Now that is said to be * with' us, which is for us; and on the other hand that is said not to be with us, that is against us; and so, because his own knowledge puffs out the heart of the heretic, while his perception of his own ignorance abases the faithful, let blessed Job say in his own voice, let him say also in the confession of the Church Universal, And he it indeed that I have heen ignorant, my ignorance shall he with me. As if it were said in express words to Heretics; * All your knowledge is not with you, since it is against you, so long as it uplifts you in foolish pride; but my ignorance is with me, because it is for me; since, whereas I do not dare to search into any thing relating to God in pride of heart, I keep myself in the truth in a spirit of humility.' And because these very same things that heretics seek to know, they apply perforce to the furtherance of selfelation only, that they may seem learned in contrast to the faithful and humble, it is rightly added; But ye are set up against me.
33. But perhaps we shall consider these words more xxix. thoroughly, if we point out how they apply to the friends of ^^^^• blessed Job personally in a special sense. For they, when they saw the righteous man smitten, ought to have turned back into their own deepest interior, and not to have persecuted blessed Job with words of upbraiding, but to have bewailed their own case; seeing that, if he was so stricken, 138 Those who spare their own sin proud in judginfj others.
Job 19, who served as he did, with what vengeance did they deserve -jj~- to be smitten, who had not served like him? And it is rightly said to them, Ye are set up agaiiist me; as if it were said to them in plainer terms; ' Ye who ought by occasion of my being smitten to have been set up against your own selves,' this being the order of such setting up on the side of goodness, viz. that we be first set up against ourselves, and afterwards against the wicked. For he that is set up against the good, is blown out in pride. Thus we are set up against ourselves, when, reviewing our own evil deeds, we smite ourselves with the severe avenging of penance, when we do not spare ourselves at all in our sins, and are not biassed by any fond thoughts towards ourselves, who, if we first rigidly follow up our evil things in ourselves, it is likewise fair, that we should be set up against the evil in others too for their good, and that the evil which we punish in ourselves, we should subdue in others too, by charging it home to them.
34. But this sort of setting up the wicked know nothing of, because they leave themselves, and attack the good; they iiicline themselves towards themselves, in their secret heart, by the softness of fond flattering, and they are set up against the lives of good men by the severity of harshness, whence it is now rightly said to the friends of blessed Job swelling against him under his scourge. Ye are set up against me: i. e. * Your own selves, that deserve to be rebuked, ye leave, and me ye rebuke with severe sentences.' For he that does not judge himself first, is ignorant what to judge right in another; and if perchance he did know by the hearing what to judge right, yet he is not able to judge rightly the merits of another, who has no rule of judging supplied him by the consciousness of his own innocence. Hence it is that it is said to certain persons dealing deceitfully, when they brought Johns, an adulteress to receive punishment; He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. For they went for the punishing of others' sins, and they had left their own behind; and so they are called back to their conscience within them, that they should first correct their own faults, and then reprove those of others. It is hence that, when Judges ^YiQ tribe of Benjamin was deep sunk in the guilt of carnal llie Proud reproach the Righteous with their troubles, 139 sin, all Israel banded together would have avenged that Book wickedness, yet was once and again itself smitten down in the conflict of war; but on the Lord being consulted whether they should go to take vengeance, it was commanded them. The People, that went according to the bidding of God's voice, fell both once and again, and then at length effectually smiting the sinning tribe, almost wholly extirpated it. How is it that it is first kindled to the revenge of sin, and yet afterwards itself brought down; but that those are to be chastised first themselves, by whose means the sins of others are chastised; that they may themselves now come cleansed through vengeance, who are forward to chastise the evil of others } Whence it follows that when the vengeance of God's inquest is at rest towards us, our own conscience should reprove its own self, and by its own act lift itself up against self, to sorrows of penance, neither being set up towards the good, and humble towards itself, but unbending towards itself, and bowed low towards all the good. Thus to proud men administering reproof, it is rightly said; Ye are set up against me, and ye charge me with my reproaches. All persons that are set up, account temporal afflictions to be a grievous reproach, and they think every individual to be the more despised by God, in proportion as they see him scourged with the rod of aflSiction. For they look for nothing in principles, they look for nothing in practices; but whomsoever they see to be stricken in this life, they imagine to be already condemned by God's sentence; whence it is well said on this occasion by the voice of blessed Job; And ye charge me with my reproaches.
35. In that they, who knew him to be righteous before xxx. his strokes, were now judging him to be unrighteous by the mere fact of his being stricken, and hence it very often happens that Heretics, because they see persons within the bosom of Holy Church suffering affliction; (for it is written of God, And scour geth every son whom He receiveth;) fancy Heb. that the sorrows of the faithful arise from nothing but sin, ^' and themselves they for this reason conclude to be righteous, because being left in the thoughts of their evil ways, lacking the rod, they have become hardened. It proceeds; 140 Joh calls not God unjust, hut himself innocent.
Job 19, Ver. 6. Know now at least that God hath afflicted me with no just judgment.
xxxi. 36. O, how hard does the voice of the righteous man sound, sulf'ering under the infliction of the rod! which same, however, not pride, but grief gave vent to! Now he is not righteous, who gives up righteousness under sorrow; and blessed Job, because he had a meek spirit, did not sin even by a hard word. For, if we say that he did err by this voice, we make out that the devil accomplished what he Job 2, 5. purposed, when he said. Touch his bone and his Jlesh, and see if he have not blessed Thee to Thy face. Therefore a serious question arises; for if he did not sin in that he says. Know now at least that God has not afflicted me with a just judgment; we agree to God's having done something unjustly, which it is profane to say; but if he did sin, then the devil made appear concerning him the thing that he promised. And so it must be asserted both that God acted rightly in His dealings with blessed Job, and yet that blessed Job herein, viz. that he says that he ' was not afflicted by a just judgment of God,' did not speak an untruth, and that our old enemy in respect of that which he promised of sin in the blessed man did speak an untruth.
For sometimes the words of the good are for this reason supposed wrong, because they are not ever considered in their interior signification. Thus blessed Job had turned his eyes to his own life, and he estimated the strokes which he was undergoing, and saw that it was not just that upon such a life such strokes should be dealt. And when he says that he was not afflicted by a just judgment, he spoke that with unreserved voice, which God in His own secresj' V. 3. had said concerning him to his adversary, thou movedst Me against him, to afflict him. without cause. For what God expresses, that He * had afflicted blessed Job without cause,' this blessed Job asserts again in the words that he was not ' afflicted of the Lord by a just judgment?' Wherein then did he sin, who was in nothing at odds with the sentence of his Maker?
37. But perhaps some one will say, that for us to speak that good concerning ourselves, which the Judge may have said in secret concerning us, cannot be done without sin.
A man may speak truth for himself on occasion. 141 For he whom the Judge praises, it cannot be doubted, is ^i\?
justly praiseworthy; but if he in his own person praises himself, his righteousness is henceforth supposed to be no longer deserving of praise; and this is said rightly, if what the just Judge delivers in impartial sentence, the person in question should venture to say afterwards concerning himself in pride of heart. For if he himself too continuing in a humble frame, when the occasion or his grief brings it out, has uttered good that is true in his own praise, he has not departed from the line of righteousness, in so far as he was not at all at variance with truth.
88. Whence Paul the Apostle also related many brave things of himself for the edification of his disciples, but he did not commit sin by relating these things, in that both by an undeniable attestation, and a humble mind, he did not depart from the pathway of truth; and so let blessed Job, conscious of his own life being just, say that he is not afflicted by a just judgment; neither yet does he sin by that voice, wherein he is not at variance with His Maker, in that he whom God ' smote without cause,' himself also asserts that he was not * afflicted by a just judgment.' But again there arises another question, which I remember has been already solved in the beginning of this work, viz. whereas Almighty God does nothing without cause, why does Pie bear witness that He had afflicted blessed Job without cause.f* For our just Creator by those many strokes inflicted upon blessed Job did not aim to do away with evil qualities in him, but to increase his merits; and so that was just, which He did in the heightening of his good deserts; but it did not seem equitable, because it was thought to be the punishing of instances of sin. Now blessed Job believed that sins of his doing were obliterated by those scourges, not that his merits were added to, and therefore he calls it ' not a just judgment,' because he tests his life side by side with the scourges: thus, if the life and the scourges be weighed in the scales, that was not equal dealing, which blessed Job, as I have said, supposed to be done to him in the wrathfulness of severity; but if the mercifulness of the Judge be looked to, seeing that by the punishment of the just man the merits of his life are heightened, it was an equal or rather a merciful judgment: 142 GoiJCs final sentence proves that Job did not blaspheme.
Job 19, therefore at once Job spoke what was true, so long as he balanced his life with the stroke; and God did not afflict Job Hist.
with an unjust judgment, in that he heightened his merits by the stroke; and the devil did not achieve what he promised; seeing that blessed Job, amidst words which sound hard, was neither removed from a true sentence nor a humble mind. But perhaps we shall understand these words of blessed Job less well, if we are not acquainted with the sentence of the Judge; Who, when He was delivering sentence between the two parties, says to the friends of Job; Job 42, Ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My \'^-QQY> servant Job hath. Who then is there so^ foolish in mind as ' tarn.' to own that blessed Job had been guilty in his way of speaking, when he is declared to have spoken rightly by the very voice of the Judge itself? Which same voice, indeed, if we refer to the person of Holy Church, we not unsuitably apply it to her weak members, which while, in the season of her persecution, they weigh both her merits and her scourges, forasmuch as they see that the unjust thrive, and the just perish, have no notion that this is just. Now it is well added by the voice of the blessed man. And compassed me with his scourges.
xxxii. 39. For it is one thing to be smitten, and another thing to be ' compassed with scourges.' Thus, we are smitten with scourges, when even in our sorrows we have a consolation derived from other sources; for when affliction lies so heavy on us that the spirit can no longer take breath by consolation from any one thing; we are now no longer smitten only, but even ' compassed w4th scourges,' in that we are every way surrounded by the rod of affliction. Thus Paul had 2 Cor. 7, been compassed with scourges, when he said. Without were ^' fightings^ within were fears. He had been compassed with 2 Cor. scourges, when he said. In perils by mine own countrymen, ^^' ^^' in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, with the other particulars, which he so enumerates, as to shew that he no where had rest. But when Holy Church is ' compassed with the scourges' of her tribulation, all the weak in her are brought down in the fall of \ littleness of mind, so that they now suppose themselves disregarded, in proportion as they see that they are the more God, not sJiewlng His judgment, seemed not to judge. 143 slowly heard with effect. And it is rightly added yet further Book likewise in a figure of them by the voice of the holy man, Ver. 7. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no one to Judge.
40. Almighty God, knowing what has in it efficacy to prove xxxiii. our good, shuts His ears to hear the voice of persons mourning, that He may add to their advantage, that their life may be purified by punishment, that the tranquillity of rest which can no where be found here, may be sought for elsewhere. But there are some of the faithful even that know nothing of this grace of Providential ordering, in whose person too it is now said; Behold, I cry out of tvrong, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no one to judge; for it is said, ' there is no one to judge,' when He veils His eyes to judge, in that beside Him * there is not any to judge' our cause against our adversary. Nor yet is this very thing void of judgment, viz. that judgment is delayed; seeing that at the very time that blessed Job said this, both the merits of the holy man and the punishment of his adversary were increased: so then this very deferring of judgment is the act of a judge. But what God settles justly within is one thing, and what the soul bruised by scourges without seeks after is another. Whence he still further adds of that sinking under scourges, Ver. 8. He hath fenced up my way, that I cannot pass: and He hath set darkness in my paths.
41. He saw his ' way fenced up' with strokes, when xxxiv. anxiously desiring to pass into a state of security, he was not able to escape the scourges, and whereas he saw himself smitten, and yet did not find in himself a life worthy of such smiting, as it were ^ in the paths' of the heart he met with * the darkness' of his own ignorance, in that he could not fathom the cause wherefore he was so scourged. And this is not unfitly applied to the weak members of Holy Church too, when fi'om this which they remember to have done wickedly, they are made backward in good practice as well, and, frightened by their own weakness, do not venture to attempt strong acts of goodness to match them. For they fear to begin great acts of goodness, who call to mind that they are infirm in their ways; and whereas they very often 144 The weak find their nay dark^ and are shipped of glory.
Job 19, do not know the very good, which they should choose, they, — — — as it were, shrink from the ' darkness placed in their paths.' For the mind often becomes so doubtful of its own doings, as not to know at all which is the virtue and which the fault. Thus he ' finds darkness in his path,' who in those things which he desires to do, is ignorant what he ought to choose. Therefore seeing that there is sin often from infirmity, and sometimes from ignorance, it is said in the person of the members that go weakly. He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass. While in the person of those who see-not clear as to the very good work itself which they should choose, it is added; and He hath set darkness in my paths. For it is punishment of sin, to see the good which we ought to do, and yet not to have the power to fulfil it; and again it is in still worse punishment of sin, not even to see what we ought to do; and hence against both of these it is said Pf».27,i.by the voice of the Psalmist, The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; ivhom then shall I fear? For against the darkness of ignorance the Lord is a ' Light;' against weakness * Salvation,' whilst He both shews what ought to be desired for the doing it, and supplies the powers, that what He shews may be fulfilled. It goes on; Ver. 9. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. XXXV. 42. That all this suits the person of the blessed man set in the midst of tribulation, there can be no doubt; but, since the words of the historical account are plain, they do not require explaining after the letter, therefore they have to be traced out in their mystical senses. Thus he says, He hath stripped me of my glory. For the glory of each individual is his righteousness. Now just as a garment protects from the cold, so does righteousness defend from death; hence righteousness is not improperly likened to a garment, where Ps. 132, it is said by the Prophet; Let Thy priests he clothed with ^' righteousness. But seeing that in the season of her tribulation this garment of righteousness, which covers her in the sight of God, is lost to Holy Church in her members that go weakly, let it be rightly said; He hath stripped me of my glory, i. e. righteousness has been taken away from the weak, whereas it could never possibly have been taken away from Victory and hope of reward lost for a while by the weak. 1 j5 them, if it had been infixed in them from the oround of the Book heart, but for this reason it was possible to be taken away - from them, because it was attached to tlicm outwardly, like a garment. Wherein the question offers itself, how they could be called members of Holy Church, who were capable of losing the righteousness which they seemed to maintain. But it is necessary for us to know, that very often righteousness is lost for a while by her weaklj^ members, but when they are afterwards brought back to penitence in the acknowledgment of their fault, they attach themselves to that very righteousness which they had lost more strongly than was supposed credible. And it is yet further added thereby, and taken the crown from my head. As the head is the first part of the body, so the leading part of the interior man is the mind. Now the crown is the reward of victory, which is set from Above, in order that he that has contended should be rewarded; and so because many persons, under the pressure of adversities, do not hold out in the contest, in these Holy Church as it were ^ loses a crown from her head:' for ' a crown on the head' is the reward from Above in the mind; there are a great many who whilst they are pressed with adversities, neglect to take thought of the rewards above, and cannot reach to the completion of victory; in such, then, ' the crown is taken from the head,' in that the heavenly and spiritual reward is taken away from the aim of the mind, that they should henceforth go after the externally peaceful, nor look out for the eternal rewards, which they used to have at heart.
43. Or otherwise, ' the head' of the faithful is not inappropriately taken to mean the priests, in that they are the first part of the Lord's members; and hence it is expressed by the Prophet, that * the head and the tail' are rooted out, in which same place both by the title of the ' head' we have the priests denoted, and by the designation of the ' tail' the reprobate prophet. Therefore ' the crown is taken from the head,' when even they abandon the heavenly rewards, who seemed to have the lead in this body of the Church; and it generally happens that, when the leaders fall, the army, that followed, is the wider worsted; and hence directly after VOL. II. L 146 Some lose hope in trials, some, stricken in judgment, fail.
Job 19, the ills to the greater ones, going on about the manifold -^ — ' undoing of the Church, he added; Ver. 10. He hath destroyed me on every side, and lam gone; and He hath removed mine hope like as with a tree torn away.
xxxvi. 44. The Church is, as it were, ' destroyed on every side,' and undone in her weak members, when those very ones that seemed strong, are brought to ruin; when * the crown is taken away from the head,' i. e. when the rewards of eternity are neglected even by those set at the head; and it is well added concerning weak ones falling. And mine hope hath He removed like as with a tree torn away; for a tree is pushed by the wind that it falls, and with him whom threats so terrify, as to make him go headlong into unrighteousness, what else is it, but that a tree met with a blast of the wind, and lost the standing of its uprightness } For he has, as it were, lost hope by the wind, who, subdued by the threats and persuasions of the wicked, has parted with those eternal rewards, which he looked forward to; and because it very often happens that a person, from fear of punishment, gives over righteousness, it is brought to pass by God's decreeing it, that even in giving up righteousness he does not get quit of the punishments, which he was afraid of, and that he who did not fear at all the destruction of the soul, meets even with the ills of the flesh, which he apprehended. Hence it is yet further added; Ver. 11. He hath also kindled His wrath against me, and He counteth me unto Him as one of His enernies.
xxxvii. 45. For we have been taught by the excellent Preacher 1 Cor. attesting it, that ' God is faithful, Who will not suffer us to ' * be tempted above that we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear Jer. 30, it.' Moreover the Lord says by the Prophet, For I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement. He then that is so stricken that his powers are overcome by that striking, the Lord no longer now smites him as a son in the course of discipline, but as an enemy in indignation. Thus when the strokes exceed the power of our patience, it is very much to be feared, lest, our sins Evil spirits permitted to beset the soul as robbers. 147 demanding it, we are now no longer stricken as sons by a Book Father, but as enemies by the Lord; and whereas it very often - comes to pass that evil spirits too press home many things to the hearts of the afflicted, and amidst the scourges which strike them outwardly, infuse bad thoughts into their hearts, after the wrath of the Lord it is rightly added; Ver. 12. His robbers come together, and make themselves a way through me.
46. For ' his robbers' are evil spirits, who busy themselves xxxviii. in hunting out the deaths of men; and these ' make themselves a way' in the hearts of the afflicted, when, amidst the adversities that are undergone outwardly, they do not cease to infuse bad thoughts likewise; of whom it is yet further added; And encamp round about my tabernacle.
For they ' encamp round about our tabernacle,' when they ^Iist. encircle the mind on every side with their temptings; which by most wicked prompting they persuade one while to mourn for things temporal, at another time to despair of things eternal, now to go headlong into impatience, and to cast words of blasphemy against God. Yet these words, as we have already said before, agree with blessed Job even taken historically; who, whilst he heaped before his eyes the ills he was enduring, judged himself to be not like a son that must be corrected, but as an enemy stricken with affliction. Through whom even ' His robbers made themselves a way,' in that the evil spirits obtained against him the leave to smite. ' Round about whose tabernacle they encamped,' in that after his substance and his children were taken away, they bruised his whole body too with wounds. But it is very extraordinary, why, when he spoke of the ' robbers,' he added His. clearly with a view to shew that these same robbers belonged to God; on which point, if we make a distinction between the power and the will of evil spirits, it is made evident, why they are called * God's robbers;' for evil spirits incessantly pant to do us mischief; but while they have a bad will derived from themselves, they have not the power of doing mischief, except the Supreme Will vouchsafes them permission; and while of themselves indeed they long to hurt us unjustly, yet by 148 Joh, descried by Iris owti, a type of our Lord.
Job. 19, Almighty God they are not suffered to hurt any one saving ^.?rzi^ justly; and so whereas the will is unjust in ihem and the power just, they are at once called ' robbers,' and ' God's robbers,' that it should come from themselves, that they aim to bring down evil things unjustly, and from God that the things so desired they do not consummate saving justly; but because, as we have often said already, the holy man set in the midst of the pain of punishment, one while speaks in his own accents, at another time in the accents of the Church, at another time of our Redeemer, and very frequently so describes his own circumstances, that in a figure he delivers those that belong to the Holy Church and to our Redeemer, concern for historical fact being for a little space put aside, let us shew in these things, which he subjoins, how he accords with the accents of our Redeemer. It goes on; Alleg. Ver. 13, 14. He hath put my brethren far from me; and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed J and my familiar friends have forgotten yne. xxxix. 47. We shall shew this the better, if we bring for\Yard the John 1, testimony of John, who says. He came unto His ow)i, and His own received Him not; for His ' brethren were put far from Him,' and His ' acquaintance were estranged' from Him, Whom the Hebrews that held the Law were taught to prophesy, and never knew to acknowledge when present; whence it is rightly said. My kinsfolk have failed me, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. For the Jews, ' kinsfolk' in the flesh, ' acquaintance' by the teaching of the Law, as it were forgot Him, Whom they had foretold, in that Him they both sung of in the words of the Law, as destined to be made Incarnate, and when made Incarnate denied Him by the words of unbelief It proceeds; Ver. 15. They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. xl. 48. The inmates of God's house were the Priests, whose 1 origo ^r^^^ 1 QYiCQ set apart in ihe service of God, was henceforth by office continued in that state. But the ' maids' are not improperly taken for the souls of the Levites, servants to the hidden parts of the tabernacle as it were by a more familiar service to the interior of the bedchamber. Therefore let him say of the Priests, serving with sedulous care, let him Our Lord taken for an alien, and disowned bf/ His servants. 149 say of the Levites attending: on the interior of the house of Book XIV God. They thai dwell in my house, and my maids, have - counted me for a stranger; in that the Incarnate Lord, Whom they had for long foretold in the words of the Law, they refused to acknowledge and to reverence. And he yet more plainly shews that He was not known by their wicked will, when he adds; And I was as it were an alien in. their sight.
49. For our Redeemer whereas He was not recognised xli. by the Synagogue, was rendered ' as it were an alien' in His own house. Which the Prophet plainly witnesses, saying. Wherefore shalt thou be as a settler in the land, and as aJer. 14, wayfaring 7nan that turneth aside to tarry? For whereas