約伯倫理 第 917 章

81. All the heavenly citizens are holy and just, but by participation in the divine wisdom, not by comparison. — For all the elect of the heavenly country are indeed holy and just; but by participation in Wisdom, not by comparison. For what are men compared to God? Wisdom is wont to be called light, and its servants also light. But that is the light illuminating, these the light illuminated; as it is written: 「There was the true Light, which lighteneth every man that cometh into this world」 (John i, 9). But to these it is said only: 「Ye are the light of the world」 (Matt. v, 14). Wisdom indeed is justice, and the servants of Wisdom are also called justice; but that is the justice justifying, while these are the justice justified.

For of God, who is Wisdom, it is said: 「That he might be just, and the justifier」 (Rom. iii, 26); but these say: 「That we might be made the justice of God in him」 (2 Cor. v, 21). In one way, therefore, the illuminating light is to be venerated, in another the illuminated light; in one way the justifying justice, in another the justified justice. But Wisdom is, and is wise; nor has it one thing to be, and another to be wise; whereas the servants of Wisdom can indeed be wise, yet do not have this being to be the same as being wise; for they can be, and yet not be wise. Wisdom has life, but it does not have one thing and be another, since for it to be is the same as to live.

But the servants of Wisdom, when they have life, are one thing and have another, since for them to be is not the same as to live; for they can in some respect be, and yet not live. For with them it is one thing to be, and another to live, because in that first parent they had essence through their beginning, and life through addition; since man was first made of the earth, and afterward, as it is written: 「He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man was made into a living soul」 (Gen. ii, 7). But Wisdom has essence, has life; yet that which it has, it itself is. Therefore it lives unchangeably, because it lives not by accident, but essentially.

It alone, therefore, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, truly is, to whose essence our being, compared, is a not-being. If we are joined to this, we are, we live, we are wise; if we are compared to this, we neither are wise, nor live at all, nor are. 82. The more the saints know God, the more do they become vile in their own eyes. — Hence it is that all the saints, when they advance in the vision of God, the more they behold the inward things of the divinity, the more do they know themselves to be nothing. For it is nowhere read that Abraham professed himself to be ashes and dust, save when he deserved to have converse with God. For he says: 「I will speak unto my Lord, seeing I am dust and ashes」 (Gen. xviii, 27).

For he might perhaps have believed himself to be something, had he not perceived the true Essence which is above him. But when he was caught up to contemplate the unchangeable One above himself, filled with such power of contemplation, while he beheld him, he saw himself to be nothing but dust. Hence it is also that the Prophet, filled with the same Wisdom, cries out: 「Remember, O Lord, that we are dust」 (Ps. cii, 15). Who again, having contemplated the unchangeableness of the same Essence, says: 「They all shall wax old as a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail」 (Ps. ci, 27, 28). Hence it is said to Moses: 「I am that I am; and thou shalt say unto the children of Israel: He who is hath sent me unto you」 (Exod.

iii, 14, 15). For he alone truly is, who alone unchangeably abides. For everything which is now thus, and now otherwise, is next to non-being. For it cannot remain in its own state. And in some manner it goes toward non-being, while it is ever led by moments of time from what it had been unto something else. Therefore, that we may be something in the participation of that Essence, let us know ourselves, for we are nearly nothing. Well then is it said: 「Neither shall they be remembered in comparison of it」; for the lofty and eminent vessels of gold, which from the participation of Wisdom are to be venerated by us, are not even to be mentioned in comparison with Wisdom.

But because this Wisdom is secretly poured into human hearts, even as it was also said of the Holy Spirit: 「The Spirit bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth」 (John iii, 8), therefore it is subjoined: