to be burnt, first feels here below the pressure of discipline. But whereas Eli])haz in the course of his address mentioned True maxims fail when presumptously applied. 363 * the tabernacle,' * the stones,' ' the beasts,' ' the seed,' * the Book herbs,' and ' the grave,' he himself inthnates that he did not^ ^— speak of these according to the letter, in that after all of them he thereupon subjoins; Ver. 27. Lo this, as we have searched it, so it is- 63. Assuredly it is clear, that in these words he saysxxxviii. nothing upon a view of the surface, in that a thing, that is * searched,' is not set before the face. He then, who shews that he had ' searched' these things, proves that in outward words inward things were what he had in view. And after the whole he is brought to the foolishness of boasting, in that he thereupon adds; And now thou hast heard it, turn it in thy mind.
64. With whatever lessons of instruction the mind may be xxxix. furnished, it argues great want of skill to wish to instruct one that is superior, whence the wery things which are rightly delivered by the friends, are not pronounced right by the interior Judge. For they lose the efficacy of their rightness herein, that they are not suited to the hearer. For even medicines lose their efficacious properties when they be administered to sound limbs. In all, then, that is said, it is necessary that the occasion, the time, and the individual, be taken into account, whether the truth of the sentiment confirms the words delivered, whether the fitting time calls for it, whether the character of the person does not impugn both the truth of the sentiment, and the suitableness of the time. For he launches his darts in a manner to deserve praise, who first looks at the enemy that he is to strike. For he masters the horns of the strong bow amiss, who in sending the arrow with force, strikes a fellowcountryman.
BOOK VII.
He explains the whole of the sixth chapter, except the three last verses, in part allegorically and in part morally.
i. 1. Some men's minds are more tormented by scourges than Lit. reproaches, but some are more wounded by reproaches than by scourges. For oftentimes the tortures of speech assail us worse than any pains, and while they make us rise up in our vindication, they lay us low in impatience. Whence, that no temptation whatever might be lacking to blessed Job, not only scourges strike him from above, but the sayings of his fr'iends in talk gall him, being sorer than scourges, that the soul of the holy man, being driven hither and thither, might burst forth in the emotion of wratli and haughtiness, and that all the purity he had lived in might be defiled by head- strong pride of speech. But when touched by the scourges, he gave thanks, when galled with words, he answered aright, and being smitten he makes it appear how little he esteemed the well-being of the body. In speaking too he shews how wisely he held his peace. But there were a few things mixed with his words, which, in the judgment of men, might seem to transgress the limits of patience; of which we shall take a true view, if in the examination of them we weigh well the sentence of the Most High Judge. For it was He, Who both in the first instance gave blessed Job the first place in Johl 8. opp<^^ition to the adversary, saying, Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? It was He, Who after the trial rebuked his friends, saying, For ye have not spoken before Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath. It remains then, that when the mind wavers with uncertainty in the discoursings of blessed Job, it estimate their weight from the beginning and ending of that same account. For one who was to fall Christ the Balance where grief outiceighs sin. 365 could never have been commended by the Eternal Judge, Book VTT nor could one who had fallen be awarded the first place.
If then, when we be caught in the tempest of embarrasment, we have regard to the first and last points in this history, the vessel of the soul is as it were held fast at prow and stern by the rope of its reflections, that it be not forced on the rocks of error, and so we are not overwhelmed by any storms arising from our ignorance, if we hold to the tranquil shore of the sentence of the Most High. For, mark, he says a thing which might urge the reader's mind with no slight questioning. Yet who could dare to pronounce that not right, which sounds right in God's ears?
Chap. vi. 2, 3. Ok that my sins^ were throiighli/ u'eighed,^soVu]g. whereby I have deserved tcratJi, and the calamity that J suffer laid in the balances. It should be found heavier even as the sand of the sea.
2. Who else is set forth by the title of ' the balances,' but Myst. the Mediator between God and man, Who came to weigh the merit of our life, and brought down with Him both justice and loving-kindness together? But putting the greater weight in the scale of mercy. He lightened our transgressions in pardoning them. For in the hand of the Father having been made like scales of a marvellous balancing, in the one scale He hung our woe in His own Person, and in the other our sins. Now by dying He proved the woe to be of heavy weight, and by releasing it shewed the sin to be light in mercy's scale % Who vouchsafed this instance of grace first, that He made our punishment to be known to us. For man, being created for the contemplation of his Maker, but banished from the interior joys in justice to his deserts, gone headlong into the wofulness of a corrupt condition, undergoing the darkness of his exile, was at once subject to the punishment of his sin, and knew it not; so that he imagined his place of exile to be his home, and so rejoiced under the weight of his corrupt condition as in the liberty of a state of salvation. But He Whom man had forsaken within.
* Some editions here add, " There- and that to His mercy that is light forethrough true penitence, sins, though which is forgiven. He shewed, Who they be many and most grievous, by &c." But this is not found in Mss. the mercy of God are easily forgiven: 366 Fallen man's misery only known through Christ.
Job 6, having assumed a fleshly nature, came forth God without; ' and when He presented Himself outwardly, He restored man, who was cast forth without, to the interior life, that He might henceforth perceive his losses, that he might henceforth lament the sorrows of his blind state, Man's woe then was found to be heavy in the balance, in that the ill, which he was laid under, he only knew in his Re- deemer's appearing presence. For not knowing the right, he bore with delight the darkness of his state of condemnation. But after he saw a thing for him to delight in, he likewise perceived a thing to grieve over, and what he underwent he felt was grievous, in that what he had lost was made known as sweet. Let then the holy man, thrown out of the barriers of silence by the sayings of his friend in discourse, and filled with the overflowing of the prophetic spirit, exclaim with his own voice, yea, with the voice of mankind, Oh that my sins were thoroughly weighed, whereby I have deserved wrath, and the calamity that I suffer laid in the balances together! It should be found heavier even as the sand of the sea. As if it were in plain words, ' The evil of our condition under the curse is thought light, in that it is weighed without the 1 aequi- Redeemer's equity^ being as yet known, but oh that He *^*® would come, and hang in the scale of His Mercy the woful- ness of this dismal exile, and instruct us what to seek back for after that exile. For if He makes known what we have lost, He shews that to be grievous which we endure.' But this same misery of our pilgrimage is fitly compared to the sand of the sea, (for the sand of the sea is forced without by the chafing of the waters,) in that man too in transgressing, because he bore the billows of temptation unsteadily, was carried out of himself from within. Now of great weight is the sand of the sea, but the calamity of man is said to be ' heavier than the sand of the sea,' for his punishment is shewn to have been hard, at the time when the sin is lightened by the merciful Judge. And because every man that owns the grace of the Redeemer, every one that longs for a return to his Country, now that he is instructed, groans beneath the burthen of his pilgrimage; after the longing for the balances, the words arc rightly subjoined; Therefore my words are full of yriof.
Arrows of preaching^ and of visitation. 367 3. He that loves sojourn abroad instead of his own country, Bcok knows not how to grieve ev^en in the midst of griefs. But the words of the righteous man are full of grief, for so long as he ^* is subject to present ills, he sighs after something else in his speech; all that he brought upon himself by sinning is set before his eyes, and that he may return to the state of blessed- ness, he weighs carefully the judgments whereby he is afflicted. Whence it is added, Ver. 4. For the arrovjs of the Almighty are in me.
4. For by the epithet of ' arrows' sometimes the utterances iv. of preaching, sometimes the arrows of visitation are denoted. Now the utterances of preaching are represented by ' arrows;' for in this, that they smite men's vices, they pierce the hearts of evil doers. Concerning which arrows it is said to the Redeemer at His coming, Thine arrows are sharp^ O Thou Ps. 45, 3Iost Mighty; the people shall fall under Thee in the heart, ^' ^^^' Of Him Isaiah saith, / will send those that escape of them Is. gg, to the nations, into the sea, into Africa, and into Lydia, ^^' holding^ the arrow, into Italy, and into Greece, Again by ^ Vulg. * arrows' is represented the stroke of visitation, as where Elisha ^^'^^'^^^ bids king Joash, ' shoot an arrow,' and when he shoots, says, For thou shalt smite the Syrians, till thou hast consumed^ ^\^^^^ them. Whereas then the holy man surveys the sorrows of ' ^^' his pilgrimage, because he groans under the strokes of the visitation of the Lord, let him say. Therefore my words are filled with grief For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. As though he said in plain words, ' I being under curse of exile have no joy, but as laid under the Judgment, I am full of pain, for I see and know the force of the stroke.' But there are a great number that are chastised with tortiues, but not amended. Contrary to which it is fitly subjoined, The indignation whereof drinketh up my spirit.
5. For what else is the ' spirit of man,' but the spirit of v. pride? Now ' the arrows of the Lord drink up the spirit of man,' when the awards of heavenly visitation keep back the chastened soul fi'om self-elation. ' The arrows of the Lord drink up the spirit of man,' in that, when he is intent upon outward things, they draw him within. For the spirit of David was drunk up when he said, When Ps. 142, my spirit failed within me, Thou kneivest my ivays. And ^* 368 Good men still fear the terrors of God.
Job 6, again, 3Iy soul refused to be comforted, I remembered — '. — God and was troubled, I complained and my spirit failed. Ps. 77 Therefore ' the mdignation of the arrows drinketh up the 2' ^- spirit' of the righteous, for the decrees from above, in wound- ing, work a change in the Elect, whom they find in any sins; so that the soul being pierced, quits its hardness of heart, and the blood of confession runs down from the wound that brings health. For they consider whence and whereunto they have been cast down, they consider from how high bliss they have fallen, and to what miseries of their corrupt condition, and they not only groan in the midst of the things which they are suffering, but further- more dread that which the strict Judge threatens sinners with concerning the fires of hell. Whence the words are rightly subjoined; And the terrors of Qod do set themselves in array against me.
vi. 6. The mind of the righteous not only considers well what it is now undergoing, but also dreads what is in store. It sees all that it suffers in this life, and fears lest hereafter it suffer still worse things. It mourns that it has fallen into the exile of this blind state away from the joys of Paradise; it fears, lest, when this exile is quitted, eternal death succeed. And thus it already undergoes sentence in suffering chastisement, yet still dreads the threats of the Judge to come as the con- Ps. 88, sequence of sin. Hence the Psalmist says, Thy fierce wrath ^^' goeth over me; Thy terrors cut me off. For after that ^ the fierce wratli of the Internal Judge goeth over. His terrors still do cut us off,' in that we already suffer one evil by condemnation, and still dread another from everlasting vengeance. Let the holy man then, weighing well the ills that he is subject to, exclaim, The arrows of the Lord are within me, the indignation whereof drinketh up my spirit.
But being in dread of worse things to last for ever, let him add. The terrors of Qod do set themselves in array against me. As if he said in plain words, ' Being stricken indeed 1 feel grief for my present circumstances, but this is the worst feature in my grief, that even in the midst of punishment I still fear eternal woes.' But forasmuch as he already longs for the bringing in of the balances, he already weighs the TJi£ Incamaiwn tlie food far which die mt'wns ctkd, m^ evils into which the haraan race has fallen, thongh he was Book placed among a Genlile people, jet becau.se he was Ml of-1^ the gift of prophetic inspiration, in the following words he shews with what ardent desire the coming of the ILedeemer is thirsted for, whether bj the Gentile world or by Judisa, saying, Ver. 5- Doth the wild ass hray when he Mth grmsl or loweth the ox at his full manger?
7. For what is denoted bj* the onager,' tbatis, the wild ass,AuLiEG. saving the Gentile people, which, as natnre has produced it ^"*- without the stalls of training, so has continued roaming abroad in the field of its pleasures? What is represented bj " the ox,' sa\ing the Jewish people, which being bowed dou-n to the yoke of the dominion above, in gathering together proselytes unto hope, drew the ploughshare of the Law through ail the hearts that it was able? But we learn from the witness of blessed Job's life to believe, that many even of tlie Gentiles looked for the coming of the Redeemer, And at the birth of the Lord, we have learnt by Simeon's coming in the spirit into the Temple, with what longing desire holy men of the Israelitisli people coveted to behold the mysteiy of Mis Incarnation. Whence too the same Redeemer sai^th to His Disciples, For I tell you ihut many p^oph^is und Mngs huveija^tk^, demredto see those thiiigs which ye see, and fmte not seen'^^' them. The ' grass' of the wild ass tlien, and the ox's ' fodder,' is this very Incarnation of the Mediator, by which both the Gentile world and Judiea are together filled to the full. For because it is said by the Prophet, All Jesh is grms; the 1^4®,^ Creator of the imiverse taking flesh of our substance, willed to be made * grass; that our flesh might not remain giuss for ever; and so ' the wild ass' then found ' gi^ss,' whe^i the Gentile people received the grace of the Divine Incamiatioii. Then * the ox' had not an empty manger, when to tlie Jewish people, looking for His Flesh, the Law shewed Him f<3Tth, Whom it prophesied to them whilst long kept in expectation of Him. Wiience too the Lord, when He was; bom, as placed in a manger, that it might be signifled, that tlve hofy animal:*, which under the LaT<' had long been Ibund an hxmgTed, are fllled with ' the fodder' of Hi.^ Incaniadon. For at^His birth He filled a mangei^ Who gaxe Himself for food to tl^ .'370 The Law ' unsavoury^ toifhout the salt of the Gospel.
Job 6, souls of mortal beings, saying, He that eateth My Flesh, ?: and drinketh My Blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him.
John 6 But because both the longings of the Elect from among the ^^- Gentiles were for long deferred, and the holy men severally of the Hebrew people groaned long while in expectation of their redemption, blessed Job, in giving forth the mysteries of prophecy, rightly implies the causes of distress in the case of either people, by saying, Will the wild ass hray while he hath grass? Or will the ox low over his full manger? As though it were in plain speech, ^ The Gentile world for this reason groans, because the grace of the Redeemer does not yet yield it refreshment, and Judaea on this account draws out her lowings, for that in holding the Law, but not seeing the author of the Law, standing before the manger she goes hungering. And because this same Law, before the coming of our Mediator, was held not in a spiritual but in a carnal manner, it is wghtly added, Ver. 6. Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? viii. 8. In the Law, the virtue of the hidden meaning is the salt of the letter. Whosoever, then, being intent upon carnal observances, refused to understand it in a spiritual sense, what else did he but eat ' unsavoury food?' But this * salt,' ' Truth,' on being known, put into the food, when He taught that the savour of a hidden sense lay at the bottom of the John 5, Law, saying. For had ye believed Moses, ye might ^ have A Vulg. believed 3Ie,for he wrote of Me. And again. Have salt in •^^^^l^Q yourselves, and have peace one with another. But because 50. before our Redeemer's coming, Judaea held the Law in a carnal way, the Gentile world refused to bend themselves to its precepts, which enjoined hard things. Thus it would not eat unsavoury meat. For before that it got the relish of the Spirit, it shrunk from keeping the force of the letter. For which of the Gentiles would bear this, which is therein en- joined, to cut their children's flesh for a religious service? to cut off the sins of speech by death? And hence it is well added yet further; Vulg. Or can any one taste, ichat by being tasted brings death? ix. ^- l^oi' the Law, if tasted in a carnal way, * brought death,' in that it seized the misdeeds of transgressors with a The Scriptures^ loathed before, made food to Gentiles, 371 severe visitation; it ' brought death/ in that both by the Book injunction it made known the sin, and did not by grace put it away, as Paul testifies, saying, The Laiv made nothing ^®^* '^■> 'perfect. And again, Wherefore the Laiv is holy, and t/ieUom.?, commandment holy and just and good. And soon after, ^^* But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good. But the Gentile world, when turned to Christ, in that it understands Him to be sounding in the words of the Law, being straitened by its desires looks for Him, Whom it ardently loves, in a spiritual way amongst carnal precepts. And hence in the voice of the Church it is immediately added by the Prophetic Spirit, Ver. 7. The things which my soul refused to touch are for siraitness become my meat.
10. For he goes very far wrong, who imagines that the x. words of blessed Job were delivered with an eye to the historical fact alone. For what would the holy man, and one too borne up by the proclaim of His Maker, have said, that was great, or rather what that was true, if he had said that * unsavoury meat could not be eaten?' or who had offered deadly food for him to eat, that he should subjoin, Or who can taste, what by being tasted brings death? And if we imagine that was said of his friends' discourse, we are withheld from this view by the sentence that is subjoined, in which he says. The things that my soul refused to touch are for straitness become my meat. For never let it be thought that the holy man, when established in soundness of state, at any time looked down upon the words of his friends; who, as we learn afterwards by himself attesting it, was humble even to his servants. His words then are not void of mystical senses, which, as we gather from the end of the history, the internal Arbiter Himself commends. And these would never have gone on commanding such deep veneration even to the werj ends of the world, if they had not been pregnant with mystical meaning.
11. Let blessed Job then, in that he is a member of holy Church, speak in her voice also, saying. The things which my soul refused to touch are for my straitness become my meat. For the Gentile world, after conversion, made eager by the fever of her love, himgers for the food of Holy 372 The loathed Gentiles at last received by Jews.
Job 6, Scripture, which being filled with pride it disdained for long.
^^^'^^^ And yet these words agree with the voice of Judcea also, if they be a little more attentively made out. For from the training of the Law, and from the knowledge of the One God, she herself had salt, and looked dov,Ti upon all the Gentiles as brute creatures. But because, when instructed by the precepts of the Law, she disdained to admit to herself the communion of the Gentiles, what did she but loath to take ' unsavoury food?^ For the Divine decree had for- bidden, on the menace of death, that the Israclitish people should join in a league with strangers, and pollute the way of life in holy religion. Whence too it is added. Or can any one taste^ what, by being tasted, brings death? But because this same Judeea, in the portion of the Elect, was converted to the faith of the Redeemer, the light which she had become acquainted with she laboured by the Holy Apostles to deliver to the faithless of her offspring. But the pride of the Hebrew people rejected the ministry of her preaching, whence she immediately turned aside her words of exhortation for the gathering together of the Gentiles, as Acts 13, it is said also by the same Apostles, ft was necessary that the W07'd of God should Jirst have been spoken to you; but seeing that ye have put it from you, and- have judged, your- selves unworthy of ererlastiifg li/'e, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Whence too in this place it is fitly subjoined, 7 he things which my soul refused to touch are now for my slraitness become my meat. For Judaea, having disdained the life of the Gentiles, refused as it were for long to touch her, whose society she scorned to admit; but on coming to the grace of the Redeemer, being rejected by the unbelieving Israelites, vvliile by the Holy Apostles she stretches out herself for the gathering together of the Gentiles, she as it were takes that for food vvith a hungry appetite, which be- fore with loathing she disdained as unworthy. For she underwent * straitness^ in her preaching, who saw that what fehe spoke was despised among the Hebrew people. But for her * straitneiss* she ate the food which she had for long dcvSpised, in that being rejected by the obduracy of the Jews, she yearns to lake to her the Gentile folk> whom she had contemnedv Seeing then that we have delivered these points Jol/s longing for the Saviour. Sonship should endfiar. 373 in a fierurative sense, it remains that we go into them in their Book moral import.
12. The holy Man, longing for the coming of the Hedeemer Moral, under the name of a ' balance,' whilst he opens his mind in discourse, instructs us to earnestness of life; whilst he tells his own tale, marks some things that belong to us; whilst he brings forward what we are to acknowledge con- cerning himself, strengthens unto life us that be trembling and weak. For now indeed we live by the faith of our Mediator, and yet still, for the cleansing out of our faults, endure heavy scourges of inward visitation; whence also, after longing for the balance, he adds, Ver. 4. For the arrows of the Lord are within rjie, the indignation whereof drinketh up my spirit, 13. Now see, as has been remarked above, we are at the xi» same time pierced by the stroke of Divine correction, and yet that is still worse, which we apprehend of the terribleness of the Judge to come, and of His everlasting visitation. Whence the words are thereupon introduced, And ilie terrors of God do set themselves in array against viC' But the mind ought to be dispossessed of fear and -sadness, and be drawn out in aspirations after the eternal land alone. For We then shew forth the noble birth of our Hegeneration, if We love Him as a Father, Whom with slavish soul we now dread as a Master. And hence it is spoken by Patil, For ye^^ have not received the spirit of bondage again to fmr^ hut ye lo- hate received the spirit of the adoption of sons, ivherehy we ery^ Abba^ Father, Therefore let the soul of the Elect lay aside the weight of fear, exercise itself in the virtue of love, long for the worthiness of its renewal, pant after the likeness of its Maker j whom so long as it is unablff to behold, it tnUst needs await hungering after His eternal Being, i. ij» after its own internal meat. Whence it Is also jltstly added, Vei'. 9. I)oth the wild ass hray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over Ids full manger?
14.- Who else tire denoted bv the teriii of * the wild ass,* v'J feliviiig they who being set in the field of faith, are UOt bound by tiie reiils of any ministration \ Or whom does the desig- iiatioti of * thel oX^ set forth, Saving those, whoiii within the i»du«ds of Holy Church, the yoke of Orders takeii Upon thetn torn.
374 The ass like the laity ^ the ox like the priesthood.
Job 6, constrains to the ministry of preaching? Now the ' grass' of ^- — ^ — the wild ass, and the ox's ' fodder,' is the inward refreshing of the faithful folk. For some within the pale of Holy Chm'ch are held after the manner of an ox by the bands of the employment taken upon them, others after the manner of a ' wild ass' know nothing of the stalls of Holy Orders, and pass their time in the field of their own will. But when any one in the secular life glows with aspirations after the interior vision, when he yearns for the food of the inward refreshing, when seeing himself starved in the darkness of this pilgrim state, he refreshes himself with what tears he may, it is as if ' the wild ass brayed,' not finding ' grass.' Another one too is subject to the obligation of the Order he has taken upon him, he spends himself in the labour of preaching, and longs to be henceforth refreshed by eternal contemplation; but forasmuch as he does not see the likeness of His Redeemer, it is as if the chained ox lowed at the empty manger. For because being set at the widest distance from the interior wisdom, we see nothing of the verdure of the eternal inherit- ance, like brute animals we go hungering after the longed-