Whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web.
All Commentaries on Job 8:14 Go To Job 8
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
70. For it is infinite folly to labour painfully, and pant after the breath of applause, to apply one's self to the heavenly precepts with hard toil, but to aim at the reward of an earthly kind of recompense. For that I may so express myself, he that in return for the good that he practises looks for the applause of his fellowcreatures, is carrying an article of great worth to be sold at a mean price. From that whereby he might have earned the kingdom of heaven, he seeks the coin of passing talk. His practice goes for little, in that he spends a great deal, and gets back but very little. Whereunto then are hypocrites like but to luxuriant and untended vines, which put forth fruit from their fertility, but are never lifted from the earth by tending? All that the rich branches bud forth, stray beasts tread under foot, and the more fruitful they see it is, the more greedily they devour it, thus cast away and laid low, in that the works of hypocrites while they shew fair, come forth as if rich, but whilst they aim at human praises, it is as if they were left forsaken upon the ground. And the beasts of this world, i.e. the evil spirits, devour them, because they turn them to account to the end of perdition, and they seize upon them with greater avidity, in proportion as great things are more clearly known. Hence it is well said by the Prophet, The standing stalk, there is no bud in them, and they shall yield no meal; if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. [Hos. 8, 7. Vulg.] For the stalk is without a bud, when the life lacks the merit of virtuous habits. The stalk yieldeth no meal, when he that thrives in this world understands nothing refined, and yields no fruit of good practice.
71. But very often even when it has yielded meal, strangers eat it up, in that even when hypocrites do shew forth good works, the wishes of evil spirits are satisfied therewith. For those who do not aim to please God by them, do not feed the Owner of the land, but strangers. Thus the hypocrite, like a fruitful and neglected vine, cannot keep his fruit, because the cluster of good works lies prone upon the ground. Yet he is fed by his very own insanity itself, in that on the score of good practice he is esteemed of all men, he is set before others, he holds the minds of men in subjection, he is raised to the higher posts; he is fed high with applause. Now this folly of his satisfies him in the mean season, but it shall not satisfy him, in that when the season of retribution comes, it displeases him under punishment that he was foolish. Then he will perceive that he did foolishly, when, for the gratification of applause, he receives the sentence of God's rebuke. Then he sees that he has been senseless, when for the transitory glory that he obtained, everlasting torments are his bitter portion. Then punishments disclose the true knowledge to light, in that by them it must at once be concluded that all was nought that could pass away; and hence it is rightly added,
And whose trust shall be a spider's web.
72. The assurance of the hypocrite is rightly called like the webs of spiders, in that all the pains and labour they spend to acquire glory, the wind of the life of mortality blows to shreds. For as they never seek the things of eternity, they lose together with time all temporal good things. Moreover it is to be considered that spiders draw their threads in a regular order, for that hypocrites as it were regulate their works by the rule of discernment. The spider's web is woven with pains, but it is scattered by a sudden blast, in that whatsoever the hypocrite does with laborious effort, the breath of man's regard carries off; and whilst in the ambition of applause his work comes to nought, it is as if his labour went to the wind. For it often happens that the works of hypocrites last even to the very end of the present life, but, forasmuch as they do not thereby seek the praise of their Creator, they were never good works in the sight of God. Thus it is very often the case, as we have said above, that they are upheld by scholarship in the sacred Law, that they deliver lessons of instruction, that they fortify by testimonies every notion that they entertain; but they do not hereby seek the life of their hearers, but applause for themselves. For neither do they know how to put forth any thing else but what may stir the hearts of their hearers to the quick, to pay the recompense of praise, not what may kindle them to shed tears. For the heart being preoccupied with external desires, is not hot with the fire of divine love, and so words that issue from a cold heart, can never warm their hearers to heavenly affection. For neither can anyone thing that is not itself alight in itself kindle any other thing. Hence it is very often brought to pass, that at one and the same time the sayings of hypocrites fail to instruct the hearers, and make the very persons themselves that utter them worse by being exalted with praises. For as Paul bears witness, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. [1 Cor. 8, 1] Thus, whereas charity setteth not up in ‘edifying,’ knowledge in puffing up overthrows. Very often hypocrites chasten themselves with extraordinary mortification, wear down all the strength of their body, and as it were while living in the flesh utterly kill the life of the flesh, and so by abstinence verge upon death, that they live well nigh dying every day; but they seek the eyes of men for all this, they look for the renown of admiration, as ‘Truth’ testifieth, Which saith, For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. [Matt. 6, 16] For their faces become pallid, the body is made to shake with weakness, the breast labours with hard and broken breathings. But amidst all this, talk of admiration is looked for from the lips of neighbours, and nothing else is aimed at by such great pains, saving human esteem. Which same are well represented by that Simon, who in the season of our Lord's Passion bore the Cross in compulsion, of whom it is written, And as they came out they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear His cross. [Matt. 27, 32] For what we do by compulsion, we do not practise from a heartfelt devotedness of love. And so for him to bear the Cross of Jesus in compulsion, is to submit to the mortification of abstinence for some other aim than needs to be. Does he not bear the Cross of Jesus under compulsion, who as after the commandment of the Lord subdues the flesh, yet does not love the spiritual Country? And hence the same Simon bears the Cross, but doth not die; in that every hypocrite chastens his body in abstinence, but yet, in the love of glory, lives on to the world.
73. Contrariwise it is well said by Paul of the Elect; For they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the vices and lusts. For we ‘crucify the flesh with the vices and lusts,’ if we so restrain our appetite, that henceforth we look for nothing of the glory of the world. Since he that macerates the flesh, but pants after honours, has inflicted the Cross on his flesh, but from concupiscence lives the worse to the world, in that it often happens that in the semblance of holiness, he unworthily obtains the post of rule, which except he displayed something of merit in himself, he would never attain to receive by any pains whatever. But that which he gains for enjoyment is passing, and what ensues in punishment is enduring. Now his assurance of sanctity is placed in the lips of man, but when the inward Judge tries the secrets of the interior, no witnesses of the life are sought from without. Therefore it is well said, Whose trust shall be a spider's web; since on the witness of the heart appearing, all passes by wherein his confidence consists, founded without in human applause.
