25

The Saints shine as stars in their several virtues. gender a mighty fortitude. For which reason the same PREF. blessed Job is first extolled by the voice of the Judge, and is then given up into the haud of the Tempter, and whereas God, in recompensing him after the scourge, speaks to him in a more familiar manner, it is plainly shewn how much greater he became by the stroke; so then the friends of blessed Job, while they were unable to distinguish the different kinds of strokes, believed him to be stricken for his guiltiness, and while they endeavoured to vindicate the justice of God in smiting him, they were driven to reprove blessed Job of unrighteousness; not knowing in fact that for this reason he was stricken, viz. that the stroke might redound to the praise of God's glory, and not that by those strokes he might be brought to amend the evil, which he had never done; and hence they are the sooner restored to pardon, because they sinned from ignorance rather than from an evil disposition; and their pride the Divine Justice puts down with so much the stronger hand, as It refuses to renew them in Its favour, saving by means of him whom they had despised. For a high inind is effectually struck down when it is bowed beneath the very person over whom it has exalted itself.

dence it yields us satisfaction to mark, how, for the enlightening the night of this present life, each star in its turn appears in the face of Heaven, until that towards the end of the night the Redeemer of mankind ariseth like the true Morning Star; for the space of night, being enlightened by the stars as they set and rise in their courses, is passed with the heavens in exceeding beauty. Thus in order that the ray of stars, darting forth at its appointed time, and changed in succession, might reach the darkness of our night, Abel comes to shew us innocency; Enoch, to teach purity of practice; Noah, to win admittance for lessons of endurance in hope and in work; Abraham, to manifest obedience; Isaac, to shew an example of chastity in wedded life; Jacob, to introduce patience in labour; Joseph, for the repaying evil with the favour of a good turn; Moses, for the shewing forth of mildness; Joshua, to form us to confidence against difficulties; Job, to shew patience amid afflictions. Lo what lustrous stars see we in the sky, that the foot of practice may never stumble

26 The Church sometimes typified with her Head.

PREF. as we walk this our night's journey; since for so many Saints as God's Providence set forth to man's cognizance, He, as it were, sent just so many stars into the sky, over the darkness of erring man, till the true Morning Star should rise, Who, being the herald to us of the eternal morning, should outshine the other stars by the radiance of His Divinity.

tione

14. And all the elect, whilst by their holy living serving as His forerunners, gave promise of Him by prophesying both in deeds and words. For there never was any Saint who did not appear as His herald in figure; for it was meet that all should display that goodness in themselves whereby both all became good, and which they knew to be for the good of all, and therefore that blessing ought also to be promised

without pause which was vouchsafed both to be received

sine without price and to be kept without end, that all generations destima- might together tell what the end of all should bring to light, in the redemption of which all were partakers. And therefore it behoved that blessed Job also, who uttered those high mysteries of His Incarnation, should by his life be a sign of Him, Whom by voice he proclaimed, and by all that he underwent should shew forth what were to be His sufferings;

menta

* sacra- and should so much the more truly foretel the mysteries of His Passion, as he prophesied then not merely with his lips but also by suffering. But because our Redeemer has shewn Himself to be one with the Holy Church, which He Eph. 4, has taken to Himself; for of Him it is said, Who is the Head of us all; and of the Church it is written, the Body of Christ, Which is the Church; whosoever in his own person betokens Him, at one time designates Him in respect of the Head, at another of the Body, so as to have not only the voice of the Head, but also of the Body; and hence the

15. Col. 1,

24.

Prophet Isaiah, in giving utterance to the words of the same Isa. 61, Lord, says, He hath put upon me a mitre like unto a BrideVulg. groom, and hath decked me with jewels as a Bride. Therefore because the saine person that in the Head is the Bridegroom, iş in the Body the Bride, it follows that when, at times, any thing is spoken from the Head, there must be a turning down by degrees or even at once to the voice of the Body, and again when any thing is said that is of the Body, d Several Mss. read cælo for cælum, which gives the sense rather 'in the sky.

Job's Wife type of ill livers, his friends of heretics. 27

there must be presently a rising to the voice of the Head. PREF. Accordingly the blessed Job conveys a type of the Redeemer, Who is to come together with His own Body: and his wife who bids him curse, marks the life of the carnal, who having place within the Holy Church with unamended morals, as by their faith they are brought near to the godly, press them the more sorely by their lives, since while they cannot be shunned as being of the faithful, they are endured by the faithful as the greater harm by how much nearer home'.

1 dete

quanto

3.4.

15. But his friends, who, while acting as his counsellors, rius at the same time inveigh against him, are an express image et inteof heretics, who under shew of giving counsel, are busied in rius leading astray; and hence they address the blessed Job as though in behalf of the Lord, but yet the Lord does not commend them, that is, because all heretics, while they try to defend, only offend God. Whence they are plainly told, and that by the same holy man; I desire to reason with God; first Job 13, shewing that ye are forgers of lies, ye are followers of corrupt doctrines. According to which it appears that these by their erroneous notions stood a type of heretics, whom the holy man charges with adhering to a creed of corrupt doc-2 cultui trines. But every heretic, in this, that he is seen to defend God, is a gainsayer of His truth, according to the testimony of the Psalmist, who says, That Thou mightest still the Ps. 8,2. enemy and the defender, for he is an enemy and defender, E. V. who so preaches God as thereby to be fighting against Him. avenger

16. Now that blessed Job maintains the semblance of vii. the Redeemer to come, his very name is a proof. For Job is, if interpreted, 'grieving;' by which same grief we have set forth, either our Mediator's Passion, or the travails of Holy Church, which is harassed by the manifold toils of this present life. Moreover by the word which stands for their name his friends mark out the quality of their conduct. For Eliphas is called in the Latin tongue, 'contempt of the Lord,' and what else do heretics, than in entertaining false notions of God contemn Him by their proud conceits. Baldad is by interpretation 'Oldness alone.' And well are all heretics styled, Oldness alone,' in the things which they speak concerning God, forasmuch as it is with no right purpose but with a longing for temporal honour that they desire to appear

28

Heretics reconciled through the Church.

PREF. as preachers. For they are moved to speak not by the zeal of the new man, but by the evil principles of the old life. 'Sophar' too is rendered in the Latin language ' dissipation of the prospect,' or, 'one dissipating the prospect.' For the minds of the faithful lift themselves to the contemplation of things above; but as the words of heretics aim to prevent them in their contemplation of right objects, they do their best to ' dissipate the prospect.' Thus in the three names of Job's I casus friends, we have set forth three cases of the ruin of heretical minds. For unless they held God in contempt, they would never entertain false notions concerning Him; and unless they drew along with them a heart of oldness, they would

men

never err in the understanding of the new life; and unless

*or, of they marred the contemplations of good things, the Supreme good judgments would never condemn them with so strict a scrutiny for the guiltiness of their words. By holding God in contempt, then, they keep themselves in oldness, and by being kept in oldness, they injure the contemplation of right objects by their erring discourses.

3 See

viii.

12.

1.

17. Now because it sometimes happens that heretics being penetrated with the bountiful streams of Divine grace return to the unity of Holy Church, this is well represented in the very reconcilement of his friends. Yet blessed Job is bidden to intercede for them, because the sacrifices of heretics can never be acceptable to God, unless they be offered in their behalf by the hands of the universal Church, that by her merits they may obtain the recovery of salvation, whom they did strike before by assailing her with the darts of their words; and hence seven sacrifices are recorded to have been offered for them, for whereas in confessing they receive the Spirit of sevenfold grace, they do as it were obtain expiation by

Rer. 1, seven offerings. It is hence that in the Apocalypse of John the whole Church is represented by the number of seven Pror. 9, Churches. Hence it is said of wisdom by Solomon, Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn out her seven pillars. And thus by the very number of the sacrifices those reconciled heretics set forth what they were before, in that these are not united to the perfection of sevenfold grace, except by returning.

• Alluding to the imposition of hands at their reception.

18. But they are well described as having offered for PREF. themselves bulls and rams. For in the bull is figured the neck of pride, and in the ram, the leading of the flocks that follow. What then is it to slaughter bulls and rams in their behalf, but to put an end to their proud leading, so that they may think humbly of themselves, and not seduce the hearts of the innocent to follow after them. For they had started away from the unity of the Church with a swelling neck, and were drawing after them the weak folk like flocks following behind. Therefore let them come to blessed Job; i. e. return to the Church; and present bulls and rams to be slaughtered for a sevenfold sacrifice, and that they may be united to the universal Church, let them with the interposition of humility kill all the swelling humour wherewith their proud leadership savoured them.

vatur

19. Now by Heliu, who speaks indeed with a right ix. sense, yet runs down1 into foolish words of pride, is set forth i deria representation of every proud person. For there are many within the pale of Holy Church, that are too proud to put forward in a right manner the right sentiments, which they profess, and hence he is both rebuked with the words of God's upbraiding, and yet no sacrifices offered in his behalf, in that he is a believer indeed, yet high-minded. By the truth of his belief he is within, but by the obstacle which his pride presents he is not acceptable. Him therefore rebuke reproves, Read but sacrifice does not restore him, because he is indeed Hunc in the faith that he ought to be in, yet the Supreme Justice, old ed. charging him with things over and above what need to be, keeps him at a distance. Hence Heliu is well rendered in the Latin tongue, 'That my God,' or, 'God, the Lord.' For proud men within Holy Church, though they keep away from God by living proudly, yet acknowledge Him by believing truly. For what is it for him to say by his name, 'That my God, but to shew forth Him Whom he believed with a public avowal? Or what is it to say, 'God the Lord, but to accept Him both as God by virtue of His Divinity, and to hold Him for Man by His Incarnation?

ergo, as and Mss.

20. It is well that after the losses of his substance, after x. the death of his children, after the tortures of his wounds, after the strife and conflict of words, he is raised up again with a