Moralia in Job 1206

VERSE 10, 11. -- 'And I set a bar and doors, and I said: Hitherto shalt thou come, and shalt proceed no further; and here shalt thou break thy swelling waves.' 45. That raging sea scatters the virtues, unless they be made firm by charity. -- For what, morally, do we take by the doors but the virtues; what by the bar but the strength of charity? These doors, therefore, namely of virtuous works, the raging sea scatters, unless charity, set from the hidden part of the mind, binds them fast. But easily every good of the virtues is destroyed when the temptation of the heart bursts in, unless it be solidified by charity fixed from the inmost parts.

Whence too Paul, in his preachings, while he set certain doors of the virtues against the sea of temptation, straightway joined to those same doors, as it were, the strength of a bar, saying: 'But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection' (Col. 3:14). For charity is called the bond of perfection, because every good that is done is surely bound fast through it, lest it perish. For any work is more quickly torn away by the tempter, if it be found loosed from the bond of charity; but if the mind be bound fast by the love of God and neighbour, when the motions of temptation suggest to it any unjust things, that very love sets itself as a barrier against them, and breaks the waves of depraved persuasion by the doors of the virtues and the bar of inmost love. [Book XX.

Because therefore the Lord, through the strength of inspired charity, represses the vices springing up in the heart, He checks the onset of the rising sea by closed barriers. Anger perchance grows fierce in secret; but lest the supernal quiet be lost, the service of the tongue is withdrawn from the mind's disturbance, lest that which sounds tumultuous in the bosom of the heart go forth even to the voice. Lust is kindled in hidden thoughts; but lest the mind lose the supernal purity, it chastises those members which could serve the conceived uncleanness, lest the stench of the heart breathe forth even to the corruption of the body. Avarice goads;

but lest it lack the heavenly kingdom, content within the barriers of frugality it binds itself to its own possessions, lest it spread itself out in depraved work, and the heats of inward covetousness sweat forth even to the outward act. Pride puffs up; but lest it lose the true loftiness, each one, considering that he is dust, humbles himself from the height of self-conceived elation, striving indeed lest what he endures in the suggestion of thought should burst forth into the exercise of deed. Well therefore is it said: 'I set a bar and doors, and I said: Hitherto shalt thou come, and shalt proceed no further, and here shalt thou break thy swelling waves,' because while any elect one is both tempted by vices, and yet strives against doing the evilly suggested things, he is held as it were a sea shut in.

Which sea, though within it beats the mind with the tumultuous waves of thoughts, yet does not overpass the appointed shores of living well. Which sea indeed rears itself in some swelling, but while it dashes against the fixed deliberation of the heart, returns broken. Let blessed Job therefore, lest he ascribe to himself that he stands strongly against the storms of the heart, hear the divine voice: 'Who shut in the sea with doors, when it broke forth as issuing from the womb,' and the rest. As if it were openly said to him: In vain dost thou weigh thyself outwardly in good works, if thou considerest not Me inwardly, who in thee restrain the waves of temptation. For that thou canst bear the waves in deed, is of My power, who break the waves of temptation in the heart.

Here are expounded the twenty-two verses of chapter thirty-eight, from verse 12 to 33 inclusive; and many things are taught, especially concerning the arts and snares of Satan, concerning grace, concerning predestination, reprobation, and the hidden judgments of God.