5. For man by himself speaks to himself when in all that he thinks he is not withdrawn by the Spirit of the Divine Being from the sense of carnal wisdom; when the flesh puts forth a sense, and inviting the mind as it were to the understanding of it, sends it forth abroad. And hence ‘Truth’ saith to Peter, who was still full of earthly notions, For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. [Mark 8, 33] Yet, when he made a good confession, the words are spoken, Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in Heaven. [Mat. 16, 17] Now what do we understand by ‘the lips’ of God saving His judgments? For when the lips are closed the voice is kept in, and the meaning of the person keeping silence is not known; but when, the lips being opened, speech is put forth, the mind of the person speaking is found out. So ‘God opens His lips’ when He, manifests His will to men by open visitations. For He as it were speaks with open mouth, when the veil of interior Providence being drawn aside, He declines to conceal what is His will. For as it were with closed lips He forbear to indicate His meaning to us, when by the secresy of His judgments He conceals wherefore He does any thing. Zophar therefore, in order that he might reprove blessed Job on the grounds of a carnal understanding, and show what kindness of disposition he himself was of, wishes good things for him, which even when they are there present he does not know to be so, saying, But oh that God would speak with thee, and open His lips with thee. As if he were to say in plain words, ‘I feel for thy uninstructedness more than for thy chastening, in that I know thee to be endued with the wisdom of the flesh alone, and void of the Spirit of Truth. For didst thou discern the secret judgments of God, thou wouldest not give utterance to such daring sentences against Him.’ And because when Almighty God raises us to take a view of His judgments, He forthwith puts to flight the mists of the ignorance that is in us, what instruction comes to us by His lips being opened, he forthwith shows by adding in the words.
The public works of the supreme wisdom are when almighty God rules those whom he creates, brings to an end the good things which he begins and aids by his inspiration those whom he illuminates with the light of his visitation. For it is plain to the eyes of all people that those whom God created of his free bounty, he provides for with lovingkindness. And when he grants spiritual gifts, he himself brings to perfection what he has himself begun in the bounty of his lovingkindness. But the secret works of supreme wisdom are when God forsakes those whom he has created … when he enlightens us with the brightness of his illumination and yet by permitting temptation of the flesh, strikes us with the mists of blindness. Or when he does not care to preserve the good gifts he has bestowed to us, when he at the same time prompts the desires of our soul toward himself and yet by a secret judgment presses us with the powerlessness of our weak nature.… “For her law is manifold.” What should the “law” of God be understood to mean here except for “charity,” whereby we ever read in the inward parts in what way the precepts of life should be maintained in outward action? For concerning this law the voice of “Truth” says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another.” Concerning it, Paul says, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” In relation to it Paul says again, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” For how can the law of Christ be more aptly understood than to mean the charity that we then truly fulfill when we bear the burdens of our brothers from the principle of love?
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 11:5