Moralia in Job 1373

51. Covered with scales, the reprobate resist the darts of truth. — It is reported that the dragon's body is covered with scales, that it may not too quickly be penetrated by casting of weapons. So the whole body of the devil, that is, the multitude of the reprobate, when it is reproved for its iniquity, strives to excuse itself with whatever tergiversations it can, and casts up, as it were, certain scales of defence, that the arrow of truth may not be able to pierce through. For whosoever, when he is reproved, seeks rather to excuse his sin than to bewail it, is as it were covered with scales, while he is darted at by holy preachers with the sword of the word. He has scales, and therefore the arrow of the word has no way of passing through to his heart. For it is repelled by carnal hardness, lest the spiritual sword be fixed in him. 52.

The heart of Saul, hardened by these scales, lay open to the arrows of grace. — By carnal wisdom Saul had hardened himself against God, when no arrow of evangelical preaching penetrated his heart. But after he was struck by a mighty rebuke from heaven, and blinded by the supernal regard (that indeed he might receive light, he lost it), coming to Ananias he is enlightened. In which enlightenment, because he lacked the hardness of his defences, it is well written of him: There fell as it were scales from his eyes (Acts 9:18). For the hardness of the carnal covering had pressed upon him, and therefore he did not see the rays of the true light. But after his proud resistances were overcome, the scales of his defences fell.

Which scales indeed fell from the eyes of his body under the hands of Ananias, but already before had fallen from the eyes of his heart under the divine rebuke. For when, pierced by the dart of the lofty invective, he lay prostrate, with heart now humbled and penetrated he inquired, saying: Lord, what wouldest Thou have me to do? (Acts 9:6). The scales being repelled, the arrow of truth had now reached to the inmost parts of his heart, when, laying aside the elation of pride, confessing Him whom he had assailed to be the Lord, not knowing what he should do, he inquired. It is pleasing to behold where that savage persecutor is, where the ravening wolf. Behold, he is now turned into a sheep, who asks the path of the Shepherd which he is to follow. And it is to be noted that when he said: Who art Thou, Lord? (Acts 22:8),

it is not answered him by the Lord: I am the only-begotten of the Father, I am the beginning, I am the Word before the ages. For because Saul scorned to believe the Lord to have been incarnate, and had despised the infirmities of His humanity, from heaven he heard that which he had scorned: I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest (Ibid., 8). As if He said: Hear this of Me from things above, which in Me thou despisest of things below. Thou hadst scorned that the Author of heaven had come upon earth; from the earth therefore acknowledge from heaven the Man, that thou mayest so much the more fear in Me the mysteries of infirmity, by how much thou provest even these, when brought into the heavenly places, to belong to the excellence of power. Prostrating thyself therefore, by no means allege to thyself this, that before the ages I am God;

But you hear from a plague-stricken man that which you disdain to believe of me. For after he had said 'Jesus,' to express further His earthly dwelling he added 'the Nazarene'; as if it were said more openly: 'Receive the weakness of my humility, and shed the scales of your pride.' 63. In hypocrites these scales are the harder. Malicious minds are like hedgehogs. — Yet it must be known that these scales of self-defence, although they cover well-nigh the whole human race, nevertheless especially grip the minds of hypocrites and of crafty men. For these shrink from confessing their faults the more vehemently, the more foolishly they blush to be seen as sinners by men.

Thus when the mere show of sanctity is rebuked and the hidden malice is detected, it casts up the scales of self-defence and repels the sword of truth. Whence it is well said by the Prophet against Judaea: 'There hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself; there hath the hedgehog had his den' (Isaiah XXXIV, 14, 15). For by the lamia are designated the hypocrites, and by the hedgehog those malicious ones who cover themselves with divers defences. For the lamia is said to have a human face but a bestial body. So too all hypocrites: what they display in their outward face is, as it were, from a semblance of holiness; but bestial is the body that follows, because what they contrive under the appearance of good is exceedingly wicked.

But by the name of the hedgehog is designated the self-defence of malicious minds; for indeed when the hedgehog is caught, its head is seen and its feet appear and the whole body is beheld; but as soon as it has been seized, it gathers itself into a ball, draws its feet inward, hides its head; and within the grasp of the one holding it, the whole is at once lost that before was seen all at once. So, so are malicious minds when they are caught in their excesses. For the head of the hedgehog is seen, because it is perceived by what beginning the sinner approached his fault. The feet of the hedgehog are beheld, because it is recognized by what steps the wickedness was perpetrated.

And yet, when excuses are suddenly brought forward, the malicious mind draws its feet inward, because it hides all the traces of its iniquity. It withdraws its head, because by wondrous defences it makes out that it has not even begun anything depraved; and, as it were, it remains a ball in the hand of him who holds it, because he who rebukes, suddenly losing all that he had already known, holds the sinner wrapped up in conscience, and he who had already beheld the whole by detecting it, deluded by the shuffling of a perverse defence, is likewise wholly ignorant of it.

The hedgehog therefore has his den among the reprobate, because the malicious mind, gathering itself within itself, hides in the darkness of self-defence. But in this—that the sinner excuses himself, and by his shadowy defences beclouds the reproof of him who corrects, fixed upon himself as a wall—the divine word shows us also how such men are cut down by their like. There follows: