約伯倫理 第 857 章

30. The angels and men who are proud are wrapped in the abyss of ignorance.—For it was fitting that first by rebuke he should beat back the swelling of earthly wisdom, and afterwards by doctrine pass over to words full of mysteries. For nothing hinders us from understanding by the giants either the apostate angels or any proud men whatever. For hence it is said through the prophet: 'The dead shall not live, the giants shall not rise again' (Isaiah XXVI, 14). Whom does he name as the dead but sinners? And whom as giants but those who are even proud of their sin? But those do not live, because by sinning they lost the life of justice. These moreover cannot rise again after death, because after their fault, puffed up by pride, they do not have recourse to the remedies of penitence.

Hence again it is written: 'The man who has erred from the way of doctrine shall dwell in the assembly of the giants' (Prov. XXI, 16); because whoever forsakes the path of uprightness, to whose number does he join himself but that of the proud spirits? But well is it said against the arrogant: 'Behold, the giants groan under the waters.' As if it were openly said: Why should man be proud of knowledge, when the abyss of ignorance presses even those proudest spirits of the angels? 31. Those who aspire to be over others are placed beneath them.—But if by the name of giants the powerful of this world are designated, by the waters peoples can be figured, John attesting, who says: 'For the waters are peoples' (Rev. XVII, 15). But well is it said against the one who is proud:

'Behold, the giants groan under the waters,' because all the arrogant, while in this life they desire to attain the height of honours, groan under the weights of peoples. For the more anyone here is exalted above another, so much the more is he burdened with heavier cares; and he is placed beneath, in mind and thought, those very peoples above whom he is set in dignity. And well is it briefly indicated by these words that all pride, by that very thing lies in the depth by which it raises itself on high, so that from thence it is the more placed beneath all, from whence it seeks to be over all. For man, lifted up in high places, sustains over himself as many as he rules placed beneath him. But those who are associated with such persons, they too are pressed down by the participation of their labour.

For they tolerate together with them even the labour of the burden, while together they long for the glory of honour. Whence, when he had said, 'Behold, the giants groan under the waters,' at once he added: