Moralia in Job 468

Verses 8, 9. He is higher than heaven, and what will you do? deeper than hell, and how will you know? His measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. 14. How God transcends all things. That God is described as higher than heaven, deeper than hell, longer than the earth, and broader than the sea, must be understood so much the more spiritually, as it is sinful to feel anything about Him according to bodily dimensions. But He is higher than heaven, because in the uncircumscription of His Spirit He transcends all things; deeper than hell, because in transcending He bears aloft; longer than the earth, because He exceeds the measure of the creature by the perpetuity of His eternity;

broader than the sea, because He so possesses, ruling, the surges of temporal things, that He encloses them, straitening them under the all-encompassing presence of His power. Although by the appellation 'heaven' the angels can also be designated, and by the word 'hell' the demons; while by 'earth' the righteous men, and by 'sea' the sinners may be understood. He is therefore higher than heaven, because even the elect spirits themselves do not perfectly penetrate the vision of so great a loftiness. He is deeper than hell, because, judging, He condemns the cunning of the malignant spirits far more subtly than they themselves had supposed. Longer than the earth, because He surpasses our long-suffering by the patience of the divine long-suffering, which both bears with us as we sin, and awaits us, converted, for the rewards of recompense.

Broader than the sea, because everywhere He occupies the deeds of sinners as the object of His retribution, so that, even when He is not beheld present through His form, He may be felt present through His judgment. 15. Who is the heaven, the hell, the earth, the sea in man. God's breadth, length, height, and depth. Yet all things can be referred to man alone, so that he himself is heaven when now through desire he cleaves to the highest things; he himself hell, when, disturbed by the darkness of his temptations, he lies in the lowest; he himself earth, because in good work he bears fruit with the richness of firm hope; he himself sea, because in certain things he is shaken, trembling, and is agitated by the breeze of his own changeableness.

But God is higher than heaven, because we are overcome by the greatness of His power, even when we are lifted above our very selves; deeper than hell, because surely He judges more than the human soul itself investigates about itself in temptations; longer than the earth, because the fruits of life which He requites in the end, our hope by no means now comprehends; broader than the sea, because the human mind, fluctuating, conjectures much about the things that are to come, but when it has now begun to discern what it had reckoned, it recognizes that it was narrow in its own estimation. He becomes, therefore, higher than heaven when our very contemplation fails in reaching Him. Whence the Psalmist too had placed his heart on high, but did not yet feel that he had touched Him, saying:

Your knowledge is become wonderful from me; it is confirmed, and I shall not be able to reach it (Ps. 139:6). He knew Him deeper than hell, who, examining himself, but fearing His more subtle judgments, said: I am conscious of nothing in myself, but I am not thereby justified; but He who judges me is the Lord (1 Cor. 4:4). He had seen Him longer than the earth, when he weighed that the palm of the human mind was too small for Him, saying: Who is able to do all things superabundantly beyond what we ask or understand (Eph. 3:20). He had beheld Him broader than the sea, who, fearing, weighed that the human mind by no means recognized the immensity of His severity, however much it might fluctuate in inquiring, saying: Who knows the power of Your wrath,

or out of fear to number Your wrath (Ps. 90:11)? Whose power the excellent teacher well instills into us, when he briefly relates: That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth, length, height, and depth (Eph. 3:18). God indeed has breadth, because He extends His love even to the gathering of persecutors. He has length, because He leads us long-sufferingly, bearing with us, to the homeland of life. He has height, because He transcends even the understanding of those very ones who shall have been received into the assembly above. He has depth, because upon the damned below He puts forth incomprehensibly the judgment of His severity.

Which four things, indeed, He exercises toward us set here in this life, one by one, because He displays both His breadth by loving, and His length by bearing with us, and His height, by surpassing not only our understanding but even the palm, and His depth, by strictly judging the hidden and unlawful motions of thoughts. But how unsearchable are His height and depth no one recognizes, except one who is either carried up by contemplation to the highest things, or, resisting the hidden masses, has begun to be troubled by the importunity of temptations. Whence it is said to blessed Job: He is higher than heaven, and what will you do? deeper than hell, and how will you know? As if it were said to him with open scorn:

When are you sufficient to know His depth and excellence, you who know neither how to be raised to the highest things by virtue, nor to reprehend yourself in temptations? There follows: