patience of Job, and have seen the end of the woman wanted, devil's helper as she was not
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
372 —- double? Yes, precisely the double, because the former sons still lived. Let none say, pains to get on. The being born, ye have; but also the growing, ye ought to have; because no man begins with being perfect. As for the Son of God, indeed, He could be born perfect, because He was begotten without time, coeternal with the Father, long before all things, not in age, but in eternity. He then was begotten coeternal, of which generation the Prophet said, ** His generation who shall declare?"* begotten of the Father without time, He was born of the Virgin in the fullness of times. This nativity had times going beforeit. In opportunity of time, when He would, when He knew, then was He born: for He was not born without His will. None of us is born because he will, and none of us dies when he will: He, when He would, was born; when He would, He died: how He would, He was born of a Virgin: how He would, He died; on the cross. Whatever He would, He did: because He was in such wise Man that, unseen,? He was God; God assuming, Man assumed;3 One Christ, God and Man.
Let me bear evils, and God will repay me as He repaid Job:" that it be now no longer patience but avarice. For if it was not patience which that Saint had, nor a brave enduring of all that came upon him; the testimony which the Lord gave, whence should he haveit? '* Hast thou observed,"' saith the Lord, "' my servant Job? For there is not like him any on the earth, a man without fault,° a true worshipper of God." What a testimony, my brethren, did this holy man deserve of the Lord! And yet him a bad woman sought by her persuasion to deceive, she too representing that serpent, who, like as in Paradise he deceived the man whom God first made, so likewise here by suggesting blasphemy thought to be able to deceive a man who pleased God. What things he suffered, my brethren! Who can have so much to suffer in his estate, his house, his sons, his flesh, yea in his very wife who was left to be his tempter! But even her who was left, the devil would have taken away long ago, but that he kept her to be his helper: because by Eve he had mastered the first man,
9. Of His cross what shall I speak, what say? This extremest kind of death He chose, that not any kind of death might make His Mattyrs afraid. The doctrine He shewed in His life as Man, the example of patience He demonstrated in His Cross. There, you have the work, that He was crucified; example of the work, the Cross; reward of the work, Resurrection. He shewed us in the Cross what we ought to endure, He shewed in the Resurrection what we havetohope. Just like a consummate task-master in the matches of the arena, He said, Do, and bear; do the work and receive the prize; strive inthe match and thou shalt be crowned. What is the work? Obedience, What the prize? Resurrection without death. Why did I add, 'without death?''? Because Lazarus rose, and died: Christ rose again, ** dieth no more, death will no longer have dominion over Flim therefore had he kept an Eve. What things, then, he suffered! He lost all that he had; his house fell; would that were all! it crushed his sons also. And, to see that patience had great place in him, hear what he answered;
The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so hath it been done;7 blessed be the name of the Lord."® He hath taken what He gave, is He lost Who gave? He hath taken what He gave. As if he should say, He hath taken away all, let Him take all, send me away naked, and let me keep Him, What shall I lack if I have God? or what is the good of all else to me, if I have not God? Then it came to his flesh, he was stricken with a wound from head to foot; he was one running sore, one mass of crawling worms: and showed himself immovable in his God, stood fixed. The woman wanted, devil's helper as she was not husband's comforter, to put him up to blaspheme God. '' How long," said she, '* dost thou suffer'? so and so; '' speak some word against the Lord,? and die.'"'* So then, because he had been brought low, he was to be exalted. And this the Lord did, in order to show it to men; as for His servant, He kept greater things for him inheaven. So then Job who was brought low, He exalted; the devil who was lifted up, He brought low:
10. Scripture saith, '' Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord." s When we read what great trials Job endured, it makes one shudder, it makes one shrink, it makes one quake. And what did he receive? The double of what he had lost. Let not a man therefore with an eye to temporal rewards be willing to have patience, and say to himself, *' Let me endure loss, God will give me back sons twice as many; Job received double of all, and begat as many sons as he had buried.'' Then ts this not the
6 Ouerela. 9 Lat. from LXX, 7 Lat. from DXX. i 8 Jobi, 21. 10 Job ii. 9.
T Is, lili. 8. [See R. V.] 2 Ut lateret Deus. 3 Susceptor susceptus. i 4 Rom, vi. 9. 5 James v. 11.
ON THE CREED.
for "* He putteth down one and setteth up another.""* But let not any man, my beloved brethren, when he suffers any such-like tribulations, look for a reward here: for instance, if he suffer any losses, let him not peradventure say, '*The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord;"' only with the mind to receive twice as much again. Let patience praise God, not avarice, If what thou hast lost thou seekest to receive back twofold, and therefore praisest God, it is of covetousness thou praisest, not of love. Do not imagine this to be the example of that holy man; thou deceivest thyself. When Job was enduring all, he was not hoping for to have twice as much again. Both in his first confession when he bore up under his losses, and bore out to the grave the dead bodies of his sons, and in the second when he was now suffering torments of sores in his flesh, ye may observe what I am saying. Of his former confession the words run thus: **'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord.''? He might have said, '' The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; He that took away can once more give; can bring back more than He took,.'' He said not this, but, "* As it pleased the Lord," said he, "'so is it done:'' because it pleases Him, let it please me: let not that which hath pleased the good Lord misplease His submissive servant; what pleased the Physician, not misplease the sick man. Hear his other confession: '* Thou hast spoken,'' said he to his wife, °° like one of the foolish women. If we have received good at the hand of the Lord, why shall we not bear evil?''3 He did not add, what, if he had said it, would have been true. ''* The Lord is able both to bring back my flesh into its former condition, and that which He hath taken away from us, to make manifold more:'' lest he should seem to have endured in hope of this. 'This was not what he said, not what he hoped. But, that we might be taught, did the Lord that for him, not hoping for it, by which we should be taught, that God was with him: because if He had not also restored to him those things, there was the crown indeed, but hidden, and we could not see it. And therefore what says the divine Scripture in exhorting to patience and hope of things future, not reward of things present? '' Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord."" Why is it, °"' the patience of Job,'' and not, Ye have seen the end of Job himself? Thou wouldest open thy mouth for the "' twice as much;'' wouldest say, '* Thanks be to God; let me bear up: I receive twice as much again, like Job."
Patience of Job, end of the Lord.'' The patience of Job we know, and the end of the Lord we know.4 What end of the Lord?
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?'' They are the words of the Lord hanging on the cross. He did as it were leave Him for present felicity, not leave Him for eternal immortality. In this is "'the end of the Lord." The Jews hold Him, the Jews insult, the Jews bind Him, crown Him with thorns, dishonor Him with spitting, scourge Him, overwhelm Him with revilings, hang Him upon the tree, pierce Him with a spear, last of all bury Him. He was as it were left: but by whom? By those insulting ones. Therefore thou shalt but to this end have patience, that thou mayest rise again and not die, that is, never die, even as Christ. For so we read, '*' Christ rising from the dead henceforth dieth not.' 5
11. '* He ascended into heaven:"' believe.
He sitteth at the right hand of the Father: "' believe. By sitting, understand dwelling: as [in Latin] we say of any person, ''In that country he dwelt (sedi) three years."' The Scripture also has that expression, that such an one dwelt (sedisse) in a city for such a time.© Not meaning that he sat and never rose up? On this account the dwellings of men are called seats (sedes).? Where people are seated (in this sense), are they always sitting? Is there no rising, no walking, no lying down? And yet they are called seats (sedes). In this way, then, believe an inhabiting of Christ on the right hand of God the Father: Heisthere. And let not your heart say to you, What is He doing? Do not want to seek what is not permitted to find: He is there; it suffices you. He is blessed, and from blessedness which is called the right hand of the Father, of very blessedness the name is, right hand of the Father. For if we shall take it carnally, then because He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, the Father will be on His left hand. Is it consistent with piety so to put Them together, the Son on the right, the Father on the left? There it is all right-hand, because no misery is there.
12, '* Thence He shall come to judge the quick and dead.'? The quick, who shall be alive and remain; the dead, who shall have gone before. It may also be understood thus: fo iS, | CE ANTES Aa Lt LS fia ta
ALP SEX Kia Le ; 5 Rom. vi. 9. The Article of the descent into Hell appears not to have been included in this Creed. _ 61 Kings ii. 38. LXX. 7 Cf. Serm. 214, n. 8. Ben.
3 Job ii. 10. 1 Ps, Ixxv. 7. 2 Job i. xxi.