Morals on the Book of Job (Moralia)

1. Though in a long work variableness of style ought not i. to be a matter of blame, yet lest any should censure me for change in my way of expressing myself, in the Epistle which was prefixed to these books, I gave the reasons' why I never • pi. A. brought the third part of this Work up to a likeness and^^ ' ' accordance with the others by amending it. And while these are omitted, there is this added further, that the interpretation of this same part begins from the verse in which it is said, The tabernacles of robbers have plenty, S^c. and reaches down in the handling thereof to that which is written, T/ieir Job 24, sweetness shall be through the worm, 8fc. which in fact^^' includes so much, that it is impossible all should be comprised in one volume, except it be reduced to great brevity; and so let any one that is free from other employments read the other parts tliat are given in a multiplied form, but for him, who has no time to read with diligent application, the shortness of this part may be to his mind, wherein we do not so much deliver what we have in our mind, as mark what there is to deliver. Therefore, whereas I have herein left many things such as they were received from me by word of mouth, take kindly, reader, this change of style, in that to people eating often the same meats, a difference in the mode of cooking is acceptable. But as you take the several parts to read, make it your business ever to recall to mind that original of the case which I have set fortli; how that both

Job 12, by blessed Job, who is called ' Grieving,' are denoted the -^^ — sufferings of our Lord and of His Body, i. e. the holy Church, and that his friends bear the likeness of heretics, who, as we have often said already, whilst they strive to defend, only offend God; and these, whilst they falsely abet, forcibly wound the souls of Saints. Yet not that in all which they say they are void of understanding in knowledge of the truth, but for the most part they blend what is wise with what is foolish, and the true with the false; that while they first propose somewhat on the side of truth, they may easily draw aside into falsehood. And hence too, what the friends of blessed Job utter is one while worthy of contempt, and at another time deserves admiration, which same the holy man whilst sometimes discarding he condemns it, sometimes approving admits, and turns to the account of righteousness even the very things, which, though right, are not by them rightly delivered; and so he scorns them, when they scorn his destitution, and, placed upon a dunghill in the body, he shews on how high a summit of virtue he is seated within, when he records that this life's riches are nought, which he describes to be abundantly bestowed even on the sons of perdition, saying;

Ver. 6. The tabernacles of robbers have plenty, and they provoke God with boldness; when He hath given all into their hand. ii. 2. It is easy for a man, at the time, to despise riches, when he has them, but it is hard to hold them worthless, when he lacks them. Hence it is clearly shewn, how great a contempt of earthly things was lodged in the breast of blessed Job, who then declares that all is nought which the lost enjoy in plenty, at the time when he had lost every thing. Thus he says, The tabernacles of robbers have plenty, and they provoke God with boldness; for it very commonly happens that bad men set themselves up the more against God, even the more they are enriched by His bounty contrary to their desert, and they that ought to be impelled by good gifts to better conduct, are rendered worse men by the blessings.

3. But we have to make out how they are called ' robbers,' whereas it is thereupon added, When He hath given all into

God ■permits justly^ xoliat man does tvroni/fully. iheir hands. For if they are robbers, then they took by Boo force, and there is no doubt that God is no abettor of those that use force. In what sense then does He Himself bestow^ what they that are robbers carry off by wicked means? We are to know then that what Ahnighty God in His mercy vouchsafes is one thing, and another thing what in His v>rath He suffers men to have; for that which robbers do contrary to right the Equal Dispenser no otherwise than justly permits to be done by them, that both the man who is let to rob being blinded in mind may increase his guilt, and that he who suffers from his robbing, may now in the mischief thereof be chastised for some sin, which he had been guilty of before. For look, a man taking post in the pass of a mountain lies in wait for travellers passing by; now he that is taking his journey perchance has done some wickedness at one time or another, and Almighty God requiting him his evil-doing in the present life, and giving him into the hands of the lier-in-wait, suffers him either to be spoiled of his goods, or even to be killed. And so what the robber unjustly aimed at, the same the Equitable Judge justly permitted to be done, that both the one might be repaid what he had done contrary to justice, and the other might one time or another receive the worse chastisement, by whose voluntarj' deed of atrocity Almighty God brought just vengeance for sin upon the head of another. He is cleansed that suffers the wrong: in the case of him that does the wrong guilt is accumulated; that either from the very depth of wickedness he may one day be brought back to repentance, or else be visited with eternal damiiation, aggravated in proportion as he was borne with for long in his sin. With the first He deals in mercy that he may bring his sins to an end, with the other in severity that he may greatly add thereto, unless he betake himself to repentance; in the one evil deeds are wiped away while he suffers violence, in the other they are accumulated while he offers it. Therefore it is meet and right that Almighty God suffer that to be done which He forbids to be done, that by the very same act, whereby He now awaits and bears with the unconverted for long. He may one day smite them the worse. Therefore it is rightly said, T/ie iabernacles of rohbers are in plenty, and

Jon \i,tlic>i provoke God nith boldness; tilien He qireth oil into

-■— ^— ^ their hand; for what the wicked take awav, He does Hiinself give them, Who might have withstood them in their rapine, if He liad been minded to pity them.

4. Yet this may hkewise be understood of spiritual things. For it very often happens that some have gifts of teaching vouchsafed them, yet they are svvoln with the same, and have a desire to appear great by comparison with others. And to ' provoke' Almighty God is to be lifted up amongst our neighbours on the score of His gifts. Which same also are not unjustly called 'robbers,' in that whilst they speak what they never do, they take away the words of the righteous to serve the turn of their own speech. But because those very words heavenly Grace vouchsafes to some persons, whose lives notwithstanding it leaves in a course of wickedness, in themselves they are ' robbers;' but yet the good that is theirs they have gotten from above. It goes on;

Ver. 7, 8. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fouls of the air, and they shall tell thee. Or speak to the earth, and it shall answer thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. iii. 5. What are we to understand by ' the beasts,' but men of slow parts; and what by ' the fowls of the air,' but those that are skilled in high and sublime truths? For of ' the beasts,' Ps. 68, i, e. the dull of sense, it is written; Thine animals^ shall 1 Y gQ dwell therein. And forasmuch as those, who have minds for sublime themes, soar among the words of the Redeemer, it is Mat. 13, written. So that the birds of the air come and lodge in the '^^' branches thereof. And what by ' the earth,' saving men whose taste is for earthly things.-^ Hence too it is said to the Gen. 3, first man on his forsaking the things of heaven, Dust thou ^^' art, and unto dust shalt thou return. What are we to understand by ' the fishes of the sea,' but the inquisitive ones Ps.8 8. of this world, concerning whom the Psalmist saith. The fish of the sea, that pass through the paths of the seas. Which same busy tliemsclves in large researches into things, as it were in undiscoverable floods. Now what all these teach upon being so interrogated, he adds, saying,

Ver. 9. Wlto kiioweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this ^

6. As if he said in plain terms; ' Whether you ask the Book dull of understanding, or persons full of the loftiest subjects, ". or those devoted to earthly ways, or the men busied with investigations that belong to this world, all of them ac knowledge God to be the Creator of all things, and with one consent agree about His Power, though they do not with one consent live in submission to it. For that which the righteous man speaks by his way of living too, that the unrighteous man generally is constrained to own concerning God by his voice alone, if not otherwise; and it comes to pass that evil-doers, by attesting Him, do homage to the Creator of all things. Whom by their deeds they rebel against, in that Him, Whom they have dared to fight against by their lives, they cannot deny to be the Creator of all things. Yet this same may also Lit. be understood to good purpose after the mere form of the letter alone; in that every creature, when it is looked at, as it were utters a voice of its own, bearing witness by that mere form which it has. We ask " the beasts,' or ' the fowls of the air,' ' the earth,' or ' the fish,' whilst we view them, and these answer us with one accord, that ' the Hand of the Lord hath wrought all things,' in that whilst they present their lineaments to our eyes, they bear witness that they are not from themselves. For by the mere circumstance that they are created, by the figure they present, they render as it were the voice of confession to their Creator, Who, as He created all things, likewise ordained how they should be conducted. Hence it is added,

Ver. 10. /// Whose Hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of alljlesh ofvnan.

7. For by the ' Hand' Power is denoted. Thus ' the soul v. of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind,' is in the Power of Him, from Whom it has its being, that He Himself should appoint in v/hat condition it should be. Who vouchsafed that to be, which was not. But by ' the soul of every living thing' may be denoted the life of beasts. Now Almighty God quickens the soul of beasts to the extent of the corporeal senses, but man's spirit He draws out to a spiritual understanding; and thus * in His Hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all flesh of men,' in that both in the one, He bestows this power on the soul that it should

Meanings of the tcord ' spirif.' Many senses by one brain.

Job 12, give life to the flesh, and in the other He quickens the soul -y— -^ — to this degree, that it should attain to the understanding of eternity. But we are to bear in mind that in Holy Writ ' the spirit of man' is wont to be put in two ways. For sometimes ' the spirit' is put for the soul, sometimes for spiritual agency. Thus ' the spirit' is put for the soul, as it John is wiitten of our own Head Himself, And He hoived His

» spirt- Head, and gave up His Spirit^. For if the Evangelist had

^"?' called any thing else ' the spirit' saving the soul, then surely upon that spirit departing, the soul would have remained. Moreover, the term ' spirit' is used for spiritual agency, as Ps. 104, where it is written, Who maketlt His Angels spirits, His Ministers a Jlaming jire. For Preachers are occasionally called * Angels,' i. e. ' bearers of tidings,' in Holy Writ, as Mai. 2, where it is said by the Prophet, The priest's lips keep knowledge, and they seek the law from his mouth: for he is the

"^y. An- A) I gel- of the Lord of Hosts. Thus Almighty God ' maketh His Angels spirits,' in that He changeth His Preachers into spiritual men. But in this passage, if by ' the soul of every living thing,' the mere life of the body is denoted, by the ' spirit of all flesh of man,' there is set forth the agency of a spiritual understanding. It goes on;

Ver. 11. The ear trieth trords, and the mouth of the eater savour. vi. -8, There is scarce a person that is ignorant that the five senses of our body, viz. of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching, in all their operations of perceiving and discriminating derive the power of perception and discrimination from the brain. And whereas there is but one judge that presides within, viz. the percipient faculty of the brain, yet by their proper passages he keeps five senses distinct, God causing groat marvels, so that neither the eye should hear, nor the ear see, the mouth take in scent, the nose taste, nor the hands smell; and whereas all things are determined by the one faculty of the brain, yet no one of the senses can do aught but what it received by the Creator's appointment. And so by these corporeal and external arrangements we are left to gather the interior and spiritual ones; so that by that which is o})en to the eye in us, we ought to pass on to the -necret thing that is in us, and esca})es our eyes. For we are to observe, that whereas there is one Wisdom, it dwells in Book

.... XI. one man less, in another more. To one it gives this function, to another that; and in the manner of the brain, it uses ourselves like so many senses, that though in itself it bears no dissimilitude to itself, yet by us it is ever working different and dissimilar operations, so as for this man to receive the gift of wisdom, and that the gift of knowledge; one to have kinds of tongues, and another the grace of healing.

9. But in these words wherein blessed Job saith, The ear triefh words, and the mouth of the eater savour, he seems likewise to imply something about the Elect and the damned; for the words of wisdom, which the children of perdition hear, the Elect not only hear but taste too, that that should have a savour for them in the heart, which conveys no sound to the minds of the danmed, but only to their ears. For it is one thing to hear food named only, and another thing to taste of it also; then the Elect so hear of the meat of wisdom, that they taste of it, in that what they hear is full of relish to them in their very marrow • from love; but the knowledge of i medulthe reprobate extends only to the cognizance of the sound, so ^^® that they hear indeed of \iitues, but yet from coldness of heart they know nothing what a relish they have. By which same words blessed Job condemns the inexperience of his friends, and the presumption of all that are puffed up for their learning in wisdom, in that it is one thing to know somewhat concerning God, and another to taste with the mouth of understanding the thing that is known. Therefore it is well said. Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth of the eater savour? As if it were said to the presumptuous in plain words, ' The words of instruction, which came to you only so far as to the ear, to me touch the mouth " of understanding likewise in the inward savour.' But because a weak age, even when it hath a right sense, should not spring forth with incautious haste to preach, it is rightly added;

10. For these sayings are set fast in the root of wisdom, vii. which by continuance in living, are also made strong by the practice of deeds. But because thereare many to whom at * ' Fauces,' which means the part of the mouth toward the throat.

Job 12, once longer life is given, and yet no grace of wisdom vouch- ~ — '- safed, it is further shewn with propriety on whose decision the gifts themselves depend, whilst it is added;

Ver. 13. With Him is wisdom and strength: He halh counsel aiid understanding. viii. 11. We not unfitly interpret these words of the Onlybegotten Son of the Supreme Father, so as to understand Him to be Himself ' the Wisdom and Strength of God.' For Paul also bears testimony to our interpretation, in the words, 1 Cor. Christ the Potter of God and the Wisdom of God. Who is

John 1 ever ' with Him,' in that. In the Beginning was the Word,

^' and the Word was with God, and the Word loas God. But

God 'hath counsel and understanding;' ' counsel,' in that He orders His own matters, ' understanding,' in that He knows ours. By the naming of ' counsel' may also be denoted the mere delay of secret judgment alone, as that He is sometimes slow in striking offenders, not because the sin of bad men is not seen, but that their sentence of condemnation, which is delayed for the practising of penance, may seem as if out of counsel slow to issue forth. And so what the public declaration one day reveals without, that lay hid with the Almighty Lord in counsel before the world began. It proceeds;

Ver. 14. //' He break down, there is none that can build again: if He shut up a man, there is none that can open. ix. 12. Almighty God 'breaks down' the heart of man, when He forsakes it; He ' builds it up,' when He fills it. For He does not destroy man's soul by consummation of war, but by withdrawing Himself from it; in that when it is left to itself, it wants nothing to its own ruin. Whence it commonly happens, that when the heart of the hearer, in due of his sins, is not filled with Almighty God's grace, it is in vain that he is outwardly admonished by the preacher. For every mouth that sj)eaks is but mute, if He does not utter a voice in the heart within, Who inspires the words that are admitted into the Ps. 127, ears. Hence the Prophet saith, Except the Lord build the house, they labour iti vain that build it. Hence Solomon

Eccles. saith. Consider the work of God; for who can set him right wliom He hath despised? Nor is it strange, if the preacher is not attended to by the reprobate soul, since it sometimes happens that the Lord Himselfj in the things which He speaks, is withstood by the tempers of those that withstand Book Him. For hence it is that Cain could be admonished even— -l by the voice of God, yet could not be changed, because as due to the sin of his evil heart, within God had already forsaken the soul, to which outwardly He addressed words to serve for a testimony. And it is well added, If He shut up a man, there is none that can open; in that every man, whereinsoever he does wrong, what else does he but make for himself a prison-house of his own conscience, that guiltiness of soul may oppress him even though no man accuse him without? And when by the judgment of God he is left in the blindness of his evil heart, he is as it were shut up within himself, that he may never find a place of escape, which he never deserves to find. For it often happens that there are persons who long to quit their bad practices, but because they are weighed to the ground by the burthen of them, being shut up in the prison-house of bad habit, they are unable to go forth of themselves. And there are some that anxiously desiring to visit their own offences with punishment, turn into worse offences what they reckon themselves to be doing aright; and it is brought to pass in a lamentable way, that what they take for their going out they find to be their imprisoning. Thus the reprobate Judas, Mat. 27, when he inflicted death upon himself to spite sin, was brought to the })unishment of eternal death, and repented of sin in a more heinous way than he had committed sin.

13. Therefore let it be said. If He shiitteth up a man, thereExod.4, is none that can open. For as no man withstands His ' '^' bountifulness in calling, so no one withstands His justice in forsaking; and so for God to ' shut up' is, not to open to those that are shut up; and hence it is said to Moses concerning Pharaoh, / uill liarden his heart. For God is said Gen. 27, to harden the heart in executing justice, when He does not^' soften the reprobate heart in bestowing grace. And so He ' shuts up' the man, whom He leaves in the darkness of his own practices. For Isaac desired to open this shutting upn, 26 to his first-born son, when he endeavoured to set him before ^""^ 34. his brother in blessing him. But the son whom the father desired, the Lord rejected; and him, whom the Lord desired, the lather blessed even against his will; that he, who had sold his

10 God's gifts and iiifluences renew and change man. Job 12, birthright to his bi'other for a meal, might not get the blessing of the first-born, which he had relinquished through a gluttonous appetite; who, whilst that aiming at earthly objects, following after transitory things, he desired to inherit the Heb.i2, blessing, was rejected. For he found no place for repentance^ though he aougJit it with tears; for tears have no fruit, which are spent on regretting with sighs things destined to perish. And so Isaac could not open even to his son, whom Almighty God by a just judgment shut up in the prison-house of his evil heart. It proceeds;

Ver. 15. If He icifhholdeih the -waters, all things are dried up. 1/ He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth. X. 14. If ' water' be understood of knowledge for preaching, as Prov. when it is written, The icords of a marl's mouth are as deep ' ' waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as an overflowing brook; when ' water is withheld, all is dried up,' in that if the knowledge of the preacher is withdrawn, the hearts of those that might have flourished in eternal hope, are forthwith ' dried up,' that they should remain in hopeless baiTenness, whilst, in love with transitory things, they care not to look for those which shall abide. But if by the term of ' water' the grace of the Holy Spirit is denoted, as it is said John 7, by the voice of Truth in the Gospel, He that helieveth, in Me, ^^' as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall Jlow rivers of living icater; in which place the Evangelist immediately added. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe in Him should receive; a suitable sense is laid open in these words wherein he saith, Behold He withholdeth the waters, and all things are dried up; in that if the grace of the Holy Spirit be withdrawn from the hearer's mind, the sense is at once ' dried up,' which already through hope seemed to be green in the hearer. But forasmuch as he docs not mention ' water' but ' waters,' by the plural designation, he refers to the sevenfold grace of s])iritual gifts, inasmuch as every one is filled, so to speak, with as many waters as he is re])lcnished with gifts, of which it is fitly added, Also if He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth. 15. For what is ' the earth' taken for, but the sinner, to > Lat. whom it is said in sentence, Dust^ thou arty and unto diist

Grace given turns men to contraries. 1 1 shalt thou return? Thus the earth remains immoveable Book when the sinner scorns to obey the precepts of the Lord, when he erects the neck of pride, and shuts the mind's eyes to the light of truth. But whereas it is written, His feet Hah. 3, stood, and the earth teas moved; in that when Truth isi^x!^''' rooted in the heart, the immoveableness of the mind is stirred; if the grace of the Holy Spirit, by bestowal from above, is infused according to the voice of the preacher, instantly the earth is ' overturned,' in that the obduracy of the guilty soul is changed from the stubbornness of its immobility, that it should afterwards bow down itself in weeping to the precepts of the Lord, as much as it aforetime erected the neck in swelling high against the Lord. For you may see that the earth of the human heart, when the water of God's blessing is poured upon it, afterwards gladly bears injuries, which before it outrageously inflicted; afterwards even gives its own, whereas before it even laid hands on the things of others; afterwards tortures the flesh by practising abstinence, whereas before, in the plenishing of the flesh, it let itself loose in the deadly gratifications of gross sensualities; afterwards loves its very persecutors, whereas before it refused to love even those that loved itself When, then, the human soul watered by God's bounty begins to act contrary to what was its wont, ' the earth is overturned,' in that the part is put down, which before reared itself on high, and the face is lifted upwards, which was before weighed down deeply below.

16. It seems well in illustration of this point to bring forward Paul as one among many. Who when he was on his way to Damascus armed with letters against Christ, being Acts 9, on his journey watered with the grace of the Holy Spirit, was changed on the spot Irom that bloodthirsty purpose which he had, and afterwards received those strokes in Christ's behalf, which he was journeying with the intention of inflicting upon Christians; and he who before, when living after the flesh, strove to deliver the Saints of the Lord over to death, is afterwards rejoiced to offer the sacrifice of his flesh for- the life of the Saints. Those cold-blooded purposes of cruelty are turned into the warmth of pity; and he that i Tim. aforetime was a blasphemer and a persecutor, afterwards '

Job ]2, becomes a humble and compassionate preacher. He, who accounted it great gain to him to slay Chiist in His Disciples,

Acts 9, now holds ' Christ to be his life, and to die gain;' and so when p,.1, He ' sendeth out the waters, the earth is overturned,' in that 21. the mind of Paul, the moment he received the grace of the Holy Spirit, altered the fixture of his stubbornness and cruelty. Contraiy to which the Lord utters the complaint against Hosea Ephraim, by the Prophet, saying, Ephraim is a cake under I'v.so. the ashes^ not turned. For a cake under the ashes, that hath ashes upon it, lays the cleaner side flat to the ground, and has the upper side the fouler, in proportion as it carries the ashes upon it. And so with the mind that harbours earthly thoughts, what else does it carry upon itself but a load of ashes? But if it will be ' turned,' the clean surface, which it had kept downwards, it brings back to the toj), when it has shaken off" the ashes that it had upon it. If therefore we shake off" from the mind the ashes of earthly thoughts, as it were we ' turn the cake under the ashes,' that that bent of our mind may henceforth go to the rear, which the ashes of grovelling thought before overlaid, and the clean face come to the top, that our right bent of mind may not henceforth be surcharged with the weight of earthly desire. Which we can never do, except we be bedewed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, in that when Almighty God 'sendeth out the waters, they will overturn the earth.' It proceeds; Ver. 16. With Him is slrewjth and wisdom. ^^- 17. A little above it had been said. With Him is wisdom and strength; but now it is said, IVith Him is strenrjth and wisdom. For because Almighty God, when in the mystery of pitifulness He was made Man, first gave the lesson of mildness, and afterwards at the Judgment He shews what strength He is of; it is rightly done that in the place above Wisdom is mentioned before Strength, when the thing is spoken of the Only Begotten Son of the Father, With Him is Wisdom and Sfrcng/h, But forasmuch as when He cometh to judge, He will ai)ijear in the terribleness of His power, and the damned being cast off", will manifest to His Elect in His everlasting kingdom, how He is ' the Wisdom' of the Father, it is rightly said in tl)e subsequent sentence, that with Him is first ' strength' and theu 'wisdom.' Thus in the

Wisdom before Slrcnrjth now, Streiif/th before Wisdom at last. 18

.. XI. strength; he plainly shews, that what He taught in mildness '— how to believe, in the power of the Judgment He will exhibit in terribleness. But in the subsequent words, wherein

He saith, WitJi Him is strength and wisdom; He makes it clearer than the day, that He first destroys reprobate men in the Judgniient by dint of ])ower, and afterwards shines into the souls of the Elect with the perfect light of the eternal kingdom. But because before the day of final Judgment,

He never ceases daily to judge the deeds of mortal men by

His secret awards, He comes back to that which is done in this present time, where it is added;

Ver. 16, 17. He knoueih both the deceiver and deceived, He bringeth counsellors to a foolish end, and the judges to dill n ess.

