432 Fresh temptations arise when the great are converted.
Job 39, nations he hasbeen able to seize,he bringsby persuasion to the
'-
— grace of faith; and points out eternal life to those, to whom,
when captured, he secures their present life. Why is this ?
Because he is now, in truth, gathering the floor, w;iiich
before he used to winnow, by scattering it with his ])roud
horn. Let blessed Job therefore hear what the princes of
the Gentiles do, and not exalt himself in himself with the
glory of his own so great virtue. Let the powerful prince
hear also, with what devotion the mightier princes of this
world become the servants of God, and let not him w'ho has
a pattern in others, pervert his virtue, in consequence of its
singularity, into the sin of pride. For though God beheld
no one like him at that time, yet He foresaw many,by whom
to repress his boasting.
10. Because, therefore, earthly princes prostrate them-
selves before God with great humility, wicked men, who
were before ranked in unbelief against the Church, and were
raging with open hostility, now turn to other arguments of
fraud. For since they see that those reverence religion,
they themselves adopt a respect for religion, and under a
despicable garb oppress the conduct of the good, by their
wicked habits. For they are in truth lovers of the world,
and make a show of that in themselves which man can
admire, and unite themselves, not in heart, but in garb, to
those who truly despise themselves. For since, though loving
present glory, they cannot attain to it, they follow it, as if
despising it. But they would manifest what they think
against the good, if they were to find a fitting opportunity
for their wickedness. But even these devices of the wicked
tend to the purification of the Elect. For Holy Church
cannot pass through the season of her pilgrimage, without
the labour of temptation, and though she has no open
enemies without, yet she endures false brethren within.
For she is ever in array against sin, and, even in the season
of peace, has her own contest. And she is perhaps more
grievously afllicted, when she is assaulted, not by the blows
of strangers, but by the manners of her own children.
Whether therefore at that, or this time, she is always engaged
in a struggle. For, both in the persecution of princes she is
afraid that the good should lose, what they really are, and in