約伯倫理 第 1095 章

VERSE 29. — 'For when He grants peace, who is there that shall condemn? And when He has hidden His countenance, who is there that shall behold Him?' Why one is called and drawn, another rejected, let no one dispute. — Let no one therefore dispute why, while the Jewish people stood, the Gentile world long lay in unbelief; and why, at the end, when the Gentile world rises, He laid low the Jewish people from the guilt of unbelief. Let no one dispute why one is drawn by gift, another rejected by desert. For if you marvel that the Gentile world is taken up—when He grants peace, who is there that shall condemn? If you are astonished that Judea is lost—when He has hidden His countenance, who is there that shall behold Him?

Thus the counsel of the highest and hidden power is the satisfaction of open reasoning. Whence also in the Gospel the Lord, when He spoke concerning the cause of this matter, said: 'I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father' (Matt. xi, 25). And presently, adjoining as it were a certain reason for the hiding and the revealing, He says: 'For so it was pleasing before Thee.' By which words assuredly we receive examples of humility, that we may not presume rashly to discuss the counsels above concerning the calling of some and the rejection indeed of others.

For when He had brought forward both, He did not immediately render a reason, but said that thus it was pleasing to God, showing this, namely, that what pleased the Just One cannot be unjust. Whence also, rendering wages to the labourers in the vineyard, when He made equal in reward certain workmen unequal in labour, and one who had sweated more in toil sought more in wages, He said: 'Didst thou not agree with me for a penny? I will give also to this last, even as to thee; or is it not lawful for me to do what I will?' (Matt. xx, 13). In all things, therefore, which are outwardly disposed, the cause of reasoning is open; hidden is the justice of the will. Let it therefore be said: 'For when He grants peace, who is there that shall condemn?

And when He has hidden His countenance, who is there that shall behold Him?' [Vet. XIX.] And because God judges the least things as the greatest, and single things as all things, it is aptly added: