In which the twelfth chapter, from the sixth verse, the thirteenth, and the first four verses of the fourteenth, are explained, a different style heing adopted for the time.
1. Though in a long work variableness of style ought not i. to be a matter of blame, yet lest any should censure me for change in my way of expressing myself, in the Epistle which was prefixed to these books, I gave the reasons^ why I never ^ pi. A. brought the third part of this Work up to a likeness and^^^ ' ' accordance with the others by amending it. And while these are omitted, there is this added further, that the inter- pretation of this same part begins from the verse in which it is said, TJie tabernacles of robbers have plenty ^^c. and reaches down in the handling thereof to that which is written, TJieir Soh 24, sweetness shall be through the worm, 8fc. which in fact^^* includes so much, that it is impossible all should be comprised in one volume, except it be reduced to great brevity; and so let any one that is free from other employments read the other parts that are given in a multiplied form, but for him, who has no time to read with diligent application, the shortness of this part may be to his mind, wherein we do not so much deliver what we have in our mind, as mark what there is to deliver. Therefore, whereas I have herein left many things such as they were received from me by word of mouth, take kindly, reader, this change of style, in that to people eating often the same meats, a difference in the mode of cooking is acceptable. But as you take the several parts to read, make it your business ever to recall to mind that original of the case which I have set forth; how that both VOL. II. B / 2 Joh represents our Lord and Ilis Bod//; lie judt/ea rhjlithj.
Job 12, by blessed Job, who is called * Grieving,' are denoted llio sufferings of our Lord and of His T3ody, i. e. the holy Church, Hist.
and that his friends bear the likeness of heretics, who, as we have often said already, whilst they strive to defend, only offend God; and these, whilst they falsely abet, forcibly wound the souls of Saints. Yet not that in all w hich they say they are void of understanding in knowledge of the truth, but for the most part they blend what is wise with what is foolish, and the true with the false; that while they first propose somewhat on the side of truth, they may easily draw aside into falsehood. And hence too, what the friends of blessed Job utter is one while worthy of contempt, and at another time deserves admiration, which same the holy man whilst sometimes discarding he condemns it, sometimes approving admits, and turns to the account of righteousness even the very things, which, though right, are not by them rightly delivered; and so he scorns them, when they scorn his destitution, and, placed upon a dunghill in the body, he shews on how high a summit of virtue he is seated within, when he records that this life's riches are nought, which he describes to be abundantly bestowed even on the sons of perdition, saying; Ver. 6. The tabernacles of robbers have plenty^ and they provoke God with boldness; when He hath given all into their hand. ii. 2. It is easy for a man, at the time, to despise riches, when he has them, but it is hard to hold them worthless, when he lacks them. Hence it is clearly shewn, how great a con- tempt of earthly things was lodged in the breast of blessed Job, who then declares that all is nought which the lost enjoy in plenty, at the time when he had lost every thing. Thus he says. The tabernacles of robbers have plenty, and they provoke God with boldness; for it very commonly happens that bad men set themselves up the more against God, even the more they are enriched by His bounty contrary to their desert, and they that ought to be impelled by good gifts to better conduct, are rendered worse men by! the blessings.
3. But we have to make out how they are called ' robbers,' \ whereas it is thereupon added, When He hath given all intol God permits justly, what man does xoronyfidly. '3 their hands. For if they are robbers, then they took by Book force, and there is no doubt that God is no abettor of those — -1- that use force. In what sense tlien does He Himself bestow what they that are robbers carry off' by wicked means? We are to know then that what Almighty God in His mercy vouchsafes is one thing, and another thing what in His wrath He suffers men to have; for that which robbers do contrary to right the Equal Dispenser no otherwise than justly permits to be done by them, that both the man who is let to rob being blinded in mind may increase his guilt, and that he who suffers from his robbing, may now in the mischief thereof be chastised for some sin, which he had been guilty of before. For look, a man taking post in the pass of a mountain lies in wait for travellers passing by; now he that is taking his journey perchance has done some wickedness at one time or another, and Almighty God requiting him his evil-doing in the present life, and giving him into the hands of tlie lier-in-wait, suffers him either to be spoiled of his goods, or even to be killed. And so what the robber un- justly aimed at, the same the Equitable Judge justly per- mitted to be done, that both the one might be repaid what he had done contrary to justice, and the other might one time or another receive the worse chastisement, by whose voluntary deed of atrocity Almighty God brought just vengeance for sin upon the head of another. He is cleansed that suffers the wrong: in the case of him that does the wrong guilt is accumulated; that either from the very depth of wickedness he may one day be brought back to repent- ance, or else be visited with eternal damnation, aggravated in proportion as he was borne with for long in his sin. With the first He deals in mercy that he may bring his sins to an end, with the other in severity that he may greatly add thereto, unless he betake himself to repentance; in the one evil deeds are wiped away while he suffers violence, in the other they are accumulated while he offers it. Therefore it is meet and right that Almighty God suffer that to be done which He forbids to be done, that by the very same act, whereby He now awaits and bears with the unconverted for long. He may one day smite them the worse. Therefore it is rightly said. The tabernacles of rohhers are in plenty, and 4 liad men hold spiritual (jifts as robbers, yet from God.
Job 12, they provoke God with boldness; when He giveth all into -'— ^— ^ their hand; for what tlio wicked take away, He does Him- self give them, Who miglit have withstood them in their rapine, if He had been minded to pity them.
4. Yet this may likewise be understood of spiritual things. For it very often happens that some have gifts of teaching vouchsafed them, yet they are suoln with the same, and have a desire to appear great by comparison with others. And to * provoke' Almighty God is to be lifted up amongst our neighbours on the score of His gifts. Which same also are not unjustly called ' robbers,' in that whilst they speak what they never do, they take away the words of the righteous to serve the turn of their own speech. But because those very words heavenly Grace vouchsafes to some persons, whose lives notwithstanding it leaves in a course of wickedness, in themselves they are ' robbers;' but yet the good that is theirs they have gotten from above. It goes on; Ver, 7, 8. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee. Or speak to the earth, and it shall answer thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. iii. 5. What are we to understand by * the beasts,' but men of slow parts; and what by ' the fowls of the air,' but those that are skilled in high and sublime truths? For of ' the beasts,' P». 68, i. e. the dull of sense, it is written; Thine animals^ shall 1 Y^ gQ dwell therein. And forasmuch as those, who have minds for sublime themes, soar among the words of the Redeemer, it is Mat. 13 written, ^"0 tJiat the birds of the air come and lodge in the ^^* branches thereof. And what by * the earth,' saving men whose taste is for earthly things? Hence too it is said to the Gen. 3, first man on his forsaking the things of heaven, Dast thou art, and. unto dust shalt thou return. What are we to un- derstand by ' the fishes of the sea,' but the inquisitive ones) Ps.8, 8. of this world, concerning whom the Psalmist saith, The fish\ of the sea, that pass through the paths of the seas. Which same busy themselves in large researches into things, as it were in undiscoverable floods. Now what all these teacl: upon being so interrogated, he adds, saying, Ver. 1). W]io kfwweth not in all these that the hand ofthtl Lord hath wrought this? 1 Every sort oj creature bears ivitncss to God. 5 6. As if he said in plain terms; ^ Whether you ask the Book dull of understanding, or persons full of the loftiest subjects, — r^^- or those devoted to earthly ways, or the men busied with investigations that belong to this world, all of them acknow- ledge God to be the Creator of all things, and with one consent agree about His Power, though they do not with one consent live in submission to it. For that which the righteous man speaks by his way of living too, that the unrighteous man generally is constrained to own concerning God by his voice alone, if not otherwise; and it comes to pass that evil-doers, by attesting Him, do homage to the Creator of all things, Whom by their deeds they rebel against, in that Him, Whom they have dared to fight against by their lives, they cannot deny to be the Creator of all things. Yet this same may also Lit. be understood to good purpose after the mere form of the letter alone; in that every creature, when it is looked at, as it were utters a voice of its own, bearing witness by that mere form which it has. We ask * the beasts,' or ' the fowls of the air,' ' the earth,' or ^ the fish,' whilst we view them, and these answer us with one accord, that ' the Hand of the Lord hath wrought all things,' in that whilst they present their lineaments to our eyes, they bear witness that they are not from them- selves. For by the mere circumstance that they are created, by the figure they present, they render as it were the voice of confession to their Creator, Who, as He created all things, likewise ordained how they should be conducted. Hence it is added, Ver. 10. In Whose Hand is the soul of every living thing ^ and the spirit of alljiesh of man.
7. For by the ' Hand' Power is denoted. Thus ' the soul v. of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind,' is in the Power of Him, from Whom it has its being, that He Himself should appoint in what condition it should be, Who vouch- safed that to be, which was not. But by ' the soul of every living thing' may be denoted the life of beasts. Now Al- mighty God quickens the soul of beasts to the extent of the corporeal senses, but man's spirit He draws out to a spiritual understanding; and thus ' in His Hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all flesh of men,' in that both in the one. He bestows this power on the soul that it should 6 Meanings of the word ' s^pirit.^ Many senses hy one hrain.
JoiJ 12, give life to the flesh, and in the other He quickens the soul -^^ — to this degree, that it should attain to the understanding of eternity. But we are to bear in mind that in Holy Writ ' the spirit of man' is wont to be put in two ways. For sometimes ' the spirit' is put for the soul, sometimes for spiritual agency. Thus ' the spirit' is put for the soul, as it John is written of our own Head Himself, And He bowed His I spiri'. Head, and gave up His SpiritK For if the Evangelist had ^^''5' called any thing else ' the spirit' saving the soul, then surely upon that spirit departing, the soul would have remained. Moreover, the term ' spirit' is used for spiritual agency, as Ps. 104, where it is written, Who maketh His Angels spirits, His Ministers a jiaming fire. For Preachers are occasionally called ' Angels,' i. e. ' bearers of tidings,' in Holy Writ, as Mai. 2, where it is said by the Prophet, The priesfs lips keep know- ledge, and they seek the law from his mouth: for he is the ^Y.Au-AngeP of the Lord of Hosts. Thus Almighty God ' maketh ge us jj^^ Angels spirits,' in that He changeth His Preachers into spiritual men. But in this passage, if by ' the soul of every living thing,' the mere life of the body is denoted, by the ' spirit of all flesh of man,' there is set forth the agency of a spiritual understanding. It goes on; Ver. 11. The ear trieth words, and the mouth of the eater savour. vi. 8. There is scarce a person that is ignorant that the five senses of our body, viz. of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching, in all their operations of perceiving and dis- criminating derive the power of perception and discrimination from the brain. And whereas there is but one judge that presides within, viz. the percipient faculty of the brain, yet by their proper passages he keeps five senses distinct, God causing groat marvels, so that neither the eye should hear, nor the ear see, the mouth take in scent^ the nose taste, nor the hands smell; and whereas all things are determined by the one faculty of the brain, yet no one of the senses can do aught but what it received by the Creator's appointment. And so by these corporeal and external arrangements we are left to gather ihe interior and spiritual ones; so that by that which is open to the eye in us, we ought to pass on to the secret thing that is in us, and escapes our eyes. For we are L One Wisdom yives various powers. Hearing is not tastimj. 7 to observe, that whereas there is one Wisdom, it dwells in Book XI.
one man less, in another more. To one it gives this function, '—- to another that; and in the manner of the brain, it uses our- selves like so many senses, that though in itself it bears no dissimilitude to itself, yet by us it is ever working different and dissimilar operations, so as for this man to receive the gift of wisdom, and that the gift of knowledge; one to have kinds of tongues, and another the grace of healing.
9. But in these words wherein blessed Job saith, The ear friefh ivords, a?id the mouth of the eater savour, he seems likewise to imply something about the Elect and the damned; for the words of wisdom, which the children of perdition hear, the Elect not only hear but taste too, that that should have a savour for them in the heart, which conveys no sound to the minds of the damned, but only to their ears. For it is one thing to hear food named only, and another thing to taste of it also; then the Elect so hear of the meat of wisdom, that they taste of it, in that what they hear is full of relish to them in their very marrow^ from love; but the knowledge of i medul- the reprobate extends only to the cognizance of the sound, so ^^'"® that they hear indeed of virtues, but yet from coldness of heart they know nothing what a relish they have. By which same words blessed Job condemns the inexperience of his friends, and the presumption of all that are puffed up for their learning in wisdom, in that it is one thing to know somewhat concerning God, and another to taste with the mouth of understanding the thing that is known. Therefore it is well said. Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth of the eater savour? As if it were said to the presumptuous in plain words, ' The words of instruction, which came to you only so far as to the ear, to me touch the mouth'* of un- derstanding likewise in the inward savour.' But because a weak age, even when it hath a right sense, should not spring forth with incautious haste to preach, it is rightly added; Ver. 1*2. With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days imdersfanding.
10. For these sayings are set fast in the root of wisdom, vii. which by continuance in living, are also made strong by the practice of deeds. But because there are many to whom at " ' Fauces,' which means the part of the mouth toward the throat.
8 The Personal and the Inherent IViadom and Power of God.
Job 12, once longer life is given, and yet no grace of wisdom vouch- — =r^ — - safed, it is further shewn with propriety on whose decision the gifts themselves depend, whilst it is added; Ver. 13. With Him is wisdom and strength: He hath counsel and understanding. viii. 11. We not unfitly interpret these words of the Only- begotten Son of the Supreme Father, so as to understand Him to be Himself ' the Wisdom and Strength of God.' For Paul also bears testimony to our interpretation, in the words, 1 Cor. Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. Who is John 1 ever ' with Him,' in that. In the Beginning was the W^ord, 1- and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But God ' hath counsel and understanding;' ' counsel,' in that He orders His own matters, ' understanding,' in that He knows ours. By the naming of ' counsel' may also be denoted the mere delay of secret judgment alone, as that He is sometimes slow in striking offenders, not because the sin of bad men is not seen, but that their sentence of condemnation, which is delayed for the practising of penance, may seem as if out of counsel slow to issue forth. And so what the public declara- tion one day reveals without, that lay hid with the Almighty Lord in counsel before the world began. It proceeds; Ver. 14. If He break down, there is none that can build again: if He shut up a man, there is none that can open. ix. 12. Almighty God 'breaks down' the heart of man, when He forsakes it; He ' builds it up,' when He fills it. For He does not destroy man's soul by consummation of war, but by withdrawing Himself from it; in that when it is left to itself, it wants nothing to its own ruin. Whence it commonly happens, that when the heart of the hearer, in due of his sins, is not filled with Almighty God's grace, it is in vain that he is outwardly admonished by the preacher. For every mouth that speaks is but mute, if He does not utter a voice in the heart within, Who inspires the words that are admitted into the Ps. 127, ears. Hence the Prophet saith. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Hence Solomon Eccles. saith. Consider the work of God; for who can set him right whom He hath despised? Nor is it strange, if the preacher is not attended to by the reprobate soul, since it sometimes happens that the Lord Himself, in the things which He None can alter God's opening and shutting. 9 speaks, is withstood by the tempers of those that withstand Book Him. For hence it is that Cain could be admonished even — l_ by the voice of God, yet could not be changed, because as due to the sin of his evil heart, within God had already for- saken the soul, to which outwardly He addressed words to serve for a testimony. And it is well added, Tf He shut up a man^ there is none that can open; in that every man, whereinsoever he does wrong, what else does he but make for himself a prison-house of his own conscience, that guilti- ness of soul may oppress him even though no man accuse I him without.'' And when by the judgment of God he is left \. in the blindness of his evil heart, he is as it were shut up \vithin himself, that he may never find a place of escape, which he never deserves to find. For it often happens that there are persons who long to quit their bad practices, but because they are weighed to the ground by the burthen of them, being shut up in the prison-house of bad habit, they are unable to go forth of themselves. And there are some that anxiously desiring to visit their own offences with punishment, turn into worse offences what they reckon themselves to be doing aright; and it is brought to pass in a lamentable way, that what they take for their going out they find to be their imprisoning. Thus the reprobate Judas, Mat.27, when he inflicted death upon himself to spite sin, was brought to the punishment of eternal death, and repented of sin in a more heinous way than he had committed sin.
13. Therefore let it be said. If He shulteth up a man, thereEi^odA, is none that can open. For as no man withstands His ' ' * bountifulness in calling, so no one withstands His justice in forsaking; and so for God to ' shut up' is, not to open to those that are shut up; and hence it is said to Moses con- cerning Pharaoh, / will harden his heart. For God is said Gen. 27, to harden the heart in executing justice, when He does not^* soften the reprobate heart in bestowing grace. And so He * shuts up' the man, whom He leaves in the darkness of his own practices. For Isaac desired to open this shutting up ib. 26 to his first-born son, when he endeavoured to set him before ^"^ ^^* his brother in blessing him. But the son whom the father de- sired, the Lord rejected; and him, whom the Lord desired, the father blessed even against his will; that he, who had sold his 10 God*s gifts and injiuences renew and change man.
Job 12, birthright to his brother for a meal, might not get the blessing —Y— — of the first-born, whieh he had relinquished through a glut- tonous appetite; who, whilst that aiming at earthly objeets, following after transitory things, he desired to inherit the Heb.i2, blessing, was rejected. For lie found no place for repenl- ance, though he sought it with tears; for tears have no fruit, which are spent on regretting with sighs things destined to perish. And so Isaac could not open even to his son, whom Almighty God by a just judgment shut up in the prison-house of his evil heart. It proceeds; Ver. lb. If He withholdeth the waters, all things are dried up. If He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth. X. 14. If water' be understood of knowledge for preaching, as Prov. when it is written. The words of a man's mouth are as deep ' * waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as an overflowing brook; when ' water is withheld, all is dried up,' in that if the knowledge of the preacher is withdrawn, the hearts of those that might have flourished in eternal hope, are forth- with ' dried up,' that they should remain in hopeless barren- ness, whilst, in love with transitory things, they care not to look for those which shall abide. But if bv the term of ' water' the grace of the Holy Spirit is denoted, as it is said John 7, by the voice of Truth in the Gospel, He that helieveth in Me, ^^' as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; in which place the Evangelist immediately added, But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe in Him should receive; a suitable sense is laid open in these words wherein he saith. Behold He withholdeth the waters, and all tilings are dried up; in that if the grace of the Holy Spirit be withdrawn from the hearer's mind, the sense is at once ' dried up,' which already through hope seemed to be green in the hearer. But forasmuch as he does not mention ' water' but ' waters,' by the plural designa- tion, he refers to the sevenfold grace of spiritual gifts, inas- much as every one is filled, so to speak, with as many waters as he is replenished with gifts, of which it is fitly added. Also if He sendeth them out, they tvill overturn the earth. 15. For what is ' the earth' taken for, but the sinner, to I Lat. whom it is said in sentence, Dust^ thou art^ and unto dust Terra Grace given turns men to contraries. 1 1 shall Ihou relurn? Thus the earth remains immoveable Book when the sinner scorns to obey the precepts of the Lord, when he erects the neck of pride, and shuts the mind's eyes to the light of truth. But whereas it is written, His Jeelu&h.Sy stood, and the earth was moved; in that when Truth isj^x^*^' rooted in the heart, the immoveableness of the mind is stirred; if the grace of the Holy Spirit, by bestowal from above, is infused according to the voice of the preacher, instantly the earth is ' overturned,' in that the obduracy of the guilty soul is changed from the stubbornness of its immobility, that it should afterwards bow down itself in weeping to the }:!recepts of the Lord, as much as it aforetime erected the neck in swelling high against the Lord. For you may see that the earth of the human heart, when the water of God's blessing is poured upon it, afterwards gladly bears injuries, which before it outrageously inflicted; afterwards even gives its own, whereas before it even laid hands on the things of others; afterwards tortures the flesh by practising abstinence, whereas before, in the plenishing of the flesh, it let itself loose in the deadly gratifications of gross sensualities; after- wards loves its very persecutors, whereas before it refused to love even those that loved itself When, then, the human soul watered by God's bounty begins to act contrary to what