VERSE 10. — 'When God bloweth, the frost congealeth.' 52. The hearts of the Jews had hardened with the frost of envy. — Because the more the Holy Spirit breathed upon the hearts of the faithful, the more it conferred greater miracles of virtues, the more the torpor of envy grew in the minds of the unfaithful by heavier degrees; and thereby the unfaithful people hardened against God, whereby the humble people softened the former hardness with which it had bound itself. For 'when God blew,' those had been turned to frost who, envying at the sight of the miracles, said: 'Behold, the whole world is gone after Him' (John XII, 19). They beheld the signs, they discerned the miracles through His ministers, they foresaw that the whole world would now follow the proclamations of faith; and yet, the more the Holy Spirit had filled the world (Wisd. I, 7),
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I, 7), eoillorummentesarctiusinvidiaemalitialigabat. Aquaergoingeluversafueratdum, euntepostDeummundo, Judaeaininvidiapigraremanebat. Sedqniasupernaepotestatisuppetiitetiamtantaecrudelitatisduritiamsolvereatqueadamandumsecordainfideliumliquare, postbocgelumoxbenesubditur:
the more the malice of envy bound their minds the more tightly. The water, therefore, had been turned to frost, since, while the world went after God, Judea remained sluggish in envy. But because it belonged to the supernal power to melt even the hardness of so great a cruelty, and to liquefy the hearts of the unfaithful to loving Him, after this frost it is soon well added: