Lecture 2 — God rules everything

^12:11^ Does not the ear judge words when it hears them, and when the palate relishes the taste of food, does it not discriminate?

^12:12^ There is wisdom in the ancients and prudence comes with advanced age.

^12:13^ With him is wisdom and strength; he has counsel and understanding.

^12:14^ If he should destroy, there is no one who rebuilds; and if he should close a man in, there is no one to free him.

^12:15^ If he withholds the rain, everything dries up, and if he sends the rain, it covers the earth.

^12:16^ With him is strength and wisdom; he knows the one who deceives and the one who is deceived.

^12:17^ He leads counselors to a foolish end and judges to dullness.

^12:18^ The baldrick of kings he dissolves and he girds their loins with ropes;

^12:19^ he leads the priests away and he dispossesses the nobles.

^12:20^ He alters the truth from their lips and takes away instruction from the elderly.

^12:21^ He brings princes into contempt. Those who are oppressed he relieves.

^12:22^ He reveals those deep in darkness and he kindles light where death’s shadow lay.

^12:23^ He brings growth to a people and ruin to them, and what he has ruined he restores to integrity.

^12:24^ It is he who changes the heart of the leaders of the people of the earth, and he deceives them so that they proceed in vain and teachless ways:

^12:25^ they grope in darkness and not in the light, and he makes them err like drunkards.

208. Does not the ear judge words. Job asserted above (Job 12:2) regarding what Sophar had said about the excellence of the greatness of God, that these things were evident to all men. Here he intends to show that men can come to an understanding of these things by the experience of divine power and wisdom in human affairs.

First, then, he shows how men derive knowledge in things from experience, saying, does not the ear judge words when it hears them, and when the palate relishes the taste of food, does it not discriminate? Since experience is from sense, he fittingly shows the value of experience for the judgment of the senses, especially in hearing and taste. For hearing is the most teachable of all the senses, and so it is of more value in the contemplative sciences. Taste, however, is appreciative of food, which is necessary for the life of men; the judgment of taste expresses the experience which one has about things in the active life. Because of this, from the judgment of the two senses, he shows the value of experience in both speculative things and practical things. When he then says, there is wisdom in the ancients, this expresses the contemplative life, because old men have heard many things. Prudence comes with advanced age. This express the active life because men taste of many things in a long life, both helpful and harmful.

209. After he has shown the power of experience, he then explains what men can know by experience about God when he says, with him is wisdom and strength, he has counsel and understanding.

Here he attributes four things to God, which have an order among themselves.

The first, certainly, is to know hidden things, which pertains to understanding.

Second, from the things one understands to discover, within actions, means which are fitting for an end. This pertains to the counsel which is taken in speculative things; by those things which a man understands, he deduces reasons to know certain conclusions.

The third is when from those things he has found, a man arrives at right judgment, which pertains to wisdom.

The fourth is that he might vigorously execute those things which he judges ought to be done, and this pertains to strength.

210. For since experience proceeds from sensible things, which, although prior as to our way of being, are yet simply and in their nature posterior, he therefore begins to show how men can know divine strength by experience.

He does this first in human affairs themselves. For we can see that some men are totally destroyed, either by death, as far as natural being, or by complete humiliation, as to life in civil society, even though they still have many protectors. So when they cannot be helped by men to escape destruction, it is clear that this happens to human powers through some hidden, divine and excellent cause, since human power cannot resist him. This is what he says, if he should destroy, there is no one who rebuilds. In the same way we see that some men fail in their projects, even if they are not completely destroyed, although they may have many counselors. Thus it is clear that this also happens by some more excellent power. So he then says, if he should close a man in, by involving him in different kinds of difficulties, there is no one to free him, that is, who can set him free, for according to the Scriptures, no one can correct him whom God disdains (Eccl 7:14).

211. Then he shows how men can experience divine power in natural things, especially in rains and droughts. So he says, if he withholds the rain, so that it does not fall, everything dries up, which grows on the earth. If he sends the rain, in great abundance, it covers the earth, as in a flood. Although from some natural causes the rains sometimes cease to the point of a complete drought, and sometimes are so heavy they flood the earth, this still does not detract from divine power, which orders even natural causes themselves to their proper effects. Thus, as a conclusion from these premises he says, with him is strength.

212. Then he begins to progress to the second point, saying, and wisdom, as though proposing what he intends to clarify. For it is a property of wisdom that it gives us right judgment about things. The man judges correctly about the truth of things who can discern how someone is deceived in turning aside from the truth. Thus, to show that in God there is wisdom, he then says, he knows the one who deceives and the one who is deceived; that is, he discerns by right judgment the deception with which someone neglects the truth, from a right understanding of the truth. He supposes this from what he and the friends hold in common, which is that human affairs are subjected to divine judgment, which God cannot judge unless he knows sins, among which frauds and deceptions hold a great place.

213. Then he shows that there is counsel in God, by analogy with human affairs. Consider that God knows both the principles and conditions of speculative sciences and their order to one another, and he does not acquire knowledge of the conclusions through the principles, but he knows all things in the first and simple glance. In the same way, in practical matters we know the end, those things which are for the end, and what ways are most expeditious for attaining the end, but he does not inquire as to the means in view of the end as we do when we take counsel. Thus, one says that there is reason in God insofar as he knows the order of principles to what follows; yet it does not belong to him to investigate something by the method of reasoning, as reason does. Thus, counsel is attributed to him; not by the method of investigation, but by way of simple and absolute knowledge.

The depth of a man’s counsel can be examined from two angles.

First, when from the ingenuity of his counsel he leads his adversaries (even though they may seem skilled in counsel) to the fact that they must arrive at an unfitting conclusion when all their means prove inadequate. To this he says, he leads counselors to a foolish end, when by the profundity of his counsels he keeps them from the means by which they seek to attain an end which should be avoided.

Second, someone shows the depth of his counsel when he can reduce his adversaries to ignore what they ought to do, by the subtlety of his counsel. To this he says, and judges to dullness. He calls judges wise, who usually have the habit of right judgment in their acts. Since even in speculative disputes someone is called a skilled debater who can lead his adversary into an erroneous conclusion, or can so prove some proposition that nothing can be said against it, so God does against his adversaries. For, by ways which they themselves chose, he leads them to perdition, and so he strengthens his truth and works so that they cannot be shaken by his adversaries.

214. Since he has said this in a general way, he now makes it clear by particular applications, showing how all things which seem excellent in human affairs are brought by the depth of divine counsel to a foolish end and to dullness. In human affairs, kings excel with respect to power. As to them he says, the baldrick, that is, the military cincture, of kings he dissolves, for their power is designated in their cincture, according to the Psalm, gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one (Ps 44:4); and he girds their loins with ropes, when they are led into captivity, in which he notes their complete dethronement. Priests excel by the reverence in which they are held, concerning which he adds, he leads the priests away humbled. The first men and counselors in a kingdom or a city seem to excel in the prudence of their advice, and he says regarding them, and he dispossesses the nobles; that is, he deceives them.

Philosophers excel in the consideration of the truth. He says regarding these, he alters the truth from their lips, that is, the lips of those who are eager to speak the truth. For God sometimes darkens the mind of those men by taking away his grace so that they cannot find the truth, and, consequently cannot speak, as Romans says, saying that they were wise, they were made foolish (Rom 1:22). Old men excel in the direction of the young, and in their regard he continues, he takes away instruction from the elderly, either because old men make fools of themselves, or because they are completely taken out of society, as Isaiah says, the Lord will take away from Jerusalem the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder (Isa 3:1). Princes excel in the authority which they have for ruling others, and he says about these, he brings princes into contempt, so that they are despised by those who should obey them.

215. All these things seem to relate to what he had said, he leads counselors to a foolish end (Job 12:17). But the fact that sometimes some are advanced from a lower state to the highest seems to relate to what he had said, and judges to dullness (Job 12:17). As to this he then says, and those who were oppressed he relieves, which refers to the weak oppressed by the power of greater men, who are sometimes elevated to a state of power, after those oppressing them are cast aside. As to those men who have no prestige, but live hidden in the lowest state, he then says, he reveals those deep in darkness; that is, men placed in a lower state, who are unknown because of this, as though existing in darkness. He leads these to glory by revealing them to others.

As to those that are thought stupid and ignorant, he then says, he kindles the light where death’s shadow lay, for the shadow of death seems to be ignorance or stupidity, since the living are distinguished from the nonliving especially by knowledge. Thus, he kindles the light where death’s shadow lay, when he gives either wisdom to the ignorant, or he shows those who were wise to be wise whose wisdom was ignored before. What he has just said, those who were oppressed he relieves, is in opposition to what he had stated, he removes the baldrick of kings (Job 12:18). When he added, he reveals those deep in darkness, he says this in opposition to he leads the priest away humbled (Job 12:19). When he next said, he kindles the light where death’s shadow lay, he says this in opposition to everything which follows. As he had said that the alternation of this kind of sublimity and dejection happen among particular persons from God, he shows this same thing among all men, saying of them, who brings growth to a people, as he increases the population of men, and ruin to them, when he destroys them either by wars or pestilence. And what he has ruined, either by these things or from the oppression of one or of many who are tyrants, he restores to integrity, for he returns it to a good condition.

216. After he has shown there is strength, wisdom, and counsel in God, he finally shows that God is intelligent, understanding by this the knowledge which he has of hidden things, which seem above all to designate what is hidden in the heart. He shows that God knows these things by the fact that he works in the hearts of men, and thus he knows the hidden things of hearts, like he knows his own effects. So he says, it is he who changes the heart of the leaders of the people of the earth, as he wills. As Proverbs says, the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, who will incline it to whatever he wills (Prov 21:1). Although God inclines the wills of all men, special mention is made of kings and princes because their wills carry more weight, for many follow their will. As to the intellect he adds, he deceives them, which means certainly not that he leads them into falsity, but because he takes his light away from them, they do not know the truth, and he clouds their reasoning power so that they cannot find suitable means to do the wicked deeds which they propose.

So he then says, so that they proceed in vain and trackless ways; that is, so they proceed by ways which are unfitting, by means of which they cannot arrive at their end.

One errs in acting in two ways:

first, by ignorance, and regarding this he says, they grope in the darkness and not in the light, so that ignorance is designated by darkness, and knowledge by light. Some grope in ignorance like blind men when they only consider what is right in front of them as though they sense by touch.

Some err in another way in actions because of their passions, by which their reason is fettered concerning particulars, so that they do not apply universal knowledge to things to be done. As to this he adds, and he makes them err like drunkards, for their reason is so bound by passion that it is like a kind of drunkenness.