Verses 11, 12.—'Why did I not die in the womb? having come forth from the belly, why did I not immediately perish? why received upon the knees? why suckled at the breasts?' 48. What is to be understood in the words of Job when he wishes himself to have been a miscarriage. Far be it from us to believe that blessed Job, endowed with so great a knowledge of the Spirit, praised by so great an attestation of the inner Judge, should wish that he had perished as a miscarriage! But because, as is also recognized through his recompense, he has within a witness of his fortitude, the weights of his utterance are to be weighed within. 49. Sin is accomplished in four modes or degrees in the heart, and in as many in the deed. For sin is committed in the heart in four modes; it is consummated in the deed in four.
For in the heart it is committed by suggestion, by delight, by consent, and by the boldness of defense. For suggestion comes through the adversary, delight through the flesh, consent through the spirit, the boldness of defense through pride. For the fault, which ought to have terrified the mind, exalts it, and by casting down it lifts up, but by lifting up more grievously it overthrows. Hence too the ancient enemy broke that uprightness of the first man by these four blows. For the serpent persuaded, Eve was delighted, Adam consented; and he too, when questioned, through boldness refused to confess his fault. This indeed is daily enacted in the human race, which we are not ignorant was enacted in the first parent of our race. The serpent persuaded; because the hidden enemy secretly suggests evils to the hearts of men.
Eve was delighted: because the carnal sense at once yields itself to delight at the words of the serpent. And Adam, set over the woman, gave his assent; because, while the flesh is snatched into delight, the spirit too, weakened, is bent away from its own uprightness. And when questioned Adam refused to confess his fault, because, namely, the spirit, by which in sinning it is separated from the truth, is thereby the more wickedly hardened in the boldness of its own ruin. By these same four modes too sin is consummated in the deed. For first the fault is done while lying hidden; afterward, however, it is even laid open before the eyes of men without confusion of guilt; thence it is even brought into habit; and at the last it is nourished either by the seductions of false hope, or by the obstinacy of wretched despair.
50. Job deplores these four modes of sinning in the heart. These modes of sin, then, which either take place secretly in the heart, or are openly committed in the deed, blessed Job considers, and he deplores in how many degrees of sins the human race has fallen, saying: 'Why did I not die in the womb? having come forth from the belly, why did I not immediately perish? why received upon the knees? why suckled at the breasts?' For the first womb of conception was the tongue of evil suggestion. But the sinner would die in the womb, if a man knew in the very suggestion that he was going to die. Yet he has come forth from the belly; because after the suggesting tongue conceived him in sin, delight soon snatched him even outward. But after his coming forth he was received upon the knees:
because when he came forth to the delight of the flesh, he assuredly consummated the fault by the consent of the spirit, all the senses being subjected, as if placed under the knees. But received upon the knees, he was also suckled at the breasts. For when the senses were addicted to the consent of the fault, many arguments of empty confidence followed, which nourished the soul born in sin with venomous milk, and, that it might not fear the harsh punishments of death, cherished it with soothing excuses. Hence too the first man, after his fault, became bolder, saying: 'The woman whom Thou gavest me for a companion, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat' (Gen. 3:12). He indeed had fled, meaning to hide himself through fear;
yet when questioned he made known how much, even while fearing, he was swollen with pride. For when the present punishment is feared because of sin, and the lost face of God is not loved, the fear is from swelling pride, not from humility. For he is proud who does not forsake sin, provided it may be permitted to go unpunished. 51. He deplores and deprecates the four modes by which men sin in the deed. But by these four modes, as has been said, the fault, as it is done in the heart, is also perpetrated in the deed. For he says: 'Why did I not die in the womb?' For the womb of the sinning man is the hidden fault, which secretly conceives the sinner, and still hides its own guilt in darkness. 'Having come forth from the belly, why did I not immediately perish?'
One goes out of the belly from the womb, when the sinner does not blush to commit even openly the things he had committed in secret. For it was as if they had come forth from the womb of their own concealment, of whom the prophet said: 'And they have proclaimed their sin as Sodom, and have not hidden it' (Isa. 3:9). 'Why received upon the knees?' Because the sinner, forsooth, when he is now no longer confounded by his own iniquity, is strengthened in that same iniquity even by the supports of a most evil habit. As if upon the knees the sinner is cherished that he may grow, while the fault is confirmed by habits that it may flourish. 'Why suckled at the breasts?' Because when the fault has begun to come forth into practice, it assuredly feeds itself either with the false hope of divine mercy, or with the open misery of despair;
so that it may by no means return to correction, in that it either inordinately imagines its Maker to be indulgent toward itself, or inordinately dreads what it has done. Let the blessed man, therefore, behold the fall of the human race, and consider by what precipices it has been plunged into the pit of iniquity, saying: 'Why did I not die in the womb?' that is, in the very hidden perpetration of sin, why was I unwilling to be mortified to the life of the flesh? 'Having come forth from the belly, why did I not immediately perish?' that is, after I had gone forth to open iniquity, why did I not then at least recognize myself as lost? For he would have perished in his own judgment, if he had recognized himself as lost. 'Why received upon the knees?'
that is, even after the open fault, why did habit still receive me in it, so as to render me more capable of wickednesses, and, sustaining me through evil months, cherish me? 'Why suckled at the breasts?' that is, after I came into the habit of the fault, why did I nourish myself unto more atrocious wickedness either by the confidence of false hope, or by the milk of wretched despair? For when the fault has come into practice, the mind, even if it should desire, resists it more weakly; because as many times as it is bound fast by evil frequenting, so with as many chains, as it were, it is tied to the mind. Hence it comes about that the enervated mind, when it cannot be loosed, inclines itself to certain solaces of false consolation;
so far as to promise itself that the Judge who is to come will be of such great mercy that He will not utterly slay even those whom He shall have found deserving of reproof. And to this matter a worse thing happens, namely that the tongue of many like persons consents to it, when many even exaggerate ill-done deeds with praises: whence it comes about that the fault, nourished by favors, grows without ceasing. But the wound is neglected of its cure, which seems worthy of the reward of praise. Hence it is well said through Solomon: 'My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not to them' (Prov. 1:10). For sinners give suck, when they either urge evils to be perpetrated by blandishments, or extol evils already perpetrated with favors. Or is he not given suck, of whom it is said through the Psalmist: 'For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul:
and he who works iniquity is blessed' (Ps. 9:24)? 52. The fourth degree of sin is more difficult to correct. It is also to be known that those three modes of sinners, according to the order of their descent, are more easily corrected, but this fourth is more difficultly amended. Hence too our Redeemer raises up the girl in the house, the young man outside the gate, but Lazarus in the tomb. For he lies dead still in the house, who lies hidden in sin. He is now led forth as if outside the gate, whose iniquity is laid open even to the shamelessness of public perpetration. But he is pressed down by the mound of the sepulcher, who in the perpetration of wickedness is also weighed down, oppressed by the practice of habit.
But in His mercy He recalls these to life, because very often divine grace illumines with the light of its regard those dead not only in hidden but also in open iniquities, and pressed by the mass of evil habit. But the fourth dead one our Redeemer recognizes when the disciple announces him, and yet does not raise him, because it is very difficult that he who, after the practice of evil habit, is also received by the tongues of flatterers, should be recalled from the death of his own mind. Of whom it is also well said: 'Let the dead bury their dead' (Luke 9:60). For the dead bury the dead, when sinners oppress a sinner with favors. For what else is it to sin, than to die; and to bury, than to hide?
But those who follow up the sinner with praises hide the extinguished one under the mound of their own words. Now Lazarus too was dead, yet not buried by the dead. For faithful women had covered him over, who also announced his death to the Giver of life. Hence too he returned at once to the light, because when the mind dies in sin, it is more quickly brought back to life, if over it solicitous thoughts live. But sometimes, as was also said above, false hope does not intercept the mind, but a worse despair transfixes it, which, while it utterly destroys all hope of pardon, more abundantly nourishes the soul with the milk of error. 53. Job weeps that he has sinned in the first man, and weeps the miseries of this sin.
Let the holy man, therefore, consider how much worse evils man has committed after the first fault; after he lost paradise, to what precipices of this exile he has descended, and let him say: 'Why did I not die in the womb?' that is, when the suggestion of the serpent conceived me a sinner, then would that I had recognized what death was following me, lest suggestion should snatch me even to delight, and bind me more tightly to death. 'Having come forth from the belly, why did I not immediately perish?' As if he said: Would that, going forth to the outward delight, I had recognized that I was being deprived of the inner light; and had at least succumbed in that very delight, lest death should punish more sharply through consent. 'Why received upon the knees?' As if he said:
Would that consent had by no means received me, with the senses subjected to depravity, lest that very consent should snatch me worse into boldness. 'Why suckled at the breasts?' As if he said: Would that I had been unwilling to flatter myself even after evils were perpetrated, lest I should bind myself the more wickedly to the fault, by however much more softly I cherished myself in it. By these voices of his reproofs, therefore, he convicts himself of having sinned in the first parent. But if man by sinning had in no wise descended to the misery of this exile, let him say what quiet he could have enjoyed. There follows: