Moralia in Job 1159

Verse 3. — 'Under all the heavens he himself beholdeth, and his light is over the ends of the earth.' 35. God's providence toward the highest and the lowest things. — As though it were openly said: He who rules the highest things does not desert even the lowest, because he is so devoted to the greatest that yet this same care of governance is not hindered by the smallest. For he who is everywhere present and everywhere equal, is not unlike himself even in things unlike. He therefore equally regards all things, equally disposes all things, being present in all places, neither locally held nor varied by caring for various things. But if by 'heavens' we take the holy preachers, the Prophet bearing witness who says:

'The heavens declare the glory of God' (Psalm 18:1) — after the coming of the Holy Spirit is designated by the sound of the mouth, it is rightly added: 'Under all the heavens he himself beholdeth, and his light is over the ends of the earth.' 36. Why miracles were granted at the beginnings of the Church. — For there are some who, when they hear the wondrous works of the apostles — that, having received the Holy Spirit, they raised the dead by a word, drove demons from the possessed, removed infirmities by their shadow (Acts 5:12ff.), foretold things to come by prophesying, and preached the only-begotten Word of God, speaking in the tongue of all nations (Acts 2:4) —

because they do not now see these powers in the Church, they suspect that the supernal grace has now been withdrawn from the Church, not knowing how to weigh what is written: 'A helper in due seasons, in tribulation' (Psalm 9:10). For the holy Church needed the aids of miracles then, when the tribulation of persecution pressed her. For after she subdued the pride of unbelief, she now requires not the signs of powers, but the merits of works alone — although through many she does display even those, when opportunity demands. For it is written: 'Tongues are for a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers' (1 Corinthians 14:22). Where, then, all are believers, what cause demands that signs be shown?

Whence perhaps we may satisfy the more quickly if we recall something concerning that very apostolic dispensation. 37. Signs given not to believers, but to unbelievers. — For Paul, that eminent preacher, coming to Melita and knowing the island to be full of unbelievers, healed by his prayer the father of Publius, afflicted with dysentery and fevers (Acts 28:8); and yet to the ailing Timothy he gave the precept, saying: 'Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities' (1 Timothy 5:23).

What is it, Paul, that thou dost recall an unbelieving sick man to health by praying, yet dost care for so great a helper of the Gospel with food after the manner of a physician — unless it be that outward miracles are done for this reason, that the minds of men may be led to inward things, so that through that which is visibly shown as wondrous, those things which are more admirable and invisible may be believed? For the father of Publius was to be healed by the sign of a power, that he might revive in mind, while by the miracle he returned to health; but a miracle was not to be applied to Timothy, because he was already wholly alive within. What wonder is it, then, if, the faith having been propagated, miracles are not frequently wrought, when the apostles themselves did not work these upon certain who were already believers?

When the heavens are lifted up, therefore, the Lord beholds the lower things, because, even the highest preachers being taken away, he unceasingly cares also for the lowest things of our infirmity. And as though under the heavens, his light regards the ends of the earth, because after the sublime life of those who go before, he embraces also the manners and acts of sinners by the illumination of his grace. And although he does not now frequently work the signs of powers through the life of the faithful, yet from those same faithful he never withdraws by the power of works. His light may also be understood over the ends of the earth thus: that the preaching of supernal grace, while it gathers the nations to the faith, enclosed within itself the limits of the world. 38. The miracle of divine grace in the conversion of sinners set at the last extremity.

— Or certainly, 'the ends of the earth' are the ends of sinful men. And it often happens that very many forsake God, and spend the times of their life in carnal desires; but yet, being regarded by supernal grace, they return to God in their last extremities, they come to know what the eternal judgments are, and they punish with weeping all the things they remember to have done perversely, and show that they truly follow after these things by works of righteousness. To whom, righteousness following after, assuredly all that they before transgressed is remitted. For hence, through the spirit of prophecy, Hannah says: 'The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth' (1 Samuel 2:10), because indeed God does not judge the life gone before, when he illumines the latter deeds by the regard of his supernal mercy. Hence Moses says:

'The firstborn of an ass thou shalt exchange for a sheep' (Exodus 13:13). For by the ass is designated impurity, but by the sheep innocence. To exchange, therefore, the firstborn of an ass for a sheep, is to convert the beginnings of an impure life into the simplicity of innocence, so that after the sinner has done those things which the Lord rejected as impure, he may now, by acting, bring forth those things which he may offer to God as a sacrifice. Because, therefore, after wicked works the sinner is converted, and is at length called back from the darkness of his evil actions near the end, rightly is it now said: 'And his light is over the ends of the earth.' But that same grace which fills the mind after crimes afflicts it with grievous grief. For it brings the evils done back to memory, and shows a man how justly he is to be condemned.

Whence it comes to pass that every sin which one remembers to have committed, he pursues with daily weepings; and the more he now is able to discern what is just, so much the more ardently does he long to punish his unjust self with groanings. Whence it is aptly subjoined: