39. Often while we sift ourselves more than is meet, by our very aim at discernment we are the more undiscerningly led wrong, and the eye of our mind is dimmed, in propor- tion as it strives to perceive more; for he too, who deter- minately looks at the sun's rays, turns darksighted, and is necessitated to see nothing from the very thing in which he striv^es to see too much. Therefore whereas, if we are backward in our examination, we know nothing at all of our- selves, or, if we search ourselves with an exact scrutiny, we are very often dimsighted to distinguish between virtue and vice, it is rightly said here; Tliough I were perfect, my soul shall not know it. As if it were expressed plainly, ' With what foolhardiness do I find fault with God's judg- ments upon me, who do not know mine own self by reason of the darkness of my weak condition?' Whence it is well Wem'hiess of uncertainty. Men brought to nothing. 523 said by the Prophet, The deep uttered his voice from the Book height of his imagining. For the deep sustains a height of --^- imagining, when the human mind, dim with the immensity ofio.lxx.' thought, even in its very searching does not penetrate itself, but to ' utter his voice from the height' is that whilst it is unable to fathom itself, it is constrained to rise up in admira- tion, so that it never should venture to dive into that which is above it, in proportion as, in taking thought itself of its own incomprehensible being, it cannot make out what it is. But the hearts of the righteous, because they cannot examine themselves to perfection, with difficulty bear this exile of dimsightedness; and hence it is added, and I shall he weary of my life. The righteous man is weary to live, in that both by doing works he does not cease to seek after life, and yet can- not discover the merits of that same life; since he draws the balances of trial out from the bosom of interior Justice, and in himself is disabled for the effecting of discovery from the very cause that, being transported above himself, he is enlarged in the power of inquiring. But the alleviation of our darkness lies in the just and incomprehensible power of the Creator being recalled to mind, which both never leaves the wicked without taking vengeance, and surpasses the righteousness of the just by the boundlessness of its incom- prehensibility; and hence it is fitly subjoined, Ver. 22. TJtis is one thing, that I have spoken, He destroyeth both the perfect and the wicked.
40. The ^ perfect man is destroyed' by the Creator, in xxvi. \ that whatever his pureness may have been, it is swallowed up by the pureness of the divine immensity. For though we take heed to preserve pureness, yet by consideration of the interior Perfection it is shewn, that this which we practise is not purity; ' the wicked' likewise is ' destroyed' by the Creator, in that whilst God ordereth all things marvellously, his wickedness is caught in the noose of his own artifices. For he is even unwittingly involving himself in punishment on the same grounds whereon he wittingly exults in doing any thing. Whereas therefore Almighty God at once sur- passes the perfection of the righteous by pureness, and pene- trating the craft of the wicked condemns it, it is rightly said, This is one thing, therefore I said it; He destroyeth the 524 Both righteous and wicked die in the flesh.
Job 9, perfect and the wicked. As if it were expressed in plain words; * I have spoken this word of reflection to myself, that neither being perfect, shall I appear perfect, if I be strictly examined; nor being wicked, if 1 would lie hid in myself, am I withdrawn from the piercings of heavenly probing, in that the strict Judge in comprehending all things, penetrates the subterfuges of wickedness in a marvellous way; and in ordering for the best, condemns the same by its own devices.' Or, indeed, He is Himself said to destroy both the perfect and the wicked, in that though they be separated in the life of the soul, yet in due of the first sin, they are alike dragged to the death of the flesh. And hence Eccl. 2, it is said by Solomon; The learned dieth equally as the jL J unlearned. x4.nd again. All things are subject to vanity^ 20. and all go to one place; all are of the dust, aud all turn to dust again. It proceeds: Ver. 23. If He scourge, let Him slay once for all, and not laugh at the trial of the innocent. xxvii. 41. Who would not suppose that this was uttered in pride, unless he heard the sentence of the Judge, Who pronounces, Job42,7. j^o^ yQ ])fii-Q fiot spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath. Therefore it follows, that no one dare to find fault with the author's words, which it appears the Judge commends. But they must be sifted in their inner sense with the greater wariness and nicety, in proportion as they sound the harder on the outside. Thus the holy man surveying the woes of mankind, and considering whence they came, how that man, in consequence of the promise of his enemy, desiring to obtain the knowledge of good and evil, lost his very self too, so that he may say with truth. Though I were perfect, yet my soul shall not know it; how that after the punishment of exile he is further subject to the scourges of corruption, and even after being tormented is still tending to the death of the bod\^, or indeed to the death of the soul, so that he may well say, He destroyeth the per- fect and the wicked; in opposition to tliis he begs the grace of the Mediator, saying, If he scourge, let him slay once for all. For in that we have both in spirit departed from God; and that in flesh we return to dust, we are obnoxious to the punishment of a double death. Hut there came unlo us One, The Death Job longed for, that of the Redeemer, 525 Who in our stead should die the death of the flesh only, and Book join His smgle Death to our twofold death, and set us free 1- from either kind. Concerning which it is said by Paul, /orl^om. 6, in that He died, He died unto sin once. Thus let the holy man survey the ills of our state of corruption, and let him seek the one Death of the Mediator, which should cancel our two deaths, and in longing for this, let him say, If He scourge, let Him slay once for all.
42. But mark how that seems as though it were at war with humility, which is immediately introduced, And not laugh at the trial of the innocent. And yet we shall easily per- ceive this to be a very great piece of humility, if we consider it in a humble spirit. For it is plain to all persons that desire, when deferred, is in every case a pain; as Solomon bears witness, who says, Hope deferred maketh the heart Pror. sick. Now for God to 'laugh,' is His refusing to take pity ^^' "' upon the suffering of man. Hence the Lord saith again, by Solomon, to the children of perdition continuing in sin, /Prov. J, 26 26 also will laugh at your calamity; i. e. * I will not com- passionate you in your distress with any pity.' Thus before the coming of our Redeemer, the Elect had all of them their pain, in that with ardent longing, they desired to behold the mystery of His Incarnation, as He Himself bears record, when He says. For I tell you that many Prophets a;?f/Lukeio, Kings have desired to see these things ichich ye see, and have ' not seen them; and so the 'pains of the innocent' are the desires of the righteous. For so long then as the Lord, taking no pity, deferred the wishes of His Elect, what did He else, but ' laugh at the pains of the innocent?' Therefore let the holy man, considering the gifts of the Redeemer that should come, and enduring with pain the delay of his wishes, express himself in the words. If He scourge^ let Him slay once for all, and not laugh at the pains of the innocent. As if he besought in plain words, saying, * Whereas our life is every day bruised with the scourge of vengeance on account of sin, let Him now appear, W^ho for our sake may undergo death once for all, without sin, that God may no more ' laugh at the pains of the innocent,' if He Himself come subject to suffering in the flesh, in desire of Whom our soul chastens itself.'
5'26 ChrisC s flesh given up to the ' hands' of the wicked one.
Job 9, 43. Or indeed if He uses the expression of God's * laughing' __^ — for His joy, the Lord is said ' to laugh at the pains of the innocent,' in that the more ardently He is sought of us, the more graciously He rejoices over us. For we as it were cause a kind of joy to Him by our pain, when by holy desires, we chasten ourselves for the love of Him. Hence the Psalmist Ps. 118, saith. Appoint a solemn day in frequency^ even unto the " ^' horns of the altar. For he ' appointeth a solemn day to the Lord in frequency,' whosoever is continually chastening himself in the desire of Him; and it is enjoined that this same day of solemnity be carried even to the horns of the altar, in that it is necessary that every man chasten himself for so longtime, until he attains to the height of the heavenly sacrifice, i. e. unto eternal bliss. Thus the holy man, for that he longs to have his desire fulfilled and no longer deferred, says with humility, Nor laugh at the pains of the innocent. As if he said, ' Let Him, gladly welcoming our petitions, no longer defer, but by manifesting bring to light Him, Who chastens us in the expecting of Himself.' Now that blessed Job prayed that He in particular might be slain once for all, Who at the end of the world underwent for our sake the death of the flesh alone, he immediately makes appear, in that he at the same time subjoins the very course of His X. Passion; saying, Ver. 24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He cover eth the faces of the judges thereof xxviii. 44. For what is denoted by the designation of * the earth,' saving the flesh? who by the title of the wicked,' save the devil? The ' hands' of this wicked one were they, who were the aggressors in the death of our Redeemer. Thus ' the earth is given into the hands of the wicked,' in that our Redeemer's Soul our old enemy could never corrupt, by himself tempting Him. But His Flesh he being permitted did by means of his ministers deprive of life for three days; and unknownto himself, by that very permission, he ministered to the dispensation of God's pitifulness. For assailing our Redeemer with three temptations, he had no power to defile the heart of God. 15ut when he set on the mind of Judas to bring about the death of His fleshly part, and when he gave him a band of soldiers and officers from the Chief Job grieves that his days pass away before his time. 5-27 Priests and Pharisees, llien that wicked one stretched forth Book his hands upon ' the earth.' The judges of this earth were the Priests and Rulers, Pilate and the scoffing soldiers; and so this wicked one ' covered the faces of the judges thereof,' in that he veiled the mind of the persecutors, that they should not know their Maker, with a cloud of wickedness. Whence it is said by Paul, But even unto this day, ^t'Ae?^ 2 Cor. 3, Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart; and^ie says again. For had they known it, they would not have crucified^ ^or. 2^ the Lord of glory. And so the face of the judges proved to be covered, in that the mind of the persecutors not even by His miracles ever knev/ Him to be God, Whom it had power to hold fast in the flesh. But forasmuch as our old enemy is one person with all the wicked, Holy Scripture very often so speaks of the head of the wicked, i. e. the devil, that it suddenly goes off to his body, i. e. to his followers. Therefore it may be that by the name of ' the wicked one,' the faithless and persecuting People is denoted, with which this also which is added accords -, If it is not he, who then is it?
45. Who then shall any where be accounted wicked, ifx,xix. that People, which persecuted Pity Itself, be not wicked?
But the holy man, after regarding the faithlessness of the Jewish People, calls back the eye of his mind to himself, grieves that he cannot behold Him Whom he loves, is sad and sorrowful that he is withdrawn from the present world, before the Saving Health of the world is manifested; and hence he adds, Ver. 25. Now my days are swifter than a post: they are fled away, they have seen no good.
46. For the business of a post is to tell what is coming xxx. after; and so all of the Elect that were born before the coming of the Redeemer, in that either by mode of life only, or by word of mouth likewise, they bore tidings of Him, were like a kind of post in the world. But whereas they foresee themselves withdrawn before the wished for season of Redemption, they mourn that they pass away ' swifter than a post,' and they lament that their days are short, because they are never extended so far as to see the light of the Redeemer; whence it is justly said. They flee away^ they see 528 The Fathers hut smelted the fruits they carried for us. Job 9, 710 good. All things that have been created are good, as 26 Moses bears record, who says, A?id God saw evei'y thing JMyst. Gen. 1, that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. But that ^^' good alone is primarily good, whereby all those are good, which are not primarily good, and of this good, ' Truth' saith Lukeis, in the Gospel, None is good save one, that is, God. Therefore because the days of the former fathers were ended before ever God was manifested to the world in the flesh, it is rightly said of those days, that they fled away, and saw no good. As if it were in plain words, ' They have passed away before the looked-for season, because they might not attain to the present appearing of the Redeemer.' Whence it is yet further added; Ver, 26. They are passed away as the ships carrying fruits. xxxi. 47. They that traverse seas transporting fruits, do them- selves indeed enjoy the smell of the same, but the food thereof they convey to others. What else then did the ancient Fathers shew themselves, saving ships carrying fruits? They indeed in foretelling the mystery of God's Incarnation, themselves enjoyed the sweet odour of hope, but to ourselves they brought down the fruit by the completion of that hope. For what they but smelled at in expecting, we are replenished with in seeing and receiving. And hence That same Re- John 4, deemer saith to His disciples. Other men laboured, and ye ^^' are entered into their labours. And their days are likened to ships, because they pass by on their way, and very properly to those bearing fruits, for all the Elect severally, whom they carried before the Redeemer's coming, through the Spirit of prophecy, they were enabled to refresh with the expectation, but not to feed with the manifest appearing. Or, surely, whereas when ships carry fruits, they mix chaff with them, in order that they may transport them to land without injury, the days of the Fathers of yore are rightly described as like to ships bearing fruits, for in that the sayings of the Ancients tell of the mysteries of the spiritual life, they preserve these by means of the intermingled chaff of the history, and they bring down to us the fruit of the Spirit under a covering, when they speak to us carnal things. For often whilst they relate circumstances proper to themselves, The eagles of contemplation feed on the Incarnation. 559 they are exalted to the secrets of the Divine Nature. And Br ok often while they gaze at the loftiness of the Divine Nature, \ they are suddenly plunged into the mystery of the Incarna- tion. Hence it is still further added with fitness, As the eagle that haste th to the prey.
48. For it is of the habits of the eagle to gaze at the sun's xxxii. rays with unrecoiling eye; but when it is pressed by need of sustenance, it turns the same pupil of the eye, which it had fixed on the rays of the sun, to the ken of the carcase, and though it flies high in air, it seeks the earth for the purpose of getting flesh. Thus, surely, thus was it with the old fathers, who as far as the frailty of human nature permitted it, contemplated the sight of the Creator with uplifted soul, but foreseeing Him destined to become incarnate at the end of the world, they as it were turned away their eyes to the ground from gazing at the rays of the sun; and they as it were descend from highest to lowest, whilst they see Him to be God above all things, and Man among all things; and whilst they behold Him, Who was to suffer and to die for mankind, by which same Death they know that they are themselves restored and fashioned anew to life, as it were like the eagle, after gazing at the rays of the sun, they seek their food upon the dead Body. It is good to view the Eagle gazing at the rays of the Sun, which saith, The mighty God^ The u. 9, 6. Everlasting Father^ the Prince of Peace. But let him come down from the high flight of his lofty range to earth, and seek below the food of the carcase. For he adds a little while after, saying. The chastisement of our peace was upon ib.53,5. Him, and with His stripes we are healed. And again, AndJer. i7, He is man, and who shall know Him? Thus the mind of the righteous man being lifted up to the Divine Nature, when it sees the grace of the Economy in His Flesh, as it were * hasteth' suddenly from on high like an * eagle to the prey.' But mark; that Israelitish People, which was for long watered with the Spirit of prophecy above measure, lost those same gifts of prophecy, and never continued in that faith, which in foreseeing it had proclaimed, and, by disowning, put away from itself that Presence of the Redeemer, which, by foretelling, it clearly delivered to all its followers. Hence, immediately, his speech is suitably made to turn, in sympathy, 530 The Jews changed. Mans days pass without seeing God.
Job 9, to their obduracy, and it is shewn how the Spirit of prophecy ——^ — is taken away from them. For it is subjoined, Ver. 27. If I say^ I will never speak thus; I change my countenance^ and am tormented with grief.
xxxiii. 49. For the Jewish People would not speak as before, in that it denied Him, Whom it had foretold; but with changed countenance it is tormented with grief, in that while it defiled with the foulness of imbelief the aspect of its inward man, by which it might have been known by the Creator, setting out with present evils, it brought itself under the sentence of everlasting vengeance. For its face being as it were changed, it is not known by the Creator, in that upon faith in a good conscience being gone, it is condemned. But doubtless it remains for her, that the pain of punishment torment her, whom her Creator knowing not disowns.
Seeing, then, that we have gone through these points under the signification of our Redeemer, now let us go over them again, to make them out in a moral sense.
Ver. 25. Now my days have been swifter than a post, they are fled away, they have seen no good.
Moral. 50. For as we have already said, the first man w^as so created that by the accessions of time his life could only be extended, but not spun to an end; but because by his own act and deed he fell into sin, in that he touched that which was forbidden, he was made subject to a transitory career, which man now, oppressed by fondness for the present life, both undergoes and longs for without ceasing. For, that he may not come to an end, he longs to live on, yet by the accessions to life, he is daily advancing to his end, nor does he well discover the added portions of time, what nothings they are, when those things are done and over in a moment which seemed to be long in coming. Let the holy man then view the grounds of his position, and in the voice of mankind bewail the woes of a transitory career, saying, Now my days have been swifter than a post; they are fled away, they have seen no good. As if it were in plain words, * Man was created for this end, that he might see ' good,' which is God; but because he would not stand in the light, in flying therefrom he lost his eyes; for in the same degree that by sin he began to let himself run out to things below, he subjected Man bears untaded fndts across this life's sea. 53 1 himself to blindness, that he should not see the interior Book T X^ light/ And of those days it is farther added with fitness, They — 1_1- are passed away as the ships carrying fruits. For ships, when they ' carry fruits,' convey the produce of the land through the waves. Now the land of man was Paradise, which might have kept him unshaken, if by force of innocency he could have stood fast, but, because by sin he fell into the waves of a changeful state, after the land he came into the seas of the present life. Furthermore the fruits of the land were the word of commandment, the power of good works vouchsafed him, the perception of his Creator implanted in his nature. But these fruits, which we refused to eat on the land, we cany through the seas, in that we would not keep unmoved in Paradise the blessings of so many benefits vouchsafed to us, and now we endeavour to preserve them in the midst of temptations. Hasting to our bourn, we are driven forward by the breath of the present life, we are worn out with the tossing of our mutable condition. But whereas by the mystery of the Cross we are made fast to the good gifts implanted in our nature, it is as if we carried fruits by means of wood. And yet this may also be understood in another sense.
For ships that carry fruits have sweetness of smell, but have no gravity of weight; and man, when he became an outcast from the joys of Paradise, lost the power of contemplation, and parted with the vigour of his native strength; and when he lifts up himself to seek anew the things above, he is sweetened indeed by the perfume of the memory, but yields no weight of life in meet proportion. Thus he is filled with the odours of fruits, and yet the vessel of our soul is lightly driven hither and thither without steadiness, in that we both call to mind the high state of Paradise with a remembrance of a sweet smell, and are subject to the troublesome waves of temptation arising from the flesh. Hence it is fitly subjoined, As the eagle that hasteth to the prey. For the eagle is suspended in an exceeding lofty flight, and poised in swift speeding skywards, but from the hunger of the belly, he seeks the ground, and suddenly plunges himself do^\Tiward from on high. Thus, thus the race of man in our first parent fell from on high deep down below, whereas the dignity of its state by creation had hung 532 Fall of man. Pain of perplexity. Sin of questioning.
Ji)B 9, it aloft in the high region of reason as in the freedom of the skies: but because, contrary to the cominandment, he touched the forbidden fruit, he descended to the earth, through the lust of the belly; and it is as if he fed upon flesh after flying, for that he lost those free inhahngs of contemplation, and now solaces himself with corporeal delights below. Thus ' as the eagle that hastethto the prey,' our days pass swiftly by; for in proportion as we seek things below, we are hindered from maintaining ourselves in life. ) 51. But when we revolve such things in our mind by conitinual reflection, we are silently pressed with the hard questions, why did Almighty God create one, who He foresaw would perish? Why was He, Who is chief in power and chief in goodness, not so minded as to make man such that he could not perish? But when the mind silently asks \ these questions, it fears lest, by its very audacity in question- I ing thus, it should break out into pride, and holds itself in with ^1 humility, and restrains the thoughts of the heart. But it is / the more distressed, that amid the ills that it suffers it is j over and above tormented concerning the secret meaning of its condition. Hence here too it is fitly added; If I shall say, I will never speak thus; I change my countenance, and am tormented with grief. For we say, that ' we never ought to speak thus,' when transgressing the limits of our frail nature in pushing our enquiries, we reproach ourselves in dread, and are withheld by bethinking ourselves of hea- venly awe, in which same withholding, the face of our mind is altered, in that the mind, which in the nrst instance, fail- ing to comprehend them, boldly investigated things above, afterwards, finding out its own infirmity, begins to entertain awe for what it is ignorant of. But in this very change there is pain, for the mind is very greatly afflicted that, in recom- pense of the first sin, she is blinded to the understanding of things touching her own self All that she undergoes she sees to be just. She dreads lest in her pain she be guilty of excess from liberty of speech, she imposes silence on the lips, but the awakened grief is increased by the very act by which it is restrained. liCt him say then; If I shall say, I nill never speak thus; I change my countenance, and fVith how many (jood works. Job Ml feared. 533 am tormented icitli qrief. For we are then for the most part Book .. • IX. most grievously afflicted, when, as it were by a studied '— endeavour after consolation, we try to lighten to ourselves the ills of our afflicted condition; but whoever once considers with minute attention the ills of man propagated by the con- demnation of our first parent, it follows that he must be afraid to add his own deeds thereto. Hence after the holy man had brought in matters of common concern, he at once subjoins those of special interest, saying, Ver. 28. / was afraid of all my works, knowing that Thou wottldest not spai'e me, when guilty of transgression,