Satan lurks like a serpent in the wicked heart. 313

XVII.

by the voices of the preachers, abandoned the minds of the Book unbelievers, which he had close beset; after the ornaments of the heavens it is fitly subjoined;

And by the midwifery of His hand the crooked serpent is

brought forth.

51. For who is described by the designation of the 'ser-xxxii. pent,' but our old enemy, at once slippery and crooked, who for the deceiving of man spake with the mouth of a serpent? Of whom it is said by the Prophet, Leviathan the bar-ser-Is. 27,1. pent, the crooked one; who was for this reason allowed to speak with the mouth of a serpent, that by that very vessel of his man might learn what he was that dwelt within. For a serpent is not only crooked but slippery as well; and so because he stood not in the uprightness of truth, he entered into a crooked animal, and because if to his first suggestion resistance be not made, in a moment whilst it is not perceived he slips in entire into the interior of the heart, he made speech to man by a slippery animal. Now' the dens' of this serpent were the hearts of wicked men. Which same because he drew on to his own depravity, he as it were rested in the dwelling place of them. But 'by the midwifery of the Lord's hand, the crooked serpent is driven out of his own dens,' in that whilst the Divine grace heals us, he that had held possession of us, our old enemy, is cast out of us, as Truth Incarnate says, Now shall the prince of this world John 12, be cast out. Hence all the Saints now already he does not possess by holding, but persecutes by trying. he does not reign in them within, he fights without, and because he has lost his dominion in the interior, he sets on foot wars in the exterior. For him That One drove forth from the carnal hearts of men, Who for the sake of men came to the state of Incarnation; and whereas He took seisin of the hearts of unbelievers, He as it were put His hand to the dens of the serpent. Whence it is rightly said by the Prophet; And the sucking child shall play on Is. 11, the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand' on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My Holy Mountain. For whom does he call the sucking child,' or the weaned child,' saving the Lord? And what did he denote by the hole of the asp,' and 'the cockatrice

For because against them

31.

8.9.

13.

PROPH.

314 Our Lord dragged Satan from his dwelling in man.

JOB 26, den,' saving the hearts of wicked men? Because our old enemy, whereas he gat himself wholly into their consenting, as a crooked serpent in his own hole, he gathered and wound up the coils of his craftiness; whom he both designates with the title of asp' as covertly ravening, and of a ‘cockatrice' as openly wounding. And so the Lord' put His hand upon the hole of the asp and the cockatrice,' when He took seisin of the hearts of the wicked by Divine power. And the asp and the cockatrice, being seized, i. e. the devil, he drew away therefrom a captive, that in His Holy Mountain,' which is the Church, he might not harm' His Elect believers.

8.

Thus it is hence said in the Song of Songs, on the coming Cant. 4, of the Spouse; Thou shalt be crowned from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens. For what else is denoted by the title of the lions but the devils, which rage against us with the fury of the deadliest cruelty? And because the sinners are called to faith, whose hearts were once the dens of lions,' when by their confession the Lord is believed to have overcome death, it is as if He were crowned from the lions' dens.' For a crown is the recompense of victory. So often then do the faithful offer a crown to Him, as they confess that He has overcome death by virtue of the Resurrection. And so the lion is driven from his den,' because by the midwifery of the Lord's hand,'' the crooked serpent is hindered from dwelling in the dens,' which he had possession of. For he went forth defeated from the hearts of believers, who had aforetime ruled over them with the sceptre of unbelief.

53. Observe how in a few short sentences the holy man related the order of the Lord's Advent, set forth its weighty charges, and in admiring described what by His Incarnation was possible to be done. But He, Who wrought marvellous things when He came in humility, cannot be viewed with all the great terribleness He shall come with, when He appeareth in the mightiness of His Majesty. The order of His first Advent might be viewed and estimated, in so far as in coming to redeem carnal beings, He abated the greatness of His Divinity to carnal eyes. But who might bear the terrors of His Highness, when with the power of the Second Advent

God shews a little of His ways. We could not bear all. 315

XVII.

in exercising judgment by fire, He shall glow in the Majesty Book of His power? Whence the holy man describes His first Advent, but is exhausted for the second, saying,

Ver. 14. Lo, these things have been spoken for part of His ways; and whilst we scarcely hear a little drop of His words, who shall be able to look on the thunder of His Majesty?

designation of xxxiii. Hence too the

54. What is meant in this place by the the ways,' but the Lord's modes of acting? Lord saith by the Prophet; For My ways are not as your Is.55,8. ways. Accordingly in telling of the Advent of the Lord, he had described the ways of God in part; because His method of acting by which He created us was one thing, and that by which He redeemed us another. Thus those things, which he told touching the Lord's way of acting, making light of by comparison with the final Judgment, he says, Lo, these things are spoken for part of His ways. Which he also calls a little drop of His words,' for whatsoever thing that is high, whatsoever thing that is terrible, we whilst set in this life are brought to know by the contemplation of Him, from the vast ocean of the secrets of Heaven wells out to us like a slight drop of the liquid element Above. And who shall be able to look on the thunder of His Majesty? As though he expressed himself in plain words; 'If we scarce endure the wonders of His humility, the loud and dreadful Advent of His Majesty with what nerve do we encounter?' This thundering of His Advent the Psalmist also sounds out, saying, Our God shall come in state, our God, and shall Ps.50,3. not keep silence, a fire shall devour before Him, and a mighty tempest round about Him. Hence Zephaniah the Prophet tells it out, saying, The Great Day of the Lord is Zeph. 1, near; it is near and hasteth greatly. The voice of the Day of 14-16. the Lord is bitter: the mighty man shall be troubled there. That Day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of cloud and whirlwind, a day of the trumpet, and of a dreadful sound. The terror then of the Strict Inquest, which Zephaniah calls 'the Trumpet,' blessed Job designates thundering.' Which Joel also viewing saith, Let all the inhabitants of the land be troubled; for Joel 2,

316

First and second Advent contrasted.

14.

PROPH.

JOB 26, the Day of the Lord cometh; for it is nigh at hand, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of cloud and whirlwind. For the Day of the Lord is great, and very terrible, and who shall sustain it? But how incomprehensible and unimaginable that Greatness wherewith He shall come in His Second Manifesting, in some degree we estimate aright, if we consider with heedful reflection the weighty particulars of His first Advent. Surely that He might redeem us from death, the Lord came to die, and the impoverishment and punishments of our flesh He underwent in His own Body; Who before He came to the stock of the Cross, suffered Himself to be bound, to be spit on, to be mocked and to be beaten with blows on His cheek. Observe to what disgraceful treatment He for our sakes consented to come, and yet, before He permitted Himself to be laid hold of, He questioned His persecutors, saying, Whom seek ye? To Whom they thereupon gave answer, Jesus of Nazareth. And when He said to them directly, I am He, He only uttered a voice of the mildest answer, and at once prostrated His armed persecutors to the earth. What then shall He do when He cometh to judge the world, who by one utterance of His voice smote His enemies, even when He came to be judged? What is that Judgment which He exercises as immortal, Who in a single utterance could not be endured when He was about to die? Who may sustain His wrath, Whose very mildness even could not be sustained? So then let the holy man consider it and say, And whilst we scarcely hear a little drop of His words, who shall be able to look on the thundering of His Majesty?

BOOK XVIII.

Contains the exposition of the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth chapters of the Book of Job, to the twenty-first verse and half through it, after manifold senses.

1

IT is the case for the most part in Holy Writ that there are things of a mystical nature so represented, that nevertheless they seem put forth in accordance with the historical relation. But oftentimes such sort of descriptions are mixed together in that same historical relation, whereby the whole outside of history is rendered null'; which same whilst they cassesound of nothing belonging to the history, oblige the reader tur to look for something else in them. For things being spoken that we suppose plain, when we find any particulars interspersed with a more obscure meaning, we are as it were pricked by a kind of spurs, that we should both be alive for the understanding some things in a deeper sense, and that we should take even those things as put forth in a more obscure sense, which we looked upon as spoken in their plain import. Whereas, then, blessed Job was speaking of the Word of the Lord, and the greatness of His thundering, next in order to these words it is directly introduced;

Chap. xxvii. 1. Moreover Job added taking up his parable, and said.

i.

2. By which same verse it is shewn in how great mystery the words of this most saintly man are delivered, when ́ a parable,' i. e. a simile, is described as 'taken up' by him, who utters nothing below in the way of simile or comparison. For be it far from us in this place to interpret a 'parable' that musical instrument. Since neither is it allowable to suppose that under infliction of chastenings he used music, when Truth saith by His Scripture, Music in mourning is Ecclus. 22, 6.

We know of no musical instru- but one may imagine some so named ment so called either now or formerly; from their parabolic figure.' Ben.