約伯倫理 第 710 章

Verse 8. — Like a dream that flies away he shall not be found; he shall pass like a nightly vision. 7. The life of the hypocrite is like a phantasm. — What is the life of the hypocrite, but a certain vision of a phantasm, which shows in image that which it does not have in truth? Whence rightly also it is compared to a dream, because from it all praise and glory is, as it were, lost while it is held. For often in a nightly vision certain poor men marvel at being made rich, and behold honors conferred upon them, and consider that masses of riches, a multitude of attendants, beauty of garments, abundance of foods are present to them; they rejoice that they have escaped the want which with groaning they were enduring;

but suddenly, when they awake, they find how false was that in which they rejoiced, and it grieves them to have awakened, because, waking, true want holds them. So the minds of hypocrites, while one thing is what they do and another what they show to men, receive praises from that very display of sanctity, are preferred in the estimation of men to many better than themselves, and, while within themselves they are proud with silent thought, outwardly show themselves humble. And when they are immoderately praised by men, they esteem themselves also to be before God such as they rejoice to have become known to men.

Hence it comes to pass that they even presume they will receive the rewards of eternal life, and those who here exult in human praises do not at all doubt that they will there possess rest. But amid these things the hidden hour of their calling steals upon them, and when they close the eyes of the flesh they open the eyes of the mind; and as soon as they receive their eternal punishments, they see there that in the estimation of their virtues they were rich only in a dream. Well therefore is it said of this hypocrite: 'He shall pass away like a vision of the night.' For the fact that he sees himself for a moment rich in human estimations belongs to the display of a phantasm, not to the solidity of virtue. For when his mind awakens in the death of the flesh, it knows beyond doubt that it saw the favours of men about it while sleeping. There follows: