Ver. 13.—And no one spoke a word to him: for they saw that his grief was very great. 70. That vices can serve for the use of virtue.—For if the heart truly grieves, the vices have no tongue against us. For when the life of rectitude is fully sought, the superfluous suggestion of depravity is stopped up. But often, if with strong zeal we bind ourselves against the incitements of vices, we transform even those vices themselves to the use of virtue. For anger possesses some men: but this, while they subject it to reason, they turn into the ministry of holy zeal. Pride lifts up some men: but while they bend their soul to the fear of God, they transform this, for the defense of justice, into the voice of free authority. The strength of the flesh allures some men;
but while they subject their body to the exercising of pious works, from that whence they suffered the goad of iniquity, thence they purchase the gains of piety. Hence too, fittingly, this same blessed Job, after many struggles, immolates a victim for his friends. For those whom he endured for a long time as enemies through contention, he at length renders fellow-citizens through sacrifice; because while by subduing we turn any vicious thoughts into virtues, we exchange the hostile pursuits of temptations, through the victim of our intention, as it were into friendly hearts. Let it suffice that we have discussed these things threefold in three volumes. For in the very beginning of this work, as into the mass of a tree about to be born, we have fixed the root of the tongue, that we may afterward bring forth the branches of exposition, as the several places require.