Job's example given to shame those in the Law, and us. 17 refused to obey. Examples are added; these very examples PREP. too we decline to follow, which we see were set forth to us by those under the Law; for because God did openly address Himself to particular persons who were placed under the Law, we regard ourselves as unconcerned with those particular precepts, to whom they were not specially addressed; wherefore to confound our shamelessness, a Gentile is handed down to be our example, that as he that is set under the Law disdains to pay obedience to the Law, he may at least be roused by comparing himself with him, who without the Law lived as by law. The Law then was given to one gone astray; but when even under the Law he still strays, he has the testimony of those brought before him, who are without the pale of the Law, that forasmuch as we would not keep to the order of our creation', we might be admonished1 condiof our duty by precepts, and because we scorned to obey the precepts, we might be shamed by examples, not, as we have said, the examples of those who had the restraint of the Law, but of those who had no law to restrain them from sin. tionis. 5. The Divine Providence has compassed us about, and cut off all excuse; all opening to man's equivocating arts is every way closed; a Gentile, one without the Law, is brought forward to confound the iniquity of those that are under the Law; which is well and summarily shewn by the Prophet, when He says, Be thou ashamed, O Zidon, saith the Isai. 23, sea; for in Sidon we have a figure of the stedfastness of1. those settled upon the foundation of the Law, and in the sea of the life of the Gentiles; accordingly, Be thou ashamed, O Zidon, saith the sea, because the life of those under the Law is convicted by the life of Gentiles, and the conduct of men in a state of religion is put to confusion by the conduct of those living in the world, so long as the first do not, even under vows, observe what they hear enjoined in precepts: the latter by their manner of life keep those ways "Yet though assaulted on all sides by a flood like this, when there raged around him a fearful storm, &c. he remained himself unmoved, seated as it were in the midst of this surge, as in a perfect calm, and no murmur escaped him: and this before the gift of grace, before that aught was de C clared concerning a resurrection. Yet 18 Virtues of the Saints brought out by tribulation. PREF. whereunto they are not in any wise bound by legal enactments. Now for the authority this book has received, we have the weighty testimony of the sacred page itself, where the Prophet Ezekiel says, that those men alone should have deliverance granted to them, viz. Noah, Daniel, and Job; nor is it without propriety, that in the midst of Hebrew lives, that of a righteous Gentile is placed in that authority which commands the reverence of men; because as our Redeemer came to redeem both Jews and Gentiles, so He was willing to be prophesied of by the lips both of Jews and I utrum-Gentiles, that He might be named by either people', Who was que po- at a future time to suffer for both. pulum 6. This man then, with all the surpassing powers whereby he was sustained, was known to his own conscience and to God; but had he not been stricken he would never have been the least known to us. For his virtue had its exercise indeed even in peaceful times, but it was by strokes that the report of his virtue was stirred up to fragrance: and he, who in repose kept within himself all that he was, when disturbed did scatter abroad the odour of his fortitude, for all to know. For as unguents, unless they be stirred, are never smelt far off, and as aromatic scents spread not their fragrance except they be burned, so the Saints in their tribulations make known all the sweetness that they have of their virtues. Mat.17, Whence it is well said in the Gospel, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove. For unless a grain of mustard seed be bruised, the extent of its virtue is never acknowledged. For without bruising 20. 2 lene it is insipid, but if it is bruised it becomes hot, and it gives out all those pungent properties that were concealed in it. Thus every good man, so long as he is not smitten, is 3 lenis regarded as insipid3, and of slight account. But if ever the grinding of persecution crush him, instantly he gives forth all the warmth of his savour, and all that before appeared to be weak or contemptible, is turned into godly fervour, and that which in peaceful times he had been glad to keep from view within his own bosom, he is driven by the force of tribulations to make known; so that the Prophet says with justice, e i.e. had they been among the Jews. Ez. 14, 14. Job's previous character. Satan's assault completes it. 19 Yet the Lord hath commanded His lovingkindness in the PREF. day time, and in the night He hath declared it; for the Ps.42,9. lovingkindness of the Lord is commanded in the day time, because the season of rest is perceived by the sense of it', Icognobut in the night it is declared,' because the gift which is received in tranquillity is made manifest in tribulation. scendo 13. iii. 7. But we ought to search out more particularly why so many strokes fell to the lot of him who maintained without blame such strict guard of the several virtues: for he had humility, as he himself even testifies, If I did despise to be Job 31, judged in the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me. He shewed hospitality, as himself describes, when he says; The stranger did not lodge Job 31, in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller. He 32. maintained a vigorous exercise of discipline, as his own words shew; The princes refrained talking, and laid their Job 29, fingers on their mouth. With that vigour he yet retained 9. mildness, according to his own confession, where he says, 25. 17. I sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, yet as one that Job 29, comforteth the mourners. In almsdeeds he cherished a bountiful spirit, as he himself intimates by saying, If 1 Job 31, have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof. Whereas then he performed all the precepts of the several virtues, one thing was wanting to him, viz. that when stricken even he should learn to render thanks: it was known that he knew how to serve God when surrounded by blessings, but it was meet that a most searching severity should put it to the test, whether even under the lash he would yet remain constant to his God, for chastisement is the test, whether when let to rest a man really loves. Him the adversary sought indeed to obtain that he might prove deficient in godliness, but obtained that deficehe might prove a proficient3 therein. The Lord in loving-3 profikindness permitted that to be done, which the devil in his ceret wickedness required; for when the enemy had got leave to have him with the purpose of destroying him, by his temptations he effected that his merits were augmented. For it is written, In all this Job sinned not with his lips. Yet Job 1, Ps. 42, 8. The Vulgate has "In die mandavit Dominus misericordiam suam et nocte canticum ejus." ret 22. 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 v. 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 Buerat • See his comment on the passage, book ii. c. 10. where he takes to Thy face,' as meaning because of Thy favour.' Job's praise of himself not uncalled for. 21 in all that he said, and to this declaration too it is further PREF. added, that he is himself the intercessor in behalf of his guilty 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, refor when 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 men'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. 1 1 mat 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 more cruel in his reproaches, he reserved with the last and bitterest invective, that by the frequency |