THE
BOOKS OF THE MORALS
OF
ST. GREGORY THE POPE,
OR
AN EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK OF BLESSED JOB.
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VOLUME I - THE SECOND PART.
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BOOK VII.
He explains the whole of the sixth chapter, except the three last verses, part allegorically and in part morally.
[i] [LITERAL INTERPRETATION]
1. Some men's minds are more tormented by scourges than reproaches, but some are more wounded by reproaches than by scourges. For oftentimes the tortures of speech assail us worse than any pains, and while they make us rise up in our vindication, they lay us low in impatience. Whence, that no temptation whatever might be lacking to blessed Job, not only scourges strike him from above, but the sayings of his friends in talk gall him, being sorer than scourges, that the soul of the holy man, being driven hither and thither, might, burst forth in the emotion of wrath and haughtiness, and that all the purity he had lived in might be defiled by head-strong pride of speech. But when touched by the scourges, he gave thanks, when galled with words, he answered aright, and being smitten he makes it appear how little he esteemed the well-being of the body. In speaking too he shews how, wisely he held his peace. But there were a few things mixed with his words, which, in the judgment of men, might seem to transgress the limits of patience; of which we shall take a true view, if in the examination of them we weigh well the sentence of the Most High Judge. For it was He, Who both in the first instance gave blessed Job the first place in opposition to the adversary, saying, 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? [Job 1, 8] It was He, Who after the trial rebuked his friends, saying, For ye have not spoken before Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath . It remains then, that when the mind wavers with uncertainty in the discoursings of blessed Job, it estimate their weight from the beginning, and ending of that same account. For one who was to fall could never have been commended by the Eternal Judge, nor could one who had fallen be awarded the first place. If then, when we be caught in the tempest of embarrasment, we have regard to the first and last points in this history, the vessel of the soul is as it were held fast at prow and stern by the rope of its reflections, that it be not forced on the rocks of error, and so we are not overwhelmed by any storms arising from our ignorance, if we hold to the tranquil shore of the sentence of the Most High. For, mark, he says a thing which might urge the reader's mind with no slight questioning. Yet who could dare to pronounce that not right, which sounds right in God's ears?
Chap. vi. 2, 3. Oh that my sins [so Vulg.] were throughly weighed, whereby I have deserted wrath, and the calamity that I suffer laid in the balances. It should be found heavier even as the sand of the sea.
[MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION]
2. Who else is set forth by the title of 'the balances,' but the Mediator between God and man, Who came to weigh the merit of our life, and brought down with Him both justice and loving-kindness together? But putting the greater weight in the scale of mercy, He lightened our transgressions in pardoning them. For in the hand of the Father having been made like scales of a marvellous balancing, in the one scale He hung our woe in His own Person, and in the other our sins. Now by dying He proved the woe to be of heavy weight, and by releasing it shewed the sin to be light in mercy's scale [a], Who vouchsafed this instance of grace first, that He made our punishment to be known to us. For man, being created for the contemplation of his Maker, but banished from the interior joys in justice to his deserts, gone headlong into the wofulness of a corrupt condition, undergoing the darkness of his exile, was at once subject to the punishment of his sin, and knew it not; so that he imagined his place of exile to be his home, and so rejoiced under the weight of his corrupt condition as in the liberty of a state of salvation. But He Whom man had forsaken within, having assumed a fleshly nature, came forth God without; and when He presented Himself outwardly, He restored man, who was cast forth without, to the interior life, that He might henceforth perceive his losses, that he might henceforth lament the sorrows of his blind state. Man's woe then was found to be heavy in the balance, in that the ill, which he was laid under, he only knew in his Redeemer's appearing presence. For not knowing the right, he bore with delight the darkness of his state of condemnation. But after he saw a thing for him to delight in, he likewise perceived a thing to grieve over, and what he underwent he felt was grievous, in that what he had lost was made known as sweet. Let then the holy man, thrown out of the barriers of silence by the sayings of his friend in discourse, and filled with the overflowing of the prophetic spirit, exclaim with his own voice, yea, with the voice of mankind, Oh that my sins were thoroughly weighed, whereby I have deserved wrath, and the calamity that I suffer laid in the balances together! It should be found heavier even as the sand of the sea . As if it were in plain words, 'The evil of our condition under the curse is thought light, in that it is weighed without the Redeemer's equity [ aequitate ] being as yet known, but oh that He would come, and hang in the scale of His Mercy the wofulness of this dismal exile, and instruct us what to seek back for after that exile. For if He makes known what we have lost, He shews that to be grievous which we endure.' But this same misery of our pilgrimage is fitly compared to the sand of the sea, (for the sand of the sea is forced without by the chafing of the waters,) in that man too in transgressing, because he bore the billows of temptation unsteadily, was carried out of himself from within. Now of great weight is the sand of the sea, but the calamity of man is said to be 'heavier than the sand of the sea,' for his punishment is shewn to have been hard, at the time when the sin is lightened by the merciful Judge. And because every man that owns the grace of the Redeemer, everyone that longs for a return to his Country, now that he is instructed, groans beneath the burthen of his pilgrimage; after the longing for the balances, the words are rightly subjoined;
Therefore my words are full of grief.
[iii]
3. He that loves sojourn abroad instead of his own country, knows not how to grieve even in the midst of griefs. But the words of the righteous man are full of grief, for so long as he is subject to present ills, he sighs after something else in his speech; all that he brought upon himself by sinning is set before his eyes, and that he may return to the state of blessedness, he weighs carefully the judgments whereby he is afflicted. Whence it is added,
Ver.4. For the arrows of the Almighty are in me.
[iv]
4. For by the epithet of 'arrows' sometimes the utterances of preaching, sometimes the arrows of visitation are denoted. Now the utterances of preaching are represented by 'arrows;' for in this, that they smite men's vices, they pierce the hearts of evil doers. Concerning which arrows it is said to the Redeemer at His coming, Thine arrows are sharp, O Thou Most Mighty; the people shall fall under Thee in the heart . [Ps. 45, 5. lxx.] Of Him Isaiah saith, I will send those that escape of them to the nations, into the sea, into Africa, and into Lydia, holding the arrow, into Italy, and into Greece. [Is. 66, 19] Again by 'arrows' is represented the stroke of visitation, as where Elisha bids king Joash, 'shoot an arrow,' and when he shoots, says, For thou shalt smite the Syrians, till thou hast consumed them . [2 Kings 13, 17] Whereas then the holy man surveys the sorrows of his pilgrimage, because he groans under the strokes of the visitation of the Lord, let him say, Therefore my words are filled with grief. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me . As though he said in plain words, 'I being under curse of exile have no joy, but as laid under the Judgment, I am full of pain, for I see and know the force of the stroke.' But there are a great number that are chastised with tortures, but not amended. Contrary to which it is fitly subjoined,
The indignation whereof drinketh up my spirit.
[v]
5. For what else is the 'spirit of man,' but the spirit of pride? Now 'the arrows of the Lord drink up the spirit of man,' when the awards of heavenly visitation keep back the chastened soul from self-elation. 'The arrows of the Lord drink up the spirit of man,' in that, when he is intent upon outward things, they draw him within. For the spirit of David was drunk up when he said, When my spirit failed within me, Thou knewest my ways . [Ps. 142, 3] And again, My soul refused to be comforted, I remembered God and was troubled, I complained and my spirit failed . Therefore 'the indignation of the arrows drinketh up the spirit' of the righteous, for the decrees from above, in wounding, work a change in the Elect, whom they find in any sins; so that the soul being pierced, quits its hardness or heart, and the blood of confession runs down from the wound that brings health. For they consider whence and whereunto they have been cast down, they consider from how high bliss they have fallen, and to what miseries of their corrupt condition, and they not only groan in the midst of the things which they are suffering, but furthermore dread that which the strict Judge threatens sinners with concerning the fires of hell. Whence the words are rightly subjoined;