And shewn thine own prudence overmuch.
To one to whom there is right prudence it is not overmuch, because according to Paul's declaration, he seeketh not to be wise above the degree that he ought to be wise . But to whomsoever there is overmuch prudence, there is not right prudence. For whilst it is carried beyond due measure, it is made to turn off on one side or another of offence. Now they shew their prudence to be 'overmuch,' who aim to appear fuller of prudence in comparison of others; whence it very frequently happens that whilst they have not the art to be wise in moderation, they even speak things that are foolish. On account of which circumstance, the actual excess of prudence is yet further subjoined, that it should be said,
Ver. 4. Whom wouldest thou have taught? Was it not Him Who made the breathway?
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29. By the 'breathway' we live, by prudence we are wise. But it is ours first to live, and afterwards to be imbued with wisdom; because in order that we have the power to be wise, it is first brought to pass that we should have being. He, then, Who bestowed life, the same doubtless gave prudence as well. But because Bildad thought blessed Job was scourged for sin, that secret judgment of God which he should have adored in humility, he set himself with overweening temerity to penetrate to the bottom. And so that very One he preferred himself before in respect of prudence, Whose judgment without understanding it he judged. That very One he preferred himself before in prudence, from Whom he received the breathway of life, as though he were wise more than He, the very Being from Whom he had it given it him that he should be. But because blessed Job whilst bearing a type of Holy Church delivered a few things in the rebuking of proud men, who, he was not ignorant, bore a likeness of heretics, according as he said above; I desire to reason with God; first shewing that ye are forgers of lies, and followers of wrong tenets [Job 13, 3. 4.]; he suddenly lifts himself up to instruction, and in opposition to the ignorance of the highminded, he opens wide the breadth of his knowledge in sentences, saying,
Ver. 5. Lo, the giants groan under the waters.
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30. For it was fitting that by rebuking he should first beat down the swelling of earthly wisdom, and by instruction afterwards pass on to words replete with mysteries. Thus by 'giants,' either apostate Angels, or all proud men may without objection be understood. For hence it is said by the Prophet, The dead shall not live, the giants shall not rise up again . [Is. 26, 14] For whom does he call 'the dead' saving sinners, and whom does he designate 'giants' save those, who over and above take pride in sin. Now the former do 'not live,' because by sinning they have forfeited the life of righteousness; these latter too 'cannot rise up again' after death, because, after their transgression being swoln with pride, they do not have recourse to the remedies of penitence. Hence it is written again, The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead . [Prov. 21, 16] For whosoever forsakes the way of righteousness, to whose number does he join himself, saving to the number of the proud spirits? Now it is well said in opposition to the high-minded, Lo, the giants groan under the waters . As if it were expressed in plain speech; 'Wherefore on the score of knowledge should man be proud, when the abyss of ignorance keeps at the bottom the very proudest of the spirits of the Angels?'
31. But if by the name of 'the giants' the powerful ones of this world are denoted, in 'the waters' we may have the multitudes represented, as John beareth witness, who saith, The waters, which thou seest, are peoples . [Rev. 17, 15] Now against him that is filled with pride it is well spoken; Lo, the giants groan under the waters ; because all that are high and lifted up, while in this life they long to attain the highest pitch of honours, groan under the burthens of peoples. For in proportion as a man is the higher lifted up here, he is burthened with so much the heavier cares. And to those very same people in mind and thoughts he is put under, whom in dignity he is put over. And by these words it is well shewn in brief that all pride lies prostrate on the ground by the mere act by which it lifts itself up on high, so as to be the more effectually bowed down beneath all things from the same cause, that it would fain be set above all. For man when he is lifted up in high stations, bears so many in number over him, as he rules persons put beneath him. But those, that are associated with such persons, are by fellowship in their labour themselves also weighed to the ground. For together with them they likewise bear the toilsomeness of the burthen, whilst along with them they go after the gloriousness of the honour. Hence whereas he said, Lo, the giants groan under the waters; he directly added;
And they that dwell along with them.
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32. As though he said; 'Equally with them do they groan,' who by taking delight are associated to their glory. Now the very employment of worldly dignities is borne down with readier vices in proportion as it is charged with heavier cares. For would that the mind of man even at rest might be able to see and eschew sins! And so because he saw that the longed for heights of affairs cannot be administered without sins, and because it is not hidden from the wrath of God, whatsoever is committed of an unlawful kind, he fitly subjoined in pursuance;
Ver. 6. Hell is naked before Him, and destruction hath no covering.
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33. Which same Paul likewise saith, But all things are naked and opened unto His eyes . [Heb. 4, 13] But by the title of 'hell' and 'perdition' he denoted the devil and all the associates of his condemnation; but Who that One is before whom 'hell is naked,' he goes on with telling;
Ver. 7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place.
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34. By the title of the 'north,' in Holy Writ the devil is used to be designated, who with the thought to bind up the hearts of the nations with the iciness of insensibility, said , I will sit also upon the mount of the Covenant, in the sides of the north . [Is. 14, 13] And he is 'stretched over the empty place,' because he has possession of those hearts, that are not filled with the grace of the love of God. Yet is it competent to Almighty God, that even those vessels of the devil, empty of every virtue, He may fill with the gift of His grace, and deposit the solid substance of Divine fear in those persons, whom He does not see stablished by any conduct of righteousness. Hence it is fitly added;
And hangeth the earth upon nothing.
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35. For what is denoted by the title of 'earth,' saving Holy Church; who, whilst she receives the words of preaching, renders back the fruit of good works? Whereof it is said by Moses, Let the earth hear the words out of my lips, let my speech be looked for like the rain . [Deut. 32, 1. 2.] And what but the several gentile peoples are denoted by 'nothing,' of whom it is spoken by the Prophet, All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted to Him less than nothing . [Is. 40, 17] In that 'nothing,' then, is 'the earth hung suspended,' which before, being a void place, was occupied by the 'north;' because those hearts of the Gentiles became filled with the love of God, which had been aforetime weighed down by a deadness of the devil. But it may be that both by this 'empty place,' the infidelity of Judaea is denoted, and by 'the earth,' as we said, the propagation of Holy Church. Thus let the holy man look at the fall of Judaea in her perishing, and espy the privileges of the gentile world brought back to pardon, and let him say, He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing . For because the hearts of the Gentiles, being void of faith, were made subject to the devil, 'He stretched the north over the empty place;' and because, there being no merits forthcoming, (as it is said, For nothing shalt Thou save them, [Ps. 56, 7. Vulg.]) upon the Gentiles the Lord founded His Church, which same Gentiles are by the Prophet called 'nothing,' in pursuing the subject he rightly adds, And hangeth the earth upon nothing . Now in what order this thing was done, he continues in subjoining with wonderful method. For he saith,
Ver. 8. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, that they should not burst forth alike beneath.
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36. For what does he call 'the waters' in this place but knowledge; what 'clouds' but the Preachers? For that in Holy Writ 'water' may sometimes be a term used for knowledge, we have been taught by Solomon bearing witness to it, who says, The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as a flowing brook. [Prov. 18, 4] That, by water knowledge is denoted, the Prophet David bears witness, saying, Dark water in clouds of the sky , [Ps. 18, 11] i.e. secret knowledge in the Prophets, who before the Advent of the Lord, whilst, pregnant with secret sacraments, they were bearing in them boundless mysteries, to the eyes of beholders had their meaning obscured. But by the name of 'clouds,' what else is denoted in this passage but the holy Preachers, i.e. the Apostles, who being dispatched in every direction through the regions of the world, both knew how to shower in words, and to flash forth [ coruscare ] in miracles? Whom the Prophet Isaiah beholding long before, said, Who are these that fly as clouds? [Is. 60, 8] Thus because this man, filled with the spirit of prophecy, in this utterance of his voice longs that for the praise of God the rise of Holy Church may commence, he betakes himself to tell the order of her rise from the preaching of the Apostles, who took the greatest pains to preach to uninstructed people what was plain and comprehensible, not what was high and arduous. For holy knowledge, which is here set forth by the title of water, if in the same way that they drew it from the heart, so they poured it forth from the lips, by the immensity thereof they would overwhelm rather than water their hearers. Hence his knowledge being unbound within, that it should not burst forth alike beneath, in nourishing his hearers with the dropping of words, that 'cloud' spake, saying, And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat . [1 Cor. 3, 1. 2.] For who could have borne it if he that was caught up to the third heaven, that was caught into paradise, even hearing unutterable words, which it was not permitted to man to speak, had opened such unbounded depths of celestial knowledge? or what hearer's power would he not overwhelm, if all that he might have been able to draw within, as far as tongue of flesh may suffice, overflowing without the mighty flood of this water had poured forth?
37. But that uninstructed hearers might be comforted not by an inundation of knowledge, but by the tempered dropping of preaching, God tieth up the waters in the clouds, that they may not burst forth alike beneath . Because He tempers the preaching of the teachers, that so the infirmity of the hearers, being nourished by the dew of the things spoken, may be made strong. Which is well described in the Gospel by a mystical mode of representation, where it is said, Jesus entered into the boat of Peter, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land; and he sat down thus, and taught the people . [Luke 5, 3] By Peter's ship what else is denoted but the Church committed to Peter? and that the Lord may preach to the crowds flocking together out of this ship, He orders it to be 'thrust out a little from the land.' Which same he neither bids to be carried into the deep, and yet does bid that it be thrust out from the land, signifying, surely, that to uninstructed people His preachers ought not to preach either what is too deep relating to the heavenly world, nor yet what is earthly. And so 'water is bound up in the clouds,' because the knowledge of the Preachers, speaking to the minds of the frail, is forbidden to teach as much as it is able to see.