Job 28,
23. God understandeth, the way thereof; and He knoweth the place
thereof.
...6.
Although this may also be understood in another sense. For ‘the way thereof’
is not inappropriately taken to be that actual thing that comes into the
mind, and infuses itself into us in the interior. And ‘the place thereof’
the heart becomes, coming unto which She abides. Thus of this Her way it is
said, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of
the Lord [Matt. 3, 3]; i.e. ‘Open in your hearts an entrance to Wisdom
at Her coming;’ as it is elsewhere said; Make a way for him, that
ascendeth above the setting. [Ps. 68, 4. Vulg.] For to ‘ascend over the
setting,’ was by rising again to have got the mastery over that very death,
He had undergone. And so he says, For him, that ascendeth above the
setting, make ye a way; i.e. ‘To the Lord on His rising again make a way
in your hearts by faith.’ Hence it is said to John by the Spirit; Thou
shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare His way. [Luke 1, 76]
For everyone that by preaching cleanses the hearts of those that hear him
from the defilements of bad habits, prepares a way for Wisdom on Her
coming. Thus, this ‘Wisdom’ hath ‘a way,’ and hath ‘a place;’ ‘a way’
whereby She comes, ‘a place’ wherein She abides; as She Herself saith; If
any man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and We
will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. [John 14, 23] So then
there is ‘a way’ by which She comes, ‘a place’ wherein She abideth. But
whereunto does She come, Who is every where? Is it for Wisdom to come, by
the enlightening of our mind to make the presence of Her mightiness to
appear? And because it is doubtful to men both into what person’s heart She
comes, or in what man, after She has come, She rests in abiding there, it is
rightly said now, God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the
place thereof. Because it appertains to the Divine sight alone to see,
whether by what methods the perception of Wisdom may come to the heart of
man, or whose soul shall not lose by deadly imaginations the understanding
of life, which it has been vouchsafed. And because this same ‘Wisdom’ made
manifest by the graciousness of the Manhood was destined in all the regions
of the world to fill to the full the hearts of the Elect, it is rightly
added;
Ver. 24.
For he regardeth the ends of the earth, and seeth all things that are
under the heaven.
7. For
God’s ‘regarding’ is the renewing to His grace the things that were lost and
undone; whence it is written, A King that sitteth in the throne of
judgment scattereth away all evil with His eyes. [Prov. 20, 8] For by
regarding He restrained the evils of our lightness, and bestowed great worth
of maturedness. Whence it is further added;
Who
made the weight for the winds.
8. For
in the Holy Scripture, by the rapidity and subtlety of the winds souls are
used to be denoted, as it is spoken by the Psalmist of God; Who walketh
above the things of the winds; [Ps. 104, 3. Vulg.] i.e. ‘Who passes
above the virtues of souls.’ Accordingly ‘He made the weight for the
winds,’ in that whilst Wisdom from above fills souls, it renders them
weighty with imparted maturity, not with that weightiness, of which it is
said, Ye children of men, how long with a heavy heart. [Ps. 4, 2]
For it is one thing to be weighty in respect of counsel, and another in
respect of sin; it is one thing to be weighty, by constancy, another to be
weighty by offence. For this latter weightiness has weight of burthen, the
other weight of merit. Thus, therefore, souls receive weight, that they
should not henceforth with light motion glance off from their aim at God,
but be made to settle into Him with immoveable weightiness of constancy.
Still was that people lightly moved to and fro, of which it is said by the
Prophet, And he went on frowardly in the way of his own heart. I have
seen his ways: and I let him go. [Is. 57, 17, 18] But weighty counsel
in heart banishes all inconstancy of wandering. And because there are
souls, that with light motion are now after one set of objects, now after
another, Almighty God, because these very light waverings of men’s minds He
does not estimate lightly, by abandoning passes judgment on the wandering of
the heart. But when through grace He regards the wandering mind, He fixes
it into stedfastness of counsel. And so it is rightly said now, And made
weight for the winds; because the light motions of the mind, when He
deigns to regard with mercifulness, He directly fashions that mind to
maturedness of constancy. Or otherwise to ‘make weight for the winds,’ is
to qualify with intermixed infirmity the glory resulting from virtuous
achievements, which is vouchsafed to the Elect here. Whence it is also
subjoined;
And he
weigheth the waters by measure.
9.
‘Waters’ in Holy Scripture are wont sometimes to denote the Holy Spirit,
sometimes sacred knowledge, sometimes wrong knowledge, sometimes calamity,
sometimes drifting peoples, sometimes the minds of those following, the
faith. Thus by water we have the Inpouring of the Holy Spirit represented,
as when it is said in the Gospel, He that believeth on Me, as the
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Where the Evangelist following on added; But this spake He of the Spirit,
which they that believe on Him should receive. [John 7, 38. 39.] Again,
by water sacred knowledge is denoted, as it is said; And give him the
water of wisdom to drink. [Ecclus. 15, 3] By water likewise bad
knowledge is wont to be designated, as when the woman in Solomon, who bears
a type of heresy, charms with crafty persuasion, saying, Stolen waters
are sweet. [Prov. 9, 17] By the term of waters too tribulation are used
to be signified, as it is said by the Psalmist, Save me, O God, for the
waters are come in even unto my soul. [Ps. 69, 1] By water peoples are
denoted, as it is said by John, Now the waters are peoples. By water
likewise not only the tide of peoples drifting away, but also the minds of
good men that follow the preachings of faith, are denoted, as the Prophet
saith, Blessed are ye that sow upon all waters. [Is. 32, 20] And it
is said by the Psalmist; The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.
[Ps. 29, 3] In this place, then, what is denoted by the title of ‘waters,’
saving the hearts of the Elect, which by the understanding of Wisdom, have
now received the hearing of the heavenly voice? Touching whom it is rightly
said; And weigheth the waters by measure. Because the very Saints,
who by the Holy Spirit bearing them up are transported on high, so long as
they are in this life, that they may not swell high with any self-elation,
are kept down by certain temptations, that they may never have the power to
advance as much as they have the wish, but lest they should be exalted by
pride, there takes place in them a kind of measure of their very virtues.
