約伯倫理 第 866 章

45. That by the Lord's Incarnation the world was tamed, its swelling pressed down. — What else is designated by the name of the sea but the present world, in which the hearts of men seeking earthly things swell up with the diverse waves of their thoughts? Who, stirred up by the elation of pride, while they assail one another with mutual striving, collide as it were like a wave that resists itself. But now 'in His strength the seas are gathered together,' because, the Lord being incarnate, the discordant hearts of worldly men believe in concord. Now Peter walks upon the sea, because those hearts once swollen are drawn under, by humble hearing, to the preachers of Christ; so that rightly in the Gospel too he figured the meekness of this world, in that the stormy water of the sea was trodden underfoot by the feet of the Lord, its swelling pressed down.

But in what manner this was done is disclosed, when it is said: 'And by His prudence He hath smitten the proud one.' 46. That God chose rather to smite the devil by prudence than by strength. The economy of the Incarnation. — Who is here called the proud one, but he who said: 'I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High' (Isa. 14:14)? And of whom it is said by the voice of God: 'He is made so as to fear no one, and he is king over all the sons of pride' (Job 41:25). With which sentence David the prophet also agrees, saying: 'Thou hast humbled the proud one, as one that is wounded' (Ps. 89:11).

But although to the simple nature of the divinity it is not one thing to be and another to be wise, nor one thing to be wise and another to be strong — since that very strength is the wisdom, and that very wisdom is the essence of the divinity — yet I think it must be vigilantly considered that this man, full of the prophetic Spirit, chose rather to say that the proud devil was smitten by the prudence of God than by His strength. For he does not say 'His strength,' but 'His prudence hath smitten the proud one.' For although, as has been said, on account of the simple nature the strength of God is His wisdom, yet the Lord overcame the devil, so far as regards the outward face of the matter, not by power, but by reason.

For the devil himself, supplanting us in that root of our first parent, held man under his captivity as though justly — man who, created with free will, consented to him as he persuaded to injustice. For created unto life in the liberty of his own will, of his own accord he became a debtor of death. Such guilt, then, had to be blotted out, but it could not be blotted out save by sacrifice. A sacrifice had to be sought; but what sacrifice could be found for the absolving of men? For neither was it just that for rational man the victims of brute animals should be slain. Whence the Apostle says: 'It is necessary, therefore, that the patterns of heavenly things be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these' (Heb. 9:23).

Therefore, if brute animals, on account of the rational animal — that is, for man — were not worthy victims, a man had to be sought who ought to be offered for men, so that for the rational sinner a rational victim might be sacrificed. But what of this, that a man without sin could not be found; and the victim offered for us — when could it have cleansed us from sin, if that victim itself were not free from the contagion of sin? For being defiled it could not have cleansed the defiled. Therefore, that the victim might be rational, a man had to be offered; but that it might cleanse man from sins, a man, and one without sin. But who could be a man without sin, if he descended from the intermixture of sin?

Therefore for our sake the Son of God came into the womb of the Virgin; there for us He was made man. Nature was taken from her, not guilt. He made for us a sacrifice; He offered His own body for sinners as a victim without sin, which could both die by its humanity and cleanse by its righteousness. This one, then, when the ancient enemy saw Him after baptism, he straightway assailed Him with temptations, and, having striven to creep in through diverse approaches to His inner parts, he was conquered, and laid low by the very unassailable integrity of His mind (Matt. 4:1 ff.). 47. That the devil, having tempted Christ within in vain, assailed Him without.

— But he who could not prevail against the inner parts turned himself to His outer parts, so that, because he was conquered by the strength of His mind, he might at least seem to overcome by the death of the flesh Him whom he could not deceive by temptation; and, as was said before us, he was permitted against that which the Mediator had taken from us mortals. But where he was able to do something, there he was on every side utterly conquered; and whence he received the outward power of slaying the Lord's flesh, thence the inner power of his by which he held us was slain. For he himself was conquered within, while he as it were conquered without; and he who held us by right as debtors of death, by right lost in us the right of death, because through his satellites he attacked the flesh of Him to be slain, in whom he found nothing owed from guilt.

Our Lord therefore for us paid a death not owed, that the owed death might not harm us. Well then is it said: 'His prudence hath smitten the proud one,' because the ancient enemy, through the excess of his presumption, lost even him whom he possessed by the law of unjust persuasion; and while he boldly craved Him in whom nothing was his due, by right he lost him whom he held as though justly. By prudence, therefore, not by strength, was he smitten, who, while he is loosed to tempt God, is bound from possessing us — so that thence he might lose him who was under him, whence he had presumed to contend with Him who is above him. But when the Lord had been slain in the flesh, what glory of virtues followed His preachers is narrated, when it is added: