Moralia in Job 928

A law is laid upon the heralds of the Word of God, that they fulfill in deed what they preach. To those who keep this law, He opens an entrance to the hearts of men. — By rains the sayings of preachers are wont to be signified. Whence it is said through Moses: 'Let my speech be awaited like rain' (Deut. 32:2). Whose words, indeed, when they gently persuade, are rains; but when they thunder terrible things concerning the coming judgment, are sounding storms. And it is to be noted that a law is given to the rains, that a way may be opened to the sounding storms. For a law is laid upon the preachers themselves, that by living they may fulfill what they hasten to urge by speaking. For the authority of speaking is lost, when the voice is not aided by the deed. For hence it is said through the Psalmist: 'But to the sinner God hath said:

Why dost thou declare my justices, and take my covenant in thy mouth? But thou hast hated discipline, and hast cast my words behind thee' (Ps. 49:16-17). For the preacher casts the words of God behind him, when he disdains to do that which he says. But how shall another obey his sayings, while he himself spurns in deed what he preaches in voice, and pretends not to hear what he relates? Of this law of preaching it is written: 'He that shall break one of these least commandments, and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 5:19). By the kingdom of heaven He calls the present Church, of which it is written:

'And they shall gather out of His kingdom all scandals' (Matt. 13:41). For in the supernal kingdom there are no scandals which ought to be gathered out of it. He therefore who breaks it in deed, and so teaches in voice, in this kingdom of heaven shall be the least; in that other, not even the least. He set the law before the way with sounding storms, when for His preachers He made an entrance to the hearts of men, struck with the terror of the coming judgment. First, then, the law is laid down, that afterwards the way may be opened, because that voice penetrates the heart of the hearer which preserves in deed what it has sounded with the mouth. But then, when He laid the law upon the rains and the way upon the sounding storms, God saw this Wisdom, declared it, prepared it, and searched it out.

By the customary manner of speaking of Sacred Scripture, God is said to 'see' when He makes us see, as the Lord says to the just man: 'Now I know that thou fearest God' (Gen. 22:12). And the Israelites are forewarned: 'The Lord your God tempteth you, that He may know whether ye love Him' (Deut. 13:3); that is, that He may make you know. Then, therefore, when He laid the law upon the rains — that is, when He gave the command of guardianship to the preachers — He made this incarnate Wisdom to be seen and declared by the preachers, to be prepared and searched out by the hearers. For whosoever, by living well, prepares that Wisdom propitious to himself on the day of judgment, prepares it for himself. And it is to be noted that four things are said of it. For He says: He saw, He declared, He prepared, He searched it out. He 'saw,' indeed, because it is the Form;

He 'declared' it, because it is the Word; He 'prepared' it, because it is the remedy; He 'searched it out,' because it is hidden. But this, that the eternal Wisdom of God is called the Form of the Father and the Word — when is it penetrated by the human mind? For who can understand either a word without time, or a form without circumscription? Something, therefore, had to be said which a man might recognize of it within himself. Whence it is fitly added: