Moralia in Job 896

46. God beholds the end of the elect and of the reprobate. He does and ordains good; He does not do evil, but ordains it. — 'He hath set a time for darkness' (Job XXVIII, 3), namely a limit for the wicked, whereby the wicked may cease to be wicked. Whence it is said to them by the Apostle: 'You were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord.' As also the same excellent teacher says to other disciples: 'The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light; let us walk honestly, as in the day' (Ephesians V, 8; Romans XIII, 12). Whence also in the Canticle of Canticles it is said of the Church coming forth: 'Who is she that goeth forward as the morning rising?' (Canticles VI, 9).

For fittingly is the Church described as compared to the dawn, which, through the knowledge of faith, is changed from the darkness of her own sins into the clear light of righteousness. 'He hath set a time for darkness, and He Himself considereth the end of all things.' By the name of all things He willed both the elect and the reprobate to be comprehended. For God, doing and ordaining good, but not doing evil, yet Himself disposing that the evils done by the wicked may not fall out inordinately, considers the end of all things, and patiently tolerates all, and beholds the term of the elect, that they may be changed from evil to good. He beholds also the end of the reprobate, that from an evil work they may be drawn to a punishment worthy of it. He saw the end of persecuting Saul, whereby, cast down, he might say: 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' (Acts

IX, 6). He saw the end of the seemingly obedient disciple, whereby, for the crime he had committed, he bound his throat with a noose, and both punished himself as a sinner, and, by punishing worse, deceived himself. He saw the Ninevites offending, but considered the end of the offenders — the penitence of those corrected. He saw also Sodom offending, but considered the end of the ardour of lust — the fire of hell. He saw the end of the Gentile world, that, possessed by the darkness of iniquities, it would one day grow bright with the light of faith. He beheld also the term of Judea, that from the light of faith which she held, she would blind herself with the darkness of hardened perfidy. Whence there is still fittingly subjoined: