約伯倫理 第 225 章

Verse 2. — 'And life to those who are in bitterness of soul.' 3. Here both the elect and the reprobate are in bitterness; by what distinction. — In bitterness of soul, assuredly, are all the elect, because either they do not cease to punish by weeping what they have transgressed, or they afflict themselves with grave grief, because, cast far hence from the face of their Creator, they are not yet in the joys of the eternal fatherland. Concerning whose heart it is well said through Solomon: 'The heart that knoweth the bitterness of its own soul, in its joy the stranger shall not intermingle' (Prov. 14:10). For in bitterness are also the hearts of the reprobate, because they too are afflicted by their own depraved desires; but they know not that same bitterness, because, blinded by their own will, they cannot weigh what they endure.

But, on the contrary, the heart of the good knows its own bitterness, because it understands the hardship of the exile in which, cast forth, it is torn; and it perceives how tranquil are the things it has lost, how confused those into which it has fallen. But this embittered heart is at times brought back to its own joy, and into its joy the stranger does not intermingle; because he who now casts himself outward from this grief of heart through his desires, will then, excluded, remain apart from that inmost solemnity of it. 4. Who is dead to the world, and to whom the world is dead. — These, then, who are in bitterness of soul, long utterly to die to the world; that just as they themselves crave nothing in the world, so they may now be held by no obligation from the world.

And it very often happens that a man already holds not the world in his mind, but yet the world binds the man with occupations: and he indeed is already dead to the world, but the world is not yet dead to him. For the world, as though he were still alive, beholds him, while it strives to snatch him, intent on other things, into its own doings. Whence, well, Paul, when he both perfectly despised the world, and saw himself made such a one that this world could no longer covet him at all, being free, with the bonds of this life broken, says: 'The world is crucified to me, and I to the world' (Gal. 6:14). For the world had been crucified to him, because he no longer loved it, now dead to his own heart.

But he had also crucified himself to the world, because he strove to present himself to it such that he could not be coveted by it, as one dead. For if the dead and the living are in one place, even though the dead does not see the living, the living nevertheless sees the dead; but if both are dead, neither sees the other at all. So he who now loves not the world, but is nevertheless loved by it even against his will, although he himself, as it were dead, does not see the world, yet the world, not yet dead, still sees him. But if he himself neither holds the world in love, nor in turn is held by the love of the world, then both are mutually extinguished to each other; because, while neither craves the other, the dead one attends to the other as to one dead.

Because, therefore, Paul neither sought the glory of the world, nor was himself sought by the glory of the world, he glories that both he is crucified to the world, and the world to him. And because many crave this, but yet do not by every means rise up to the summit of extinction, rightly do they, groaning, say: 'Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to those who are in bitterness of soul?' For life is given to the embittered, when the glory of this world is bestowed upon the sorrowful and groaning. In which life, indeed, they afflict themselves with the punishment of a most vigorous fear, because although they themselves hold not the world, they yet still fear to be such as may be held by the world; for unless they lived to it in however small a degree, it would without doubt not love them for its own use.

For the sea retains living bodies within itself; but the dead it forthwith casts out of itself. There follows: