The illustrious patriarch Job, a citizen of the Easterners, noble in justice, blessed in nobility, most abounding in wealth, exceedingly rich in substance, yet exalted upon the summit of humility. For never had the swelling of pride lifted him to a fall, since he flourished by humility alone. The enemy, inflamed to his ruin, drawing near to the royal thrones, wrung from the divine Majesty by deceitful subtlety the power to do him harm. Therefore the Lord, foreknowing the enemy's design, praised with His own voice the worship of His Majesty, saying: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a man without complaint, a true worshipper of God? (Job 1:8).
Behold what manner of confusion belonged to the scheming enemy, when the suffrage of the Majesty went before him. As I judge, he already stood as one guilty, who so vehemently desired to make the other guilty. Behold, the Lord was praising the innocent one, and rebuking the robber of piety. Power therefore being granted from heaven, he was let loose upon the world, and, savage in his fury, violently wrung away his possessions with diverse blows, and with rage and madness. He himself was the author of the crime; he himself also the messenger, as though he defrauds and reports concerning fallen plunder. He said: I alone am escaped, and am come to tell thee (Job 1:15, 17, 19). He reported the deed to the ears of the patriarch, he recounted cruel losses. The devil reported, and the patriarch praised the Lord together.
Amid the very ravings of the raging enemy, no impatience of faith is troubled; devout, he stood forth with unconquerable courage as a shield of endurance against his losses. He remained firm in virtue within the boundary of justice, made solid on a tenacious foundation, resting upon deep roots and robust, in whose breast glory alone did battle. Thereupon, all things being taken away, a sudden collapse crushed his household, and one death seized them all. Then, mingled with grief, having removed the hair from his head, he prostrated himself upon the ground, and broke forth into praise with this voice, saying: The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so is it done; blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21-22). Perilous fury raged within, yet unharmed faith flourishes amid the wounds.
He yielded to no blows; no ruinous tongue caused his patience to retreat. Losses did not turn aside the robust soldier, nor the greatest grief for his children. In losing all things he lost nothing, whom the devil did not separate from the Lord. He lost a little, and gained much. And so the enemy saw himself, in the case of that robust soldier, defeated by the heavenly warfare. Then the enemy, seeking again the assembly of the cherubim, drew near, and, receiving power, returned to engage a worthy adversary, yet not to conquer, plotting whether the one who could not be vanquished by the loss of goods might perhaps be overcome by the pain of wounds. Then the most cruel dragon spewed forth into the patriarch's limbs the pestiferous venom of all his ferocity, and turned his whole body into a wound.
There was nothing of his members which the plague had not made captive by the sprinkling of wounds. So had it stricken his limbs that his bones remained stripped of flesh, save only his precious soul, which was not wounded. For his patience was walled about with a rampart, and shut within the enclosure of a prison; amid perils he slaughtered perils, he peaceably crushed the warrior, and slew the robber without a sword. Then corruption oozed forth; from the recesses of the ulcers horrible beasts burst out, which he patiently recalled without complaint of pain. Armies of worms pierced his flesh with wedges of savage legions. In the body of the innocent man raged the instruments of battle: between the enemy and the just man, between the foe and the innocent, between that which devoured his inward parts, between worms and flesh.
O the vigour of the warfare of the most constant flesh! Though it endures in pain against the pestiferous forces of the devil, yet the victor never shudders at the endurance of the flesh; his neighbourhood flees his putrid wounds, the fellowship of his brethren scorns the consolation of his wife, he is shunned by the servants of God, yet gladly regarded by God alone. For whoever has been humbled for God's sake, upon him almighty God of necessity looks. Upon whom, He says, shall I look, but upon the humble and quiet, and him that trembleth at my words? (Isaiah 66:2). O patience, mother of victory! His endurance won for him the palm-bearing life, when he stood forth vanquished by the devil's power. Yet he could not be conquered, whom the Lord had praised before the victory.
Not the one who fought was conquered, but he was conquered who was smiting. Job by being beaten conquered, but the devil by smiting failed. He saw himself weary from wearying the weary one, and fatigued from fatiguing the fatigued. The devil withdrew in sorrow, and the patriarch was found strong. At last, his bodily health being recovered, he received back what he had lost. All that he had lost was doubled. O loss, that begets gain! For never is faithful service dismissed without reward. The patriarch exults most joyfully, and the devil fell, overcome and sorrowful. SERMON 72. On Saint Cyprian. This sermon has been published above, with this beginning: Yet the glorious birthday of the martyr, etc. SERMON 73. On Saint Vincent.
This too is read above among the sermons which we have judged to be Fulgentius's, with this beginning: I marvel, brethren, if still anything, etc. SERMON 74. On Goliath. The lesson which has now been recited from the book of Kingdoms (1 Kings 17:1 ff.) we do not doubt clings to the senses of your charity. Concerning Goliath and David, that most holy man, most devout, and pleasing to God, and, to say more, an ancestor of Christ, in whom justice, and springtime freshness, and piety, and the love of Christ shone forth more eminently, who, when he was provoked to battle against his adversaries, with eyes lifted up to heaven, did not presume upon his own strength, but, trusting in his own innocence and in the justice of Christ, cried out humbly: O God, be intent upon my help.
O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek my soul, to take it away. Let them be turned backward, and confounded, that desire evils to me (Psalm 69:2 ff.). And when victory was won: Who is God but our God? God who hath girt me with strength unto battle, and hath supplanted all my enemies (Psalm 17:32-33). And again: All nations compassed me about, and in the name of the Lord I was avenged upon them (Psalm 117:10). You see, my brethren, how much greater is ever the innocence of purity than the malicious might of strength; for wisdom shall not enter into a malevolent soul (Wisdom 1:4). For out of the mouth of infants and sucklings thou hast perfected praise (Psalm 8:3);
over warriors they made greater renown. How great is the distance between Goliath and blessed David? The one a young man, the other a little child. The one a warrior, the other a shepherd of sheep. The one drew the bow, the other made ready his sling, simple in disposition, but heavenly in understanding, but of those children who praised the Lord with the instrument of piety. Of whom he himself said: Praise the Lord, ye children, praise the name of the Lord (Psalm 112:1). He was a shepherd, he fed sheep, but God who feeds Israel helped the little one, and for His innocent armour-bearer He Himself, as companion and commander, did battle. He bore a sling, wherein, being touched, he carried curdled mysteries.
There too he bore five stones, that thereby he might show milk and stone, that is, the Old and the New Testament. The little one carried milk for the little ones, and in the five stones he bore with great care the five books of the Law, and thereby he vanquished the enemy not by fighting but by rejoicing. The enemy saw and mocked. But David the most holy saw and lifted his eyes to heaven. The one cursed, but the other prayed. The one presumed upon his own strength, and the other grieved for Israel, on whose behalf the Lord compelled him to fight. The one poises a hundredweight, the other whirls his hand, spinning the sling. The one presumed upon himself, and the other entreated an angel as his helper. The stone is aimed by the boy, and in the air it was guided by the angel.
The enemy stood secure regarding the little warrior, not knowing the Lord his helper above. Straightway the enemy felt the stone in his forehead, because he did not bear the seal of the Lord. There he lost his life with shame, where David had felt the angel as helper. He fell with great ruin, who had insulted with great pride; for God resisteth the proud, but to the humble He giveth grace (James 4:6), He giveth victory, and prepares a crown. David runs to seize joy before he began the fight; glad of victory before he finished the battle.
He stood over the lifeless corpse of the fallen one, drew forth the sword, thereby struck him, and cut off the enemy's head, and with right hand raised he triumphed, and leaping up in gladness he began to cry out: Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight (Psalm 143:1). He returned the stone joined to its fellow, and set down as his object of rejoicing the severed head. For David, sent against Goliath, signified nothing else but Christ against the devil for the salvation of the human race; and in him was fulfilled: The sinners have drawn out the sword; they have bent their bow, to deceive the poor and needy, and to slay the upright of heart: let their sword enter into their own hearts (Psalm 36:14-15).
Behold how much meek innocence avails before God, more than the lofty might of an evil will; for the Lord loves innocence and forsakes malice, so that the just man may, for his innocence, obtain the victory due to him, and receive freely from heaven a crown. SERMON 75. On Absalom. Nature is wont to grant fidelity, and kinship to make love. It is wont that rest should be born to parents in their children, that gladness be enlarged by their growth, that the labour of cares be softened by tender offspring, and that fatherhood be relieved by the succession of children. In Absalom, the son of David, a new overthrow of malice arose, which grew not for the help but for the devastation of his own kin.
The soul shudders to tell the history of his monstrousness, lest fathers repent of having begotten. This sacred name does not recall him, no care of nurture comes to his mind, and for so great a gift he learned to persecute his begetter: greed broke fidelity, and avarice conquered love. Oh the wickedness! With impious hand the son strikes at him from whom the father promised himself solace. When his mother's womb had poured him forth into the light of life, the father, unknowing, rejoiced at the first auspices of his tender age, thinking he had received rest in his son. It is his pleasure that this one be more carefully watched over, his pleasure that he be nurtured with vast care, meaning afterward to charge it to his love. He loves him, cherishes him, watches over him, thinking that he had begotten a son; the pious father embraced the one who would become his murderer.
The religious father kissed the sacrilegious one, and daily rejoiced in ignorance at the disasters to come. For when this one, from his boyish years, was mounting toward manhood, he displayed monstrousness before he displayed obedience. For, to recall the beginnings of this most monstrous one, let me not pass over the bereavement of a brother's death, which, when he demands vengeance for a violated sister, he made his path to the father through a brother's slaughter (2 Kings 13:26 ff.). Of his cunning it is worse to find a remedy than to commit the sacrilege of the crime, so that for an impious war he might procure for himself the aid of peace. For he made a banquet, he calls his brothers, he calls the incestuous one; he composes his countenance, lest his colour betray his wrath; he sets even royal delicacies before the mourning;
and lest the youth be long delayed from his undertaking, he is all the more compliant to the enemy. He went through the spaces of the house, tranquil in feigned peace, giving birth to the moment of crime; and when he saw him already mellowed with much wine amid cups and goblets, he offered him also the sword. And what kind of banquet was it, where compliance offered no service, and grief procured the meal? I know not what disposition he bears, who so flatters that he may strike; or so complies, that he may kill. After these things, therefore, by impious peace and the sacrilegious vengeance of butchery, he strives to destroy the innocent, and—what is shameful to say—his begetter. Happy and blessed had the life of mortals been, if there were no greed and no envy.
O roots of crimes, and matter of vices, by which neither is fear allayed, nor is one sated with many crimes; and whence it seems it should be checked, thence it is aroused all the more! For behold, Absalom, gorged with a brother's slaughter and drunk with kindred blood, is roused more and more to worse, as though from that very satiety he grew hungry. He, no longer a son, declares war upon his father, as though it were too little to have slain his brother. And to him whom he ought to have been a help, he brought destruction. To whom now was he dear, who so hated his nearest kin? Or what fidelity did he keep, who committed such things against his own? He introduced to the ages a new kind of madness, who did more than wrath dictated. Behold, of a sudden they sound the trumpet for war:
the sacrilegious run about, the parricides march, and love is turned into fury. The outrage was reported to the father, but wrath did not destroy piety. For the father commands his allies to go out to the fight, and begs that severity not break faith. And those whom he was too wont to exhort, from the monstrous enemy his son he restrained with entreaties. Go, he says, my princes; go with all speed, sons of valour; but beware, I pray, lest you conquer. Appease the madness of my just fury, lest in the death of my son you wound wretched me. If he himself was unwilling to have a father, yet the father merited bereavement. Spare then, spare my child; spare, my fellow-soldiers, the madman. And though I have begotten an evil son, yet all the more I take heed that piety may conquer wrath, lest justice carry out an outrage.
I refuse the palm of this contest. I will not, I will not have a victory with grief. If the madness of a depraved mind made him such, will not your vengeance make you a parricide? Restrain your griefs, forbid the tortures; it is mine, the injury which you would bestow on me. The most pious father preferred to be conquered rather than to be bereaved of triumphs. He commends his own enemy to his princes, and, lest he lose his son, he asks that the foe be preserved. But when the field of battle received both armies, with religion unimpaired, the bereaved father conquers. For what a place did the divine outcome of the battle furnish, that neither should the father have been impious, nor the son escape guilty? War thunders with savage clangours, giving birth to a shower of tears. The kindred battle-lines stand with brandished right hands, demanding the license of crimes.
Behold, of a sudden the shrill signals of the commander resound; the trumpets are broken, voices marshal, the battle-lines carry out slaughters, and there are no enemies. O how execrable a battle, where wars are waged without enemies! O unequal contest, where neither victory follows, nor triumph! Brothers are armed against brothers. For the vanquished and the victors there is one mourning. Piety and nature lamented the so great loss of one man's fury brought upon them. Love is divided by the sword; nowhere is piety. These greed compels, those injury. Here the din of arms thunders; there winged darts fly in blows. Here the hail hastens in earthly course; those the flight of the leaden slug struck dread into. Others it shattered with whirled stones; thus in a thousand ways one death overwhelmed nearly all.
And he who ought to have rejoiced in brotherly concord, was, by the guilt of one man, offering himself the bond of death. Serenity rained wounds, darkened by the density of the heavens. The night of the crime stood in the air of arms, in the darkness it gleams, beaten out. War rejoiced in its own offices, woven together with a seething cloud. O how execrable were the clouds, whose iron rain flowed down in wounds. The streams run down in bloody courses, and the fields are given to drink with gore from the gushing veins of corpses; and neither is piety spared, nor modesty. The frenzy grows in crimes, and from what men are wont to be weakened, their forces grow strong through slaughters. The sword rages against kinsmen, and cruelty has no measure. Where art thou now, O love? where is faith, if brothers are enemies?
But after the dire disasters of the battle and its deadly shipwrecks, oh how wondrous a vengeance came upon the wicked one. For when Absalom was borne through the battles on the back of a mule (2 Kings 18:9), the mule, having seen the slaughter, snatched its rider away from the war, as though it seemed to shudder at the outrage itself. He went in tenacious flight through the recesses of a neighbouring wood, about to lose the author of crimes. And while amid the very thickets of trees a mute animal, spurning him, ran opposite, it left the youth transfixed upon a trunk, doomed to die, hung upon the scaffold of a tree by no man's hand. Without battle the foe receives a wound, taken captive by his own perfidy, who, sacrilegious, preferred to perish rather than to reign with his father. For God resisteth the proud, but to the humble He giveth grace (James 4:6).
For everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted (Luke 14:11). SERMON 76. On Isaiah. God speaks through Isaiah, saying: The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood me (Isaiah 1:3). The ox acknowledges his owner, and the owner despises the Lord. The ass observes the Lord's crib, and man perverts the divine commands. Take then, O despiser, an example from the dumb beasts, thou who dost not fear the divine judgment. Be toward the Lord such as thou knowest the beasts to be toward thee. Be instructed by the example of animals, whom nature has trained to obedience, and whom the Lord has subjected to service.
And yet the cattle, though they are devoid of reason, cannot in this respect be without reason. But thou, O man, disposed with reason, while thou livest without reason, offendest the Lord thy begetter. Let human perfidy blush, let the folly of men be confounded. The cattle therefore preserve their services to men by divine instinct, and men decline the commands of God with obstinate mind. The animals serve rational man, and men senselessly despise God. The beasts, to whom God the creator denied reason, strive not without reason to obey man. But men who excel in reason persist in folly, while they do not worship God. The oxen receive God who became man, and men spurn the divine command.
By whose judgment the cattle diligently serve men, His judgments men despise by forsaking. What an evil is this madness, which cannot be equalled even by the cattle, since in obedience to the Lord it cannot be compared even to the dumb animals? For the cattle, while they serve man, are known to serve God; but men, while they neglect God, are shown to hate themselves. Wherefore, if the cattle had received reason, they would rationally both worship and fear God; who now without reason are such as men with reason cannot be. Thou art judged, O man, thou art judged by the example of the animal; thou art condemned by the beast's obedience. Nor will excuse be able to profit thee, who desirest to obey neither the divine command nor the example of the beast.
For great indeed are the divine services, good the gains of life, where punishments for evil deeds are not feared, but divine rewards for good merits are awaited. For God desires rather to have good men whom He may reward, than evil men whom He may condemn without sorrow. For unwillingly does He now punish those whom He would rather requite, if they were willing to escape through a good life. Flee sins, O Christian, thou who desirest to earn God's favour; shrink from sins, thou who longest to please. The ruin of transgressions is to be feared as poison. The destruction of crimes is to be fled as a dart and sword. Let not the transgression be loved, which slays the race of men. Let sin be fled, which has ever prepared destruction for men.
Let that be a horror to the servant of God, which is seen to have been destruction to others; and in that wherein thou seest another to have perished, therein oughtest thou the more to take precaution for thyself. Let no one promise himself impunity from the multitude of sinners. Let no one who transgresses with the crowds contend that he is free from peril. For neither did Adam fall into death because he sinned alone with his wife, nor did Cain merit destruction because he alone committed fratricide. God loves a few innocent men more than innumerable sinners. And in one just man He is glad and rejoices, as much as He is saddened and grieves in many sinners. And therefore, when the Lord judged the world with a cataclysm, He delivered Noah alone with his household (Genesis 7:1);
and when He blotted out Sodom with a rain of fire, He saved Lot alone with his children (Genesis 19:12). For crimes would have blotted out the Ninevites also, had not their penitence tempered the wrath of the Lord (Jonah 3:5). For the Lord Himself loves this, even when He threatens; and upon those whom He longs to see restrained from sins, He aims the severity of judgment. For God rebukes that He may save, He corrects that He may amend, He reproaches that He may reform. For it is the desperate voice of certain men: The merciful God will not love the destruction of so great a multitude, nor will He suffer to perish peoples whom by His redemption He was unwilling to be captives. Otherwise He will be thought to have redeemed for this end, that there be one to be condemned by His judgment.
For either He redeemed to this end, that He might save, or He would not have redeemed those whom He would afterward destine to judgment. This wholly ruinous persuasion of theirs is to be fled: for as they themselves are entangled in misdeeds, so also they wish others to be implicated in their own misdeeds; and while, by not asking, they promise themselves indulgence when they sin, so by their persuasions they themselves entangle the wretched. But the Lord Christ, when we were redeemed, has already given us pardon, has already washed and amended the filthy and infected. Wherefore it is not lawful for the redeemed now to sin, and for the cleansed it is not lawful to be defiled. Behold, He says, thou art made whole; now sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee (John 5:14). He who made thee whole imposed on thee a law of living;
He who cleansed thee from thy filth, was unwilling for thee to be defiled again. If thou hast consented to God the Father, observe the Father's admonitions; if thou professest thyself Christ's servant, in thy deeds display the precepts of Christ. For deeds rather than a name show the promise of anything. He cannot prove himself a physician who could not heal the sick; he is not a helmsman who cannot steer the ship; he cannot be a philosopher who practises vices rather than virtues; so also he cannot be a Christian who has defamed what he professes. Wherefore either do what is commanded, if thou wilt receive what is promised; or if thou dost not what is commanded, thou wilt receive what is destined for sinners.
For if to sinners the penalties of transgressions are not repaid, neither will the rewards of justice be rendered to the just. Furthermore, it is necessary that the merits of justice be repaid to the just, and necessary too that the destined punishments be exhibited to sinners. Let no one deceive himself, let no one delude himself, that because he despises the heavenly commands he shall be able to be unpunished. If thou wilt, He says, enter into life, keep the commandments (Matthew 19:17); it is understood conversely: If thou shalt despise the divine commands, thou shalt not be able to be unpunished. No one despises the commands of the age without penalty: unless one appeases a father's wrath, he shall be disowned; the contempt of servants we do not suffer to go unavenged. Therefore, since thou dost not patiently endure the contempt of a man, how thinkest thou, while thou sinnest, that God can be appeased toward thee?
Wherefore cease to sin, if thou wilt obtain pardon for what is past; or if thou thinkest thou must sin still, of necessity thou shalt be subjected to the divine judgment. Wherefore, while it is allowed, while there is time, while penitence is permitted, while he who has sinned can still refuse his own sins, let past sins be healed by a holy life. Let us not put it off till tomorrow, since it is uncertain whether we shall see tomorrow. For this delay has butchered many, whom, snatched away, it restored not to eternal life, but rather consigned to perpetual death. As grievously as we have sinned, so modestly let us entreat the Lord. The vice which has been contracted in the world, let it here be left in the world. Let us weigh the offence of the indignant Lord, and the patience of the Lord, which has preserved us for penitence and correction.
The garment stained by the first man's sin, let it now, through faith in Christ, be diligently healed by us, that we may be happily admitted, clothed in white, to the banquet of the Bridegroom. Let these things be fulfilled by us, let these be accomplished by all. And let man not be provoked to the example of the cattle, but rather let him follow the acts and merits of the saints; that after death we may not perish after the manner of the cattle, but be granted for eternal ages the divine gifts. SERMON 77. On the trouble of the tongue. The most wise Solomon spoke thus, saying: Life and death are in the hands of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). The tongue is the key of the breast, the witness of the heart. It bears a great tribunal within the praetorium of its own mouth, whether of welcome salvation, or of bitter death.
Wherein, by denying God, with one word it commits sacrilege, or with one utterance it fulfils martyrdom with virtue. Who can unfold the riches of the tongue? Through which, if a man be silent, he is but one; who, when he sounds eloquent, begets dignity for man; when it runs benevolent, it procures salvation. It acquires friends, it restrains enemies. The pigment of bodies, and the health of souls. It directs every work, it fulfils works; with the command of its mouth it filled the seas together with the lands. For every deed ceases, where there is no command of speech. Thou payest out a word, and receivest a benefit. Thou askest on earth, and art heard in heaven, the Lord saying through the prophet: Who hath cried out to me, and hath not been heard? Behold, the twenty-four elders pray in the sight of God, saying:
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts (Revelation 4:8): there are no limbs, and yet the tongue speaks. The martyrs suffer, and after their very burial they live by these very words, saying: How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? (Revelation 6:10). Speech alone has no end, because it has no blood. The very clouds speak when the eloquence of the Majesty sounds; the thick air talks in the clouds, John testifying in the Apocalypse, saying: Whatsoever the seven thunders spoke, write them not (Revelation 10:4). Why is the apostle forbidden to take up the tongue of heaven? Lest the voice which the world trembled at should seem cheap.