約伯倫理 第 475 章

Ver. 16. Thou shalt forget misery too, and as of waters that have passed away, thou shalt not remember it. 32. The evils of this life are not grievous to one who ponders eternal goods. The soul feels the evils of the present life the more harshly, the more it neglects to weigh the good that follows; and, because it will not consider the rewards that remain, it esteems as grievous the things it endures. Hence too, against the stroke of the scourge, blind thought complains, and, as it were, an infinite calamity is believed to be that which is daily finished as the days waste away in their course. But if once anyone raises himself to things eternal, and fixes the eye of the heart on those things which abide immutably, he sees that almost nothing is here whatever runs to an end.

He endures the adversities of the present life, but esteems as nothing all that passes away. For the more robustly he inserts himself into inward joys, the less does he outwardly feel griefs. Hence Zophar, in no way afraid with rash daring to teach a better man, exhorts to righteousness, and shows how no punishment appears in the eyes of the just. As if he plainly said: If thou tastest the joy that abides within, straightway light becomes all that grieves without. And well does he compare the miseries of the present life to passing waters, because a passing calamity by no means overwhelms the mind of the elect with the force of its shock, but yet drenches it with the touch of sorrow. For it is indeed made wet through the gore of the wound, even though it is not broken from the certainty of its salvation. [Old Version,

ch. XX.] But often not only do scourges wear one down, but in the soul of each just man the temptations of malignant spirits also rage, so that outwardly he grieves from the blow, and inwardly to some extent grows cold from temptation. But grace by no means forsakes him, for the more harshly it strikes us out of its dispensation, the more abundantly it guards us out of its piety. For when it begins to grow dark through temptation, the inner light kindles itself again. Hence it is subjoined: