They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.
All Commentaries on Job 30:8 Go To Job 30
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
25. That is to say, the children of those, who were the masters of errors. So they are called ‘children,’ not as engendered by the seed, but by the imitating of those, who by teaching what is wrong were ‘fools’ in respect of ignorance, and by living wicked lives ‘base men’ in respect of conduct. Who are not allied to our Redeemer by any relationship of wisdom, or by any of life. Concerning which it is said by the voice of Solomon in commendation of Holy Church, Her husband is noble in the gates. [Prov. 31, 23] So these, because they followed the froward examples of those going’ astray, were recorded as being ‘the children of fools and of base men.’ Now it is rightly subjoined, and on the earth not appearing at all. Because whilst they aim to appear something here, surely from the land of the living they are made outcasts.
26. But this which we have delivered in a type of heretics, nothing is at all in the way, if we understand it as well of persons froward and carnal, though set in the right faith. For neither does Holy Church account those only adversaries to her, who, as placed without, dissent from her faith, but those also who by living amiss inwardly stifle her life. So then let her, afflicted with the wofulness of adversity coming down upon her, survey how in the season of her prosperity, by the wickedness of evil-doers living within her even she was burthened. Let her consider that in due of the deserts of some, the life of all was not unjustly disturbed in her, and let her say, Who gnawed in solitude, scurvy with affliction and misery. As I before said in the first part of this work, the solitude of the interior is sometimes used to be understood in respect of the excellency of contemplation. But in this place, where ‘solitude’ is mentioned in the way of reproach, what else is there demonstrated but a barrenness of goodness? And hence, under the type of Judaea, Jeremiah mourns over the soul of the sinner, saying, How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! [Lam. 1, 1] But when it is said by blessed Job respecting the evil-doers, they gnawed in solitude, it is well to look at that also which is delivered by the Psalmist, His enemies shall lick the dust. [Ps. 72, 9]
27. For there are two sorts of men that lend themselves to their own ambition, i.e. one which always employs the flatteries of the tongue to serve to avarice, another which is bent on robbery by open force. For we ‘gnaw’ when we wear away any thing outwardly with strong effort. For there is ‘licking’ when that which cannot be eaten with ease is tasted by the lightness of the tongue being pressed upon it. All persons then who even under a guise of faith live wickedly, who long after what belongs to another, but are not any way able to seize upon the object that they long after, but try by flattering speeches, and as it were by the softening of sweetness, to carry off the things coveted, what else do they save ‘lick the ground?’ because the several things of earth, which they cannot by power, they strive to make away with by the softness of the tongue. But they who are sustained in this world by any degree of power, and whilst coveting the things of others, scorn indeed to cozen by deceit, because they are able even by unjust strength to fulfil what they have a mind for, the thing that they long for these persons do not ‘lick’ but ‘gnaw’; because they demolish the life of their fellow-creatures by the forcibleness of power as by the effect of teeth. So then let Holy Church regard the true riches of the Eternal Country, let her behold the throng of the citizens Above, let her discern in her Elect Children the culture of the mind, and the excellencies of countless virtues, and from these let her recall the eye of the mind to the life of the wicked, which is made void of all goodness, and by comparison with them let her see how and in what way that life is destitute of all virtuous attainments, because it has abandoned the things on high, and coveted those beneath. Let her see how very often that thing which he longs for, if perchance he has power, he even seizes by violence. Let her see that she has long been subject to such persons as set within her pale, and that by their offences she has come even to the very jeopardy and hurts of the good too, and let her say, Who gnawed in solitude. As though she complained openly, saying, ‘The things of others they would not gnaw, even by seizing them by violence, except they themselves first remained in their own interior solitary, and bare of the culture of virtues.’ But she rightly explains the kind and sort of those, saying, Scurvy with affliction and misery. For unhealthy flesh, if it be overlooked to be heedfully taken care of, is by foulness growing over it worse pressed with disease, and whilst to the misfortune of sickness the wretchedness of neglect is superadded, heavier inconvenience is undergone by scurf arising.
28. Therefore Human Nature having been created aright, but having sunk into disease by the demerit of its own will, it fell into utter overthrow, because being pressed by countless necessities, it found nought in this life save that whereby it should be beaten down; but whereas those same necessities of our nature we generally minister to beyond what is advisable, and overlook the care of the soul, by the wretchedness of neglect we add to our infirmity the foulness of sin. For the necessities of nature are such as to have this in them fraught with the greatest danger, that often there is no discerning therein, what there is done relating to them in the aim at usefulness, and what in the evil of self-gratification. For very frequently occasion of beguilement being met with, whilst we render the things due to necessity we are doing service to the evil of self-gratification, if our self-excusing cloaks itself with the veil of infirmity before the eyes of discernment, and as it were hides itself under the countenance of discharging the useful. But to let loose the frailty of our nature by neglect is nothing else than to add misery to affliction, and by that misery to redouble the foulness of the vices. Whence holy men, in every thing they do, discriminate with the most earnest aim, that the frailty of their nature exact not from them more than is owed, and that under the cloak of necessity there grow not up in them the evil of gratification. For they undergo one thing from infirmity, and another thing from the prompting of temptation, and being appointed as a kind of most equitable umpires between necessity and pleasure, they lift up the one by comforting, and bridle the other by keeping down. Whence it comes to pass, that even if they are exposed to the affliction of their infirmity, yet they never descend from neglect to the foulness of misery. For this mere thing, to be in affliction, is to be subject to the necessities of nature from the frailty of flesh still liable to corruption. Which same necessities he longed to get quit of, who said, Deliver me from my necessities. [Ps. 25, 17] For he knew that, for the most part, the sins of the pleasures break forth by occasion of necessities, and that he might not of his own will commit aught unlawful, he was busy to have that itself plucked up which he was subject to unwillingly in the roots. [An example of this case is found in St. Augustine’s Confessions, B. x. § 43—47.]
29. But on the other hand, the evil-minded take delight in those necessities of their corrupt state, because they force them back to serve the occasion of gratifications. For while they minister to nature by recruiting their bodies with food, through the gratification of the palate they are swelled out in the glutting of delight. When they seek clothing for covering the limbs, they look out not only for things that may cover, but also may uplift, and against the numbness of cold not only what may defend by thickness, but likewise delight by softness; not only what may soothe the touch by softness, but also beguile the eyes by the colour. So then, to turn occasion of necessity to the use of pleasure, what other thing is it but to join the foulness of misery to his affliction? Thus let the Church, being borne down in the season of adversity, call to mind those by whose deserts she undergoes these things, and let her say, Who gnawed in solitude, scurvy with affliction and misery. They indeed would not be made foul by affliction, if they did not superadd to inherent necessities the misery of gratifications. Which same necessities we have earned by the offence of the first parent. But they who add misery to their affliction, from the torture of punishment, break forth into augmentations of guilt. But would that such persons, whilst they scorn to be changed for the better, did things wrong in such a way as not to proffer them to others as well. Would that their own death only were enough for them, and that by their baneful persuasions they did not kill another’s life likewise. For they grudge others being what they are not, they grieve for others to obtain the thing that they lose; for if by chance they perceive any good points springing up in the acts of others, they directly pluck them up with the hand of mischievous reviling. Whence too it follows, And they did eat herbs and the barks of trees.
30. For what is denoted by ‘herbs,’ but the life of those beginning well tender and close to the ground? and what by the barks of trees, but the outward deeds of those who henceforth seek after things aloft? For bad men, when they see persons beginning what is right, either by deriding or as if counselling them, offer opposition. But when they now think with themselves that certain persons are making way to the highest things, because they cannot wholly and entirely scatter to the winds their advancements, they divert those persons from some of their deeds. Thus then to ‘eat herbs and the barks of trees,’ is by pestilent persuasions as by a kind of teeth of their evil-mindedness to scatter to nought, whether the aims of those beginning aright, or the doings of persons now henceforth after the manner of trees making towards that which is above. The children of perdition ‘eat herbs,’ when by scoffing they consume the beginnings of the frail sort. Likewise they ‘eat the barks of trees,’ when with the hand of evil counsel they withdraw from the life of those growing rightly the covering of good deeds. Now these latter they strip like trees in particular actions, but those because like herbs they drag whilst despising them, they as it were eat what they tread under them. The strength of some now rising on high they in part make away with, but the tenderness of some even still placed below they utterly break in pieces. So then let him say, they eat herbs and the barks of trees, because by wicked mockings in some they broke up piecemeal external deeds, and in some hearts in hope growing lively.
31. Or surely to ‘eat herbs’ is to copy some things light and tender belonging to the ancient Fathers. Whilst to ‘eat the barks of trees’ is to practise their deeds so far as the outside, but in these same works not to maintain a right intention. For there are some persons who, whereas they cannot obtain the glory of the present world by that world’s courses of conduct, seek after a semblance of sanctity, assume the garb of reverence, long to appear imitators of the old Fathers, and some few things indeed, little and light, they do employ themselves upon, but their strong things, and such as come forth from the root of charity alone, they are indifferent to imitate. These truly ‘eat herbs,’ because they overlook what is great, and are filled with what is worthless. Yet very often they put in execution even some deeds seemingly more vigorous, but they do not hold a right intention in those same deeds. To which persons surely to ‘eat the barks of trees’ is to take to them the outward acts of the Elect, and not to have a good intention in good acts. For whilst for the sake of human applause they search out right deeds, but are indifferent to imitate the heart of those doing rightly, they are filled ‘by the barks of trees’ alone. For with all the desire they seek after the glory or abundance of the present life. Whence too it is rightly subjoined, And the root of junipers was their meat.
32. For being set within by faith, whilst they for the most part lend themselves to thoughts of avarice, they as it were ‘eat’ that, whereby in the final close of life the roughnesses of punishments are put forth. Which persons, while they do not long after the fruitage of divine revelation, but make themselves subservient for the going after things temporal, are never filled with the bread of wheat, but with the ‘root of the juniper.’ For the mere things springing up from what is beneath and lowest engross them, that they may prick them afterwards after the manner of the juniper by the hardness of recompensing, as by the sharpness of leaves. For whilst they despise God here, they are never made sensible what great evil it is that they do. For still they are ‘eating the root of the juniper,’ but how sharp the branches of this root are they do not give heed; because verily bad conduct now as it were in the root gives delight in sin, but afterwards as it were in the branches it pricks in punishment. Where also it is well subjoined; Who, carrying these same off from the valleys, when they found each one, did run thereto with clamour.
33. In comparison surely with things above, all the present life is a ‘valley.’ But these, because they know not to contemplate the heights of mountains, i.e. the strong deeds of the Saints, are always busied in the lowest gratification as in ‘the valleys,’ and when they find any gain, even of a slight acquisition, they run with clamouring, because they strive even by wrangling to make off with this, for ‘upon each being found in the valley to run with clamour,’ is on the occasions of cases arising to wrangle even for small payment. Now it very often happens that him, whom good conduct exhibits as holy, occasion of earthly advantage springing up puts to the proof. For you may see persons already employed on what is lofty, already in the practice of abstinence, already in the work of instruction, following after the patterns of the fathers that went before; but when they suddenly find the gain of the present life, as the fruit of the valley, they ‘run thereto with clamour’; because the quiet of overlaid sanctity being broken through they spring forth to that.
34. It may be too that by ‘herbs and the barks of trees’ not only the deeds of the good are meant, as has been said before, but consolations and blessings in this life. For oftentimes Almighty God, when He enriches His Elect with interior gifts, uplifts them with external honours as well. And while He renders them objects of honour by advancing them above others, He exhibits them the wider as objects of imitation; and sometimes the evil-minded despise indeed the life of those, but long to attain their good success in this world. And so because they seek here below the flatteries of transitory comfort, they ‘eat herbs’; because in their thoughts they dwell on the external glory of these persons, they ‘chew the barks of trees’; and because in all these they minister to avarice alone with the entire bent of their mind, they are filled with the ‘root of the juniper.’ All which things they ‘carry off from the valleys,’ because from love of this low corruptible life they are made to burn with boundless lusts. And ‘when they find each one, they run thereto with clamours,’ because surely of the holy Fathers, whose merits they never seek to acquire, they are busy to lay hold of the posts and governments, and when they very frequently cannot attain these by quiet means, they even try it by bursting asunder the peacefulness of concord.
35. And for this that these are widely separated from the conduct of the Fathers going before, it is rightly subjoined; They dwelled in the desert places of torrents, and in the caves of the earth, or upon the gravel. For on the side of good we rightly take the ‘torrents’ for the holy preachers, who whilst in the present life they flow into us by divine effusions, are as it were collected by a concourse of waters in the winter season. Who also withdraw themselves on the summer sun appearing, because when the light of the Eternal Country shines forth, they will cease to preach. ‘The desert places of these torrents’ are the benefits of the life of time. For these they abandon, and betake themselves to the obtaining of heavenly gains. But all these that ‘torrent’ had forsaken who said; For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung. [Phil. 3, 8] But because the minds of the wicked seek to obtain those things in this life, which the righteous abandon despising them, they are related to ‘dwell in the desert places of the torrents.’ For those things which are unworthy of the Saints, those same long to win as great. But the ‘caves of the earth’ are wicked thoughts, in which they bury themselves from the eyes of their fellow-creatures. For as they are evil, they shun being seen by men, and whilst they pretend themselves something else than what they are, they conceal themselves in the lurking places of their conscience, as ‘in caves of the earth,’ which persons would not do all these things, unless they were hopeless of an eternal and substantial life, unless they set their mind in this uncertainty of the temporal state. Whence it is well added, Or upon the gravel.
36. For the ‘gravel’ is the present life, which by the mere failure of mutability, as by the impulse of a river, is unceasingly being brought to its end. Hence to ‘dwell upon the gravel’ is to attach one’s self to the tide of the present life, and there to set the bent of the mind, where it cannot stablish the step by standing firmly. There is another circumstance ‘in gravel,’ which ought in no wise to be passed over in silence, namely, that when the foot is set upon the top of it, it slips by the mere rolling tendency thereof, and is made to roll down to the bottom. From which circumstance the life of the wicked is in nothing at variance, because whilst for love of the world they set themselves to do some things lawful and respectable, they in a manner set the foot flat upon the top, but suddenly the foot slips to the bottom, because their course of conduct, whilst it ever seeks after more, descends even to what is wicked and unlawful. So then, when Holy Church meets with the crosses of this period, let her in remembrance have recourse to the life of the carnal, whom even in her prosperity she bore as adversaries to her, and by whose deserts it is that she suffers these things let her see and know, saying, They dwelled in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of the earth, and upon the gravel. For because they are bared of the teaching of the Fathers, they are related to ‘dwell in the desert places of the torrents’; because they cover themselves up in the hidden thoughts of the heart, they are related to ‘dwell in caves of the earth’; whilst because they desire to fix their aim in the changeableness of the present state of being, they are related to ‘dwell upon the gravel.’ But would that such, seeing that sins when they tempt they have no mind to do violence to, even after they have been committed, cleansed them away by weeping: would that at all events, when done, they acquainted themselves with their evil deeds, ‘and applied to the barren fig-tree the basket of dung, i.e. to the unfruitful soul the richness of lamenting.
37. But the mind of man has for the most part this thing proper to it, that as soon as ever it falls into transgression, it is still further removed from the knowledge of self. For this very evil, that it commits, inserts itself to the soul as a bar before the eye of reason. Whence it comes to pass, that the soul, being first encompassed by voluntary darkness, afterwards does not any longer even know the good it should seek. For the more it attaches itself to evil things, the less does it apprehend the good ones that it loses. Since the light of truth, because it minutely tries the offences of lost sinners, in the same degree that it is neglected when had, so does it, judging rigidly, allow it to be, that not even when lost it should be sought back, and when it is banished from the act, it departs from the perception; that that whereof the face, as it were, is slighted in practice, should now no longer have its very hinder parts appear in the remembrance. Thus, hence it is that lost sinners, whilst subject to sins to be lamented, rejoice; concerning whom it is said by Solomon, Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the worst things. [Prov. 2, 14] Hence it is that occasions of lamentations they go through dancing; hence it is that the business of their death they carry on laughing.
