The ilrony cannot bea}\ all, still less the weak. 303 or an ass tumble headlong therein/ i. e. let him, who already Booic makes out deep things in Holy Writ, by silence cover over his lofty perceptions before those that do not reach that compass, lest by a stumbling-block to the soul he kill either the believing little one, or the unbelieving, who might have been led to believe. For upon the death of the beasts of burthen there are damages due, plainly because he is convicted of having done that, whereby he is held a debtor for the exercising of penance \ Accordingly, ' the cistern must be covered,' in that before little minds, deep knowledge requires to be veiled, lest by the same cause that the heart of the teachers is lifted up to the highest things, the infirmity of the hearer fall away to the lowest. Accordingly let it be said with justice. He blndeth up the waters in His clouds, thai they should not burst forth alike beneath. For ' the waters w'ould burst forth alike,' if, in the presence of weak hearers, the knowledge came forth from the lips of the speaker as great as it is, if all the whole fulness of preaching poured itself out at once, and reserved nought to itself together with those making progress. For it is fitting that he that preaches should have an eye to the measure of him that hears him, so that the preaching itself may grow with his hearers' stages of grovvth. I'or so does it behove every single preacher to do, as it is dealt with himself from heaven; never to tell to the weak all that he has the perception of, because he himself too, so long as by flesh of mortality he is weak, does not perceive all those things that belong to heaven. And therefore he ought not to preach to the ignorant as much as he is acquainted with, because even he himself, touching heavenly mysteries, cannot have his eyes open to see how great they are. For hence it is that Paul the Apostle, after he was admitted to the mysteries of heaven, saith, For?iow we see\ Cor.
through a glass darkly; but then face to face. And hence ^^' ^^* it here follows in continuation; Ver. 9. He holdeth back the face of His Throne, and spreadeth His cloud upon it.
" Some editions add, ' For whoso, words a clean soul or an unclean be when he cometh to deep streams of taken in mischief.' This passage is knowledge, covereth them not hefore hardly found in any Mss. and seems the brutish hearts of his hearers, is to have been introduced into the text held bound to a penalty, if through his from the margin. Ben.
304 God ' withholdeth the face of Hia Throne' at present.
Job 26, 39. In the face there is wont to be shewn forth acquaintanceship. Thus ' the face of His Throne is held back,' in xxvii. ^^^ ^y ^^ "^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ gloriousness of His kingdom is not perceived, so <,^reat as it is had within; 'upon which the cloud' is rightly said ' to be stretched;' because that glory Wisd. Qf t}jg heavenly kingdom is not seen such as it is. For the corruptible body presseth down the soul; and the earthy tabernacle weiyheth down the mind that museth upon many things. And so against seeing it we are besprinkled with a mist, for we are darkened by the mere cloudiness of our ignorance. Whence it is rightly said by the Psalmist, Ps. 18, j^tid darkness u-as under His feet; and He rode above the Cherubim, and, did fly; He did fly above the wings of the wind: He made darkness His secret place. For there is ' darkness to Him under His feet,' in that by those beneath He is not seen in that brightness, wherewith He exercises dominion among those above. For He * rode above the Cherubim, and did fly;' since the ' Cherubim' is a term used for the fulness of knowledge. By consequence he is said above the fulness of knowledge to have ' ridden, and to have flown,' because the loftiness of His Majesty there is no knowledge doth compass. ' He did fly,' because He transported Himself on high, far from the reach of our understanding. * He did fly above the wings of the wind,' because He transcended the knowledge of souls. He made darkness too His secret place, because whereas we are dimmed with the mists of our infirmity, by virtue of our ignorance He is hidden from us, that He should not be seen by us now in eternal and interior Brightness. Hence in the Song of Songs Cant. 8, also it is said to Him by the Spouse, Escape, my Beloved, ^^' escape. ' It escapes us,' we say, as often as that does not occur to our minds which we wish to remember. ' It escapes us,' we say, when that which we wish we do not retain in our recollection. So Holy Church, after that she sets forth the Death and Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord, cries out to Him, full of the Spirit of Prophecy, Escape, my Beloved, escape. As though she said; ' Thou That art made by the flesh comprehensible, do Thou by Thy Divine Nature transcend the comprehension of our perception, and in Thine own Self remain to us Incomprehensible.'
God hideth His Majeslt/, utid boundeth men\s doings, 305 x\nd so He ' holdeth back the face of His throne,' because Book XVII He hideth the power of His Majesty from mortal beings. — ^ 40. But if we render His ' throne' the Angelical Powers, for on these same Powers He sitteth enthroned as on a royal seat, ' He keeps back the face of His Throne' from us, because so long as we have our subsistence in this mortal flesh, what and how wonderful those ministrations of the Angels are, we do not perceive. ' And He spreadeth His cloud upon it' assuredly because He both lifts up our heart for making search, and yet it is brought to pass by a secret mode of control, that by the very endlessness of its searching it is kept back. Whence it is written, The deep uttered its voice at the Hab. 3, loftiness of its imagining. For the mind of man is forced to cry out in admiration, when, in loftiness of survey, it is straitened in its searchings by the very act by which it is enlarged. Or, surely, because we are ourselves the ' throne' of God, He is said not unjustly to ' keep back the face of His throne,' when our knowledge is prevented advancing to things of a higher range. Upon which same throne God is said ' to spread His cloud,' because remaining Himself invisible. He puts forth secret judgments upon us, that at once a thing should be done in prominency, that we should be able to see, and yet the origin of the deed be hidden in concealment, so that the reason wherefore it be done, we should needs not know. Hence too it is filly added; Ver. 11. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the light and darkness come to an end.
41. Because very often in Holy Writ, as we said above, by xxvdii. the name of ' waters' peoples are denoted; the Lord compasseth the waters with bounds; because He so tempers the knowledge of mankind that until the successions of the changing seasons pass away, it cannot perfectly attain to the knowledge of the Interior Brightness. But if by the name of ' light' we understand the righteous, and by the designation of ' darkness' sinners; (and hence Paul saith. For ye were someti?nes Eph. 5^ darkness, but now are ye light,) there is nothing to hinder ' this same thing that we said being understood, ' that the perfect knowledge of eternity is vouchsafed to no one, until the course of the righteous and of the unrighteous is brought to an end.' But because it is not wonderful that carnal people know nothing of things above, the holy man lifts VOL. II. X .•306 Even they that are * Pillars' tremble before Ood.
Job 26, himself up in astonishment at that same Divine power, and ~ — '— considers that it surpasses the very knowledge of Angels and perfect men as well, saying, The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his nod.
xxix. 42. What else does he call ' the pillars of heaven' but the holy Angels, or the principal preachers of the Church, over whom in the heavenly world the whole structure of the spiritual edifice increasing arose, as Holy Scripture elsewhere Rev. 3, bears witness, saying, Him that overcometh will 1 make a pillar in the temple of my God. For whoever is established firmly by a right purpose of mind in the work of God, is set up as a pillar in the structure of the spiritual edifice; that being placed in this temple, which is the Church, he should be both for usefulness and ornament. But Job calls those * pillars of heaven' whom the Apostle calls ' pillars' of the Gal. 2, Church, saying, Peter, and James, and John, which seemed ^' to he pillars, gave me the right hand.
43. We may also not inappropriately interpret the * pillars of heaven' the Churches themselves, which being many in number, constitute one Catholic Church spread over the whole face of the earth. Hence too the Apostle John writes to the seven Churches, meaning to denote the one Catholic Church replenished with the Spirit of sevenfold grace, and Prov. 9, we know that Solomon said of the Lord, Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars. And the same, to make known that it was of the seven Churches he had spoken that, in going on sedulously introduced the Prov. 9, very Sacraments themselves too, saying, She hath killed her sacrifices, she hath mingled her wine, she hath also set forth her table; she hath sent forth her maidens, that they may cry to the citadel and to the walls of the city. If any be a little one, let him come to me. For the Lord ' killed the sacrifices' by offering Himself on our behalf. He ' mingled the wine,' blending together the cup of His precepts from the historical narration and the spiritual signification.
Ps. 75, Whence it is elsewhere written. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture. And ' He set forth His table,' i. e. Holy Writ, which with the bread of the word refreshes us when we are wearied, and Wisdom for the humble. Fear hejitshoth men and Angels. S07 come to Him away from the burthens of the world, and by Hoc: its effect of refreshing strengthens us against our adversaries. '- Whence too it is elsewhere said by the Church; 7%owPs. 23, preparesl a table before me, against them that trouble me. ' He ' sent forth His maidens,' i. e. the souls of the Apostles, being in their actual beginning infirm ', ^ that they might i i. e. cry to the citadel and the walls of the city;' in that whilst ^^^^^^'^ they tell of the interior life, they lift us up to the high walls waWms, of the City Above, w^hich same walls, surely, except any be jq^(j°|"2. humble they do not ascend. Whence it is there added bv^. i.§.
that same Wisdom; If any be a little one, let him come unto^,\i\ Me. As if she said in plain terms; ^ Whosoever accounts himself great in his own eyes, contracts the avenue of his approach unto Me; for there is a loftier reaching unto Me in proportion as the mind of each one is in himself the more truly abased.'
44. But with whatever degree of goodness a man may be advanced, with whatever knowledge he may be made to grow, he cannot fathom to the bottom, what a governance of judgments the Lord rules us with. Therelbre let him say, The pillars of heaven tremble, a}id are astonished at his nod; because in most things not those even are able to reach the lofty height of His will, who whilst announcing see the rewards of that will. Which, as w^e said above, there is nothing hinders being interpreted of the Holy Angels as well; because the very Powers of the heavenly world themselves, which behold Him without ceasing, in that very contemplation of theirs are made to tremble. But that that should not be a trembling of woe to them, it is one not of fear, but of admiration. Now because he had brought in how great the consternation of his wonderment was, he now relates the order of our salvation. It follows; Ver. 12. In His might the seas are suddenly gathered together, and His wisdom hath struck the proud one.
45. What else is denoted by the title of the sea save the xxx. present world, wherein the hearts of men seeking after earthly things swell with the diverse billows of the thoughts? which same being stirred up by the exaltation of pride, whilst with cross sway they thwart one another, do as with confronting waters dash themselves together. But henceforth 308 God confoundeth Satan by wisdom, not mere force.
Job 26, ' the seas are gathered together in His might/ because on p^„ the Lord being made Incarnate, the discordant hearts of worldly men believe in agreement. Henceforth Peter ' walks on the sea,' because to the preachers of Christ, these once swelling hearts are by lowly hearing bowed down to the earth, so that in the Gospel too it justly represented the gentleness of this world, that the stormy water of the sea, its swelling being forced down, was trodden by the feet of the Lord. Now in what manner that was done is disclosed, when it is said, His wisdom^ hath struck the proud one.
46. Who else is here called ' proud,' saving he who said, Is. 14, / will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will he like the Most High; and concerning whom it is spoken by the Job 41, voice of God, Who is made that he should fear none, and ' ' himself is king over all the sons of pride. With reference to whom moreover the prophet David agrees with this Ps.89, sentence, saying, Thoit hast abased the proud man, like one wounded. But though to the simple nature of Deity it is not one thing to be, and another thing to be wise, nor one thing to be wise, and another to be strong, forasmuch as the strength is identically the same that the wisdom, and the wisdom that the essence of the Deity is, yet I consider it a thing to be regarded with lively attention, that this man being filled with the prophetic spirit, chose to describe the proud devil as stricken by * the wisdom' rather than the power of God. For he saith not, ' His might,' but, * His wisdom hath struck the proud one.' For, as we have said, although by right of simple Nature, the Might of God is the Wisdom of God, yet as to the appearance, the Lord overcame the devil, not by power, but by reason; for the devil himself, by overthrowing us in that root of our first parent, as it were rightfully held man under his thraldom, who whilst he was created with free will, yielded consent to him, when he prompted what was unjust. For when created to life in the freedom of his own will, he was of his own accord made the debtor to death. Therefore such a transgression was to be done away; but saving by sacrifice it could not be done away. A sacrifice was to be sought after, but what sacrifice could be found for the setting men free.? For neither was it just that for reasoning man there should be slain sacrifices of brute beasts.
Satan'^s pride beaten dow?i by our Lord as Man. 309 Whence the Apostle says, It was therefore necessary that Book the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with '- these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices 23. ' ' than these. And so if brute creatures on behalf of a rational animal, i. e. in the stead of man, were not proportionate victims, a man was to be sought out, who should be offered for men, that for a reasoning being committing sin there might be offered a reasoning victim. But what of the fact, that a man without sin could not be found? And the victim offered in our stead, when could it cleanse us from sin, if the actual victim itself was not without sin's contagion? Since it being defiled could never have cleansed the defiled. Therefore that it might be a rational victim, Man was to be offered, but that it might cleanse man from his sins, Man and that Man without sin. But who might there be man without sin, if he was descended from a combination in sin? Thereupon in our behalf the Son of God came into the womb of the Virgin; there for our sakes He was made Man. Nature, not sin, was assumed by Him. He offered a sacrifice in our behalf. He set forth His own Body in behalf of sinners, a victim void of sin, that both by human nature He might be capable of dying, and by righteousness be capable of purifying. This One, then, when the ancient enemy saw after the Baptism, then directly fell upon Him with temptations, and by diverse avenues strove to insinuate himself into His interior; he was overcome and laid prostrate by the mere sinlessness of His unconquerable mind.
47. But because to the interior his strength did not reach, he betook himself to His outward man, that because he was subdued by the prowess of the soul. Him, Whom he had not the power to deceive by temptation, he might at all events by the death of the flesh seem to vanquish. And, as it has been said before us, he had leave granted to him against that, which the Mediator had taken from us mortals. But where he had power to do something, there he was vanquished utterly on every side; and from the same cause that he obtained the power outwardly to kill the flesh of the Lord, his interior power, whereby he held us fast, was killed. For he was himself vanquished within, whilst in seeming he vanquished without; and he, who of 310 The mystic ^Heavens'' otre their adorniiKj to the Spirit.
Job 26, ijcrht held us the debtors of death, of right lost in us the -ryji — ^riglit of death; because by means of his ministers, he sought for the flesh of Him to be done to death, in Whom he found no whit of the debt of sin. Thus our Lord did in our behalf pay death not due, that death due might not injure us; and so it is well said. And His wisdom hath struck the proud one; because our old enemy by the excess of his presumption lost even him, whom by the law of wicked persuasion he got possession of; and whilst he audaciously went after Him, in Whom there was nought at his command, by right he lost him, whom he as it were justly Ijeld bound. Therefore he was ' stricken by wisdom,' and not by power, in that while he is let loose for the tempting God, he is unfastened from possessing man; so that him that was under him, he should lose by the same act, whereby he had ventured to come to an encounter with Him, Who is over him. But upon the Lord being killed in the flesh, what gloriousness of powers came upon his Preachers is related, when it is added, Ver. 13. His Spirit garnished the heavens. XXXI. 48. What ' heavens,' saving those concerning whom it is Ps.19,1. written, The heavens are telling the glory of God? Which ' heavens His Spirit garnished' then, when It ' filled' them. Acts 2, Which we have learnt by Luke's relating, who saith. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven^ as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting; and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. From Him, then, they received the adornments of prowess, whom an exceeding disfigurement of fear before had possession of. For we know that first one of the Apostles, i. e. of the ' heavens,' how often, before the grace of the Holy Spirit was vouchsafed, whilst he feared to die, he denied ' the Life;' who not by punishments, not by inflictions, not by the dreadful power of any one, but by the simple inten-ogation of a single slave, was brought to the ground. And truly that that slave the sterner sex might not exhibit as an object to cause alarm, it was by a maidservant putting the question that he was tried. Again, that the weakness of such a sex, by the lowness of her Glory (}f the Apostles after Pentecost. 311 office as well might be made contemptiblej he was questioned Book not by a maidservant only, but by a maidservant keeper of the door. See how contemptible the person is that is sought 17. out for the purpose of trying him, that it might be plainly brought to light, what excessive weakness of fear possessed him, who even before the voice of a maidservant of the door could not stand fast.
49. But this one a little before so full of affright, what after the Coming of the Holy Spirit he became, let us now see. Surely we have learnt by Luke's attesting it, with what an authoiitativeness he preached the Lord, in opposition to the priests and rulers. For when upon a miracle being wrought inquiry had arisen, and the rulers from among the priests, the elders, and the scribes laid their hands together in the persecution of the Apostles, setting those persons in the midst, they busied themselves to ask in wliat power they had wrought the miracle. Unto whom Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit spake. Ye rulers of the people and elders; Acts 4, if we be this day examined of the deed done to the impotent^' ^^' man, by what means he is made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom ye crucified, Whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole. And when the rage of the persecutors against this grew to a head, and the priests and rulers forbade those men to preach Jesus, with what independent power Peter rose in height against the wrath of the rulers, is made plain, when it is there added directly, But Peter and the y-^^-Apostles answered and said unto them. It is right to obey God rather than man. But when the commands of those withstanding did not repress the influence of the persons preaching, it comes to scourges. For it is added. And when Acts 5, the chief priests had beaten them, they commanded that they^^' should not speak i?i the Name of Jesus, and let them go. But that the prowess of the Apostles not even scourges had power to restrain, is openly shewn, when it is immediately introduced next, And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of Jesus. And immediately even after the rejoicing of their scourges what they did we have pointed 312 The Sdlitls adorned by the Spirit witJi sundry Gifts.
Job 26, out; And daily hi the temple, and in every house, they ceased _i_ ffQi ffj teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Mark, that man, a little while before full of fears, now speaks with tongues, flashes forth with miracles, with free voice rebukes the unbelief of the priests and rulers, gives to the rest for the preaching of Jesus an example of independence. That he should not speak in His Name, he is restrained by scourgings, and yet is not withheld. He sets at nought the strokes of those that scourged him, who a little while back had dreaded the words of those that questioned him. And he that when asked a question shrunk in consternation from the powers of a maidservant, when beaten with the rod forces back the powers of the rulers. For being henceforth established by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, the heights of this world he trod down with the heel of liberty, that he should see that that was low down on the earth, whatever it was that swelled high against the grace of the Creator.
50. These are the ornaments of the heavens, these are the gifts of the Spirit, that are used to be manifested by divers powers, which as divided by the bestowal of secret distri- 1 Cor. bution Paul reckons up, saying, For to one is given by the s-lio. Spirit the 7cord ofioisdom; to another the word of knowled.ge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. All which directly afterwards including in one by a general statement he says, But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will. Of these ' heavens' Ps.33,6. too it is said in the Psalm, By the hand of the Lord were the heavens set fast. Of these ornaments of the Spirit also it is added, And all the power of them by the Spirit of His mouth.
Therefore it is well said. His Spirit hath garnished the heavens; because the holy Preachers, except they received the gifts of the Paraclete, that were promised to them, would not have shone with any comeliness of might. But because when the Holy Apostles were beautified with the grace of the gifts of virtue, the preaching of life gained ground against the hearts of unbelievers, and our old enemy being expelled Satan lurks like a serpent in the wicked heart. 313 by the voices of the preachers, abandoned the minds of the Book unbelievers, which he had close beset; after the ornaments of '- the heavens it is fitly subjoined; And hy the midwifery of His hand the crooked serpent is brought forth.
51. For who is described by the designation of the 'ser-xxxii. pent,' but our old enemy, at once slippery and crooked, who for the deceiving of man spake with the mouth of a serpent? Of whom it is said by the Prophet, Leviathan the har-ser-ls.il,^. pent, the crooked one; who was for this reason allowed to speak with the mouth of a serpent, that by that very vessel of his man might learn what he was that dwelt within. For a serpent is not only crooked but slippery as well; and so because he stood not in the uprightness of truth, he entered into a crooked animal, and because if to his first suggestion resistance be not made, in a moment whilst it is not perceived he slips in entire into the interior of the heart, he made speech to man by a slippery animal. Now ' the dens' of this serpent were the hearts of wicked men. Which same because he drew on to his own depravity, he as it were rested in the dwelling place of them. But ' by the midwifery of the Lord's hand, the crooked serpent is driven out of his own dens,' in that whilst the Divine grace heals us, he that had held possession of us, our old enemy, is cast out of us, as Truth Incarnate says. Now shall the prince of this wor Id ^ohnl2y be cast out. Hence all the Saints now already he does not possess by holding, but persecutes by tr^'ing. For because he does not reign in them within, he fights against them without, and because he has lost his dominion in the interior, he sets on foot wars in the exterior. For him That One drove forth from the carnal hearts of men, Who for the sake of men came to the state of Incarnation; and whereas He took seisin of the hearts of unbelievers. He as it were put His hand to the dens of the serpent. Whence it is rightly said by the Prophet; And the sucking child shall play o;ils. n, the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice'' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My Holy Mountain. For whom does he call ' the sucking child,' or ' the weaned child,' saving the Lord } And what did he denote by * the hole of the asp,' and * the cockatrice 314 Our Lord dragged Salart from his dwelling in man. Job 26, den,' savinu: the hearts of wicked men? Because our old — — ^- enemy, whereas he gat himself wholly into their consenting, as a crooked serpent in his own hole, he gathered and wound up the coils of his craftiness; whom he both designates with the title of ' asp' as covertly ravening, and of a ' cockatrice' as openly wounding. And so the Lord * put His hand upon the hole of the asp and the cockatrice,' when He took seisin of the hearts of the wicked by Divine power. And the asp and the cockatrice, being seized, i. e. the devil, he drew away therefrom a captive, that * in His Holy Mountain,' which is the Church, he might not ' harm' His Elect believers.