約伯倫理 第 1331 章

The error of the Pelagians, who trust that they can be saved by their own strength. As if he plainly said: If thou canst do these terrible things, I myself impute to thee and not to me all the good things which thou hast brought forth. But if by regarding other sinners thou canst not destroy them, it is clear that thou art not able by thy own strength to free thyself from the guilt of wickedness. Behold, it is said by the divine voice to blessed Job that he is not saved by his own right hand, and yet not a few men, who are far from this man's strength, despising God's help, trust that they can be saved by their own fortitude. For whom what else ought we to beseech than that, if they have already received the gifts of good works, they may also receive this gift, that they may learn from whom they have received these things?

But because in the foregoing words the Lord displayed the power of his greatness, now in what follows he shows the wickedness of the ancient enemy, so that the good servant, having first heard the virtues of the Lord, might know how much he should love, and, having afterward recognized the craftiness of the devil, might learn how much he should fear. Whence well is it said through the prophet: 'The lion shall roar, who will not fear?'

'The Lord God hath spoken, who shall not prophesy?' (Amos 3:8). For after the strength of his Creator became known to him, the strength of the adversary was by no means grievous to lie hidden from him, so that the more subtly he had recognized the wickedness of his enemy, the more humbly he might subject himself to his defender; and he might seek his protector the more ardently, the more terrible an enemy he recognized whom he was to shun. For it is certain that he loves his deliverer less who less understands the peril that he has escaped, and he counts the consolation of the defender's life little who thinks the adversary's strength weak. Whence well, attributing his deliverance to the Lord, the prophet said: 'I will love thee, O Lord, my strength' (Ps. 17:1), openly indeed saying:

I love you all the more because, feeling my own weakness, I recognize that you are my strength. Hence again he says: 'Make marvellous thy mercies, thou who savest them that hope in thee' (Psalm 16:7); for the mercies of the Lord truly become wondrous in our own eyes when we are delivered, at the very moment when, through those same mercies, we come to know how grave were the perils we escaped. 15. Strength.

By the deceit whereby the powers of our enemy are described. — And because in the preceding discourse the Lord disclosed to blessed Job the wondrous works of the saints who follow, so that, hearing these, he might learn how humbly he ought to feel concerning the height of his own virtues, now there is shown to him the foe with whom he wages war, and that foe's forces and frauds are more subtly set forth, so that he who has been brought to converse with his Maker may openly recognize the devices of his adversary. For in the following words the Lord makes known to his faithful servant all the machinations of the crafty enemy: all that he seizes by oppression, all that he circles about by lying in wait, all that he terrifies by threatening, all that he flatters by persuading, all that he shatters by driving to despair, all that he deceives by promising.

He therefore begins to recount all the contests of his evasion, saying: