Ver. 9. Tlie righteous also shall hold on his way, and to clean hands he shall add strength, xxxviii. 43. On considering the hypocrite, * the righteous holds on his way,' in that whilst he sees that it is by a wicked will that he obtains the things that are of the world, he is himself tied and bound the stronger to the love of heavenly things, knowing that to good desires eternal rewards shall not be wanting, whereas both to bad and double hearts the good i Clean hands strengthened. The self-wise most foolish. 1 1 1 things of time are not denied; from which circumstance it Book comes that * to clean hands he adds strength,' in that seeing 1- bad men win temporal glory, he brings his good works to perfection, and looks down upon temporal things from the loftier height in proportion as he sees them to abound even to the wicked. For he sees how much those things deserve to be despised, which Almighty God vouchsafes even to bad men: for if they were primarily great, the Creator would never vouchsafe them to His adversaries; and hence he considers that it is to himself an unworthy thing, that he should go after that good, which he sees to abound even to the wicked; but he applies his mind to the winning of heavenly blessings, which can never be shared with him by the children of perdition. Thus after he had introduced the outward advancements of the wicked, and the interior ad- vancements of the good, he brought forward words of exhort- ation, saying, Ver. 10. But as for you all, do ye turn and come now, 44. Which same words of exhortation he properly frames xxxix. to the Elect, whom he calls to the eternal world; who are bidden in two ways, viz. that they should ' turn,' and that they should ^ come;' * turn' by faith, ' come' by practice. Or indeed that they ' turn' by abandoning evil deeds, and * come' by doing good ones; as it is written. Depart from Vs. 37 y evil, and do good: but that is wonderful which is added, And may I not find one wise man among you.
45. For what does this mean, that he bids them to wisdom, xl. and yet wishes that he may not find them wise, saving that they cannot come to true wisdom, who are deceived in confidence in their own false wisdom? Concerning whom it is written. Woe unto you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent is. 5, <2i, in your own sight; and to whom it is said again. Be 7iot wise ^om, with your own selves; whence that same great preacher ^^' ^^* sought that those, whom he found carnally wise, in order that they might attain true wisdom, should first become foolish; saying. If any 7nan among you seeraeth to he wise \ Cor. in this world, let him, become a fool, that he may he wise, ^' ^^* And * Truth' saith by Itself, / thaiik Thee, O Father, Lord Mditt. of heaven and earth, hecause Thou hast hid these things from ^i> ^5.
112 Power and persecution both bring eartlily cares.
Job 17, the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. And so because they that are wise in themselves cannot Lit.
come to true wisdom, blessed Job, being anxious for the conversion of his hearers, rightly desires that he may not ' find any wise man among them.' As if he said to them in plain speech; * Learn to be foolish in your own selves, that ye may be truly wise in God.' It goes on; Ver. II. My days are past away, my thoughts are scattered, racking my heart. xli. 46. The Holy Church of the Elect sees that the spaces of Mo^AL^^^ life pass in periods of day and night, in that it is hers in adversity to have ' a night,' and in prosperity, ' a day.' For there riseth as it were light unto her fi'om the tranquillity of peace, and night from the grief of persecution. Now as often as after the pauses of rest she returns to the toilsome- ness of persecution, growing to a head against her, she testifies that her * days have past;' in which days, however, she is accustomed to be weighed down with so much the heavier cares, in proportion as she bethinks her that for that very tranquillity of rest a more exact reckoning is required of her by the Judge. For in the tranquil state of peace, at one time she is employed with the profits of souls, at another time she attends to the ministrations of earthly things, which same ministrations of earthly affairs are more burthensome to the minds of good men, in proportion as by the act of looking at them they are torn away though but for a brief space from looking at the things of heaven. Whence blessed Job, whether in his own voice, or the voice of the Church Universal, after testifying that ' his days were past,' thereupon subjoined. My thoughts are scattered, racking my heart; in that when temporal glory is gone to the minds of the good, even that charge of earthly stewardship is likewise removed from them, which seemed to be torturing them within their thoughts; for while they aim to be always bent upward for the perception of the things of heaven, by this very circumstance that sometimes in their earthly steward- ships they are made to descend to take thought of the lowest matters, they feel themselves to be put to torture. Whence it is brought to pass, that the very hostility of persecution is Lights and shades ofli/'e. State of departed souls changed. 113 itself too changed into a mighty exultation of joy, on account Book of the repose of the heart that is obtained. Hence it is fitly - added; Ver. 12. They have cha7igcd the night into day> 47. For ' the thoughts being scattered change night into xlii. day/ in that it is sometimes more grateful to the righteous through adversity to undergo sufferings, rather than as the effect of prosperity to be harassed with the charge of earthly ministering. But because they have learnt by paying attention that both adversity passes away, and prosperity dawns again, it is fitly added; And again after darkness I look for light.
48. For ' the light is looked for after darkness,' in that xliii. after the night of the present life, the light eternal is dis- cerned, or adversity and prospersity do so alternate here, that they do not cease to succeed one another by turns. Whence it comes to pass that even in the light night is suspected, and in the night light is presumed on; as when it is written. In the day of prosperity he not forgetful of Ecc]us. affliction, and in the day of affliction be not forgetful of ^^ prosperity. But mark, forasmuch as we have been redeemed by the grace of our Maker, we henceforth have this boon of heavenly bestowal, that when we are removed from dwelling in our flesh, we are at once carried of!' to receive heavenly rewards; in that since our Creator and Redeemer, penetrating the bars of hell, brought out from thence the souls of the Elect, He does not permit us to go there, from whence He has already by descending set others free. But they who were brought into this world before His Coming, whatsoever eminency of righteousness they may have had, could not on being divested of the body at once be admitted into the bosom of the heavenly country"; seeing that He had not as yet come. Who by His own descending should unloose the bars of hell, and place the souls of the righteous henceforth in their everlasting seat. Hence blessed Job, both feeling the stroke of affliction, and knowing that the recompensing of the righteous was as yet delayed, fitly subjoins; * He says elsewhere that the more are kept elsewhere, and that all have perfect souls are admitted now to heaven, to wait till the Judgment for their bjjdiett where the Body of Christ is, quoting tobebroughtinto the heavenly mansions.
Phil. i. 13. He adds that the less perfect Dial. iv. 25.
VOL. II. I 114 Saints of old not p7mishe(l though in hell. Man's corruption.
Job 17, Ver. 13. If I wait, hell is mine house; and J have made — '. — -my hed in the darkness, ^YiY 49. For the former Saints could undergo adversity, and yet could not, when brought out of the body, be at once freed from the regions of hell; in that He had not yet come, -Who should descend thereinto without sin, that He might set free those, who were there bound by right of sin. And man then ' made his bed in darkness,' when he forsook the light of righteousness by consenting to the crafty Prompter: and whereas in those very regions of hell the souls of the righteous were kept imprisoned without torment, so that both on behalf of original sin they should still go down thereunto, and yet by right of their own deeds not undergo punishment; to have * made their bed in the darkness,' in a manner, is to have I grave prepared themselves rest in hell. For it was sad weariness^ to the Elect, after the dissolution of the flesh, not yet to see the likeness of the Creator. Which wearisomeness blessed Job not improperly designates ' darkness.' But whereas this came in the punishment of infirmity, he rightly adds that same infirmity directly, saying, Ver. 14. / have said to corruption, TJiou art my father, and to the worm. Thou art my mother and my sister. xlv. 50. What does this mean, that he said to corruption. Thou art my father; saving that every man descends from an already corrupted origin } and hence it is added. And to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister; in this way, viz. that we come into this world at once from corruption itself, and along with corruption itself. For as regards the matter of corruptible flesh, the worm is our ' mother and sister,' in that we both come forth out of corruption, and come with corruption which we carry about us. And if we may understand it in a spiritual sense, nature is not unappro- priately called our ' mother,' and habit too a * sister,' in that we are from the one, and along with the other; which same ' mother and sister' are ' worms,' in that in virtue of a corrupt nature and evil habit we are necessitated, as by a kind of ' worms,' so by disquieting thoughts to be gnawed in the mind. For the corrupted nature of the flesh, and bad habit, in that they generate numberless cares in the heart of our frailty, are well called ' worms our mother and sister.' For Hopes of the Patriarchs painfully delayed. 115 cares gnaw the mind, while they disquiet it. For righteous men Book do not cease either heedfully to take thought and counsel what '- they are to do, or thoughtfully to look into it, whither they are destined to be led after the present life. And so because the Elect then, before the Coming of the Lord, both saw that they were in the toils of the present life, and still after the present life did not as yet receive the heavenly blessings, they were made to smart* with many thoughts of heart. 'ureban- For they waited for the grace of the Redeemer, and yet by living in the flesh could not attain thereto: whence it is fitly added, Ver. 15. Where then is nou' my eccpectation?
51. What could be the ^ expectation' of the righteous, xlvi. but God Who justifieth the righteous, Who should freely go down to (what was) the punishment of mankind, and by the efficacy of His righteousness set free the captives of death? For they never ceased to expect His appearing with intent expectation; they knew that it was to come, but they sought for it to come quickly. Wherefore he does not say, * Where, then, is my expectation?' but, where then is noiv my expecta- tion? For in that he adds, now, he shewed that what was to come one day, he desired might come without delay. It goes on, A7id who considereth my patience?
52. He expressed the longing desire, wherewith whilst set xlvii. in the flesh he hastes to be redeemed, and brought back from hell to the regions above. And indeed it belonged to but few men to enter into the consideration of these things, that they should learn to think of the labours of the present life, or of the subsequent delay after death. Both of which the just gi'ieved to be subject to before the coming of our Redeemer. And hence it is rightly said, And who considereth my patience? Verily, there is not lacking One, to * consider patience.' But when God does not hear quickly, He is said, as it were, not ' to consider.' For the Redemption of mankind itself, which came at the end of the world, by those who came before from the beginning of the world was accounted slow, in that during a long period of time they were severed from the recompensing of the heavenly things, as Truth testifies, Which saith, Many prophets and kings have desired to.s-^e Lukeio, 116 Jolis Ion flings. How he could speak of the * lowest Ilell.^ Job 17, those things ivhich ye see^ and have not seen them. And so —:j^ — '- — as to that which is now said, Who corisidercth my patience? the breathings of fervent desire are laid open. For neither, as we said before, does God forbear to consider the patience of the righteous; but not ^ to have regard,' in a manner, means to appear less quickly answering to the aspirations of longing desire, and by lengthened periods of time to delay the grace of His Dispensation. Therefore let him say, Who considereth my patience? in that what is short to Him that ordereth, is long to him that loves. Hence, still reflecting on the privations of his delay, he repeats that which he had already said before; and being destined to descend below, he redoubles the voice of his grief, saying, Ver. 16. All of mine shall descend, into the lowest helL xlviii. 53. Whereas it appears that among those below the righteous are held bound not in places of punishment, but in the bosom of tranquillity above, an important question springs up before us, why it is that blessed Job declares, saying, All of mine shall descend into the lowest hell; who even if before the Advent of the Mediator between God and man he had to descend into hell, yet it is plain that into the * lowest heir he had not to descend. Does he call the very higher regions of hell, ' the lowest hell V Plainly because in relation to the loftiness of heaven, the region of this sky may not unappropiiately be called the lower region. Whence when the Apostate Angels were plunged from the seats of heaven into this darksome region of the air, the Apostle 2 Pet. 2, Peter says, For if God spared not the Angels that sinned, but delivered them, dragged down with infernal chains, into hell-i to he reserved for torments in the Judgment. If then relatively to the height of heaven this darksome air is infernal, relatively to the elevation of this air, the earth which lies below may be taken both as infernal, and as deep; and rela- tively to the height of that earth, even those parts of hell which are higher than the other mansions of the place below, may in this place not unsuitably be denoted by the designation of the lowest hell; in that what the sky is to heaven, and the earth to the sky, the same is that higher hollow of the regions below to the earth.
54. But that is very wonderful which he subjoins. All of I Job held his soul for all. His fears of Jud(j)iie)it.. 117 mine shall descend; for whereas the soul alone shall descend Book XIII into the regions of hell, how is it that the holy man tells that ^- ' all of his' shall descend there, but that he saw himself to be there entire where he perceives the great weight of his recompense? seeing that this which he leaves of himself without sense on the earth, until he returns to the incorruption of the resurrection, he does not feel to be himself. And so he declares that ' all of his will descend into the lowest hell,' whither he sees his soul only shall descend; in that the whole of him is there, where he is capable of having a sense of that which he has got. Or, surely, ' all of his did descend into hell,' in that the recompensing of all his toils was as yet expected to be received only in the rest of hell; and all that he has done as it were ' descends' there, in that there he finds rest in his recompensing for all things.
Whence also the expected rest is itself added, when the words are thereupon introduced.
Dost thou think at least there will be rest for me there?
55. By which same words he both makes known what he xlix. desires, and yet marks that he is still doubtful of receiving the rest, lest he whose holy works so many scourges followed, should by the hidden judgment of the heavenly Judge, after temporal scourges, have lasting torments likewise following him. Wherein it behoves ourselves to consider with exceed- ing fear which of us is now secure of the everlasting rest, if even he still trembles for it, proclaim of whose virtue the very Judge, Who smites, does Himself sound. For if theiT^et.i, righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and the inigodli/ appear? For blessed Job knew that he should attain to rest after the strokes of affliction, but that he might shake our hearts with fear, he himself seemed to doubt "about the recompensing of Eternal rest, when he says, Dost thou thitik? plainly that we might think well with what exceeding apprehension we ought ever to dread the Judgment to come, if even he, who was commended by the Judge, was not yet in his own words secure of the rewards of the Judg- ment.
BOOK XIV.
BOOK XIV.
Wherein S. Gregory unfolds the historical, allegorical, and moral sense of the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of the Book of Job.
i. 1. In a former part of this work we have handled the point, ^^®^' that Almighty God, in order to amend the hearts of those under the law, brought forward the life of blessed Job for a testimony, who knew not the law and yet kept it, who observed the precepts of life, which he had not received in writing. This man's conduct is first extolled by God's bear- ing witness to it, and is afterwards suffered to be put to the proof by the devil's plotting against it, that he might prove by the trials of tribulation, how much he had attained before in a state of peace. This man's life the adversary of the human race, evil disposed after his manner, both knew to be commended by the attestation of God, and yet asked for to prove it. And when he could not succeed in bringing him to the ground, smitten with so many losses in his sub- stance, so many bereavements, he set on his wife against him in the goading of mispersuasion, that at all events by the words of his own household he might ruin him, whom he could never bring down by so many torments of tidings. But whereas what by woman's aid he won against Adam first in paradise, he could not make good against this second man sitting on a dunghill, he betook himself to other appli- ances of tempting, that he should bring in his friends as if administering consolation, and yet stir up their feelings in bitterness of upbraiding, that him whose patience scourges had failed to subdue, at least bitter words in the midst of those scourges might succeed in overcoming. But the adversary, while laying his plots with craft, was a victim to the deceit, which he had contrived against the holy man, in Bildad thinks himself scorned^ as Heretic* do. 119 that for all the occasions of ruin that he brought upon the Book holy man, he supplied him with as many occasions of victory. 1 For against torments he maintained patience, against words, wisdom, in that he at once sustained the pains of stripes with resignation, and restrained the foolishness of ill ad- visers with wisdom. But whereas in those very sufferings and well-instructed speeches he bears a figure of Holy Church, by his friends^ as we have already often said, uttering some things right and some foolish, heretics are not unjustly represented, who in respect of this, that they are friends of the holy man, say many things right of the wicked, but in respect of this, that they bear a likeness of heretics, very often transgress in the excesses of the lips, and they smite the breast of the holy man with the darts of their words, but are tired out by their very own smiting against his indomi- table spirit. So then it is our business to distinguish with exact discrimination, both what there is in their words that they think aright concerning the lost, and what that they sound that is foolish as directed against blessed Job.
Ver. 1, 2. Then ansivered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, Unto what end will ye cast abroad words f understand first, and so let us speak.
2. All heretics think that in some things that are known ii. to her Holy Church is full of pride, while some things they '^^^^^* fancy that she does not even understand. Whence Bildad the Shuhite, as it were, asserts that blessed Job had broken out into pride, when he declares ^ that he ' casts abroad words.' ' * f^*^^" . tur' is But he gives a token with what pride he was himself swoln, used who supposed that blessed Job spoke things that he did not*^^* understand; and whereas all heretics complain that they are despised by Holy Church in her estimate of them, it is fitly subjoined, Ver. 3. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed as vile in your sight?
3. It is natural to the human mind to suppose that the ^^^' thing that it does is done to itself. Thus they believe them- selves to be despised, who are used to despise the ways of the good; and whereas in such things as are capable of being understood by reason, the Church proves against heretics that what they make up is unreasonable, they imagine them- I 120 Heretics think tlie Church proud, violent, and exclusive.
Job 18, selves to be counted as Mjcasts' in her view. On which - — '— supposition of their being despised, they directly break out in disdain, and are urged to abuse of that Church. Whence it is added; Vcr. 4. Why dost thou ruifi thy soul in thy fury? \y. 4. Heretics esteem whether a strong feehng for the rule of right, or the spiritual grace of holy preaching, not as good weight of virtue, but as the madness of fury. By which same fury they believe that ' the souls of the faithful are ruined,' in that they imagine that the life of the Church is destroyed by the very same means whereby they see she is made to kindle against themselves. It goes on; Shall the earth he forsaken for thee 9 V. 5. For they think that they themselves worship God every where, that they themselves have occupied the whole world. What is it then to say, SJiall the earth he forsaken for thee'i but wdiat they often say to the faithful, viz. ' that if this thing which you say be true, all the earth is forsaken by God, which we ourselves already occupy from the multitude of us.' Now the holy Church universal proclaims that God cannot be truly worsiiipped saving within herself, asserting that all they that are without her shall never be saved. But conversely heretics, who are confident that it is possible for them to be saved even without her pale, maintain that the Divine aid is rendered to them in every place. Whence they say; Shall the earth he forsaken for thee? i. e. 'is it so, that whosoever is out of thee cannot be saved?' Whence it is added further; And shall the rocks be moved out of their place? vi. 6. Heretics call those persons ' rocks' who in their views by the sublimity of their thoughts stand out in the human race, which same they glory that they have for teachers. But when Holy Church addresses herself to the task of gather- ing together the different erring preachers within the bosom of the right faith, what else is this but that she ' removes the rocks from their places,' that having a right view of things, they may lie down in humility within her, w^ho aforetime were standing stiff in their own wrong notions } But heretics altogether make against the doing of this, and withstand the * rocks being moved out of their places' on account of her Afflictions of good men mistaken for Judgments. 121 voice, because thev are averse that the\', vvlio amoiit^ them- Book XIV.
selves, being Hfted up in their thoughts, were embued with false doctrine, by coming to her should think what is true in a humble spirit.
7. Now it very often happens that heretics, when they see any persons within the bosom of Holy Church travailing whether with want or calamities, lift themselves up directly in the presumption of righteousness, and whatsoever they see to have happened of an adverse kind to the faithful, they suppose it is done for their iniquities, not knowing doubtless that the complexion of the present life does not in the least de- gree prove the worth of men's conduct. For very often both good things befal the bad, and bad ones befal the good, on the very principle that real goods are reserved for the good, and real ills for the bad, in the season of the eternal recompensing. Thus Bildad bearing a figure of heretics, who lift themselves up on the grounds of this life's good fortune, swells against the strokes of blessed Job, as if with their voice in opposition to the reproach of the righteous, and expressly he is arguing against the ungodly indeed, but how wickedly he speaks in such terms against a good man, he is not aware. Thus he added, saying,