約伯倫理 第 388 章

Verse 15. He shall lean upon his house, and it shall not stand; he shall prop it up, and it shall not rise. 74. The hypocrite's house, upon which he leans, is human favour. It cannot stand. — Just as the house of our outward conversation is the building which the body inhabits, so the house of our thought is any thing whatever which the mind inhabits through love. For everything we love we inhabit as though resting therein. Whence Paul, because he had fixed his heart on things above, though placed indeed on the earth, yet a stranger to the earth, said: Our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).

The mind of the hypocrite therefore, in everything it does, thinks of nothing else but the glory of its own reputation, nor does it care whither it is afterward led by merit, but only what is said of it meanwhile. His house therefore is the delight of favour, which he inhabits as it were at rest, because through all his works he reclines within his mind upon this. But this house cannot stand, because praise passes away with life, and human favour does not subsist in judgment. Whence also the foolish virgins, who had not taken oil in their vessels, because they had glory in the voices of others and not in their own consciences, being troubled at the presence of the bridegroom, say: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out (Matt. 25:8).

For to seek oil from one's neighbours is to implore the glory of good work from the testimony of another's mouth. For the empty mind, when with all its labours it has found that it kept nothing within, seeks testimony without. As if the foolish virgins were openly to say: Since you behold us being repelled without recompense, tell us what you saw in our work. 75. Nor shall the hypocrite's confidence of holiness stand any better in judgment. — But in vain does the hypocrite then lean upon this house of praise, because human attestation avails him nothing in judgment; for that same praise which he afterward demands in testimony, he received before as his reward.

Or certainly the hypocrite leans upon his house when, deceived by empty favours, he is exalted as it were by confidence in holiness. For hypocrites do many evils in secret, but certain goods in public. And when from their manifest goods they receive praises, they turn the eyes of consideration away from their hidden evils; and they esteem themselves such as they hear themselves to be outwardly, not such as they know themselves within. Whence it very often comes about that they come even to the supernal judgment with confidence, because they believe themselves before the inward Arbiter such as they were held to be by men outwardly. But the house of the hypocrite cannot stand, because in the terror of the strict examination all his former confidence of holiness falls.

And when he shall have recognized that the testimonies of another's mouth are lacking to him, he turns to enumerating his own works. Whence it is also added: He shall prop it up, and it shall not rise. For that which of itself cannot stand is propped up that it may stand, because when the hypocrite beholds his life being cast down in judgment, he strives to set it up by propping it with an enumeration of works. Do they not prop up on this side and that the dwelling-place of their praise, who, enumerating their deeds in judgment, as we said before, say: Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works (Matt. 7:22)?

But the house of praise, propped up by so many allegations, in no way rises, because straightway the Judge says: I never knew you; depart from me, you that work iniquity (Matt. 7:23). And it is to be known that that which rises lifts itself up from the lowest to the higher. Therefore the house of the hypocrite cannot rise, because through everything he was able to do according to the heavenly precepts, he never lifted his mind from the earth. Rightly therefore is he then in no way raised to the reward of retribution, who through that which he now displays lies prostrate in the appetite for temporal glory.

But since we have heard how the life of the hypocrite, marked by the name of the rush, is reprobated in judgment, let us hear, before the strict Judge appears, of what sort he is held to be by men. There follows: