約伯倫理 第 341 章

Verses 22, 23. 'Did I say, Bring unto me, and give me of your substance? or, Deliver me from the hand of the enemy, and rescue me from the hand of the mighty?' 50. The Church will not hear, from those who assert wrong things concerning the faith, the true things they teach concerning morals. The malignant spirits were created without infirmity of flesh.—If these words are referred to the person of holy Church—since we have said that the friends of blessed Job hold the likeness of heretics—she rightly asserts that she does not need their substance. For the substance of heretics is not unfittingly taken to be carnal wisdom, by which, while they are perversely propped up, they show themselves as it were rich in words; which holy Church seeks not, inasmuch as she transcends it by spiritual understanding.

But often heretics, when they assert perverse things concerning the faith, speak some subtle things against the ancient enemy concerning the temptations of the flesh. For sometimes they show in themselves, as it were, sound members of activity, in that they are held wounded in the faith by the serpent's bite in the head. But holy Church will not hear subtle things concerning temptations from those who, while they assert certain true things concerning conduct, lead on to the falsehoods of perfidy. Whence it is now rightly said: 'Did I say, Bring unto me, and give me of your substance? or, Deliver me from the hand of the enemy, and rescue me from the hand of the mighty?' For by the hand of the enemy he calls the strength of Satan, and by the hand of the mighty he names the powers of the malignant spirits.

Whom he therefore mentions as 'mighty,' because, since they were created without infirmity of flesh, no weakness joined to them stands in the way of their depraved endeavours. But this which is subjoined: