約伯倫理 第 1360 章

32. Christ, choosing the weak things of the world, vanquished the strength of the devil. The house of wisdom is the body of Christ and the Church. For preaching the Gospel, only those were taken up who of themselves would not be suitable. — Understand: as I do. In male servants, though the condition is despised, manly vigor thrives; but in maidservants, together with the condition the sex likewise lies low. Well, therefore, does the Lord declare that He binds this Leviathan not by His men-servants but by His maidservants, because coming for our redemption, and sending forth His preachers against the pride of the world, He chose the foolish, having left the wise; He chose the weak, having left the strong; He chose the poor, having left the rich. By His maidservants, therefore, the Lord bound the strength of this Leviathan, because, as Paul testifies: 'The weak things...'

'...things of the world God chose, that He might confound the strong' (1 Cor. I, 27). Whence it is well said through Solomon: 'Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn out seven pillars, she hath slain her victims, she hath mingled wine, she hath set forth her table, she hath sent her maidservants to call to the citadel and to the walls of the city' (Prov. IX, 1, 2, 3). Wisdom indeed built herself a house, when the only-begotten Son of God, within Himself, within the womb of the Virgin, through the mediation of a soul, created for Himself a human body. For thus the body of the Only-begotten is called the house of God, just as it is also called a temple; in such wise, however, that one and the same Son of God and of man both is He who inhabits and He who is inhabited. Which, nevertheless, is rightly understood also otherwise, if the house of wisdom be called the Church.

Which hewed out for herself seven pillars, since she reared, sundered from the love of the present age, the minds of the preachers to bear the fabric of that same Church. Which, because they are supported by the virtue of perfection, are designated by the sevenfold number. She slew her victims, because she permitted the life of the preachers to be sacrificed in persecution. She mingled wine, because she preached to us alike the mysteries of her divinity and of her humanity. She also set forth a table, because she prepared for us the food of Holy Scripture by opening it. She sent also her maidservants, to call us to the citadel and the walls of the city, because she took pains to have weak and abject preachers, who should gather the faithful peoples to the supernal buildings of the spiritual homeland.

Whence in the Gospel the Lord praises Nathanael (John I, 47), and yet does not number him in the lot of the preachers, because such were to come to preach who had nothing of their own praise, so that what they did might be recognized to be the more solidly of the truth, the more openly it was discerned that they were not of themselves suitable for this. In order, therefore, that the power of the Mighty One might shine forth through the tongues of the preachers, it was first more wondrously brought to pass that the merit of those same preachers should be nothing. The Lord therefore sent maidservants, and bound the strength of this Leviathan, because He displayed weak preachers to the world, and restrained all the powerful, who had been his body, under the bond of his own terror.

And in his very self this Leviathan is bound by maidservants, when, the light of truth shining forth through weak preachers, the ancient enemy is not permitted to rage against the minds of the elect as much as he wishes; but lest he hold under the captivity of unbelief all whom he desires, he is constrained by signs and mighty works. He therefore does this mightily through himself, who grants strength against him not to the strong. But because the Lord intimates whom He sends against him, He now also adds what those very ones do who are sent. There follows: