約伯倫理 第 43 章

4. The precepts given to man. — But now we ought to postpone these things, and hasten on to consider the deeds of the sacred history. Every man, by the very fact that he is a man, ought to understand his Author; to whose will let him serve the more, the more he weighs that of himself he is nothing. But behold, we have neglected to consider the God who created us. Precepts were applied; the precepts too we were unwilling to obey. Examples are added; even these examples we decline to imitate, which we behold to have been set forth for us who are placed under the Law. For because God openly spoke to certain persons placed under the Law, we look upon ourselves as strangers to those same precepts, to whom He did not speak these things specially.

Whence, to confute our impudence, a Gentile man is brought forward as an example; so that, because a man placed under the Law disdains to obey the Law, he may at least be roused by comparison with him who lived lawfully without the Law. To erring man, therefore, the Law was given; and to man erring even under the Law, the testimony of those who are outside the Law is brought in, so that, because we were unwilling to keep the order of our condition, we might be admonished by precepts; and because we contemned to obey the precepts, we might be confounded by examples; and not, as has been said, by the examples of those whom the Law bound, but of those whom no Law restrained from sin. 5. To one contemning the precepts are added the examples of Job, a Gentile man. — Divine providence has hemmed us in, has forestalled our excuse;

the approach of human evasion is closed off on every side. A Gentile man, a man without the Law, is brought into the midst, so that the depravity of those who are under the Law may be confounded. Which is well and briefly shown by the prophet in saying: Be ashamed, O Sidon, says the sea (Isa. xxiii, 4). For by Sidon indeed is figured the stability of those placed under the Law; but by the sea, the life of the Gentiles. Be ashamed, therefore, O Sidon, says the sea, because from the life of the Gentiles the life of those placed under the Law is refuted, and from the conduct of the worldly the conduct of the religious is confounded: for the former, even in promising, do not keep the things they hear in the precepts; and the latter, in living, keep those things in which they are by no means bound by the legal commands.

But with what authority this book is endowed, the sacred pages themselves more solidly attest, when through the prophet Ezekiel it is said (Ezek. xiv, 14) that three men only should be delivered, namely Noah, Daniel, and Job. And not without merit is the life of a just Gentile brought forward among the lives of the Hebrews, into the reverence of authority, because our Redeemer, just as He came for the redemption of both Jews and Gentiles, so willed Himself to be prophesied by the voices of both Jews and Gentiles; so that He might be proclaimed by each people, who was one day to suffer for each people. 6. His virtue, the more to give off fragrance, was rubbed fine by scourges. — This man, therefore, propped up by the highest powers, was known to himself and to God:

For if he had not been scourged, he would in no way have been known to us. Indeed his virtue exercised itself even in quiet, but the fame of that virtue, stirred up by scourges, sent forth its fragrance. He who while at rest kept within himself what he was, once stirred, scattered abroad the scent of his fortitude to the knowledge of all. For just as ointments cannot spread their perfume more widely unless they are stirred, and just as spices give off their fragrance only when they are set alight, so holy men make known in tribulations all that they exhale of virtue. Whence it is rightly said in the Gospel: 'If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove hence, and it shall remove' (Matthew 17:19).

For unless a grain of mustard seed is crushed, the force of its power is by no means recognized. For when uncrushed it is mild; but if it is crushed, it grows fiery, and displays that most pungent quality which lay hidden within it. So every holy man, while he is not struck, is looked upon as contemptible and mild; but if some grinding of persecution presses hard upon him, at once he shows forth all that has a burning savour, and whatever before seemed contemptible and weak in him is turned into the fervour of virtue; and that which through times of tranquillity he had willingly concealed within himself, being shaken and constrained by tribulations, becomes known. Whence it is well said by the prophet: 'In the day the Lord hath commanded his mercy, and in the night he hath declared it' (Psalm 41:9).

For the mercy of the Lord is commanded in the day, because it is received by being known in a time of tranquillity; but in the night it is declared, because the gift that is received in tranquillity is made manifest in tribulations.