Morals on the Book of Job (Moralia in Iob)

i often.' above. It goes on ; A?id smote Job with sore boils, from the sole of his foot unto his crown. vi8. Strokes are to be estimated in two ways, viz. to consider either of what kind, or how great. For being many they are often made right by their quality, and being heavy by their quantity, i. e. when, if they be many, they be not heavy, and if they be heavy, they be not many ; in order to shew, then, how by the sharpness of the stroke the adversary flamed against the holy man, not only in the badness of the kind, but also in the heaviness of the amount: to prove the quality, it is said. And sniote Job with sore boils; and to teach the quantity, from the sole of his foot unto his crown* Plainly, that nothing might be void of glory in his soul, in whose body there is no part void of pain. It goes on ; Ver. 8. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal ; and he sat down among the ashes. vii9. What is a potsherd made from, excepting mud ? and what is the humour of the body, but mud .'' Accordingly he Job humbles hiiftself by the dutighill and potsJierd. 135 is said ' to scrape the humour with a potsherd,' as if it were Book plainly said, ' he wiped away mud with mud.' For the holy man reflected, whence that which he earned about him had been taken, and with the broken piece of a vessel of clay he scraped his broken vessel of clay.

By which act we have it openly shewn us, in what manner he subdued under him that body of his when sound, which even when stricken he tended with such slight regard ; how softly he dealt with his flesh in its sound state, who applied neither clothing, nor fingers, but only a potsherd to its very wounds. And thus he scraped the humour with a potsherd, that seeing himself in the very broken piece, he might even by the cleansing of the wound be taking a remedy for his soul.

But because it often happens that the mind is swelled by the circumstances that suiTound the body, and by the way men behave toward us the frailty of the body is removed from before the eyes of the mind, (as there are some of those that are of the world, who while they are buoyed up with temporal honours, whilst they rule in elevated stations, whilst they see the obedience of multitudes yielded to them at will, neglect to consider their own frailt}', and altogether forget, nor ever take heed, how speedily that vessel of clay which they bear, is liable to be shattered,) so blessed Job, that he might take thought of his own frailty from the •things about him, and increase the intensity of his self-contempt in his own eyes, is described to have seated himself not any where on the earth, which at most in every place is found clean, but upon a dunghill. He set his body on a dunijhUl^ that the mind might to its great profit consider tiioroughly what was that substance of the flesh, which was taken from the Gea. 3, ground. He set his body on a dunghill, that even from the * stench of the place he might apprehend how rapidly the body retunicth to stench.

But see, while blessed Job is undergoing such losses in his substance, and giieving over the death of so many children whereby he is smitten, while he is suffering such numberless wounds, while he scraj)es the running humour with a potsherd, whilst, running down in a state of corruption, he sat himself upon a dunghill, it is good to consider how it is that Almighty God, as though in unconcern, afllicts so 136 If Saints suffer thus, how shall the ungodly? Job 2, grievously those, whom He looks upon as so dear to Him for —^' all eternity. But, now, while I view the wounds and the torments of blessed Job, I suddenly call back my mind's eye to John, and I reflect not without the greatest astonishment, that he, being filled with the spirit of prophecy within his mother's womb, and who, if 1 may say so, before Johns, ijig birtli, was born again, he that was the friend of the Matt. Bridegroom^ he than whom none hath arisen greater among ^^^ ^^' those born of women, he that was so great a Prophet, that he was even more than a Prophet, he is cast into prison by wicked men, and beheaded, for the dancing of a damsel, and a man of such severe virtue dies for the merriment of the vile ! Do w^e imagine there was aught in his life which that most contemptible death was to wipe off?

When, then, did he sin even in meat, whose food was but locusts and wild honey ? How did he offend even by the quality of his clothing, the covering of whose body was of camel's hair.'' How could he transgress in his behaviour, who never went out from the desert ? How did the guilt of a talkative tongue defile him, who was parted far from mankind ? When did even a fault of silence attach to him, who so vehemently Matt. 3, charged those that came to him? O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to comef How is it then, that Job is distinguished above other men by the testimony of God, and yet by his plagues is brought down even to a dunghill ? How is it that John is commended by the voice of God, and yet for the words of a drunkard suffers death as the prize of dancing ? How is it, that ^ Almighty God so utterly disregards in this present state of being those whom He chose so exaltedly before the worlds, saving this, which is plain to the religious sense of the faithful, that it is for this reason He thus presses them below, because He sees how to recompense them on high ? And He casts them down without to the level of things contemptible, because He leads them on within to the height of things incomprehensible.

From hence then let every one collect what those will have to suffer There, that arc condgumed by Him, il here He thus torments those whom He loves, or how they shall be smitten, who are destined to be convicted at the Judgment, if their life is sunk so low, who Sataji useth to tempt hy tcom a n\s persuasion. 137 are commended bv witness of the Judge Himself. It proBook , • or jjj ceeds ; Ver. 9. TJien said his wife unto him. Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

The old adversary is wont to tempt mankind in two ways ; viz. so as either to break the hearts of the stedfast by tribulation, or to melt them by persuasion. Against blessed Job then he strenuously exerted himself in both; for first upon the householder he brought loss of substance ; the father he bereaved by the death of his children ; the man that was in health he smote with putrid sores. But forasmuch as him, that was outwardly corrupt, he saw still to hold on sound within, and because he grudged him, whom he had stripped naked outwardly, to be inwardly enriched by the setting forth of his Maker's praise, in his cunning he reflects and considers, that the champion of God is only raised up against him by the very means whereby he is pressed down, and being defeated he betakes himself to subtle appliances of temptations. For he has recourse again to his arts of ancient contrivance, and because he knows by what means Adam is prone to be deceived, he has recourse to Eve. For be saw that blessed Job amidst the repeated loss of his goods, the countless wounds of his strokes, stood unconquered, as it were, in a kind of fortress of virtues. For he had set his mind on high, and therefore the machinations of the enemy were unable to force an entrance on it. The adversary then seeks by what steps he may mount up to this well-fenced fortress.

Now the woman is close to the man and joined to him. Therefore he fixed his hold on the heart of the woman, and as it were found in it a ladder whereby he might be able to mount up to the heart of the man. He seized the mind of the wife, which was the ladder to the husband. But he could do nothing by this artifice. For the holy man minded that the woman was set under and not over him, and by speaking aright, he instructed her, whom the serpent set on to speak wrongly. For it was meet that manly reproof should hold in that looser mind ; since indeed he knew even by the first fall of man, that the woman was unskilled to teach aright. And hence it is well said by Paul, / permit not a iTim.2, i38 Joh teavheth Iter by ivhotn Saian tvotdd mislead. Job 2, woman to teach. Doubtless for that, when she once taught, she cast us off from an eternity of wisdom. And so the old Hist. iperdienemy was beaten by' Adam on a dunghill, he that condit ab qQei'gci Adam in Paradise; and whereas he inflamed the wife, whom he took to his aid, to utter words of mispersuasion, he sent her to the school of holy instruction ; and she that had been set on that she might destroy, was instructed that she should not ruin herself Yes, the enemy is so stricken by those resolute men of our part, that his very own weapons are seized out of his hand. For by the same means, whereby he reckons to increase the pain of the wound, he is helping them to arms of virtue to use against himself.

Now from the w^ords of his wife, thus persuading him amiss, we ought to mark with attention, that the old enemy goes about to bend the upright state of our mind, not only by means of himself, but by means of those that are attached to us. For when he cannot undermine our heart by his own persuading, then indeed he creeps to the thing by the tongues of those that belong to us. For hence it is written ; Ecclus. Beware of thine own childre?i,and take heed to thy self frovfi Vulff ^^^y s^f'^f^^^^^' Hence it is said by the Prophet; Take ye Jer.9,4. Ji(.ed every one of his neiyhbour, and trust ye not in any Matt, brother. Hence it is again written ; And a mail's foes shall 10, 36. j^ ^^^^y ^j' j^^g ^^^^^ household. For when the crafty adversary sees himself driven back from the hearts of the good, he seeks out those that they very much love, and he speaks sweetly to them by the words of such as are beloved by them above others, that whilst the force of love penetrates the heart, the sword of his persuading may easily force a way in to the defences of inward uprightness. Thus after the losses of his goods, after the death of his children, after the wounding and rending of his limbs, the old foe put in motion the tongue of his wife.

And observe the time when he aimed to corrupt the mind of the man with poisoned talk. For it was after the wounds that the words were brought in by him ; doubtless that, as the force of the pain waxed greater, the fro ward dictates of his persuasions might easily prevail. But if we minutely consider the order itself of his temptation, we see with what craft he worketh his cruelty. For he first directed Earthen vessel broken, Treasure within safe. 139 against him the losses of his goods, which should be at oncCj Book as they were, out of the province of nature, and without the — body. He withdrew from him his children, a tiling now no longer indeed without the province of nature, but still in some degree beyond his own body. Lastly, he smote even his body. But because, by these wounds of the flesh, he could not attain to wound the soul, he sought out the tongue of the woman that was joined to him. For because it sorely grieved him to be overcome in open fight, he flung a javelin from the mouth of the wife, as if from a place of ambush : as she said, Dost thou still retain thine inte(/ritf/? Bless God and die. Mark how in trying him, he took away every thing, and again in trying him, left him his wife, and shewed craftiness in stripping him of every thing, but infinitely greater cunning, in keeping the woman as his abettor, to say, Dost thou still retain thine integrity ?

Eve repeats her own words. For what is it to say, * give over thine integrity,' but * disregard obedience by eating the forbidden thing?' And what is it to say. Bless ^ God and die, but ' live ' see p. by mounting above the commandment, above what thou wast created to be V But our Adam lay low upon a dunghill in strength, who once stood up in Paradise in weakness. For thereupon he replied to the words of his evil counsellor, saying, Ver. 10. Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. IVtiat? shall ice receive good at the hand of God, and shall ice not receive evil /

See the enemy is every where broken, every where overcome, in all his a])pliances of temptation he has been brought to the ground, in that he has even lost that accustomed consolation which he derived from the woman. Amid these circumstances it is good to contemplate the holy man, without, void of goods, witliin, filled with God. When Paul viewed in himself the riches of internal wisdom, yet saw himself outwardly a corruptible body, he says, /f'(e2Cor. hare this treasure in earthen ressels. You see, the eartlien ' vessel in blessed Job felt those gaping sores without, but this treasure remained entire within. For without he cracked in his wounds, but the treasure of Avisdom unfailingly springing up within issued forth in words of holy instruction. 140 In what sense God sends us Evil. Job 2, saying, If we have received good at the hand of the Lord, -r^ — shall we not receive evil ? meaning by the good, either the temporal or the eternal gifts of God, and by the evil, denoting the strokes of the present time, of which the Lord saith by Is. 45, ^}jQ Prophet, / am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. Not that evil, which does not subsist by its own nature, is created by the Lord, but the Lord shews Himself as creating evil, when He turns into a scourge the things that have been created good for us, upon our doing evil, that the very same things should at the same time both by the pain which they inflict be to transgressors evil, and yet good by the nature whereby they have their being.

And hence poison is to man indeed death, but life to the serpent. For we by the love of things present have been led away from the love of our Creator ; and whereas the froward mind submitted itself to fondness for the creature, it parted from the Creator's communion, and so it was to be smitten by its Maker by means of the things which it had erringly preferred to its Maker, that by the same means whereby man in his pride was not afraid to commit sin, he might find a punishment to his correction, and might the sooner recover himself to all that he had lost, the more he perceived that the things which he aimed at were full of pain. And hence it is rightly said, I form the light, and create darkness. For when the darkness of pain is created by strokes without, the light of the mind is kindled by instruction within. I make peace, and create evil. For peace with God is restored to us then, when the things which, though rightly created, are not rightly coveted, are turned into such sort of scourges as are evil to us. For we are become at variance with God by sin. Therefore it is meet that we should be brought back to peace with Him by the scourge, that whereas every being created good turns to pain for us, the mind of the chastened man may be renewed in a humbled state to peace with the Creator. These scourges, then, blessed Job names evil, because he considers with what violence they smite the good estate of health and tranquillity.

But this we ought especially to regard in his words, viz. with what a skilful turn of reflection he gathers himself His gifts a coii\fort in sorrow. WomaiCs ?iature not eml. 141 up to meet the persuading of his wife, saying, If we have Book received good at the hand of the Lord, shall we not receive '— evil? For it is a mighty solace of our tribulation, if, when we suffer afflictions, we recall to remembrance our Maker's gifts to us. Nor does that break down our force, which falls upon us in the smart, if that quickly comes to mind, which lifts us up in the gift. For it is hence written, In the day qfY.cc\\x9, prosperity he not unmindful of affliction, and in the day of^^^ ^' affliction be not unmindful of prosperity. For whosoever receives God's gifts, but in the season of gifts has no fear of strokes, is brought to a fall by joy in his elation of mind. And whoever is bruised with scourges, yet, in the season of the scourges, neglects to take comfort to himself from the gifts, which it has been his lot to receive, is thrown down from the stedfastness of his mind by despair on every hand. Thus then both must be united, that each may always have the other's support, so that both remembrance of the gift may moderate the pain of the stroke, and misgiving and dread of the stroke may bite down the joyousness of the gift.

And thus the holy man, to soothe the depression of his mind amidst his wounds, in the pains of the strokes weighs the sweetness of the gifts, saying, If ue have received good at the hand of the Lord, shall we not receive evil ? And he does well in saying first, Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women. For because it is the sense of a bad woman, and not her sex, that is in fault, he never says, * Thou hast spoken like one of the women,' but * of the foolish women,' clearly that it might be shewn, that whatsoever is of ill sense cometh of superadded folly, and not of nature so formed. The account goes on ; In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

We sin with our lips in two ways; either when we say x. unjust things, or withhold the just. For if it were not sometimes a sin also to be silent, the Prophet would never say, JVoe is me, that I held my peace. Blessed Job, then, in all Is. 6, 5. that he did, sinned no wise with his lips; in that he neither ^"'^* spake proudly against the smiter, nor withheld the right answer to the adviser. Neither by speech, therefore, nor by silence did he offend, who both gave thanks to the Father that smote him, and administered wisdom of instruction to 14*2 Satf/fi's last 7'esoiirce Jo b\<ijr tends, tJioiajh good me)}. the ill-advising wife. For because he knew what he owed to God, what to his neighbour, viz. resignation to his Creator, wisdom to his wife, therefore he both instructed her by his uttering reproof, and magnified Him by giving thanks. But which is there of us, who, if he were to receive any single wound of such severe infliction, would not at once be laid low in the interior? See, that when outwardly prostrated by the wounds of the flesh, he abides inwardly erect in the fences of the mind, and beneath him he sees every dart fly past wherewith the raging enemy transfixes him outwardly with unsparing hand; watchfully he catches the javelins, now cast, in wounds, against him in front, and now, in words, as it were from the side. And our champion encompassed with the rage of the besetting fight, at all points presents his shield of patience, meets the darts coming in on every hand, and on all virtue's sides wheels round the guarded mind to front the assailing blows.

But the more valiantly our old enemy is overcome, the more hotly is he provoked to further arts of malice. For whereas the wife when chidden was silent, he forthwith set on others to rise up in insults till they must be chidden "*. For as he essayed to make his blows felt, by the often repeated tidings of the losses of his substance, so he now busies himself to penetrate that firm heart by dealing reiterated strokes with the insults of the lips. It proceeds ; Ver. 1 1 . Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him, xi. 19. We have it proved to us how great a love they entertained both for each other, and for the smitten man, in that they came by agreement to administer consolation to him when afilicted. Though even by this circumstance, viz. that Scripture bears witness they were the friends of so great a man, it is made appear that they were men of a good spirit and right intention ; though this very intention of * Ben. increpandi. Some Mss. ' inin their chiding should rise even to increpando,' which gives the sense, * who suits.' They make themselves like hun in sympaihij. 14o mind, when they break forth into words, upon indiscretion Book arising, becomes clouded in the sight of the strict Judge. It '— goes on ; Ver. 12. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

Because the scourge had altered the appearance of the stricken man, his friends * lift up their voice and weep,' * rend their garments,' * sprinkle dust upon their heads ;' that seeing him altered to whom they had come, their voluntary grief might likewise alter the very appearance even of the comforters also. For the order in consolation is, that when we would stay one that is afflicted from his grief, we first essay to accord with his soriow by grieving. For he can never comfort the mourner who does not suit himself to his grief, since from the very circumstance that his own feelings are at variance with the mourner's distress, he is rendered the less welcome to him, from whom he is parted by the character of his feelings; the mind therefore must first be softened down, that it may accord with the distressed, and by according attach itself, and by attaching itself draw him. For iron is not joined to iron, if both be not melted by the burning efl'ect of fire, and a hard substance does not adhere to a soft, unless its hardness be first made soft by tempering, so as in a manner to become the very thing, to which our object is that it should hold. Thus we neither lift up the fallen, if we do not bend from the straightness of our standing posture. For, whereas the uprightness of him that standeth disagreeth with the posture of one lying, he nevet can lift him to whom he cares not to lower himself;

and so the friends of blessed Job, that they might stay him under affliction from his grief, were of necessity solicitous to grieve with him, and when they beheld his wounded body, they set themselves to rend their own ganuents, and when they saw him altered, they betook themselves to defiling their heads with dust, that the afflicted man might the more readily give ear to their words, that he recognised in them somewhat of his own in the way of affliction. 21. lUit herein be it known, that lie who desires to comfort 144 Job' s friends even too much grieved for him. Job 2, the afl9icted, must needs set a measure to the grief, to which ^^•^ he submits, lest he should not only fail of soothing the mourner, but, by the intemperance of his grief, should sink the mind of the afflicted to the heaviness of despair. For our grief ought to be so blended with the grief of the distressed, that by quaUfying it may lighten it, and not by increasing weigh it down. And hence perhaps we ought to gather, that the friends of blessed Job in administering consolation gave themselves up to grief more than was needed, in that while they mark the stroke, but are strangers to the mind of him that was smitten, they betake themselves to unmeasured lamentation, as if the smitten man who was of such high fortitude, under the scourge of his body, had fallen in mind too.

It proceeds ; Ver. 13. So Ihey mi down with him upon the ground seven days and seven flights, and none spake a word unto him ; for they saw that his grief was very great. xiii. 22. Whether they sat with the afflicted Job for seven days and seven nights together, or possibly for seven days and as many nights kept by him in assiduous and frequent visiting, we cannot teU. For we are often said to be doing any thing for so many days, though we may not be continually busied therein all those days. And often holy Scripture is wont to % put the whole for a part, in like manner as it does a part for i the whole. Thus it speaks of a part for the whole, as where, Gen.46, in describing Jacob's household, it says, All the souls of the ^'' house of Jacob which came into Egypt were threescore and ten. Where indeed, while it makes mention of souls, it clearly takes in the bodies also of the comers. Again it puts in the whole for a part, as where at the tomb Mary John 20 complains, saying, They have taken away my Lord, and I 2know not where they have laid Him. For it was the Body of the Lord only that she had come to seek, and yet she bewails the Lord as though His whole Person had been » tultum altogether taken away'; and so in this place too it is doubtful whether the whole is put for a part.

Yet this circumstance, viz. that they were a long while silent, and yet in speaking after all were condemned, must not be passed over carelessly. For there are some men who both begin to speak with precipitation, and follow Job^s Jrie/ids sinned by dolmj a good work ill, 145 out that unchecked beginning with still less check. While Book there are some who are indeed backward to begin to speak, but having once begun know not how to set limits to their words. Accordingly the fiiends of blessed Job, upon seeing his grief, were for long silent, yet, whilst slow to begin, they spoke with indiscretion, because they would not spare him in his grief. They held their tongue that it might not begin over-hastily, but once begun they never ruled it, that it might not let itself out from imparting consolation so far as to offer insults. And they indeed had come with a good intention to give comfort; yet that which the pious mind offered to God pure, their hasty speech defded. For it is written, J/ thou Gen. 4, offerest righlbj, but dividest not rightly, thou hast sinned. For it is rightly offered, when the thing that is done is done with a right intention. But it is not * rightly divided,' unless that which is done with a pious mind be made out with exact discrimination. For to " divide the offering aright' is to weigh all our good aims, carefully discriminating them ; and whoso puts by doing this, even when w^e offer aright, is guilty of sin.

And so it often happens, that in what we do with a good aim, by not exercising careful discrimination therein, we know nothing what end it will be judged withaP, and\quojusometinies that becomes ground of accusation, which is fine accounted an occasion of virtue. But whoever considers the doings of blessed Job's friends, cannot but see with what a pious intention they came to him. For let us consider, what great love it shewed to have come together by agreement to the stricken man; what a preeminent degree of longsuffering it proved to be with the afflicted, without speaking, seven days and nights ; what humility, to sit upon the earth so many days and nights ; what compassion, to sprinkle their heads with dust ! But yet when they began to speak, by the same means, whereby they reckoned to win the price of a reward, it was their lot to meet with the arraignment of rebuke; for to the unwary even that which is begun for the object of recompense alone, oftentimes turns to an issue in sin. Observe ! by hasty speech they lost that good which it cost them so much labour to purchase. And unless the grace of God had bidden them to offer sacrifice for their 146 Ood judges good works, much more evil ones. Job 2, guilt, they might have been justl}' punished by the Lord, on the very grounds whereon they reckoned themselves exceedHist.

ing well-pleasing to Him. By the same proceeding they displease the Judge, whereby, as if in that Judge's defence, they please themselves through want of self-control. Now it is for this reason that we speak thus, that we may recall to the recollection of our readers, for each one to consider heedfully with himself, with what dread visitations the Lord punishes the actions which are done with an evil design, if those which are begun with a good aim, but mixed with the heedlessness of indiscretion, are chastised with such severe rebuke. For who would not believe that he had secured himself ground of recompense, either if in God's defence he had said aught against his neighbour, or at all events if in sorrow for a neighbour he had kept silence seven days and nights? And yet the friends of blessed Job by doing this were brought into sin for their pains, because while the good aim of comforting which they were about was known to them, yet they did not know with what a balance of discretion it was to be done. Whence it appears that we must not only regard what it is that we do, but also with what discretion we put it in execution. First indeed, that we may never do evil in any manner, and next, that we may not do our good deeds without caution ; and it is in fact to perform these good deeds with carefulness, that the Prophet admonishes Jer.

48, us when he says, Cursed be he that doeth the work of the y^i Lord negligently. But let these things stand us in stead to this end, that before the exact and incomprehensible scrutiny of the Awful Judge shall be, w^e may not only fear for all that we have done amiss, but if there be in us aught of the kind, for the very things that we have done well; for oftentimes that is found out to be sin at His Judgment, which before the Judgment passes for virtue, and from the same source, whence we look for the merciful recompense of our works, there comes upon us the chastisement of righteous vengeance. Alleg. 25. We have run through these particulars thus briefly considered according to the letter of the history, now let us turn our discourse to the mystical sense of the allegory. But as, when, at the beginning of this work, we were Sufferings of the Body typified with those qf the Head. 147 treating of the union betwixt the Head and the Body, we Book premised with earnest emphasis how close the bond of love was between them, forasmuch as both the Lord in fact still suffers many things by His Body, which is all of us, and His Body, i. e. the Church, already glories in its Head, viz. the Lord, in heaven ; so now we ought in such sort to set forth the sufferings of that Head, that it may be made appear how much He undergoes in His Body also.

For if the torments that we endure did not reach our Head, He would never cry out to His persecutor even from heaven in behalf of His afflicted Members, Haul^ Saul^ why persecutest thou Me '^ Acta 9, If our agony were not His pain, Paul, when afflicted after ^* his conversion, would never have said, I Jill up that which^^^1> is behitid q/' the ajfiictions of Christ in my Jiesh. And yet being already elevated by the resurrection of his Head, he says. And hath raised us up together , and made us svVEph. 2, together in heavenly places ; in this way, namely, that the ' tonnents of persecution had enchained him on earth, yet while sunk down with the weight of his pains, lo, he was already seated in heaven, through the glory of his Head. Therefore because we know that in all things the Head and the Body are one, we in such wise begin with the smiting of the Head that we may afterwards come to the strokes of the Body. But this, viz. that it is said, " that on a day Satan came to present himself before tlie Lord ;" that he is interrogated * whence he comes V that the blessed Job is distinguished by his Creator's high proclaim; forasmuch as we have already made it out more than once, we forbear to explain again. For if the mind is a long time involved in points that have been examined, it is hindered in coming to those which have not been, and so we now put the beginning of the allegory there, where, after often repeated words, we find something new added.

So then He says, Ver. 3. Though thou moredst Me agai)ist him, to destroy him without cause. 26. If blessed Job bears the likeness of our Redeemer in His Passion, how is it that the Lord says to Satan, Thmc ftiovedst Me against him? Truly the Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, came to bear the scourges of our mortal nature, that He might put away the 148 The Father how ^ movecV agai/tst Christ'' without cause »^ Job 2, sins of our disobedience ; but forasmuch as He is of one and ' — the self-same nature with the Father, how does the Father * declare that He was moved by Satan against Him, when it is acknowledged that no inequality of power, no diversity of will, interrupts the harmony between the Father and the Son? Yet He, that is equal to the Father by the Divine Nature, came for our sakes to be under stripes in a fleshly nature. Which stripes He would never have undergone, if he had not taken the form of accursed man in the work of their redemption. And unless the first man had transgressed, the I second would never have come to the ignominies of the f Passion. When then the first man was moved by Satan from ' comthe Lord, then the Lord was moved' against the second Man. motus ^Yi^ so Satan then moved the Lord to the affliction of this latter, when the sin of disobedience brought down the first man from the height of uprightness.

For if he had not drawn the first Adam by wilful sin into the death of the soul, 'the second Adam, being without sin, would never have come into the voluntary death of the flesh, and therefore it is with justice said to him of our Redeemer too. Thou movedst Me 2 E. V. against him to afflicthim without cause. As though it were destroy g^j^ '^^ plainer words; ' Whereas this Man dies not on His own account, but on account of that other, thou didst then move Me to the afflicting of This one, when thou didst withdraw that other from Me by thy cunning persuasions.' And of Him it is rightly added, without cause. For ' he was destroyed without cause,"* who was at once weighed to the earth by the avenging of sin, and not defiled by the pollution of sin. He ^ was destroyed without cause,' Who, being made incarnate, had no sins of His own, and yet being without offence took upon Himself the punishment of the carnal. For it is hence Pa. 69, that speaking by the Prophet He says, Then I restored that *' which I took not away. For that other that was created for Paradise would in his pride have usurped the semblance of the Divine power, yet the Mediator, Who was without guilt, discharged the guilt of that pride. It is hence that a Wise "Wisd. Man saith to the Father; Forasmuch then as Thou art Vulg. righteous Thyself, Thou order est all things righteously; Thou condemnest Him too that deserveth not to be punished,

But we must consider how He is righteous and ordereth God Just ill affllcliny Christ. Satan misjudtjed Hitn. J 4!) all things righteously, if He condemns Him that deserveth Book • TTT not to be punished. For our Mediator deserved not to be '— punished for Himself, because He never was guilty of any defilement of sin. But if He had not Himself undertaken a death not due to Him, He would never have freed us from one that was justly due to us. And so whereas * The Father is righteous,' in punishing a righteous man, ' He ordereth all things righteously,' in that by these means He justifies all things, viz. that for the sake of sinners He condemns Him Who is without sin ; that all the Elect' might rise up to the height i electa of righteousness, in proportion as He Who is above all°"^°'* underwent the penalties of our unrighteousness. What then is in that place called ' being condemned without deserving,' is here spoken of as being ^ afilicted without cause.' Yet though in respect of Himself He was ' afilicted without cause,' in respect of our deeds it was not ' without cause.' For the rust of sin could not be cleared away, but by the fire of torment. He then came without sin. Who should submit Himself voluntarily to torment, that the chastisements due to our wickedness might justly loose the parties thereto obnoxious, in that they had unjustly kept Him, Who was free of them.

Thus it was both without cause, and not without cause, that He was afflicted, Who had indeed no crimes in Himself, but Who cleansed with His blood the stain of our guilt. Ver. 4, 5. And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth Thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face.

When the evil spirit sees our Redeemer shine forth by miracles, he cries out, We know Who Thou art, the Holy Luke 4, One of God. And in saying this, he dreads, whilst he owns,^^* the Son of God. Yet being a stranger to the power of heavenly pity, there are seasons when, beholding Him subject to suffering, he supposes Him to be mere man. Now he had learnt that there were many in the pastoral station, cloked under the guise of sanctity, who, being very far removed from the bowels of charity, held for very little other men's ills. And thus as though judging of Him by other men, because after much had been taken from Him, he did 150 Satan how let loose against the Flesh of our Lord, Job 2, not see him subdued, he so flamed against Him even to ■j^ — His very flesh, in applying the touch of suff^ering, as to say, Skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth Thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he ivill curse Thee to Thy face. As though he said in plain terms, ' He does not care to be moved by the things that are without Him, but it will then be really known what He is, if He shall experience in Himself what may make Him grieve.' This Satan expressed in his own person not by words, but by wishes, when he desired to have it brought to pass ;

in his members he brought it on both by words and wishes at once. For it is himself that speaks, when, according to the words of the Prophet, his followers Jer. 11, say. Let its pict the wood in his bread^, and let us raze him l^' out from the land of the living. For ' to put the wood into the bread,' is to apply the trunk of the cross to His body in affixing Him thereto; and they think themselves able to * raze out' His life from the land of the living. Whom vv^hile they perceive Him to be mortal mould, they imagine to be put an end to by death. Ver. 6. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. xvi. 29. What fool even would believe that the Creator of all things w^as given up into * the hands of Satan ?' Yet who that is instructed by the Truth can be ignorant that of that very Satan all they are members who are joined unto him by living frowardly ? Thus Pilate shewed himself a member of him, who, even to the extremity of putting Him to death, knew not the Lord when He came for our Redemption. The chief priests proved themselves to be his body, who strove to drive the world's Redeemer from the world, by persecuting Him even to the cross. When then the Lord for our salvation gave Himself up to the hands of Satan's members, what else did He, but let loose that Satan's hand to rage against Himself, that by the veiy act whereby He Himself outwardly fell low, He might set us free both outwardly and inwardly.

If therefore the hand of Satan is taken for his power, He after the flesh bore the hand of him, whose power over the body He endured even to the spitting, the buffetting, the '' E. V. Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof. Our Lord permitted as God ivhat He bore as Ma?i. 151 stripes, the cross, the lance; and hence when He cometh to Book • • • TTT His Passion He saith to Pilate, i. e. to the body of Satan, Thou couldest have no power at all against Me except itu, * were given thee from above ; and yet this power, which He had given to him against Himself without, He compelled to serve the end of His own interest within. For Pilate, or Satan who was that Pilate's head, was held under the power of that One over Whom he had received power ; in that being far above He had Himself ordained that which now condescending to an inferior condition He was undergoing from the persecutor, that though it ai*ose from the evil mind of unbelievers, yet that very cruelty itself might also serve to the weal of all the Elect, and therefore He pitifully ordained all that within, which He suffered Himself to undergo thus foully without. And it is hence that it is said of Him at the supper, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all thitigs Johni3, into His hands, and that He ivas come from God, and went^' to God :

He risethfrom supper, and laid aside His garments. Behold how, when He was about to come into the hands of those that persecuted Him, He knew that those very persecutors even had been given into His own hand. For He, Who knew that He had received all things, plainly held those very persons by whom He was held, that He should Himself inflict on Himself, for the purposes of mercy, whatsoever their permitted wickedness should cruelly devise against Him. Let it then be said to him, Behold, he is in thine hand, in that when ravening thereafter he received penuission to smite His flesh, yet unwittingly he rendered service to the Power of that Being.

Now he is ordered to * save the life of the soul",' not that he is forbidden to tempt it, but that he is convicted of being unable to overcome it. For never, as we that are mere men are oftentimes shaken by the assault of temptation, was the soul of your Redeemer disordered by its urgency. For though our enemy, being pennilted, took Him up into an high mountain, though he promised that he would give Him the kingdoms of the earth, and though he shewed Him • The word is * anima,' which sigtained in us: * the life of the soul' may nifiea the soul a^i well as that union serve to include both those senses. with the body, by which life is main152 Satan forced to spare Christ'' s Elect, as JoVs life. Job 2, stones as to be turned into bread, yet he had no power to Alleg shake by temptation the mind of the Mediator betwixt God and man. For He so condescended to take all this upon Himself externally, that His mind, being still inwardly established in His Divine Nature, should remain unshaken. John 11, And if He is at any time said to be troubled and to have 38' groaned i?i the spirit^ He did Himself in His Divine nature ordain how much He should in His Human nature be troubled, unchangeably ruling over all things, yet shewing Himself subject to change in the satisfying of human frailty; and thus remaining at rest in Himself, He ordained whatsoever He did even with a troubled spirit for the setting forth of that human nature which He had taken upon Himself.

But as, when we love aright, there is nothing among created things that we love better than the life of our soul, and like as we say that we love those as our soul toward whom we strive to express the weight of our love, it may be 1 per that by the life of His SouP, is represented the life^ of the aniraam Elect. And while Satan is let loose to smite the Redeemer's « vita flesh, he is debarred the soul, forasmuch as at the same time that he obtains His Body to inflict upon it the Passion, he loses the Elect from the claims of his power. And while That One's flesh suffers death by the Cross, the mind of these is stablished against assaults. Let it then be said. Behold, he is in thine hand; hut sat^ his life. As if he had heard in plain words, * Take permission against His Body, and lose thy right of wicked dominion over His Elect, whom foreknovdng in Himself before the w^orld began He hcldeth for His own.' Ver. 7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Joh ivith sore boils, from the sole of his foot unto his crown. xvii. .32. No one entereth into this life of the Elect, that has not undergone the contradictions of this enemy. And they all have proved themselves the members of our Redeemer, who, from the first beginning of the w-orld, whilst living righteously, have suffered wrongs.

Did not Abel prove himself His member, who not only in propitiating God by his sacrifice, but also by dying without a word, was a figure Christ cleanses away sin by Fleshy as with Job's potsherd. 153 of Him, of whom it is written, He is brought as a lamb to Book the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, -Ull^ so He openeth not His mouth. Thus from tlie very begin7/ ' ning of the world he strove to vanquish the Body of our Redeemer ; and thus He inflicted wounds ' from the sole of the foot to His crown,' in that beginning with mere ^ men, he came to the very Head of the Church in his raging efforts. And it is well said; Ver. 8. And he took him a potsherd to scrape the humour tcithal.

For what is the potsherd in the hand of the Lord, but the flesli which He took of the clay of our nature ? For the potsherd receives firmness by fire. And the Flesh of our Lord was rendered stronger by His Passion, in so far as dying by infirmity, He arose from death void of infirmity. And hence too it is ri^^htly delivered by the Prophet, My Ps. 22, strength is dried up like a potsherd. For His ' strength ^^' was dried up like a potsherd,' Who strengthened the infirmity of the flesh which He took upon Him by the fire of His Passion. But what is to be understood b}^ humour ^ ^ saniem saving sin ? For it is the custom to denote the sins of the flesh by flesh and blood. And hence it is said by the Psalmist, Deliver me from blood. Humour then is theps. 51, corruption of the blood. And so what do we understand by ^^' humour but the sins of the flesh, rendered worse by length of time } Thus the wound turns to humour when sin, being neglected % is aggravated by habit. And so the Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, in giving up His Body into the hands of those that persecuted Him, scraped the humour with a potsherd, forasmuch as He put away sin by the flesh ; for He came, as it is \^Titten, in theK.nm.8y likeness of sinful Jlexh^ that He might condemn sin of sin.^^ ^^' And whilst He presented the purity of His own Flesh to the enemy, He cleansed away the defilements of ours.

And by means of that flesh whereby the enemy held us captive, He made atonement for us whom He set free. For that which <• ' Puris,' which St. Gr. u'^es iu this • The Translator suggests neglecta nense. Some Mks. read ' Primis,' *■ the for neglect&, which seems better, first men.' 154 Christ rents on the dunghill by coming to the Penitent. Job 3, was made an instrument of sin by us, was by our Mediator - — '- — converted for us into the instrument^ of righteousness. And Alleg. . J ij so ' the humour is scraped with a potsherd/ when sin is overcome by the flesh. It is rightly subjoined ; And he sat down upon a dunghill. xix. 34. Not in the court in which the law resounds, not in the building which lifts its top on high, but on a dunghill he takes his seat, which is because the Redeemer of man on 1 Cor. coming to take the flesh, as Paul testifies, hath chosen the 1,27. ° weak things of the world to confound the mightg. Does not He, as it were, sit down upon a dunghill, the buildings being ruined. Who, the Jews in their pride being left desolate, rests in that Gentile world, which He had for so long time rejected ? He is found outside the dwelling all in His sores, Who herein, that He bore with Judaea, which set itself against Him, suffered the pain of His Passion amid the scorn of John I, His own people;

as John bears witness, who says, He came unto His own, but His own received Him not. And how He rests Himself upon a dunghill, let this same Truth say Luke for Himself; for He declares. Likewise I say unto you, and Vo ^^*^^^ ^'^ j^y ^^ ^^^^ presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. See, He sits upon a dunghill in grief. Who, after sins have been committed, is willing to take possession of penitent hearts. Are not the hearts of penitent sinners like a kind of dunghill, in that while they review their misdoings with bewailing, they are, as it were, heaping dung before their eyes in abusing themselves ? So when Job was smitten he did not seek a mountain, but sat down upon a dunghill, in that when our Redeemer came to His Passion, He left the high minds of the proud, and rested in the lowliness of the heavy laden. And this, while yet before His Incarnation, He indicated, Is. 66,2. when He said by the Prophet, But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word. 35. But who can think what numberless outrages He underwent at the hands of men, Who shewed to men such ^ anna J Gr. either anus or instruments. Job'a Wife a type of the Carnal in the Church, 155 unnumbered mercies ?

Who can think how ereat those are Book which He even yet undergoes, yea now that He reigns from above over the hearts of the faithful ? For it is He that endures daily all wherein His Elect are racked and rent by the hands of the reprobate. And though the Head of this Body, which same are we, already lifts itself free above all things, yet He still feels in His Body, which He keeps here below, the wounds dealt it by reprobate sinners. But why do we speak thus of unbelievers, when within the very Church itself we see multitudes of carnal men, who fight against the life of our Redeemer by their wicked ways. For there are some, who set upon Him with evil deeds, because they cannot with swords, forasmuch as when they see that what they go after is lacking to them in the Church, they become enemies to the just, and not only settle themselves into wicked practices, but are also busy to bend the uprightness of good men to a crooked "course. For they neglect to lift their eyes to the things of eternity, and in littleness of mind they yield themselves up to the lust of temporal things, and they fall the deeper from eternal blessings, in proportion as they look upon temporal blessings as the only ones. The simplicity of the righteous is displeasing to these, and when they find opportunity for disturbing them, ihey press them to lay hold of their own duplicity. Hence also this is in just accordance, which is added, Ver. 9. Tlien said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die.

For of what did that mispersuading woman bear the likeness, but of all the carnal that are settled in the bosom of Holy Church, who in proportion as by the words of the Faith they profess they are within the pale, press harder on all the good by their ill-regulated conduct. For they would perchance have done less mischief, if Holy Church had not admitted in and welcomed to the bed of faith those, whom, by receiving in a profession of faith, she doubtless puts it almost out of her power to eschew. It is hence that in the press of the crowd one woman touched our Redeemer, whereupon tlie same our Redeemer at once saith. Mho touched Me? And when the disciples answered Him, The multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Ji'ho touched 1 56 The carnalpressy but touch nol Christ* Motivesfor ill advice. Job 2, Me? He therefore subjoined, Somebody hath touched Me, - — '■ — /or I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.

Thus many press the Lord, but one alone touches Him ; in that all carnal men in the Church press Him, from Whom they are far removed, while they alone touch Him, who are really united to Him in humility. Therefore the crowd presses Him, in that the multitude of the carnally minded, as it is within the pale, so is it the more hardly borne with. It ' presses,' but it does not ' touch,' in that it is at once troublesome by its presence, and absent by its way of life. For sometimes they pursue us with bad discourse, and sometimes with evil practices alone, for so at one time they persuade to what they practise, and at another, though they use no persuasions, yet they cease not to afford examples of wickedness. They, then, that entice us to do evil either by word or by example, are surely our persecutors, to whom we owe the conflicts of temptation, which we have to conquer at least in the heart.

But we should know that carnal men in the Church set themselves to prompt wickedness at one time from a principle of fear, and at another of audacity, and when they themselves go wrong either from littleness of mind or pride of heart, they study to infuse these qualities, as if out of love, into the hearts of the righteous. So Peter, before the Death and Resurrection of our Lord, retained a carnal mind. It was with a carnal mind that the son of Zeruiah held to his leader David, whom he was joined to. Yet the one was led into sin by fear, the other by pride. For the first, when Matt, he heard of his Master's Death, said. Be it far from Thee, ' ' Lord; this shall not he unto Thee. But the latter, not en2 Sam. during the wrongs offered to his leader, says. Shall not ' * Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord's Matt, anointed '^ But to the first it is immediately replied. Get ' ' thee behind Me, Satan. And the other with his brother 2 Sam. immediately heard the words ; What have I to do with you, ' ' ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye are this day turned into a 'So Satan^ unto me? So that evil prompters are taken for E. V. apostate angels in express designation, who, as if in lore, Adverj^.^^^, ^^^^^^^ ^^ unlawful deeds by their enticing words.

But they are much the worse, who give into this sin not from The Elect resist foes by patience^ sustain friends by counsel. 1 57 fear but I'lom pride, of whom the wife of blessed Job bore ''^'<^k the figure in a special uiaiiner, in that she sought to prompt high thoughts to her husband, saying. Dost thou still retain thine i)ite(jrHy? Curse Cod, ana die. She blames the simplicity in her husband, that in contempt of all things transitory, with a pure heart, he longs after the eternal only. As though she said, ' Why dost thou in thy simplicity seek after the things of eternity, and in resignation groan under the weight of present ills ? Transgress ', and contemn > Exceeternity, and even by dying escape from present woes.' But when any of the Elect encounter evil within coming from carnal men, what a modeP of uprightness they exhibitfoiin themselves, let us learn from the words of him, wounded" and yet whole, seated yet erect, who says, Ver. 10. 77/0// speakest as one of the foolish icomen spcaketh. What? shall we receive yood at the hand qf the Lord, and shall ue not receive evil?

Holy men, when fastened upon by the war of afflictions, when at one and the same moment they are exposed to this party dealing them blows and to that urging persuasions, present to the one sort the shield of patience, at the other they launch the darts of instruction, and lift themselves up to either mode of warfare with a wonderful skill in virtue, so that they should at the same time both instruct with wisdom the froward counsels within, and contemn with courage the adverse events without ; that by their instructions they may amend the one sort, and by their endurance put down the other. For the assailing foes they contemn by bearing them, and the crippled citizens they recover to a state of soundness, by sympathizing with them. Those they resist, that they may not draw off others also ; they alann themselves for these, lest they should wholly lose tlie life of righteousness.

Let us view the soldier of God's camp fighting against either sort. He says. Without were Jiyhtinys, within were 2 Cot. fears. He reckons up the wars, which he under\\'ent ex- "» ^* ternally, in these words, In perils of waters^ in perils of 2 Cor. robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by ///e^''^*' heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils amonj false brethren. Now in this war, what were those darts which he sent against 158 St. Paul, himself' suffering, careful for others. Job 2, the foe, let him add, In weariness and paitifulness, in watch- . ' — ings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold ib. 27. and nakedness. And let him say, when caught amidst such numerous assaults, with what a watchful defence he at the same time guarded the camp too. For he forthwith proib. 28. ceeds, Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. See how bravely he takes upon himself those fights, how mercifully he spends himself in defending his neighbours. He describes the ills which he suffers, he subjoins the good that he imparts. So let us consider how toilsome it must be, at one and the same time to undergo troubles without, and to defend the weak within. Without, fightings are his lot, in that he is torn with stripes and bound with chains;

within he suffers alarm, in that he dreads lest his sufferings do a mischief, not to himself but to his disciples. And hence 1 Thess. he writes to those same disciples, saying. That no man should ' * be moved by these ajfiictions; for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For in suffering himself he feared for the fate of others, lest while the disciples perceive him to be afflicted for the faith with stripes, they be backward to confess themselves to be of the faithful. Oh! bowels of boundless love ! All that he suffers himself, he disregards, and is concerned lest the disciples should suffer ought of evil prompting within the heart. He slights the wounds of the body in himself, and heals the wounds of the soul in others. For the righteous have this proper to themselves, that in the midst of the pain of their own woe, they never give over the care of others' weal, and when in suffisring afflictions they grieve for themselves, still by giving needful instruction they provide for others, and are like some great physicians, that being smitten are brought into a state of sickness. They themselves suffer from the lacerations of the wound, yet they proffer the salves of saving health to others. But it is very far less toilsome, either to instruct when you are not suffering, or to suffer when you are not giving instruction. Hence holy men skilfully apply their energies to both objects, and when they chance to be stricken with afflictions, they so meet the wars from without, that they take anxious thought that their neighbour's interior be not rent and torn.

Thus holy men stand up courageously in the line, Holy Church, looking above, reviles not when wronged. 15Ji and on the one band bmite with the iaveUn the breasts Book advanced against them, and on the other cover with the shield their feeble comrades in the rear. And thns with a rapid glance they look out on either side, that they may at the same time pierce their daring foes in front, and shield from wounds their trembling friends behind. Therefore, because holy men then are skilled so to meet adversities without, that they are at the same time able to correct froward counsels within, it may be well said. Thou speakest as one of (lie foolish women speakelh. For as it is said to the Elect, Act like men, and He shall comfort your heart; so Pg. 31, the minds of caraal men, which serve God with a yielding Vuig. purpose, are not undeservedly called ' women.' 4 1 . What ? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil f As though he said, * If we are bent upon eternal blessings, what wonder if we meet with temporal evils?' Now these blessings Paul had his eye fixed on with earnest interest, when he submitted with a composed mind to the ills that fell upon him, saying. For /Rom. 8, reckon that the sufferings of this present time are )wt worthy ^^' to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

In all this did not Job sin icith his lips. When holy men undergo persecution both within and without, tliey not only never transgress in injurious expressions against God, but they never launch words of reviling against their very adversaries themselves; which Peter, the leader of the good, rightly warns us of when he says, But let tiane of you ^ Pet. 4, suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an^ evil speaker. \ g^ For the evil speaker's way of suffering is, in the season of his ^"^g* suffering, to break loose in abuse at least of his persecutor. But forasmuch as the Body of our Redeemer, viz. Holy Church, so bears the burthen of her sorrows, that she never transgresses the bounds of humility by words, it is rightly said of this sorrower ; In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Ver. 11. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this ev^il that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Elijjhaz the Temanite^ and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naainathite.

In the Preface to this work we said that the friends 160 Heretics comefroyn ' iheir oioi placed i. e, pride. Job 2, of blessed Job, though tliey come together to hhn with a good purpose, yet do for this reason bear the likeness of Alleg. heretics, in that they fall away into sin by speaking without discretion ; and hence it is said to them by blessed Job, Job 13, Surely 1 icould speak to the Almighty, I desire to reason with God ; but ye are forgers of lies, and followers of corrupt doctrines. Thus Holy Church, which is set in the midst of tribulation all this time of her pilgrimage, whilst she suffers wounds, and mourns over the downfall of her members, has other enemies of Christ besides to bear with, under I Christ's name. For to the increasing of her grief, heretics also meet together in dispute and strife, and they pierce her with unreasonable words like as with a kind of dart.

And it is well said, they came every one from his own place. For ' the place' of heretics is very pride itself For except they first swelled with pride in their hearts, they would never enter the lists of false assertion. For the place of the wicked is pride, just as reversely humility is ' the Eccles. place' of the good. Whereof Solomon saith, If the spirit of ' ' the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place. As though he said in plain words, ' If thou perceivest the spirit of the Tempter to prevail against thee in aught, quit not the lowliness of penitence ;' and that it was the abasement of penitence that he called ^ our place,' he shews by the words that follow, Mb. fidiym^, for healing^ pacifieth great offences. For what else " ^* is the humility of mourning, save the remedy of sin. Heretics therefore ' come each from his place,' in that it is from pride tliat they are urged to attack Holy Church.

And their froward conduct, moreover, is collected from an interpretation of their names. For they are named ' Eliphaz,' ' Baldad,' ' Sophar;' and as we have said above, Eliphaz is, by interpretation, rendered, ' contempt of God.' For if they did not condemn God, they would never entertain wrong notions concerning Him. And Baldad is rendered * oldness alone.' For while they shrink from being fairly defeated, and seek to be victorious with froward purpose, they pay no regard to the conversation of the new life, and all that they give heed to is ' of oldness alone.' And Sophar, 'dissipating prospect;' for they that are set in Holy Church humbly contemplate with true faith the mysteries Meaning of the several habitations of Job* s friends. 161 of their Redeemer, but when heretics come to them with Book false statements, they * dissipate the prospect,' in that they turn aside from the aim of right contemplation the minds of those, whom they draw over to themselves.

Now the places from whence the\' come are described in fitting accordance with the practices of heretics. For there is aThemanite, and a Suhitc, and a Naamathite named. Now Theina is by interpretation * the south ;' Suhi^ ' speaking;' Nomina, * comeliness.' But who does not know tliat the south is a hot wind ; so heretics, as they are over ardent to be wise, studv to have heated wits bevond what needs. For sloth goes with the torpor of cold, whilst reversely the restlessness of unrestrained curiosity accords with unabated teeming heat, and so because they long to feel the heat of wisdom beyond what they ought, they are said to come from * the south.' Paul busied himself to cool the minds of the faithful to this heat of unrestrained wiseness, when he said, Not to be overwise beyond what he ought to be wise, Rom. but to be wise nnto sobriety. It is hence that David smites Vuig. at the valleys of salt, viz. in that our Redeemer, by the 2 5am. piercing of His severity, extinguishes the foolishness of unre- ' strained wit in all that entertain wrong notions regarding Him. And Suhi is rendered ' talking,' for they desire to be warm-witted, not that they may live well, but that they may talk high; thus they are said to come from Theina and Suhi, i. e. fi'om * heat,' and * talkativeness,' for herein, viz.

that thev shew themselves as studious of Scripture, they teem with words of talkativeness, but not with bowels of love. And Naama is interpreted * comeliness,' for because they aim not to be, but to appear learned, by words of deep learning ihey put on the guise of well living, and by their teeming wit in talk, exhibit in themselves a form of * comeliness,' that by the comeliness of the lips they may more easily recommend evil counsels, in proportion as they commonlv hide from our senses* the foulness of their lives, liut neither are the very names of the j)laces set down in undistinguished order in the relation. For Thema is set first, then Suhi, and next Naama, in that first an excessive warmtli of wit sets them on fire, next smartness of speech lifts them up, and I al. u ther hide by the running of their thought. 162 Heretics kindly called friends. They know not the Church, Job 2, then, finally, dissimulation presents them comely to the eyes of men. ALLECt. t^ 7 7 , T • 7 1 For they had made an appointment together to come ana mourn with him and to comfort him, xxiii. 46. Heretics * make an appointment together,' when they hold in common certain false opinions contrary to the Church, and in the points wherein they are at variance with the truth agree together in falsehood. But all they that give us instruction concerning eternity, what else are they doing, save amid the tribulations of our pilgrimage administering consolation to us ?

And forasmuch as heretics desire to impart to Holy Church their own opinions, they come to her as though to comfort her. Nor is it strange if they who set forth a figure of enemies, are called friends, when it is said Mat.26,to the very traitor. Friend^ wherefore art thou corned and the Lukeie "^^^^ ™^^^ *^^^ ^^ consumed in the fire of hell, is called son 25by Abraham. For though the wicked refuse to be amended by us, yet it is meet that we style them friends, not of their wickedness, but by virtue of our own lovingkindness. Ver. 1 2. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept. xxiv. 47. All heretics, in contemplating the deeds of Holy Church, lift up their eyes, in that they are themselves down below, and when they look at her works, the objects, which they are gazing at, are set high above them. Yet they do not know her in her sorrow, for she herself covets to * receive evil things' here, that so being purified she may attain to the reward of an eternal recompence, and for the most part she dreads prosperity, and joys in the hard lessons of her training. I Therefore heretics, who aim at present things as something great, know her not amidst her wounds. For that, which they see in her, they recognise not in the reading of their own hearts.

While she then is gaining ground even by her adversities, they themselves stick fast in their stupefaction, because they know not by experiment the things they see. And they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. XXV. 48. Like as we take the garments of the Church for the whole number of the faithful ; (and it is hence that the Is. 49, Prophet saith, Thou shall clothe thee with them all as with They rend those Ihey put on. Their thouyJits like dust. 163 an ornament ;) so the garments of heretics are all they that Book attaching themselves with one accord to them are implicated in their errors. But heretics have this point proper to I themselves, that they cannot remain stationary for long in that stage wherein they leave the Church, but they are day by day precipitated into further extremes, and by hatching worse opinions they split into manifold divisions, and are in most cases parted the wider from one another by their contention and disordcrment. Thus because all those, whom they attach to their ill faith', are further torn by them in ' perfiendless splitting, it may well be said that the friends who come rend theii* garments', but when the garments are rent, the body ' rumis shewn through; for it oftentimes happens, that when the^"° followers are rent and torn, the wickedness of their imaginings is disclosed, for discord to lay open the artifices, which their great guilt in agreeing together had heretofore kept close.

But now, they ' sprinkle dust upon their heads to heaven.' What is represented by c^W5/, saving earthly senses; what by the head, saving that which is our leading principle, viz. the mind \ What is set forth by ' heaven,' but the law of heavenly revelation } So, to ' sprinkle dust upon the head to heaven,' is to con'upt the mind with an earthly perception, and to put earthly senses upon heavenly words. Now they generally canvas the words of God more than they take them in, and for this reason they sprinkle dust upon their heads, forasmuch as they strain themselves in the precepts of God, following an earthly sense, beyond the powers of their mind. Ver. 13. So they sat down with him vpon the yroityid seven days and seven nights.

In the day we make out the objects that we look at, but in the night, either from the blindness we discern nothing, or from the uncertainty we are bewildered. Accordingly by * day' we have * understanding' represented, and by * night,' * ignorance.' And by the number seven the sum of completeness is ex})ressed; and hence in seven days, and no more, the whole of this transitory period is accomplished. How then is it that the friends of blessed Job are said to sit with him seven days and seven nights, saving that heretics, whether in those things wherein they admit the true light, 164 Sitting with Job is a partial right belief. Job 2, or in those wherein they are under the darkness of ignorance, — ^^' as it were feign to let themselves down to Holy Church in ' her weakness, while under colour of caresses, they are preparing their snares to catch her withal ? and though, whether in the things which they do understand, or in those which they are unable to understand, through the swelling^ of a bloated self-elation, they account themselves great in their own eyes, yet sometimes in semblance they bend to Holy Church, and while they make soft their words, they insinuate their venom. ' To sit upon the earth,' then, is to exhibit somewhat of the figure of humility, that whilst their exterior appears humble, they may recommend the proud doctrines which they teach.

But it is possible that by * the earth' may be also represented the Incarnation of our Mediator. And hence it Exod ^^ ^^^^ ^^ Israel, An altar of earth shall thou then make unto 20, 24. Me. For to make an altar of earth for the Lord is to trust in the Incarnation of our Mediator. For then our gift is received by God, when our humility has placed upon His Altar, i. e. upon the belief of our Lord's Incarnation, all the works that it performs. Thus we place our offered gift upon an altar of earth, if our actions be firmly based upon faith in the Lord's Incarnation. But there are some heretics, who do not deny that the Incarnation of the Mediator took place, but either think otherwise concerning His Divinity than is true, or in the character of the Incarnation itself are at variance with us. They then that with us declare the true Incarnation of our Redeemer, as it were sit alike with Job upon the earth, and they are described as sitting upon the ground seven days and seven nights ; forasmuch as w hether in this very thing that they understand somewhat of the fulness of truth, or in this that they are thoroughly blinded by the darkness of their foolish minds, they cannot yet deny the mystery of the Incarnation. And so to sit upon the earth with blessed Job, is to believe in the true Flesh of our Redeemer in unison with Holy Church.

Now sometimes heretics WTeak their animosity against us in punishments as well, sometimes they pursue us with words only. Sometimes they provoke us when quiet, but h typo. There can be no doubt that ' typho' is meant. Heretics keep silence till opportunity. 165 sometimes, seeing us hold our peace, they remain quiet, and Book they are friendly to the dumb, but hostile to them that open '— their lips, and hence forasmuch as blessed Job had not as yet said aught to them in converse, it is rightly added. And none spake a word unto him. For we find our adversaries bold their peace, so long as we forbear by preaching to beget sons of the true faith. But if we begin to speak aright, we immediately feel the weight of their reviling by their reply ; forthwith they start into hostility, and burst out into a voice of bitterness against us, doubtless because they fear lest the hearts, which the weight of folly presses down beneath, should be drawn up on high by the voice of him that speaketh aright. Therefore, as we have said, because our enemies love us when mute, and hate us when we speak, it is rightly said in the case of Job keeping silence, Aiid none spake a word unto him.

Yet sometimes when they see the hearts of believers vacant through sloth, they do not cease to scatter the seeds of error by speech. But when they see the minds of the good busied on high, seeking the way back to their country, earnestly sorrowing over the toils of this place of exile, they rein in their tongues with anxious heed ; in that they see that whilst they assail those sorrowing hearts with fruitless words, they are speedily made to hold their peace. And hence whereas it is well said, none spake a word unto him, the cause of their silence is immediately brought in by implication, when it is said, For they saw that his grief was very great.

For when our hearts are pierced with violent griefxxviii. from the love of God, the adversary fears to speak frowardly at random, for he sees that by provoking the fixed mind, he not only has no power to draw it to untoward ways, but that by its being stirred up, he may chance to lose even those whom he held bound.

Perhaps it may influence some that we have so made out these particulars, that what was well done by the friends should denote that which was to be ill done by heretics. Yet in this way it very often happens that a circumstance is virtue in the historical fact, evil in its meaning and import, just as an action is sometimes in the doing ground of condemnAlleg 166 Da old in Iris sin a type of Christ, Job 3, ation, but in the writing, a prophecy of merit, which we shall the sooner shew, if we shall bring forward one testimony of Holy Writ to prove both points. For who, that hears of it, not only among believers but of unbelievers themselves also, does not utterly loathe this, that David walking upon his solar' lusteth after Beershebah the wife of Uriah ? Yet when he returns back from the battle, he bids him go home to 2 Sam. wash his feet. Whereupon he ansvvered at once, The Ark of the Lord ahideth in tents, shall I then take rest in my house f David received^ him to his own board, and delivers to him letters, through which he must die. But of whom does David walking upon his solar bear a figure, saving of Ps. 19, Him, concerning Whom it is written. He hath set his taher- ' tiacle in the sun? And what else is it to draw Beersheba to himself, but to join to Himself by a spiritual meaning the Law of the formal letter, which was united to a carnal people ?

For Beersheba is rendered ' the seventh well,' assuredly, in that through the knowledge of the Law, with spiritual grace infused, perfect wisdom is ministered unto us. And whom does Uriah denote, but the Jewish people, whose name is rendered by interpretation, * My light from God ?' Now forasmuch as the Jewish people is raised high by receiving the knowledge of the Law, it as it were glories ' in the light of God.' But David took from this Uriah his wife, and united her to himself, surely in that the strong-handed One, which is the rendering of ' David,' our Redeemer, shewed Himself in the flesh, whilst He made known that the Law spake in a spiritual sense concerning Himself. Hereby, that it was held by them after the letter, He proved it to be alienated from the Jewish people, and joined it to Himself, in that He declared Himself to be proclaimed by it. Yet David bids Uriah ' go home to wash his feet,' in that when the Lord came Incarnate, He bade the Jewish people turn back to the home of the conscience, and wipe off with their tears the defilements of their doings, that it should under- > Vulg. solarium, which S. Greg. 1. xxii. c. 87. Corn, a Lapide ad loc. derives from ' sol,' though perhaps it quotes also St. Ambrose, but says the is rather to be deduced from 'solum,' allegory is of the less perfect kind.

St. like 'terrace' from * terra,' Still the Ephraim, in Sam. t. i.p. 409. c. speaks event seems typical. St. Augustine of Uriah in a similar way. See also p. has a similar interpretation, with some 443. A. difference in particulars, Contr. Faust. •« Several Mss. ' suscipit.' Uriah, in well doing, a type of erring Jews. 167 stand the precepts of the Law in a spiritual sense, and findBook ing the fount of Baptism after the grievous hardness of the_JiI:^ commandments, have recourse to water after toil. But Uriah, who recalled to mind that the ark of the Lord was under tents, answered, that he could not enter into his house. As if the Jewish people said, I view the precepts of God in carnal sacrifices, and 1 need not to go back to the conscience in following a spiritual meaning. For he, as it were, declares ' the ark of the Lord to be under tents,' who views the precepts of God as designed for no other end than to shew forth a service of carnal sacrifice. Yet when he would not return home, David even bids him to his table, in that though the Jewish people disdain to retura home into the conscience, yet the Redeemer at His coming avouches the commandments to be spiritual, saying. For had ye beJohn 5, lieved Moses, ye would ^ have believed Me : for he wrote o/fy , Me, And thus the Jewish peo])le holds that Law, which uw/W tells of His Divinity, whereunto that people deigns not to^^^"^^^ give credence.

And hence Uriah is sent to Joab wnth letters, according to which he is to be put to death, in that the Jewish people bears itself the Law, by whose convicting testimony it is to die. For whereas holding fast the commandments of the Law it strives hard to fulfil them, clearly it does itself deliver the judgment whereupon it is condemned. ^Vhat, then, in respect of the fact, is more foul than David ? What can be named purer than L^riah ? What again in respect of the mystery can be discovered holier than David, what more faithless than Uriah ? Since the one by guiltiness of life prophetically betokens innocency, and the other by innocency of life ])rophctically represents guilt. Wherefore it is with no inaptitude that by the things that are well done by the friends of Job we have represented to us those to be done amiss by heretics, in that it is the excellency of Holy Writ so to relate the past as to set forth the future ; in such wise to vindicate the case in the fact, that it is against it in the mystery; so to condemn the things done, that they are commended to us as fit to be done in the way of mystery.

So then as we have completed the allegorical mys-Mop^^L. teries, unravelling them piece by piece, let us now proceed to follow out the sense of tlie moral truth, hastily touching 168 Job's sorea like inioluniary ill Ihoughls from Satan. Job 2, thereupon, for the mind hastens forward to make out the — parts of greater difficulty, and if it is for long wrapped up in the plain parts, it is hindered from knocking as it were fit at those which are closed. Oftentimes our old enemy, after he has brought down upon oiu* mind the conflict of temptation, retires for a time from his own contest, not to put an end to his wickedness, but that upon those hearts, which he has rendered secure by a respite, returning of a sudden, he may make his inroad the more easily and unexpectedly. It is hence that he returns again to try the blessed man, and demands pains on the head of him, whom nevertheless the Supreme Mercy while keeping fast yields up to him, saying, \ er. 6. Behold^ he is in tJdne hand: hut save his life. xxix. 57. For He so forsakes us that He guards us, and so guards us that by the permitted case of temptation. He shews us our state of weakness. And he immediately icent forth from before the face of the Lord, and by smiting him whom He had thus gotten he wounded him from the sole of his foot even to his crown.

Thus, viz. in that when he receives permission, beginning with the least, and reaching even to the greater points, he as it were rends and pierces all the » corpus body of the mind ^ with the temptations which he brings 2 aniupon it, yet he does not attain to the smiting of the souP, in that deep at the bottom of all the thoughts of the heart, the interior purpose of our secret resolution holds out, in the i midst of the very wounds of gratification which it receives, so that although the enjoyment may eat into the mind, yet it does not so bend the set intent of holy uprightness as to bring it to the very softness of consenting. Yet it is our duty to cleanse the mere wounds of enjoyment themselves by tlie sharp treatment of penance, and if aught that is dissolute springs up in the heart to refine it with the chastening hand of rigorous severity. And hence it is rightly added immediately, Ver. 8. And he look him a potsherd to scrape the humour withal. XXX. 58. For what do we understand by the ' potsherd,' saving forcibleness of severity, and what by the ' humour,' save laxity of unlawful imaginations ? And thus we are smitten, and * scrape off the humour with a potsherd,' when after Ill thouyhts to he cleansed off by self-chastisement. 169 the defilements of unlawful thoughts, we cleanse ourselves Book by a sharp judgment.

By the potsherd too we may understand the frailness of mortality. And then to * scrape the humour with a potsherd,' is to ponder on the course and frailty of our mortal state, and to wipe off the rottenness of a wi'etched self-gratification. For when a man bethinks himself how soon the flesh returns to dust, he readily gets the better of that which originating in the flesh foully assails him in the interior. So, when bad thoughts arising from temptation flow into the mind, it is as if humour kept running from a wound. But the humour is soon cleansed away, if the frailty of our nature be taken up in the thought, like a potsherd in the hand. 59. For neither are these suggestions to be lightly esteemed, which though they may not draw us on so far as to the act, yet work in the mind in an unlawful way. It is hence that our Redeemer was come, as it were, ' to scrape the humour from our wounds,' when He said, Ye have heard Matt. 5, that it was said by them of old time, Thou shall not commit ' adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. ' The humour,' therefore, * is wiped ofi',' when sin is not only severed from the deed, but also from the thought.

It is hence that Jerubbaal saw^ the Angel judg. e, when he was winnowing com from the chaff, at whose ^^* ^'''* bidding he forthwith dressed a kid and set it upon a rock, and poured over it the broth of the flesh, which the Angel touched with a rod, and thereupon fire coming out of the rock consumed it. For what else is it to beat corn with a rod, but to separate the grains of virtues from the chaff of vices, with an upright judgment? But to those that are thus employed the Angel presents himself, in that the Lord is more ready to communicate interior truths in proportion as men are more earnest in ridding themselves of external things. And he orders a kid to be killed, i. e. every appetite of the flesh to be sacrificed, and the flesh to be set upon a rock, and the broth thereof to be poured upon it. Whom else does the ' rock' represent, saving Him, of Whom it is said by Paul, And that rock was Christ / We * set flesh i Cor. then upon the rock,' when in imitation of Christ we crucify ^^' **' 170 Care of thoughts to be practised with humility. Job 2, our body. He too pours the juice of the flesh over it, who, — — '- — in following the conversation of Christ, empties himself even of the mere thoughts of the flesh themselves.

For ' the broth' of the dissolved flesh is in a manner ' poured upon the rock,' when the mind is emptied of the flow of carnal thoughts too. Yet the Angel directly touches it with a rod, in that the might of God's succour nev^er leaves our striving forsaken. And fire issues from the rock, and consumes the broth and the flesh, in that the Spirit, breathed upon us by the Redeemer, lights up the heart with so fierce a flame of compunction, that it consumes every thing in it that is unlawful either in deed or in thought. And therefore it is the same thing here ' to scrape the humour with a potsherd,' that it is there to ' pour the broth upon the rock.' For the perfect mind is ever eagerly on the watch, not only that it may refuse to do bad acts, but that it may even wipe off" all that is become foul and soft in it, in the workings of imagination. But it often happens that war springs up from the very victory, so that when the impure thought is vanquished, the mind of the victor is struck by self-elation. Therefore it follows that the mind must be no otherwise elevated in purity, than that it should be heedfully brought under in humility. And hence, whereas it was said of the holy man. And he took a potsherd, and scraped the humour withal, it is forthwith fitly added.

And he sat down upon a dunghill. xxxi. 60. For * to sit down upon a dunghill' is for a man to entertain mean and abject notions of himself For us to ' sit upon a dunghill,' is to carry back the eye of the mind, in a spirit of repentance, to those things which we have unlawfully committed, that when we see the dung of our sins before our eyes, we may bend low all that rises up in the mind of pride. He sits upon a dunghill, who regards his own weakness with earnest attention, and never lifts himself up for those good qualities, which he has received through grace. Did not Abraham sit by himself upon a dunghill, Gen. 18, when he said. Behold, now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am hut dust and ashes ? For it is plain to see in what place he had sot himself, who, at the very moment that he was speaking with God, reckoned himHumility aided by close examination. 171 self to be * dust and ashes.' If he then thus despises himBook • III self who is raised to the honour of converse with the Deity even, we should consider with earnest thoughts of heart with what woes they are destined to be stricken, who, while they never advance a step towards the highest things, are yet lifted up on the score of the least and lowest attainments.

For there are some, who, when they do but little things, think great things of themselves. They lift their minds on high, and account themselves to excel other men in the deserts of virtue. For surely, these inwardly quit the dungbill of humility within themselves, and scale the heights of pride ; herein following the steps of him, the first that elevated himself in his own eyes, and in elevating brought himself to the ground, following the steps of him, who was not content with that dignity of a created being, which he had received, saying, / will ascend intoJteaven; I will exalt I'^1^> my throne above the stars of God. And it is hence that she, which is united to him by an evil alliance, even Babylon, i.e. * the confused multitude of sinners,' says, / am, andls.47y none else beside me, I shall ?iot sit as a widow. Wliosoever then swells within him, has set himself on high by himself. Yet doth he sink himself so much the deeper below, in proportion as he scorns to think the lowest things of himself according to the truth. There are some too that labour not to do aught that is virtuous, yet when they see others commit sin, they fancy themselves righteous by comparison with them. For all hearts are not wounded by the same or a similar offence. For this one is entrapped by pride, while that perchance is overthrown by anger, and avarice is the sting of one, while luxury fires another.

And it very often chances that he, who is brought down by pride, sees how another is inflamed with anger ; and because auger does not speedily influence himself, he now reckons that he is better than his passionate neighbour, and is as it were lifted up on the score of his righteousness in his own eyes, in that he forgets to take account of the fault, by which he is more grievously enchained And it very often happens that he who is mangled by avarice, beholds another plunged in the whirlpool of luxury, and because; he sees himself to be a stranger to carnal ])ollution, he never heeds by what defile17*2 Affliction does not always keep out bad thouyhts. Job 2, ments of the spiritual life he is himself inwardly polluted ; and while he considers well the evil in another, which he is himself without, he forgets to take account in his own case of that which he has ; and so it is brought to pass, that when the mind to be pronounced upon goes off to the cases of other men, it is deprived of the light of its own judgment, and so much the more cruelly vaunts itself against others' failings, in proportion as it is from negligence in ignorance of its own.

But, on the other hand, they that really desire to rise to the heights of virtue, whenever they hear of the faults of others, immediately recall the mind to their own; and the more they really bewail these last, so much the more rightly do they pronounce judgment on those others. Therefore, forasmuch as every elect person restrains himself in the consideration of his own frailty, it may be well said that the holy man in his sorrow sits down upon a dunghill. For he that really humbles himself as he goes on his way, marks with the eye of continued observation all the filth of sin wherewith he is beset. But we must know that it is in prosperity that the mind is oftenest touched with urgent temptations, yet that it sometimes happens that we at the same time undergo crosses without, and are wearied with the urgency of temptation within, so that both the scourge tortures the flesh, and yet suggestion of the flesh pours in upon the mind. And hence it is well, that after the many wounds that blessed Job received, we have yet further the words of his illadvising wife subjoined also, who says, Ver. 9. Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die. xxxii. 6-For the illadvising wife is the carnal thought goading the mind, since it often happens, as has been said above, that we are both harrassed with strokes without, and wearied with carnal promptings within.

For it is hence that Jeremiah Lam. 1 bewails, saying, Abroad the sword bereaveth ; at home there 2®* is as death. Since * the sword bereaveth,' when vengeance outwardly smites and pierces us, and * at home there is as death,' in that indeed he both undergoes the lash, and yet the conscience is not clear of the stains of temptation within. P8.36,5. Hence David says, Let them be a^ chaff before the wind, Tlte Elect treat ill suggestions as Job his wife. 17:3 and let the angel of the Lord persecnte them. For he that is Book caught by the blast of temptation in the heart, is lifted up '— like dust before the face of the wind; and when in the midst of these strokes the rigour of God smites them, what else is it, but the Angel of the Lord that persecutes them ?

But these trials are carried on in the case of the reprobate in one way, and of the Elect in another. The hearts of the first sort are so tempted that they yield consent, and those of the last undergo temptations indeed, but offer resistance. The mind of the one is taken captive with a feeling of delight, and if at the moment that which is prompted amiss is displeasing, yet afterwards by deliberation it gives pleasure. But these so receive the darts of temptation, that they wear}' themselves in unceasing resistance, and if at any time the mind under temptation is hurried away to entertain a feeling of delight, yet they quickly blush at the very circumstance of their delight stealing upon them, and blame with unsparing censure all that they detect springing u]^ in themselves of a carnal nature. Hence it is rightly added immediately, Ver. 10. Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. M'hat ? shall ire receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ^

For it is meet that the holy mind restrain by spiritual xxxiii correction whatever of a carnal nature within it utters rebellious muttering, that the flesh whether by speaking severe things may not draw it into impatience, nor yet by speaking smooth ones melt it to the looseness of lust. Therefore let manly censure, reproving the dictates of unlawful imaginations, hold hard the dissolute softness of what is base in us, by saying, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. And, on the other hand, let the consideratioD of the gifts repress the discontent of bitter thought, saying, Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil f And whoever desires to get the mastery of his vices, and goes forward to the eternal heights of inward recompense ' with the steps of a true purpose, the 'retribumorc he sees himself to be on every hand beset with the^'°"" war of the vices, the more resolutely he arrays himself with the armour of the virtues, and fears the darts the less, in 174 Disguised temptations come like Job's friends. Job 2, proportion as he defends his breast bravely against their T—^ — assault. MoilAL. ^r ' /» 1 IT.

Yet it very often happens, that whilst we are striving to stay ourselves in this fight of temptation by exalted virtues, certain vices cloak themselves to our eyes under the garb of virtues, and come to us as it were with a smooth face, but how adverse to us they are we perceive upon examination. And hence the friends of blessed Job as it were come together for the purpose of giving comfort, but they burst out into reviling, in that vices that plot our ruin assume the look of virtues, but strike us with hostile assault. For often immoderate anger desires to appear justice, and often dissolute remissness, mercy; often fear without precaution would seem humility, often unbridled pride, liberty. Thus the friends come to give consolation, but fall off into words of reproach, in that vices, cloaked under the guise of virtues, set out indeed with a smooth outside, but confound us by a bitter hostility. And it is rightly said, Ver. 11. For they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. xxxiv. QQ. For vices make an appointment together under the cloak of virtues; in that there are certain ones, which are banded together against us by a kind of agreement, such as pride and anger, remissness and fear. For anger is neighI bour to pride, and remissness to cowardice. Those then come together by agreement, which are allied to one another in opposition to us, by a kind of kinship in iniquity ;

but if we acknowledge the toilsomeness of our captivity, if we grieve in our inmost soul from love of our eternal home, the sins that steal upon the inopportunely joyful, will not be able to prevail against the opportunely sad. Hence it is well added, Ver. 12. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept. xxxv. 67. For the vices do not know us in our afflictions, in that so soon as they have knocked at the dejected heart, being reproved they start back, and they, which as it were knew us in our joy, because they made their way in, cannot know us in our sadness, in that they break their edge on our very rigidity itself. But our old enemy, the more he sees that he is himself caught out in them, and that with a good Spiriliial compunction detects their falsehood. 175 courage, cloaks them with so much the clee])er disguise Book under the image of virtues ; and hence it is added, They lifted up their voice, and wept ; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. Ver. \Z. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights.

For by the weeping pity is betokened, discretion byxxxvi. the cutting of the garments, the affecting' of good works by ' al. * effect" the dust upon the head, humility by the sitting. For somejng.' times the enemy in plotting against us feigns somewhat that is full of pity, that he may bring us down to an end of cruelty. As is the case, when he prevents a fault being corrected by chastisement, that that, which is not suppressed in this life, may be stricken with the fire of hell. Sometimes he presents the form of discretion to the eyes, and draws us on to snares of indiscretion, which happens, when at his instigation wc as it were from prudence allow ourselves too much nourishment on account of our weakness, while we are imprudently raising against ourselves assaults of the flesh. Sometimes he counterfeits the affecting of good works, yet hereby entails upon us restlessness in labours, as it happens, when a man cannot remain quiet, and, as it were, fears to be judged for idleness. Sometimes he exhibits the form of humility, that he may steal away our affecting of the useful, as is the case when he declares to some that they are weaker and more useless than indeed they are, that whereas they look upon themselves as too unworthy, they may fear to administer the things wherein they might be able to benefit their neighbours.

But these vices which the old enemy hides under the semblance of virtues, are very minutely examined by the hand of compunction. For he that really grieves within, resolutely foredeterniines what things are to be done outwardly, and what are not. For if the virtue of compunction moves us in our inward parts, all the clamouring of evil dictates is made mute ; and hence it follows. And none spake a word unto him; for they satv that his griff was very great.

For if the heart feels true sorrow, the vices have no tongue against it. And when the life of uprightness is 176 Thoughts that tempt may yet he turned to good. Job 2, sought witli an entire aim, the fruitless prompting of evil j^l^^is closed up. But oftentimes if we brace ourselves with strong energy against the incitements of evil habits, we turn even those very evil habits to the account of virtue. For some are possessed by anger, but while they submit this to reason, they convert it into service rendered to holy zeal. Some are lifted up by pride. But whilst they bow down the mind to the fear of God, they change this into the fi-ee tone of unrestrained authority in defence of justice. Strength of the flesh is a snare to some; but whilst they bring under the body by practising works of mercy, from the same quarter, whence they were exposed to the goading of wickedness, they purchase the gains of pitifulness. And hence it is well that this blessed Job, after a multitude of conflicts, sacrifices a victim for his friends. For those whom he has for long borne as enemies by their strife, he one day makes fellow-countrymen by his sacrifice, in that whilst we turn all evil thoughts into virtues, bringing them into subjection, by the offering of the intention, we as it were change the hostile aims of temptation into friendly dispositions. Let it suffice for us to have gone through these things in three volumes in a threefold method. For in the very beginning of this work we set firm the root of the tongue, as a provision against the bulk of the tree that should spring up, that we might afterwards produce the boughs of exposition according as the several places require.

X. (t. V. p. 352 sqq. Theod. q. Q7. in Gen. and 1. vii. ad Gr. Damasc. 1. iv. de Fide 10. 14. and 26. (25.) Theophyl. on Rom. ii. El. Cret. on S. Greg. Naz. Or. 1. (see also Or. xl. c. 28.) And one can hardly suppose that St. Gregory meant to speak of it as having any such direct and covenanted efficacy. It is allowed to be a prophetic sign or type of Regeneration, (see S. Aug. Ep. Ixxxii.) and of course obedience to the Law was required in order to the acceptance of those under the Law. Again, as theFaith bespeaks of as availing for infants must be that of the Parents, (Justinian on Rom. iv. 11. takes the punishment of neglect to be theirs, and St. Aug. thinks it may, q. xi. on Exod.) he may consider circumcision as the act embodying such faith. And if he means it also of adults, the same may be said of willingly choosing the state of obedience to the Law. If St. Aug. is wrong in taking eternal punishment to be threatened to infants uncircumcised, his argument still holds as analogical, and perhaps in that circumcision was even a direct acknowledgment of original, as sacrifice by bloodshedding of actual, sin. On the whole subject of original sin, see Bull's discourse on the state of man before the Fall ; Taylor on Repentance, capp. vi. vii; Wall on Inf.

Bapt. c. Some imprecatiotis in Holy Writ Jig uralive. 181 rest, in the words, Or with princes that had gold, that Jilted Pook their houses uith silver. It is a rare thing for them that '— have gold to advance to rest, seeing that Truth saith by Itself, TJtey that hare riches shall hardUj enter into the kingdom Matt. of heaven. For what joys in the other life can they look i^j^^^j?* for, who here pant after increase of riches ? Yet that our I'N 23. Redeemer might further shew this event to be most rare, and only possible by the supernatural agency o^ God, He saith. With men this is impossible ; but icith God all t Ai n gs ^iatt, are possible. Therefore because these words are, on the sur- ' face, at variance with reason, the letter itself thereby points out, that in those words the Saint delivers nothing after the letter. But if we shall first examine the nature of other curses in Holy Writ, we may the more perfectly trace out the import of this one, which was uttered by the mouth of blessed Job. For how is it that David, who to those that rewaided him evil, returned it not again, upon Saul and Jonathan falling in war, curses the mountains of Gilboa in the following words. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither 2 Sam. let there be rain \ipon you, nor fields of offerings;

for there ' ^'' the shield of Saul is vilely cast away, as though he had not been anointed with oil ^ How is it that Jeremiah, seeing that his preaching was hindered by the hardness of his hearers, utters a curse, saying, Cursed be the man, who brought S^r. 20, tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee? ^^' What then did the mountains of Gilboa offend when Saul died, that neither dew nor rain should fall on them, and that the words of his sentence against them should make them barren of all produce of verdure? Why, forasmuch as Gilboa is by inteqnetation ' running down,' while by Saul's anointing and dying, the death of our Mediator is set forth, by the mountains of CJilboa we have no unfit representation of the uplifted hearts of the Jews, who, while they let themselves run down in the pursuit of the desires of this world, were mingled together in the death of Christ, i.e. of* the Anointed.' And because in them the anointed King dies the death of the body, they too are left dry of all the dew of grace; of whom also it is well said, that ihey cannot be fields if first fruits. Because the high minds of the Hebrews bear no * first fruits;' in that at the coming of our Redeemer, pereistinp^ 182 Our sirniing is a birth of children to the world.

Pref. for the most part in unfaithfulness, they would not follow the first beginnings of the faith; for Holy Church, which for her first fruits was enriched with the multitude of the Gentiles, scarcely at the end of the world will receive into her bosom the Jews, whom she may find, and gathering none but the last, will put them as the remnant of her fruits. Is. 10, Of which very remnant Isaiah hath these words, For though thy people Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return. However, the mountains of Gilboa may for this reason be cursed by the Prophet's mouth, that whilst, the land being dried up, no fruit is produced, the possessors of the land might be stricken with the woe of that banenness, so that they might themselves receive the sentence of the curse, who had obtained as the just reward of their iniquities to have the death of the King take place among them. But how is it that, from the lips of the Prophet, that man received the sentence of cursing, who brought to his father the tidings of his birth? Doubtless this is so much the more full of deeper mystery within, as it lacks human reason without. For perchance, if it had sounded at all reasonable without, we should never have been kindled to the pursuit of the interior meaning; and thus he the more fully implies something within, that he shews nothing that is reasonable without.

For though the Prophet had come into this world from his mother's womb to be the subject of affliction, in what did the messenger of his birth do wrong? But what does the person of the Prophet represent ' carried » fluctuhither and thither^,' except the mutability of man, which came antis ^^ ^^ ^wQ^ of punishment, is thereby signified? and what is expressed by his ' father' but this world whereof we are born ? And who is that man, who ' brings tidings of our birth to our father,' saving owx old enemy, who, when he views us fluctuating in our thoughts, prompts the evihninded, who by virtue of this world's authority have the preeminence, to persuading us to our undoing, and who, when he has beheld us doing 2favoii-acts of weakness, commends these with applause^ as brave, ^"* and tells as it were of male children being born, when he gives joy that vve have turned out corrupters of the truth by lying? He gives tidings to the father that a man child is bom, when he shews the world him, whom he has prevailed with, tm'ned Job's ^opening his mouth ^ He cursed not from passion. 183 into a corrupter of innocence. For when it is said to any Book one committing a sin or acting proudly, * Thou hast acted — like a man,' what else is this than that a man child is told of in the world?

Justly then is the man cursed, who brings tidings of the birth of a man child; because his tidings betoken the damnable joy of our corrupter. Thus by these [ imprecations of Holy Scripture we learn what, in the case of blessed Job, we are to look for in his words of imprecation, lest he, whom God rewards after these wounds and these words, should be presumptuously condemned by the mistaken reader, for his words. As then we have in some sort cleared the points, which were to be the objects of our enquiry in the preface, let us now proceed to discuss and to follow on the words of the historical form. Ver. 1, 2, 3. After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish icherein I was born. 1. That which is here said. He opened his mouth, must not i. be gone into negligently. For by the things which Holy Scripture premises but slighdy, we are apprised that what comes after is to be expected with reverence. For as we know notliing what vessels that are closed contain inside, but when the mouth of the vessels is opened, we discover what is contained within; so the hearts of the Saints, which so long as their mouth is closed are hidden, when their mouth is opened, are disclosed to view. And when they disclose their thoughts, they are said to open their mouth, that with the lull bent of our mind we may hasten to find out, as in vessels that are set open, what it is that they contain, and to refresh ourselves with their inmost iVagrance.

And hence when the Lord was about to utter' His sublime precepts on the Mount, the words precede. And He opened ^isiiub, His mouth, and taught them; though in that place this too should be taken as the meaning, that He then opened His ou;n mouth in delivering precepts, wherein He had long while opened the mouths of the Prophets. But it requires very great nicety in considering the expression, After this, namely, in order that the excellence of all that is done may be perceived in its tiTic light by the time. For fu*st we have de- • Dicturo, al. ' daturo,' ' to give,' as vrhora St. Greg, seem^ here to follovr. St. Aug. 1. i. on Serm. on the Mount, (Ben.) 184 Cursing is either malicious or judicial. Job 3, scribed the wasting of his substance, the destruction of his -— — 'children, the pain of his wounds, the persuasions of his wife, the coming of his friends, who are related to have rent their garments, to have shed tears with loud cries, to have sprinkled their heads with dust, and to have sat upon the ground for long in silence, and afterwards it is added, After this Job opened his mouthy and cursed his day ; clearly that from the very order of the account, duly weighed, it might be concluded that he could never have uttered a curse in a spirit of impatience, who broke forth into a voice of cursing whilst his friends were as yet silent.

For if he had cursed under the influence of passion, doubtless upon hearing of the loss of his substance, and upon hearing the death of his sons, his grief would have prompted him to curse. But what Job I, he then said, we have heard before. For he said, Tlie Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Again, if he had cursed under the impulse of passion, he might well have uttered a curse when he was stricken in his body, or when he was mischievously advised by his wife. But what answer Job 2 he then gave we have already learnt ; for he says, Tliou ^^speakest as one of the foolish ivomen speaketh. What ? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? But after this it is set forth that his friends arrive, shed tears, seat themselves, keep silence, whereupon this is immediately subjoined, that he is said to have cursed his day. It is, then, too great an inconsistency to imagine that it was from impatience that he broke out into a voice of cursing, no man setting him on, no man driving him thereto, when we know that amidst the loss of all his goods, and the death of his children, amidst bodily afflictions, the evil counsels of his wife, he only gave great acknowledgments to his Creator with a humble mind. It is plain, then, with what feelings he spoke this when he was at rest, who even when stricken uttered such a strain of praise to God.

For afterwards, when no longer stricken, he could not be guilty of pride, whom even his pain under the rod only shewed to be full of humility. But as we know for certain that holy Scripture forbids cursing, how can we say that that is sometimes done aright, which yet we know to be forbidden ^ by the same Holy Writ ? b Ben. as most Mss. ' vitari,' ' shunned,' old Edd. as A. ' vetari,' ' forbidden.' «S^/. Peter's and Elijah's curse proved right by the event. 185 2. But be it known that Holy Writ makes mention of Book . . . IV. cursing in two ways, namely, of one sort of curse which it commands, another sort which it condemns. For a curse is uttered one way by the decision of justice, in another way by the malice of revenge. Thus a curse was pronounced by the decree of justice upon the first man himself, when he fell into sin, and heard ihe words, Cursed is the ground for thy Gen. 3, sake. A curse is pronounced by decree of justice, when it is said to Abraham, / will curse them that curse thee. Again, forasmuch as a curse may be uttered, not by award of justice, but by the malice of revenge, we have this admonition from the voice of Paul the Apostle in his preaching, where he says, Bless, and curse not ; and again, nor revilers Rom.

shall inherit (he kingdom of God. So then God is said to J^^q/' curse, and yet man is forbidden to curse, because what man G, lo. does from the malice of revenge, God only does in the exactn(;ss and perfection of justice. But when holy men deliver a sentence of cursing, they do not break forth therein from the wish of revenge, but in the strictness of justice, for they behold God's exact judgment within, and they perceive that they are bound to smite evils arising without with a curse; and are guilty of no sin in cursing, in the same degree that they are not at variance with the interior judgment. It is hence that Peter flung back the sentence of a curse upon Simon when he offered him money, in the words, May Acts 8, thy money perish with thee; for he who said, not does, but may, shewed that he spoke this, not in the indicative, but in the optative mood. Hence Elias said to the two captains of fifty that came to him, 1/ I be a man of God, then let Jire^ Kings come down from heaven, and consutne thee. And upon what reasonable grounds of truth the sentences of either of the two were esUiblishcd, the issue of the case demonstrated. For both Simon perished in eternal ruin, and lire descending from above consumed the two ca))tains of fifty. Thus the subse(|uent miracle' testifies with what mind the sentence ofi virtus the curse is pronounced.

For when both the innocence of him that curseth remains, and be that is cursed is by that curse swallowed up to the extent of utter destruction, from the end of either side we collect, that the sentence is taken up and launched against the offender from the sole Judge of what is within. 1 86 The ^daifJoh cursed is th is mortal life,which hisfrietids loved. Job 3, 3. Therefore if we weigh with exactness the words of . — - — blessed Job, his cursins: cometh not of the malice of one Hist guilty of sin, but of the integrity of a judge, not of one agitated by passion, but of one sober in instruction ; for he, who in cursing pronounced such righteous sentence, did not give way to the evil of perturbation of mind, but dispensed the dictates of wisdom. For, in fact, he saw his friends weeping and wailing, he saw them rending their garments, he saw how they had sprinkled their heads with dust, he saw them struck dumb at the thought of his aflfliction ; and the Saint perceived that those whose hearts were set upon temporal prosperity, took him, by a comparison with their own feelings, for one brokenhearted with his temporal adversity. He considered that they would never be weeping for him in despair, who was stricken with a transient ill, except they had themselves withdrawn their soul in despair from the hope of inward soundness ; and while he outwardly burst forth into the voice of grief, he shewed to persons inwardly wounded the virtue of a healing medicine, saying, Ver. 3. Let the day perish wherein I was horn,

For what is to be understood by ' the day of our birth,' save the whole period of our mortal state ? So long as this keeps us fast in the corruptions of this our mutable state of being, the unchangeableness of eternity does not appear to us. He, then, who already beholds the day of eternity, endures with difficulty the day of his mortal being. And observe, he saith not, ' Let the day perish wherein I was created,' but, let the day perish wherein I was born. For man was created in a day of righteousness, but now he is born in a time of guilt ; for Adam was created, but Cain was the first man that was born. What then is it to curse the day of his birth, but to say plainly, ' May the day of change perish, and the light of eternity burst forth ?'

But inasmuch as we are used to bid perish in two ways, (for it is in one way that we bid perish, when we desire to any thing that it should no longer be, and in another way that we bid it perish, when we desire that it should be ill therewith,) the words that are added concerning this day, ' Vulg. Let a cloud dwell upon it: let it he enveloped in hitterness\clearly shew, that he wishes not this day to perish in such sort as not to be, but so that it may go ill with it ; for that Satan is day in shew, night in result. 187 can never be * enveloped in bitterness/ which is so wholly Book destroyed as not to be at all. Now this period of our mutable condition is not one day to perish, (i. e. to pass away,) in such a way, as to be in an evil plight, but so as to cease to be altogether, as the Angel bears witness in Holy Writ, saying, By Him that livelh for ever and ever, tJtat there Rev.io, should he time no longer. For though the Prophet hath it, Their time shall endure for ever, yet because time comes Ps. 81, j to an end with every moment, he designated their coming to an end by the name of ' time,' shewing that without every way ending" they come to an end, that are severed from the joys of the inward Vision.

Therefore because this period of our mortal condition does not so perish as to be in evil plight, but so as not to be at all, we must enquire what it means that he desires it may perish, not so that it may not be, but that it may be in ill condition. Now a human soul, or an Angelic spirit, is in such sort immortal, that it is capable of dying, in such sort mortal, that it can never die. For of living happily, it is deprived whether by sin or by punishment ; but its essential living it never loses, either by sin or punishment : it ceases from a mode of living, but it is not even by dying susceptible of an end to every mode of being. So that I might say in a word, that it is both immortally mortal, and mortally immortal. Whereas then he wishes that the day may perish, and soon after it is said that it is ^ to be enveloped in bitterness,' whom should we think the holy man woidd express by the name of ' day,' except the Apostate Spirit, who in dying subsists in the life of essential being .'' Whom destruction does not withdraw from life, in that in the midst of pains eternal an immortal death kills, while it preserves, him whose perishing, fallen as he is already from the glory of his state of bliss, is still longed for no othenvise than that being held back by the punishments, which he deserves, he may lose even the liberty of temj)ting.

Yea, he presents himself as the day, in that he allures by prosperity ; and his end is in the blackness of night, for that he leads to adversity ; thus he displayed day when he ^aid. In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be Gen. 3, « i. e. • witliout a total ctMation of ' that without end they come to an end being.' Some Mas. have ' sine fine,' by an utter fini:«hing.' 188 False day darkened wJien Satan is detected. Jobs, opened, and ye shall he as Gods; but he brought on night, — —^ — when he led to the blackness of mortality; the day, therefore, is the proffered promise of better things, but the night is the very manifested experience of evils. The old enemy is the day, as by nature created good, but he is the night, as by his own deserts sunk down into darkness. He is day, when by promising good things he disguises himself as an Angel of hght to the eyes of men, as Paul witnesses, saying, 2 Cor. For Saia7i Idmself is transformed as an angel of liyht ; but ' * he is night, when he obscures the minds of those that consent to him with the darkness of error. Well then may the holy man, who in his own sorrows bewailed the case of the whole human race, and who viewed nothing in any wise special to himself in his own special affliction, well may he recal to mind the original cause of sin, and soften the pain of the infliction by considering its justice.

Let him look at man, and see whence and whither he has fallen, and exclaim. Let the day perish n herein I was horn, and the niglit in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. As if he said in plain words, ' Let the hope perish, which the apostate Angel held forth, who, disguising himself as day, shone forth with the promise of a di\dne nature, but yet again shewing himself as night, brought a cloud over the light of our immortal nature. Let our old enemy perish, who displayed the light of promises, and bestowed the darkness of sin; who as it were presented himself as day by his flattery, but led us to a night of utter darkness by sealing our hearts with blindness.' It proceeds ; Ver. 4. Let that day he turned into darkness. ii. 7. This day shines as it were in the hearts of men, when the persuasions of his wickedness are thought to be for our good, and what they are within is never seen; but when his wickedness is seen as it is, the day of false promises is as it were dimmed by a kind of darkness spread before the eyes of our judgment, in this respect, that such as he is in intrinsic worth, such he is perceived to be in his beguilement, and so ' the day becomes darkness,' when we take as adverse even the very tilings, which he holds out as advantageous wliilst persuading them.

' The day becomes darkness,' when our old enemy, even when lurking under the cloak of his blandishTlte shadow of death on it in Satati*sjitial perdition. 189 nients, is perceived by us to be such as he is when ravening Book after us, that he may never mock us with feigned prosperity, as though by the hght of day, dragging us by real misery to the darkness of sin. It proceeds; Let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon if.