約伯倫理 第 1384 章

1. As the world grows old, tribulations increase with the times. The devil rages the more sharply, the nearer he is to the consummation of his punishment. — Since we bear a body from this world, let us weigh the end of the universe from that part which we ourselves are. For we recognize more quickly what the end of the world will be like, if we anxiously behold that which we bear of the world. For our age flourishes more robustly through the years of youth, but in old age it is worn down by ever more frequent diseases; and while it is prolonged the longer that it may subsist, it fails by the turn of dying through the very moments of living. So too the time of the world, while it is increased by the coming years, is smitten by ever-multiplying evils; and whence it perceives the increase of its age, thence it feels the loss of its health.

For tribulations increase for it with the times, and the weaker it has borne the losses of life, the more it endures as though advanced toward life. For the ancient enemy is loosed with all his powers against it—he who, although even now he has perished in that he has lost the blessedness of his heavenly condition, yet then is more fully extinguished, when, withdrawn also from the license of tempting, he is bound to eternal fires. Whence too he sets about tempting the last things of the world more atrociously, because he becomes the more fervent for savagery, the nearer he feels himself to punishment.

For he considers that it is near that he should lose the license of his most wicked liberty, and by however much he is straitened by the brevity of time, by so much is he expanded by the manifoldness of cruelty, as is said of him by the angelic voice to John: Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time (Rev. 12:12). Then therefore he spreads himself into the fervor of great wrath, lest he who could not stand in blessedness should fall into the pit of his damnation with but few. Then whatever he is able to do wickedly, he seeks out the more craftily; then he raises the neck of his pride the higher, and through that condemned man whom he bears, he wickedly displays all that he temporally prevails in. Whence too it is now rightly said: 2.

Power to accomplish his wickedness will be granted to the pride of Antichrist. — For what is designated by the neck of this Leviathan, but the extension of his exaltation? by which, raising himself against God, he is lifted up with a pretense of holiness even by the swelling of power. For that pride is expressed by the neck, the prophet Isaiah testifies, who rebukes the daughters of Jerusalem, saying: They have walked with outstretched neck (Isa. 3:16). In the neck therefore of this Leviathan strength is said to abide, because power also, subjoined to his exaltation, gives it support. For whatever is then proudly exalted, whatever is craftily contrived, he carries out even with the might of secular power. Beholding which, the prophet Daniel says: Deceit shall be directed in his hand (Dan. 8:25).

For deceit in his hand is fraud with power, because everything that he wickedly wills, this for a time he is able even to carry out. But his deceit is said to be directed, because the malice of his fraud is hindered by no difficulty. For this Leviathan, or his vessels, are wont often to have as their own property that they can most wickedly fulfill, unto the heaping up of their iniquity, those things which they wickedly crave. 5. It is of divine gift toward the elect that they cannot perpetrate the evil they have conceived. — For when perhaps the elect are made weak, and rush into unlawful desires, in this for the most part they are held back by the hand of divine gift, that they find no effects of their wretched will.

And when a strong opposition arises against their wishes, they are for the most part corrected by that very impossibility, and by a wondrous order of inward disposition a change of the evil will follows through conversion, while perfection is denied through weakness. For hence it is that, under the likeness of each person's soul, of Judea grown weak and walking in perverse paths, the Lord says through the prophet: Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will hedge it with a wall, and she shall not find her paths, and she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, and shall not find them; and she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then than now (Hos. 2:6-7).

For the ways of the reprobate are hedged with thorns, while they find the pain of pricking in that which they temporally crave. As though an interposed wall meets their ways, whose desires are assailed by the difficulty of attainment. The souls of these indeed seek their lovers and find them not, while by following the malignant spirits they by no means overtake those pleasures of this world which they crave. But it is well subjoined that out of that very difficulty she should presently say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then than now (cf. Matt. 12:44). For the first husband is the Lord, who joined a chaste soul to himself by the interposed love of the Holy Spirit.

Whom then the mind of each one desires, when it finds manifold bitternesses, like so many thorns, in those delights which it temporally craves. For while the soul begins to be bitten by the adversities of the world which it loves, then it more fully understands how much better it was for it with its former husband. 4. Adversity often corrects those whom a depraved will has perverted. — Those therefore whom a depraved will has perverted, adversity for the most part corrects. Whence too it is greatly to be feared lest prosperity should follow when unjust things are desired, because that evil is more difficultly corrected which is propped up even by the prosperity of accomplishment.

This Leviathan therefore, who with his members is appointed to eternal torments, both has deceit directed in his hand and strength abiding in his neck, because what he temporally craves against the good with a perverse will, he consummates with a still more perverse ability, so that nothing in the present hinders him from adversity, by however much nothing of prosperity remains for him hereafter. And because everyone who by perverse morals becomes known to his friendships first loses the true riches of the mind, it is fittingly subjoined: