[XI.] And what sort of rebuke is this,—which, moreover, is understood to proceed from the person of Christ our Lord? He re-counts to him all the divine operations of His power, rebuking him under this idea,—that He seems to say to him, “Canst thou effect all these mighty works as I can?” But to what purpose is all this but that Job might understand (for this instruction was divinely inspired into him, that he might foreknow Christ’s coming to suffer),—that he might understand how patiently he ought to endure all that he went through, since Christ, although, when He became man for us, He was absolutely without sin, and although as God He possessed so great power, did for all that by no means refuse to obey even to the suffering of death? When Job understood this with a purer intensity of heart, he added to his own answer these words: “I used before now to hear of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but behold now mine eye seeth Thee: therefore I abhor myself and melt away, and account myself but dust and ashes.”315    Job xlii. 5, 6. Why was he thus so deeply displeased with himself? God’s work, in that he was man, could not rightly have given him displeasure, since it is even said to God Himself, “Despise not Thou the work of Thine own hands.”316    Ps. cxxxviii. 8. It was indeed in view of that righteousness, in which he had discovered his own unrighteousness,317    Qua se noverat injustum. Several Mss. have justum [q. d. “had discovered what his own righteousness was,”—i.e. nothing]. that he abhorred himself and melted away, and deemed himself dust and ashes,—beholding, as he did in his mind, the righteousness of Christ, in whom there could not possibly be any sin, not only in respect of His divinity, but also of His soul and His flesh. It was also in view of this righteousness which is of God that the Apostle Paul, although as “touching the righteousness which is of the law he was blameless,” yet “counted all things” not only as loss, but even as dung. 318    Phil. iii. 6–8.

CAPUT XI.

Job praevidit Christum ad passionem venturum. Humilitatis ratio in perfectis. Et ipsa increpatio qualis est, quae ex Domini Christi persona intelligitur? Enumerat illi divina opera potestatis suae sub hac sententia increpans, ut eum dicere appareat: Numquid potes haec tanta quae possum? Quo autem pertinet, nisi ut intelligat Job (etiam hoc ei divinitus inspiratum, ut praesciret Christum ad passionem esse venturum): intelligat ergo quam debet aequo animo tolerare quae pertulit, si Christus in quo peccatum, cum propter nos homo factus esset, omnino nullum fuit, et in quo Deo tanta potentia est, nequaquam tamen passionis obedientiam recusavit? Quod puriore cordis intentione Job intelligens responsioni suae addidit, Auris auditu audiebam te prius , et nunc ecce oculus meus videt te: ideo vituperavi me ipsum, et distabui, et aestimavi me ipsum terram et cinerem (Id. XLII, 5, 6). Quare sibi ita in hoc tam magno intellectu displicuit? Neque enim opus Dei, quo erat homo, recte illi poterat displicere; cum etiam ipsi Deo dicatur, Opera manuum tuarum ne despexeris (Psal. CXXXVII, 8). Sed profecto secundum illam justitiam qua se noverat justum , se vituperavit atque distabuit, aestimavitque se terram et cinerem; mente conspiciens Christi justitiam, in cujus non tantum divinitate, sed nec in anima nec in carne ullum potuit esse peccatum: secundum quam justitiam quae ex Deo est, etiam Paulus apostolus illud suum quod secundum justitiam quae ex lege est, fuit sine querela non solum, damna, verum etiam stercora existimavit (Philipp. III, 6-8).