約伯倫理 第 1153 章

Verse 31. — 'For by these he judges the peoples, and gives food to many mortals.' 22. Through the same preachers, signified by the clouds, both terror is inflicted and food is given. — Through these words of the preachers, that is, the drops of the clouds, through these lightnings of miracles, God judges the peoples, because he calls their terrified hearts to repentance. For while they hear things from above, while they attend to wondrous works, they soon return to their own hearts, and, afflicting themselves for their former depravities, they dread the eternal torments.

But through the same clouds by which terror is inflicted, food is also given, because great is the stewardship of the preachers, that they should know how to afflict the minds of the proud in such a way that they also know how to nourish the afflicted with the word of consolation, so that they both terrify the sinners with eternal punishments and feed the penitent with the joys of the heavenly kingdom. Whence well is the very order of stewardship preserved, that Elihu should say in due order that through these clouds he first judges the peoples, and afterward provides food, because indeed almighty God, through his preachers, first rebuking us for our depraved action, shakes us, and afterward, consoling us through hope, nourishes us.

For if the divine stewardship did not now execute judgment through these clouds, he would by no means have said to these same clouds: 'Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose you shall retain, they are retained' (John 20:22-23). And again, if through them he did not feed our hungry hearts, the Lord would by no means say to the disciples concerning the hungering peoples: 'Give ye them to eat' (Matthew 14:16). And what we believe was then done by their hands, we see done daily by their words without ceasing. For what does Peter do when he speaks through his epistles, but that our ill-fasting hearts be filled with the food of the word? What do Paul, what do John do,

speaking through their epistles, but that our minds may receive the heavenly nourishments, and overcome the loathing of that starvation by which they were dying? Let it be said, therefore: 'If he will to stretch out the clouds as his tent, and to flash lightning with his light from above, he will also cover the hinges of the sea. For by these he judges the peoples, and gives food to many mortals.' As if he plainly said: If he stretches out his saints into the ministry of preaching, and aids their words with miracles, he calls the boundaries of the whole world to the faith, through which he both first judges the proud, and afterward, nourishing the humble with the word of consolation, strengthens them in hope. 23. Faith is not given to all. — But when he said that he gives food to mortals, it is to be noted that he did not say

'to all,' but 'to many,' because indeed it is written: 'Not all have faith' (2 Thessalonians 3:2). And to some it is said: 'Therefore you hear not, because you are not of God' (John 8:47). And again: 'No one can come to me, unless the Father, who sent me, draw him' (John 6:44). And again: 'The Lord knows those who are his' (2 Timothy 2:19). Whence in the holy Church itself very many hold the faith, and do not hold the life of faith; they receive the sacraments of the Lord's humility, but scorn to be humbled by imitation of the Lord; they partake of the gentle precepts of the divine word, but persist within themselves, monstrous in their swelling pride.

Whence here also, after the breadth of the Church gathered together through the hinges of the sea has been signified, it is fittingly subjoined: