約伯倫理 第 786 章

Verse 26. — Then shalt thou abound in delights upon the Almighty. Those abound in delights who know how to discern the manifold senses in the sacred Scriptures. — To abound in delights upon the Almighty is to be satiated, in the love of him, with the feast of sacred Scripture. In whose words, indeed, we find as many delights as we receive diversities of understanding for our own advancement: so that now the bare history feeds us, now the moral allegory, veiled beneath the letter of the text, refreshes us to the marrow, now contemplation lifts us up to higher things, glinting already, amid the darkness of this present life, with the light of eternity.

And it should be known that whoever abounds in delights is loosened in a certain relaxation of himself, and is released, as it were out of weariness, from the labor of exertion; because, of course, when the soul has begun to abound in inward delights, it no longer consents to bend over earthly works; but, seized by the love of the Creator, and now free in its very captivity, it sighs, fainting, to contemplate his beauty, and grows strong, as it were, by growing faint — because, while it can no longer bear to carry sordid burdens, it hastens through rest toward him whom it inwardly loves. Hence too it is written in admiration of the bride: Who is this that cometh up from the desert, abounding in delights (Song of Songs 8[:5])?

Because, of course, unless the holy Church abounded in the delights of the words of God, she could not ascend from the desert of this present life to the things above. She abounds in delights, therefore, and ascends, because, while she is fed with mystical understandings, she is daily lifted up to contemplate heavenly things. Hence too the Psalmist says: And night is my illumination in my delights (Psalm 138[:11]), because, while the studious mind is refreshed through mystical understanding, already in it the darkness of the present life is illumined by the brightness of the day that follows; so that even in the gloom of this corruption the force of that future light may break forth into understanding, and, fed with the delights of the words, may learn by foretasting what it hungers for from the food of truth. There follows: