Moralia in Job 470

Ver. 11. For he knoweth the vanity of men, and seeing iniquity, doth he not consider it? 20. The distinction between vanity and iniquity. As if, unfolding what he had premised, he added, saying: Because by tolerating he beholds vices increase, by judging he confounds his gifts. But a right order is preserved in the description, when vanity is said to be known first, and iniquity to be considered afterward. For all iniquity is vanity, but not all vanity is wont to be iniquity. For we do vain things as often as we ponder transitory things. Hence too that is said to vanish which is suddenly taken away from the eyes of beholders. Thus the Psalmist says: Every man living is altogether vanity (Ps. xxxviii, 6);

since, by the very fact that in living it tends toward destruction, it is rightly indeed called vanity, but by no means is it also rightly called iniquity; because although it is of the penalty of guilt that it fails, yet this very thing is not guilt, that it runs onward from life. Vain, therefore, are the things that pass away. Hence also it is said by Solomon: All is vanity (Eccle. i, 2). 21. Vanity leads to iniquity. Vanity clouds the mind, iniquity blinds it. And fittingly, after vanity, iniquity is at once brought in, because while we are led by certain transitory things, we are hurtfully bound in certain of them; and when the mind does not hold the state of immutability, flowing away from itself, it bursts forth into vices.

From vanity, therefore, one slips into iniquity, which, accustomed to changeable things, while it is ever driven from some to others, is defiled by the sins that arise. [Old Version, ch. XIV.] Yet vanity too can be understood as guilt, and by the name of iniquity a graver crime be shown. For if vanity were sometimes not guilt, the Psalmist would not say: Although man walketh in the image of God, yet he is vainly disquieted; he heapeth up treasures, and knoweth not for whom he gathereth them (Ps. xxxviii, 8); because although we preserve in our nature the image of the Trinity, yet, disturbed by vain motions of delight, we fail in our way of life; so that, ever alternating in their modes, desire shakes us, fear breaks us, gladness softens us, grief afflicts us.

From vanity, therefore, as was said above, we are led to iniquity, when we first flow down through slight offenses, so that, with habitual use making everything easy, we thereafter no longer fear to commit even graver sins. For while the tongue neglects to govern idle words, it is captured by the manner of ingrained laxity and, grown bold, bursts forth to hurtful things; while one gives himself to gluttony, he is straightway betrayed into the madness of frivolity; and when the mind refuses to subdue the delight of the flesh, very often it also rushes into the gulf of faithlessness. Hence Paul, fittingly beholding the losses of the people of Israel, in order to check impending evils in his hearers, took care to relate in order what had happened, saying: Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written (1 Cor. x, 7):

The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play (Exod. xxxii, 6). For eating and drinking drove them to play, and play drew them to idolatry; because if the guilt of vanity is by no means cautiously restrained, the mind is at once devoured by iniquity, unaware, as Solomon attests, who says: He that despiseth small things shall fall by little and little (Eccli. xix, 1). For if we neglect to guard against small things, imperceptibly seduced, we boldly perpetrate even greater ones. And it is to be noted that iniquity is said not to be seen, but to be considered. For we behold more attentively the things we consider. God, therefore, knows the vanity of men, and considers their iniquity, because he neither leaves lesser offenses unpunished, and girds himself more intently to strike the greater.

Because, therefore, one begins from lighter evils and arrives at graver ones, vanity clouds the mind, iniquity blinds it. And this mind indeed, having soon lost the light, raises itself the higher through swelling, the further, caught in the snares of iniquity, it withdraws from truth. Hence also he fittingly expresses to what end vanity drags one along with iniquity, when he suddenly adds: