20 Job not to be lightly charged with sinful speech.

PREF. doubtless there are certain words of his rejoinders, which sound harshly to readers of little experience, for the sayings of the Saints these are unable to understand in the pious sense in which they are spoken, and because they are unskilled to make their own the feelings of the afflicted Saint, therefore it is impossible for them to interpret aright the expressions of grief, for it is a sympathy that lowers itself to his state of suffering, that knows how to estimate aright the meaning of the sufferer.

8. And so they conclude that blessed Job was a defaulter in his speech, without sufficiently considering, that if they convict the blessed Job's replies, they at the same time bear witness that God's sentence concerning him was untrue.

Job 1,8. For the Lord saith to the devil, 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

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T. 9. 10. escheweth evil? To Whom the devil presently replies, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not Thou made an hedge about him, and about his house? But put forth Thine hand now, and touch him, and see if he hath not blessed Thee to Thy face. The enemy then put forth his strength upon the blessed Job, but in doing this he entered the lists against God, and in this way blessed Job became the intermediate subject of the contest between God and the devil. Whoever then maintains that the holy man, when in the midst of the strokes, committed sin by the words which he uttered, what else doth he than reproach God, Who had pledged 1 propo- Himself for him, with having been the loser? For the same God was pleased to take upon Himself the cause of the Saint under his trial, Who both extolled him before his afflictions, and on thus extolling allowed him to undergo the trial of those scourges. If then Job is said to have gone wrong, his advocate is made out to have been foiled: though the gifts vouchsafed him alone testify, that he did not transgress at all: for who does not know that what is due to faults is not reward but chastisement? He then who merited to receive back double what he had lost, proved by this compensation that there was nought of evil, but only virtue

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said, and to this declaration too it is further PREF. he is himself the intercessor in behalf of

his guilt, friends. For one that is involved in great sins, can never, when burthened with his own, discharge another's score; he then is shewn to be clear in his own case, who could obtain for others their clearance from guilt. If however it be displeasing to any, that he is himself the relator of his own goodness, let them know that in the midst of so many losses of his substance, amidst so many wounds of the body, amidst so many deaths of his children, with the friends, who had come to comfort him, breaking out into reproaches, he was urged to despair of his life, and he whom such repeated calamities had sorely smitten, was further stricken by the insulting language of the reproachers; for these, that had come to comfort him, while they upbraided him with his unrighteousness as it seemed to them, were driving him quite to give up all hope of himself; whereas then he recalls his good deeds to mind, it is not that he lifts himself up in self applause, but sets anew' his mind to hope, 1 reforwhen as it were sunk down amid those reproaches and those strokes. For the mind is smitten with a heavy weapon of . despair, when it is both hard pressed with the tribulations of wrath from above, and galled by the reproaches of inen's tongues without. Blessed Job therefore, thus pierced with the darts of so many woes, when he now feared to be brought down by their reproaches, recalled himself to a state of confidence, by the assurance derived from his past life. He then did not thereby fall into the sin of presumption, because he resisted an inward impulse to despair by the outward expression of his own eulogies, to the end that while he recounted the good things which he had done he might be saved from despairing of the good that he had sought.

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9. But now let us follow out the actual course of his trial. iv. The enemy, full of rage, and striving to conquer the firm breast of that holy man, set up against him the engines of temptation, spoiled his substance, slew his children, smote his body, instigated his wife, and while he brought his friends to console him, urged them to the harshest upbraiding. One friend too, who was inore cruel in his reproaches, he reserved with the last and bitterest invective, that by the frequency

PREF. of the stroke, if not otherwise, the heart m by that which was ever being repeated with For because he saw that he had power in e orld, he thought to move him by the loss of his substance, and finding him unshaken, he smote him by the death of his children. But seeing that from that wound which made him childless he even gained strength to the greater magnifying of God's praise, he asked leave to smite the health of his body. Seeing moreover that by the pain of the body he

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passio-could not compass the affecting of the mind, he instigated his wife, for he saw that the city which he desired to storm was too strong; therefore by bringing upon him so many external plagues, he led an arıny as it were on the outside against him, but, when he kindled the feelings of his wife into words of mischievous persuasion, it was as though he corrupted the hearts of the citizens within. For so from external wars we are instructed how to think of those within. For an enraged enemy, that holds a city encircled by his surrounding armies, upon perceiving its fortifications to remain unshaken, * argu- betakes himself to other methods of attack, with this object, that he may corrupt the hearts of some of the citizens also within; so that, when he has led on the assailants from without, he may also have cooperators within, and that when the heat of the battle increases outside, the city being left without succour by the treachery of those within, of whose faith no doubt is felt, may become his prey.

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10. And thus a battering ram having been planted on the outside, as it were, he smote the walls of this city with blows many in number, as the several times that he brought tidings of calamities; while on the inside, he, as it were, corrupted the hearts of the citizens, when he set himself to undermine the strong bulwarks of this city by the persuasions of the wife. In this manner he brought to bear, from without, an hostile assault, from within, baneful counsels, that he might capture the city the sooner, in proportion as he troubled it both from within and from without. But because there are times when words are more poignant than wounds, he armed himself, as we have said, with the tongues of his friends. Those indeed that were of graver years, might perchance give the less pain by their words. The younger is made to take His way of meeting them. His Friends nol wicked. 23

their place, to deal that holy bosom a wound so much the PREF. sharper, the meaner was the arm that he impelled to strike blows against it. Behold the enemy mad to strike down his indomitable strength, how many the darts of temptation that he devised, see, what numberless beleaguering engines he set about him! See how many weapons of assault he let fly, but in all his mind continued undaunted, the city stood unshaken.

11. It is the aim of enemies, when they come up face to v. face, to send off some in secret, who may be so much the more free to strike a blow in the flank of the hostile force, in proportion as he that is fighting is more eagerly intent upon the enemy advancing in front. Job, therefore, being caught in the warfare of this conflict, received the losses which befel him like foes in his front; he took the words of his comforters like enemies on his flank, and in all turning round the shield of his stedfastness, he stood defended at all points, and ever on the watch, parried on all sides the swords directed against him. By his silence he marks his unconcern for the loss of his substance; the flesh, dead in his children. he bewails with composure; the flesh in his own person stricken, he endures with fortitude; the flesh in his wife suggesting mischievous persuasions, he instructeth with wisdom. In addition to all this his friends start forth into the bitterness of upbraiding, and coming to appease his grief, increase its force. Thus all the engines of temptation are turned by this holy man to the augmentation of his virtues; for by the wounds his patience is tried, and by the words his wisdom is exercised. Every where he meets the enemy with an undaunted mien, for the scourges he overcame by resolution, and the words by reasoning. But his friends, who came indeed to administer consolation, but who deviate from their purpose even to using terms of reproach, must be thought to have erred more from ignorance than wickedness. For we must never imagine that so great a man had evil-minded friends, but, while they fail to discern the cause of his scourges, they slide into a fault.

12. For of scourges there are sundry kinds; for there is the scourge whereby the sinner is stricken that he may suffer punishment without withdrawal', another whereby he' retrac

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Various ends for which troubles are sent.

PREF. is smitten, that he may be corrected; another wherewith sometimes a man is smitten, not for the correction of past misdeeds, but for the prevention of future; another which is very often inflicted, whereby neither a past transgression is corrected, nor a future one prevented, but which has this end, that when unexpected deliverance follows the stroke, the power of the Deliverer being known may be the more ardently beloved, and that while the innocent person is bruised by the blow, his patience may serve to increase the gain of his merits; for sometimes the sinner is stricken that

he may be punished, without withdrawal, as it is said to Jerem. Judæa when doomed to destruction, I have wounded thee 30, 14. with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a ver. 15. cruel one; and again, Why criest thou for thine affliction?

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2 Cor. 12, 7.

thy sorrow is incurable. Sometimes the sinner is stricken that he may be amended, as it is said to one in the Gospel, John 5, Behold, thou art made whole, sin no moré, lest a worse thing come unto thee; for the words of his deliverer indicate that it was past sins which were exacting all the violence of the pain which he had endured. In some cases the person is smitten, not for the obliteration of a past offence, but for the avoidance of a future one, which the Apostle Paul openly testifies of himself, saying, And lest I shall be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. For he who says, not 'that he was exalted,' but, 'lest he should be exalted,' clearly shews that by that stroke it is held in check that it may not take place, and that it is not a fault that has taken place now clearing away. But sometimes the person is stricken neither for past not yet for future transgression, but that the alone mightiness of the Divine power may be set forth in the cutting short of the striking; whence when it was said unto the Lord concerning

John 9, the blind man in the Gospel, Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? the Lord answered, saying, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him: in which manifestation what else is done, saving that by that scourge the excellence of his merits is increased, and while there is no past transgression wiped away, the patience may en