510 The at ran (J hum with <jrief of zeal when the weak fall.
Job 30, cipal metal, saying, How is the gold become dim: how is thejine colour cJianged? The frowaid, therefore, when they Lam. 4, go forth from her saeraments, very often take a place of honour amongst the children of perdition, so that the very persons should rage against Holy Church with authority, who as it were in knowing despise this Church more cruelly. And hence when he said, My skin is black, he added, upon me; because those whom she before had as it were white as to the beautifulness of righteousness, she afterwards carries ' black' the worse. But when ' the skin' is turned to ' black- ness,' the strong that are in her are consumed with jealousy of the faith. And hence he fitly subjoins; And my bones are dried up with heat. For in this wa}' in the time before too that strongest bone of Holy Church, Paul, burned with a certain dryness of weariness, when he said to some persons on their 2 Cor. fallino-: Who is weak, and I am not ireak? Who is offended, ' ' and I burn not? And so ^ the skin is made black, and the bones are dried up with heat;' because while the weak leap forth to iniquity, all the strong are tortured with the fire of their zeal. It goes on; Ver. 31. My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. xli. 78. Whereas the organ gives its sounds by means of pipes, and the harp by chords; it may be that by the ' harp' right practising is denoted, and by the ' organ' holy preach- ing. For by the pipes of an organ we not unsuitably under- stand the mouths of persons preaching, and by the cliords of the harps the bent of those living aright. Which whilst it is stretched to another life by the afflicting of the flesh, it is as I'exte- if the thin drawn ^ chord in the harp sounded in the admira- °J^^/^' tion of those beholding. For the chord is dried that it may tenta.' give a suitable note on the harp; because holy men also chasten their body, and subject it to service, and are stretched from things below to those above. Moreover it is to be considered that the chord in the harp, if it be strung too little, does not sound, if too much, it soimds harsh; because doubtless the virtue of abstinence is altogether nothing if a man does not tame his body as much as he is able; or it is very ill ordered if he wears it down more than he is able. For by abstinence the imperfections of the flesh are to be Self-discipline munt bejirrn, hut within bounds, 511 done away, and not the flesh; and every one ought to rule Book himself with such great control, that both the flesh may not — — — carry itself high for sin, and yet that it may be upheld in practice for the carrying out of righteousness. Itisasatisfixction herein to look at the great preacher, with what great skill of preceptorship the souls of behevers like chords strung on the harp, one set by stretching the more, he draws fine, another by loosening from their stretch he preserves. For to some he says; Not in rioting and d?'unkenness, not in chamber- B.om. ing and wantonness. And again he says; Mortifij therefore ^\^ ^* your members which are upon the earth. And yet to the 5. most beloved preacher he writes, saying, Drink no longer i Tim. wafer, but use a little nine, for thy stomach''s sake, and for ' thine often injirnnties. Thus those chords by drawing thin he stretches, lest by not being stretched they altogether give no sound. But this chord he abates of its stretching, lest whilst it is stretched more, the less it should sound.
79. But whether it be the holy preachers in the Church, or the simpleminded and temperate generally, as far as they are vouchsafed powers, they render to their neighbours in her the song of goodly exhortation. For both the wdse sort severally kee]) discreetly on the watch to the fruit of preach- ing, and that they ma}^ draw others to life they ply themselves with a sound of mighty persuading; and they that appear to be of slower wit within her, by the mere merit of their lives, to the extent that they see that they are able, take upon them authority of exhortation towards others, and cease not to draw to the heavenly Country those whom they are able. But Holy Church being borne down by the last per- secutions, when she sees her words to be set at nought by the children of perdition, shapes the goodness of her love to lamentations alone, because surely she bewails those whom she is not able by exhorting to draw. Let her say then, 3Iy harp also is turned to mourning, and mine organ into the voice of them that weep. As th(jugh slie avowed in plain words, saying, ' In the season of my peace, indeed, by some I preached little things after the manner of a harp, whilst by others things great and sounding after the manner of an organ; but now ' my harp is turned into mourning and mine organ into the voice of them that weep,' because whilst I see 512 The Church laments her sony of preaching.silenced.
Job 30, myself to be despised 1 mourn over those who hear not the ^^^^^ song of preaching.' Such things is Holy Church to do by certain persons in the end, these things has she already done by certain in her beginnings. For the first martyr Stephen endeavoured by preaching to benefit the Jews that persecuted him, which persons when he saw, notwithstanding, afterthe words of preaching to have flocked together to throwing Acts 7, stones, he prayed with his knees set fast, saying. Lord ^^* Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge. How then was it to him who for long had told things both small and great, but that the melody of his ' harp and of his organ' was already mute, and they were ' turned into mourning,' because those whom he had not drawn in preaching, he wept for in loving? Which same Holy Church ceases not daily to do, because she already sees that the word of preaching is almost every where become mute. For some close their mouths from speaking, others scorn to hear right things. But the mind of the Elect whilst it sees the song of preaching to be stilled, returns groaning and in silence to lamentations. Therefore let her say, My harp is turned into mourning, and mine organ into the voice of them that weep, because every elect person in proportion as the voice of holy preaching has been stilled, so much the more sorely does he bewail the woes of the Church.
Thus far blessed Job has described the evils that he under- went; but from this place he begins to relate with more par- ticularity the good things that he did. Now the words of grief we have run through by an historical and allegorica;! explanation: but the deeds of virtuous qualities we in great measure hold according to the text of the history alone, lest if we draw these to the exploring of mysteries, we should perchance appear to be making void the verity of the deed.
BOOK XXI.
The thirty-first chapter of the Book of Job is explained to verse twenty- four, exclusive, and chastity, humility, and mercifulness being first commended, many particulars are especially taught relative to the avoiding of the occasion of sin.
1. The sense of Sacred Revelation requires to be weighed i. with so exact a balancing between the text and the mystery, that the scale of either side being adjusted, this latter* neither the weight of over-curious scrutinizing should sink down, nor again the deadness of unconcern leave void. For many sentences thereof are pregnant with such a conception of allegories, that any one who strives to hold them after the history alone, is deprived of the knowledge of them by his indifference. But there are some that are so made sub- ordinate to external precepts, that if a man desires to penetrate them with greater particularity, within indeed he finds nothing, whilst even that too which they tell of without, he hides from himself.
2. Whence it is well said also in historical relation by a method of representing; And Jacob took him rods of green Gen.so^ poplar, and of the almond and plane-trees, and pilled them in strakes, and when the bark was off, where they were stripped, the white appeared, and the parts that were whole remained green; and after this manner the colour was made variegated. When it is further added. And he set them in the gutters in the watering-troughs, that when the flocks came to drink they should have the rods before their eyes, and should conceive in looking on them. And the flocks, when they conceived, looked on the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, spotted, and speckled. For what is it * * hunc,' which seems to agree with ' intellectus* referred to ' mysterium.' VOL. II. L 1 ^>14 J(tc()h\ ro(hy Scripture examples, mystic and direct.
Job 31, to set before the eyes of the cattle ' rods of green poplar, '- — and of the almond and plane-trees,' but through the course of Holy Scripture to furnish for an example to the people the lives and sentences of the Ancient Fathers, which same because by the testing of reason they are in a right line, are styled ' rods.' From which he ' peels the bark" in part, that in those which are stripped the inward whiteness may appear, and in part he keeps the bark, that just as they were outwardly, they should remain in greenness. And the colour of the rods is made pied, whereas the bark is in part stripped off, in part retained. Since before the eyes of our reflection the sentences of the foregoing Fathers are placed like pied rods, in which whereas we very often avoid the sense of the letter, we are as it were withdrawing the bark, and whereas- we very often follow the meaning of the letter, we as it were preserve the bark. And when from those same the , bark of the letter is removed, the interior whiteness of the allegory is brought to view, and when the bark is left, the green grown examples of the outward meaning are shewn. Which Jacob did well to ' set in the watering-troughs,* because our Redeemer set them in the books of the Sacred Lore by which we are inwardly watered. ' The rams mix with the sheep looking at these,' because our reasoning spirits when they are fixed in the earnest minding of those mingle themselves with the several particular actings, thai they should beget such a progeny of works as they see examples of precepts going before in words, and the progeny of good practice may have a different colour, because both sometimes, the bark of the letter being removed, it sees what is within with acuteness, and sometimes, the covering of the hisiory being preserved, it moulds itself well in the outward.
)3. For because the Divine sentences require sometimes to be explored internally, and sometimes to be viewed ^ ^„v...externally, it is said by Solomon also, He that strongly 30, 33 pYQsseth the udder for the drawing forth milk squeezeth out ^'emun-f)u iter, and he that wringeth^ violently draweth out blood, ' emul- For we ' press the udder strongly,' when we weigh with get.' minute understanding the word of Sacred Revelation, by which way of ' pressing' whilst we seek ' milk,' we find What is plain, not to he strained to mystery. 515 * butter,' because whilst we seek to be fed with but a little Book XXI. insight, we are anointed with the abundance of interior — — ^ richness. Which, nevertheless, we ought neither to do too much nor at all times, lest while milk is sought for from the udder there should follow blood. For very often persons whilst they sift the words of Sacred Revelation more than they ought, fall into a carnal apprehension. For ' he draws I forth blood, who wringeth violently.' Since that is rendered carnal which is perceived by an over-great sifting of the spirit. Whence it is requisite that the deeds of blessed Job, which he for this reason relates amidst the words of up- braiding friends, that his afflicted soul might not fall away in despair, we should examine into according to the weight of the history, lest if the mind explain these in a spiritual sense \ above what is necessary, from the udder of his words there i be blood answering us instead of milk. But if he does sometimes relate some things mystical in the relation of his works, it is necessary that the mind with quickened speed reium to these considerations, whereunto as is given to be understood the very order of the person speaking itself bids that mind. For the holy man, after he had told the things I that had been inflicted on him by the scourge of God, now by enumerating in order his own virtues makes it known what sort of person he was before the scourge, so constructing the history of his life, as to insert therein a something very rare which might be understood in an allegorical way, that both in a large proportion they should be historical facts that he records, and yet occasionally, by means of these same, he should rise up to a spiritual meaning. Thus with what strength he had bound up his exterior conduct from all falling by the training of inward safe-keeping, he tells, saying, Ver. 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes that I should not even think upon a maid.
4. Whereas the soul is invisible, it is in no degree affected ii. by the delightfulness of things corporeal, except that, being ^^st. closely attached to the body, it has the senses of that body as a kind of opening for going forth. For seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching, are a kind of ways of the mind, by which it should come forth without, and go a lust- 516 Job (juardcd the eye, to keep the soul from Insf.
Job 31, ing after the things that are without the Hmits of its suhstancc. For by those senses of the body as by a kind of windows the Hist.
soul takes a view of the several exterior objects, and on Jer. 9, viewing longs after them. For hence Jeremiah sailh; For 21 deatit is come up through our windows, and is entered into our palaces; for * death comes up by the windows and enters into the palace,' when concupiscence coming through the senses of the body enters the dwelling-place of the mind. Contrary whereunto that which we have often already said Is. 60, touching the righteous is spoken by Isaiah; WJto are they that fly as clouds, and as the doves at their windows^ For the righteous are said to fly as clouds, because they are lifted up from the defilements of earth, and they are ' as doves at their windows,' because through the senses of the body they do not regard the several objects without with the bent of rapacity, and carnal concupiscence does not carry those persons off without. But he who through these windows of the body heedlessly looks without, very often falls even against his will into the delightfulness of sin, and being fast bound by desires, he begins to will what he willed not. For the precipitate soul, whilst it does not forecast beforehand, that it should not incautiously see what it might lust after, begins afterwards with blinded eyes to desire the thing that it saw. And hence the mind of the Prophet, which being uplifted was often admitted to interior mysteries, because he beheld the wife of another without heed, being darkened afterwards joined her to him without right. But the holy man, who as a kind of judge of greatest equity is set over the senses granted him in the body, as over subject officers, sees offences before they come, and closes the windows of the body as against a plotting enemy, saying, / made a covenant with mine eyes that I should, not even think upon a maid. For that he might preserve the thoughts of the heart with chastity, he ^ made a covenant with his eyes,' lest he should first see without caution what he might afterwards love against his will. For it is very greatly that the flesh drags downwards, and the image of a shape once bound on the heart by means of the eye is with difficulty unloosed by the hand of great struggling. So then that we may not deal with things lascivious in thought we have need to take precaution; Eve Jell by unyuanled looking. The Gospel (iniiclpated. 517 because it is not befitting to look at what is not lawful to be Book lusted after. P'or that the mind may be preserved pure in - thought, the eyes must be forced away from the wantonness of their pleasure, like a kind of ravishing unto sin. For neither would Eve have touched tlie forbidden tree, except she had looked on it first witliout taking heed; since it is written, And tJte ivornan saw Ihat ilte tree was good for food ^ Gen. 3, and thai it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree delightful to ' look apon, and she took of the frait thereof and did eat. Hence, therefore, it is to be estimated with what great control we who are living a mortal life ought to restrain our sight towards forbidden objects; if the very mother of the living came to death through means of the eyes. Hence too under the voice of Judaea, who, whereas by seeing she coveted external things, parted with interior blessings, the Prophet says; Mine eye hath robbed mine heart. For by Lam. 3 lusting after things visible, she lost the invisible virtues. She,^^* then, who lost the interior fruits by the exterior sight, did by the eye of the body endure the ' robbing of the heart.' Hence by ourselves, for safely keeping purity of heart, there ought also to be preserved the disciplining of the exterior senses. For with whatever degree of excellency the mind may be enriched, with whatever amount of gravity it may be invigorated, yet the carnal senses ring outwardly with a some- thing childish, and except they were restrained by the weight of interior gravity, and as it w^ere by a sort of manly energy, they drag the soul unstrung to things loose and light.
5. Let us then see in what manner blessed Job kept in by a manly' vigour of \visdom all that the flesh might breathe ofi ' juve- in him of loose and childish. For he sa} s, / made a covenant "''^•' with mineeyen, and because he quenched not only the doing but also the thinking of lust in himself, going on he added; that I should not even think on a maid. For he knew that lust has need to be checked in the heart, he knew by the gift of the Holy Spirit that our Redeemer on His coming would go beyond the precepts of the Law, and put away from His Elect not only lustful indulgence of the flesh, but also of the heart, saying, It hath been written, Thou shall not commit Matt. 5, adultery? But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a^''^^' 518 The serpent asmils thoufjht when resisted in deed.
Job 31, woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery "Hist" ^^^^* ^'^' '^ ^'^'^ heart. For by Moses lust perpetrated, but by the Author of purity lust imagined, is condemned. For hence it is that the first Pastor of the Church says to the iPet.i,(jisciples; Wherefore gird up the loins of your 7nind, he sober, and hope perfectly in the grace that is offered to you. For to ' gird up the loins' of the flesh is to withhold lust from accomplishment, but ' to gird up the loins of the mind,' is to restrain it from the imagining thereof as well. Hence it is that the Angel who addresses John is described as being Eev. 1, ' girt above the paps with a golden girdle.' For because the purity of the New Testament puts restraint upon lust of the heart likewise, the Angel who appeared therein, came * girt' in the breast. Whom a golden girdle rightly binds, because whoever is a citizen of the country Above does not now forsake impurity from dread of punishment, but from the love of charity. Now the wickedness of lust is committed either in thought or deed. For our crafty enemy when he is driven away from, the carrying out of the deed, makes it his business to defile by secret thought. Hence too it is said to Gen. 3, the serpent by the Lord, Thou shall creep on the breast and belly. That is, * the serpent creeps with his belly,' when the gliding enemy by the human members subject to him calls lust into exercise even to the fulfilling of the deed; but ' the serpent creeps with the breast,' when those whom he cannot pollute in the deed of lust, he does pollute in the thought. Thus one man now perpetrates lust in act of doing, to this man the serpent creeps by the belly. But another man entertains it in the mind as to be committed, and to him the serpent ' creeps by the breast.' But because through the thought we are brought to the fulfilling deeds, the serpent is rightly de- scribed first as ' creeping upon the breast,' and afterwards ' upon the belly.' Hence blessed Job because he maintained discipline even in the thought, by a single guarding mastered both ' the breast and belly of the serpent,' saying, / made a covenant with mine eyes, that I should not even think on a maid. Which same purity of heart whoever does not aim at acquiring, what else does he but drive away from himself the Author of that ])urity } whence blessed Job too directly adds; God disowns the impure in thouyht. Sin is in consent. 519 Ver. 2. For what portion would God have in me from Book above, and what inheritance would the Almiyhty hate from '- on high?
6. As though he said in plain vvoicls; * If I defile my iii. mind in thought, I can never be the ' inheritance' of Him, Who is the Author of purity.' For the rest are no good things at all, if to the eyes of the secret Judge they be not approved by the testimony of chastity. For all the virtues lift themselves up in the sight of the Creator by reciprocal aid, that because one virtue without another is either none at all or the very least one, they should be mutually supported by their alliance together. For if either humility Ibrsake chastity, or chastity abandon humility, before the Author of humility and chastity, what does either a proud chastity, or a polluted humility avail to benefit us? And so that the holy man might obtain to be owned by his Maker in the remaining particulars of good, keeping purity of the heart, let him say, / made a cooeitant with mine eyes, that I should not even think on a maid. For what portion would God have in me from above, and what inheritance would the Almiyhty have from on hiyh? As though he made the confession in plain words, saying. The Creator of the things on high refuses to own me for his possession, if in His sight my mind rots in the lowest desires.
7. But herein it should be known that that is one thing which the mind meets with from the tempting of the flesh, and another thing, when by consent it is tied and bound with gratifications. For very often it is struck by wrong thinking and resists, but very often when it conceives any thing wrong, it revolves this within itself even in the way of desire. And certainly impure thought never in the least defiles the mind when it strikes it, but when it subdues the same to itself by the taking delight. Thus it is hence the great Preacher says, Jliere hath no temptation taken you i Cor. but such as is common to man. For that is * temptation ^^' ^^* common to man,' by which we are very often reached in the thought of the heart even against our will, because this, viz.
that even things forbidden sometimes occur to the mind, this assuredly we have in our own selves derived from the burthen of human nature as subject to corruption. But henceforth it o'20 Conaent withheld keeps sin front reigning.
Job 31, is devilish and not * human' temptation, when to that which ' - the corruptibility of the flesh prompts, the mind attaches Rom. 6 itself by the consent. Hence again he says, IM not sin reign ^^' in your mortal body. For he forbad not that sin should ' be' in our mortal body, but that it should * reign in our mortal body.' Because in flesh as subject to corruption it may not * reign,' but cannot help but ' be.' For this very thing to be tempted touching sin, is sin to it, which same because so long as we live, we are not perfectly and altogether without, holy preaching seeing that it could not wholly banish the same, took away from it its ' reign' from the dwelling-place of our heart, that the unlawful longing, though it very often secretly insinuate itself as a thief in our good thoughts, at all events should not, if it should even win an entrance, exercise dominion. Accordingly the holy man in saying, / made a covenant with mine eyes, that I should not even think upon a maid, would not at all be understood, that sin did not touch his mind in thought, but that it never mastered him by the consent. For he defends his soul as the most entire possession of God against the adversary's making a prey of it, who directly subjoins, ForuJiat portion icould God have in me from above, or what inheritance would the Almighty Jiave from on high? As though he said in plain words; ' In my mortal flesh indeed I am subject to the constitution of corruption; but wherein do 1 serve the Maker, if to Him I do not defend my mind whole and entire from the consent to sin-f* It goes on;