she puts from her with the hand of holy discernment, and acquaints herself with the treasure of virtue which was hidden from her. For she soon finds a treasure in herself, if she thrust from her that heap of earthly thoughts, which lay as a wretched load upon her. Now because he describes death coveted as a treasure, he rightly subjoins; Ver. 22. Which rejoice exceedingly and are glady when they can Jin d the grave. vi. 9. For as the grave is that place wherein the body is buried, so heavenly contemplation is a kind of spiritual grave wherein the soul is buried. For in a certain sense we still live to this world, when in spirit we roam abroad therein. But we are buried in the grave as dead, when being morti- fied in things without, we secrete ourselves in the depths of interior contemplation. And therefore holy men never cease to mortify themselves with the sword of the sacred Word to the importunate calls of earthly desires, to the throng of unprofitable cares, and to the din of obstreperous tumults, and they bury themselves within before God's presence in the bosom of the mind. Hence it is well said by the Ps. SI, Psalmist, And Thou shall hide them in the secret of Thy 20 presence from the strife of tongues. Which though it be not until afterwards fully brought to pass, is yet even now in a great measure accomplished, when with the feeling of delight they are caught away into the inward parts from the strife of temporal desires, so that, whilst their mind wholly expands in every part to the love of God, it is not rent and torn by any useless anxiety. Hence it is that Paul had seen those disciples as dead, and as it were buried in the grave Col. 3, by contemplation, to whom he said, Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. He, then, that seeks for death rejoices when he finds the grave; for whoso desires to mortify himself, is exceeding joyful on finding the rest of contemplation; that being dead to the world he may lie hid, and bury himself in the bosom of interior love from all the disquietudes of external things.
10. But since in addition to this, that he speaks of a treasure being dug up, the finding of a grave is further Treasures buried with SaintsoJ old. Man*s waijhid toliim. 249 introduced, it is needful that our mind's eye sliould keep this Book in view, that the ancients buried their dead with their wealth.
He, then, that seeks for a treasure, * rejoices when he has found the grave,' in that when we, in quest of wisdom, turn the pages of Holy Writ, when we trace out the examples of those that have gone before us, we as it were derive joy from the grave, for we find the mind's wealth among the dead, who, because they' are perfectly dead to this world, rest in J^^^J^*"^^ secret with, their riches beside them. And so he is made 'for they rich by the grave, who, following the example of the righ-^ °' teous, is raised up in the excellency of contemplation. But when he asks, saying, Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery? he intimates the reason for which he ventures to put such a question, by saying, Ver. 23. Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and luhom God hath encompassed with darkness?
11. For * man's way is hid to him,' in that though he vii. already takes cognizance of the kind* of hie that he is lead-'' quail- ing, he does not yet know to what issue it tends. Though his affections are now fixed on things above, though he seeks them with all his longings, he is yet ignorant whether he shall persevere in the same longings. For forsaking our sins we strive after righteousness, and we know whence we are come, but we know nothing whereunto we may arrive. We know what we were yesterday, but we cannot tell what we may chance to be to-morrow. * Man's way then is hid to him,' in that he so sets the foot of his labour, that, this not- withstanding, he can never foresee the issue of the accom- plishment thereof.
12. Now there is also another * hiding of our way.' For there aie times when we are ignorant, whether the very things which we believe we do aright, are rightly done in the strict Judge's eye. For, as we have also said a long way above, it often hai)i)ens that an action of ours, which is cause for our condemnation, passes with us for the aggran- dizement of virtue. Often by the same act, wliereby we think to a])pease the Judge, He is urged to anger, when favoura])le. As Solomon bears witness, saying, llierc is a Prov way nhich seemeth right unto a man; hut the end thereof ^*y ^2. are the ways qf death. Hence, whilst holy men are getting 250 Good men left still hi doubt of their final success* Job 3, the masteiy over their evil habits, their very good practices '- — even become an object of dread to them, lest, when they desire to do a good action, they be decoyed by a semblance of the thing, lest the baleful canker of corruption lurk under the fair appearance of a goodly colour. For they knovr that they are still charged with the burthen of corruption, and cannot exactly discern the things that be good. And when they bring before their eyes the standard of the final Judgment, there are times when they fear the \^ry things which they approve in themselves; and indeed they are in mind wholly intent on the concerns of the interior, yet alarmed from uncertainty about their doings, they know not whither they are going. Hence after he had said, Where- fore is light given to one that is in misery? it is with propriety added, to a man whose way is hid? As though the words were, ' Why has that man this life's success for his portion, who knows not of his course of con- duct, in what esteem it is held by his Judge. And it is rightly subjoined, And whom God hath encompassed with darkness. For man is ^ encompassed with darkness,' since howsoever he may burn with heavenly longings, he is ignorant how it goes with him in the interior. And he is in great fear lest aught concerning himself should meet him in the Judg- ment, which is now hidden from himself in the aspirations of holy fervour. ' Man is encompassed with darkness,' in that he is closed in by the clouds of his own ignorance. Is not that man ^ encompassed with darkness,' who most often neither remembers the past, nor finds out the future, and scarce knows the present.? That wise man had seen himself Wisd.o, tobe encompassed with darkness, when he said. And with labour do we find the things that are before us; but the things that are in heaven who shall search out?
The Prophet beheld himself * encompassed with' such ' darkness,' when he was unable to discover the interior Ps. 18, springs of His inmost economy, saying. He made darkness His secret place. For the Author of our being, in that, when we were cast out into this place of exile. He took from us the light of His vision, buried Himself from our e}'es as it were ' in the secret place of darkness.' ^^"^ 13. Now as often as we attentively regard this same dark- Spiritual food comes not till sighed after. 251 ness of our blind estate, we stir xm the mind to lamentation. Book For it weeps for the state of blindness, which it is under without, if it remember in humihty that it i's bereft of light in the interior, and when it looks to the darkness which suiTounds it, it is wrung with ardent longing for the inward brightness, and rent with thought's whole effort, and that light above, which as soon as created it relinquished, now debarred, it makes the object of its search. Whence it very often happens that that radiance of inward joy bursts out amidst those very tears of piety; and that the mind, which had lain torpid in a state of blindness, being fed with sighs, receives strength to gaze at the interior brightness. Whence it rightly proceeds, Ver. 24. For my sighing cometh before I eat.
14. For the soul's * eating' is its being fed with the con- viii. templations of the light above, and thus it sighs before it eats, in that it first travails with the groanmgs of sorrow, and afterwards is replenished with the cheer of contemplation. For except it sigh, it eats not, in that he that refuses to humble himself, in this exile we are in, by the groanings of heavenly desires, never tastes the delights of the eternal inheritance. P'or all they are stan-ed of the food of truth, that take joy in the emptiness of this scene of our pilgrimage, but he * sighs,' that * eats,' because all who are touched with the love of truth, are at the same time fed with the refresh- ments of contemplation. The Prophet * ate sighing,' when he said. My tears have been my bread. For the soul is fedPs-42,3. by its own grief, when it is lifted up to the joys above by the tears, which it sheds, and indeed it bears within its sorrowliil sighings, but it receives food for its refreshing, the more the force of its love gushes out in weeping. And hence blessed Job still goes on with the violence of that weeping, adding, And my roarings are poured out like overflowing waters.
15. Waters, that overflow, advance with a rush, and swell ix. with billows evermore increasing. Now whilst the Elect set the judgments of God before the eyes of their mind, whilst they dread the secret sentence concerning them, whilst they trust to attain to God, but yet arc in fear lest they should not attain, while they call to mind their past doings, which 252 The Riyhteousfear lest they sin in their yood works.
Job 3, they weep over, whilst they shrink from the events that still await them, in that they are unknown, there are gathered in them as it were a kind of billows, as of water, which spend themselves in the roarings of grief, as upon a shore beneath them. The holy man then saw how great are the billows of our thoughts in our penitential mourning, and he called the very waves of our grief overflowing waters, saying, And my roarinys are like overjlowiny waters. Now there are times when the righteous, as we likewise said a little above, even in the midst of their very good works, are affiighted and give themselves to continual mouniing, lest they should offend by some secret misdemeanour therein. And when God's scourges suddenly take hold of them, they imagine that they have done despite to the grace of their Maker, in that being either impeded by infirmities, or weighed down with sadness, they are not ready to perform works of mercy to their neigh- bours; and their heart turns to mourning, for that the body is become slack to its devout ministration. And whereas they see that they are not adding to their reward, they fear that their past deeds also have been displeasing. Hence when blessed Job described his roaring like overflowing waters, he thereupon added, Ver. 25. For the thiny that I yr eat iy feared is come upon me, and that which I am afraid of is come unto me. X. 16. The righteous therefore lament and fear, and torment themselves with bitter lamentations, because they dread to be given over, and though they rejoice in their own cor- ' correp- rection ^, the correction itself disturbs their fearful spirits, **° lest the evil, which they are undergoing should not be the merciful stroke of discipline, but the righteous visitation of vengeance. And the Psalmist reflecting thereupon says Ps. 90, with justice, Who knoweth the power of Thine anyer ^ For ^^' the power of God's anger cannot be conceived by our faculties, in that His dispensation, by its undiscerned pro- visions concerning us, often takes us up in that very point where it is counted to abandon us, and in the very thing wherein it is supposed to take us up, it forsakes us. So that very often that is rendered grace to us, which we call wrath, and that is sometimes wrath, which we account to be grace. For strokes of aflliction are the correction of Power makes some proud, others watchful. '253 some men, but others they lead to a frenzy of impatience, and Book there are some wliom prosperity, in that it soothes them, ^— calms from a state of madness, while there are others whom, seeing that it u])lifts them, it wholly turns adrift from every hope of conversion. Now vice forces all men down beneath, but some the more easily return from thence, that they take the greater shame to themselves to have fallen thereunto. And attainments in virtue in every case raise men on high, yet sometimes some men, in that swelling thoughts are engendered from their virtues, fall down by the very pathway of their rise. And so forasmuch as the power of God's wrath is little known, under all circumstances it must needs be unceasingly feared. It proceeds; Ver. 26. Did I not dissemble it? Did I not hold myaoVn\g. peace? Did I not rest quiet? Vet wrath came upon me.
] 7. Though in every situation of life, we sin in thought, xi. word, and deed, the mind is then humed along in all these three ways with the greater freedom from control, when it is lifted up with this world's good fortune. For when it sees that it surpasses other men in power, feeling proudly, it thinks high things of itself, and when no opposition is offered by any to the autliority of its word, the tongue has the more uncontrolled range along precipitous paths; and while it is permitted to do all that it likes, it reckons all that it likes to be lawfully permitted it. But good men, when supported by this world's power, bring themselves under severer discipline of the mind, in proportion as they know that, from the intolerance of power, they are persuaded to unlicensed acts, as if they were more licensed to do them'. Thus they i vid. b. refrain their hearts from surveying their own glory, they '^^•^•'^* check their tongues from unrestrained talk, they guard their actions from restless roaming. For it often happens that they that are in ])ower lose the good things that they do, because they entertain high conceits, and while they reckon themselves to be of use for every j)urpose, they blast the merit even of the usefulness tliey have laid out. For in order that a man's deeds may be rendered of greater worth, they must needs always appear worthless in his own esteem, lest the.same good action elevate the heart of the doer, and in elevating overthrow its author by selfelation, more 254 Power and freedom kept hy sparing the use of them.
Job 3, effectually than it helps the very persons for whom it may ^—chance to be rendered. For it is hence that the King of Babylon, while he was secretly revolving in his own mind, Dan. 4, in the pride of his heart, saying, Is not this great Babylon which I have builded? was suddenly turned into an irrational beast. For he lost all that he had been made, because he would not humbly keep back what he had done; and because in the pride of his heart he lifted himself up above men, he lost that very human faculty, which he had in common with man. And often they that are in power burst out at random into insulting language towards their dependants, and this merit, viz. that they serve their office of authority with vigilance, they lose by reason of their forwardness of speech, plainly considering with overlittle dread the words of the Judge, that Matt. 6, lie ^]iQ shall say to his brother without cause Thou fool, makes himself obnoxious to hell fire. Often they that are in power, whereas they know not how to refrain lawful actions, slide into such as are unlawful, and unquiet. For he alone is never brought down in things unlawful, who is careful to restrain himself at times even from things lawful. It is with the bands of this selfsame restraint that Paul shewed himself 1 Cor. 6, to be bound for good, when he says. All things are laicfid to me, but all things are not expedient; and in order to shew in what exceeding freedom of mind he was set at large by reason of this very restraint, he thereupon added. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. For when the mind pursues after the desires that it entertains, it is convicted of being enslaved to the things, by the love of which it is subdued. But Paul, * to whom all things are lawful,' is ' brought under the power of none;' in that by restraining himself even from things lawful, those very objects, which, if enjoyed, would weigh him down, being contemned, he rises above.
18. Let blessed Job then declare for our better instruction what he was when in power, in these words. Did I not dissemble? For when we are in possession of power, it is both to be taken account of for purposes of utility, and to be kept out of sight because of pride, in order that he that uses it, on the one hand, that he may render service therewith, may be aware that he has the power, and on the other, that The Elect leave earthly cares at tunes for heaven. 255 he may not be elated, may not be aware that he has the Rook power. Now what he was in word of mouth, let him add in '- — these words, Was I jiot silent? What in respect of for- bidden deeds, let him further subjoin, Did I not rest quiet? But the being silent and quiet admit of being yet more minutely examined into. Thus, to be silent is to withhold the mind from the cry of earthly desires. For all tumult of the breast is a strong and mighty clamouring.
19. Moreover they rest, that bear themselves well in power, in that they prefer to lay aside, at intervals, the din of earthly business for the love of God, lest whilst the lowest objects incessantly occupy the mind, it should altogether fall away from the highest. For they know that it can never be lifted up to things above, if it be continually busied in those below with tumultuous care and concern; for what should that mind gain concerning God in the midst of business, which, even when at liberty, strives with difficulty to apprehend aught that concerns Ilim? And it is well said by the Psalmist, Keep Ps. 46, yourselves alooj\ and know that I am God. For he that ^^' neglects to * keep himself aloof to God, by his own judgment upon himself hides the light of God's vision from his eyes. Hence moreover it is declared by Moses, that those fish that Lev. 11, have no fins should not be eaten. For the fish, that have fins, are wont to make leaps above the water. Thus they onlv pass into the bocly^ of the Elect in the manner of food, who, whilst they yield themselves to the lowest charges, can sometimes by the mind's leaps mount up to things on high, that they may not always be buried in the deeps of care, and be reached by no breath of the highest love as of the free air. They, then, who are busied in tcm])oral affairs, then onlv manage external things aright, when they betake them with solicitude to those of the interior, when ihey take no delight in the clamours of disquietudes witliout, but repose within themselves in the bosom of trancjuil rest.
20. For men of depraved minds never cease to keep on the tumult of earthly business within their own breasts, even when they are unemployed. I'or they retain pictured in imagination the things, which their love is fixed on, and ' in corpore,' but he seems to use arc of doubtful rea<ling. This mav ablative so, though many passages taken, * in the feeding of the bodv.'
'256 Quietness and inicard life of good men^ as Jacob.
Job 3, though they be employed m no outward work, yet within '■ — themselves they are toiling and labouring under the weight of an unquiet quiet. And if the management of these same things be accorded to them, they wholly go forth from them- selves, and follow after these temporal and transient concerns by the path of their purpose of mind, with the unintermitted steps of the thoughts. But pious minds, on the one hand, :| seek not such things when lacking, and on the other, they bear them with difficulty, when present, for they fear lest by the k care of external things they be made to go out of themselves. Which same is well represented in the life of those two Gen. 25, brothers, concerning whom it is written, And Esaii was a Yuig. cunning hunter^ a 7nan of the field; and Jacob was a plain 1 so Ixx. man dwelling in tents. Or it is said in Uhe other translation, he dwelt at home. For what is represented by Esau's hunting but the life of those, who, giving a loose to them- selves in external pleasures, follow the flesh? and, moreover, he is described to be a man of the field, for the lovers of this world cultivate the external in the same proportion, that they leave uncultivated their internal parts. But Jacob is recorded to be a plain man, dwelling in tents, or dwelling at home, in that, truly, all, that seek to avoid being dissipated in external cares, abide plain men in the interior, and in the dwelling place of their conscience; for to ^ dwell in tents,' or ' in the house,' is to restrain one's self within the secrets of the heart, nor ever to let themselves run loose without in their desires, lest, while men gape after a multitude of objects without, they be led away from themselves by the alienation of their thoughts. So let him, who was tried and trained in prosperity, say. Did I not dissemble it? Did I not hold my peace? Did J not rest quiet? For, as we have said above, when holy men receive the smiles of transitory jDrosperity, they * dissemble' the favour of the world, as though they were ignorant of it, and with a resolute step they inwardly trample upon that, whereby they are outwardly lifted up. And they ' hold their peace,' in that they never clamour with the uproar of wicked doings. For all iniquity has its voice belonging to it in the secret judgments of God. Hence it is G^en. 18, written, The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great. And ^^' they ' rest quiet,' when they are not only hurried away by Good men fear God's Judgi7ient of their best deeds. 257 no unruly appetite of temporal desires, but over and above Book eschew the busying themselves out of due measure with the '- necessary concerns of this present life.
21. But while they do this, they are still made to feel the strokes of a Father's hand, that they may come to their in- heritance the more perfect, in proportion as the rod, striking in pity, is daily purifying them even fiom the very least sins. Thus they are unceasingly doing righteous acts, yet are pei*petually undergoing severe troubles. For often our \ery righteousness itself, when brought to the test of God's righte- ous eye, proves unrighteousness, and that which is bright in the estimate of the doer, is foul in the Judge's searching sight. Hence when Paul said. For I know nothing by my- \ Cor. self; he forthwith added. Yet am I not Jiereby justified; and"^' '*• immediately implying the reason wherefore he was not justified, he says, Ihit he titat judyeth me is the Lord. As though he said, * For this reason I say that I am not justified herein, viz. that / kiioiv nothing by myself, because I know thai I am tested with gi'eater exactness by Him, That judgeth me.' Therefore we must keep out of sight all that favours us outwardly, we must keep under control whatsoever is clamorous within, we must eschew the things that twine themselves about us as necessary, and yet in all of these we must still fear the chastisements of a strict inquisition; since even our xcry perfection itself does not lack sin, did not the severe Judge weigh the same with mercy in the exact balance of His examination.
22. And it is well added, Yet indignation came upon me. For with wonderful skilfulness of instruction, when about to tell of the chastisements, he premised the good deeds, that each man might hence be led to consider what punish- ments await sinners hereafter, if the righteous even are cha.stised here with strokes so strong. For it is hence that Peter says, For the time is come that judgment must begin \ Pet.4 at the house of God. And [f the righteous scarcely be saved, ^'^' *^- where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Hence Paul, after he said many things in commendation of the Thessalonians, straightway achled, So that ue ourselves glory iThe%n, in you in the churches of God, for your patience and faith '•^•^• in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure; s 258 Job's Friends erred injiidghig him and not themselves.
Job 3, Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God.
llisT~ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^\^, ' Whilst yoii, that act so uprightly, undergo so many hardships, what else is it than that ye are giving examples of the righteous judgment of God, since from your punishment it is to be inferred in what sort He smites those with whom He is wroth, if He suffers you to be thus afflicted, in whom He delights; or how He will strike those towards whom He shews righteous judgment, if He thus torments your own selves, whom with pitifulness He cherishes in reproving.