約伯倫理 第 1033 章

46. There are various grades toward perfection. That we may advance toward God, we must fail in ourselves. — Concerning these grades of merits it is said through the Psalmist: 'They shall go from strength to strength' (Ps. lxxxiv, 7). Concerning these things again, contemplating the holy Church, he says: 'God is known in her grades, when he shall receive her' (Ps. xlviii, 3). For it is not, as has been said, that the heights are reached suddenly, but the mind is led by increments to the loftiness of the virtues. Hence it is that the same Prophet again says: 'I was exercised, and my spirit failed a little' (Ps. lxxvii, 4). What then is it that he says, 'My spirit,' but the spirit of man, namely the spirit of exaltation?

And because, through hidden grace, we advance toward the love of God by a measure tempered from above, the more the virtue of God's Spirit daily grows in us, the more our own spirit fails. This spirit of error, because it is not suddenly and utterly cut off from us, is well said to have failed 'a little.' But then we fully advance in God, when we have utterly failed from our own selves. These measures, therefore, of the increasing virtues are called grades by the voice of the holy man. For each of the elect begins first from the tenderness of his beginning, and afterward gathers strength to robust and mighty things. This Truth openly shows in the Gospel, saying:

'So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the earth, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow while he knoweth not' (Mark iv, 26-27). And declaring the increments of this seed, he adds: 'For the earth of itself bringeth forth fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.' He appends also the very end of its progress, saying: 'And when out of itself it hath brought forth the fruit, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.' Behold, by the voice of Truth the increments of merits are distinguished according to the qualities of the crops. For he says: First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

Was not Peter still the blade when, at the mouth of a servant girl, he was suddenly bent by a single breath of speech—already green indeed through devotion, but still tender through infirmity? But he was found the full grain in the ear when he withstood the persecuting rulers, saying: 'We ought to obey God rather than men' (Acts v, 29). He was found the full grain in the ear when, in the threshing of persecution, he endured so many blows, and yet was in no wise diminished after the manner of chaff, but remained a whole grain. For a little while, so to speak, the moisture of inner grace overflows in each soul, that the blade may grow into the crop. Let no one, therefore, despair of the grain of any neighbour while he still sees the blade.

For upon the leaves of the blades, which sway softly hither and thither, the rising grains of the crops are made firm. 47. The diverse grades of progress expressed through Daniel. — Now the prophet Daniel well marked these increments of merits when, the Lord speaking to him, he took pains to describe to us the posture of his own body. For he says: 'I heard the voice of his words, and hearing I lay stunned upon my face, and my countenance clave to the ground. And behold, a hand touched me, and raised me upon my knees, and upon the joints of my hands, and said to me: Daniel, man of desires, understand the words that I speak to thee, and stand upright in thy grade; for now I am sent unto thee.'

'And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling; and he said to me: Fear not' (Dan. x, 9, 11-12). This posture of his body, while he heard the words of the one speaking within, he would in no wise have expressed to us with such care, had he known it to be void of mysteries. For in Holy Scripture, in the case of just men, not only what they say is prophecy, but very often also what they do.

The holy man, therefore, full of inward mysteries, expresses the power of the voice also through the posture of his body; and by this—that he first lay prostrate on the ground, that afterward he raised himself upon the joints of his hands and upon his knees, that at the last he stood upright indeed but trembling—he makes known to us in himself the whole order of our progress. For we hear the words of God lying on the ground, when, set in sins, joined to earthly pollution, we come to know the spiritual precepts by the voice of the saints. Toward which precepts we are raised as it were upon our knees and upon the joints of our hands, because, withdrawing from earthly defilements, we now lift our mind as it were from the lowest things.

For just as he who lies stunned cleaves wholly to the earth, so he who bends upon his knees and the joints of his hands, with progress beginning, is already in great part suspended from the earth. But at the last, raised indeed by the Lord's voice yet trembling, we stand, when, perfectly lifted up from earthly desires, we fear the more the more fully we come to know the words of God. For he still lies as it were on the ground who neglects, through earthly desires, to be raised toward heavenly things. But he leans as it were still on his hands and knees, though lifted up, who now forsakes certain defilements, yet does not gainsay certain earthly works.

But he now stands upright at the words of God who perfectly lifts his mind to sublime things and disdains to be bent by unclean desires. 48. From fear one must come to love and charity. — Now he indicates that he stood trembling, because the examination of inner subtlety, the more one advances toward it, is the more dreaded. Where fitly it is subjoined by the divine voice: 'Fear not,' because when we recognize the more what we should fear, the more is poured into us of God through inner grace that we may love; so that both our contempt may pass a little into fear, and fear may pass into charity; that, whereas we resist God who seeks us by contempt, and flee him by fear, so, contempt and fear at length laid aside, we may be joined to him by love alone.

For we learn for a little while even the fear of him to whose love alone we cleave. Certain grades, therefore, of our progress being as it were set in place, we first plant the foot of the mind through fear in the lowest place, and afterward through charity we lift it to other things of love; so that, by that whereby each one swells with pride, he may be restrained to fear, and by that which he now dreads, he may be lifted up to presume. But it is of no great labour to grasp these grades of the virtues, when one passes from one to another. 49. The grades of each single virtue are various. The increments of faith. — But the matter needs a most subtle discussion when the mind strives to weigh by what grades of its progress it is raised up in one and the same virtue.

For, to speak of the first elements of the virtues, namely faith and wisdom, they cannot severally be obtained in perfection unless we ascend to them by distinct and ordered ways, as by certain grades. For faith itself, which imbues us to lay perfectly hold of the other good things, very often in its beginnings both wavers and is solid: it is now most surely held, and yet concerning its own confidence there is still trembling under doubt. For part of it is first received, that afterward it may be perfectly completed in us. For if it did not advance by a fixed grade in the mind of the believer, the father of the boy to be healed, when asked in the Gospel, would not have said: 'I believe, Lord; help thou mine unbelief' (Mark ix, 24).

He, therefore, was still ascending to the faith which he had already received, who at one and the same time cried out that he both already believed and still doubted out of unbelief. Hence it is also that it is said to our Redeemer by the disciples: 'Increase our faith' (Luke xvii, 5), that what had already been received through its beginning might, as it were through the augmentations of grades, come to perfection. 50. Wisdom, the mistress of good works, is granted through increments. Its diverse grades. — Wisdom itself also, which is wont to be the mistress of good works, is granted to the panting mind through increments, so that it is ascended to without doubt by the grades of great governance.

This the prophet Ezekiel well proclaims in a figurative narration, who tells of that man whom he had seen on a high mountain, saying: 'He measured a thousand cubits, and led me through the water up to the ankles. And again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water up to the knees. And he measured a thousand, and led me through the water up to the loins. And he measured a thousand—a torrent which I could not pass over, for the deep waters of the torrent had swollen, which cannot be forded' (Ezek. xlvii, 3-5). For what is signified by the number of a thousand, but the fullness of the gift bestowed?

The man, therefore, who appeared measures a thousand cubits, and the prophet is led through the waters up to the ankles, because our Redeemer, when he bestows upon those turned to him the fullness of a good beginning, pours in the first traces of our work by the gift of spiritual wisdom. For the water to come up to the ankles is for us already, through the wisdom received, to hold the traces of the longed-for rectitude. He measures a thousand again, and the prophet is led through the water up to the knees, because when the fullness of good work is bestowed, our wisdom is increased to this point, that it be in no wise bent in depraved deeds. Hence it is said through Paul: 'Lift up the slack hands and the loosened knees, and make straight steps for your feet' (Heb. xii, 12).

The water, therefore, comes up to the knees when the wisdom received binds us perfectly to the rectitude of good work. He measures a thousand again, and the prophet is led through the water up to the loins, because, namely, the fullness of work then grows in us when the wisdom received in us has also extinguished, so far as is possible, every delight of the flesh. For unless the delight of the flesh were in the loins, the Psalmist would in no wise have said: 'Burn my loins and my heart' (Ps. xxvi, 2). The water, therefore, comes up to the loins when the sweetness of wisdom slays even the incentives of the flesh, so that the fires of delight, which could burn the mind, grow cold.

He measured yet a thousand, namely a torrent, which the prophet could not pass over, of which he also says: 'For the deep waters of the torrent had swollen, which cannot be forded.' For when the perfection of work has been received, one comes to contemplation. In which contemplation, indeed, while the mind is led on high, being lifted up it sees in God that it cannot penetrate what it sees, and as it were touches the waters of the torrent which it cannot pass over, because it both beholds by gazing what it delights in, and yet cannot perfectly behold that very thing which it delights in.

The prophet, therefore, at some point comes to the water which he does not pass over, because when we are led at the last to the contemplation of wisdom, its very immensity, which of itself lifts man up, denies full knowledge of itself to the human mind, so that it may both love it by touching, and yet in no wise penetrate it by passing over. 51. These being traversed, one comes to contemplation. Blessed Job, therefore, called these increments of virtues grades, because he beheld them bestowed distinctly upon men by a gift from above, since by them one ascends that one may come to obtain heavenly things. Making mention, therefore, of the sacred book, that is, of the divine word, he says:

'Through my every grade I will pronounce it' (Job xxxi, 37), because assuredly he truly ascends to the doctrine of God who has burst forth by the grades of holy working to obtain it. And he pronounces the book as it were through his every grade, who shows that he has received the knowledge of it not through words only, but also through works. Whence it is further added: 'For everything that we offer, we hold in our hands.' To offer the book, therefore, to the prince coming to judgment, is to have held the words of his precepts in action. There follows: