Chapter XII.

To prevent any one from being checked in the exercise of mercy, he shows that God cares for human actions; and proves on the evidence of Job that all wicked men are unhappy in the very abundance of their wealth.

40. But many are kept back from the duty of showing active mercy, because they suppose that God does not care about the actions of men, or that He does not know what we do in secret, and what our conscience has in view. Some again think that His judgment in no wise seems to be just; for they see that sinners have abundance of riches, that they enjoy honours, health, and children; while, on the other hand, the just live in poverty and unhonoured, they are without children, sickly in body, and often in grief.

41. That is no small point. For those three royal friends of Job declared him to be a sinner, because they saw that he, after being rich, became poor; that after having many children, he had lost them all, and that he was now covered with sores and was full of weals, and was a mass of wounds from head to foot. But holy Job made this declaration to them: “If I suffer thus because of my sins, why do the wicked live? They grow old also in riches, their seed is according to their pleasure, their children are before their eyes, their houses are prosperous; but they have no fear; there is no scourge from the Lord on them.”50    Job xxi. 7–9.

42. A faint-hearted man, seeing this, is disturbed in mind, and turns his attention away from it. Holy Job, when about to speak in the words of such a one, began thus, saying: “Bear with me, I also will speak; then laugh at me. For if I am found fault with, I am found fault with as a man. Bear, therefore, the burden of my words.”51    Job xxi. 2–4, differing, however, widely from both the Hebrew and Greek text. For I am going to say (he means) what I do not approve; but I shall utter wrong words to refute you. Or, to translate it in another way: “How now? Am I found fault with by a man?” That is: a man cannot find fault with me because I have sinned, although I deserve to be found fault with; for ye do not find fault with me on the ground of an open sin, but estimate what I deserve for my offences by the extent of my misfortunes. Thus the faint-hearted man, seeing that the wicked succeed and prosper, whilst he himself is crushed by misfortune, says to the Lord: “Depart from me, I desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.52    Job xxi. 14. What good is it that we serve Him, or what use to hasten to Him? In the hands of the wicked are all good things, but He sees not their works.”

43. Plato has been greatly praised, because in his book “on the State,”53    Plato, de Repub. II. 2. he has made the person who undertook the part of objector against justice to ask pardon for his words, of which he himself did not approve; and to say that that character was only assumed for the sake of finding out the truth and to investigate the question at issue. And Cicero so far approved of this, that he also, in his book which he wrote “on the Commonwealth,” thought something must be said against that idea.

44. How many years before these did Job live! He was the first to discover this, and to consider what excuses had to be made for this, not for the sake of decking out his eloquence, but for the sake of finding out the truth. At once he made the matter plain, stating that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their destruction will come;54    Job xxi. 17. that God, the teacher of wisdom and instruction, is not deceived, but is a judge of the truth. Therefore the blessedness of individuals must not be estimated at the value of their known wealth, but according to the voice of their conscience within them. For this, as a true and uncorrupted judge of punishments and rewards, decides between the deserts of the innocent and the guilty. The innocent man dies in the strength of his own simplicity, in the full possession of his own will; having a soul filled as it were with marrow.55    Job xxi. 24. But the sinner, though he has abundance in life, and lives in the midst of luxury, and is redolent with sweet scents, ends his life in the bitterness of his soul, and brings his last day to a close, taking with him none of those good things which he once enjoyed—carrying away nothing with him but the price of his own wickedness.56    Job xxi. Very freely used all through this section.

45. In thinking of this, deny if thou canst that a recompense is paid by divine judgment. The former feels happy in his heart, the latter wretched; that man on his own verdict is guiltless, this one a criminal; that man again is happy in leaving the world, this man grieves over it. Who can be pronounced guiltless that is not innocent in the sight of his own conscience? “Tell me,” he says, “where is the covering of his tabernacle; his token will not be found.”57    Job xxi. 28. The life of the criminal is as a dream. He has opened his eyes. His repose has departed, his enjoyment has fled. Nay, that very repose of the wicked, which even while they live is only seeming, is now in hell, for alive they go down into hell.

46. Thou seest the enjoyments of the sinner; but question his conscience. Will he not be more foul than any sepulchre? Thou beholdest his joy, thou admirest the bodily health of his children, and the amount of his wealth; but look within at the sores and wounds of his soul, the sadness of his heart. And what shall I say of his wealth, when thou readest: “For a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth”?58    S. Luke xii. 15. When thou knowest, that though he seems to thee to be rich, to himself he is poor, and in his own person refutes thy judgment? What also shall I say of the number of his children and of his freedom from pain—when he is full of grief and decides that he will have no heir, and does not wish that those who copy his ways should succeed him? For the sinner really leaves no heir. Thus the wicked man is a punishment to himself, but the upright man is a grace to himself—and to either, whether good or bad, the reward of his deeds is paid in his own person.

CAPUT XII.

Ne quis ab exercenda misericordia revocetur, ostenditur Deum curare actus hominum, et quemlibet improbum in ipsa opum affluentia miserum esse Jobi auctoritate demonstratur.

40. Sed plerique revocantur ab officio dispensatricis misericordiae, dum putant hominis actus non curare Dominum, aut nescire eum quid in occultis 0035B geramus, quid teneat nostra conscientia: aut judicium ejus nequaquam justum videri, quando peccatores divitiis abundare vident, gaudere honoribus, sanitate, liberis: contra autem, justos inopes degere, inhonoros, sine liberis, infirmos corpore, luctu frequenti.

41. Nec mediocris ea quaestio, quando quidem tres illi reges amici Job, propterea eum peccatorem pronuntiabant, quia inopem factum ex divite, orbatum liberis ex fecundo parente, perfusum ulceribus, inhorrentemque vibicibus, exaratum vulneribus a capite usque ad pedes videbant (Job. IV, 3, 11, 14 et seq.). Quibus hanc sanctus Job proponit assertionem: Si ego propter peccata mea haec patior, Cur 0035C impii vivunt? Inveteraverunt autem, et in divitiis semen eorum secundum voluntatem, filii eorum in oculis, domus ipsorum abundant, timor autem nusquam: Flagellum autem a Domino non est in ipsis (Job XXI, 7 et seq.).

42. Haec videns infirmus corde exagitatur, et studium avertit suum. Cujus dicturus sermones, ante sanctus praemisit Job, dicens: Portate me, ego autem loquar, deinde videte me. Nam et si arguor, quasi homo arguor. Portate ergo onus sermonum meorum (Ibid., 1 et seq.). Dicturus enim sum quod non probo: sed ad vos redarguendos proferam sermonis iniquos. Aut certe; quia ita est versus. Quid autem? Numquid ab homine arguor? hoc est, homo me non potest redarguere quia peccavi, etsi argui dignus sum; 0035D quia non ex evidenti culpa me arguitis, sed ex injuriis aestimatis merita delictorum. Videns ergo infirmus abundare injustos successibus prosperis, se autem alteri, dicit Domino: Discede a me, vias tuas 0036A scire nolo (Ibid., 14). Quid prodest, quia servivimus ipsi: aut quae utilitas, quia occurrimus ipsi? In manibus ipsorum omnia bona, opera autem impiorum non videt.

43. Laudatur in Platone, quod in Politia sua 13 posuit eum qui contra justitiam disputandi partes recepisset, postulare veniam dictorum quae non probaret, et veri inveniendi atque examinandae disputationis gratia, illam sibi impositam personam dicere. Quod eousque Tullius probavit, ut ipse in libris quos scripsit de Republica, in eam sententiam dicendum putaverit.

44. Quanto antiquior illis Job, qui haec primus reperit, nec eloquentiae phalerandae gratia, sed veritatis probandae, praemittenda aestimavit? Statimque 0036B ipse quaestionem enodem reddidit, subjiciens quod exstinguatur lucerna impiorum, et futura sit eorum eversio (Job. XXI, 17): non falli Deum doctorem sapientiae et disciplinae, sed esse veritatis judicem (Ibidem, 22): et ideo non secundum forensem abundantiam aestimandam beatitudinem singulorum; sed secundum interiorem conscientiam, quae innocentium et flagitiosorum merita discernit, vera atque incorrupta poenarum praemiorumque arbitra. Moritur innocens in potestate simplicitatis suae, in abundantia propriae voluntatis, sicut adipe repletam animam gerens (Ibid., 23 et seq.). At vero peccator quamvis foris abundet, deliciis diffluat, et odoribus fragret, in amaritudine animae suae vitam exigit, et ultimum diem claudit, nihil secum eorum quae 0036C epulatus fuerit, boni referens: nihil secum auferens, nisi scelerum suorum pretia.

45. Haec cogitans nega, si potes, divini esse judicii remunerationem. Ille suo affectu beatus, hic miser: ille suo judicio absolutus, hic reus: ille in exitu laetus, hic moerens. Cui absolvi potest, qui nec sibi innocens est? Dicite, inquit, mihi, ubi est protectio tabernaculorum ejus (Job XXI, 28)? Signum ejus non invenietur. Vita etenim facinorosi, ut somnium. Aperuit oculos, transivit requies ejus, evanuit delectatio: licet ipsa quae videtur, etiam dum vivunt, impiorum requies in inferno sit: viventes enim in inferna descendunt.

46. Vides convivium peccatoris, interroga conscientiam ejus. Nonne gravius omnibus fetet sepulcris? 0036D Intueris laetitiam ejus, et salubritatem miraris corporis filiorum atque opum abundantiam: introspice ulcera et vibices animae ejus, et cordis moestitudinem. Nam de opibus quid loquar, cum legeris: 0037A Quia non in abundantia est vita ejus (Luc. XII, 15): cum scias quia etsi tibi videatur dives, sibi pauper est, et tuum judicium 14 suo refellat? De multitudine quoque filiorum, et de indolentia quid loquar; cum se ipse lugeat, et sine haerede futurum judicet, cum imitatores sui successores suos esse nolit? Nulla enim haereditas peccatoris. Ergo impius ipse sibi poena est: justus autem ipse sibi gratia; et utrique aut bonorum aut malorum operum merces ex se ipso solvitur.