No More Learning

For Holy Church for this reason undergoes the miseries of this life, that the grace above may lead her on her way to the rewards of eternity. She slights the death of her flesh, because she is intent on the glory of the resurrection; and what she suffers is transitory, what she expects everlasting, concerning which same everlasting blessings she has no misgiving, in that she has already a faithful testimony in the glory of her Redeemer. For she sees with the mind the resurrection of His flesh, and is strongly fortified to have hope, in that what she sees already brought to pass in her Head, she hopes without doubting will also follow in His Body, which is herself. Which same Church the Psalmist seeing destined to continue in everlasting perfection, describes her under the title of the moon. A perfect moon for everlasting. [Ps. 89, 37] And whereas the Resurrection of the Lord heartens her to entertain the hope of a Resurrection, he properly added, And a faithful witness in heaven. Forasmuch as that she may not tremble for her own resurrection, she has Him in heaven for a witness, Who rose again from the dead; and so let the faithful People when it suffers adversity, when it is harassed with sore tribulations, lift up the mind to the hope of the glory to follow, and trusting in the resurrection of the Redeemer, let it say, Also now behold my witness is in heaven, and mine associate on high. Who is also rightly called ‘an associate,’ in that He was acquainted with our nature, not only by creating, but by taking it upon Himself. For His knowing is His having undertaken what belongs to us. Whence too it is said by the Psalmist, For He knoweth our frame. [Ps. 103, 14] For what wonder is it if He is said emphatically ‘to know our frame,’ when it is plain that there is nothing that He does not know? But His ‘knowing our frame,’ is His having taken it upon Himself out of pitifulness.
[MORAL/HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION]
28. Yet this voice may together with blessed Job suitably apply to each one of ourselves as well; for every man who in what he does aims at human praises, seeks a ‘witness’ on earth: but he that is eager to please Almighty God by his deeds, takes thought that he has a ‘witness in heaven. ’ And it often happens that the very good things themselves in us are found fault with by inconsiderate men; but he that ‘has a witness in heaven,’ has no need to fear men’s reproofs. Hence it is yet further added;
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Ver. 20. My friends are full of words; but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. [xxv]
29. For what is denoted by the eye, but the intent of the heart? as it is written, if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. [Matt. 6, 22] For when any thing is done with a good intention, the enacting of that intention contracts no soil in the sight of God; and so when friends are full of words, i. e. when the very same persons detract that are joined with us in faith, ‘the eye’ must needs ‘pour out tears to God,’ that so the whole bent of our heart may run out in the piercing of interior love, and lift itself up to the things of the interior, the more exactly that being forced back by external reproaches, it is driven to turn back within, lest it should vanish away without. It proceeds;
Ver. 21. Oh! that a man were so judged with God, as a son of man is judged with his fellow! [xxvi]
30. We acknowledge indeed always that we are sinners, yet often, when laid under the rod, we do not know for what sin in particular we are stricken, and we sift ourselves with minute examining, that if we might in any way be able we might trace out the cause of our being struck; and whereas this is for the most part hidden from us, our blindness becomes a load upon us, and we are the more pained at what we are suffering. But anyone that ‘comes to judgment with his neighbour,’ both says what he thinks, and knows what answer is made in return, and strikes a blow where he will, and knows from what quarter he is struck. But he that is smitten with the visitation of God, while he knows indeed that he is beaten, but knows not why he is beaten, as it were himself says what he thinks, but does not know what may be said against him; seeing that he himself indeed groans under the rod, but God does not declare openly for what cause of vengeance He strikes him. Therefore it is said now, Oh! that a man were so judged with God, as a son of man is judged with his neighbour! As if it were expressed in plain words; ‘As in all, that I say, I am heard, so would that I heard all that is said concerning me. ’ Which, nevertheless, can never be brought about in this life, in that there is a great obstruction before the eyes of our heart, against our beholding the subtle nature of God, even our mere frailty by itself; but we shall then see Him with clearness by Whom we are now searchingly beheld, when this frailty laid aside, we attain to the grace of the interior contemplation, of which Paul saith, For then shall I know, as also I am known. [1 Cor. 13, 12] Hence blessed Job, seeing that that knowledge can never be in the fullest way perfected here, groans indeed over the blindness of the present life; yet consoles himself by the shortness thereof, saying,
Ver. 22. When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
[xxvii]
31. Every thing that passes is short, even though it should seem slow in being finished, but in the way of death we ‘go, and do not return by it,’ not because we are not brought back by rising again to the life of the flesh, but because we do not come again to the labours of this mortal life, or to earn rewards by our labours.
Chap. xvii. Ver. 1. My spirit shall be wasted to thinness.
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[xxviii]
32. ‘My spirit is wasted to thinness,’ by the fear of judgment; in that the minds of the Elect, the more they feel themselves to be approaching the final Judgment, tremble so much the more fearfully in the searching of their own selves; and if they ever find in themselves any carnal thoughts, they consume them by the fervour of their penance; nor do they suffer their thoughts to expand with carnal delight, in that they pass sentence and inflict punishment on themselves more rigorously in proportion as they are awaiting the strict Judge close at hand; whence it comes to pass, that they look upon their departure as always near. For the minds of the lost do many things wickedly on this account, because they suppose themselves living here for long; and so ‘the spirit of the righteous is wasted to thinness,’ but the spirit of the wicked is thickened. For in proportion as they swell out in self-elation, they have not the wearing down of the spirit: but the righteous, whilst they consider the shortness of their life, eschew the sins of pride and impurity. And hence it is added;
My days shall be shortened, and the grave only is left me.
[xxix]
33. For he that bethinks himself what he will be in death, is always rendered fearful in practice, and from the very cause that henceforth he does not as it were live in his own eyes, he does genuinely live in the eyes of his Creator; he goes after nothing of a nature to pass away, he withstands all the desire of the present life, and views himself as almost dead, in that he is not unaware that he is destined to die. For a perfect life is an imitation of death, which while the righteous diligently enact, they escape the snares of sins. Whence it is written, Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember thy latter end, and thou shalt never do amiss. [Ecclus. 7, 36] And hence blessed Job, because he sees that his ‘days are shortened,’ and reflects that ‘the grave only is left him,’ fitly subjoins,
I have not sinned, and mine eye abideth in bitternesses.
[xxx]
34. As if he expressed himself in plain words; ‘I have not been guilty of sin, and I have undergone scourges. ’ But on this point, seeing that in many passages of this history he confesses himself to have been guilty of sinning, is the mind moved by the thought with what reason he now denies himself to have committed sin? But with reference to this the reason quickly occurs, in that neither did he sin to such an extent as to deserve strokes of the rod, nor yet was capable of being without sin. For that he was stricken not for the correcting of sin, but the increasing of grace, the Judge Himself bears witness, Who praises while He strikes. And again, that he was not without sin neither does he himself deny, who is commended by the Judge, and therefore commended because he denies it not.
[ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION]
But I think that we shall make out these words the better, if we understand them as spoken in the voice of the Head. For our Redeemer, in coming for our Redemption, at once did not sin and did
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‘undergo bitterness,’ in that being without sin He undertook the punishment of our sin, in Whose voice it is added,
Ver. 3. Set me free, and put me beside thee, and let the hand of anyone fight against me.
[xxxi]
35. For He did not sin either in thought or deed: He was made to ‘abide in bitterness’ by His Passion, He was ‘set free’ by the Resurrection, He was ‘put beside’ the Father by His Ascension; in that having gone up into heaven He sitteth on the right hand of God. And because, after the glory of His Ascension, Judaea was stirred up in the persecuting of His Disciples, it is rightly said here, Let the hand of anyone fight against me. For the madness of the persecutors did then rage on His members, then the flame of cruelty blazed out against the life of the faithful; but where should the wicked go, or what should they do, whilst He Whom they persecuted on earth was now seated in heaven? Concerning whom it is yet further added;
Ver. 4. Thou hast removed their heart far from discipline.
[xxxii]
36. For if they had been acquainted with the keeping of discipline, nor ever despised the precepts of our Redeemer, the mere mortal condition of their flesh by itself would have excited them to the love of the life immortal; for this very thing, even our being subject to corruption in this life, is of the scourge of discipline. For to be made to feel annoyance from heat and cold, from hunger and thirst, to be afflicted with diseases, and one day even to be put out of existence, what else are all these, but the scourges of sin? Now there are some that both undergo scourges, and yet never fashion anew their life by the fear of Him Who scourges them. Whence it is rightly said now, Thou hast removed their heart far from discipline; in that though the body is under discipline, yet the heart is not under discipline, so long as a person is stricken with the rod, and yet not brought back to humbleness of mind. Nor yet is this spoken in such a sense, as if the Almighty and Merciful God ‘removed the heart of man far from discipline,’ but that having fallen away of his own accord, there in executing judgment He suffered him to remain, where he had fallen; as we also say to Him in praying, And lead us not into temptation. i. e. ‘do not ever suffer us to be led into temptation. ’ It proceeds;
Therefore they shall not be exalted.
[xxxiii]
37. For if the heart were under discipline, it would seek after things above, it would not be openmouthed to obtain transitory good things. Of those, then, whose heart is not under discipline, it is rightly said, Therefore they shall not be exalted, in that while let go at large in the lowest enjoyments, they are ever longing for the good things of earth, they never lift the heart to the delights of heaven; for they would be exalted, if they lifted their minds to the hope of the heavenly country; but they, who do not make it their business to guard their way by discipline, ever in their desires lie grovelling in things below and what is more grievous, in lying low set themselves up, in that they are uplifted on the ground of things transitory. And they may be uplifted, but cannot be exalted, in that they are sunk the deeper below, by the very act by which they are rendered higher to themselves; and so the heart that is without discipline cannot be exalted, in that the human mind, as
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when elevated amiss it is forced down below, so forced down aright is lifted up on high. It proceeds;
Ver. 5. He promiseth prey to his friends; and the eyes of his children shall fail.
[xxxiv]
38. After that blessed Job had uttered a sentence relating to the multitude of the wicked, i. e. the body of our old enemy; he directly shifts the sentence to the very leader of them, i. e. the head of all the children of perdition, and returns from the plural to the singular number: for the devil and all wicked people are so one body, that it very often happens that the body is rated with the name of the head, and the head designated by the title of the body. Thus the body is rated with the name of the head, when it is said of a bad man, And one of you is a devil. [John 6, 70] And again the head is designated by the title of the body, when it is said of the apostate Angel himself, A man [Vulg. ‘inimicus homo’] that is an enemy hath done this. [Matt. 13, 28] Thus the prince of all the wicked has some for ‘associates’ and some as ‘children. ’ For who are his associates, but those apostate Angels, who fell with him from the seat of the heavenly country? or what others has he as children, saving bad men, who are begotten by his evil persuading in the practice of wickedness. Whence too it is said by the voice of Truth to unbelievers, Ye are of your father the devil. [John 8, 44]
39. So that evil author of error promises ‘prey’ to his ‘associates,’ in that he promises the evil spirits the souls of bad men to be seized at their latter end; and the eyes of his children shall fail, in that while he sets on the aims of men to look for earthly things only, he causes them to love that which they cannot keep for long: for neither can the bent of misdirected love remain, when it appears that both that which he loves, and he himself, who loves it, are tending to nought at a rapid rate. It may also be, that by ‘the associates’ perhaps are understood all those that are most cruel and already full of every kind of wickedness; but by the sons, those who being still deluded by beguiling promises, are being nourished up to increasing of wickedness; that henceforth the devil should as it were by the title of wickedness, have these as his ‘associates,’ who now no longer have whereunto to grow in perdition, while these he has as sons, whom he suckles with promises, that they may go on advancing to worse. But ‘the eyes of his children shall fail,’ in that the aims of the wicked fall to the ground, when all that they go after here, they leave behind, and there suffer without end what is fitted to fill them with grief. It proceeds;
Ver. 6. He hath made me, as it were, a byword of the people, and I am an example before them.
[xxxv]
40. This let blessed Job say in his own person, yea and in the voice of all of the Elect. For everyone that is stricken with the rod, is, as it were, ‘made a byword of the people,’ in that every fool, when he desires to curse anyone, takes up his cursing in a likeness to him, whom he sees stricken with a temporal stroke, and wishes that punishment for his adversary, which he sees to have befallen the righteous man. And so it comes to pass that with persons not endowed with a right perception, the uptight man is brought into an example, while both the punishment of the just passes current for the condemnation of him, and the glory that is in store for him is not foreseen by any expectance of faith. It proceeds;
Ver. 7. Mine eye is dim, for indignation, and all my members are as it were brought to nothing.
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[xxxvi]
41. For ‘the eye is dim for indignation,’ when those very persons likewise, who in the Lord’s Body, i. e. in the Church, are endued with the light of truth, whilst they see themselves too long despised and disdained by the wicked, are confounded in astonishment at the inscrutable judgment, and fail to fathom the secret of God; for what reason it is that the wicked are suffered to prevail against the innocence of the good? For who is not amazed, when Herodias by her daughter’s dancing obtains at the hands of the drunken king, that the head of that Friend of the Bridegroom, that ‘Prophet, and more than a Prophet,’ should be brought before the faces of his guests upon a charger? Now when the just are ‘dimmed in indignation,’ the weak very commonly go headlong into actual infidelity; whence it is added, And any members are as it were brought to nothing. For by the term of ‘members,’ we have the tenderness of the weak set forth, who, while they behold bad men flourishing, and good men tormented, are sometimes brought to this pass, that they regret that they even began in good things, and so speedily fall back to doing evil things, as if the good they had begun were a detriment to their life. But this that he says, Mine eye is dimmed in indignation, he unfolds in plainer words, when he adds;
Ver. 8. Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
[xxxvii] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
42. In this place, ‘the innocent’ is taken for the as yet imperfectly righteous, who, as yet but commencing in good ways, though he is not minded to do mischief to others, yet is not at all able himself to do things that are perfect; and because the hearts of the little ones, while they see the wicked flourishing in the present life, are set on fire with the brands of envy; (for a man the more envies others present good in proportion as he less despises it himself. Since of that which cannot be possessed by all men all of it together, what this one has would be so much lacking [‘desit’ al. ‘defit,’ or ‘deficit’] to the other. ) Now ‘the innocent is kindled against the hypocrite,’ when even he who is not used to injure anyone, envies the glory of the dissembler. But if in this passage the innocent means any one perfect in goodness, ‘the innocent is moved against the hypocrite;’ when he both sees him flourishing, and contemns him and all his flourishing, and by preaching the things that are right plainly says that he ought to be despised by others, the more in proportion as he sees him eagerly in quest of things, which cannot abide with him for long, and in this point of view it is yet further added;
Ver. 9. The righteous also shall hold on his way, and to clean hands he shall add strength. [xxxviii]
43. On considering the hypocrite, ‘the righteous holds on his way,’ in that whilst he sees that it is by a wicked will that he obtains the things that are of the world, he is himself tied and bound the stronger to the love of heavenly things, knowing that to good desires eternal rewards shall not be wanting, whereas both to bad and double hearts the good things of time are not denied; from which circumstance it comes that ‘to clean hands he adds strength,’ in that seeing bad men win temporal glory, he brings his good works to perfection, and looks down upon temporal things from the loftier height in proportion as he sees them to abound even to the wicked. For he sees how much those things deserve to be despised, which Almighty God vouchsafes even to bad men: for if they were
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primarily great, the Creator would never vouchsafe them to His adversaries; and hence he considers that it is to himself an unworthy thing, that he should go after that good, which he sees to abound even to the wicked; but he applies his mind to the winning of heavenly blessings, which can never be shared with him by the children of perdition. Thus after he had introduced the outward advancements of the wicked, and the interior advancements of the good, he brought forward words of exhortation, saying,
Ver. 10. But as for you all, do ye turn and come now.
[xxxix]
44. Which same words of exhortation he properly frames to the Elect, whom he calls to the eternal world; who are bidden in two ways, viz. that they should ‘turn,’ and that they should ‘come;’ ‘turn’ by faith, ‘come’ by practice. Or indeed that they ‘turn’ by abandoning evil deeds, and ‘come’ by doing good ones; as it is written, Depart from evil, and do good: [Ps. 37, 27] but that is wonderful which is added,
And may I not find one wise man among you.
[xl]
45. For what does this mean, that he bids them to wisdom, and yet wishes that he may not find them wise, saving that they cannot come to true wisdom, who are deceived in confidence in their own false wisdom? Concerning whom it is written, Woe unto you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight [Is. 5, 21]; and to whom it is said again, Be not wise with your own selves [Rom. 12, 16]; whence that same great preacher sought that those, whom he found carnally wise, in order that they might attain true wisdom, should first become foolish; saying, If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. [1 Cor. 3, 18] And ‘Truth’ saith by Itself, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. [Matt. 11, 25] And so because they that are wise in themselves cannot come to true wisdom, blessed Job, being anxious for the conversion of his hearers, rightly desires that he may not ‘find any wise man among them. ’ As if he said to them in plain speech; ‘Learn to be foolish in your own selves, that ye may be truly wise in God. ’ It goes on;
Ver. 11. My days are past away, my thoughts are scattered, racking my heart. [xli] [ALLEGORICAL / MORAL INTERPRETATION]
46. The Holy Church of the Elect sees that the spaces of her life pass in periods of day and night, in that it is hers in adversity to have ‘a night,’ and in prosperity, ‘a day. ’ For there riseth as it were light unto her from the tranquillity of peace, and night from the grief of persecution. Now as often as after the pauses of rest she returns to the toilsomeness of persecution, growing to a head against her, she testifies that her ‘days have past;’ in which days, however, she is accustomed to be weighed down with so much the heavier cares, in proportion as she bethinks her that for that very tranquillity of rest a more exact reckoning is required of her by the Judge. For in the tranquil state of peace, at one time she is employed with the profits of souls, at another time she attends to the ministrations of earthly things, which same ministrations of earthly affairs are more burthensome to the minds of good men, in proportion as by the act of looking at them they are torn away though
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but for a brief space from looking at the things of heaven. Whence blessed Job, whether in his own voice, or the voice of the Church Universal, after testifying that ‘his days were past,’ thereupon subjoined, My thoughts are scattered, racking my heart; in that when temporal glory is gone to the minds of the good, even that charge of earthly stewardship is likewise removed from them, which seemed to be torturing them within their thoughts; for while they aim to be always bent upward for the perception of the things of heaven, by this very circumstance that sometimes in their earthly stewardships they are made to descend to take thought of the lowest matters, they feel themselves to be put to torture. Whence it is brought to pass, that the very hostility of persecution is itself too changed into a mighty exultation of joy, on account of the repose of the heart that is obtained. Hence it is fitly added,
Ver. 12. They have changed the night into day. [xlii]
47. For ‘the thoughts being scattered change night into day,’ in that it is sometimes more grateful to the righteous through adversity to undergo sufferings, rather than as the effect of prosperity to be harassed with the charge of earthly ministering. But because they have learnt by paying attention that both adversity passes away, and prosperity dawns again, it is fitly added;
And again after darkness I look for light.
[xliii]
48. For ‘the light is looked for after darkness,’ in that after the night of the present life, the light eternal is discerned, or adversity and prospersity do so alternate here, that they do not cease to succeed one another by turns. Whence it comes to pass that even in the light night is suspected, and in the night light is presumed on; as when it is written, In the day of prosperity be not forgetful of affliction, and in the day of affliction be not forgetful of prosperity. [Ecclus. 11, 25] But mark, forasmuch as we have been redeemed by the grace of our Maker, we henceforth have this boon of heavenly bestowal, that when we are removed from dwelling in our flesh, we are at once carried off to receive heavenly rewards; in that since our Creator and Redeemer, penetrating the bars of hell, brought out from thence the souls of the Elect, He does not permit us to go there, from whence He has already by descending set others free. But they who were brought into this world before His Coming, whatsoever eminency of righteousness they may have had, could not on being divested of the body at once be admitted into the bosom of the heavenly country [a]; seeing that He had not as yet come, Who by His own descending should unloose the bars of hell, and place the souls of the righteous henceforth in their everlasting seat. Hence blessed Job, both feeling the stroke of affliction, and knowing that the recompensing of the righteous was as yet delayed, fitly subjoins; Ver. 13. If I wait, hell is mine house; and I have made my bed in the darkness.
[xliv]
49. For the former Saints could undergo adversity, and yet could not, when brought out of the body, be at once freed from the regions of hell; in that He had not yet come, Who should descend thereinto without sin, that He might set free those, who were there bound by right of sin. And man then ‘made his bed in darkness,’ when he forsook the light of righteousness by consenting to the crafty Prompter: and whereas in those very regions of hell the souls of the righteous were kept
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imprisoned without torment, so that both on behalf of original sin they should still go down thereunto, and yet by light of their own deeds not undergo punishment; to have ‘made their bed in the darkness,’ in a manner, is to have prepared themselves rest in hell. For it was sad weariness [grave taedium] to the Elect, after the dissolution of the flesh, not yet to see the likeness of the Creator. Which wearisomeness blessed Job not improperly designates ‘darkness. ’ But whereas this came in the punishment of infirmity, he rightly adds that same infirmity directly, saying,
Ver. 14. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister.
[xlv]
50. What does this mean, that he said to corruption, Thou art my father; saving that every man descends from an already corrupted origin? and hence it is added, And to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister; in this way, viz. that we come into this world once from corruption itself, and along with corruption itself. For as regards the matter of corruptible flesh, the worm is our ‘mother and sister,’ in that we both come forth out of corruption, and come with corruption which we carry about us.
And if we may understand it in a spiritual sense, nature is not unappropriately called our ‘mother,’ and habit too a ‘sister,’ in that we are from the one, and along with the other; which same ‘mother and sister’ are ‘worms,’ in that in virtue of a corrupt nature and evil habit we are necessitated, as by a kind of ‘worms,’ so by disquieting thoughts to be gnawed in the mind. For the corrupted nature of the flesh, and bad habit, in that they generate numberless cares in the heart of our frailty, are well called ‘worms our mother and sister. ’ For cares gnaw the mind, while they disquiet it. For righteous men do not cease either heedfully to take thought and counsel what they are to do, or thoughtfully to look into it, whither they are destined to be led after the present life. And so because the Elect then, before the Coming of the Lord, both saw that they were in the toils of the present life, and still after the present life did not as yet receive the heavenly blessings, they were made to smart [urebantur] with many thoughts of heart. For they waited for the grace of the Redeemer, and yet by living in the flesh could not attain thereto: whence it is fitly added,
Ver. 15. Where then is now my expectation? [xlvi]
51. What could be the ‘expectation’ of the righteous, but God who justifieth the righteous, Who should freely go down to (what was) the punishment of mankind, and by the efficacy of His righteousness set free the captives of death? For they never ceased to expect His appearing with intent expectation; they knew that it was to come, but they sought for it to come quickly. Wherefore he does not say, ‘Where, then, is my expectation? ’ but, where then is now my expectation? For in that he adds, now, he shewed that what was to come one day, he desired might come without delay. It goes on,
And who considereth my patience?
[xlvii]
52. He expressed the longing desire, wherewith whilst set in the flesh he hastes to be redeemed, and brought back from hell to the regions above. And indeed it belonged to but few men to enter into the consideration of these things, that they, should learn to think of the labours of the present
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life, or of the subsequent delay after death. Both of which the just grieved to be subject to before the coming of our Redeemer. And hence it is rightly said, And who considereth my patience? Verily, there is not lacking One, to ‘consider patience. ’ But when God does not hear quickly, He is said, as it were, not ‘to consider. ’ For the Redemption of mankind itself, which came at the beginning of the world, by those who came before from the beginning of the world was accounted slow, in that during a long period of time they were severed from the recompensing of the heavenly things, as Truth testifies, Which saith, Many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them. [Luke 10, 24] And so as to that which is now said, Who considereth my patience? the breathings of fervent desire are laid open. For neither, as we said before, does God forbear to consider the patience of the righteous; but not ‘to have regard,’ in a manner, means to appear less quickly answering to the aspirations of longing desire, and by lengthened periods of time to delay the grace of His Dispensation. Therefore let him say, Who considereth my patience? in that what is short to Him that ordereth, is long to him that loves. Hence, still reflecting on the privations of his delay, he repeats that which he had already said before; and being destined to descend below, he redoubles the voice of his grief, saying,
Ver. 16. All of mine shall descend into the lowest hell. [xlviii]
53. Whereas it appears that among those below the righteous are held bound not in places of punishment, but in the bosom of tranquillity above, an important question springs up before us, why it is that blessed Job declares, saying, All of mine shall descend into the lowest hell; who even if before the Advent of the Mediator between God and man he had to descend into hell, yet it is plain that into the lowest hell he had not to descend. Does he call the very higher regions of hell, ‘the lowest hell? ’ Plainly because in relation to the loftiness of heaven, the region of this sky may not unappropriately be called the lower region. Whence when the Apostate Angels were plunged from the seats of heaven into this darksome region of the air, the Apostle Peter says, For if God spared not the Angels that sinned, but delivered them, dragged down with infernal chains, into hell, to be reserved for torments in the Judgment. [2 Pet. 2, 4] If then relatively to the height of heaven this darksome air is infernal, relatively to the elevation of this air, the earth which lies below may be taken both as infernal, and as deep; and relatively to the height of that earth, even those parts of hell which are higher than the other mansions of the place below, may in this place not unsuitably be denoted by the designation of the lowest hell; in that what the sky is to heaven, and the earth to the sky, the same is that higher hollow of the regions below to the earth.
54. But that is very wonderful which he subjoins, All of mine shall descend; for whereas the soul alone shall descend into the regions of hell, how is it that the holy man tells that ‘all of his’ shall descend there, but that he saw himself to be there entire where he perceives the great weight of his recompense? seeing that this which he leaves of himself without sense on the earth, until he returns to the incorruption of the resurrection, he does not feel to be himself. And so he declares that ‘all of his will descend into the lowest hell,’ whither he sees his soul only shall descend; in that the whole of him is there, where he is capable of having a sense of that which he has got. Or, surely, ‘all of his did descend into hell,’ in that the recompensing of all his toils was as yet expected to be received only in the rest of hell; and all that he has done as it were ‘descends’ there, in that there he finds rest in his recompensing for all things. Whence also the expected rest is itself added, when the words are thereupon introduced,
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Dost thou think at least there will be rest for me there?
[xlix]
55. By which same words he both makes known what he desires, and yet marks that he is still doubtful of receiving the rest, lest he whose holy works so many scourges followed, should by the hidden judgment of the heavenly Judge, after temporal scourges, have lasting torments likewise following him. Wherein it behoves ourselves to consider with exceeding fear which of us is now secure of the everlasting rest, if even he still trembles for it, proclaim of whose virtue the very Judge, Who smites, does Himself sound: For if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear? [1 Pet. 4, 18] For blessed Job knew that he should attain to rest after the strokes of affliction, but that he might shake our hearts with fear, he himself seemed to doubt about the recompensing of Eternal rest, when he says, Dost thou think? plainly that we might think well with what exceeding apprehension we ought ever to dread the Judgment to come, if even he, who was commended by the Judge, was not yet in his own words secure of the rewards of the Judgment.
BOOK XIV.
Wherein S. Gregory unfolds the historical, allegorical, and moral sense of the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of the Book of Job.
[i] [HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION]
1. In a former part of this work we have handled the point, that Almighty God, in order to amend the hearts of those under the law, brought forward the life of blessed Job for a testimony, who knew not the law and yet kept it, who observed the precepts of life, which he had not received in writing. This man’s conduct is first extolled by God’s bearing witness to it, and is afterwards suffered to be put to the proof by the devil’s plotting against it, that he might prove by the trials of tribulation, how much he had attained before in a state of peace. This man’s life the adversary of the human race, evil disposed after his manner, both knew to be commended by the attestation of God, and yet asked for to prove it. And when he could not succeed in bringing him to the ground, smitten with so many losses in his substance, so many bereavements, he set on his wife against him in the goading of mispersuasion, that at all events by the words of his own household he might ruin him, whom he could never bring down by so many torments of tidings. But whereas what by woman’s aid he won against Adam first in paradise, he could not make good against this second man sitting on a dunghill, he betook himself to other appliances of tempting, that he should bring in his friends as if administering consolation, and yet stir up their feelings in bitterness of upbraiding, that him whose patience scourges had failed to subdue, at least bitter words in the midst of those scourges might succeed in overcoming. But the adversary, while laying his plots with craft, was a victim to the deceit, which he had contrived against the holy man, in that for all the occasions of ruin that he brought upon the holy man, he supplied him with as many occasions of victory. For against torments he maintained patience, against words, wisdom, in that he at once sustained the pains of stripes with resignation, and restrained the foolishness of ill advisers with wisdom. But whereas in those very sufferings and well-instructed speeches he bears a figure of Holy Church, by his friends,
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as we have already often said, uttering some things right and some foolish, heretics are not unjustly represented who in respect of this, that they are friends of the holy man, say many things right of the wicked, but in respect of this, that they bear a likeness of heretics, very often transgress in the excesses of the lips, and they smite the breast of the holy man with the darts of their words, but are tired out by their very own smiting against his indomitable spirit. So then it is our business to distinguish with exact discrimination, both what there is in their words that they think aright concerning the lost, and what that they sound that is foolish as directed against blessed Job.
Ver. 1, 2. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, Unto what end will ye cast abroad words? understand first, and so let us speak.
[ii] [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION]
2. All heretics think that in some things that are known to her Holy Church is full of pride, while some things they fancy that she does not even understand. Whence Bildad the Shuhite, as it were, asserts that blessed Job had broken out into pride, when he declares [fatetur is used thus] that he ‘casts abroad words. ’ But he gives a token with what pride he was himself swoln, who supposed that blessed Job spoke things that he did not understand; and whereas all heretics complain that they are despised by Holy Church in her estimate of them, it is fitly subjoined,
Ver. 3. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed as vile in your sight? [iii]
3. It is natural to the human mind to suppose that the thing that it does is done to itself. Thus they believe themselves to be despised, who are used to despise the ways of the good; and whereas in such things as are capable of being understood by reason, the Church proves against heretics that what they make up is unreasonable, they imagine themselves to be counted as ‘beasts’ in her view. On which supposition of their being despised, they directly break out in disdain, and are urged to abuse of that Church. Whence it is added;
Ver. 4. Why dost thou ruin thy soul in thy fury?
[iv]
4. Heretics esteem whether a strong feeling for the rule of right, or the spiritual grace of holy preaching, not as good weight of virtue, but as the madness of fury. By which same fury they believe that ‘the souls of the faithful are ruined,’ in that they imagine that the life of the Church is destroyed by the very same means whereby they see she is made to kindle against themselves. It goes on;
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?
[v]
5. For they think that they themselves worship God every where, that they themselves have occupied the whole world. What is it then to say, Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? but what they often say to the faithful, viz. ‘that if this thing which you say be true, all the earth is forsaken by God, which we ourselves already occupy from the multitude of us. ’ Now the holy Church universal proclaims that God cannot be truly worshipped saving within herself, asserting that all
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they that are without her shall never be saved. But conversely heretics, who are confident that it is possible for them to be saved even without her pale, maintain that the Divine aid is rendered to them in every place. Whence they say; Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? i. e. ‘is it so, that whosoever is out of thee cannot be saved? ’ Whence it is added further;
And shall the rocks be moved out of their place?
[vi]
6. Heretics call those persons ‘rocks’ who in their views by the sublimity of their thoughts stand out in the human race, which same they glory that they have for teachers. But when Holy Church addresses herself to the task of gathering together the different erring preachers within the bosom of the right faith, what else is this but that she ‘removes the rocks from their places,’ that having a right view of things, they may lie down in humility within her, who aforetime were standing stiff in their own wrong notions? But heretics altogether make against the doing of this, and withstand the ‘rocks being moved out of their places’ on account of her voice, because they are averse that they, who among themselves, being lifted up in their thoughts, were embued with false doctrine, by coming to her should think what is true in a humble spirit.
7. Now, it very often happens that heretics, when they see any persons within the bosom of Holy Church travailing whether with want or calamities, lift themselves up directly in the presumption of righteousness, and whatsoever they see to have happened of an adverse kind to the faithful, they suppose it is done for their iniquities, not knowing doubtless that the complexion of the present life does not in the least degree prove the worth of men’s conduct. For very often both good things befal the bad, and bad ones befal the good, on the very principle that real goods are reserved for the good, and real ills for the bad, in the season of the eternal recompensing. Thus Bildad bearing a figure of heretics, who lift themselves up on the grounds of this life’s good fortune, swells against the strokes of blessed Job, as if with their voice in opposition to the reproach of the righteous, and expressly he is arguing against the ungodly indeed, but how wickedly he speaks in such terms against a good man, he is not aware. Thus he added, saying,
Ver. 5. Shall not the light of the wicked be put out, and the flame of his fire cease to shine?
[vii]
8. If he says this in describing the present life, he is mistaken; in that very often both the light of prosperity is seen in the ungodly, and the darkness of ignominy and poverty envelopes the godly. But if his discourse points to this, viz. to shew what the ungodly meet with in their end, it is said with truth, Shall not the light of the wicked be put out, and the flame of his fire cease to shine? Which if it might have been rightly spoken in regard to an ungodly man, ought never to have been delivered against a holy man set fast in the midst of scourges. But let us, considering well the powers of his arm in delivering sentences, reflect how strongly be hurls the darts, and let us cease to look at him whom, while so hurling them, he aims to hit, knowing surely that he strikes a stone with foiled blows. So let him say; Shall not the light of the wicked be put out? For even the ungodly have their ‘light,’ i. e. the good fortune of the present life. But ‘the light of the wicked shall be put out,’ in that this present life’s good fortune is speedily terminated along with life itself. Whence it is fitly added; and the flame of his fire shall not shine.
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[MORAL INTERPRETATION]
9. For every ungodly man has a ‘flame of his own fire,’ which he kindles in his heart from the heat of temporal desires, whilst he burns now with these now with those lusts, and fans his thoughts into a bigger flame by the diverse flatteries of the world. But if a fire has no flame, it does not shine by shedding any light. And so the flame of the fire is his outward beauty or power, which comes from his burning within. For what he anxiously desires to get, he very often wins, to the heaping up of his own ruin; and whether in the power of the loftiest pitch, or in the wealth of multiplied increase, he as it were shines in external glory. But ‘the flame of his fire shall not shine,’ in that, in the day of his departure hence, all the fair shew without is removed, and he is consumed by his own burning within alone. And ‘so the flame’ is removed from the ‘fire,’ when his exterior glory is separated from his interior burning. Even the righteous too have a flame of their fire, but one doubtless to shine bright, in this respect, that their desires give light in good works. But the light of the wicked does not shine in the least, in that hereby, viz. that they aim at what is evil, they are forced to darkness. And hence it follows ;
Ver. 6. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle. [viii]
10. If we very frequently take darkness for sorrow, we ought without unfairness to take light for joy. And so ‘the light is dark in his tabernacle,’ in that in his conscience, which he inhabits in wickedness, the joy which he had from things temporal is brought to an end. Whence too it is fitly added;
And the candle that is over him shall be put out.
For to speak in language grounded on the usage of many, a ‘candle [lucerna]’ is a light in an earthen vessel, but a light in an earthen vessel, is delight in the flesh. And so ‘the candle that is over him is put out,’ in that when the recompensing of his wickednesses comes upon the ungodly man, carnal delight is brought to nought in his heart. Now it is well that it is not said of this candle, ‘which is by him,’ but ‘which is over him,’ in that earthly enjoyments possess the mind of the bad, and so swallow it up in delight, that they are ‘over’ it, and not ‘by’ it. But the righteous even when they have the good fortune of the present life, are taught to force it to bow beneath them, that this, viz. that they are made glad in themselves with good things, they may get above by the counsel of a steadied mind, and surmount by the control of virtue. And so ‘the candle’ of the wicked man, ‘which is over him, is put out,’ in that his joy is quickly brought to an end, which possessed him wholly in this life, and the man, who now wickedly lets himself out at large in pleasures, punishment hereafter closely encompasses round about in woe. Whence it is yet further added; Ver. 7 The steps of his strength shalt be straitened.
[ix]
11. For now as it were he puts forth ‘the steps of his strength,’ as often as he executes the violent acts of his power. But ‘the steps of his strength shall be straitened,’ in that the resources of his wickedness, which he now displays in his own gratification, punishment hereafter binds fast. It goes on;
And his own counsel shall cast him down.
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[x]
12. Every bad man makes it his counsel now to aim at present things, to abandon the things of eternity, to do what is unjust, to sneer at what is just; but when the Judge of the just and unjust shall come, every ungodly person is ‘cast down by his counsel,’ in that for this that he chose to go after here with bad intent, he is drowned in the darkness of eternal woe. For that man whom temporal glory uplifts here, punishment without end there sinks down. He who here revels in self- gratification, is there tortured with everlasting vengeance. And it often happens that the very prosperity of this life, which is so eagerly hankered after by the ungodly, so clogs their steps, that even when they have the mind to return to good works, they are scarcely able: in that they have not the power to do what is right, while they fear to displease the lovers of this world. Whence it is brought to pass, that through that glory which the ungodly man derives from sin, his sins are yet further doubled and redoubled. Which Bildad rightly sets forth, when he adds;
Ver. 8. For he hath put his own foot into the net, and he walketh in the meshes [masculis] of it.
[xi]
13. He, who ‘puts his feet into a net,’ cannot get them out, when he has a mind; so he that lets himself down, into habits of sin, cannot rise up the moment he wishes it; and he ‘that walketh in the meshes of a net,’ entangles his steps in walking, and when he tries to extricate himself to walk, he is tied and bound that he cannot. ‘For it very often happens that a man, beguiled by the delightfulness of this world, reaches after the gloriousness of the honour thereof, that he attains to the effecting of his desires, and rejoices to have attained the object which he sought after; but seeing that the good things of this world, when not possessed, are objects of love, and very often, when possessed, grow worthless, he learns by the act of obtaining how worthless that is which he sought after. Whence being brought back to himself, he looks out how without sin to get quit of that which he sees himself to have gotten with sin; but the very same dignity which entangled him, holds him fast, and he cannot without further sins flee from thence, whereunto he came not without sin. And so he has ‘put his feet into the net, and walketh in the meshes thereof,’ in that when he strives to get quit, he then sees in a true light with what hard knots he is held bound. For we do not even know of our binding in a true sense, save when in striving to get free, we as it were try to lift our feet. And hence he makes known this same binding, by adding,
Ver. 9. The gin shall take him by the heel;
in that the end shall be made fast in sin. And because the enemy of mankind, when he binds up in sin the life of each individual, eagerly pants after his death, it is rightly added;
And thirst shall burn furiously against him.
[xii]
14. For our old enemy, when he ensnares the life in sin, thirsts that he may drink the death of the sinner. Which however may also be understood in another sense. For the evil mind when it sees that it has been brought into sin, seeks with a certain superficialness of thought to escape out of the snares of sin; but fearing either the threats or reproaches of men, it chooses rather to die for ever, than to undergo a little of adversity for a season, whence it abandons itself wholly to evil ways, in which it perceives itself to be already once bound. And so he whose life is bound fast in sin even to
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the end, has his ‘heel held by the gin. ’ But forasmuch as in the same degree that he minds that he is tied and bound with evil habits, he is in despair of his return, by that very despairing he henceforth kindles more fiercely to the lusts of this world, the heat of desire arises within him, and the mind having been ensnared by previous sins, is inflamed to even worse transgressions. And hence it is added; And thirst shall burn furiously against him. For in his mind there is a ‘thirst that burns out against him,’ in that in proportion as he is used to do wicked things, he is the more vehemently on fire to drink down evil. Since for the ungodly man to ‘thirst’ is to lust after the good things of this world. And hence our Redeemer cures the man with the dropsy before the Pharisee’s house, and when he was arguing against avarice, it is written, And the Pharisees also who were covetous heard all things; and they derided Him. [Luke 16, 14] What does it mean then that the man with the dropsy is cured before the house of the Pharisee, but that by the sickness of one man’s body the sickness of heart in another is represented? For one sick of a dropsy, the more he drinks, thirsts the more, and every covetous person redoubles his thirst by drinking, in that when he has got the things he desires, he pants the more in desiring others. For he that by getting is made to long for more, has his thirst increased by drinking. It goes on;
Ver. 10. His snare is buried in the earth, and his trap upon the way.
[xiii]
15. His ‘snare is buried in the earth,’ when sin is hidden under earthly interests. For our enemy in executing his plots shews to the human mind something to long after in earthly gain, and hides the snare of sin, that it may bind his soul tight, so that he should see indeed what he might set his heart on, and yet never see in what a snare of sin he is putting his foot. Now a trap [decipula] has its name from entrapping. And ‘a trap is’ then ‘placed’ by our old enemy ‘upon the way,’ when in the course of this world’s practice, which the mind is bent to follow, the snare of sin is prepared, which same would not so easily entrap, if it were possible to be seen. For a trap is so set, that, while the meat is displayed, it is not itself seen by the passers by. For like to meat in a trap is gain with sin, and the prosperity of this world with wickedness; and so when gain is sought after by one with a covetous view, it is as if the trap which is not seen laid hold of the foot of the mind. Thus there are often set before the mind along with sin, honours, riches, health, and temporal life, which, while the weak mind sees like food, and does not see the trap, by the meat, which on seeing it longs after, it is caught fast in the sin, which is not seen. For there are kinds of tempers which border upon certain bad qualities. Thus harsh tempers are usually found to be united either to cruelty or to pride; but tempers that are soft, and joyous beyond what is becoming, are sometimes allied to lust and dissoluteness. Therefore the enemy of mankind surveys the tempers of each individual," to see what bad quality they are allied to, and he sets those objects before the face, which he sees the mind is most readily inclined to, so that to the soft and joyous tempers he often proposes dissoluteness, and sometimes vainglory, but to harsh dispositions he proposes pride or cruelty, and so there he sets a trap, where he sees the path of the mind to be, in that he there introduces peril by deception, where he has found that there is the ‘way’ of a kindred turn of thought. And, whereas all that the bad man does, he fears to undergo too, and reckons that to be doing by all others toward himself, which he himself prepares for all others, whom he is able, it rightly follows;
Ver. 11. Terrors shall make him afraid on every side. [xiv]
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16. For he imagines all men to be such toward himself, as he himself strives to be towards all. And what effect these same terrors have in his conduct, is brought in, when it is said;
And shall entangle his feet.
For if ‘the feet be entangled,’ they cannot have free steps, and are not able to accomplish any journey; in that their own entanglements hold them fast.