Moralia in Job 1341

40. How great a danger threatens from the crafty counsels of the devil. — What is designated by the bones of this Behemoth, but counsels? For just as in the bones stands the position and strength of the body, so in fraudulent counsels does all his malice raise itself up. For he presses no one by force, but slays by the craftiness of pestilent persuasion. And again, just as the marrows that irrigate the bones give them strength, so subtlety of wit, infused through the power of a spiritual nature, strengthens his counsels. But his testicles differ from his bones — that is, his suggestions from his counsels — in this: that through the former he openly instills hurtful things, but through the latter, as if counseling from good motives, he draws to a fault; through the former he overcomes by fighting, through the latter he supplants as it were by counseling.

Whence also his bones — that is, these same counsels — are well compared to pipes of brass. For pipes of brass are wont to be fitted to sonorous songs, which, applied to the ears, while they subtly play a soothing melody, draw the inward parts of the mind into the outward parts of delight; and while that which they sound to the ears is sweet, they weaken the manly vigor of the heart in the flux of pleasure. And when the hearing is drawn to delight, the sense is enervated from the state of its strength. So too his crafty counsels, while they counsel as it were with soothing provision, turn the heart aside from its strong intention; and while they resound sweet things, they incline to hurtful things.

They are, therefore, as it were pipes of brass, which, while they are willingly heard, cast down the soul from inward intention into the delight of outward life. For this Behemoth greatly strives, for the carrying out of his deception, that while he shows the counsel of his perversity as it were useful, that which he says may be able sweetly to sound, so that both by the usefulness displayed he may soothe the mind, and by the iniquity concealed he may corrupt it. 41. It is made plain by examples. By what art he persuades men to sweat after the acquiring of riches. — Which things we shall show more openly, if we lay open a few of his arguments of counsel briefly.

For behold, a certain man, content with his own possessions, has resolved to be entangled in no occupations of this world, greatly fearing to lose the comforts of his own quiet, and greatly disdaining to heap up gains together with sins. To this man the crafty enemy, coming to undermine the intention of his good devotion, supplies as it were a counsel of usefulness, saying: The things indeed that thou hast suffice for the present, but when these fail, what wilt thou do? For if after these no provision is made, those things are lacking which must at present be expended, and yet those things must be prepared which may be kept in store. That which is present can be lacking the sooner, if provident solicitude ceases to prepare that which is wanting. Can not an earthly business be carried on,

and yet in that business avoid fault, so that it may both furnish outward provisions, and yet not bend aside the inward rectitude? These things meanwhile he suggests with flattery, and apart, already in the earthly business which he provides, he conceals the snares of sin. And so his bones are as pipes of brass, because his pernicious counsels flatter their hearer with the sweetness of a counseling voice. 42. And he turns aside one who meditates renouncing the world. — Another likewise has not only resolved not to seek earthly comforts, but even to renounce all that he possesses, that in the discipleship of the heavenly Master he may exercise himself the more freely the more unencumbered he is rendered; and, forsaking the things that could weigh down their possessor, he treads them underfoot.

The insidious enemy addresses this man's heart with hidden suggestion, saying: Whence has arisen such audacity of so great rashness, that thou darest to believe that by relinquishing all things thou canst subsist? The Creator fashioned thee in one way, and thou dost dispose of thyself in another; He would have made thee stronger and more robust, if He had willed thee to follow His footsteps with the necessity of want. Do not very many both by no means desert their earthly patrimonies, and yet from these, through works of mercy, purchase the eternal goods of the supernal lot? These things he suggests with flattery, but apart, in those same things which he admonishes to retain, he deceitfully sets before the eyes of the retainer pestilent delights, that he may draw the seduced heart to outward allurements, and pervert the inward vows of perfection.

His bones, therefore, are as pipes of brass, because his deceitful counsels, while they render a flattering sound from outward things, bring in a pernicious loss from inward things. 43. Especially if a man tends toward the summit of monastic perfection. — Another, having left all things that he possessed outwardly, that he may lay hold of the order of a loftier discipleship, prepares to break his inmost wills also, so that, subjecting himself to the more upright wills of another, he may renounce to his very self not only perverse desires, but even, for the heaping up of perfection, his good vows, and observe all things that are to be done by him according to another's judgment.

The crafty enemy addresses this man the more softly, the more ardently he strives to cast him down from a loftier place, and presently, flattering with venomous suggestion, says: Oh how many wondrous things thou couldst do through thyself, if thou didst in no wise subject thyself to another's judgment! Why dost thou diminish thy progress under the zeal of improvement? Why dost thou break the good of thy intention, while thou strivest to extend it further than is needful? For what perverse things didst thou perpetrate, while thou didst use thine own will? Thou, therefore, who dost fully suffice thyself for living well, why dost thou seek another's judgment over thee? These things he intimates with flattery, but apart, in that man's own wills he prepares occasions for the exercising of pride;

and while he praises the heart for its inward rectitude, he craftily searches out where he may undermine it in depravity. His bones, therefore, are as pipes of brass, because his clandestine counsels, from the very source whence they as it were flatteringly delight the soul, thence perniciously scatter it from right intention. 44. How they strive to call men away from the offices of charity. — Another, his own wills fully broken, has already corrected many vices of the old man both by the changing of his life and by the lamentation of penance; and he is inflamed with so much the greater zeal against the sins of others, the more, being utterly dead to his very self, he is not held by his own iniquities. This man the crafty enemy — because he knows that he profits others also by the zeal of righteousness — addresses with words as it were of prosperous counsel, saying:

Why dost thou spread thyself out to caring for the things of others? Would that thou couldst grow strong to consider thine own things! Dost thou not consider that, when thou hast extended thyself to the things of others, thou art found lesser in caring for the things that are thine own? And what does it profit to wipe away the gore of another's wound, and by neglecting to spread the putrefaction of thine own? These things, while he says them as it were counseling, take away the zeal of charity, and with the sword of introduced torpor extinguish every good that could proceed from charity. For if we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 19:19; 22:39), it is fitting that we should burn with zeal against their vices even as against our own. Because, therefore, while he sweetly counsels, he renders the mind estranged from its own intention, it is rightly said: His bones are as pipes of brass.

For when through fraudulent counsels it sounds flattering to the hearer's soul, it sings as it were with a pipe of brass, that whence it soothes, thence it may deceive. But this Behemoth stirs up a far softer contest, when he exercises himself in ambush under the pretext of infirmity. But then he excites the harder temptations, when before the eyes of the one tempted he conceals the snares of iniquity under the appearance of virtue. Whence also it is rightly subjoined: