Moralia in Job 563

Verse 21. — Whether his sons be noble, or ignoble, he does not understand. 26. The souls of the saints, seeing God, are ignorant of nothing of those things which are outside themselves; otherwise it is with the rest. — For just as those who are still living are ignorant in what place the souls of the dead are held, so the dead do not know how the life of those living in the flesh is ordered after them, because the life of the spirit is far from the life of the flesh; and just as things corporeal and incorporeal are diverse in kind, so also they are distinct in cognition. This, however, is not to be thought concerning the souls of the saints, because of those who within behold the brightness of Almighty God it is by no means to be believed that there is anything outside which they are ignorant of.

But blessed Job asserts that carnal men, because they bestow a chief love upon their children, afterwards do not know that which here they vehemently loved, so that they do not know whether their children be noble or ignoble, of whom the care ever wearied them. Yet if this is to be understood spiritually, not unfittingly are works designated by the name of 'children'; as Paul says of woman: That she shall be saved through the bearing of children (1 Timothy ii, 15). For neither shall the woman who, striving after continence, by no means bears children, fail to be saved, but she is said to be saved through the bearing of children, because through the effect of good works she is joined to perpetual salvation. Noble children, therefore, are upright works; ignoble ones, however, are perverse deeds.

And often a man strives to do something with good intention; but yet, because of the many things that creep in, how his deeds are regarded before Almighty God is uncertain. Whether therefore his sons be noble or ignoble, he does not understand, because, when they have been sifted by subtle examination, he does not know whether his works are approved or reproved. And here therefore man is set in the pain of labor, and thither he is led in the fear of misgiving. Hence, still concerning this labor of the present life, it is added: