約伯倫理 第 897 章

47. Fire in the last judgment shall divide the upright from the wicked. — What was that people of the Jews, hard in its perfidy, which would not by faith behold the Author of life whom it foretold by prophecy, save 'a stone of darkness' (Job XXVIII, 3)? For it was both hard through cruelty and clouded through unbelief. Which is also called by another name 'the shadow of death.' For such a shadow is expressed as were the lineaments of the thing from which it is drawn. And who is called by the name of death, save the devil? Of whom, through a certain signification of his minister, it is said: 'And his name was Death' (Revelation VI, 8). Of whom that people was a shadow, because, following his iniquity, it expressed his image in itself.

But what is called by the name of the torrent, save that fire which, going forth from the presence of the terrible Judge by the final examination, divides the elect and the reprobate? Whence also it is said by the prophet: 'A swift river of fire went forth from before Him' (Daniel VII, 10). 48. All the elect are pilgrims in the world. — But what people sojourns as a pilgrim in this world, save that which, running to the lot of the elect, knows it has a fatherland in the heavens; and hopes the more to find its own possessions there, the more it reckons all things that pass away here to be foreign to itself?

The people, therefore, that is a pilgrim, is the whole number of the elect, who, reckoning this life a kind of exile for themselves, sigh with the whole intention of their heart toward the heavenly fatherland; of whom Paul says: 'Confessing that they are pilgrims and strangers upon the earth' (Hebrews XI, 13). For they who say these things signify that they seek a fatherland. This pilgrimage the same Apostle also endured, when he said: 'While we are in the body, we are pilgrims from the Lord. For we walk by faith, and not by sight' (2 Corinthians V, 6-7). The hardships of this pilgrimage he was busy to escape, when he said: 'Having a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ' (Philippians I, 23). And again: 'To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain' (ibid. I, 21).

The heavy burden of this pilgrimage the Psalmist felt, when he said: 'Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar; my soul hath been long a sojourner' (Psalm CXIX, 5-6). From this he panted to be snatched away as swiftly as possible, when, burning with heavenly desires, he said: 'My soul hath thirsted after the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?' (Psalm XLI, 3). But this desire they know not who fix their heart on earthly pleasures. For while they love only the things that are visible, they assuredly do not love the invisible, or, if they believe them to exist, do not love them; because, while they follow themselves too much outwardly, they become carnal even in mind.

For both peoples run together in this life, but do not together arrive at the eternal, because 'the torrent divideth the stone of darkness and the shadow of death from the sojourning people.' As if he plainly said: Those whom now either unbelief blinds or cruelty hardens, the river of flames, going forth from the presence of the eternal Judge, then separates from the people of the elect, so that fire may then divide by strict examination from the good those whom now the darkness of vices blinds in their own lusts. 49. The watering of preaching, like a torrent, divides the good from the wicked. — Perchance by the name of the torrent may be understood that very watering of holy preaching, according to that which is said by Solomon:

'The eye that mocketh at his father, and that despiseth the labour of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens of the torrents pick it out' (Proverbs XXX, 17). For the perverse, while they reprehend the divine judgments, mock at the father. And any heretics whatsoever, while by deriding they despise the preaching of the holy Church and her fruitfulness, what else do they but despise the child-bearing of their mother? Whom not undeservedly we call their mother also, because from her go forth those who speak against her; John attesting, who says: 'They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us' (1 John II, 19). But the ravens come from the torrents, when true preachers go forth from the streams of the sacred books to the defence of the holy Church.

Who are also rightly called ravens, because they by no means pride themselves on the light of their own righteousness, but through the grace of humility confess in themselves the blackness of sinners. Whence it is also said by the Church of the elect: 'I am black, but comely' (Canticles I, 4). And John says: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves' (1 John I, 8). Which ravens, indeed, pick out the eye of the mocker, because they overcome the intention of depraved and obstinate men. From this testimony, therefore, if here too the torrent should be understood as preaching, 'the torrent divideth the stone of darkness and the shadow of death from the sojourning people,' since the preaching of the saints forsakes the hardened minds of the reprobate, and turns itself to the pious hearts of the humble.

Whence there is further subjoined: