Verse 24. 'Teach me, and I will hold my peace; and if I have in anything erred, instruct me.' 51. Under what balance of distinction it hangs seems uncertain; whether it be subjoined to that which he had brought forward, 'Did I say?'; or whether a sentence disjoined from what precedes is brought out, by which, by way of rebuke, it may be said: 'Teach me, and I will hold my peace; and if I have in anything erred, instruct me.' Yet it suits either distinction, because by neither does it recede from the track of sound understanding. But since we have said these things in passing by way of allegory, it remains that we should search out the words of the history morally. —The moral sense. 52. What manner of soul the poor man, the oppressed, and the fool for God's sake possesses.
Blessed Job had endured the losses of his goods; delivered over to the strokes of the malignant spirits, he felt the pains of his wounds; but, loving the wise foolishness of God, he had trodden underfoot the foolish wisdom of the world with contempt of mind. Therefore against the rich of the world he is called poor, against the powerful oppressed, against the wise a fool. He answered three things, because neither as a poor man does he seek their substance, nor as an oppressed man help against the mighty, nor as a fool the doctrine of carnal wisdom. For the holy man, because he is caught up in mind above his very self, both, being poor, is not straitened by want, and, being oppressed, suffers nothing, and, willingly a fool, admires not carnal wisdom. Hence it is that another oppressed and poor man says:
'We are perplexed, but not in despair; we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken; we are cast down, but perish not' (2 Cor. 4:8[-9]). Hence it is that, insinuating the wisdom of holy foolishness, he says: 'The foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise' (1 Cor. 1:27). And: 'If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise' (1 Cor. 3:18). Hence too, laying open both the glory of oppression and the riches of desired poverty, he says: 'As dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and possessing all things' (2 Cor. 6:9[-10]). 53.
The loftiness of the saints who are outwardly oppressed. And their freedom in reproving the powers. Amid these things it is pleasing to lift up the eyes of the mind, and to see over what great a citadel within the elect of God, outwardly oppressed, preside. For all things that are eminent without lie prostrate through contempt before their hidden gaze. For, caught up within above themselves, they fix their mind on high; and whatever they suffer in this life they behold as things far below, gliding away and alien from them; and, so to speak, while they strive to be made in mind outside the flesh, they almost are ignorant of the very things they endure. In their eyes indeed whatever is temporally eminent is not high.
For, as though set on the summit of a great mountain, they look down upon the plains of the present life, and, transcending their very selves through spiritual loftiness, they see subjected beneath themselves within whatever swells outwardly through carnal glory. Whence also they spare no powers set against the truth; but those whom they behold to be lifted up through pride, they press down through the authority of the spirit. Hence it is that Moses, coming from the desert, assails the king of Egypt out of authority, saying: 'Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: How long wilt thou refuse to submit thyself unto me? Let my people go, that they may sacrifice unto me' (Exod. 10:3). To whom, when Pharaoh, pressed with plagues, said, 'Go, sacrifice to your God in this land' (Exod.
8:25), with authority increased he straightway answered: 'It cannot be so done; we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God the abominations of the Egyptians' (Ibid., 26). Hence it is that Nathan assails the sinning king, first setting before him the likeness of the transgression committed, and holding him guilty by the voice of his own judgment, straightway added, saying: 'Thou art the man, who hast done this thing' (2 Sam. 12:7). Hence it is that the man of God, sent to Samaria to destroy idolatry, while king Jeroboam was casting incense upon the altar, not fearing the king, not pressed by dread of death, intrepid against the altar exercised the authority of a free voice, saying: 'O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord God:
Behold, a son shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall offer upon thee the priests of the high places' (1 Kings 13[:2]). Hence it is that Ahab, proud, subjected to the service of idols, when he presumed to rebuke Elijah, saying, 'Art thou he, that troubleth Israel?' (1 Kings 18:17), Elijah straightway struck the folly of the proud king with the authority of free rebuke, saying: 'I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and have followed Baalim.' Hence it is that Elisha, following the true loftiness of his master, confounded Jehoram the son of Ahab, coming to him with king Jehoshaphat, out of the guilt of his perfidy, saying: 'What have I to do with thee?
Go to the prophets of thy father and of thy mother' (2 Kings 3:13). And: 'As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee' (Ibid., 14). Hence it is that the same man fixed Naaman, coming to him with horses and chariots, before the door of the house, and did not run out to the abundance of talents and of garments; he opened not the door of the house, but commanded through a messenger that he should be washed seven times in the Jordan (2 Kings 5:9-10). Whence also the same Naaman departed in wrath, saying: 'I thought that he would come out to me' (Ibid., 11).
Hence it is that Peter, when the priests and rulers, even raging with scourges, forbade him to speak in the name of Jesus, straightway answered with great authority, saying: 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard' (Acts 4:19[-20]). Hence it is that Paul, when he beheld the ruler of the priests sitting against the truth, and the minister of the same had struck him with the palm of the hand, uttered no curse in perturbation, but, filled with the Spirit, prophesied with free voice, saying: 'God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. For sittest thou to judge me according to the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?' (Ibid., 5[, 3]).
Hence it is that Stephen, against the violence of his persecutors, was not afraid, even when about to die, to exercise the authority of his voice, saying: 'Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do ye' (Acts 7:51). 54. This freedom of the saints springs from zeal for the truth, not from the vice of pride. But since holy men leap forth to words of such loftiness out of zeal for the truth, and not out of the vice of pride, they themselves plainly indicate it, who by their other deeds and words make manifest both with how great humility they abound, and with how great charity they burn toward those whom they reprove. For pride begets hatred, humility love.
Therefore words which love makes sharp assuredly flow from the fount of humility. How, then, could Stephen utter his rebuke out of pride, who, for the very men whom he had rebuked—men growing to worse things and stoning him—prayed with bent knees, saying: 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge' (Ibid., 59[60])? How did Paul out of pride bring forth words of harshness against the priest and ruler of his own nation, who in humility abases himself even to the service of his disciples, saying: 'For we preach not ourselves, but our Lord Jesus Christ; and ourselves your servants through Christ' (2 Cor. 4:5)?
How did Peter resist the rulers out of pride, who, having compassion on their error, as it were excuses their guilt, saying: 'I know that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But God, who before had showed by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ should suffer, hath so fulfilled it' (Acts 3:17[-18]). Whom he mercifully draws to life, saying: 'Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out' (Ibid., 19). How did Elisha out of pride refuse to see Naaman, who allowed himself not only to be beheld, but even to be held, by a woman? of whom it is written: 'And when she came to the man of God to the mount, she caught him by the feet; and Gehazi came near to thrust her away; and the man of God said:
Let her alone, for her soul is in bitterness' (2 Kings 4:27). How did Elijah bring forth words of rebuke to the proud king through swelling pride, who humbly ran before his chariot, as it is written: 'And he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab' (1 Kings 18:46)? How did the man of God despise the presence of Jeroboam out of pride, who out of piety straightway restored his withered right hand to its former soundness? as it is written: 'And when the king had heard the word of the man of God, which he had cried against the altar in Bethel, he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him; and his hand dried up' (1 Kings 13:4). And a little after: 'The man of God besought the face of the Lord;
and the king's hand was restored to him, and became as it was before' (Ibid., 6). For because pride knows not how to beget virtues, it is shown out of how great humility the voice of rebuke proceeds, which signs accompany. How did Nathan swell with pride against king David through words of rebuke, who, when the fault to be rebuked was absent, prostrated himself in his sight bowed to the ground, as it is written: 'They told the king, saying, Behold Nathan the prophet. And when he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground' (1 Kings 1:23)? How could Moses, freely resisting the king of Egypt, despise him, who, familiarly conversing with God, humbly did reverence to his kinsman Jethro who followed him (Exod. 18:7)?
To whose counsel also he yielded such obedience that after the secret colloquies with God he counted it great gain to hear from the mouth of a man outwardly. 55. Let those who reprove others not flatter themselves.—From the other deeds, therefore, of the saints we learn what we ought to weigh concerning others. For holy men are neither free through pride, nor submissive through fear; but when rectitude raises them to freedom of voice, consideration of their own infirmity keeps them in humility. For although, reproving from on high, they strike the faults of transgressors, yet, judging themselves more subtly within themselves, they place themselves as it were among the abject; and the more they pursue perverse things in others, the more fiercely do they return to repress themselves;
and again, the more they in no way spare themselves who do better things, the more vigilantly do they reprove the deeds of others. For what shall they be able outwardly to admire concerning human power, who despise their very selves, even when they now almost lay hold of the citadel of inmost loftiness? Therefore they rightly judge from without the height of earthly eminence, because within, the weight of swelling pride burdens not their eye. Whence also blessed Job, when in his friends who spoke harsh things he despised earthly prudence, might, and substance, saying: 'Did I say, Bring unto me, and give me of your substance? or, Deliver me from the hand of the enemy, and rescue me from the hand of the mighty? Teach me, and I will hold my peace; and if I have in anything erred, instruct me.'
What he feels about himself he makes plain a little further on, saying: 'You rush upon the orphan' (verse 27). Clearer than light, then, it is evident how great a weakness he perceives in himself, whom he calls an orphan. There follows: