6 Meanings of the word 'spirit.' Many senses by one brain.

JOB 12, give life to the flesh, and in the other He quickens the soul 11. -to this degree, that it should attain to the understanding of

LIT.

John

19, 30.

tum, Vulg.

eternity. But we are to bear in mind that in Holy Writ the spirit of man' is wont to be put in two ways. For sometimes the spirit' is put for the soul, sometimes for spiritual agency. Thus the spirit' is put for the soul, as it is written of our own Head Himself, And He bowed His 1 spiri- Head, and gave up His Spirit'. For if the Evangelist had called any thing else' the spirit' saving the soul, then surely upon that spirit departing, the soul would have remained. Moreover, the term spirit' is used for spiritual agency, as Ps. 104, where it is written, Who maketh His Angels spirits, His Ministers a flaming fire. For Preachers are occasionally called 'Angels,' i. e. 'bearers of tidings,' in Holy Writ, as Mal. 2, where it is said by the Prophet, The priest's lips keep knowledge, and they seek the law from his mouth: for he is the 2V. An- Angel of the Lord of Hosts. Thus Almighty God' maketh gelus His Angels spirits,' in that He changeth His Preachers into spiritual men. But in this passage, if by 'the soul of every living thing,' the mere life of the body is denoted, by the 'spirit of all flesh of man,' there is set forth the agency of a spiritual understanding. It goes on;

4.

7.

vi.

Ver. 11. The ear trieth words, and the mouth of the eater

savour.

8. There is scarce a person that is ignorant that the five senses of our body, viz. of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching, in all their operations of perceiving and discriminating derive the power of perception and discrimination from the brain. And whereas there is but one judge that presides within, viz. the percipient faculty of the brain, yet by their proper passages he keeps five senses distinct, God causing great marvels, so that neither the eye should hear, nor the ear see, the mouth take in scent, the nose taste, nor the hands smell; and whereas all things are determined by the one faculty of the brain, yet no one of the senses can do aught but what it received by the Creator's appointment. And so by these corporeal and external arrangements we are left to gather the interior and spiritual ones; so that by that which is open to the eye in us, we ought to pass on to the secret thing that is in us, and escapes our eyes. For we are

One Wisdom gives various powers.

Hearing is not tasting. 7

XI.

to observe, that whereas there is one Wisdom, it dwells in Book one man less, in another more. To one it gives this function, to another that; and in the manner of the brain, it uses ourselves like so many senses, that though in itself it bears no dissimilitude to itself, yet by us it is ever working different and dissimilar operations, so as for this man to receive the gift of wisdom, and that the gift of knowledge; one to have kinds of tongues, and another the grace of healing.

litus

9. But in these words wherein blessed Job saith, The ear trieth words, and the mouth of the eater savour, he seems likewise to imply something about the Elect and the damned; for the words of wisdom, which the children of perdition hear, the Elect not only hear but taste too, that that should have a savour for them in the heart, which conveys no sound to the minds of the damned, but only to their ears. For it is one thing to hear food named only, and another thing to taste of it also; then the Elect so hear of the meat of wisdom, that they taste of it, in that what they hear is full of relish to them in their very marrow1 from love; but the knowledge of medulthe reprobate extends only to the cognizance of the sound, so that they hear indeed of virtues, but yet from coldness of heart they know nothing what a relish they have. By which same words blessed Job condemns the inexperience of his friends, and the presumption of all that are puffed up for their learning in wisdom, in that it is one thing to know somewhat concerning God, and another to taste with the mouth of understanding the thing that is known. Therefore it is well said, Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth of the eater savour? As if it were said to the presumptuous in plain words, 'The words of instruction, which came to you only so far as to the ear, to me touch the mouth of understanding likewise in the inward savour.' But because a weak age, even when it hath a right sense, should not spring forth with incautious haste to preach, it is rightly added;

Ver. 12. With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.

10. For these sayings are set fast in the root of wisdom, vii. which by continuance in living, are also made strong by the practice of deeds. But because there are many to whom at

"Fauces,' which means the part of the mouth toward the throat.

13. 14.

8 The Personal and the Inherent Wisdom and Power of God.

JOB 12, once longer life is given, and yet no grace of wisdom vouchsafed, it is further shewn with propriety on whose decision the gifts themselves depend, whilst it is added;

1.

LIT.

viii.

Ver. 13. With Him is wisdom and strength: He hath counsel and understanding.

11. We not unfitly interpret these words of the Onlybegotten Son of the Supreme Father, so as to understand Him to be Himself' the Wisdom and Strength of God.' For Paul also bears testimony to our interpretation, in the words, 1 Cor. Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. Who is 1, 24. John 1, ever with Him,' in that, In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But God hath counsel and understanding;' 'counsel,' in that He orders His own matters,' understanding,' in that He knows ours. By the naming of 'counsel' may also be denoted the mere delay of secret judgment alone, as that He is sometimes slow in striking offenders, not because the sin of bad men is not seen, but that their sentence of condemnation, which is delayed for the practising of penance, may seem as if out of counsel slow to issue forth. And so what the public declaration one day reveals without, that lay hid with the Almighty Lord in counsel before the world began. It proceeds;

ix.

Ver. 14. If He break down, there is none that can build again: if He shut up a man, there is none that can open.

12. Almighty God 'breaks down' the heart of man, when He forsakes it; He builds it up,' when He fills it. For He does not destroy man's soul by consummation of war, but by withdrawing Himself from it; in that when it is left to itself, it wants nothing to its own ruin. Whence it commonly happens, that when the heart of the hearer, in due of his sins, is not filled with Almighty God's grace, it is in vain that he is outwardly admonished by the preacher. For every mouth that speaks is but mute, if He does not utter a voice in the heart within, Who inspires the words that are admitted into- the Ps. 127, ears. Hence the Prophet saith, Except the Lord build the 1. house, they labour in vain that build it. Hence Solomon Eccles. saith, Consider the work of God; for who can set him right whom He hath despised? Nor is it strange, if the preacher is not attended to by the reprobate soul, since it sometimes happens that the Lord Himself, in the things which He

7, 13.

None can alter God's opening and shutting.

9

XI.

speaks, is withstood by the tempers of those that withstand Book Him. For hence it is that Cain could be admonished even by the voice of God, yet could not be changed, because as due to the sin of his evil heart, within God had already forsaken the soul, to which outwardly He addressed words to serve for a testimony. And it is well added, If He shut up a man, there is none that can open; in that every man, whereinsoever he does wrong, what else does he but make for himself a prison-house of his own conscience, that guiltiness of soul may oppress him even though no man accuse him without? And when by the judgment of God he is left in the blindness of his evil heart, he is as it were shut up within himself, that he may never find a place of escape, which he never deserves to find. For it often happens that there are persons who long to quit their bad practices, but because they are weighed to the ground by the burthen of them, being shut up in the prison-house of bad habit, they are unable to go forth of themselves. And there are some that anxiously desiring to visit their own offences with punishment, turn into worse offences what they reckon themselves to be doing aright; and it is brought to pass in a lamentable way, that what they take for their going out they find to be their imprisoning. Thus the reprobate Judas, Mat. 27, when he inflicted death upon himself to spite sin, was brought to the punishment of eternal death, and repented of sin in a more heinous way than he had committed sin.

5.

5.

13. Therefore let it be said, If He shutteth up a man, there Exod. 4, 21; 7,3. is none that can open. For as no man withstands His bountifulness in calling, so no one withstands His justice in forsaking; and so for God to shut up' is, not to open to those that are shut up; and hence it is said to Moses concerning Pharaoh, I will harden his heart. For God is said Gen. 27, to harden the heart in executing justice, when He does not soften the reprobate heart in bestowing grace. And so He 'shuts up' the man, whom He leaves in the darkness of his own practices. For Isaac desired to open this shutting up Ib. 25, to his first-born son, when he endeavoured to set him before his brother in blessing him. But the son whom the father desired, the Lord rejected; and him, whom the Lord desired, the father blessed even against his will; that he, who had sold his

and 34.

15.

LIT.

10 God's gifts and influences renew and change man.

JOB 12, birthright to his brother for a meal, might not get the blessing of the first-born, which he had relinquished through a gluttonous appetite; who, whilst that aiming at earthly objects, following after transitory things, he desired to inherit the Heb.12, blessing, was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears; for tears have no fruit, which are spent on regretting with sighs things destined to perish. And so Isaac could not open even to his son, whom Almighty God by a just judgment shut up in the prison-house of his evil heart. It proceeds;

17.

38.

X.

Ver. 15. If He withholdeth the waters, all things are dried up. If He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth.

14. If water' be understood of knowledge for preaching, as Prov. when it is written, The words of a man's mouth are as deep 18, 4. waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as an overflowing brook; when water is withheld, all is dried up,' in that if the knowledge of the preacher is withdrawn, the hearts of those that might have flourished in eternal hope, are forthwith dried up,' that they should remain in hopeless barrenness, whilst, in love with transitory things, they care not to look for those which shall abide. But if by the term of 'water' the grace of the Holy Spirit is denoted, as it is said John 7, by the voice of Truth in the Gospel, He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; in which place the Evangelist immediately added, But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe in Him should receive; a suitable sense is laid open in these words wherein he saith, Behold He withholdeth the waters, and all things are dried up; in that if the grace of the Holy Spirit be withdrawn from the hearer's mind, the sense is at once dried up,' which already through hope seemed to be green in the hearer. But forasmuch as he does not mention' water' but' waters,' by the plural designation, he refers to the sevenfold grace of spiritual gifts, inasmuch as every one is filled, so to speak, with as many waters as he is replenished with gifts, of which it is fitly added, Also if He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth. 15. For what is the earth' taken for, but the sinner, to 1 Lat. whom it is said in sentence, Dust1 thou art, and unto dust

Terra