約伯倫理 第 228 章

Verse 22. — 'And they rejoice exceedingly when they find the grave.' 9. Divine contemplation is a grave in which the mind, dead to the world, rests. — For just as the grave is the place where the body is hidden, so divine contemplation is a certain grave of the mind, where the soul is hidden. For, as it were, we still live to this world, when in mind we wander forth into it; but, dead, we are hidden in the grave, when, mortified outwardly, we are concealed in the secret of inward contemplation. Holy men, therefore, do not cease to mortify themselves, with the sword of the sacred word, from the importunity of temporal desires, from the tumult of useless cares, from the clamour of clattering perturbations, and to hide themselves within, before the face of God, in the bosom of the mind.

Whence it is well said through the Psalmist: 'Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy countenance, from the disturbance of men' (Ps. 30:21). Which, although it is done perfectly hereafter, is even now in great part wrought, when they are snatched away by delight from the tumults of temporal desires into the inward things; so that their mind, while it is wholly stretched out into the love of God, may be torn by no useless perturbation. Hence it is that Paul had beheld his disciples, through contemplation, dead and, as it were, hidden in the grave, to whom he said: 'For ye are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God' (Col. 3:3-4).

He therefore who seeks death rejoices when he finds the grave, because he who longs to mortify himself grows exceedingly glad at the rest of contemplation he has found; so that, extinguished, he may lie hidden from the world, and, away from all the perturbations of outward things, may hide himself within the bosom of inmost love. 10. The dead of old were buried with their riches. But if to this—that the treasure is said to be dug up—the finding of the grave also is subjoined, this it is necessary that our understanding perceive, that the ancients used to overwhelm the dead with riches.

He therefore who seeks a treasure rejoices when he has found the grave, because when, seeking wisdom, we turn over the pages of sacred Scripture, when we search through the examples of those who went before, we take joy, as it were, from a grave, because we find the riches of the mind among the dead: who, because they are perfectly extinguished to this world, rest in the hidden place with their riches. By the grave, therefore, is he made rich who, through the examples of the just, is raised up in the virtue of contemplation. But since the enquirer says: 'Why is light given to him that is in misery?'—why he presumes to enquire this very thing, he intimates, saying: