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| Chapter IX. The case of Job who was tempted by the devil and of the Lord who was betrayed by Judas: and how prosperity as well as adversity is advantageous to a good man.
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Chapter IX.
The case of Job who was tempted by the devil and of the
Lord who was betrayed by Judas: and how prosperity as well as adversity
is advantageous to a good man.
For the patience of Job
did not bring any gain to the devil, through making him a better man by
his temptations, but only to Job himself who endured them bravely; nor
was Judas granted freedom from eternal punishment, because his act of
betrayal contributed to the salvation of mankind. For we must not
regard the result of the deed, but the purpose of the doer. Wherefore
we should always cling to this assertion; viz., that evil cannot be
brought upon a man by another, unless a man has admitted it by his
sloth or feebleness of heart: as the blessed Apostle confirms this
opinion of ours in a verse of Scripture: “But we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God.”1387
But by saying “All things work
together for good,” he includes everything alike, not only things
fortunate, but also those which seem to be misfortunes: through which
the Apostle tells us in another place that he himself has passed, when
he says: “By the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on
the left,” i.e., “Through honour and dishonour, through
evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as sorrowful
but always rejoicing, as needy and yet enriching many:”1388
All those things then which are
considered fortunate, and are called those “on the right
hand,” which the holy Apostle designates by the terms honour and
good report; and those too which are counted misfortunes, which he
clearly means by dishonour and evil report, and which he describes as
“on the left hand,” become to the perfect man “the
armour of righteousness,” if when they are brought upon him, he
bears them bravely: because, as he fights with these, and uses those
very weapons with which he seems to be attacked, and is protected by
them as by bow and sword and stout shield against those who bring these
things upon him, he secures the advantage of his patience and goodness,
and obtains a grand triumph of steadfastness by means of those very
weapons of his enemies which are hurled against him to kill him; and if
only he is not elated by success or cast down by failure, but ever
marches straightforward on the king’s highway, and does not
swerve from that state of tranquillity as it were to the right hand,
when joy overcomes him, nor let himself be driven so to speak to the
left hand, when misfortunes overwhelm him, and sorrow holds sway. For
“Much peace have they that love Thy law, and to them there is no
stumbling block.”1389
But of those
who shift about according to the character and changes of the several
chances which happen to them, we read: “But a fool will change
like the moon.”1390
For just as it is
said of men who are perfect and wise: “To them that love God all
things work together for good,”1391
so of those who are weak and foolish it is declared that
“everything is against a foolish man,”1392
for he gets no profit out of prosperity,
nor does adversity make him any better. For it requires as much
goodness to bear sorrows bravely, as to be moderate in prosperity: and
it is quite certain that one who fails in one of these, will not bear
up under the other. But a man can be more easily overcome by prosperity
than by misfortunes: for these sometimes restrain men against their
will and make them humble and through most salutary sorrow cause them
to sin less, and make them better: while prosperity puffs up the mind
with soothing but most pernicious flatteries and when men are secure in
the prospect of their happiness dashes them to the ground with a still
greater destruction.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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