328 Love of the world excludes delight in God.
Job 27,^0 man regarded; hut ye have set at nought all my counsel^ 1_ and would none of my reproof. Let her now say how she will smite those, whom she bears with so much longsuff'ering, never turning back to her: / also will laugh at your destruction^ I will tnock when your fear cometh, when sudden calamity falleth on you^ and your destruction riseth as a whirhvind; v)hen distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall rise up early, but they shall not find me. By the mouth of Solomon then, the wisest of men, all particulars are carefully set forth relating to the Judgment from Above: because she both at first calls us sweetly, and afterwards upbraids us terribly, and at the last condemns us irretrievably. And so it is well said; Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? Surely because the hypocrite then findeth not a remedy in crying, who now lets slip the fitting opportunity of crying. Concerning whose wickedness it is yet further added; Ver. 10. Or will he he ahle to delight himself in the Almighty f ix. 16. For he that is overcome by the love of earthly things, in no degree delights himself in God. The soul indeed can never exist without its delight, for it delights itself either in things below or in things above, and in proportion as it is employed with higher devotion towards those above, it grows deadened with the greater loathing tow^ards those below, and as it glows with a keener interest for those below, it cools in proportion with an accursed insensibility fi'om those above. For both cannot possibly be loved together and alike. Hence the Apostle John, well knowing that amongst the thorns of worldly attachments the crop of heavenly charity can never shoot, before he produces the seeds of the love eternal, with the holy hand of the word eradicates from the hearts of his hearers the thorns of worldly 1 John affections, in the words. Love not the world, neither the ^> ^^' things that are in the world. And he directly subjoins, Lf any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. As if he said in express terms; * Both these loves cannot contain themselves in one and the same heart, nor Bad men call on God in trouble otily. Error refuted, 329 does the crop of charitv from Above shoot in that heart, Book wherein the thonis of gratification down below kill it.' And ■■- he reckons up all the prickles arising from that gratification below, saying, For all that is in the world is the lust of ^A^v. 16. 17. flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. And so the * hypocrite cannot delight himself in God,' because heavenly desires never spring forth in his mind, seeing surely that the thorns of earthly love overlay it. Of whom it is fitly added; Will he always call upon God?
17. For it is then that the hypocrite * calls upon God/ x. when the wretchedness of earthly circumstances wrings him hard. For when in this world he has obtained the carrying out of the good fortune sought for, his Maker, Who vouchsafed him this same good fortune, he asks not for. But because, as we said before, the art of those that teach should be, that in their hearers' minds they should first aim to destroy what is wrong, and afterwards to preach what is right; (lest the hearts that are full of evil things should not contain the good seed of holy preaching, whence it is said to Jeremiah, See, I have this day set thee over the nations andjev. i, over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down and to ^^' destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. For it is first bidden him that he should pull down, and afterwards that he should build, first to pluck up, and afterwards to plant; because the foundation of rightful truth is not laid, except the edifice of error be first pulled down;) blessed Job after that he had made the case of the Universal Church his answer to the statements of his friends as if in opposition to words of heretics, and that by a manifold rejoinder he had destroyed their pride, describes himself henceforth to teach; that is, that he might be plainly seen in those things which he aclded to plant what is right, but in those that he premised to have plucked up what is wrong. It goes on; / will teach you by the hand of God, that which is with the Almighty; I will not conceal.
18. In such a way does blessed Job speak in his own ^i words as to denote something connected with what relates to 330 Knowledge lakeu pride in turns to condemnation.
Job 27, us. For Holy Church in leaching, in bo far as il is expe-— '- — '- dient to know it, hides not a particle of truth. Thus because 3^ ' ' the Hand of God' is a name for the Son; for, by Hiyn were all things made; she tells that by the Hand of God she teaches those, whom she sees continuing foolish in their own wisdom. As if she said in plain words; ' I know not any thing of myself; but whatever I perceive of the Truth, this I comprehend by the bountifulness of that same Truth. Ye for this reason are not embued with right wisdom, because this same wisdom that you have you ascribe not to the Hand of God, but to your own selves.' For the adversaries of Holy Church, if they do at times perceive any thing true, this they attribute to their own powers, and they deprive themselves so much the more of the Wisdom from Above, in the same proportion as they wish to have it appropriated to themselves as being derived from their own wits. Unto whom it is sometimes vouchsafed for their judgment, that they should indeed know some things aright, but by this very same knowledge be rendered the more obnoxious to punishment. Whence it is fitly added; Ver. 12. Behold^ all ye yourselves know: why then do ye utter vain things without cause?
xii. 19. It is written; And that servant, which knew his tardus Lukei2, ^^7/^ dfjd prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall he beaten with mariy stripes. But he that knew not, and did not worthily, shall be beaten with few Jam. 4, stripes. And again it is written; Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth. it not, to him it is sin.
And so for the heightening of greater guilt Holy Church tells it that her enemies at once know what they ought to follow, and will not follow what they may know. Of which same Ps. 65, persons it is elsewhere said; Let them go down quick into hell. Those are ' quick' that are sensible of the things that are done towards them. For the dead neither know nor are sensible at all, and so ' the dead' who do not feel are used to be put for persons that know not, but ' the quick,' who are sensible, for those that know. Therefore to ' go down quick into heir is for persons to sin knowing and being sensible of it. It goes on; This is the portion of an ungodly man with They thai wrest GniTs Word mulitply but to perish. 331 God. and, the heritane of oppressors, which they shall receive Book • • XVIII of the Almighty. Which same ' portion' and ' inheritance' ' he thereupon gives, when he adds; Ver. 14. //■ his children be multiplied, it is in the sword; and his grandchildren shall not be satisfied with bread, 20. The title of the * ungodly' is not without meaning xiii. given to heretics, who through the erroneousness of false doctrine are far removed from the knowledge of the truth; whom in the words following he calls ' violent' as well, as being persons who set themselves to wrest by violence to a wrong meaning the sentences of Holy Scripture containing right articles of doctrine. And so they are ' violent' if not in the goods of men, at all events in the senses of precepts. But the * sons of violent men' are the followers of heretics, who while they consent to their error, are as it were engendered by their preaching. But while being ' multiplied' they shall ' be in the sword,' for though now they grow up in an immense multitude in a ruinous liberty, yet they are smitten by the sentence of the Judge to come. Whence the Lord saith by Moses, My sword shall devour Jlesh, For l>eut. ' the sword of God devours flesh,' because in the Final ' Judgment His sentence destroys those, who are carnally wise. On which point it is to be made out why it should be said that the wicked ' receive this portion' and inheritance of theirs from the Almighty } Yet to those taking a right view it is plain that though they had it from themselves to act unjustly, yet it comes before the Equity Above, what is unjustly done justly to judge; so that the sentence of God should orderly appoint for punishment those whom their ill-ordered conduct drew into sin. Concerning whom it is fitly subjoined; And his grandchildren shall not be satisfied with bread.
21. For ' the grandchildren' of Heretics are they that are bom by the preaching of children in error. And these * bread fails to satisfy;' because while in the provender of the sacred Word they seek to perceive more than they take in, they are ever a hungering to the knowledge of the truth; and the preachings of instruction, which they are busy to seek for questioning, they are incapable of having for refreshment. But because from the number of these heretics some Holy 332 When false teachers die, how it fares with their people. Job 27, Church gathers in, some she leaves obstinate in their wicked- ■\ ' ' ness, it is thereupon added; Ver. 15. Those that remain of him shall he buried in death. xiv. 22. Doubtless * the persons left' of that tribe of heretics * are buried in death,' for whereas they return not to the light of truth, assuredly they are sunk down in everlasting punishment by an earthly perception. And because it is sometimes the case, that whilst the leader of the common herds in error is carried off to punishment, the common herds that were led astray are new set to a knowledge of the truth, and then the persons under them return to true knowledge, when these persons are brought to eternal punishments, who had been wrongly set over them, it is fitly added; And his widows shall not weep. XV. 23. Whom do we take for ' his widows' but the subject common herds left deserted for their happiness by his death? For oftentimes, as has been said, when the preacher of error is carried off to everlasting punishments, his subject multitudes are brought back to the grace of a true acquaintance. For these multitudes the wicked preacher was set over like a husband, because the seducer of the soul did cleave joined to them for the worse. Or, indeed, ' the widows do not weep,' because whilst continuing in their erring belief, whereas they hold their preacher to have been holy, they are beguiled by a deceitful hope, that they should not mourn. It follows; Ver. 16, 17. Though he heap up silver as the earthy and prepare raiment as the mud; he may prepare, hut the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. xvi. 24. Silver is used to be interpreted the clearness of sacred Ps. 12,6. Writ, as it is elsewhere said; The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth. And because there are those that long to have the Word of God not inwardly in the exemplifying but externally in the displaying, therefore it is said by the Prophet, All they that are clothed in silver are cut off, being those, who by the word of God do not fill themselves with the interior refreshment, but array themselves in the outward exhibition. Hence their ' silver,' i. e. the word of heretics, is compared to ' earth,' because.
Heretics furnished in vain from Holy Writ. 333 touching the subject of Holv Writ, that there may be some- ^ook ".. XVIII thing that they know, they toil and strain from the coveting -* of earthly applause. And these, too, ' prepare raiment as the mud,' because they make up testimonies of Holy Scripture loosely and bedaubingly, whereby they would defend themselves. He shall ' prepare' indeed, ^ but the just shall put them on,' because the person who is full of right faith, which is used to be accounted to the Saints for righteousness, gathers together those self-same testimonies of Holy Writ, which the heretic adduces, and therefrom he charges home the obstinacy of that one's error. For whereas they fetch against us the testimonies of the Sacred Law, they bring with them unto us that whereby they may be defeated. And hence David representing a type of the Lord, but Goliath the pride of Heretics, they spake that in deeds, which we are disclosing in words. Thus Goliath came to battle with a sword, but David with a shepherd's scrip, but David, defeating that same Goliath, with his own sword slew him. Which thing we likewise do, who by His deigning have obtained to be made members of the promised David *=. For when heretics full of pride, and advancing sentences of Holy Writ, we defeat by the same words and sentences, which they bring forward, we as it were behead Goliath in his pride with his own sword. And so * the just puts on those same garments,' which the unjust man * prepares,' because the holy man employs in the service of truth those same sentences by which the bad man strives to exhibit himself a master of learning in opposition to the truth.
'2b. And the innocent shall divide the silver. For ' the innocent to divide the silver' is to set forth the revelations of the Lord piece by piece and with discrimination, and to apply to each individual what may be proportionately suitable. For the Word of the Lord which is here entitled ' silver' or ' ganuents,' this same is elsewhere denominated ' spoils.' Which the Psalmist likewise witnesses in the way of comparison, saying, I rejoice at Thy Word as one that fin deth^s.UQ^ great spoils. Which spoils are so called for this reason, ^' because on the Gentile world passing over to the faith of the Lord, the Jews are spoiled of the Sacred Oracles with which « al. ' the promised members of David.'
334 Catholics sever fahehood frotn truth taught by Heretics. Job 27, they had been invested. And of this division of the silver or — -- of spoils it is elsewhere said, Benjamin is a ravening wolf: in Gen. 49, the morning he shall devour the prey^ and at night he shall divide the spoils. By which words, no doubt, the Apostle Paul is designated, as being descended from the stock of Benjamin, who ' in the morning devoured the prey,' because in his first beginnings seizing upon all the believers he was able, he glutted his own cruelty. But ' in the evening he divided the spoils,' because afterwards being made a believer, he portioned out the sacred oracles by interpreting them.
26. Though this ' silver,' which ' the innocent divides,' may be understood in another sense as well. For Heretics, that they may be easily able to recommend what is wrong, mix with their statements things that are right, that the minds of those that hear them by right views they may attract, and by wrong ones wound. Which same persons, because, in the precepts of God, they are pied with a sound and unsound Lukel7, mode of speech, are, in the Gospel, well represented by the appearance of the ' ten lepers,' with whose healthy colour whereas an evil whiteness is intermixed, by this excessive whiteness they are rendered foul. Hence we are warned, Rom.i2, Not to think of ourselves more than we ought to think, but to think soberly. And these too, because they do not as yet love either God, of Whom they entertain wrong notions, nor yet their neighbour, from whom they are separated, are opposed to the precepts of the Decalogue, and therefore for the beseeching of the Lord they come ten in number. Now for this cause, that they mixed what is sound with what is unsound, they are pied with a difference of colour; but because they offended in His precepts, they call Him that whereby they had so offended, saying, Jesus, Preceptor; and hereby they directly obtained to be healed. And so because the Catholic makes out the things that are thought rightly, or that are thought wrongly by them, ' the innocent divideth the silver,' i. e. distinguisheth what may have been by them delivered either with wholesome or baneful effect. It goes on; Ver. 18, He buildeth his house as a moth. xvii. 27. ' The moth builds a house' for itself by corrupting. Nor could the heretic have been shewn by a better comparison, who makes a dwelling for his misbelief no where ] Fleeting things of earth made sure by well bestowing. 335 else save in the minds which he has corrupted, who also Book • XVIII. engages for his followers to be free from everlasting fire. For he pledges to tliem the refreshment of eternal rest, but his words have no solidity, because they lack the fulness of truth. Whence it is added, And as the keeper he maketh a booth. For * the booth of the keeper' is not set firm by any foundation, but the time passing it is directly destroyed. And the rest promised by heretics is destroyed together with the time, in that after this life it is not found at all. And because oftentimes Heretics in contempt of the Church Universal are supported by the patronage of the powerful ones of the world, and the rich do not cease to aid them with all the countenance of active agency that they are empowered with, that identical person also, whoever he be, that is made to swell against the face of his Maker by temporal good things, is now touched by the sentence of the holy man, and from the particular ruin of heretics, the discourse is drawn off to a general characterizing of all the self-exalted, when it is added; Ver. 19. When the rich man sleepeth, he shall take nothing away with him, he shall open his eyes and shall find nought.
28. In harmony with which same sentence the Psalmist xviii. saith, All the foolish in heart are troubled, they have sleptVs.75^b, their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands. For in order that the rich after death may * find something in their hand,' it is told to them before death, in whose hands they should place their riches. Make Luke to yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, that ^^' ^* when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations. When the rich man sleepeth, he shall take nothing away with him. His goods when he dieth he would take away with him, if whilst he lived, at the voice of him that besought him, he had taken them home to himself; for all things earthly, which we part with by keeping, we keep by bestowing; our patrimony which retained is lost, whilst paid out of hand it remains. For we cannot long continue together with our goods. Since either we by dying abandon them, or they by perishing as it were abandon us while living. And so it remains for us to manage that things 336 The body's sleep, the souPs trakim/. Riches <i dream.
Job 27, doomed unreservedly to perish we may compel to pass over -- — '-- into a reward that does not perish.
MouAL. 29. But that is very much to be wondered at that is spoken, When he sleepeth, he shall open his eyes and shall find nothing. For in order to sleep we close our eyes, and on waking up open them. But on this point, forasmuch as man consists of soul and body, while it is called sleep of one subject, the waking of the other is shewn to view; because when the body falls asleep in death, then the soul wakes up in a true acquaintance. And so * the rich man sleeps, and opens his eyes,' because, when he dies in the flesh, his soul is compelled to see what it despised to foresee. Then indeed it wakes up in true acquaintance; then it sees that all is nothing that it possessed; then it finds itself empty; whereas it used to rejoice in being full of good things above the rest of the world. It ' sleeps, and takes away nothing along with it,' nothing surely, of the goods that it possessed. For the sin of the goods is carried on along with it, though every thing for the sake of which sin was committed be left behind here. So then let him go now, and swell himself out with good things gotten, let him lift himself up above the rest of the world, and pride himself in having what his neighbour has not. The time will come sooner or later that he shall awake, and then learn how empty that was which he had possessed in sleep. For it often happens to the needy whilst sleeping that he sees himself rich in a dream, and on the strength of those acquisitions uplifts his mind, is overjoyed that he has what he had not, and now counts to be disdainful of those whom it grieved him to be disdained by; but that suddenly waking up he is grieved that he has woke up, in that meanwhile though but while sleeping he possessed the semblance of riches. For he groans directly under the weight of poverty, and is wrung by the straitness of his indigence, and this so much the worse, as though but for the shortest space of time he was even thus emptily rich. Thus, thus, too surely is it with the rich ones of this world, who are bloated with good things acquired.
