約伯倫理 第 1324 章

Job justly rebuked, that he might be subjected even unknowingly to the hidden judgments of God. Whosoever strives to defend himself against the Lord's scourges, endeavors to make void the judgment of the one who scourges. For when he denies that he is smitten by his own fault, what else does he do but accuse of injustice the one who smites? The heavenly scourges therefore struck blessed Job, not that they might extinguish faults in him, but rather that they might increase his merits; so that he who in the time of tranquility had shone in such great sanctity, might by the smiting also make manifest what virtue of patience lay hidden even in him.

He indeed, not finding his fault amid the scourges, yet perceiving that these same scourges were a cause of increasing his merit, believed himself smitten unjustly, since he found not what in himself should have merited such a lot. But lest that very innocence be puffed up into the swelling of self-exaltation, he is rebuked by the divine voice; and his mind, free from iniquity but pressed by stripes, is recalled to the hidden judgments, so that the supreme sentence, though it be not understood, may nevertheless not be believed unjust; but rather he may believe just all that he suffers by this at least, that it is certain he suffers by God as its author. For a great satisfaction of the smiting is the just will of the Creator. And since that will is wont to do nothing unjust, it is acknowledged just even if it lies hidden.

For when we are smitten for the sin of injustice, if in our smiting we are joined to the divine will, we are straightway freed from our injustice by that very conjunction. For whosoever already endures the smiting, but as yet knows not the causes of the smiting, if believing it just he embraces against himself this very judgment, by that very thing he is already corrected from his injustice, in that he rejoices to have been justly smitten. For associating himself with God in his own punishment, he rises up against himself; and it is now great justice that he agrees with the will of the judge in the penalty, from whom he differed in the fault. The holy man therefore, because he had differed from God in no fault, was with difficulty, as it were, in agreement with him amid the torments.

For he did not believe that the scourges which are wont to extinguish vices had in him increased his merits alone. Whence now he is justly rebuked, that even unknowingly he might be subjected to the hidden judgments; and it is said to him: 'Wilt thou make void my judgment, and condemn me that thou mayest be justified?' As if it were plainly said: Thou indeed considerest thy well-done deeds, but thou art ignorant of my hidden judgments. If therefore out of thy merits thou disputest against my scourges, what else dost thou than hasten, by justifying thyself, to charge me with injustice? There follows: