busies Himself so much the more that He may spare, in proportion as He scourges the more in awaiting; as He Himself saith to John by the voice of the Angel, As many as Rev. 3, / love, I rebuke and chasten; and as it is elsewhere spoken, ' For whom the Lord loveth. He chasteneth. But reversely itHeb.i2, is written of the scourge of condemnation, The wicked *^ps9ig taken in the work of his own hands. Of whom the Lord saith by Jeremiah, when He sees the multitudes transgressing irreclaimably, whom He now no longer regards as sons under discipline, but as enemies under unmitigated scourging. For I have wounded thee with the tcound of an enemy, with Jer. 30, a cruel chastisement. And what is said here, and not spare, ' is there likewise brought out in other words; Why criest ver. 15. thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable. Whence the Elect always make this provision, that they should return to righteousness before the wrath of the Judge is inex- tinguishably kindled, lest being caught by the last stroke, they find life ended to them, together with sin. For the rod will then do away with the sin, when it alters the life, since whosesoever ways it does not change, his doings it does not atone for. Therefore all smiting from God is either a purifying of the present life in us, or a commencement of the punishment that follows. For with reference to those who profit by the scourge it is written, WJio framest pain in Ps. 94 tlte commandment. For in that case when the wicked man^^* is scourged and amended, to the commandment he would not give ear; to the pain he does. And so there is ' pain framed in the commandment' to him, who by pain as it were in the stead of the commandment is kept back from evil practices. But touching these persons to whom scourges are a curse, not a clearance, it is said. Thou hast stricken them, but they Jq^^ 3 have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. With these, their scourges commence in this life, and last on in everlasting smiting. Whence the Lord saith by Moses, For a fire is kindled in Deut. Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell. For so "^^j ^^• far as regards the present smiting it is rightly said, A fire is kindled ifi Mine anger. But as regards the eternal damnation, 84*2 Eternal purnslnnenl beyun hare. Home, named, escape.
Job 27, itis irnnicdiatcly added with propriety, And shall burn unto the ^-— — lowest hell. Though by some persons that is used to be Nah. 1, alleged, which is written, God judgeth not twice upon the same thing. Which persons, howsoever, do not pay regard Jer. 17, to this that is spoken by the Prophet of the wicked; And crash them with double confusion. And that, which is Jude 5. written elsewhere; Jesus in saving the People out of ^yypU ^ second time destroyed them that believed not. To which persons, however, if we yield assent, that any sin cannot be twice visited with punishment, this must be judged of those persons smitten for sin and dying in their sin, that their smiting begun here is completed there, that so to the unreformed there should be one and the same scourge, which begins here in time, but is consummated in eternal punishments, that to those that wholly refuse to be amended, the dealing of present scourges now should be the beginning of the torments to ensue. And so God shall let loose upon him, and not spa^re. It goes on; Fleeing he shall Jlee out of His hand.
xxiii. 36. For he ' flees out of the hand' of the Smiter, w^ho amends the wickedness of his behaviour; or otherwise, because in Holy Writ the hand is used to be taken for acting, he ' flees from the hand of the smiter,' who, whilst he marks the destruction of the wicked man, forsakes the path of wickedness. Whence it is yet further added; Ver. 23. He shall bind up his hands over him.
xxiv. ^^- ^^^ ^^ ' bind up the hands' is to establish the practices Heb. 12, of his life in uprightness. W^hence Paul too saith. Where- ^^' fore lift up the loosed hands, and the unstrung knees. While, then, they behold the destruction of another, they are made to turn back to the conscience, to remind themselves of their own, and by the very same cause whereby one man is carried to torments, another is freed from torments. And so ' he binds up his hands over him,' because he observes in the punishment of another what to be afraid of; and whilst he sees one living in transgression so smitten, he binds fast his own too loose practices with the sinews of righteousness. And so it is brought to pass that he who, being a bad man, whilst living, had drawn numbers into transgression by the delightfulness of sin, in dying recovers some from trans- The Righteoushetterfor seeing judgments. Holf/Writ^sUcer.MZ ffression by the terriblcness of" torments. Which same the Book XVTTT Psalmist bears witness to be of advantage to the good as ' well, saying, The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the Ps. 58, vengeance; he shall wash his hands in the blood of sinners. For ^ in the blood of sinners,' when dying, * the righteous do wash their hands,** because, when their punishment is seen, the life of the person seeing it is cleansed. It goes on; And he shall hiss upon him, beholding his place, 38. What is expressed in the hissing, but the straining of xxv. wonderment? But if in the hissing there is some other meaning sought, when the sinner dies, these that witness his death draw tight the mouth in hissing, in that they are con- verted to those spiritual words, which they had contemned, so that they henceforth begin to believe and to teach, what before, while they perceived the wicked man thriving, they used not to believe. For it very often happens that the mind of the weak is the more unsteadied from the hearing of the truth, as it sees the despisers of the truth flourishing; but when just vengeance takes away the unjust, it keeps others away from wickedness. Whence it is said by Solomon; When the pestilent mati is punished, the little one will be Prov. wiser. Thus the holy man after he had adequately filled up ' ^' the punishments of the men of power that are lifted up in the world, again directs his words to the pride of heretics, who are lifted up in speech, saying; Chap, xxviii. ver. 1. The silver hath the beginnings of its veins, and to the gold there is a place, where they Jine it.
39. In silver the power of speaking, in gold brightness of life or of wisdom is used to be denoted. And because heretics are so filled with pride for the brilliancy of their speaking, that they are not based firmly by any authority of the sacred books, (which books are for speaking like a kind of veins of silver to us, because from those identical books we derive the spring and source of our speaking,) he recalls them to the pages of sacred authority, that if they have a desire to speak in a true way, they may from that source draw forth what to say. And he saith, Tlie silver hath the beginning of its veins, and to the gold there is a place, ivhere they Jine it.
As if he said in plain words; ' He that is fitting himself 344 True leacliing comes Jrorn Scripture and old authors.
Job 28, for the words of true preaching, the originals of the cases he ——^ — must of necessity derive from the sacred page, so as to bring round every thing that he speaks to a foundation of divine authority, and in that set firm the edifice of his own speaking. For, as we before said, oftentimes heretics, whilst they are eager to prop up what is bad of their own, broach things which assuredly are not maintained in the page of the sacred books. And hence the great Preacher admonishes g 20"* ^^^ disciple, saying, O Timothy, keep that which is com- mitted to Ihy trust, avoiding profane novelties of speaJdng, for whereas heretics long to be extolled as if for excellency of wit, they as it were bring out new things which are not maintained in the old books of the ancient Fathers, and thus it follows, that whilst they desire to appear wise, they scatter seeds of foolishness to their wretched hearers.
40. And it is well added; And to the gold there is a place, where they fine it. As if he said jn plain terms; ' The true wisdom of believers, which has the Church Universal for its place, undergoes tribulation by you persecuting her, but from all the dross of sins by the fire of your persecution she Ecclus. is purified.' Whence it is written; For gold is tried in the ' * fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity. In which passage this too may be appropriately taken for the meaning, that for their foolish suffering heretics might seem to be rebuked. For oftentimes for the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer, they suffer much, and by those same sufferings they look for themselves to become His martyrs. To which persons it is now said by the voice of the holy man; and to the gold there is a place, where they fine it. For according to that which has been already said even before us, he that suffers out of the unity of the Church, punishments he may suffer, but a Martyr he cannot be made; for ' to the gold there is a place, where they fine it.' What then, ye heretics, say ye to these things? Ye are minded to be ' fined' by the aflBicting of the flesh, nay even by martyrdom, but the place where ye must be fined, ye know not. Hear ye what is spoken by the voice of the holy preacher. ' To the gold there is a place, where they fine it.' So then, seek ye this ' place for the fining,' tnis furnace, wherein the gold may be fitly purged, find ye out.
Sujfering no martyrdom out of the 'place' of unity. 345 41. There is one Church, in which he that may have Book XVIII attained to be fined, may likewise be purified from all '- the dross of sins. If for the sake of God ye undergo aught of bitterness, if aught of tribulation, being without her pale, ye can only be burnt, ye cannot be purified. Let Jeremiah tell, let him tell in what way the fire of your fining is void of all eflicacy. The finer melteth in vain; for their wicked- J^'"- ^j nesses are not done away. See how the fire externally melting at once administers a punishment of hard suffering, and yet does not clear off* the sin of misbelief; it both furnishes torments of cruel punishments, and does not cause additions of good merits. Moreover the fire of this fining which is undergone out of the Catholic Church, how utterly it is void of all eflficacy the Apostle Paul instructs us, when he says, And though I give my body to he burned, and have i Cor. not charity, it profiteth me nothing. For some think wrong ' things touching God, and others hold what is right about the Creator, but do not maintain unity with their brethren; the one are sundered by erroneousness of faith, and the others by the commission of schism. And hence in the very first part of the Decalogue the sins of both sides are checked, seeing that it is said by the voice of God, And thou shalt M:arki2, love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all Dent. 6 thy soul, and with all thy might. And it is immediately^- added, And thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself For whoso imagines what is wrong about God, surely it is evident that he does not ' love God.' But he who while he entertains right notions about God is divided from the unity of the Holy Church, it is plain that he does not love his neighbour, whom he refuses to have for his fellow.
42. Whosoever, then, is divided from this unity of the Church our Mother, either through heresy in entertaining wrong notions concerning God, or by the erroneousness of schism in not loving his neighbour, is bereft of the grace of that charity, concerning which Paul saith what we have before given; Ajid though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. As if he ex- pressed himself in plain utterance; ' Without the bounds of its place, the fire of fining being applied to me only afflicts me with torment, and does not purify me by its cleansing,' 346 True gold refined only in (ykarity. Chanyed characters.
Job 28, This place all lliey that are lovers of holy peace seek with -^ — heartiest endeavours, this on seeking they find, this finding * they keep, knowing the remission of sin, as to where, or when, or to what sort it is vouchsafed. For where is it, save in the bosom of our Catholic Mother? When, but before the day 2 Cor. of coming departure? Because, Behold, now is the accepted Is. 55 time; hehold, now is the day of salvation. And, Seek ye ^' the Lord while He may he found, call ye upon Him while He is near. To what sort of persons, but to the converted, who after the imitating of little children are fashioned by Matt, humility as their mistress? To whom it is said; Sujfer little ' * children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is Matt, the kingdom of heaven. And, Except ye he converted and ' * become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And therefore, because there are no true martyrs made saving in the Catholic Church, it is rightly said. To the gold there is a place where they fine it. Because the soul would not be made bright in the radiance of everlasting beauty, except, so to say, it were first burnt here in the work- shop of charity.
43. Moreover, we are to consider that there are some whom Almighty God by His secret counsel preserving in innocency from their very beginnings promotes to the topmost heights of virtuous attainments, that, as their age increases, both numerousness of years and loftiness of merits should simul- taneously advance in them. But others abandoning in their outset He suffers to go with bad habits fermenting by head- long ways. Yet for the most part even these He has regard to, and for the following after Him He kindles them with the fire of holy love, and the itchings of bad propensities en- grained in their hearts He converts into a fervour of virtue, and they are the more set on fire to the desire of beseeching the pitifulness of God, in proportion as they are the more ashamed at the recollection of their own wickedness; as it often happens, that in the conflict of the fight the soldier, who is placed before the eyes of his leader, basely yields to the enemy's valour, and that whilst he powerlessly turns his back he is struck; yet nevertheless being ashamed of this > 2 Mss. very thing that he has done ' disgracefully before his leader's A^^^^' eyes, from the mere sense of shame he gathers greater force; Sound inert made from ear/h/y as iron from earth, 347 and aitevwards execuUs deeds of prowess, to so hii<li a Book degree tliat he may at once achieve present credit of his ^ ' valour, and cover past disgrace of weakness. In a like way, these persons are sometimes more actively established in the service of God by consequence of past weakness, and such persons for the keeping of His commandments both the desire of things future draws on, and the remembrance of things past urges forward, that on the one side affection to that which is to come should stimulate, and on the other shame for that which is past spur on. Which same how- ever, while the enemies of the Church see to be endowed with the highest virtues, and in their present life cannot any way find out that whereby they may derogate from their merit, they set themselves to impeach them of the past, as the Manicha^an assails our Moses, in whom he endeavours to soil with the sin of a past homicide the grace of subsequent virtuous attainments; in whom he heeds not how patient he was afterwards to endure, but how precipitate he was before to strike. Such adversaries as these blessed Job encounter- ing with the exactest eye of observation, after that he said, Silver hath the beginning of its veins; and to gold there is a place where they fine it; he justly added; Iron is taken out of the earth.
44. Heretics are used to pride themselves against us byxxvii. the self-priding of their righteousness, and to boast high their practices with the swelling of ostentation, and our- selves, as we have said, they impeach either for being or having been bad persons. Accordingly in a most humble confession, and in a truthful defence against those, the holy man speaks, saying, Iron is taken out of the earth. As if he said in plain speech; * men of strength, who by the sharpest swords of their tongues are become iron in this pitched battle of the defending of the faith, were one time but ' earth' in the lowest sphere of actions.' For to man on his sinning it was spoken; Earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou return. But ' iron is taken out of the eai'th,' when the hardy champion of the Church is separated from an earthly course of conduct, which he before maintained. Accordingly he ought not to be contemned in any thing whatever, that he was, who has already begun to be that 348 Some once hard in evil made strong for good. Job 28, which he was not. Was not Matthew found in the earth, Q who, involved in earthly matters, served the business of the ' receipt of custom? But having been taken out of the earth, he was strengthened into the forciblcncss of iron, in that by his tongue, as by the sharpest sword, the Lord in the en- forcing of the Gospel pierced the hearts of unbelievers. And he that before was weak and contemptible by his earthly occupations, was afterwards made strong for heavenly preach- ings. Hence it is yet further subjoined; And the stone being melted with heat is turned into brass. 45. Then is ' the stone dissolved with heat,' when the heart that is hard and cold to the fire of divine love is touched by that same fire of divine love, and melted in the glowing warmth of the Spirit, that to the life that follows it should burn with the heat of its longings, which life on hearing of before, it remained uninfluenced. By the power of which same heat, he is at once softened down to love and invigorated to practice, that as before he was hard in the love of the world, so he should afterwards give himself out strong unto the love of God, and what he declined to give ear to before, he should henceforth begin both to believe and to preach. And so, the stone being dissolved with heat is turned into brass, because the hardened mind, being melted by the fire of love from Above, is changed to true strength. So that the sinner that was before unmoved should after- wards be made at once strong in respect of authority, and sounding in respect of preaching. Which is well spoken by Ts. 40, Isaiah; They that trust in the Lord shall change their ^^' strength. We ' change our strength,' when being converted, we eschew the present scene of things with as much power and might as we before were seeking it. But because the foregoing life is unfairly by adversaries counted to the character of Catholics, it is rightly added; Ver. 3. He hath set a time to darkness^ and Himself vieweth the end of all and every one.
xxix. 46. He hath Himself ^ set a time to the darkness,' i. e. bounds to the wicked, where they should cease to be wicked.
Eph. 5, Whence it is said to them by the Apostle; Ye were some- times darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Like as to the other disciples as well the same great teacher saith, God sees the end before^ whatever men seem to he. 349 The night is far spent^ the day is at hand; let us therefore Book cast off the works of darkness^ and let us put on the armour: of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day. Hence also 13^ 1*2. in the Song of Songs on the coming of the Church it is said, ^^• Who is she that cometh forth as the morfiing in rising? Cant. 6, For fitly is the Church described by being compared with ^^• ' the morning,' in that, by the knowledge of the faith she is changed from the darkness of sins to be in the bright light of righteousness. By the term of all and every one,' he would have both the Elect and the damned to be comprehended. For God both in doing and ordering what is good, yet not doing what is bad, but what by the wicked is done Himself so regulating that the things should not come forth irregularly, ' vieweth the end of all and every one,' and bears all things patiently, and beholds the goal of the Elect, how that from evil they are changed to good. He sees, too, the end of the damned, how that for bad practice they are dragged to a punishment worthy of them. He saw the end of Saul when persecuting, wherein prostrated on the earth he should say, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? He saw the end of Acts 9, the seeming-obedient disciple, that for the guilty deed he had ' committed he should tie his throat with a noose, and both punish himself when guilty of sin, and by thus punishing, betray himself the worse. He saw the Ninevites transgress- ing, but beheld the end of the transgressing in the repentance of the reformed. He saw likewise Sodom transgressing, but He beheld the end of the burning of lust in the fire of hell. He saw the end of the Gentile world, how that whilst occupied by the darkness of iniquities, it should be one day brightened with the light of faith. He also saw the end of Judaea, how that from that light of faith, which it held, it should blind itself with the darkness of hardened unbelief. Whence it is yet further added with just applicability, Ver. 4. The stone likewise of darkness^ and the shadow of deaths the torrent divides from the people on travel.
47. What was that people of the Jews, hard by unbelief, that refused to behold by faith that Author of life, whom it foretold by prophecy, but ' a stone of darkness?' because^it proved at once hard by cruelty, and clouded by unbelief. Which same is also called by another term ' the shadow of 350 Evil men Satan's shadow. God's people piUjrims.
Job 28, death.' For a shadow is drawn such and of the same sort as _il_. the outlines were of tliat object, from which it is derived. Myst And who is designated by the name of death' but the devil.?
Of whom in a kind of mode of representation by his minister" Rev. 6, it is said, And his name was Death. Of whom that people was a shadow, because in following his wickedness, it pre- sented in itself a semblance of him. But what is named by the title of the * torrent,' save that fire that issues forth from the sight of the Awful Judge in the final Inquest, and divides the Elect and the damned } Whence too it is said by the Dan. 7, Prophet, AJleri/ and rapid stream came forth from before Him.
48. But what People is ' on travel' in this world, but that which hastening to the inheritance of the Elect knows well that it has its native country in the heavenly world, and expects that it will there find its own the more, in proportion as here it reckons all things that pass away to be unconnected with itself? Thus the ' pilgrim People' is the number of all the Elect, who accounting thislife a species of exile to themselves, pant with the whole bent of the heart after their native country Heb.il, Above; of which persons Paul saith. And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country. This pilgrim state that same Apostle also was undergoing 2 Cor.5 when he said. Knowing that, whilst we are at home in the ^- ^- body, we go pilgrims^ away from the Lord. For we walk by grina- faith, uot by sight. The woes of this pilgrim state he was pj^fj- ^ in haste to get quit of when he said. Having a desire to 23. depart and to be with Christ; and again, To me to live is ^ ' ' Christ, and to die is gain. The burthen of this pilgrimage Ps. 120, the Psalmist fislt lying heavy upon him, when he said; Woe ^' ^' is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! My soul hath been much a sojourner. From this he was panting to be extricated as speedily as possible, when in- Ps.42.2. flamed with heavenly aspirations he said, My soul thirstethfor God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God! But this desire they are strangers to, who rivet •'' 1 Ms. ap. Ben. ' by a certain §. 28, and other places where he takes signiiication of his office,' but see b. xi. this as not said of Satan himself.
Jiidtimeni severs them from the dark and hardened. 351 their heart on earthly ffratifications. For whilst they love Book...". XVIII only the things that are visible, surely the invisible things, -* even if they believe them to exist, they do not love, in that whilst they follow themselves too much with the outward following, even in the interior they become carnal. Thus both people run together in this life, but do not together attain to the life everlasting, because, the stone of darkness and the shadow of death the torrent divides from the people on travel. As if he said in plain speech, * Those whom in this present time either infidelity makes blind, or cruelty makes hard, the fiery stream that issues from before the Judge Eternal doth then sever from the People of the Elect, that thus from the company of good men the fire of the strict Inquest should part those, whom now the darkness of evil habits makes blind in their lusts.
49. Perhaps by the designation of the ' torrent,' the actual wateringof holypreaching may be understood, according to that, that is said by Solomon; The eye thatsneereth at his father and Prov. despise th the travail of his mother, lo the ravensfrom the torrents *^^' shall pick it out. For bad men, while they find fault with the judgments of God, do ' sneer at their father,' and heretics of all sorts whilst in mocking they contemn the preaching of Holy Church, and her fruitfulness, what else is this but that they ' despise the travail of their mother?' whom we not un- justly call the mother of them as well, because from the same they come forth, w^ho speak against the same, as John bears witness, who says. They went out from us, but they were not l John of us; for if they had been of its, they would no doubt have'^^ ^ ' continued with us. But ' the ravens from the torrents come,' when the true Preachers come forth for the defence of Holy Church from the streams of the Sacred Books. Which same also are rightly termed ' ravens,' because they never pride themselves on the light of their righteousness, but by the grace of humility confess in themselves the blackness of sins. Whence, too, it is spoken by the Church of Elect souls, 1 am Cant i,