約伯倫理 第 967 章

43. Those whom God professes not to know are foolish and base. Many, by knowing the truth, press it down and do not touch it. — For just as many are in the earth, and are hidden from the knowledge of men by the abjectness of their lowliness as by a kind of drawn-over veil, so there are some in the Church who, while they subject themselves to the abjectness of depraved works, are not known to the divine gaze. To such it must one day be said: Verily I say unto you, I know you not (Matt. xxv, 12). To be in the earth and yet to appear, therefore, is to display the nobility of the mind by the virtue of work in an upright faith. But to be in the earth and to appear not at all is indeed to stand fast in the faith within the Church, yet to demonstrate nothing worthy of faith in one's work.

These, then, within the holy Church are both seen by the eyes of the Godhead through judgement, and yet through the merit of a good life are not seen, because what they hold by confessing they do not exhibit by living. Of them Paul says: They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him (Tit. i, 16). These men, within the holy Church, rather press down than venerate the faith which they assert themselves to hold, since they long to gain their own advantage under its name rather than his gain. But the elect, while by upright works they take care to preserve the merit of faith, draw near to the knowledge of their Author even amid the tumults of the reprobate. This was well signified in the Gospel by the woman suffering from an issue of blood, of whom, when the Lord said: Who touched me? (Luke viii, 45),

Peter answered by way of reasoning: The multitude throng thee and press upon thee, and thou sayest, Who touched me? But he deserved to hear the causes of the true reason, when the Lord said to him: Someone touched me, for I too perceived that virtue went out from me. Behold, the crowds were pressing upon the Lord, and yet she alone touched him who came to him humbly; for surely many even in the holy Church, being reprobate, press down the truth by knowing it, which they neglect to touch by living well. They press it down, and are far off, because they follow the divine knowledge by their professions, and flee it by their habits. They press it down, I say, yet are far off, because by acting they contradict the very faith which they build up by speaking.

As, therefore, we are taught by this testimony that some, by touching the Lord, do not touch him, so some are not seen by the Lord even when they are seen, because to his hidden gaze they both appear unto the punishment of damnation, and appear not unto the merit of election. Rightly then may it be said: And those in the earth appearing not at all; because although the Church held them in outward semblance, yet within her the Creator, as it were, did not see those whom he knew not. These, in a time of tranquillity, hold the faith only in word, because they see that same faith generally flourishing.

But when a sudden storm of adversity arises against her, straightway they are cut off from her by public denial, and whatever they had before held as though venerating it, this afterward they assail with mockery. Whereupon it is fitly subjoined: