Job 38:16

"Did you go to the sources of the sea? As he who comes back among us has discovered all the secrets of the heart of the ungodly; who, by confessing and believing in him, have been justified. What more exactly could we call the sources of the sea, than that secret malice from which a black impiety escapes, whose evil deeds roll in the world like the waters of an immense river? Men see the external malice, but they can not see the secret source that produces them. "Have you walked in the footsteps of abysses! "The abyss here designates the whole carnal life, immersed in evil, where the sinner once he is there, descended, surrenders himself to contempt" (5). For once returned to grace with God through the forgiveness of their sins, the most desperate sinners rose up above the abyss and received Christ; they received him not to plunge themselves back into the abyss into which they groaned, but to follow him himself, having as glorious host He who pressed them with his sting. "In the footsteps of abysses; Memories of their old sins: for by remembering what they have been, they are more fond of Him whom they have received and who has forgiven them all (6).

Hast thou entered into the depth of the sea, and hast thou walked in the lowest parts of the abyss? As if He said, As I, Who not only sought the sea, that is this world, by assuming the flesh and soul of a man, but also descended by that flesh voluntarily subjected to death, to the bottom of the pit, as if to the depths of the sea. For if the 'sea' must be understood to mean the world after the manner of Scripture language, nothing hinders the 'depths of the sea' from meaning the bars of the pit. But the Lord sought this depth of the sea, when He entered the lowest parts of the pit, in order to rescue the souls of His Elect. Whence also it is said by the Prophet, Thou hast made the depths of the sea a way, for the ransomed to pass over. For this depth of the sea was, before the coming of the Redeemer, not a way, but a prison, because it confined within it even the souls of the good, though not in places of punishment. But the Lord made this depth a way, because He, by coming thither, granted His Elect to pass over from the bars of the pit to heavenly places. Whence it is there fitly said, for the ransomed to pass over. But that which He had called the depths of the sea, repeating in other words He calls the lowest parts of the abyss: because as the abyss of waters is not comprehended by our sight, so are the secrets of the pit not penetrated by us with any sense of our understanding. For we behold who are withdrawn hence, but we see not what retribution of punishments awaits them according to their desert. [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] But we must carefully notice, that He says that He had walked in the lowest parts of the abyss. For to walk belongs not to one who is bound, but to one who is free. For fetters impede to a like extent the steps of him whom they bind. Because then the Lord endured no bonds of sin, He walked in the pit. For He came unfettered to those who were bound. Whence it is written, I am become as a man without help, free among the dead. For the Lord then to walk in the lowest parts of the abyss is for Him to find nothing to detain Him in the place of damnation, as Peter bears witness, who says, Having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible for Him to be holden of it. Or certainly, (because, when we are led in walking from place to place, we are found present here and there,) the Lord is said to have walked in the pit, in…