it is fitly subjoined; And did hide mine iniquity in w?/j bosom. For sacred Scripture is very often used to put the ^ bosom' for the mind; as where in the voice of Holy Church it is said by the Psalmist of our persecutors, who are joined to us indeed in nature, but disjoined in life. And render nnto^s. 79, our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom. As though he said in plain speech; ' Let them receive that in their minds, which in raging against us they practise over our bodies, that whereas they punish us outwardly in part, they may themselves be punished inwardly to a complete degree.'
And so because the * bosom' is interpreted the privacy of the mind, to ' conceal iniquity in the bosom' is to hide it in the recesses of the conscience, nor to uncover it by confession, but to veil it by defence. Contrarily James says. Confess ^^mes your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ' ye mau be saved. Solomon also says, He that covereth his Prov.
574 Job confessed faults even hefore adversaries.
Job 31, sins shall not prosper, hut whoso confesseth and forsake th -TT * them shall have mercy.
33. But herein it is necessary to be known that men very often both confess their sins and are not humble. For we know many who when no man charges them confess that they are sinners, but when perhaps they are rebuked for their j sin, they seek the support of defence that they may not seem to be sinners; which persons, if, when they say the thing of their own accord, they did then with genuine humiUty see themselves to be sinners, when they are charged home by others would never deny that they are what they had con- fessed. In which case the tokens of true confession are, if when a man calls himself a sinner, he does not contradict another as well advancing that about him. For because it Prov. is written, 77?^ just man in the beginning is the accuser of ' ' himself; he does not rather aim to appear a sinner, but a just man, when any one confesses himself a sinner, no man charging him. But when another inveighs against the evil that we have done, he proves the truth of confession. Which same if we defend in a proud spirit, it is clear that it is feignedly that of ourselves we called ourselves sinners. Whence it is above every thing to be taken care of that the evil things we have done, we both confess of our own accord, and do not deny them when others charge us home with them. For it is the evil of pride that the thing which a man as if by his own act deems it meet to confess about himself, this he should disdain to have said to him by others.
34. Thus blessed Job shewed what singular humility he was of, in that he both knew that he was living amongst adversaries, and yet was not afraid to disclose his offences with the voice of confession. But observe that above he tells his virtuous qualities, lower down he confesses his sin. For hence he clearly proves what truth he had spoken of the good in him, in tliat he would not hold his tongue concern- ing the evil. One while he points out his virtues, at another time transgressions; that he had both committed sin, and had not kept it silent, he makes plain. Whence it appears without all doubt what extraordinary purity he was of in tlie sight of Almighty God, who both avoided evil things that he should not commit them, and yet what things it did chance His humilitij in confessing equals his very virtues. 575 to him to commit he did not conceal from men; so that to Boorr him there should at once be the high credit of righteousness^^ '- to have shunned sin, and the safe keeping of righteousness to have brought to light what he was not able to shun. Let this man seem to any one great in his virtues, to me without doubt he appears most grand even in his sins. Let those, who are so minded, admire in him the self-control of chastity, let them admire the faithfulness of justice, let them admire the bowels of pitifulness; I do not less admire in him the humblest confession of sins, than such lordly achievements of virtue. For I know well that through the shame of infirmity it is generally a worse conflict, to bring to light the sins we have committed, than it is to avoid them not being committed, and each instance of evil, though it may be avoided with more vigorousness, is yet brought to view with greater humility. Thus blessed Job, who whilst supported by so many great practices was not ashamed to confess his sin, shewed in the midst of his virtues, how humble he was. But because from true humility there ever springs secure authority, so that the soul should dread nothing without, in proportion as by the longing of self- elation it does not pant after the topmost height of affairs, the confession of sin having been set forth, it is rightly subjoined; Ver. 34. Did I fear a great miilfifude, or did the contempt 0/ neighbours terrify 7ne, and I did not rather keep silence, and went not out of the door?
35. It is great assuredness of heart to have nought of xvi. worldly concupiscence. For if the heart pants after attain- ing earthly things, it can never be secure and tranquil, because either things not possessed it desires, in order that it may possess them, or things obtained it is afraid for lest it should lose them, and whilst in adverse circumstances he dreads prosperous ones, so in prosperous circumstances he dreads such as are adverse, and he is tossed hither and thither as it were by a kind of waves, and is hurried about in various fashions by the changeableness of shifting affairs. But if once the mind is fixed with strong stcdfastness in the longing after the Country Above, it is less distressed by the annoyance of earthly things. For from all outward com- 576 A soiiljixed above minda not troubles below.
Job 31, motions it seeks that its aim, like a kind of most secret — ^^il_ retreat, and there attaching itself to the Unchanf^eable% and Hist mounting above all changeable things, by the mere calmness of its repose, while in the world, it is henceforth without the world. It goes beyond all things below by its stressing after the highest, and all the objects which it does not go after it feels itself by a certain liberty to get above, nor within is it subject to the tempest of things temporal, which it views without, for all earthly things which being longed after might have borne down the mind, being looked down upon Jer. 3i,lie beneath it. Whence it is well said by the Prophet, Set ^^' a look out for thyself; that whilst a man views things above, he may rise high above things beneath. Hence likewise Hab. 2, Habakkuk says, / will stand upon my watch. For he ' stands upon his watch,' who by wise policy of discipline, does not bow down beneath, but rises high above earthly desires, that while he aims at Eternity, which is ever stedfast, he should have beneath his feet every thing that passes by.
36. Yet because with whatever goodness the holy man has advanced, the infirmity of the flesh still outwardly bears Ps.39,6. him down whilst set in this life, as it is written, ThougJt man walk in the image of God^ yet he is disquieted in vain: it very often takes place that he is at once disquieted without, and holds on not subject to disquietude within, and that he is liable to be ' disquieted in vain' comes from the infirmity of the flesh, though that he ' walks in the image of God' is from the excellency of the mind, in order that he should both be inwardly strengthened by the Divine aid, and yet be still pressed down without by the human burthen. Whence Habakkuk again has well delivered a single sentence serving Hab. 3, for both particulars. For he says. And trembling entered J; into my bo?tes, and my power ^ was disquieted underneath me. As though he said; ' It is not my power, wherein being transported above, I remain free from liability to disquietude, but it is my own power wherein I am disquieted below.' And so the same is free from disquietude above himself, and the same exposed to disquietude below himself; because he had mountt^d above himself, in so far as he was '^ al. ' Unchangeably attached,' wliich liowcver would be a hyperbolical xpression.
i Man calm ichen above himself, unquiet below. 577 caudit awav to things on hidi; and he was beneath Book himself, in so far as he still dragged a remains into that-^-^^— - which is below. The same above himself is free from liability to disquietude, because he had now passed away into the contemplation of God: the same under himself is liable to be disquieted, because beneath himself he still remained a frail human being. The Prophet David accord- ing with this sentence saith; / said in the excess of mijFs.iiG, mind, All men are liars. To whom the answer may be * made; ' If every man, then thou too; and the sentence will henceforth be false, which thou being a liar hast uttered, because whilst thou art true-spoken, every man is not found out a liar.' But observe that it is prefaced, / said in the excess of my mind. And so by * excess of the mind' he transcended himself even, when he determined about the character of man. As though he said in plain speech; ^ I delivered a true sentence respecting the falseness of all men from the same cause, whereby I was myself above man;' being now so far himself a ' liar' as far as he was himself man, but so far altogether not a ' liar,' as ' by excess of the mind' he was above man.
37. Thus, therefore, thus all the perfect, though they are still subject to something disquieting from the infirmity of the flesh, yet already enjoy within the calmest privacy by the contemplation of the mind, so that whatsoever thing happens without, it should in nought disquiet them within. Whence blessed Job, exhibiting the security of a holy mind, after he had delivered so many announcements of the parts of virtue with reference to himself, following that which we have set before, added; Jf T feared at an exceeding great multitude, or the contempt of neighbours terrified me, and I did not rather keep silence, and loent not out of the door. As though he said in a plainer manner; ' While others were disquieted against me without, I myself remained in mine own self free from being disquieted within.' For what else ought we in this place to take ' the door' to be, but the mouth? For by this we as it were go forth, when with what words we are able, we disclose the secrets of our hearts; and what we remain within in the conscience, such we go forth without by the tongue.
VOL. ir. p p 578 Our Lord kept silence loHerodyWho wouldnol have learned. Job 31, 38. But there are some persons who are altogether afraid Hist.
to be despised, and lest they should chance to be judged as • contemptible, aim to appear wise. These are driven to ' go forth out of the door,' because when assailed with insults, how great in themselves they lie buried from sight, they give out telling it. And when being overcome by impatience they put forth things about themselves, which were unknown, they as it were ' go forth by the door' of the mouth. And so blessed Job being about to say, that he had never ^ gone forth out of the door of the lips,' justly set before; I kept silence; i. e. because agitated by impatience he would have gone forth out of the house of the conscience, if he had not known how to keep silence. For holy men, when they are under the trial of being perturbed, shun wholly and entirely to exhibit themselves to view, and when they cannot benefit those that hear them, they are willing by keeping silence to be even despised, lest they pride them- selves upon the exhibition of their own wisdom. And when they say any thing with good understanding, they seek not their own glory, but the life of their hearers. But when they see that they cannot by speaking gain the life of their hearers, by keeping silence they hide their own knowledge.
For we hie to the imitating the life of the Lord, as to a kind of mark set before us. For He Himself, because He saw- that Herod sought not advancement, but that he desired to wonder at His signs or His knowledge, on being asked by him held His tongue, and because He kept silence with constancy. He went forth derided by him. For it is written; Lulce23, And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad; for he was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he had heard many things of Him; and he hoped to have seen some V. 9. miracles done by Him: where it is also added; Then he questioned with Him in m,any words, but He answered him nothing. But how greatly the Lord in holding His peace was despised, is shewn when the words are brought in there V.. directly; And Herod with his men of war set Him at nought, and mocked Him. Which same transaction we ought to hear and learn, in order that as often as our hearers desire to be made acquainted with things of ours, as things to be praised, and not to alter what is wrong of their God'^s gift to be owned, His praise only to he sought. 579 own, we should altogether hold our peace; lest, if we speak Book XXII.
the Word of God with the design of display, both the fault of those persons, which then was, should not cease to be, and our own fault, which was not, should be brought to pass.
39. A person will perhaps say, ' How do we know with what feelings of the heart a man will hear?' But there arc a number of things that bring to light the mind of him who hears; first and foremost, if our hearers both aU^ays praise what they hear, and never follow the thing that they praise. This vain glory of speaking the great Preacher had shunned, w^hen he said, For we are not as many, which '^^^^v.i, corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, hut as from God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. For to ' corrupt the Word of God' is to think of Him otherwise than He is, or to seek from it not spiritual fruits, but the corrupt offspring of human praise. But ' to speak as of sincerity,' is not to seek for aught in Revelation beyond what behoves. Now he * speaks as from God,' who knows that he himself hath not from himself, but that he hath received from God what he says. And he speaks ' before God,' who in all that he speaks seeks not human regards, but minds the presence of Almighty God, and who looks for, not his own glory, but the glory of his Creator. But he who indeed knows well that he has himself received from God the thing that he speaks, and yet in speaking seeks his own glory, speaks ^ as from God,' but not ' before God,' because Him he considers as absent. Whom he does not set before his heart, when he preaches Him. But holy men at once* speak as from God' and * before God,' in that they both know that they have from Him the thing that they say, and they see that He is Himself present at their discoursings, their Judge and their Hearer. Hence it comes to pass, that whereas they know themselves to be set at nought by their neigh- bours, and that their words do not advantage the life of the persons hearing them, they hide from sight what great good- ness they are of, lest if the speech delivered disclose the secret of the heart to no purpose, it should break forth into vain glory.
40. Therefore blessed Job in the midst of stubborn hearts not aiming to shine forth by the disclosure of his virtue, 580 Christ for eshewu as concealing His Divinity.
Job 31, says, And if the contempt of neighbours terrified mc, and I did not rather keep silence, and went not out of the door.
Hist.
For he who being stedfast through humihty never feared to be despised, him never did impatience master, that the tongue should cast him forth out of doors. When it is riglitly put first. If I feared at an exceeding great multitude; that it might be seen and known what great constancy he was of, in this respect, because no number of men ever terrifies without, whom no rout of bad habits lays waste within. For in this life he who seeks nothing that has to do with pros- perity, doubtless dreads nothing that has to do with ad- versity. Myst. 41, Which same words if we carry on to a mystical mean- ing, we directly find therein the Redeemer's mode of practice. For He was not ' afraid at an exceeding great multitude,' Who smote with a single answer only His persecutors coming Johnis, with swords and staves, saying, / am He. ' Him the contempt of His neighbours did not terrify,' Who, in freeing us from eternal punishments, received strokes on the face wilh a composed mind. ' He kept silence, and did not go forth out of the door,' Who in the very hour now of His Passion, when He was undergoing the weak conditions of humanity, refused to call into action the power of Divinity. For to the Mediator between God and man it would have been ' to go forth out of the door,' if when He was held as Man He had been minded to display the power of His Majesty, and by the mightiness of His Divinity to surmount the weak conditions of the flesh taken upon Him. For that He might die manifest to man, 1 Cor. 2, He remained hidden God. For had they known it, they ^' would never have crucified the Lord of Glory, And so He did not ^ go forth out of the door,' Who even when questioned by Pilate kept silence; and in the midst of the hands of the persecutors He both offered His Body to suffering, which He had taken upon Him in behalf of the Elect, and would not display to those that were against Him W^hat He was.
Ps.88,8. Whence also it is said by the Psalmist; They have made 3Ie an abomination unto them, I was given up, and I went not forth. For when He was despised because He appeared man. He would have * gone forth,' if He had been minded to display His hidden Majesty. But because He brought infirmity to The Helper with God, whom. Job seeks, is our Lord, 581 view, and hid power from sight, herein, that He remained Book unknown to His persecutors, to those persecutors He did not — * go forth.' Who, however, does ' go forth' to the Elect, because to those that seek for it, He discloses the sweetness of His Divine Nature. Whence it is said to Him by the Prophet, Thou xventest forth for the salvation of Thy people, B.?ih. 3, that Thou mightest save Thine Anointed. It goes on: ^^' Ver. 35. Who would (jive me a helper that the Almighty might hear my desire.
42. The holy man after he related so many high achieve- xvii. ments of the virtues in him, knowing well that he cannot Hist. attain to the things on high by his own deserts, seeks for a helper. And whom verily does he fix his eye on but the Only-begotten Son of God, Who whereas He took upon Him human nature travailir.g in this mortal state, did give help? For He helped man, being made Man; that because to mere man there was no way open of returning to God, there should be made a Way of returning by means of The God- Man ^ For we were far removed from the Righteous and ' Homo- Immortal One, being mortal and unrighteous. But between the Immortal and Righteous One and ourselves the mortal and unrighteous, appeared the Mediator of God and man, mortal and righteous. Who might at once own death with mortals, and righteousness with God; that whereas by our things below we were far removed from things above. He might in Himself singly unite the things below with the things above, and that herein there might be a Way made for us of return- ing to God, in the degree that He joined ours beneath with His own on high. This One then blessed Job, in his personating of the whole Church, asks for as Mediator, who when he had said, Who would give me a helper, suitably added, that the Almighty anight hear my desii'e. For he knew that for the rest of Eternal deliverance, the prayers of man can never be heard excepting through his Advocate. Concerning Whom it is said by the Apostle John; If any one sin, we have an Advo- ^ John cate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous; and ' He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, hut for the sins of the whole world. Concerning Whom Paul likewise saith; It is Christ Jesus that died for its, yea, Rom. 8, rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right ' 582 Inward desire^ the prayer heard hy God.
Joe 'di^hand of God, Who also maketh inter cession for us* For, for Q K the Only-begotten Son to ' intercede' for man, is to shew Hist.
Himself Man in the presence of the Coeternal Father, and for Him to have besought for human nature, is to have taken upon Him that same nature in the loftiness of the Divine Nature. And so the Lord intercedes for us not with the voice but by the act of compassionating; because that which He would not should be condemned in the Elect, He set free by taking upon Himself. And so a helper is sought for, that ' the desire may be heard;* because except that the intercession of the Mediator were employed in our behalf, surely the accents of our prayers would remain silent to the ear of God.
43. Moreover it requires to be noted that it is not said, * my prayers,' but, my desire, that the Almighty might hear. For true beseeching does not lie in the accents of the lips, but in the thoughts of the heart. For the stronger accents in the deepest ears of God it is not our words that make, but our desires. For if we seek eternal life with the mouth, but yet do not desire it with the heart, in crying out we keep silence. But if we desire in the heart, even when we are silent with the mouth, in being silent we cry out. It is hence that in the wilderness the people clamour with their voices, and Moses is still to the clamouring of words, and yet whilst keeping still he is heard by the ear of divine Pity, Exod. whereas it is said, Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Thus ■^^' ^ • within in the desire is the secret cry, which does not reach to the ears of men, and yet fills the hearing of the Creator. It is hence that Anna going to the temple was silent indeed w^ith the lips, and yet uttered so many accents of her desire. Matt.6, Flence the Lord says in the Gospel, Enter into thy chamber, and iihen thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father Which is in secret, and thy Fat Iter Which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. For 'the door being shut he prays in his chamber,' who while his mouth is silent, pours forth the affection of the heart in the sight of the Pitifulness Above. And the voice is ' heard in secret,' when there is a crying out in silence by holy desires. Whence also it is rightly Ps. 10, said by the Fsalmist, The Lord hath heard the desire of the ^" poor; Thine ear hath heard the preparing of their heart.
The Judge sought, to write the Book of the new Covenant. 583 Now blessed Job in the subjoined words discloses whom he Book seeks for himself as a helper, in the * hearing of his desire,' ^^^^' saying, And that he himself who judgeth tcould write a book!
44. P^or because to the People still fearing, the Law was xviii. committed by the hands of a Servant, but upon the loving Children, the grace of the Gospel was_ bestowed by the Lord, Who as coming for our Redemption, instituted the New Covenant for us, but in examining as touching the precept of that Covenant one day cometh as Judge also, it is not requisite that by explaining it should be made clear, that He Who Judges is the Same Who writes a book. For Truth Itself says by Itself, The Father judgeth no man, but John 5, 22 hath committed all judgment unto the Son. And so He will then be the Enacter of judgment Who is now the Composer of the ' book;' that He should then demand in strictness, what He now bids in mildness. For thus we see every day that masters set children the rudiments of their letters caressing them, but exact those of them dealing hardly with them; and what they give with gentleness, they require back with the rod. For now the precepts of Divine Revelation sound gentle, but they shall be to be thought harsh in the exacting of them. Now, there is a gentle warning of One calling, but then there shall come the strict justice of the Judge, because it is certain that no whit even of the very least commandment will pass without scrutinizing. By which same it is apparent that He that * judgeth is the Same That wrote the Book,' Which same ' Book' of the New Testament, that the Redeemer of man should Himself frame in His own Person at the last, the Prophet Ezekiel rightly tells forth, saying, And behold sice men came from the way Ez.9, 2, of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writefs inkhorn at his reins. For what else is there denoted in the ' six men coming' but the six ages' of mankind? Who ' come from * St. Gregory's division of ages, Horn, meant is probably that in St. Isidore of in Ev. xix. §. 1. from Adam to Noah, Seville, Etym. lib. v. c. 39. De dis- Noah to Abraham, Abraham to Moses, cretione temporum, where two more Moses to Our Lord, and then to the divisions are made, at David, and the end, will not suit this place. What is Captivity. He compares tliese ages to 584 Christ as a Writer foreshewii to Ezekiel.
Job 31, the way of the higher gate,' because from the state of Paradise Proph —■-as from the beginning of the world, they are unwound from the upper generations. Which ' gate h)ol<s to the Nortli' in this way, because the mind of man lying open to evil, except that, abandoning the warmth of charily, it had courted the numbness of the interior, would never have gone out to this breadth of mortality. And every man a slaugliter weapon in his hand; because each particular generation being evolved by the several respective ages, before the Coming of the Redeemer, had in its practice that wherefrom it took the punishment of condemnation. And one man among them was clothed with linen. Because our Redeemer deigned to have parents even of the priestly Tribe ^ after the flesh. He is described as coming ' clothed with linen.' Or, surely, because linen is from the earth, and is not like wool produced from the corruptible flesh, seeing that He derived the covering of His Body from a Virgin mother, and not by the corruptness of copulation, therefore He came to us ' clothed with linen.' And a writer s inkhorn at his reins. In the ' reins' is the hind part of the body. And because the Lord Himself after that He died for our sakes, and rose again, and ascended up into heaven, then wrote the New Testa- ment through the Apostles, this man had an ' inkhorn