They have no knowledge to do right by their abundance; as persons asleep they are rich; but on waking up they find The rich man in hell found his earthly goods vain. 337 their poverty, because they * bring nothing with them' to Boofv that Judgment, that is calculated to remain, and in proportion ' as they are now lifted up the higher for a brief space, the more heavily they groan against themselves for everlasting. So then let him say, He shall open his eyes^ and shall find nothing. Because he then ^ opens those eyes' to punishments, which here he kept closed to mercy. He ' opens his eyes' and he ' finds not' the fruit of pity, in that he kept them shut here, when he did * find' it. Those also are slow in ' opening their eyes,' who, as Wisdom is witness, are described as going in the time of their condemnation to say. What hath^'^^^-^i pride profited us? or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us? All these things are passed away like a shadow, and as a post that hasteth by. That the things which they possessed were worthless and transitory they now learn by their loss, which same, so long as they were theirs, seemed to their foolish hearts at once great and lasting. It was late that the rich man * opened his eyes,' when he saw Lazarus at rest, whom he scorned to see lying at his door. He understood There the thing that here to do he refused: by his condemnation he was forced to learn what it was that he lost, when he did not own his neighbour being in want. Of whom it is yet further added; Ver. 20. TVant shall take hold of him like water; a tempest shall overwhelm him in the night.
30. Let us look now at the want of the rich man as xix. burning, whose abundance was so great as feasting. For he says. Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus Lukei6, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my"^^' tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. By which same words it is not this that is made known to us, that there in that excessive burning a single drop of water is then asked for as a sufficiency of refreshment, but that he who has sinned by abundance should there be consumed by a w^ant burning to excess. For we see in the words of the rich man, resulting from the exactest judgment of God, how proportionate a punishment answered such sin. For moved by want, he is there driven to beg for the very least, who here, moved by covetousness, went so far as to refuse the very least. What can be paid back more exactly, what more strictly? He begged VOL. II. z 338 The * Lake* of Hell. Storm of Judgment unforeseen.
Job 27, a drop of water, who refused crumbs of bread; and so ^ want _ _: — taketh hold of him like water.' That want is then not unsuitably likened to water, because there is that tormenting in hell, which, as swallowing up those it receives in the depths below, is used to be denoted by the title of a ' lake.' Whence it is delivered by the Prophet in the voice of man-Lam. 3, kind, My life is fallen into the lake. But by the triumphing '??o ^^ those that are escaped it is sung, O Lord my God, I 2. 3. cried unto Thee and Thou hast Jiealed me. O Lord, TJtou hast brought up my soul from the grave: Thou hast kept me from them that go down into the lake.
31. A tempest shall overwhelm him in the night. What in this place does he call ' the night,^ but the hidden time of sudden departing? And by the name of ' tempest' he represents the whirlwind of the Judgment. Which the Ps50,3. Psalmist also testifies, in the words. Our God shall come in state, our God, and shall not keep silence; afire shall devour before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest. Of Piov. 1, which same * tempest' Wisdom also saith by Solomon; / also u'ill laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. And because the very ignorance of the coming departure is itself called ' Night,' ' in the night a tempest shall overwhelm him,' i. e. the whirlwind of Divine Judgment, whilst he is ignorant, shall seize Mat.24, upon Him For it is hence that Truth saith by Itself, But "■ * know this, that if the good man of the house had known in lihat watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready. For in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. Hence also it is spoken v.48-50. against the ' evil servant;' But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delay eth His coming; and shall begin to S7nite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not 1 Thess. aware of. Hence Paul says to the disciples. But ye, brethren, ' * ' ' are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of the light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
77/6^ searchinij wind of temptation carries off the wicked. 339 Hence to the rich man, ' giving a loose to pride, it is said by the Book voice of God, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be ^^^7^"^^^^ ^J^" of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast 20. provided'/ In the night he is described as giving up his soul, who whilst not seeing death beforehand is carried off in darkness of the heart. Thus then he sailh, A ternpest shall overtvhelm him in the night. For because he is not minded to do the good things that he sees, he is caught by the tempest of his destruction which he seeth not. Of whom it is yet further added; Ver. 21. The scorching ivind shall carry him off, and take him away.
32. Who is in this place called the ' scorching wind' but xx. the evil spirit, who stirs up the flames of divers lusts in the heart, that he may drag it to an eternity of punishments? And so ' the scorching wind' is said to ' carry off' any bad men, because the plotter, the evil spirit, who inflames a man whilst living to evil, drags him when dying to torments. For that * the scorching wind' is wont to be meant for the unclean spirit, who by the breath of evil suggesting kindles the hearts of the wicked to earthly desires, the prophet Jeremiah testifies, saying, A pot kindled I see, and the face z^x. 1, thereof by the face of the North. For ' the pot kindled' is the ^^' heart of man boiling with the heatings of worldly concerns, and with the restlessness of desires. Which is kindled by ' the face of the North,' i. e. set on fire by the suggestions of the devil. For that very being is used to be called by the title of ' the North,' who said, / tHll sit also upon the mount Is. 14, of the congregation^ in the sides of the North. I will ascend ' above the heights of the clouds. Thus by the burning effect of this scorching wind the mind of each one of the Elect is cooled down, when the heat of evil inclinations is extinguished therein, and the flame of carnal desires turned to ice. And hence Holy Church in the praises of her spouse cries out with exultation, / sat down under the shadow of him, whom Cant. 2, I had desired. Of the abatement of this heat it is said to^' her by Isaiah, by promise of the Lord, Instead of the ground!^. 55, willow shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the nettle ^^' shall come upj the myrtle tree. For ' instead of the ground willow there comes up in her the fir-tree,' when in the heart 340 Divine influence cools the soul. Unsparing judgment.
Job 27, of ihc Saints, instead of the sunkcnness of earthly thought, — j— |;— the elevation of heavenly contemplation rises up. Now the nettle is altogether of a fiery nature. But the myrtle is said to be of cooling virtue, and therefore * instead of the nettle there comes up the myrtle tree,' when the minds of the righteous are brought from the irritation and heat of bad habits to coolness and quietness of the thoughts, while they now no longer seek earthly things, while they extinguish the flames of the flesh by heavenly aspirations.
33. In reference too to this cooling of the soul, which is Luke 1, given from heaven, it is said to Mary, The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; though on this point, by the term of ' the overshadowing,' either Nature of God to be made Incarnate might have been denoted. For a shadow is formed by light and body. Now the Lord is Light in respect of the Divine Nature, Who, by means of a soul intervening, vouchsafed in her womb in respect of human nature to become a body. And so because the Incorporeal Light was in her womb to be made corporeal, to her, who conceived the incorporeal for corporality, it is said. The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; i. e. The Incorporeal Light of the Divine Nature shall in thee take the corporeal substance of Human Nature. But now let us carry to an end what we began relating to any wicked man. Accordingly ' the scorching wind takes him away,'in this way, viz. that him whom the evil spirit now kindles with the fire of evil concupiscence, he afterwards carries off to the flames of hell. It goes on; And as a ivhirlwind shall carry him out of his place. xxi. 34. ' The place' of the wicked is the gratification of the life of time, and the enjoyment of the flesh. Therefore every single individual is in a manner ' carried out of his place by a whirlwind,' when overwhelmed with affright on the Last Day he is severed from all his gratifications. Of which same Last Day it is directly added with justice,