18. Whereas every man that strives to deceive his neigh- xii. bour is wicked, and ' Truth' saith to the wicked, / never '^^a. 7, knew you, depart from Me ye that work iniquity; in what sense is it said here, that ' the Lord knoweth the deceiver?' But forasmuch as God's ' knowing' sometimes means His taking cognizance, sometimes His approving. He at once knows a wicked man, in that in taking cognizance He judges him, (for He would never judge any wicked man, if He did not take cognizance of him,) and yet He does not know a wicked person, in that He does not approve his doings. And so He both knows him, in that He finds him out, and knows him not, in that He doth not acknowledge him in a likeness to His own Wisdom. As it is said of any truthful man, that he does not know falsehood, not because, when any thing false is said even by others, he is too blind to find fault with it, but this very falsehood he at once knows in the tracing out, and knows not in the affection of the heart, so as not to do that himself, which he condemns the doing of in others. And it may often happen that persons, busy in artful contrivances, spread the nets of their wickedness for another's life, and when he, in ignorance of it, is seen to be taken by the snares, perchance it is questioned whether such things are seen from above, and men wonder, why it is, if God does see them, that lie suffers them to be done. But He knoweth the deceiver and the deceived. For

Job 12/ He knoweth the deceiver,' in that generally He sees former sins of his, and by a just judgment suffers him to fall into others also. ' He knoweth the deceiver,' in that, left in the hand of his own doings, He forsaketh him, that he may be

Apoc. precipitated into worse ones, as it is written. He that is ^' ^" unjust let him be unjust still, and he that isjilthi/let him. he

^'^^j^^ that men often do evil things that they knoW; and therefore they are suffered to be ' deceived,' so as farther to fall into evil things which they know not. However, this is used to be done to the deceived sometimes for their purifying, sometimes as the beginning of vengeance.

19. He hringeth counsellors also to a foolish end, when they do any thing good even, with no good purpose, but are going after the recompensing of a temporal reward. For, if the Only-begotten Son of the Most High Father, because hereby, that He was made Man, He preached eternal truths, is therefore called the Angel of great counsel, we rightly interpret ' the counsellors,' those preachers, who furnish the ' counsel' of life to their hearers. But when any preacher preaches the truths of eternity for this, that he may acquire temporal gains, assuredly he is ' brought to a foolish end,' in that he is aiming to reach that point by laborious effort, whence he ought to have fled in uprightness of mind.

20. And it is rightly added, And the Judges to dulness. For all that are set over the examination of other men's conduct, are rightly called 'judges;' but when he that has this oversight does not diligently examine the lives of those under his authority, nor acquaint himself whom he should correct, and how, ' the judge is brought to dulness,' in that he, who should have judged things that were ill done, never finds out those things which are to be judged. It proceeds;

Ver. 18. He loose th the belt of kings, and girdeth their reins with a cord. xiii. 21. They that know how to regulate aright the motions of their members, are not unjustly called ' kings.' But when the mind is touched with pride on the grounds of that very continence, it very often happens that Almighty God, deserting its pride, suffers it to fall into uncleanness of practice. And so ' He looseth the belt of kings,' when in the case of those who seemed to regulate their members aright, ou Book account of the sin of pride he undoes the girdle of chastity. '—

Now what is meant by ' a cord,' but sin? As Solomon says. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and AeProv. 5, shall be holden with the cords of his sins. And because" ' fleshly gratification has its dominion in the ' reins,' the strict Judge of the conscience, Who ' looseth the belt of kings,' ' girdeth their reins with a cord,' that, when the girdle of chastity is undone, then the gratification of sin should have dominion over their members, so that those whom pride pollutes in secret. He may shew even publicly to be as abominable as they are. It goes on,