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Christ typified in Job as suffering without sin.

JOB 1, Gospel is witness, when He is described to be drawing near 22. to His Passion, He is said to have taken bread and given

ALLEG.

2, 22.

19.

thanks. And so He gives thanks Who is bearing the stripes of the sins of others. And He, Who did nothing worthy of strokes, blesses humbly under the infliction of them, doubtless that He might shew from hence what each man ought to do in the chastisement of his own transgressions, if He thus bears with patience the chastisement of the transgressions of others, that He might shew hence what the servant should do under correction, if He being equal gives thanks to the Father under the rod. It proceeds;

Ver. 22. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

62. That he neither sinned, nor charged God foolishly,' Peter, as we have said, above testifies of Him in plain terms,

Pet. saying, Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. For guile in the mouth is so much the more senseless folly with God, the more that in the eyes of men it passes for 1 Cot-3, crafty wisdom, as Paul bears witness, saying, The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Forasmuch then as there was no guile in His mouth, verily He said nothing foolishly. The Priests and the Rulers believed that He charged God foolishly, when, being questioned at the time of His Passion, He testified that He was the Son of God. And hence they question, saying, What further need have we of witnesses? Behold now we have heard His blasphemy. But He did not charge God foolishly, in that speaking the words of truth, even in dying He brought before the unbelievers that concerning Himself, which He soon after manifested to all the redeemed by rising again.

Matt. 26, 65.

SENSE.

MORAL 63. We have briefly gone through these particulars, regarded under the view of representing our Head. Now, as they tend to the edification of His Body, let us explain them to be considered in a moral aspect; that we may learn how that, which is described to have been done in outward deed, is acted inwardly in our mind. Now when the sons of God present themselves before God, Satan also presents himself among them, in that it very often happens that that old enemy craftily blends and unites himself with those good thoughts, which are sown in our hearts through the instrumentality of Satan walks up and down in earthly minds.

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the coming of the Holy Spirit, to disorder all that is rightly Book
conceived, and tear in pieces what is once wrongly disordered.
But He, Who created us, does not forsake us in our tempt-
ation. For our enemy, who hid himself in ambush against
us, He makes casy to be discovered by us, through the illu-
mination of His light. Wherefore He saith to him immediately,
Whence comest thou?

64. For His interrogating the crafty foe is the discovering xxxix. to us his ambush, that where we see him steal into the heart, we may watch against him with resolution and with caution.

Ver. 7. Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

terram

65. Satan's going to and fro in the earth is his exploring xl. the hearts of the carnal, and seeking diligently whence he may find grounds of accusation against them. He'goeth Vulg. round about the earth,' for he comes about the hearts of men, that he may carry off all that is good in them, that he may lodge evil in their minds, that he may heap up on that he has lodged, that he may perfect that he has heaped, that he may gain as his fellows in punishment those whom he has perfected in sin. And observe that he does not say that he has been flying through the earth, but that he has been walking up and down in it; for, in truth, he is never quick to leave whomsoever he tempts; but there where he finds a soft heart, lhe plants the foot of his wretched persuasion, so that by resting thereon, he may stamp the prints of evil practice, and by a like wickedness to his own may render reprobate all whom he is able; but in despite of him blessed Job is commended in these words;

Ver. 8. Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there ( is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

66. To him, whom Divine Inspiration makes strong to xli. ineet the enemy, God gives praise as it were in the ears of Satan; for His giving him praise is the first vouchsafing virtues, and afterwards preserving them when vouchsafed. But the old enemy is the more enraged against the righteous, the more he perceives that they are hedged around by the

10-12.

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God upholds the Elect, but inwardly.

JOB 1, favour of God's protection. And hence he rejoins, and MORAL, Says,

Ver. 10. Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not Thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

xlii.

67. As though he plainly said, 'Wherefore dost Thou extol him whom Thou stablishest with Thy protection? for man would deserve Thy praises, while Thou despisest me, if he withstood me by his own proper strength.' Hence alsò he immediately demands on man's head with evil intent, what man's Defender concedes though with a merciful design. For it is added,

xliii.

xliv.

Ver. 11. But put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath; and he will curse Thee to Thy face.

68. For when we yield plentifully the fruits of virtue, and when we are flourishing in uninterrupted prosperity, the mind is somewhat inclined to be lifted up, so as to imagine that all the excellency that she hath comes to her from herself. This same excellency, then, our old enemy with evil intent desires to lay hands on, whilst God no otherwise than in mercy allows it to be tried; that while the mind, under the force of temptation, is shaken in the good wherein it exulted, learning the powerlessness of its own frail condition, it may become the more strongly established in the hope of God's aid; and it is brought to pass by a marvellous dispensation of His Mercy, that from the same source, whence the enemy tempts the soul to destroy it, the merciful Creator gives it instruction that it may live; and hence it is rightly added,

Ver. 12. Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.

69. As if He said in plain words; ' I give thee so to try the good that is in each one of Mine Elect by temptation from without, that thou mayest acquaint thine own self that I keep him holding on to Me by the inward root of the mind; and hence it is rightly added,

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. 70. For in that he is not suffered to prevail so far as to withdraw the heart, being thus shut out from the interior, he roams without. Who, even if he very often work confusion The virtues feasted by the eldest born in us, Faith. 113

II.

in the virtues of the soul, herein does it without, in that, Book through God's withholding him, he never wounds the hearts of the good to their utter ruin. For he is permitted so far to rage against them as may be necessary, in order that they, thus instructed by temptation, may be stablished, that they may never attribute to their own strength the good which they do, nor neglect themselves in the sloth of security, loosing themselves from the bracings of fear, but that in keeping guard over their attainments they may watch with so much the greater prudence, as they see themselves to be ever confronting the enemy in the fight of temptations.

Ver. 13, 14, 15. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowiny, and the asses feeding beside them: and the Sabeans fell upon them; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

E. V.

71. In the hearts of the Elect wisdom is first engendered, xlvi. before all the graces that follow; and she comes forth as it were a first born offspring by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now this wisdom is our faith, as the Prophet testifies, saying, If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not understand'. For Is. 7, 9. then we are truly wise to understand, when we yield the assent be estaof our belief to all that our Creator says. Thus the sons are blished feasting in their eldest brother's house, when the other virtues are feasted in faith. But if this latter be not first produced in our hearts, all besides cannot be good, though it may seem to be good. The sons feast in their eldest brother's house, so long as our virtues are replenished with the good of holy writ, in the dwelling place of faith; for it is written, without faith it is impossible to please God; and so Heb.11, our virtues taste the true feasts of life, when they begin to be sustained with the mysteries of faith. The sons feast in sacratheir eldest brother's house, in that except the other virtues, filling themselves with the feast of wisdom, do wisely all that they seek to do, they can never be virtues.

72. But observe, while the good that we do is fed with the rich fare of wisdom and of faith, our enemy carries off the oxen that are plowing, and the asses feeding beside them,

6.

mentis

114 The oxen are serious thoughts toward labours of love.

Jов 1, and kills the servants with the sword. What are the oxen MORAL, plowing, except we understand our serious thoughts, which confi- while they wear the heart with diligent tillage, yield abundant fruits of increase? and what do we take to be the asses feeding beside them, but the simple emotions of the heart, which, whilst carefully withheld from straying in double ways, we feed in the free pasture of purity? But oftentimes the crafty enemy, spying out the serious thoughts of our heart, corrupts them under the cloak of that beguiling pleasure which he insinuates; and when he sees the simple emotions of the heart, he displays the subtleties and refinements of discoveries, that while we aim at praise for subtlety, we may part with the simplicity of a pure mind; and though he has not the power to draw us to a deed of sin, nevertheless by secret theft he spoils the thoughts of good things through his temptations, that while he is seen to trouble the good that is in their mind, he may seem as though he had completely made spoil of it. By the oxen ploughing may also be understood the intents of charity, whereby we endeavour to render service to others, when we desire to cleave the hardness of a brother's heart by preaching; and by the asses also, for that they never resist with a mad rage those that are loading them, may be signified the meekness of patience, and oftentimes our old enemy, seeing us anxious to benefit others by our words, plunges the mind into a certain sleepy state of inactivity, that we are not disposed to do good to others, even though our own concerns leave us at liberty. Accordingly he carries away the oxen that are ploughing, when, by insinuating sloth that causes negligence, he breaks the force of those inward purposes, which were directed to produce the fruit of a brother's welfare, and although the hearts of the Elect keep watch within the depths of their own thoughts, and, getting the better of it, take thought of the mischief, which they receive at the hands of the tempter, yet by this very circumstance, that he should prevail over the thoughts of good things though but for a moment, the malicious enemy exults in having gotten some booty.