due discrimination that the deeds of presumptuous men, when they are paraded before human eyes, by the same act whereby they aim to win favour, are rendered dry and sapless. Therefore the mind that is shewn to view in boasting is rightly called a fig-tree barked, in that it is at once white, in so far as it is seen, and within a little of withering, in so far as it is denuded of the covering of the bark. The things we do, therefore, are to be kept within, if we expect to receive from the Umpire within the recompense of our work. It is hence that ' Truth' saith in the Gospel, But when thou doest alms^ let not thy left hand know ivhat}^^^- 6> thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may he in secret; and thy Father^ which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. It is hence that it is said of the Church of the Elect bv the Psalmist, The kinrfs daughter is all glorious within. Hence ^■"^- ^^' Paul saiih. For our glory ^ is this, the testimony of our -2 Cor. \, conscience. For the king's daughter is the Church, which J y is begotten in good practict^ by the preaching of spiritual Princes. But ' her glory is within,' in that what she does she holds not for the boasting of outward display. Paul describes his ' glory' as ' the testimony of his conscience,' in that not aiming at the applause of another's man's lips, he knows no such thing as placing the satisfactions of his life out of himself.
83. Therefore the things that we do must be kept concealed, lest by carrying them negligently on the journey of the present life, we lose them, through the invasion of the spirits that hunt for spoil. And yet ' Truth' saith. Lei them Matt. 5, see your good works, that they may glorify your Fattier which is in heaven. But assuredly it is one thing when in the display of our works the glory of the Giver is our aim, and quite another when our own praise is the thing sought for in the gift of His bounty. And hence again in the Gospel the same * Truth' saith. Take heed that ye do not your works Matt. 6, before men, to be seen of them. Therefore when our works are displayed to men, we must first weigh well, in entering into the heart, what is aimed at by the prosecution of such display. For if we make the glory of the Giver our end, even our works that are made public we keep hidden in His 486 Human praise may j^ervert our first good intent.
Job 8, sight. Bat if we desire to win our own applause by them, they are thenceforth cast out of His sight without, even though they be known nothing of by numbers.
84. Now it belongs to those that are exceeding perfect, so to seek the glory of their Maker by the works shewn, as not to know what it is to exult in self-congratulation upon the praise bestowed upon them. For then only is a praiseworthy work displayed to men without harm, when the praise awarded is genuinely trodden under in the mind's contempt. Which same as the \^'eak sort do not perfectly get above in contemning it, it remains of necessity that they keep out of sight the good that they do. For often from the very first beginning of the display, they seek their own praise.
And often in the displaying of their works, they desire to publish the gloriousness of the Creator, but being received with applause, they are carried off into desire of their own praise. And whilst they neglect to call themselves to account within, being dissipated without, they do not know what they do, and their work ministers to their pride, and they fancy that they are rendering it in the service of the Giver. Thus ' a rush abideth among the stones,' in that the hypocrite stands there, where he sets fast the purpose of his mind. For whilst he goes about to get the testimony of numbers, he takes his stand, as it were, in the heap of stones. But the same hypocrite that is represented by the designation of ' a rush,' whilst he brings his body under by abstinence, whilst by bestowing in alms all that he possesses, he spends himself in efforts of pity, whilst he gets instruction in the knowledge of the sacred La^w, whilst he employs the word of preaching; who that beheld him so filled with bounty, would account him a stranger to the grace of the Giver? And yet the Hand of heavenly Dispensation vouchsafes to him the gifts of works, and withholds the lot of the inheritance. It lavishes endowments for w^orking, yet disowns the life of the worker. For when, the gift vouchsafed is applied toward his own praise, in the eye of the interior Light, he is darkened by the shadow of pride. Hence it is well added, Ver. 18. If He destroy him from his place, then He shalt deny him, saying, I have not known thee. xlix. 85. The hypocrite is * destroyed from liis place,' when he Hypocrites punished for making others like themselves. 487 is parted from the applause of the present life, by death Book intervening. But the interior Witness ' denieth' him, thus - destroyed, and asserts that He knows him not, in that in justly condemning the life of the pretender, ' Truth' knows him not, nor recognises the good works he has done, in that he never put them forth in a right purpose of mind. And hence when He cometh to Judgment, He will say to the foolish virgins, Verily I say unto you, 1 know you not. In Matt.
which same whilst He sees corruptness of mind. He condemns ^' * even incorruptness in the flesh. But would that their own ruin alone were enough for hypocrites, and that their wicked pains did not vehemently urge others to a life^ of duplicity. For it • al. ' a is the way with every one, to wish that, such as he is himself, ^^^ others of a like sort shoidd be joined with him, and to avoid difterence in life, and to inculcate as a pattern for imitation the thing that he loves. Whence also according to the view of hypocrites every degree of simplicity of character is criminal. For they sit in judgment on open characters, and purity of heart they term stupidity; and all whom they desire to be attached to themselves, they turn out of the path of simplicity, and then, as though their folly were cast out, they reckon that they have enlightened those persons, in whom they force to a sun'ender that fortress of wisdom, purity of heart. But forasmuch as the hypocrite is condemned not for his own frowardness alone, but for the added ruin of his followers also, after that he is said not to be known by the Judge, the words are rightly brought in upon that; Ver. 19. Behold, this is the joy of his way^, that out o/'^al. <of the earth others also should grow. '^ 86. As though it were in plain words, ' When the Judge 1. cometh, he is not acknowledged, but receives punishment a thousand fold, because he rejoiced in his wickedness more amply in proportion as he spread evil among others also.' For he that is not satisfied with being wicked himself here, must be tormented There with the due of the guilt of others also. Now then let the hypocrites rejoice, and triumph to have gotten the suffrages of their fellow-creatures. Let the simplicity of good men be looked down upon, and be called foolishness by the craft of the double-dealing. Speedily doth Job 8, the contempt of the single-minded pass, speedily the glorying ^^' ^^' of the double-dealing run to an end. And hence it is fitly added, Ver. 20. Behold, God trill not cast out a perfect man, 7ieither will He stretch out His hand to the evil. li, 87. In that assuredly when the Strict One appeareth in the Judgment, He will at once lift up the despisedness of the simple by glorifying them, and break in pieces the greatness ima g-of the evil-minded^ by condemning them. For hypocrites are called evil-minded, who do good acts but not well, and practise every thing right only in eagerness after praise.
Now any one, to whom we stretch out our hand, we plainly lift up from below. Thus God does not stretch out His hand to the evil-minded, in that all that seek earthly glory He leaves below, and how right soever the things that they do may seem to be. He doth not advance them to the joys above. Or, as may well be, hypocrites are for this reason called evil-minded, because they make a shew of being wellminded toward their neighbours, and cover over the arts of their wicked designs. For in all that they either do or say, they shew simplicity externally, but they are inwardly conceiving in the subtleties of double-mindedness; they counterfeit purity on the outside, but they conceal an evil heart at all times under the semblance of purity. In respect of whom it Deut. is well spoken by Moses, Thou shalt not wear a garment ^^' ^^" woven of woollen and linen together. For by * woollen' is denoted simplicity, by * linen' subtlety. And it is the fact that a garment made of * wool and linen' hides the linen within and shews the wool on the outside. And so he ' puts on a garment of woollen and linen together,' who in the mode of speech or behaviour that he adopts conceals within the artfulness of an evil purpose, and exhibits without the simplicity of an innocent mind. For whereas it is impossible to detect craftiness under the semblance of purity, it is as if linen were hidden under the thickness of wool. But after the condemnation of the double-minded, the recompensing of the righteous is duly exhibited, when it is added thereupon, Ver. 21. Till He Jill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with shouting.
Laughter and shouting of the Righteous at the last. 489 88. For the ' mouth' of the righteous will then be ^ filled Book with laughing' when the tears of their pilgrimage being done, — - — ^"-their hearts shall be filled to the full with exulting in eternal joy. Concerning this laughing ' Truth' saith to His disciples, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep John and lament, hut the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be '" ' sorrowful, hut your sorrow shall be turned into joy. And again, But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, ^er. 23. and your joy no man taketh from you. Concerning this laughing of Holy Church, Solomon saith, And she shall^^^^'^ laugh in the last day. Of this it is said again. Whoso Y.cchxs.
feareth the Lord, it shall go well with him at the last. ^' ^^* Not that there shall be laughter of the body, but laughter of the heart. For now from rioting in dissipation there springs a laughter of the body, but then from joy in security there will arise a laughter of the heart. Therefore when all the Elect are replenished with the delight of open vision, they spring forth into the joyousness of laughter in the mouth of the interior. But we call it shouting'*, when we conceive ^jubilum such joy in the heart, as we cannot give vent to by the force of words, and yet the triumph of the heart vents with the voice what it cannot give forth by speech. Now the mouth is rightly said to be filled with laughter, the lips with shouting, since in that eteraal land, when the mind of the righteous is borne away in transport, the tongue is lifted up in the song of praise. And they, because they see so much as they are unable to express, shout in laughter, because without compassing it they resound all the love that they feel.
89. Now it is said * till,' not that Almighty God so long forbears to raise up the evil until he take to Him His Elect to the joys of their jubilee, as if afterwards He saved from the punishment those whom first leaving in sin He sentences to damnation, but that He never does it even before the Judgment, when it may seem doubtful to men, whetlier it is to be done. For that after the jubilee of His Elect people He does not stretch out His hand to the evil-minded, is already plain from tl.e mere severity of the final reckoning by itself. As the Psalmist also spake in this manner, TheVs.no, Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, until ' I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. Not that the Lord 490 God helps not wicked men now, much less hereafter.
Job 8, never sat ou the Lord's right hand, after that by smiting His — — — enemies He made them subject to His power, but that He is * set over all things in eternal blessedness, even before He treads under His feet the hearts of those that rebel against Him. Wherein it is made plain that His enemies being brought under, He still rules without end even afterwards. Matt. 1, Thus it is said in the Gospel of the espoused of Mary, And ^^' knew her not, till she had brought forth her first-born Son. Not that he did know her after the birth of the Lord, but that he never touched her even when he did not know her to be the Mother of his Creator. For because it was impossible that he could have touched her after he knew that the Mystery of our Redemption was transacted from her womb, plainly it was necessary that the Evangelist should bear witness of that time, of which there might be misgivings entertained by reason of Joseph's ignorance. And so it is expressed here in like manner. Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will He stretch out His hand to the evil-minded; till He fill thy mouth with laughter, and thy lips with shouting. As if it were expressed in plain speech; ^ Not even before the Judgment does He abandon the life of the faithful, nor even before He appears does He forbear from smiting the minds of the evil-disposed by abandoning them.' For that the sons of perdition He torments without end, and that after that He shall have appeared His Elect reign for evermore, assuredly there is no doubt. It goes on; Ver. 2-2. They that hate thee shall be clothed with confusion, liii. 90. ' Confusion cloihes' the enemies of the good in the final Judgment; for when they see before the eyes of their mind their past misdeeds running over in excess to them, their own guilt clothes them on every side, weighing them dowm. For they then bear the memory of their doings in punishment, who now, as though strangers to the faculty of reason, sin with hearts full of joy. There they see how greatly they should have eschewed all that they loved. There they see how woful that was, which they now hug themselves for in their sin. Then guilt spreads a cloud over the mind, and conscience pierces itself with the darts of its rcmcmliranccs. Who then can adequately estimate how The wicked build dwellings to fall on them. 491 exceeding great will be the confusion of the wicked Then, Book when both the Judge Eternal is discerned without, and sin is - set in review before the eyes within? who are on this account brought to such a pass, because they loved transient things alone. And hence it is rightly added upon that; And the tents of the icicked shall not abide, 91. For a tent is put together that the body may be liv. preserved from heat and cold. What then is here set forth by the name of a dwelling-place, save the building of earthly prosperity, whereby the wicked are multiplying above their heads things to fall, that they may shelter themselves from the exigencies of the present life as from heat and rain. Thus they go about to rise in honours, lest they should appear contemptible. They pile up the good things of earth, and heap them high, lest they ever come to pine with the cold of want. They scorn to take thought of what is to come, and busy themselves with all their heart, that nought may be lacking in the present scene of things. They aim to spread their name, that they may not live unknown, and if every thing is forthcoming to their hearts' content, they regard themselves as proof in all things, and blessed in their condition. Thus in the place where they rear a dwelling-place of the interior, there surely they have their tents fixed. They bear crosses with impatience, they rejoice in prosperity without restraint. They mind alone the things that are before them, nor do they draw their breath by the yearning after their heavenly home in the remembrance thereof. They are glad that the good things are theirs, which their heart is bent on having; and there, where they rest in the body, they bury the soul too, making it a thing extinct, in that being slain with the instrument of worldly solicitude, that pile of earthly things, which they heap together hunting for them without, they are always cai'rying on them within in thought.
92. But contrariwise the good neither take the blessings ofiered them here below as any thing great, nor xery much dread the ills brought upon them. But both whilst they use present advantages, they forecast inconveniences to come, and when they lament for present evils, they are comforted in the love of the good things to follow. And they are cheered by temporal support, just as a wayfarer enjoys a 492 The righteous build not, no?' settle, here.
Job 8, bed in a stable; he stops and hurries to be off; he rests slill in the body, but is going forward to something else in imagination. But sometimes they even lon^ to meet with afflictions, they shrink from finding all go well in transient things, lest by the delightfulness of the journey, they be hindered in arriving at their home; lest they arrest the step of the heart on the pathway of their pilgrimage, and one day come in view of the heavenly land without a recompense. They delight to be little accounted of, nor do they grieve to be in affliction and necessity. Thus they that never fortify themselves against the adversities of the present time, as it were will not have a tent against the heat and Matt. rain. And hence Peter is justly rebuked, because when he '' ' was not yet confirmed in perfectness of heart, upon the brightness of ' Truth' being made known, he goes about to set up a tent upon earth. And thus the righteous are indifferent to build themselves up here below, where they know themselves to be but pilgrims and strangers. For because they desire to have joy in their own, they refuse to be happy in w^hat belongs to another. But the unrighteous, the further they are removed from the inheritance of the etenial Country, fix the foundations of the heart so much the deeper in the earth. It is hence that in the very beginning Gen. 4, of man's creation Enoch is born seventh in the elect family. '* It is hence that Cain calls his firstborn son Enoch, and names the city that he built after him. For ' Enoch' is rendered ' Dedication.' And so the wicked dedicate themselves in the beginning. For in this life, which is first, they plant the root of the heart, that they may flourish here to their content, and wither root and branch to the Country that follows after. But to the righteous, Enoch is born the seventh, in that the festal dedication of their lives is kept for Heb.ii,the end. It is hence, as Paul testifies, Abraham dwells in ^',,, tents^. for he looked for a city which hath foundations, Gen. 33 i^'hose huHder and maker is God. It is hence that Jacob ]ti goes ^humbly following the flocks of sheep, and Esau coming like E. to meet him lords it with a throng of numerous attendants, latin^"^^^ that here both the Elect are without pride, and the lost swell with satisfaction in the good things of the flesh.
Deut. Hence the Lord saith to Israel, //* thou shall choose one What is built in this world will not stand. 493 from the people of the land and set him for a king over thee, Book he shall not multiply horses and horsemen to himself. And - yet the first king ' chosen from among his brethren,' so soon as he had attained the height of power, chose for himself i Sam. three thousand horsemen; he immediately launched into pride, ^^' ^* burst forth in the building up of the height he had attained, in that without he could not keep under on a level of equality all that made his spirit within rise high above the level of others. That rich man had as it were erected for himself a fenced dwelUng place, who said. Soul, thou hast much goods Luke laid up for many years: take thine ease, eat, drink, and he ^^' ^ * merry. But because that dwelling is not bottomed upon the foundation of Truth, he heard at the same moment, TIiou rer. 20. fooli this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall these things be, which thou hast prepared? Therefore it is well said. And the dwelling-place of the wicked shall come to nought. In that the lovers of this fleeting life, whilst they diligently build themselves up in present things, are suddenly liurried into eternity.
BOOK IX.
He explains the ninth Chapter, together with the whole of the tenth.
i. 1. Bad minds, if they have once broken out into the Hist, eagerness of opposition, whether what they hear from those that withstand them be right or wrong, assail it with contradictory replies; for whereas the speaker is unwelcome from being ii^ opposition, not even what is right is welcome when he utters it. But, on the other hand, the hearts of the good, whose dishke rises not at the speaker but at the offence, in such sort pass sentence on what is amiss, as to adopt still any right things that are said. For they sit the most even umpires in deciding the sense of their opponents' words, and they so reject what is put forth amiss, that notwithstanding they set the seal upon what they recognise to be delivered in truth. For among a wilderness of thorns • spica the ear ^ is generally to be found growing up from seed good for fruit. Therefore it must be managed with care by the 2 spina hand of the tiller, that, whilst the thorn- is removed, the ear be cherished, so that he, who is eager to root up what pricks, may have sense to preserve what gives nourishment. Hence in that Bildad the Shuhite had said well in enquiry, Dotlt God pervert judgment^ or doth the Almighty jwrvert justice? in that he had delivered true and forcible sentiments against hypocrites, blessed Job, seeing that they were delivered against the wicked in general, admirably treads under foot the prosecution of his own defence, and at once sanctions the truths he had heard, saying, Ver. 2. / know it is so of a truth, and that man put with God is not justijied. ii« 2. For man being put under God receives righteousness; being put with God he loses it: for every one that compares Man cannot answer God in ' one of a tlioiisand.' 495 himself willi the Author of all good things, bereaves hiroself Book of the good which he had received. For he that ascribes — ^-^ to himself blessings vouchsafed to him, is fighting against God with His own gifts. Therefore by whatsoever means he being in contempt is lifted up, it is meet that being so set up he be brought to the ground by the same. Now because he sees that all the worth of our goodness is evil if it be strictly accounted of by the Judge of the interior, the holy man rightly subjoins; Ver. 3. 1/ thou wilt contend with Him, thou shalt not he able to answer Him one of a thousand.
3. In Holy Scripture, the number a thousand is wont to be iiitaken for totality. Hence the Psalmist saith. The word Ps./Os'^; which He commanded to a thousand generations; when it is sufficiently plain that from the very beginning of the world up to the coming of our Lord no more than seventy-seven generations are reckoned up by the Evangelist. What then is represented in the number a thousand, save, until the bringing forth of the new offspring, the complete whole of the race foreseen. Hence it is said by John, And shall ^ey.20j reign with Him a thousand years; for that the reign of^* Holy Church is made complete by being perfected in entireness. Now forasmuch as a unit being multiplied is brought to ten, and ten being taken into itself is expanded to one hundred, which again being multiplied by ten is extended to a thousand, since we set out with one to get to one thousand, what is here denoted by the designation of ' one' but the commencement of good living } what by the fulness of the number ' a thousand,' but the perfection of that good life? Now to contend with God is not to ascribe to Him but to take to one's self the glory of one's goodness. But let the holy man consider that the man who has already received even the chiefest gifts, if he is lifted up for what has been vouchsafed him, parts with all that he had received, and let him say, If he will contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand. For he, that ' contends' with his Maker, is unable to ' answer Him one of a thousand,' in that the man that sets himself up on the score of perfection, proves that he lacks the very beginning of good living. For we cannot ^ answer Him one of a thousand,' 496 Awe due to God's Wisdom and Might.
J'^B 9, since when we are lifted up for perfection of good life, we --— — shew that we have not so much as begun this. Now we are Lit. " then more really moved by our weakness, when by reflection, we are led to form an estimate how infinite is the power of the Judge.
Ver. 4. He is wise in hearty and mighty in strength.
1^. 4. What wonder is it, if we call the Maker of the wise, ' wise,' Whom we know to be Wisdom itself? and what wonder is it that he describes Him to be ' mighty,' Whom there is none that doth not know to be this very Mightiness itself.? But the holy man, by the two words set forth in praise of the Creator, conveys a meaning to us, whereby to recall us in ti'embling to the knowledge of ourselves. For God is called ' wise,' in that He exactly knows our secret hearts, and it is added that He is ' mighty,' in that He smites them forcibly, so known. And so He can neither be deceived by us, because He is wise, nor be escaped, because He is strong. Now, as wise. He beholds all things, Himself unseen, then, as strong, without let or hindrance. He punishes those whom He condemns. Who ordains this likewise here with mightiness of wisdom, that when the human mind exalts itself against the Creator, it should confound itself by that very self-exaltation. And hence it is added. Who hath resisted Him, and had peace?
V. 5. For He that creates all things marvellously. Himself regulates them, that after having been created, they should agree with themselves; and thus whereinsoever there is resistance made to the Creator, that agreement in peace is broken up, in that those things can never be well regulated, which lose the management of regulation above. For whatsoever things if subjected to God might have continued at peace, being left to themselves by their own act work their own confusion, in that they do not find in themselves that peace, which coming from above they contend against in the Creator. Thus that highest Angelical Spirit, who being in subjection to God might have stood at the height, being banished, has to bear the burthen of himself, in that he roams abroad in disquietude in his own nature. Thus the first parent of the human race, in that he went against the precept of his Creator, was thereupon exposed to the insolence of the flesh, No peace to opjjosers of God. Instance of the Jews. 497 and because he would not be subject to His Maker in Book obedience, being laid low beneath himself, even the peace of — the body was forthwith lost to him. Thus it is well said, Who hath resisted Him, and had peace? In that by the same act, whereby the froward mind lifts itself against its Maker, it works its own confusion in itself. Now we are said to resist God, when we try to oppose His dispensations. Not that our frailty does resist His unchangeable decree, but what it has not the power to accomplish, it yet attempts. For often human weakness knows in secret the power of His dispensation, and yet aims, if it might be able, to reverse it. It sets to work to resist, but shivers itself to pieces by the very sword of its opposition. It struggles against the interior disposition of things, but, being overcome by its own efforts, is bound fast. Therefore to have peace whilst resisting can never be; for whereas confusion follows after pride, that which is foolishly done in sin is marvellously disposed to the punishment of the doer; but the holy Man, being filled with the influence of the Spirit of prophecy, while he regards in general the confounding of human pride, thereupon directs the eyes of the mind to the special fate of the Jewish people, and shews by the ruin of a single people the punishment that awaits all that are lifted up. For he immediately adds in these words,