Job views, and bewails the many stages of sin wherein the human race was fallen, saying, Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not gii^e np the yhost when I came out of the belly? Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck '^ For ^ the womb of conception' at the first was the tongue of the evil suggestion. Now the sinner would ' perish in the womb,' if only man knew in the very suggestion itself that he would bring death upon himself. Yet ' he came forth from the belly,' in that, as soon as the tongue had conceived him in sin by its suggestions, the pleasure likewise innnediately hurried him forth; and after his coming forth, ' the knees prevented him,' in that having issued forth in the carnal gratification, he then completed the sin by the consent of the spirit, all the senses being made subservient like knees underneath. And * the knees prevent- ing him, the breasts did also give him suck.' For whereas, in the spirit's consenting to the sin, the senses were drawn into the service, the many reasonings of vain confidence followed, which nourished the soul thus born in sin with poisoned milk, and lulled it with soothing excuses, that it should not fear the bitter punishment of death. And hence Gen. 3, the first man waxed bolder alter his sin, saying, The woman whom tJtou gavest to he with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And truly, he had fled to hide himself out of fear, yet when he was called in question, he made it appear how swoln he was with pride while he feared; for when punishment is feared as the present consequence of sin, and the face of God being lost is not loved, the fear is one that » timor proceeds from a high stomach ^, and not from a lowly spirit.
more ^^"^ ^^ is full of pride who does not give over his sin, if he may go unpunished.
51. But, as we have said, sin is committed in these four ways, as in the heart, so also in the deed; for he saith. Why died I not in the womb? For the womb to the sinner is the secret fault in man, which conceives the sinner under cover, and as yet hides its guilt in the dark. Why did I not give lip the ghost, when I came out of the belly? For there is * a coming out of the \a omb from tlie belly,' when the sinner Man should kill his sinful life in its beginnings. 217 does not blush to do openly as well the things, which he has Book been guilty of in secret. Thus they had as it were come 1_ out of the womb of their hiding place, of whom the Prophet spake it; And tltey declare Iheir sin as Sodom, they hide it I?. 3, 9. not. Why did the knees prevent me? In that the sinner, when he is not confounded at his wickedness, is strengthened in the same by the further stays of most heinous custom. The sinner is as it were nursed on the knees, till he grow bigger, so long as the sin is confirmed by habitual acts, till it acquires strength. Or why the breasts that I should suck? For when the sin has once begun to issue into habit, then, alas! the sinner feeds himself either with the fallacious hope of God's mercy, or with the open recklessness of despair, tliat he never may return back to self-amendment, in so far as he either extravagantly colours to himself the pitiful- ness of his Maker, or is extravagantly terrified at the sin that he has done. Let the blessed man, then, take a view of man's fall, and mark down what precipice he has plunged himself into the pit of iniquity, saying, M'hy died 1 not in the womb? i. c. ' Why would 1 not, in the very secret act of sin in the heart, kill myself to the life of the flesh?' U hy did I not give up the ghost, when I came out of the belly? i.e.
* Why, when I came forth in the overt act, died I not, was I not then at least instructed that I was undone?' For he would have ' given up the ghost' in his condemnation of himself, if he had known that he was lost. Why did the knees prevent me? i.e. * Even after the open act of sin, why, yet further, did the custom too take me up in it, to make me stronger to commit sin, and to nurse and sustain me with habitual wicked acts?' ^^hy the breasts, that I should suck? i. e. * After I entered into the habit of sin, why did I rear myself to a more tremendous j)itch of iniquity, either by reliance on false hope, or by the milk of a miserable despair?' For when the fault lias been brought into a habit, the mind, even if it be inclined, by this time resists more feebly: for it becomes bound upon the mind by as many chains, as there are recurrences of the evil j)ractice that clench it fast. Whence it haj)pcns that tlie mind, being sapped of strength, when it has no j)o\ver to get free, turns to some resource or other of fallacious consolation, so as to 218 Our Lord raised the dead, but not those of the dead. Job 3, flatter itself that the Judge, Who is to come, is of so great — -^ — ^ mercy, that even those, whom He shall find deserving of condemnation. He will never wholly destroy. Whereunto there is this worst addition, that the tongue of many like him abets him, since there are many who magnify with their praises these very misdeeds; whence it comes to pass that the fault is continually growing, nourished by applauses. Also then we neglect to heal the wound, which is counted worthy of the meed of praise. Hence Solomon says well, Ftox. i,My so?i, if sinners give thee suck, consent thou not. For • * the wicked * give suck,' whenever they either put wicked acts in our way to be done by their enticements, or applaud them with marks of favour when done. Does not he suck Ps.io 3. of whom the Psalmist says, For the wicked man is com- ^^^S'^f mended in his hearfs desire: and he that doeth iniquity receives a blessing?
52. We must also know, that those three modes of being sinners are more easily corrected as they come in their order downwards; but the fourth is not corrected but with difiiculty. And hence our Saviour raises the damsel in the house, the young man without the gate, while Lazarus He raises in the grave; for he that sins in secret is as yet lying dead in the house, he is already being carried without the gate, whose iniquity is done openly, even to the shamelessness of commission in public; but he is pressed with the sepulchral mound, who, in the commission of sin, is over and above pressed and overlaid with the use of habit. But all these in mercy He restores to life; in that it is often the case that Divine grace enlighteneth with the light of its regard those that are dead not only in secret sins, but likewise in open evil practices, and that are overlaid with the weight of evil habit. But our Saviour knows indeed of a fourth being dead from the disciple's lips, yet never raises him to life; iu that it is hard indeed for one, whom, after continuance in bad habit, the tongues of flatterers too get hold of, to be recovered from the death of the soul; and of such an one it is said Luke 9, with justice. Let the dead bury their dead. For ' the dead bury the dead,' as often as sinners load sinners with their ap- Mss. proval. For what else is it to ' sin,' but to lie down in death > ^^'■y and to * bury,' except it be to hide? But they that pursue the Recovery easier from an earlier stage. 219 sinner with their applauses, bury the dead body under the Book mound of their words. Now Lazarus too was dead, yet he '— was never buried by the dead. For the believing women, who also gave tidings of his death to the Quickener, had laid him under the ground. And hence he forthwith returned back to the light; for when the soul is dead in sin, it is soon brought back, if anxious thoughts live over it. But some- times, as we have likewise said above, it is not false hope that cuts off the mind, but a more deadly despair pierces it. And whereas this totally cuts off all hope of pardon, it supplies the soul with the milk of error in greater abundance.
53. Let the holy man then consider, what wickedness man has been guilty of, yet for the worse, after the first sin, and, after he had lost paradise, to what broken steeps he descended in this place of exile, and let him say, Mhy died I not in the xcomh? i. e. * When the suggestion of the serpent conceived me a sinner, O that I had then known the death that would come upon me; lest the suggestion should transport me to the length of delight, and should link me more closely to death.' Why did I not give up the ghost when T came out of the helhj? As though he said, * O that when 1 came out to the external gratification, I liad known that I was parting with the internal light; so that I had at least died^ at the point of this gratification only, thatM.e.died death miffht not inflict a sharper stinpr through the consent.' "^P^.
° 1 o o sinning.
Why did the knees prevent me? As though he said, * O that the consent had never caught me, my senses being made to bear up my frowardness, that my own consenting might not hurry me yet for the worse into shamelessness.' Or why the breasts that I should suck? As though he said, * O that I had at least refused to flatter myself, after ill acts committed, that 1 might not attach myself thereby the more wickedly to my fault, the more softly I dealt with myself therein.' So then in these words of reproach, he charged himself with having sinned in our first j)art lit. Hut had man never been brought down to tlie wretchedness of this place of banishment, by committing sin, let liim say what peace he might have liad. It proceeds; Ver. 13. For now should I have lain still and been quiet; I should have slept ^ then had I been at rest.
220 Inward strife the consequence of former sin. Jobs, 54. For this was man set in Paradise, that, had he attached himself by the chains of love to an obedient following of his MoilAL xxviii. Creator, he might one day be transported to the heavenly comitry of the Angels, and that, without the death of the flesh. For he was made immortal in such sort, that, if he sinned, he would yet be capable of dying, and in such wise mortal, that, if he sinned not, he should even be capable of never dying, and that, by desert of a free choice, he might attain the blessedness of those realms, wherein there is neither possibility of sinning nor of death. There then, where, since the time of the Redemption, the Elect are conveyed, with the death of the flesh intervening, to the same place our first Parents, if they had remained stedfast in the state of their creation, would undoubtedly have passed, and that, without the death of the body. Man then would have lain still and been quiet, he would have ' slept and been at rest,' in that being brought to the rest of his eternal country, he would have found as it were a retreat from these clamours of human frailty. For since sin, he, as it were, is kept awake and crying aloud, who bears with struggling opposition the strife of his own flesh. This stillness of peace-^man, when he was created, enjoyed, when he received the freedom of his will, to encounter his enemy withal. And because he yielded himself up to him of his own accord, he forthwith found in himself what was to rise in clamours against him, forthwith met in the conflict with the riotings of his frail nature; and though he had been created by his Maker in peaceful stillness, yet, once of his own will laid low under the enemy, he had to endure the clamours of the fight. For the very suggestion of the flesh is a kind of outcry against the mind's repose, which man was not sensible of before the transgression, plainly because there was nought that he could be exposed to undergo from infir- mity of his own. But since he has once voluntarily subjected himself to his enemy, now being bound with the chains of his sins, he serves him in some tilings even against his will, and sutt'ers clamours in the mind, when the flesh strives against the Spirit. Did not clamours within meet his ears, who was pressed with the words of an evil law at variance Rom. 7, with himself, saying, But J see another laiv in my members, Creatures mutually subordinate. Angelic Princes. 2Q1 warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into Book captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Let '■ — then the holy man reflect in vvliat a peace of mind he would have reposed, if man had refused to entertain the words of the serpent, and let him say, For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have.slept, then had I been at rest; i.e. * I should have withdrawn into the retirement of my breast to contemplate my Creator, had not the fault, the first sin of consent, betrayed me out of myself to the riotings of temj)tation; and let him add to the joys of this state of tranquillity, whom he would have had for his fellows in the enjoyment thereof, saying, Ver. 14. il ith the Ixings and counsellors of the earth.
55. From things without sense we learn what to think of xxix, beings endowed with sense and understanding. Now the earth is rendered fruitful by the air, while the air is governed by the quality of the heaven. In like manner man is over the beasts, the Angels over man, and the Archangels are set over the Angels. Now that man has sovereignty over the beasts, we both perceive by the common use, and are in- structed by the words of the Psalmist, who says, Thou hastPs.s,G. put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and '' the beasts of thejield. And that the Angels are placed over man is testified by the Prophet, in these words. But the prince Dan.io, of the kingdom of Persia withstood me. And that the Angels ' ' are under the governance of authority in suj)erior Angels, the Prophet Zechariah declares; And, behold, the Angel that Ztch. 2, talked uitli me went forth, and another Angel went out to^'^' meet him, and he said unto him. Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls. For in the actual ministration of the holy spirits, if the superior Powers did not direct the inferior, one Angel would never have learnt from the lij)s of another what he should say to a man. Therefore, ft)rasniuch as the Creator of the Universe holdeth all things by Himself alone, and yet for the purpose of constituting the defined order character- izing a universe of beauty, He rules one part by the govern- ance of another; we shall not improperly understand the kings to be the Angehc spirits, who the more devotedly they serve the Maker of all beings, have things subject to their 2*22 Present and former real of soy Is departed.
Job 3, rule the more. He would then have been ' at rest with kings;' in that, surely, man would have already had peace in com- pany with the Angels, if he had refused to listen to the tongue of the Tempter. These too are rightly called ' counsellors °,' for they ' consult' for the spiritual common- wealth, while they unite us to the kingdom as fellow-heirs with themselves. They are justly called * counsellors;' for, whereas, from their lips we are made acquainted with the will of the Creator, it is in them assuredly that we find counsel to extricate ourselves from the misery that besets us here.
56. But since blessed Job is full of the Holy Spirit of Eternity, and since Eternity knows neither to have been nor to be about to be, whereto, as we know, neither things past depart, nor things future approach, as seeing all things in the present, he may, in the present inspiration of the Spirit, have his eyes fixed on the future preachers of the Church, who, when they leave the body, are separated by no intervals of delay from the inheritance of the heavenly country, as the fathers of old were. For as soon as they are parted asunder from the ties of the flesh, they enter into rest in their heavenly 2 Cor. habitation, as Paul bears witness, who saith. For we know ' that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made ivith hands, eternal in the heavens. But before our Redeemer by His See B. own death paid man's penalty, those even that followed the Jg'" ^' ways of the heavenly country, the bars of hell held fast after their departure out of the flesh, not so that punishment should light on them, but that while resting in regions apart, they should find the guilt of the first sin a bar to their entrance into the kingdom, in that the Intercession of the Mediator was not yet come. Whence, according to the testimony of the same Mediator, the rich man, that is tormented in hell, beholds Lazarus at rest in the bosom of Abraham. Now if these had not been in the lower regions, he, in the place of his torment, would not have seen them; and hence this same Redeemer of us men, in dying to pay the debt of our sin, goes down into hell, that He may bring back to the realms of heaven all His followers, who " lit. consuls. He has Roman ' consuls' in view in this derivation.
Kings In the Church. Anarchy in the soul. 223 had been held in that debt. But where man in a state of TJook I v. redemption now ascendeth, thither, if he had refused to sin, '— he might have reached even mthout the help of the Re- demption. Let then the holy man consider that if he had not sinned, he would have ascended to that place, even without redemption, whereunto the holy Preachers, since the Redemption, must fain anive at the cost of much labour, and let him shew in company with whom he would now be at peace, saying. With kings and counsellors of the earth. For the kings are the holy Preachers of the Church, who know both how to order aright those that are committed to them, and to regulate their own bodies; who, while they check the motions of lust in themselves, nde over their thoughts, kept in due subjection according to the law of virtue. These too are rightly entitled, counsellors of the earth. For they are ' kings' in that they rule themselves, but counsellors of the earth, because they yield lifegiving counsel to the lifeless sinner. They are kings in that they know how to govern themselves, and counsellors of the earth, in that they lead earthly minds up to heavenly things by advice of their admonitions. Was not he * a counsellor of the earth,^ that said, Now concerning virgijis 1 have no commandment of^ Coj-.
the Lord, yet I give my judgment; and again, 6?^^ she is ^q, happier if she so abide, after my judgment. It is justly added, Which build desolate places for themselves. 57. For all that either seek forbidden things, or that desire xxx to appear somewhat in this world, are inwardly beset with a countless throng of thoughts, and while they stir up in their own bosom a host of desires, their mind, being laid prostrate, is miserably trodden by the foot of crowded resort. Thus one man has subjected himself to the law of lust, and he ])aints to his mind's eye rej)resentations of impure acts, and when the execution of the deed is not in his power, the thing is the more often done in the inward intent; the con- summating of pleasure is sought, and the mind being struck j)owerless, borne hither and thither, disquieted at once and blinded, looks out eagerly for an opportunity of the foulest fulfdmcnt in practice. That mind then, which is disordered by a rabble riot of thoughts, suffers a.s it were a 224 Dominion of the rabble of unrestrained thoughts.
Job 3, kind of crowded population. Another man has submitted -= — '- — his neck to the dominion of Anffer, and what does he employ himself about in imagination but quan'els which do not even exist? Such a man is often overlooking those that are before him, contradicting the absent, giving and receiving insults in imagination, making his reply severer than the insult received, and when there is none there to encounter him, he makes up a quarrel in his own breast with much uproar. He then that is pressed down by an intolerable weight of angry thoughts, has the misfortune of a rabble in his own bosom, Another has delivered himself over to the law of avarice, and, out of conceit with his own possessions, hankers after what belongs to another: it often happens that being unable to obtain what he longs for, he spends the day indeed in idleness, but the night in thought; he is a sluggard in useful work, because he is harassed with unlawful devices; he multiplies his schemes, and stretches his bosom the wider by all the contrivances and expedients of his inven- tion; he is busy to reach the desired objects, and in order to obtain them he casts about for the most secret windings to serve for his occasions, and the moment that he reckons himself to have hit upon any crafty contrivance on an occasion, he is now in high glee as having obtained posses- sion of his object, and now he is contriving what he may even add further to the thing when gotten, and is consider- ing how it ought to be improved to a better condition; and whereas he is now in possession, and is biinging it to wear a better appearance, he is next considering the snares of those that are envious of him, and pondering what dispute they may fasten upon hiip, and making out what answer to give, and at the time he has nothing in his hands, the empty- handed disputant is wearing himself out in defence of the thing which he desires. Thus although he has not got a particle of the object desired, yet he has already in his breast the fruit of his desire in ihe troublesomeness of the quarrel; and so he, that is overcome by the tumultuous instigations of avarice, has a vast population besetting him. Another one has subjected himself to the empire uf pride, and while he lifts himself up against his fellow-creatures, he submits his heart to the vice, to his great misery. He covets Earthly denires croud us with needless troubles. 2*25 the wreaths of elevated honours, he aims to exalt himself by Book IV.
his successes, and all that he desires to be, he represents to '— himself in the secret thoughts of his own breast. He is already asitseems seated on thejudgment-seat, already sees the services of his subjects at his command, already shines above others, already brings evil upon one party, or recompenses another for having done this. Already in his own imagination he goes forth into public surrounded by throngs, already marks with what observance he is sustained in his high position; yet while fancying this, he is creeping by himself alone. Now he is treading one set under his feet, now he is elevating another, now he is gratifying his dislikes upon those he treads under foot, now he is receiving applause from the other whom he has elevated. What else is that man doing, who has such a multitude of fanciful imaginations pictured in his heart, save gazing at a dream with waking eyes? and thus, since he undergoes the misery of so many combinations of cases, which he pictures to himself, he plainly carries about within him crowds, that are engendered of his desires. Another has by this time learnt to eschew forbidden objects, yet he dreads lest he should lack the good things of this world, he is anxious to retain the goods vouchsafed him; he is ashamed to api)ear inferior among men, and he is full of concern lest he should become either a poor man at home, or an object of contempt in public. He anxiously inquires what may suffice for himself, what the needs of his depen- dants may require; and that he may sufficiently discharge the rights of a patron towards his dependants, he searches for patrons whom he may himself wait upon; but whiLst he is joined to tliem in a relation of dependence, he is undoubt- edly implicated in their concerns, wherein he often consents to forbidden acts, and the wickedness, which he has no mind for on his own account, he commits for the sake of other objects which he has not forsaken. For often, while dreading the diminution of his reputation in the world, he gives his approval to those things with his superiors, which in his own secret judgment he has now learnt to condemn. Whilst he anxiously bethinks himself what he owes to his patrons, what to his dependants, what gain he may make for himself, how he may promote his inclinations, he is in a manner Q 226 Solitude of heart admits God, excludes vanities.
Job 3, overlaid with resort of crowds, as many in number as the — — '■ — demands of the cases whereby he i^ distracted.
58. But holy men, on the other hand, because their hearts are not set upon any thing of this world, are assuredly never subject to the pressvu'e of any tumults in their breast, for they banish all inordinate stirrings of desire from the heart's bed, with the hand of holy deliberation. And because they contemn all transitory things, they do not expeiience the licentious familiarities of the thoughts springing therefrom. For their desires are fixed upon their eternal country alone, and loving none of the things of this world, they enjoy a perfect tranquillity of mind; and hence it is said with justice. Which built desolate places fov themselves. For to ' build desolate places' is to banish from the heart's interior the stirrings of earthly desires, and with a single aim at the eternal inheritance to pant in love of inward peace. Had he not banished from himself all the risings of the imaginations Ps. 27, of the heart, who said. One thing have I desired of the Lord, ^' that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord? For he had betaken himself from the concourse of earthly desires to no less a solitude than his own self, where he would be the more secure in seeing nought without, in proportion as there was no insufficient object that he loved. For from the tumult of earthly things he had sought a singular and perfect retreat in a quiet mind, wherein he would see God the more clearly, in proportion as he saw Him alone with himself also alone.
59. Now they, who ^ build for themselves solitary places,' are very properly also called ' consuls,' for they set up the mind's solitude in themselves in such wise, that whereinsoever they have the greater ability, they never cease to consult for the good of others through charity. Accordingly let us consider a little more particularly the case of him, whom we just now noticed as ' a consul,' and see in what manner he casts abroad the counters'' of the virtues, for the setting forth exam- ples of a sublime life to the lines of people under him. Observe, in order to inculcate the returning good for evil, he makes •» Of the silver coins, or counters, Strenarum Historia. ap. Grsev. Thes. which the consuls were allowed to scatter Ant. Rom. t. xii. p. 430. on New Year's day, see Mart. Lipenii Counsellors may cultivate holy solitude* 227 confession on his own person, saying, If I have returned on Rook them that requited me evil, then should I deserve to fall empty he/ore mine enemies. To excite the love of our ^' ' ^' Maker, he introduces himself saying, But it is good for mePs.73f to draw near to^ God. To work an impression of holy,y humility, he shews the secrets of his heart, saying, Zor^/, cleave mine heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. He excites pg, 131 us by his own example to imitate his unswerving zeal, saying, ^• Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, and am?iot Ps.\39, I grieved with them that rise tip against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies. To light up in us the desire of our eternal home, he laments the length of this present life, and says. Woe is me that myVs.iio, sojourn is prolonged. Surely he shone forth in the magni-^' ficence of the consulship, who, by the example of his own conversation, casts before us so many of virtue's counters.
60. But let this counsellor tell whether he too builds a solitary place for himself. For he says, Lo, J fled far off, Ps. 56, and remained in the wilderness. Tie * flecth far off',' in that ' he raises himself from the throng of earthly desires in high contemplation of God; and he ' remains in the wilderness,' in that he persists in the retiring purpose of his mind. Of this solitude Jeremiah saith well to the Lord, I sat alone j^.y^ 15 from the face of Thy hand, because Thou hast filled me with ^"• threatening. For the * face of God's hand,' is the stroke of His righteous judgment, whereby He cast man out of Paradise, when he waxed proud, and shut him out into- the darkness c cgeci- of his present place of banishment. lUit ' I lis threatening' is *f ^p"!^ the farther dread of a sub.sequent punishment. Accordingly D.E. after ' the face of His hand,' we are yet further terriiied with * His threats,' because both the penalty of our present >anishment has already fallen upon us in the actual experi- ence of His judgment, and, if we do not leave off from sinning, He further consigns us to everlasting punishments. Let the holy man then, here cast away, consider whence it