約伯倫理 第 78 章

The same. — 'Simple and upright, fearing God, and departing from evil.' 36. The simplicity and rectitude of the just. — Whosoever seeks the eternal fatherland lives, without doubt, simply and uprightly: simple, namely, in works; upright in faith; simple in the good things which he does here below, upright in the highest things which he perceives in his inmost being. For there are some who are not simple in the good things which they do, while in them they seek not reward inwardly, but favour outwardly. Whence well is it said through a certain wise man: 'Woe to the sinner that goeth upon the earth two ways' (Ecclus. ii, 14). For the sinner goes upon the earth two ways, when he both shows in work what is God's, and seeks through thought what is the world's. 37.

It begins from fear, is consummated in charity. — Now it is well said: 'Fearing God, and departing from evil'; because the holy Church of the elect begins the ways of its simplicity and rectitude with fear, but consummates them with charity. To it belongs then to depart utterly from evil, when out of the love of God it has already begun to be unwilling to sin. But while it still did good things out of fear, it had not utterly departed from evil; because by that very thing it sins, in that it would wish to sin, if it could do so unpunished. Rightly therefore, when Job is said to fear God, he is also recorded to depart from evil; because, while charity follows upon fear, that which is left behind in the mind, even by the purpose of thought, is the fault which is trodden down.

And because from fear each vice is repressed, but from charity the virtues arise, rightly is it subjoined; Ver. 2. — 'And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters.' 38. The seven sons of Job signify as many gifts of the Holy Spirit; the three daughters, hope, faith, and charity. — For seven sons are born to us, when through the conception of good thought, the seven virtues of the Holy Spirit arise in us. For this inner offspring the prophet enumerates, when the Spirit makes fruitful the mind, saying: 'The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him' (Isa. xi, 2).

When therefore, through the coming of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord are begotten in each one of us, as it were an abiding posterity is propagated in the mind, which preserves the more lastingly unto life the race of our supernal nobility, the more it associates it with the love of eternity. But the seven sons have in us their three sisters without doubt, because whatsoever the manly sense of the virtues does, they join to hope, faith, and charity. For the seven sons do not attain to the perfection of the denarius, unless all that they do be in faith, hope, and charity. But because upon this preceding abundance of virtues there follows the manifold thought of good works, rightly is it subjoined: