約伯倫理 第 984 章

66. No one escapes death; few escape the pit of pleasures and destruction. Elijah deferred death, he did not evade it. — In an earlier part of this work (Above, book XII, chap. 6, in the new Gussanville edition, no. 13) it was treated that before the coming of the Lord even the just descended to the receptacles of hell, although they were kept not in torments, but in rest. This we now neglect to teach by testimonies, because we think it has already been sufficiently proved there. This therefore which is said: I know that Thou wilt deliver me over to death, where a house is appointed for every living thing, rightly agrees with blessed Job even according to the history, since it is certain that before the grace of the Redeemer even the just were led to the enclosures of hell.

For that reception of hell is called the house of all living, because no one comes hither who, before the coming of the Mediator, did not pass thither by the very condition of his corruption; no one comes hither who did not tend toward the death of the flesh by the steps of that same corruption. Of which death indeed it is said through the Psalmist: What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death (Ps. LXXXVIII, 49)? For even though Elijah is reported to have been caught up to heaven, he nevertheless deferred death, he did not evade it. For of him the mouth of Truth says: Elijah indeed shall come, and shall restore all things (Matth. XVII, 11). For he shall come to restore all things, because he is for this very reason restored to this world, that he may both fulfil the offices of preaching, and pay the debt of the flesh.

This saying of the holy man, nevertheless, according to the mystery of allegory, agrees with the voices of holy Church from the person of the infirm — who hold the faith in word only, but by their own desires serve against the precepts of faith. For he says: I know that Thou wilt deliver me over to death, where a house is appointed for every living thing. For because she beholds many within herself given over to pleasures, and already foreknows their destruction, she weighs that, in the way of the present life, they indeed serve their own desires, but nevertheless all who live carnally in her come to the house of death.

But there are some who fall into the pit of their pleasures, yet nevertheless, through the laments of penitence, more quickly draw back their foot from the depths — whom the blows of the supernal chastisement cut for instruction rather than for extinction. From which it is aptly subjoined: