約伯倫理 第 792 章

Verse 30. — The innocent shall be saved, and he shall be saved by the cleanness of his hands. The necessity of prevenient grace, which free will ought to accompany and follow. — Which sentence, if it be uttered concerning the recompense of the heavenly kingdom, is upheld by truth, because, since it is written of God: Who rendereth to every man according to his works (Romans 2:6), the justice of the eternal Judge saves in the final scrutiny him whom here his mercy frees from unclean works. But if anyone is believed to be saved here by the cleanness of his own hands, so that by his own powers he may become innocent, one errs beyond doubt, because, if the grace from above does not go before the guilty one, it will assuredly never find one innocent whom it may reward.

Whence by the truthful voice of Moses it is said: And no one is innocent before thee of himself (Exodus 34[:7]). The mercy from above, therefore, first works something in us without us, so that, our free will also following after, it may work together with us the good which we now desire — which, nevertheless, by the grace bestowed, it so rewards in us at the final judgment, as if it had proceeded from us alone. For because the divine goodness prevents us, that it may make us innocent, Paul says: By the grace of God I am what I am (1 Corinthians 15:10). And because our free will follows that same grace, he adds: And his grace in me hath not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they. Who, while he perceived himself to be nothing of himself, said:

Yet not I. And nevertheless, because he found himself to be something with grace, he added: But the grace of God with me. For he would not say 'with me' if the subsequent free will did not accompany the prevenient grace. That he might therefore show himself to be nothing without grace, he said: Not I. But that he might demonstrate himself to have worked, with grace, through free will, he added: But the grace of God with me. And so the innocent shall be saved by the cleanness of his hands, because he who here is prevented by the gift, that he may become innocent, when he is led to judgment, is rewarded out of merit. All which things Eliphaz, as has been said before, although he uttered rightly, yet he knew not to whom he was uttering them, because he ought not to teach one better than himself, but to hear.

All which things, nevertheless, by the type of heretics, agree with their promises, who, when they find any of the faithful afflicted in the present life, judge them to be struck down for the guilt of perfidy, and promise them, if they follow their dogmas, the salvation of innocence through the cleanness of good works. But the mind of the faithful despises them the more loftily, the more it sees that those men do not possess the innocence which they promise. Whence it is well said through Solomon: In vain is a net cast before the eyes of them that have wings (Proverbs 1:17). For those that have wings are the spirits of the good, who, while they fly up to higher things through the hope of truth, avoid the snares of deception set by depraved men. There follows: