約伯倫理 第 1134 章

Verse 18. — 'Let not anger therefore overcome you, so that you oppress anyone; nor let the multitude of places bend you down. Lay aside your greatness without tribulation, and all the strong in fortitude. Do not prolong the night, that peoples may rise up in their place. Take heed lest you turn aside to iniquity; for this you have begun to follow after your misery.' 72. The proud carp at whatever is rightly done by others. — In most manuscripts we find 'of gifts' (donorum); but in a few, though more ancient, we find 'of places' (locorum). Yet because it needs no exposition if it be read, 'Nor let the multitude of gifts bend you down,' we have preferred rather to expound that reading which seems to be opened up with some difficulty. And how great is the elation in these words, the very swelling of pride that formed them makes plain.

But since we have said that Elihu holds the figure of the arrogant, and blessed Job the type of the elect, if we discern these things more subtly, we may now show how even within the Church they fit the arrogant. Holy men marvel at the deeds of others even when small, but despise their own even when great. On the contrary, the arrogant despise the deeds of others even when great, but admire their own even those that are small; and for the most part they reckon good out of their own evils, while concerning the good things of others they never cease to think evil. For while they seek their own glory, they perniciously strive that whatever of virtue is done by others may be torn with the mark of iniquity, and they turn the weight of a good action into the stain of a crime.

For often, when they see the wicked strictly corrected by the Church, they complain as if the innocent were unjustly afflicted, and they change the brightness of her discipline into the name of wickedness. Whence Elihu, keeping the figure of the arrogant, admonishing blessed Job as it were, says: 'Let not anger therefore overcome you, so that you oppress anyone' (Job 36:18). For the arrogant reckon as a movement of anger whatever is done by holy Church through the censure of discipline. And because, out of appetite for human praise, they always strive to appear benevolent, they judge that no one ought to be corrected by strictness of severity. Whence also, as was said above, they reckon that those are oppressed by good rulers whom they see restrained, against their will, from their vices. 73. The temporal power of the Church in all parts of the world.

The enemies of the Church reproach her with this undeservedly. And if there are some within her bosom who take pride in her glory — Now, by the Lord's authorship, since in all parts of the world holy Church has grown up to the summit of religion, this very temporal power, which indeed she uses well, they, by detraction, twist into the vice of elation. Whence Elihu adds, saying: 'Nor let the multitude of places bend you down.' As if it were said, by the voice of the arrogant, to that same holy Church who rather preserves humility in prosperity: 'Because you are everywhere honored with reverence of faith, take heed lest you be exalted by the dignities of that same reverence.'

For they behold certain ones who, under the pretext of religion, swell with the vice of elation; and what in some they justly reprehend, this they unjustly drag to the charge of all: by no means weighing that there are within her those who, both despising temporal things, know how to govern them perfectly, and, loving eternal things, know how to await them with full desires; both to carry out the dispensation of the power they have received, and to keep the ministry of an ingrafted humility, so that neither for the sake of humility do they neglect the care of the government they have undertaken, nor again, on the occasion of governing, does humility swell up in them.

And even if perhaps there are within her some who serve not God but their own glory under the pretext of religion, she nevertheless strives either, if she is able, strictly to correct them, or, if she is not able, patiently to tolerate them; and either by correcting she embraces them as sons, or by tolerating she is exercised as by enemies. For she knows that through their pride the life of the just is torn, she knows that whatever is sinned through the depravity of such is stretched to her reproach; but she fears the less to bear the mark of another's crime, the more she recognizes that her own Head bore such things. For of Him it is written: 'And he was reckoned with the wicked' (Mark 15:28). Of Him again it is said: 'He himself bore our infirmities, and himself carried our sorrows' (Isaiah

53:4). Let the arrogant, then, go and, by their estimation of the wicked, bite at the life of the innocent. The Church of the elect knows how to tolerate both the deeds of those and the words of these, she knows how by tolerating to convert the minds of the wicked. And even if these cannot be converted, she bears their ignominy with equanimity. For she weighs that it profits her toward a double reward that she is despised outwardly for their merits, whose life is also inwardly torn. i. He who is exalted temporally, falls. — But it is to be noted that he does not say, 'Nor let the multitude of places exalt you,' but says, 'Nor let the multitude of places bend you down.' For everyone who is exalted temporally is, by that very thing by which he is exalted, bent down, because while he raises himself outwardly, he falls inwardly.

Elihu therefore, pointing to the fall of the heart in elation, says: 'Nor let the multitude of places bend you down.' As if it were said, by the voice of the arrogant, to holy Church: 'Take heed lest, if you are exalted by the veneration of the whole world, you be bent away from your inward intention.' There follows: