nature to come to an end. Let us imagine a man to have lived from the first day of the world’s creation to this present day, yet on this day to end the life, which he seemed to have continued to so great a length, lo, the end is come, the things past are already become nought, in that every thing has passed away. For the future in this world is nought, in that not a moment, or the very shortest particle of time remains to our life. Where then is that long time, which, comprehended between the beginning and the end, is so wasted in substance, just as if it had not ever been even short in duration?
4. Therefore because the wicked have their heart centered in this life, surely they set themselves up therein and seek to win applause. They are lifted up by the flattery of the lips, having no desire to be good, but only to be called so. Which praise they think is of a great length while they receive it, but understand to have been brief when they lose it. Whence it is well said against these wicked
- 475 -
persons, This I know of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short; and it is well added, And the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. It often happens that while the hypocrite passes himself off for holy, without a fear of letting himself appear wicked, he is honoured of all men, and the high credit of holiness is awarded to him, by those who can make out the outside, but have no eyes to look into the interior of things. Whence it happens, that he triumphs in having the first seat, is overjoyed in getting the first couch, filled with pride at receiving the first invitation, elevated at the respectful address of his followers, swoln in the pride of his heart at the observance of his dependents, as is said of such by the voice of Truth Himself. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. [Matt. 23, 5] But all this joy of theirs, compared with eternity, what will become of it, when, the crisis of death being upon them, it perishes, as though it had never been? Of which same joy the mirth is all gone, the punishment remains, and when the thing is lost, the guilt [causa, aitia? ] endures. And it is well said; The joy of the hypocrite like a point. For in making a point the style is lifted up as soon as set down, and there is no lingering, that it may be drawn along a line to be described. And so the joy of the hypocrite ‘is like a point,’ in that it appears for a moment, and is gone for ever; and just as the style, in the case of a point, while set down is lifted up in one, so the hypocrite, whilst he touches, parts with the joys of the present life. Concerning whom it is also added;
Ver. 6, 7. Though his pride mount up unto the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds: Yet he shall perish at last like the dunghill.
[iv]
5. The pride of the hypocrite is said to ‘mount up unto the heavens,’ when his high-mindedness has the appearance of leading a heavenly life; and his ‘head as it were reaches unto the clouds,’ when the leading part, i. e. his intellect, is thought to equal the merits of the Saints that have gone before. Yet he ‘perishes at last like the dunghill,’ because at his death, when he is led to torments, being full of the dung of evil habits, he is trodden under foot of evil spirits. For the joys of the present life, which the unrighteous account great good, righteous men look upon as dung. Whence it is written; A slothful man is stoned with the dung of oxen. [Ecclus. 22, 2] Thus he that will not follow God is made slothful in the love of the life everlasting. And as often as he is stricken with the loss of temporal goods, he is surely troubled on the score of those things, which the righteous look down upon as ‘dung:’ what else is it with him, then, that is bruised with the buffeting of things earthly, than that he ‘is stoned with the dung of oxen’ And the hypocrite is justly described like a dunghill, in that while he aims to obtain temporal glory, at one time in the imagination of his heart he swells within himself, at another time he grudges that same glory to some, and laughs at others having it really. For all the evil qualities then that he is full of, his breast as it were is defiled with so much dung, in the eye of the Eternal Judge. Therefore it may be said, Though his pride mount up unto the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish at last like the dunghill. Which same, though he feign to lead a heavenly life, though he shew his view of truth to accord with the true preachers, yet he ‘perishes like a dunghill in the end,’ in that his soul is damned for the stench of his evil qualities. It goes on;
They which had seen him shall say, Where is he?
[v]
- 476 -
6. It generally happens that the life of the hypocrite is even by all men discovered at the end to be damnable, for it to be made appear by plainer marks now what sort they were of. They then that saw him elate at this present time shall say of him when dead, Where is he? For neither is he seen here where he was elated, nor yet in the rest of eternity, which he was supposed to be of. Concerning the shortness of whose life it is yet further added with fitness;
Ver. 8. He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
[vi]
7. What else is the life of the hypocrite but the vision of a phantom, which exhibits that in semblance which it does not possess in truth? Whence too it is justly likened to ‘a dream,’ in that all praise and glory is, as it were, gone from him whilst it is being held. For oftentimes in a ‘vision of the night,’ some that are poor are full of wonder that they are made rich, they see honours awarded to them, they behold heaps of riches, a multitude of attendants, the most beautiful garments, abundance of food presented to them. They are delighted to have escaped poverty, which they bore with a grieved spirit; but on a sudden, when they wake, they find how false all the joy was which they felt, and they are sad that they have awoke, in that real want gripes them awake. Thus the minds of hypocrites, whilst what they do is one thing, and what they exhibit to men another, win applause by the mere exhibiting of holy living; in the esteem of men they are set before numbers that are better, and whilst they are highminded with the secret thought within, they exhibit themselves without as humble. And whereas they are excessively commended by men; they imagine that in the eyes of God also they are such, as they delight to make themselves known to be to their fellow-creatures. Hence it comes to pass that they assume that they will likewise obtain the rewards of eternal life, and they who triumph here below, upon the commendations of their fellow-creatures, doubt not for a moment that they will have rest there; but in the midst of this the secret hour of their call creeps upon them, and while they shut the eyes of the flesh they open those of the spirit, and so soon as they have gotten eternal punishments, they there see, that they were rich in the repute for virtues only in sleep. Well then is it said of such a hypocrite, Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. For this, that he sees himself for a brief space rich in man’s esteem, is of the show of a phantasm, not of the substance of virtue [al. of reality]. For when his soul wakes up at the dissolution of the flesh, it learns, assuredly, that it was in a sleeping state that it saw the partial regards of men about it. It goes on;
Ver. 9. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more: neither shall his place any more behold him.
[vii]
8. What is the ‘place’ of the hypocrite, saving the heart of his flatterers? For there he rests, where he finds partialities towards him. Therefore ‘the eye that saw him shall see him no more,’ because being removed by death, he is hidden from his foolish lovers, who were wont to behold him, admiring him. ‘Neither shall his place any more behold him,’ because the tongues of his flatterers do not follow him with their partialities to the Judgment. Yet so long as he lives he does not cease to teach his followers likewise the things that he practises himself; and through the frowardness of
- 477 -
his erring way he begets others also in a likeness to that false pretension which he shews forth. Concerning whom it is fitly added in this place,
Ver. 10. His children shall be wasted with poverty.
[viii]
9. It is written, For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter [Wisd. 1, 4]; and it is declared by the Psalmist, The rich have lacked and been a hungred [Ps. 34, 10]. For if their want and hunger were spoken of outward starving, then surely they would be any thing but rich, who were in want of the bread of the body. But forasmuch as whilst they are increased without, they are rendered void within, they are described as rich and needy at one and the same time, in that they never entitle themselves to be filled with the bread of wisdom. And so the children of this hypocrite are ‘worn down with want,’ because they that are born in hypocrisy in mimicry of him, whilst they do not hold the substance of truth, are brought to nought in the penury of the heart.
And his hands shall repay him his own grief.
[ix]
10. What is denoted by ‘hands,’ saving works? Thus ‘his hands will repay him grief,’ because he will reap just damnation from his wicked course of life. Now it is well said, not ‘give,’ but ‘repay,’ in that his froward deeds shall pay him back eternal punishment like a kind of debt. But before he is brought to eternal punishment, let him add more fully the sort of character that he shews himself here. It goes on,
His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth, and shall sleep with him in the dust.
[x] [MORAL INTERPRETATION]
11. The origin of a bad beginning by preoccupying further multiplies the causes of sin. For when a man has begun to do evil, by custom he now grows to a worse height in that which he had begun. What then is the ‘youth’ of this hypocrite, but the beginning of wickedness, since in youth passion now begins to kindle? And the hypocrite then has youth, when he begins to long for and to embrace the passion for glory. Which same, whilst the soft salves of flatterers redouble it, they give strength to, and as it were turn it into bones. For what he begins badly, he is daily strengthening for the worse by custom. Therefore let it be said; His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth; in that the rigid habits of evil practices in him are taken from the sin of an ill beginning. Hence it is written in the Proverbs, The young man according to his own way, when he is old, will never depart therefrom. [Prov. 22, 6] Which same ‘bones’ truly ‘will sleep with him in the dust,’ for so long do evil practices endure in him, until they drag him to the dust of death. Since for his ‘bones,’ or evil habits, to ‘sleep with him in the dust’ is for these never to quit him even to the very dust, that is, never to cease from sin even until death. Therefore bad habits, which are once begun, keep hold of him, and daily become more hardened. And they ‘sleep with him in the dust,’ because they are never ended but with his life. But this may be taken in another sense also.
12. For the hypocrite occasionally has something in practice that is strong and vigorous, but whilst he makes believe to have many good points that he is without, he loses even these which he has. Whence it is well said now; His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth. For whereas in his levity
- 478 -
and fickleness he does many things like a child, even in strong ones which he may do he is enervated in sin. Which same ‘bones shall sleep with him in the dust,’ because as all that hypocrisy which he carries on is dust, so too whatever he has in him that is strong is robbed of all its solidity, so that by pretension to virtue he loses that also which there might have been in him of a virtuous nature. And so for ‘his bones’ to ‘sleep with him in the dust’ is even if there be things done well, for them to come to nought together with his evil deeds. It proceeds;
Ver. 12. For when wickedness shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.
[xi]
13. ‘Wickedness is sweet in the mouth’ of the hypocrite, in that evil tastes sweet to him in the thought. For ‘the mouth’ of the heart is the thought, whereof it is written; Deceitful lips spake evil in a double heart. [Ps. 12, 2] Now the evil that is thus sweet in the mouth of the hypocrite is hidden under the tongue, in that the harshness of an evil disposition, which lies hidden in the mind, is concealed under the cloak of a mild address. For the evil would be on the tongue and not under it, if the hypocrite in speaking disclosed the mischievousness of his froward heart. But as is the case with most of the righteous, when they see any persons acting badly, who deserve to be visited with severe rebukes, they put harshness on the tongue, but under the tongue cover the kindness of their feelings; (whence too it is said to Holy Church by the voice of the Spouse; Honey and milk are under Thy tongue. [Cant. 4, 11] For they that shrink from disclosing the sweetness of their inward feeling to the weak, and so in speaking strike them with a degree of harshness, and yet amongst their harsh words secretly as it were let drop a sprinkling of sweetness, these persons clearly have sweetness not on the tongue, but under the tongue, in that amidst the hard words which they utter, they give out some that are sweet and softened, whereby the wounded mind may be cheered and refreshed by kindness;) so with the wicked severally, because they have evil not upon the tongue, but under the tongue, in the words of their mouth they hold out sweet things, and in the thoughts of their heart are plotting mischiefs. For it is hence that Joab held the beard of Amasa with his right hand, whilst secretly putting his left hand to his sword, he shed out his bowels. [2 Sam. 20, 9] For to hold the chin with the right hand is to caress as if in kindness. But he puts his left hand to his sword, who in secret strikes in malice. Hence too it is written concerning their head himself; Under his tongue is mischief and pain. [Ps. 10, 7] For he that doth not display openly the ill that he designs, does not put forth on the tongue the mischief and pain of those, whose destruction he aims at, but keeps them close under the tongue. Now it is rightly added of this hypocrite,
Ver. 13. He will spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his throat.
[xii] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
14. For the evil that he delights in he ‘spares,’ because he does not, by practising penance, hunt it down in himself. Whence too it is added; and forsake it not. For if he had the mind to ‘forsake,’ he would not ‘spare’ it, but would pursue it closely. Now he ‘keeps it within his throat;’ because he so retains it in thought, that he never utters it in speech. It goes on;
Ver. 14. His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within him. [xiii]
- 479 -
15. What bread is in the belly, the same is fulness of earthly gratification in the mind. So let the hypocrite now be filled to the full with the praises tendered him, let him revel in honours, ‘his bread in his belly is turned into the gall of asps,’ because the fulness of transitory enjoyment, in the final Retribution, will be turned to bitterness, in that what here passed for the praise of greatness is discovered to have been ‘the gall of asps,’ i. e. the prompting of evil spirits. For the wicked then perceive that they are infected with the venom of the old serpent, when, being delivered over to avenging flames, they are tormented along with that prompter of theirs. And so this ‘bread’ has one sort of taste in the mouth, and another in the belly, in that the joy of transitory pleasure is sweet, while it is tasted here by a chewing of teeth, as it were, but it turns bitter in the belly, because when the joy is past it is swallowed to his ruing.
16. Or indeed forasmuch as bread is not unsuitably taken for the sense of the Holy Scriptures, which refreshes the mind and furnishes it with the sinews of right practice, and the hypocrite generally makes it his object to be well instructed in the mysteries of Holy Writ, not that he may live by them, but that it may appear to the rest of the world how learned he is, his ‘bread in his bowels is turned into the gall of asps,’ in that whilst he boasts of the knowledge of the Sacred Law, he converts the draught of life into a cup of poison to himself, and dies in a state of reprobation from the same cause, whence he appeared to derive instruction unto life. Nor is this again unfitly taken to be the meaning, that while the hypocrite sometimes applies himself to the word of instruction for display, being blinded by God’s judgment, he takes in a wrong sense that very word which he seeks in a wrong spirit. But when he falls into heretical error, it is his fate, that as by the ‘gall of asps,’ so the unhappy wretch perishes by ‘bread;’ and in his own self instruction he finds death, because in the words of life he never sought life. But it often happens that the sentences of divine warning, even if they be understood rightly by the hypocrite, forasmuch as he neglects to observe them in practice, are lost to him even before the course of the present life is at an end, so that it is taken from him to know, what while he knew he refused to practise. Hence it is added; Ver. 15. The riches he hath swallowed down, he shall vomit up, and God shall cast them out of his belly.
[xiv]
17. The hypocrite desires to know the revelations of God, yet not to practise them. He would speak sagely, but not live so. For this reason, then, that he does not do what he knows, even that which he knows he loses, that forasmuch as he does not unite pure practice with his knowledge, contemning purity of right practice he loses the knowledge also. Therefore the ‘riches’ of the Sacred Law, which he ‘swallowed’ in reading, he vomits in forgetting, and God ‘casts them out of his belly,’ in that what he would not observe to do, by a righteous judgment He roots out of his recollection, that at all events he should not keep the precepts of God in the tongue, which he kept not in his life. Whence it is said by the Prophet; But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, and that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? [Ps. 50, 16] Which words of instruction if it ever at any time chance that the hypocrite should seem to retain in his mouth until the end, he will be condemned the more on the very grounds, whereon not even a bad man is ever deprived of the good gift of God. For it is written; To those that remember His commandments to do them. [Ps. 103, 18] He then that keeps His commandments in mind, but never does them, such an one holds in the words of instruction the sentences whereby he is condemned.
- 480 -
18. For hence it is written in Zechariah; What seest thou, Zechariah? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. This said he to me; This is the curse that goeth over the face of the whole earth. For everyone that stealeth shall be judged as on this side according to it. [Zech. 5, 2. 3. ] For what is a ‘flying roll’ saving Holy Writ, which whilst it tells us of heavenly themes, lifts up the bent of the mind to things on high; for while we see that it is above us, we leave minding, i. e. desiring things below. And it is described as having ‘a breadth of ten cubits’ and a ‘length of twenty cubits,’ in that the breadth of our practice is single, and the long expectance of hope is extended to double, since in return for our good practice both here there is peace of mind, and there eternal joys in store for us, as Truth bears witness, Who saith; And everyone that hath forsaken houses or lands, &c. shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. [Matt. 19, 29] For the number one hundred is completed by the number ten multiplied ten times. Thus he gets back an hundredfold [perhaps ‘an hundredfold here. ’ (reading Hic. )], who, though he has nothing, by the mere perfection of his mind alone, no longer seeks to possess any thing in this world. And in this way, since by this same we have a double measure paid back to us for a single one, that roll is justly drawn out through twenty cubits in length, which is carried out in breadth through ten. But because these very sacred oracles stand for eternal condemnation to those who either will not acquaint themselves with them, or in any wise when made acquainted with them set them at nought, it is rightly said of this roll, This is the curse, which goeth forth over the face of the whole earth. And wherefore it is called a curse is added; For everyone that is a thief, as it is therein written, shall be judged. Therefore the hypocrite, as he cares not to live after the words of the law which he knows, and seeks golden opinions by store of instruction, will be ‘a thief to be judged,’ since by this, that he speaks just words, he usurps to himself the praise of the just man’s life. Concerning whom it is still farther added rightly,
Ver. 16. He shall suck the head of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
[xv]
19. The ‘asp’ is a small serpent, but the ‘viper’ hath more length of body. And asps produce eggs, and their young are hatched from the eggs. But when vipers have conceived, their ‘young ravin in their womb, which bursting the parents’ sides issue out of their bellies. Hence too it is called the ‘viper,’ because it is a ‘parent [vi parit. ] by violence. ’ Thus the viper is so produced that it comes forth by violence, and is brought into the world by the killing of the mother. What then is represented by the little asps, saving the hidden suggestions of impure spirits, who steal upon [Ben. ‘surripiunt,’ Steal from, both others ‘surrepunt. ’] the hearts of men by slight prompting at first, and what by the ‘viper’s tongue’ save the violent temptation of the devil? For at first he steals upon them gently, but afterwards he drags them even by force. And so he ‘sucks the poison of asps,’ in that the little beginning of secret suggestion is first produced in the heart, but ‘the viper’s tongue slayeth him,’ in that afterwards the captive soul is killed by the venom of violent temptation. In the first case unclean spirits speak to the heart of man with their crafty counsels, and these, while they persuade with gentleness, as it were infuse the poison of asps. Whence it is written, They break asps eggs, and weave the spider’s web; He that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is hatched breaketh out into a basilisk. [Is. 59, 5] Since to ‘break asps’ eggs,’ to wicked men is, to manifest by evil deeds the counsels of evil spirits, which lurk in their hearts. Moreover, to ‘weave spiders’ webs’ is, on account of the lust of this world, to be busied in any temporal employments. Which, whilst they are established with no stedfastness, assuredly are carried off by the wind of a mortal
- 481 -
life.
66. We have said these things in few words out of course, that we might shew that the weight of sin is set forth by the ‘plate of lead. ’ Yet these very words of blessed Job are also applicable to Holy Church, who while keeping the two testaments of sacred revelation, as it were begs a second time that her words should be written, saying, Oh! that my words were now written! Oh! that they were printed in a book! Which same, in that she speaks with a strong sentence at one time to hearts heavy from the weight of avarice, at another time to hardened hearts, ‘writes with a pen of iron upon a plate of lead,’ or, surely, ‘upon the flint. ’ Now we say with justice that blessed Job uses the accents of our Redeemer and His Church, if we find any thing that he says explicitly of that same Redeemer of us men; for how is it to be believed that he teaches us any thing connected with Him in a figure, if he does not point Him out to us in express words? But now let him disclose to us what he is sensible of concerning Him, and let him take away from us all misgivings in our thoughts. It goes on;
- 468 -
Ver. 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth.
[LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
67. For he who does not say, ‘Creator,’ but ‘Redeemer,’ expressly tells of Him, Who after He created all things, appeared Incarnate amongst us, that He might redeem us from a state of bondage, and by His Passion set us free from death everlasting; and mark with what sure faith he makes himself secure in the power of His Divine Nature, of Whom it is said by Paul, For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. [2 Cor. 13, 4] For he says, For I know that my Redeemer liveth. As if he said in express terms; ‘The unbelievers may know that He was scourged, mocked, struck with the palms of the hand, covered with a crown of thorns, besmeared with spittings, crucified, dead: I, with sure faith, believe Him to live after death; I confess with unreserved voice, ‘that my Redeemer liveth,’ Who died by the hands of wicked men. ’ And how, O blessed Job, through His Resurrection, thou trustest to the resurrection of thine own flesh, declare, I pray, in open speech. It goes on;
And that I shall rise at the last day from the earth.
[lv]
68. That is, because the resurrection which He manifested in His own Person, He will one day bring to pass in ourselves as well; for the resurrection, which He exhibited in Himself, He pledged to us; seeing that the members follow the glory of their Head. Thus our Redeemer underwent death, that we might not fear to die; He manifested the resurrection, that we might have a sure hope that we are capable of rising again. And hence He would not have that death to be of more than three days’ duration, lest if the resurrection were deferred in Him, it should be altogether despaired of in ourselves; and this is rightly said of Him by the Prophet; He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up the head. [Ps. 110, 7] For He in a manner condescended to drink of that current as it were of our suffering, not in an abiding place, but ‘in the way,’ in that He met death in a transitory way, i. e. for three days, and in that death which He met He did not, like ourselves, remain unto the end of the world. And so, whereas He rose again on the third day, what then is to come after in His body, i. e. in the Church, He makes appear; for He shewed in example, what He promised in reward, that as believers knew and owned that He had Himself risen again, so they might hope for the rewards of the resurrection in themselves at the end of the world. Lo, we, through the death of the flesh, remain in the dust until the end of the world, but He on the third day budded into life from the dryness of death, that by the very renewal of His flesh by itself He might shew the power of His Divine Nature. Which is well shewn in Moses by the twelve rods placed in the Tabernacle: for when the priesthood of Aaron, who was of the tribe of Levi, was despised, ‘and the tribe was not accounted worthy to offer up burnt-offerings, twelve rods according to the twelve tribes were ordered to be put in the Tabernacle, and, lo, the rod of Levi budded, and shewed what efficacy Aaron had in the office. [Num. 17, 8] By which same sign what is conveyed, but that all we who lie in the arms of death until the very end of the world, remain like the rest of the rods in a state of barrenness? But when all the rods remained in a state of dryness, the rod of Levi returned to flowering, in that the body of our Lord, i. e. our true Priest, being set in the dryness of death, burst into the flower of the Resurrection. By which same flowering Aaron is rightly known to be the Priest, in that by this glory of the Resurrection our Redeemer, Who sprung from the tribe of Judah and Levi [Luke 1; 5, 36], is shewn to be an Intercessor in our behalf. And so, lo! the rod of
- 469 -
Aaron buds now after dryness, but the rods of the twelve tribes remain in a dry state, in that already indeed the body of the Lord lives after death, but our bodies are kept back from the glory of the resurrection until the end of the world. Whence he carefully introduced this same delay, by saying, And that I shall rise at the last [novissimo] day from the earth.
69. Therefore we have a hope of our own resurrection, by considering the glory of our Head. But lest anyone say perhaps merely in the secret thought of his heart, that it was in this way that He rose again from the dead, viz. that being God and Man in one and the same Person, the death, which He underwent in His Human Nature, He overcame by His Divine Nature, while we, who are mere men, are not able to rise from the curse of death; it happened rightly that, in the season of His resurrection, the bodies of many of the Saints arose at the same time, that both in Himself He might shew us an example, and by the resurrection of others who were like to ourselves in respect of a mere human nature, He might give us a sure confirmation, that whereas man despaired of his obtaining what He that was God and Man had exhibited in His own Person, he might presume that that was capable of being brought to pass in his own case, which he knew to have been brought about in the case of those very persons, who he doubted not were but simple human beings.
70. But there are some who, observing that the spirit is parted from the flesh, that the flesh is turned into corruption, that its corruption is reduced to dust, that this dust is so dissolved into elementary parts that it is incapable of being seen by the eyes of man, despair of the possibility of the resurrection being brought to pass, and whilst they gaze on the dry bones, they distrust its being possible for these to be clothed with flesh, and again flushing into life; which persons, if they do not hold the resurrection of the body on the principle of obedience, ought certainly to hold it on the principle of reason. For what does the universe every day, but imitate in its elements our resurrection? Thus by the lapse of the minutes of the day the temporal light itself as it were dies, when, the shade of night coming on, that light which was beheld is withdrawn from sight, and it daily rises again as it were, when the light that was withdrawn from our eyes, upon the night being suppressed is renewed afresh. For the progress of the seasons too, we see the shrubs lose the greenness of their foliage, and cease from putting forth fruit; and on a sudden as if from dried up wood, by a kind of resurrection coming we see the leaves burst forth, the fruit grow big, and the whole tree clothed with renewed beauty; we unceasingly behold the small seeds of trees committed to the moistness of the ground, wherefrom not long afterwards we behold large trees arise, and bring forth leaves and fruit. Let us then consider the little seed of any tree whatever, which is thrown into the ground, for a tree to be produced therefrom; and let us take in, if we are capable of it, where in that exceeding littleness of the seed that most enormous tree was buried, which proceeded from it? where was the wood? where the bark? where the verdure of the foliage? where the abundance of the fruit? Was there any thing of the kind perceived in the seed, when it was thrown into the ground? [Comp. S. Chrys. on 1 Thess. 4, 15] And yet by the secret Artificer of all things ordering all in a wonderful manner, both in the softness of the seed there lay buried the roughness of the bark, and in its tenderness there was hidden the strength of its timber, and in its dryness fertility of productiveness. What ‘wonder, then, if that finest dust, which to our eyes is resolved into the elements, He, when He is minded, fashioneth again into the human being, Who from the finest seeds resuscitates the largest trees? And so, seeing that we have been created reasoning beings, we ought to collect the hope of our own resurrection from the mere aspect and contemplation of the objects of nature. But forasmuch as the faculty of reason was deadened in us, the grace of the Redeemer came in for an example. For our Creator came, He took death upon
- 470 -
Him, He exhibited the Resurrection, in order that we, who would not hold the hope of the Resurrection by reason, might hold it by His succour and example; and so let blessed Job say; I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that I shall rise at the last day from the earth. And let any one that despairs of the possibility that the power of the Resurrection should be brought to pass in himself, blush at the words of a believing person set in the midst of the Gentile world, and let him reflect with what a weight of punishment he deserves to be stricken, if he still does not believe his own resurrection, who now knows the resurrection of the Lord which has taken place, if even he believed his own, who as yet expected the resurrection of the Lord Jesus to be brought to pass.
71. But see, I hear of the resurrection, but it is the effect of the resurrection that I am searching out. For I believe that I shall rise again, but I wish that I might hear what kind of person; since it is a thing I ought to know, whether I shall rise again perhaps in some other subtle or ethereal body, or in that body wherein I shall die. But if I shall rise again in an ethereal body, it will no longer be myself, who rise again. For how can that be a true resurrection, if there may not be true flesh? so that plain reason suggests, that if it shall not be true flesh, assuredly it will not be a true resurrection; for neither can it be rightly termed a resurrection, when it is not what fell that rises again. But in this too for us, O blessed Job, do thou remove these clouds of misgiving, and whereas through the grace of the Holy Spirit vouchsafed thee thou hast begun to speak to us of the hope of our resurrection, shew in plain words if our flesh shall really rise again. It follows,
Ver. 26. And I shall be again encompassed with my skin. [lvi]
72. Whereas the ‘skin’ is expressly named, all doubt of a true resurrection is removed; in that our body will not, as Eutychius the Bishop of Constantinople wrote, in that gloriousness of the resurrection be impalpable, and more subtle than the wind and air: for in that gloriousness of the resurrection our body will be subtle indeed by the efficacy of a spiritual power, but palpable by the reality of its nature; whence also our Redeemer, when the disciples doubted of His resurrection, shewed them His hands and feet, and offered His bones and flesh to be touched, saying, Handle Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have. [Luke 24, 39] And when, being placed in the city of Constantinople, I brought before Eutychius this testimony of truth from the Gospel, he said, ‘For this reason the Lord did this, that He might take away all doubt of the resurrection from the hearts of the disciples. ’ To whom I said; ‘This is a very extraordinary thing that you assert, that doubting should arise to ourselves from the same quarter, whence the hearts of the disciples were cured of doubting. ’ For what can be said worse than that that is made doubtful to us relating to His true flesh, whereby His disciples were restored anew to faith from all doubting? For if He is declared not to have had that, which He manifested; from the same source, from whence the faith of His disciples is confirmed, ours is destroyed. And he further added, saying,
‘He had that body which He shewed a palpable body; but after the hearts of those that handled it were confirmed, all that in the Lord which was capable of being handled, was reduced into a certain subtle quality. ’ To which same I answered, saying; ‘It is written, Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him. [Rom. 6, 9] If then there was aught in the Body which was capable of being altered after His resurrection, contrary to the truly spoken declaration of Paul, the Lord after His resurrection returned into death; and what fool even would venture to say this, save he that denies the true resurrection of His flesh? ’ Then he objected to me, saying, ‘Whereas it is written; Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, [1 Cor.
- 471 -
15, 50] by what means is it to be supposed that the flesh truly rises again? ’ To whom I say; ‘In Holy Writ flesh is named in one way according to nature, and in another way according to sin or corruption. ’ For there is flesh according to nature, as where it is written, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. [Gen. 2, 23] And, The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. [John 1, 14] But there is flesh according to sin, as where it is written, My Spirit shall not always abide in those men, for that they are flesh. [Gen. 6, 3] And as the Psalmist saith; For He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. [Ps. 78, 39] Whence too Paul said to the disciples; But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. [Rom. 8, 9] For it was not that these persons were not in the flesh, to whom he was sending letters, but for that they had subdued the motions of carnal passions, henceforth, free through the efficacy of the Spirit, they ‘were not in the flesh. ’ Therefore in respect to what Paul says, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, he would have flesh to be understood as applied to sin, not flesh as applied to nature. Hence directly afterwards that he was speaking of flesh after sin he makes plain, by adding; Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Therefore in that glory of the heavenly kingdom there will be flesh according to nature, but not flesh according to the desire of the passions; in that the sting of death being overcome, it will reign in eternal incorruptibility. ’
73. To which words the same Eutychius directly answered that he assented, yet still he denied that the body could rise again a palpable body. Who in the treatise too which he had written concerning the resurrection, had put in the testimony of the Apostle Paul, when he says; That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain. [1 Cor. 15, 36. 37. ] Being eager to shew this, that the flesh will either be impalpable [Nearly all MSS. read, ‘palpabilis,’ which, if right, must come under the following negative], or will not be itself identically, seeing that the holy Apostle, when treating of the glory of the resurrection, says that ‘it was not sown the body that it shall be. ’ But the answer to this is soon made. For the Apostle Paul, when he says, Thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, is telling us of what we see; viz. that the grain, which is sown without a stalk or leaves, springs up with a stalk and leaves; so that he, in heightening the glory of the resurrection, did not say that what it was is wanting to it, but that what it was not is present: but this man, whereas he denies the real body to rise again, does not say that what was wanting is there, but that what it was is wanting.
74. Upon this, then, we being led on in long disputing on this point, we began to recoil from one another with the greatest animosity, when the Emperor Tiberius Constantine, of religious memory, bringing myself and him to a private audience, learnt what dispute was being carried on between us, and weighing the statement of both sides, and by his own allegations as well disproving that same book which he had written concerning the resurrection, determined that it ought to be consumed in the flames. Upon our leaving whom, I was seized with a grievous sickness, while to that same Eutychius sickness and death shortly followed. And when he was dead, because there was well nigh no one who followed his statements, I held back from prosecuting what I had commenced, lest I should seem to be darting words at his ashes, but while he was still alive, and I sick of violent fever, I if any of my acquaintance went to him for the sake of greeting him, as I learnt from their relation, he used to take hold on the skin of his hand before their eyes, saying, ‘I confess that we shall all rise again in this flesh;’ which as they themselves avowed he was before wont altogether to deny.
- 472 -
75. But let us, laying aside these considerations, minutely search out in the words of blessed Job, if there will be a true resurrection, and the true body in that resurrection; for, lo, we are no longer able to doubt of the hope of the resurrection, in that he says, And that I shall rise at the last day from the earth. Moreover he has removed all doubting of the true renewal of the body, in that he says, And I shall be again encompassed with my skin. And he still further adds, with the view of removing the misgivings of our thought;
And in my flesh shall I see God.
[lvii]
76. Mark, he owns the resurrection, ‘the skin,’ ‘the flesh,’ in explicit words. What is there left then, by which our mind should have occasion to doubt? If this holy man then before the fact of the Lord’s resurrection, believed in the flesh being destined to be brought back to its entire state, what will be the guilt of our doubting, if the true resurrection of the flesh not even after the proof of our Redeemer obtains credit? For if after the resurrection there will not be a palpable body, surely another person rises again than dies: which is profane to say; viz. to believe that it is I who die, and another that doth rise again [ABCD, ‘another shall rise. ’]. Wherefore I entreat thee, blessed Job, add how thou art minded, and remove from us all ground of scruple on this point. It follows;
Ver. 27. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.
77. For if, as certain votaries of false opinions believe, after the resurrection there shall be no palpable body, but the subtle quality of an invisible body shall be called the flesh, though there be no substance of flesh, then surely he that dies is one person, and he that rises again is another. But blessed Job destroys this assertion for them by a truthtelling voice, in that he says, Whom I shall see for myself; and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. But we, following the faith that blessed Job held, and truly believing the palpable Body of our Redeemer after His resurrection, confess that our flesh after the resurrection will be at once both the same and different, the same in respect of nature, different in respect of glory, the same in its reality, different in its power. Thus it will be subtle, in that it will be incorruptible; it will be palpable, in that it will not lose the essence of its very and true nature. But that same assurance of the resurrection the holy man subjoins with what sure hope he holds it, with what certainty he awaits it. It goes on;
This my hope is laid up in my bosom.
[lviii]
18. We suppose that we hold nothing more surely than what we have in our bosom; and so he kept ‘hope laid up in his bosom,’ in that he laid hold beforehand on true certainty concerning the hope of the resurrection. But whereas he made known that the day of the resurrection would come, he now, whether in his own voice, or in a figure of the holy and universal Church, reproves the deeds of the wicked, and foretells the Judgment which ensues on the day of the resurrection. For he straightway adds;
Ver. 28, 29. Wherefore then do ye now say, Let us persecute him, and find out the root of the word against him? Fly therefore from the face of the sword, for the sword is an avenger of wickedness; and know that there is a judgment.
- 473 -
79. For in the first sentence he reproved the deeds of the wicked, while in the following he made known the punishments proceeding from the Divine judgment, Thus he saith, Wherefore then do ye now say; Let us persecute him and find out the root of the word against him? Wicked persons, because they hear with wrong earnestness things well put forth, and seek to find in the tongue of the righteous an inlet for accusation, what else do they but ‘seek the root of the word against him,’ from which same they may take the commencement of speaking, and in the accusing of him expand the branches of evil talkativeness? But when the holy man meets with such things at the hands of wicked men, it is not against them but rather for them that he feels sorrow, and reproves the things wickedly harboured in the heart, and shews them evil for them to escape, saying, Fly therefore from the face of the sword; for the sword is the avenger of wickedness; and know that there is a judgment. Everyone that does wicked things, even herein, that he is too indifferent to fear this, does not know of there being a judgment of God. For if he did know that this was a thing to be feared, he would never do things that are destined to be punished in it. For there are very many who know that there is a final Judgment as far as the words go, but by acting wickedly they bear witness that they do not know it. Since whereas he does not dread this as he ought, he does not yet know with what a tempest of terror it will come. For if he had [al. ‘he who had’] been taught to estimate the weight of the dreadful scrutiny, surely in fearing he would guard against the day of wrath. Moreover, ‘to fly from the face of the sword,’ is to propitiate the sentence of the strict visitation before it appears. For the terribleness of the Judge cannot be avoided saving before the Judgment. Now He is not discerned, but is appeased by prayers. But when He shall sit on that dreadful inquest, He is both able to be seen and not able any longer to be propitiated; in that the doings of the wicked which He bore long while in silence, He shall pay back all of them together in wrath. Whence it is necessary to fear the Judge now, while He does not yet execute judgment, while He bears patiently for long, while He still tolerates the wickedness that He sees, lest when He has once plucked out His hand in the awarding of vengeance, He strike the more severely in judgment, in proportion as He waited longer before judgment.
BOOK XV.
In which there is a brief explanation given of the twentieth and twenty first chapter of the Book of Job.
THAT the friends of blessed Job could never have been bad men, the words of Zophar the Naamathite bear witness, who on hearing from his lips the terribleness of the Judgment to come, adds directly;
Ver. 1. Therefore do my thoughts changefully succeed one another, and my mind is transported diverse ways.
[i] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
1. As though he said in plain words; ‘Because I see the terribleness of the last Judgment, therefore I am confounded in a state of consternation by the tumults of my thoughts. ’ For the mind spreads itself wider in its range of thought, the more it considers how dreadful that is which threatens it. And ‘the mind is transported diverse ways,’ when with anxious alarm she weighs and considers, one while the evil she has done, at another time the good she has left undone, now all the blameable
- 474 -
practices that she remains in, and now the right habits that she sees to be lacking to her. But though the friends of blessed Job, instructed by habituation to his life, knew how to live well, yet, being uninstructed to form an exact estimate of God’s judgments, that anyone of the righteous can be susceptible of ills here below, they did not believe possible. And hence they imagined that holy man to be wicked, whom they saw scourged, and, in consequence of this suspicion, it came to pass that they slipt aside into the upbraiding of him as well, whereunto nevertheless they do not descend, save under the guise of a kind of respect. Hence Zophar adds in these words;
Ver. 3. The lesson whereby thou dost reproach me I will hear; and the spirit of my understanding wilt answer me.
[ii]
2. As though he said in plain words; ‘Thy words indeed I hear, but whether they were delivered aright, I discern by the spirit of my understanding. ’ For they that disregard the words of the teacher, employ his teaching not for an assistance but for an occasion of contention, rather that they may criticise the things heard than to follow them. This then being premised with a sort of restraint, he now springs out into the open reviling of the blessed man, when he adds;
Ver. 4, 5. I know this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.
[iii]
3. Now it is clear to be seen that being puffed up with the spirit of his understanding, he warps the sentences, which he pronounces against the ungodly, to the reproving of blessed Job. For in him whom he first saw following right ways, and afterwards undergoing punishment, he reckons all that he saw to have been but hypocrisy, in that he did not believe it possible for a just servant to be put to distress by a just God. But those same sentences, which, being right, he did not pronounce in a right way, let us go through, weighing them with earnest intentness of mind; and setting at nought what he says untrue against blessed Job, let us consider how true are the things he speaks, if he were speaking them against the ungodly. I know this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short. Going to tell the shortness of the present life, he carried back the eye of the interior to the outset of the commencement, in order to collect from the past how nothing all things are, that while they continue to be, seem to be something.
For if we carry the eyes of our imagination from the very commencement of the human race up to the present time in which we now are, we see how short all was that was of a nature to come to an end. Let us imagine a man to have lived from the first day of the world’s creation to this present day, yet on this day to end the life, which he seemed to have continued to so great a length, lo, the end is come, the things past are already become nought, in that every thing has passed away. For the future in this world is nought, in that not a moment, or the very shortest particle of time remains to our life. Where then is that long time, which, comprehended between the beginning and the end, is so wasted in substance, just as if it had not ever been even short in duration?
4. Therefore because the wicked have their heart centered in this life, surely they set themselves up therein and seek to win applause. They are lifted up by the flattery of the lips, having no desire to be good, but only to be called so. Which praise they think is of a great length while they receive it, but understand to have been brief when they lose it. Whence it is well said against these wicked
- 475 -
persons, This I know of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short; and it is well added, And the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. It often happens that while the hypocrite passes himself off for holy, without a fear of letting himself appear wicked, he is honoured of all men, and the high credit of holiness is awarded to him, by those who can make out the outside, but have no eyes to look into the interior of things. Whence it happens, that he triumphs in having the first seat, is overjoyed in getting the first couch, filled with pride at receiving the first invitation, elevated at the respectful address of his followers, swoln in the pride of his heart at the observance of his dependents, as is said of such by the voice of Truth Himself. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. [Matt. 23, 5] But all this joy of theirs, compared with eternity, what will become of it, when, the crisis of death being upon them, it perishes, as though it had never been? Of which same joy the mirth is all gone, the punishment remains, and when the thing is lost, the guilt [causa, aitia? ] endures. And it is well said; The joy of the hypocrite like a point. For in making a point the style is lifted up as soon as set down, and there is no lingering, that it may be drawn along a line to be described. And so the joy of the hypocrite ‘is like a point,’ in that it appears for a moment, and is gone for ever; and just as the style, in the case of a point, while set down is lifted up in one, so the hypocrite, whilst he touches, parts with the joys of the present life. Concerning whom it is also added;
Ver. 6, 7. Though his pride mount up unto the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds: Yet he shall perish at last like the dunghill.
[iv]
5. The pride of the hypocrite is said to ‘mount up unto the heavens,’ when his high-mindedness has the appearance of leading a heavenly life; and his ‘head as it were reaches unto the clouds,’ when the leading part, i. e. his intellect, is thought to equal the merits of the Saints that have gone before. Yet he ‘perishes at last like the dunghill,’ because at his death, when he is led to torments, being full of the dung of evil habits, he is trodden under foot of evil spirits. For the joys of the present life, which the unrighteous account great good, righteous men look upon as dung. Whence it is written; A slothful man is stoned with the dung of oxen. [Ecclus. 22, 2] Thus he that will not follow God is made slothful in the love of the life everlasting. And as often as he is stricken with the loss of temporal goods, he is surely troubled on the score of those things, which the righteous look down upon as ‘dung:’ what else is it with him, then, that is bruised with the buffeting of things earthly, than that he ‘is stoned with the dung of oxen’ And the hypocrite is justly described like a dunghill, in that while he aims to obtain temporal glory, at one time in the imagination of his heart he swells within himself, at another time he grudges that same glory to some, and laughs at others having it really. For all the evil qualities then that he is full of, his breast as it were is defiled with so much dung, in the eye of the Eternal Judge. Therefore it may be said, Though his pride mount up unto the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish at last like the dunghill. Which same, though he feign to lead a heavenly life, though he shew his view of truth to accord with the true preachers, yet he ‘perishes like a dunghill in the end,’ in that his soul is damned for the stench of his evil qualities. It goes on;
They which had seen him shall say, Where is he?
[v]
- 476 -
6. It generally happens that the life of the hypocrite is even by all men discovered at the end to be damnable, for it to be made appear by plainer marks now what sort they were of. They then that saw him elate at this present time shall say of him when dead, Where is he? For neither is he seen here where he was elated, nor yet in the rest of eternity, which he was supposed to be of. Concerning the shortness of whose life it is yet further added with fitness;
Ver. 8. He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
[vi]
7. What else is the life of the hypocrite but the vision of a phantom, which exhibits that in semblance which it does not possess in truth? Whence too it is justly likened to ‘a dream,’ in that all praise and glory is, as it were, gone from him whilst it is being held. For oftentimes in a ‘vision of the night,’ some that are poor are full of wonder that they are made rich, they see honours awarded to them, they behold heaps of riches, a multitude of attendants, the most beautiful garments, abundance of food presented to them. They are delighted to have escaped poverty, which they bore with a grieved spirit; but on a sudden, when they wake, they find how false all the joy was which they felt, and they are sad that they have awoke, in that real want gripes them awake. Thus the minds of hypocrites, whilst what they do is one thing, and what they exhibit to men another, win applause by the mere exhibiting of holy living; in the esteem of men they are set before numbers that are better, and whilst they are highminded with the secret thought within, they exhibit themselves without as humble. And whereas they are excessively commended by men; they imagine that in the eyes of God also they are such, as they delight to make themselves known to be to their fellow-creatures. Hence it comes to pass that they assume that they will likewise obtain the rewards of eternal life, and they who triumph here below, upon the commendations of their fellow-creatures, doubt not for a moment that they will have rest there; but in the midst of this the secret hour of their call creeps upon them, and while they shut the eyes of the flesh they open those of the spirit, and so soon as they have gotten eternal punishments, they there see, that they were rich in the repute for virtues only in sleep. Well then is it said of such a hypocrite, Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. For this, that he sees himself for a brief space rich in man’s esteem, is of the show of a phantasm, not of the substance of virtue [al. of reality]. For when his soul wakes up at the dissolution of the flesh, it learns, assuredly, that it was in a sleeping state that it saw the partial regards of men about it. It goes on;
Ver. 9. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more: neither shall his place any more behold him.
[vii]
8. What is the ‘place’ of the hypocrite, saving the heart of his flatterers? For there he rests, where he finds partialities towards him. Therefore ‘the eye that saw him shall see him no more,’ because being removed by death, he is hidden from his foolish lovers, who were wont to behold him, admiring him. ‘Neither shall his place any more behold him,’ because the tongues of his flatterers do not follow him with their partialities to the Judgment. Yet so long as he lives he does not cease to teach his followers likewise the things that he practises himself; and through the frowardness of
- 477 -
his erring way he begets others also in a likeness to that false pretension which he shews forth. Concerning whom it is fitly added in this place,
Ver. 10. His children shall be wasted with poverty.
[viii]
9. It is written, For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter [Wisd. 1, 4]; and it is declared by the Psalmist, The rich have lacked and been a hungred [Ps. 34, 10]. For if their want and hunger were spoken of outward starving, then surely they would be any thing but rich, who were in want of the bread of the body. But forasmuch as whilst they are increased without, they are rendered void within, they are described as rich and needy at one and the same time, in that they never entitle themselves to be filled with the bread of wisdom. And so the children of this hypocrite are ‘worn down with want,’ because they that are born in hypocrisy in mimicry of him, whilst they do not hold the substance of truth, are brought to nought in the penury of the heart.
And his hands shall repay him his own grief.
[ix]
10. What is denoted by ‘hands,’ saving works? Thus ‘his hands will repay him grief,’ because he will reap just damnation from his wicked course of life. Now it is well said, not ‘give,’ but ‘repay,’ in that his froward deeds shall pay him back eternal punishment like a kind of debt. But before he is brought to eternal punishment, let him add more fully the sort of character that he shews himself here. It goes on,
His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth, and shall sleep with him in the dust.
[x] [MORAL INTERPRETATION]
11. The origin of a bad beginning by preoccupying further multiplies the causes of sin. For when a man has begun to do evil, by custom he now grows to a worse height in that which he had begun. What then is the ‘youth’ of this hypocrite, but the beginning of wickedness, since in youth passion now begins to kindle? And the hypocrite then has youth, when he begins to long for and to embrace the passion for glory. Which same, whilst the soft salves of flatterers redouble it, they give strength to, and as it were turn it into bones. For what he begins badly, he is daily strengthening for the worse by custom. Therefore let it be said; His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth; in that the rigid habits of evil practices in him are taken from the sin of an ill beginning. Hence it is written in the Proverbs, The young man according to his own way, when he is old, will never depart therefrom. [Prov. 22, 6] Which same ‘bones’ truly ‘will sleep with him in the dust,’ for so long do evil practices endure in him, until they drag him to the dust of death. Since for his ‘bones,’ or evil habits, to ‘sleep with him in the dust’ is for these never to quit him even to the very dust, that is, never to cease from sin even until death. Therefore bad habits, which are once begun, keep hold of him, and daily become more hardened. And they ‘sleep with him in the dust,’ because they are never ended but with his life. But this may be taken in another sense also.
12. For the hypocrite occasionally has something in practice that is strong and vigorous, but whilst he makes believe to have many good points that he is without, he loses even these which he has. Whence it is well said now; His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth. For whereas in his levity
- 478 -
and fickleness he does many things like a child, even in strong ones which he may do he is enervated in sin. Which same ‘bones shall sleep with him in the dust,’ because as all that hypocrisy which he carries on is dust, so too whatever he has in him that is strong is robbed of all its solidity, so that by pretension to virtue he loses that also which there might have been in him of a virtuous nature. And so for ‘his bones’ to ‘sleep with him in the dust’ is even if there be things done well, for them to come to nought together with his evil deeds. It proceeds;
Ver. 12. For when wickedness shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.
[xi]
13. ‘Wickedness is sweet in the mouth’ of the hypocrite, in that evil tastes sweet to him in the thought. For ‘the mouth’ of the heart is the thought, whereof it is written; Deceitful lips spake evil in a double heart. [Ps. 12, 2] Now the evil that is thus sweet in the mouth of the hypocrite is hidden under the tongue, in that the harshness of an evil disposition, which lies hidden in the mind, is concealed under the cloak of a mild address. For the evil would be on the tongue and not under it, if the hypocrite in speaking disclosed the mischievousness of his froward heart. But as is the case with most of the righteous, when they see any persons acting badly, who deserve to be visited with severe rebukes, they put harshness on the tongue, but under the tongue cover the kindness of their feelings; (whence too it is said to Holy Church by the voice of the Spouse; Honey and milk are under Thy tongue. [Cant. 4, 11] For they that shrink from disclosing the sweetness of their inward feeling to the weak, and so in speaking strike them with a degree of harshness, and yet amongst their harsh words secretly as it were let drop a sprinkling of sweetness, these persons clearly have sweetness not on the tongue, but under the tongue, in that amidst the hard words which they utter, they give out some that are sweet and softened, whereby the wounded mind may be cheered and refreshed by kindness;) so with the wicked severally, because they have evil not upon the tongue, but under the tongue, in the words of their mouth they hold out sweet things, and in the thoughts of their heart are plotting mischiefs. For it is hence that Joab held the beard of Amasa with his right hand, whilst secretly putting his left hand to his sword, he shed out his bowels. [2 Sam. 20, 9] For to hold the chin with the right hand is to caress as if in kindness. But he puts his left hand to his sword, who in secret strikes in malice. Hence too it is written concerning their head himself; Under his tongue is mischief and pain. [Ps. 10, 7] For he that doth not display openly the ill that he designs, does not put forth on the tongue the mischief and pain of those, whose destruction he aims at, but keeps them close under the tongue. Now it is rightly added of this hypocrite,
Ver. 13. He will spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his throat.
[xii] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
14. For the evil that he delights in he ‘spares,’ because he does not, by practising penance, hunt it down in himself. Whence too it is added; and forsake it not. For if he had the mind to ‘forsake,’ he would not ‘spare’ it, but would pursue it closely. Now he ‘keeps it within his throat;’ because he so retains it in thought, that he never utters it in speech. It goes on;
Ver. 14. His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within him. [xiii]
- 479 -
15. What bread is in the belly, the same is fulness of earthly gratification in the mind. So let the hypocrite now be filled to the full with the praises tendered him, let him revel in honours, ‘his bread in his belly is turned into the gall of asps,’ because the fulness of transitory enjoyment, in the final Retribution, will be turned to bitterness, in that what here passed for the praise of greatness is discovered to have been ‘the gall of asps,’ i. e. the prompting of evil spirits. For the wicked then perceive that they are infected with the venom of the old serpent, when, being delivered over to avenging flames, they are tormented along with that prompter of theirs. And so this ‘bread’ has one sort of taste in the mouth, and another in the belly, in that the joy of transitory pleasure is sweet, while it is tasted here by a chewing of teeth, as it were, but it turns bitter in the belly, because when the joy is past it is swallowed to his ruing.
16. Or indeed forasmuch as bread is not unsuitably taken for the sense of the Holy Scriptures, which refreshes the mind and furnishes it with the sinews of right practice, and the hypocrite generally makes it his object to be well instructed in the mysteries of Holy Writ, not that he may live by them, but that it may appear to the rest of the world how learned he is, his ‘bread in his bowels is turned into the gall of asps,’ in that whilst he boasts of the knowledge of the Sacred Law, he converts the draught of life into a cup of poison to himself, and dies in a state of reprobation from the same cause, whence he appeared to derive instruction unto life. Nor is this again unfitly taken to be the meaning, that while the hypocrite sometimes applies himself to the word of instruction for display, being blinded by God’s judgment, he takes in a wrong sense that very word which he seeks in a wrong spirit. But when he falls into heretical error, it is his fate, that as by the ‘gall of asps,’ so the unhappy wretch perishes by ‘bread;’ and in his own self instruction he finds death, because in the words of life he never sought life. But it often happens that the sentences of divine warning, even if they be understood rightly by the hypocrite, forasmuch as he neglects to observe them in practice, are lost to him even before the course of the present life is at an end, so that it is taken from him to know, what while he knew he refused to practise. Hence it is added; Ver. 15. The riches he hath swallowed down, he shall vomit up, and God shall cast them out of his belly.
[xiv]
17. The hypocrite desires to know the revelations of God, yet not to practise them. He would speak sagely, but not live so. For this reason, then, that he does not do what he knows, even that which he knows he loses, that forasmuch as he does not unite pure practice with his knowledge, contemning purity of right practice he loses the knowledge also. Therefore the ‘riches’ of the Sacred Law, which he ‘swallowed’ in reading, he vomits in forgetting, and God ‘casts them out of his belly,’ in that what he would not observe to do, by a righteous judgment He roots out of his recollection, that at all events he should not keep the precepts of God in the tongue, which he kept not in his life. Whence it is said by the Prophet; But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, and that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? [Ps. 50, 16] Which words of instruction if it ever at any time chance that the hypocrite should seem to retain in his mouth until the end, he will be condemned the more on the very grounds, whereon not even a bad man is ever deprived of the good gift of God. For it is written; To those that remember His commandments to do them. [Ps. 103, 18] He then that keeps His commandments in mind, but never does them, such an one holds in the words of instruction the sentences whereby he is condemned.
- 480 -
18. For hence it is written in Zechariah; What seest thou, Zechariah? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. This said he to me; This is the curse that goeth over the face of the whole earth. For everyone that stealeth shall be judged as on this side according to it. [Zech. 5, 2. 3. ] For what is a ‘flying roll’ saving Holy Writ, which whilst it tells us of heavenly themes, lifts up the bent of the mind to things on high; for while we see that it is above us, we leave minding, i. e. desiring things below. And it is described as having ‘a breadth of ten cubits’ and a ‘length of twenty cubits,’ in that the breadth of our practice is single, and the long expectance of hope is extended to double, since in return for our good practice both here there is peace of mind, and there eternal joys in store for us, as Truth bears witness, Who saith; And everyone that hath forsaken houses or lands, &c. shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. [Matt. 19, 29] For the number one hundred is completed by the number ten multiplied ten times. Thus he gets back an hundredfold [perhaps ‘an hundredfold here. ’ (reading Hic. )], who, though he has nothing, by the mere perfection of his mind alone, no longer seeks to possess any thing in this world. And in this way, since by this same we have a double measure paid back to us for a single one, that roll is justly drawn out through twenty cubits in length, which is carried out in breadth through ten. But because these very sacred oracles stand for eternal condemnation to those who either will not acquaint themselves with them, or in any wise when made acquainted with them set them at nought, it is rightly said of this roll, This is the curse, which goeth forth over the face of the whole earth. And wherefore it is called a curse is added; For everyone that is a thief, as it is therein written, shall be judged. Therefore the hypocrite, as he cares not to live after the words of the law which he knows, and seeks golden opinions by store of instruction, will be ‘a thief to be judged,’ since by this, that he speaks just words, he usurps to himself the praise of the just man’s life. Concerning whom it is still farther added rightly,
Ver. 16. He shall suck the head of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
[xv]
19. The ‘asp’ is a small serpent, but the ‘viper’ hath more length of body. And asps produce eggs, and their young are hatched from the eggs. But when vipers have conceived, their ‘young ravin in their womb, which bursting the parents’ sides issue out of their bellies. Hence too it is called the ‘viper,’ because it is a ‘parent [vi parit. ] by violence. ’ Thus the viper is so produced that it comes forth by violence, and is brought into the world by the killing of the mother. What then is represented by the little asps, saving the hidden suggestions of impure spirits, who steal upon [Ben. ‘surripiunt,’ Steal from, both others ‘surrepunt. ’] the hearts of men by slight prompting at first, and what by the ‘viper’s tongue’ save the violent temptation of the devil? For at first he steals upon them gently, but afterwards he drags them even by force. And so he ‘sucks the poison of asps,’ in that the little beginning of secret suggestion is first produced in the heart, but ‘the viper’s tongue slayeth him,’ in that afterwards the captive soul is killed by the venom of violent temptation. In the first case unclean spirits speak to the heart of man with their crafty counsels, and these, while they persuade with gentleness, as it were infuse the poison of asps. Whence it is written, They break asps eggs, and weave the spider’s web; He that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is hatched breaketh out into a basilisk. [Is. 59, 5] Since to ‘break asps’ eggs,’ to wicked men is, to manifest by evil deeds the counsels of evil spirits, which lurk in their hearts. Moreover, to ‘weave spiders’ webs’ is, on account of the lust of this world, to be busied in any temporal employments. Which, whilst they are established with no stedfastness, assuredly are carried off by the wind of a mortal
- 481 -
life.
