約伯倫理 第 201 章

Same verse.— Let not God require it from above. 27. That he may not be punished by God in the judgment.— God requires those things which He scrutinizes by judging; He does not require those things which, by pardoning, He already leaves unpunished in His own judgment. And so this day, that is, this delight of sin, will not be required by the Lord, if it is punished by a voluntary reckoning, as Paul testifies, who says: 'If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged by the Lord' (1 Corinthians 11:31). For God to require our day, then, is to search out subtly against our own mind, in the judgment, everything that rejoices from fault; in which requiring He then strikes the more severely him whom He detects to have spared himself the more softly now. And it well follows: 'And let not the light shine upon it.'

For when the Lord appears in judgment, He illumines with light everything that He then reproves. For whatever is not then recalled into the memory of the judge is, as it were, covered under a certain obscurity. For it is written: 'All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light' (Ephesians 5:13). As it were certain shadows hide the sins of the penitent, of which it is said through the Prophet: 'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered' (Psalm 31:1). Since therefore everything that is covered is, as it were, hidden in darkness, that is not illumined with light at the day of the last judgment which is not scrutinized by punishment. For our deeds, which He then shall have been unwilling justly to punish, the divine mercy itself in some way, knowingly, hides from itself.

But whatever is then displayed in the sight of all is shown in the light. Let this day, therefore, be turned into darkness, so that, namely, we may strike ourselves through penance for everything wherein we transgress. Let the Lord not require this day, and let Him not illumine it with light; so that, namely, when we ourselves strike our own fault, He may not rebuke it with the animadversion of the last judgment. 28. The penitent alone finds a place wherein to hide himself from God the judge.— But He Himself is the judge who is to come, who penetrates all things, who grazes over all things. And since He is everywhere, there is no place whereto one may flee. But since He is appeased by the tears of our correction, he alone finds a place of flight from Him who, after a fault committed, now hides himself in penance from Him.

Whence it is also fitly still subjoined concerning this day of delight: