約伯倫理 第 1123 章

VERSE 7. — 'He will not take away His eyes from the just, and He sets kings on the throne forever, and they are exalted there.' 52. God then regards the just the more, when they are unjustly afflicted. — For the Lord is perhaps believed to have taken away His eyes from the just, because here they are torn by the cruelties of the unjust without vengeance; but He regards His servants the more, when the wickedness of the persecutor unjustly afflicts them. For seeing what they here humbly endure, He surely already foresees what He there mercifully recompenses them. He does not therefore take away His eyes from the just. Behold, this one humbly groans, that one is proud and wickedly flourishes. This one crushes his heart, that one exalts himself with the glory of iniquity.

Which of these therefore is far from the divine gaze — he who endured injustice, or he who inflicted it on those who endured it; he who held the heavenly grace amid the shadows of grief, or he who lost the light of justice within amid outward joys? 53. Why the saints are called kings in Holy Scripture. For the saints to sit on the throne with Christ is to judge by His power. — And the holy men are well called kings by the testimony of sacred Scripture, because, set over all the motions of the flesh, they now bridle the appetite of lust, now temper the heat of avarice, now bend down the glory of elation, now overwhelm the suggestion of envy, now extinguish the fire of fury.

They are kings, therefore, because they have known not to succumb to the motions of their temptations by consenting, but to rule over them by governing. Since, then, they pass from this power of governing to the power of recompense, it is rightly said: 'He sets kings upon the throne for ever.' For by governing themselves they were for a time wearied, but they are set for ever upon the throne of the everlasting raising up of the kingdom; and there they receive the right to judge others worthily, precisely because here they knew not wickedly to spare their own selves. Hence it is said elsewhere: 'Until justice be turned into judgment' (Ps. 94:15). Paul says of himself and his companions: 'That we might be made the justice of God in him' (2 Cor. 5:21).

Justice, therefore, is turned into judgment, because those who now live justly and blamelessly obtain then the power of judging. Hence the Lord says to the Church of Laodicea: 'He that shall overcome, I will grant to him to sit with me in my throne, as I also have overcome, and have sat with my Father in his throne' (Rev. 3:21). The victorious Lord asserts that He has sat upon the throne with the Father, because after the conflicts of the Passion, after the palm of the Resurrection, He made known more clearly to all that He was equal to the power of the Father, and He revealed Himself to be not unlike Him, once the sting of death was trodden down. Whence also to Mary, who did not yet believe Him equal to the Father, He says: 'Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father' (John 20:17).

For us to sit upon the throne of the Son is to judge by the power of that same Son. For since we receive the sovereignty of judgment from His power, we as it were sit upon His throne. Nor is it contrary to the truth that elsewhere He testifies the disciples shall come upon twelve thrones (Matt. 19:28), while here He declares they shall sit upon His throne. For by the twelve thrones is signified the universal judgment, but by the throne of the Son the singular summit of judiciary power. What therefore is designated by the twelve thrones is designated by the one throne of the Son, since indeed the universal judgment is also received through the intervention of our Mediator. Let it therefore be said: 'He sets kings upon the throne for ever.' 54. The session of the saints is everlasting.

Those first humbled shall be raised up.—Fittingly, by adding 'for ever,' He plainly intimates what He means. For if He were speaking of the throne of an earthly kingdom, He would by no means have added 'for ever,' since those who seize such a throne are surely established in it not for ever but only temporarily. But He well added: 'And there they are raised up.' As if He were suggesting to the intention of the hearer, saying: Because here they are humbled, there they are raised up. For to holy men this place is one of humility, that the other may be one of exaltation. Whence it is written elsewhere: 'Thou hast humbled us in the place of affliction' (Ps. 44:19). For the place of affliction is the present life.

Those, therefore, who press on toward the eternal fatherland now for a time despise themselves in the place of affliction, that then in the place of joy they may be truly exalted. There follows: