約伯倫理 第 1387 章

10. They shall be crushed by lightning in the judgment, while the just are unharmed and rejoicing. — What is designated by the appellation of lightnings, but those dread sentences of the last judgment? Which are for this reason called lightnings, because indeed they burn forever those whom they strike. For Paul had beheld lightnings coming upon him, when he said: Whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming (2 Thess. 2:8). But those lightnings which are sent upon him are not turned to another place, because, while the just rejoice, they then strike the reprobate alone.

For after the threshing of the present life, in which the wheat now groans under the chaff, it is so sifted by that winnowing-fan of the last judgment between the wheat and the chaff, that neither may the chaff pass into the barn of the wheat, nor the grains of the barn slip down into the fire of the chaff. Those lightnings therefore by no means touch another place, because, namely, by their fire they burn not the grains but the chaff. But because punishment does not correct this Leviathan, He intimates it while He subjoins: 11. The impenitence of Satan. He is most excellently said to be like an anvil. — For why shall the ancient enemy be hardened as a stone, but because he shall never be softened by any penitence of conversion. Who, because he shall be fitted only for the blows of eternal vengeance, it is rightly forthwith subjoined:

For the smith fixes the anvil, fit only for blows. For to this end the anvil stands firm, that it may be struck by frequent blows. Leviathan therefore is bound like the smith's anvil, because he shall be confined by inward chains, that he may be beaten by the continual smiting of eternal punishment. Who is also even now smitten, while each of the just, though he lies watching in ambush, yet wastes away in griefs, are saved. But on the anvil other vessels are formed, while it itself is not transferred by so many strokes into another vessel. Rightly therefore is this Leviathan compared to an anvil, because we are shaped while he persecutes, but he himself is both always struck, and is never changed into a useful vessel.

We leave him to the eternal smiting, and we, struck in his temptation by the hand of the heavenly Artificer, pass over through him like little vessels formed. For in him we are beaten, but that we may come to the use of the heavenly house. But he himself is bound like an anvil, because, although now by tempting he goes about the world, yet placed in hell, he no longer wanders under the blow of the sentence. It follows: