ceived in its tiTic light by the time. For fu*st we have de- • Dicturo, al. ' daturo,' ' to give,' as vrhora St. Greg, seem^ here to follovr. St. Aug. 1. i. on Serm. on the Mount, (Ben.)
184 Cursing is either malicious or judicial.
Job 3, scribed the wasting of his substance, the destruction of his -— — '- children, the pain of his wounds, the persuasions of his wife, the coming of his friends, who are related to have rent their garments, to have shed tears with loud cries, to have sprin- kled their heads with dust, and to have sat upon the ground for long in silence, and afterwards it is added, After this Job opened his mouthy and cursed his day; clearly that from the very order of the account, duly weighed, it might be con- cluded that he could never have uttered a curse in a spirit of impatience, who broke forth into a voice of cursing whilst his friends were as yet silent. For if he had cursed under the influence of passion, doubtless upon hearing of the loss of his substance, and upon hearing the death of his sons, his grief would have prompted him to curse. But what Job I, he then said, we have heard before. For he said, Tlie Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Again, if he had cursed under the impulse of passion, he might well have uttered a curse when he was stricken in his body, or when he was mischievously advised by his wife. But what answer Job 2 he then gave we have already learnt; for he says, Tliou ^^- speakest as one of the foolish ivomen speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? But after this it is set forth that his friends arrive, shed tears, seat themselves, keep silence, whereupon this is immediately subjoined, that he is said to have cursed his day. It is, then, too great an inconsistency to imagine that it was from impatience that he broke out into a voice of cursing, no man setting him on, no man driving him thereto, when we know that amidst the loss of all his goods, and the death of his children, amidst bodily afflictions, the evil counsels of his wife, he only gave great acknowledgments to his Creator with a humble mind. It is plain, then, with what feelings he spoke this when he was at rest, who even when stricken uttered such a strain of praise to God. For afterwards, when no longer stricken, he could not be guilty of pride, whom even his pain under the rod only shewed to be full of humility. But as we know for certain that holy Scripture forbids cursing, how can we say that that is some- times done aright, which yet we know to be forbidden ^ by the same Holy Writ?
b Ben. as most Mss. ' vitari,' ' shunned,' old Edd. as A. ' vetari,' ' forbidden.'
«S^/. Peter's and Elijah's curse proved right by the event. 185 2. But be it known that Holy Writ makes mention of Book...IV. cursing in two ways, namely, of one sort of curse which it commands, another sort which it condemns. For a curse is uttered one way by the decision of justice, in another way by the malice of revenge. Thus a curse was pronounced by the decree of justice upon the first man himself, when he fell into sin, and heard ihe words, Cursed is the ground for thy Gen. 3, sake. A curse is pronounced by decree of justice, when it is said to Abraham, / will curse them that curse thee. Again, forasmuch as a curse may be uttered, not by award of justice, but by the malice of revenge, we have this admo- nition from the voice of Paul the Apostle in his preaching, where he says, Bless, and curse not; and again, nor revilers Rom. shall inherit (he kingdom of God. So then God is said to J^^q/' curse, and yet man is forbidden to curse, because what man G, lo. does from the malice of revenge, God only does in the exactn(;ss and perfection of justice. But when holy men deliver a sentence of cursing, they do not break forth therein from the wish of revenge, but in the strictness of justice, for they behold God's exact judgment within, and they perceive that they are bound to smite evils arising without with a curse; and are guilty of no sin in cursing, in the same degree that they are not at variance with the interior judgment.
It is hence that Peter flung back the sentence of a curse upon Simon when he offered him money, in the words, May Acts 8, thy money perish with thee; for he who said, not does, but may, shewed that he spoke this, not in the indicative, but in the optative mood. Hence Elias said to the two captains of fifty that came to him, 1/ I be a man of God, then let Jire^ Kings come down from heaven, and consutne thee. And upon what reasonable grounds of truth the sentences of either of the two were esUiblishcd, the issue of the case demonstrated. For both Simon perished in eternal ruin, and lire descending from above consumed the two ca))tains of fifty. Thus the subse(|uent miracle' testifies with what mind the sentence ofi virtus the curse is pronounced. For when both the innocence of him that curseth remains, and be that is cursed is by that curse swallowed up to the extent of utter destruction, from the end of either side we collect, that the sentence is taken up and launched against the offender from the sole Judge of what is within.
1 86 The ^daifJoh cursed is th is mortal life,which hisfrietids loved.
Job 3, 3. Therefore if we weigh with exactness the words of . — - — blessed Job, his cursins: cometh not of the malice of one Hist guilty of sin, but of the integrity of a judge, not of one agitated by passion, but of one sober in instruction; for he, who in cursing pronounced such righteous sentence, did not give way to the evil of perturbation of mind, but dispensed the dictates of wisdom. For, in fact, he saw his friends weeping and wailing, he saw them rending their garments, he saw how they had sprinkled their heads with dust, he saw them struck dumb at the thought of his aflfliction; and the Saint perceived that those whose hearts were set upon temporal prosperity, took him, by a comparison with their own feelings, for one brokenhearted with his temporal adversity. He considered that they would never be weeping for him in despair, who was stricken with a transient ill, except they had themselves withdrawn their soul in despair from the hope of inward soundness; and while he outwardly burst forth into the voice of grief, he shewed to persons inwardly wounded the virtue of a healing medicine, saying, Ver. 3. Let the day perish wherein I was horn, 4. For what is to be understood by ' the day of our birth,' save the whole period of our mortal state? So long as this keeps us fast in the corruptions of this our mutable state of being, the unchangeableness of eternity does not appear to us. He, then, who already beholds the day of eternity, endures with difficulty the day of his mortal being. And observe, he saith not, ' Let the day perish wherein I was created,' but, let the day perish wherein I was born. For man was created in a day of righteousness, but now he is born in a time of guilt; for Adam was created, but Cain was the first man that was born. What then is it to curse the day of his birth, but to say plainly, ' May the day of change perish, and the light of eternity burst forth?'
5. But inasmuch as we are used to bid perish in two ways, (for it is in one way that we bid perish, when we desire to any thing that it should no longer be, and in another way that we bid it perish, when we desire that it should be ill therewith,) the words that are added concerning this day, ' Vulg. Let a cloud dwell upon it: let it he enveloped in hitterness\- clearly shew, that he wishes not this day to perish in such sort as not to be, but so that it may go ill with it; for that Satan is day in shew, night in result. 187 can never be * enveloped in bitterness/ which is so wholly Book destroyed as not to be at all. Now this period of our mutable condition is not one day to perish, (i. e. to pass away,) in such a way, as to be in an evil plight, but so as to cease to be altogether, as the Angel bears witness in Holy Writ, saying, By Him that livelh for ever and ever, tJtat there Rev.io, should he time no longer. For though the Prophet hath it, Their time shall endure for ever, yet because time comes Ps. 81, j to an end with every moment, he designated their coming to an end by the name of ' time,' shewing that without every way ending" they come to an end, that are severed from the joys of the inward Vision. Therefore because this period of our mortal condition does not so perish as to be in evil plight, but so as not to be at all, we must enquire what it means that he desires it may perish, not so that it may not be, but that it may be in ill condition. Now a human soul, or an Angelic spirit, is in such sort immortal, that it is capable of dying, in such sort mortal, that it can never die.
For of living happily, it is deprived whether by sin or by punishment; but its essential living it never loses, either by sin or punishment: it ceases from a mode of living, but it is not even by dying susceptible of an end to every mode of being. So that I might say in a word, that it is both immortally mortal, and mortally immortal. Whereas then he wishes that the day may perish, and soon after it is said that it is ^ to be enveloped in bitterness,' whom should we think the holy man woidd express by the name of ' day,' except the Apostate Spirit, who in dying subsists in the life of essential being.'' Whom destruction does not withdraw from life, in that in the midst of pains eternal an immortal death kills, while it preserves, him whose perishing, fallen as he is already from the glory of his state of bliss, is still longed for no othenvise than that being held back by the punishments, which he deserves, he may lose even the liberty of temj)ting.
6. Yea, he presents himself as the day, in that he allures by prosperity; and his end is in the blackness of night, for that he leads to adversity; thus he displayed day when he ^aid. In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be Gen. 3, 6.
« i. e. • witliout a total ctMation of ' that without end they come to an end being.' Some Mas. have ' sine fine,' by an utter fini:«hing.'
188 False day darkened wJien Satan is detected.
Jobs, opened, and ye shall he as Gods; but he brought on night, — —^ — when he led to the blackness of mortality; the day, therefore, is the proffered promise of better things, but the night is the very manifested experience of evils. The old enemy is the day, as by nature created good, but he is the night, as by his own deserts sunk down into darkness. He is day, when by promising good things he disguises himself as an Angel of hght to the eyes of men, as Paul witnesses, saying, 2 Cor. For Saia7i Idmself is transformed as an angel of liyht; but ' * he is night, when he obscures the minds of those that consent to him with the darkness of error. Well then may the holy man, who in his own sorrows bewailed the case of the whole human race, and who viewed nothing in any wise special to himself in his own special affliction, well may he recal to mind the original cause of sin, and soften the pain of the infliction by considering its justice. Let him look at man, and see whence and whither he has fallen, and exclaim. Let the day perish n herein I was horn, and the niglit in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. As if he said in plain words, ' Let the hope perish, which the apostate Angel held forth, who, disguising himself as day, shone forth with the promise of a di\dne nature, but yet again shewing him- self as night, brought a cloud over the light of our immortal nature. Let our old enemy perish, who displayed the light of promises, and bestowed the darkness of sin; who as it were presented himself as day by his flattery, but led us to a night of utter darkness by sealing our hearts with blindness.' It proceeds; Ver. 4. Let that day he turned into darkness. ii. 7. This day shines as it were in the hearts of men, when the persuasions of his wickedness are thought to be for our good, and what they are within is never seen; but when his wickedness is seen as it is, the day of false promises is as it were dimmed by a kind of darkness spread before the eyes of our judgment, in this respect, that such as he is in intrinsic worth, such he is perceived to be in his beguilement, and so ' the day becomes darkness,' when we take as adverse even the very tilings, which he holds out as advantageous wliilst persuading them. ' The day becomes darkness,' when our old enemy, even when lurking under the cloak of his blandish- Tlte shadow of death on it in Satati*sjitial perdition. 189 nients, is perceived by us to be such as he is when ravening Book after us, that he may never mock us with feigned prosperity, as though by the hght of day, dragging us by real misery to the darkness of sin. It proceeds; Let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon if.
8. As Almighty God was able to create good things out of iii. nothing, so, when He would, He also restored the good things that were lost, by the mystery of His Incarnation. Now he had made two creations to contemplate Himself, viz. the Angelic and the human, but pride smote both, and dashed them from the erect station of native uprightness. But one had the clothing of the flesh, the other bore no infirmity derived from the flesh. For an angelical being is spirit Comp. alone, but man is both spirit and flesh. Therefore when the ^* Creator took compassion to work redemption, it was meet that He should bring back to Himself that creature, which, in the I commission of sin, plainly had something of infinnity; and it / was also meet that the apostate Angel should be driven down to a farther depth, in ])ropoition as he, when he fell from resoluteness in standing fast, earned about him no infinnity of the flesh. And hence the Psalmist, when he was telling of the Redeemer's compassionating mankind, at the same time justly set forth the cause itself of His mercy, in these words. And he remembei'ed that they were bnt Jlesh.Ps. 78y As if he said, ' Whereas He beheld their infinnities, so He ' would not punish their offences with severity.' There is yet another respect wherein it was both fitting that man when lost should be recovered, and impossible for the s})irit that set himself up to be recovered, namely, in that the Angel fell by his own wickedness, but the wickedness of another brought man down. Forasnmch then as mankind is brought to the light of repentance by the coming of the Redeemer, but the apostate Angel is not recalled by any hope of pardon, or with any amendment of conversion, to the light of a restored estate, it may well be said, Let not God regard if from above, neither let the light shine upon it. As though it were plainly expressed, ' For that he hath himself brought on the darkness, let him bear without end what himself has made, nor let him ever recover the light of his former condition, 190 Eternal bitierness of Judgment. The dark ivliirlwind.
Job 3, since he parted mth it even without being persuaded thereto.'
Let darkness and the sliadow of death stain it. iv. 9. * By the shadow of death,' w^e must understand * oblivion,' for as death ends life, so oblivion puts an end to memoiy. As therefore the apostate Angel is delivered over to eternal oblivion, he is overclouded with the shadow of death. Therefore let him say, Let darkness and the shadou) of death stain it; i. e. ' So let him be ovei*whehiied with the blindness of error, that he never more rise up again to the light of repentance by recollection of God's regard. The words follow; ' ^ulg. j^qi d cloud dwell upon it^: and let it be enveloped in bitterness. V. 10. It is one thing that our old enemy suffers now, bound by the chains of his own wickedness, and another that he will have to suffer at the end. For in that he is fallen from the rank of the interior light, he now confounds himself within with the darkness of error; and hereafter he is involved in bitterness^ in that by desert of a voluntary bhnd- ness, he is tortured with the eternal torments of hell. Let it be said then, * What is it that he, who has lost the calm of the light interior, now endures as the foretaste of his final punish- ment } Let a cloud dwell upon it. Moreover let that subsequent doom be added also, wliich preys upon him without end.' Lei him be folded up in bitterness; for every thing folded up, shews, as it were, no end any where, for as it shews not where it begins, so neither does it discover where it leaves off. The old enemy then is said to be folded up in bitterness, in that not only every kind of punishment, but punishment too without end or limit awaits his pride; which same doom then receives its beginning when the righteous Judge cometh at the last Judgment; and hence it is well added, Ver. 6. As for that night, let a dark whirlwind seize upon it.
vi. 11. For it is written. Our God shall come, and shall not P9.50,3. ^^^^ silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be 2 Vulg. ^eru tempestuous round about Him. Thus^ a dark whirlwind sus turbo seizes upon that night, in that the apostate Angel is by that fearful tempest carried off from before the strict Judge to Year of grace, and montlts, wherein Satatt is not counted. 191 suffer eternal woe; thus this night is seized by a whirlwind, Book in that his blind pride is smitten with a strict Wsitation. It — goes on; Let it not he joined unto the days of the year; let it not come into the nuniher of the months.
1'2. By year we understand not inapplicably the preaching vii. of supreme grace. For as in a year the period is completed by a connected series of days, so in heavenly grace is a complex life of virtue made complete. By a year too we may understand the multitude of the redeemed. For as the year is produced by a number of days, so by the assemblage of all the righteous there results that countless sum of the Elect. Now Isaiah foretells this year of a completed multi- tude, in these words; Tlie Spirit of the Lord is upon il/p, Is.Gi,i. because the L^rd haih anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek: He hath sent Me to hind up the broken- hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year qf the Lord. For * the acceptable year of the Lord is proclaimed,' in that the future multitude of the faith- ful is foretold as destined to be illumined with the light of truth. Now what is meant by * the days,' but the several minds of the Elect? What by the months, but their several I Churches, which constitute one Catholic Church? So then let not that night he joined unto the days of the year, neither let it come into the number of the months. For our old enemy, hemmed in with the darkness of his pride, sees indeed the coming of the Redeemer, but never returns to pardon with the Elect. And hence it is written. For verily He tookHeh.2, not on Him the nature qf Angels, but He took on Him the^^' seed of Abraham. For it was on this account that our Redeemer was made not Angel, but Man, because He must I needs be made of the same nature as that which He re- » deemed, that He might at once let go the lost angel, by not taking his nature, and restore man, by taking his nature in Himself. These days, which abide in the interior light, may also be taken for the angelic spirits, and the months, fur their orders and dignities. For everj' single spirit, in that he shines, is a * day,' but as they are distinguished by certain set dignities, so that there are some that are Thrones, some 19-2 Satan loseth praise, — is cursed hoik as night and as day. Job 3, Dominions, some Principalities, and some Powers, according J" '- to this distribution of ranks, they are entitled * months.' But forasmuch as our old enemy is never brought back to merit light, and is never restored to the order of the ranks above, he is neither reckoned in the days of the year, nor in the months. For the blindness of the pride that he has been guilty of is so settled upon him, that he no more returns to those heavenly ranks of interior brightness. He no longer now mixes with the ranks of light that stand firm and erect, for that, in due of his own darkness, he is ever borne down- wards to the depth. And for that he remains for ever an alien to the company of that heavenly land, it is yet further justly added, Ver. 7. Zo, let that night be solitary^ let it he ttorthy of no praise. viii. 13. That night is made solitary, in that it is divided by an eternal separation from the company of the land above. Yet this may be also taken in another sense, viz. that he loses man, whom he had made his fellow in ruin, and that M.e.thethe enemy perishes alone together with his body*, while ^^° ^ ' many that he had destroyed are restored by the Kedeemer's grace. The night then is made solitary, when they that are Elect being raised up, our old enemy is made over alone to the eternal flames of hell. And it is well said. Let it be worthy of no praise. For when mankind, encom- passed with the darkness of error, took stones for gods, in this, that they worshipped idols, what else did they but praise the deeds of their seducer? Hence Paul rightly 1 Cor. remarks, JVe know that an idol is nothing. But I say that ?'p' the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to 10, 20. devils. How else then is it with those that have bowed themselves to the worship of idols, but that they have ' praised the darkness of night V But, lo! we see now that that night is known to be unworthy ' of any praise,' since now the worship of idols is condemned by the human race redeemed; and that ' night is left solitary,' in that there is none that goeth with the damned apostate spirit to suffer torments. It proceeds; Ver. 8. Let them curse it that curse the day, that are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
Salaiis false liyJit cursed of God and good Angela. 19*3 14. Ill the oldtranslation it is not so written, but, ^ Let Book him curse it that hath cursed the dai/, even liini who shall lake IX.
the great whale, ^y which words it is clearly shewn, that the, ^q destruction of Antichrist, to be at the end of the world, is LXX. foreseen by the holy man. For the eWl spirit, who by rights is night, at the end of the world passes himself for the day, in that he shews himself to men as God, while he takes to 'himself deceitfully the brio-htness of the Deitv, aud ed,alteth'2-T\iess.
himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. The same therefore that curseth the day, curseth the night; in that He at this present time destroys his wickedness, Who will then by the light of His coming also extinguish the power of his strength. And hence it is well subjoined, Who will take the great whale. For the strength of this whale is taken as a prey in the water, in that the wili- ness of our old enemy is overcome by the Sacrament of Baptism.
15. But that which in the Old Translation is spoken of the Author of all things, in this translation, which we get from the Hebrew and ^ Arabian tongues, is related of His elect Angels. For it is of them that it is said. Let them curse it that curse the day. For that spirit in his pride desired to pass himself for day even with the Angelic Powers, at that time when as though in the power of the Deity he exalted himself above the rest, and drew after him such countless legions to destruction. But they, truly, who with humble spirits stood firm in the Author of their being, when they saw there was night in his perverse ways, trod under foot the day of his brightness by thinking humbly of them- selves, who do now point out to us the darkness of his dis- guise, and shew us how we should contemn his false glare. So let it be said of the night of darkness, which blinds the eyes of human frailty; Let them curse it that curse the day; i. e. * Let those elect Spirits by condemning denounce the darkness of his erring ways, who see the grandeur of his shining already from the first a deceit.' And it is well added, «• " Jerome ttrofesses in the Pref. to Pref. to the Book nf Daniel, he says the Book of Job to have translated it that Job has a moHt close connection * from the Hebrew and Arabic, and with the Arabic tongue." Note Ed.
sometimes from the Syriac' In the Ben. 1. xxxv. §. 43.
O tern vec- tern 194 Leviathan cruel ijei flatter ing. At that time bound.
Job 3, Who are ready to rouse up^ Leviathan. For ' Leviathan' is -=7-^ — interpreted to be * their addition.' Whose ' addition,' then, 1 Vulg. but the ' addition' of men? And it is properly styled * their ^ "^ addition;' for since by his evil suggestion he brought into the world the first sin, he never ceases to add to it day by day by prompting to worse things.
Or indeed it is in reproach that he is called Leviathan, i. e.
styled * the addition of men.' For he found them immortal in Pai'adise, but by promising the Divine nature to immortal beings, he as it were pledged himself to add somewhat to them beyond wiiat they were. But whilst with flattering lips he declared that he would give what they had not, he robbed them cunningly even of what they had. And hence saLThe the ^ Prophet describes this same Leviathan in these words, t\ie^. Leviathan, the bar-serpent^: even Leviathan that crooked Y^l,^- serpent. For this Leviathan in the thing, which he engaged serpoi to add to man, crept nigh to him with tortuous windings; for while he falsely promised things impossible, he really stole away even those which were possible. But we must enquhe why he that had spoken of a serpent,' subjoining in that very place the epithet ' crooked,' inserted the word ' bar,' except perhaps that in the flexibility of the serpent we have a yielding softness, and in * the bar, the hardness of an obstinate nature. In order then to mark him to be both hard and soft, he both calls him ' a bar' and * a serpent.'
For by his malicious nature he is hard, and by his flatteries * E. V. lie is soft; so he is called ' a bar V in that he strikes even to i,ig death; and ' a serpent,' in that he insinuates himself softly by deceitful acts.