約伯倫理 第 1202 章

VERSE 9. — 'When I made a cloud its garment, and wrapped it in mist as in swaddling bands of infancy.' 37. God restrained the malice of the persecutors, who savor of childish things. — The raging sea is clothed with a cloud, because the cruelty of the persecutors is clothed with the veil of its own folly. For, the mist of its own unbelief being interposed, it does not suffice to see the clear light of the truth; and that which it does through the impulse of cruelty, it does not recognize through the merit of its own blindness. For 'if they had known,' as the Apostle says, 'they would never have crucified the Lord of glory' (1 Cor. 2:8). This cloud is wont not only to oppress unbelievers set outside, but also to darken certain who live carnally within the Church.

Whence holy men, who have compassion even on the negligence of others, and reckon that they suffer what they perceive others to endure, praying to God, say: 'Thou hast set a cloud before Thee, that our prayer may not pass through' (Lam. 3:44). As if they plainly said: To our mind, accustomed to earthly delights, Thou by just judgment settest before it the phantasms of its own cares, by which Thou confoundest it in the very intention of its prayer; and, because Thou art not ignorant that it is given over to the lowest desires, Thou rightly beatest it back, blinded, from beholding the clearness of Thy law; so that when it is intent upon Thee, it may by that very cloud of its own thoughts be reflected back from Thee; and that which it earthly continually thinks upon because it wills, it may endure also in prayer even when it wills not.

Because therefore the very wickedness of the persecutors is constrained by the supernal dispensation, lest it be let loose against holy men as much as it would wish, after He had said: 'When I made a cloud its garment,' He forthwith subjoined: 'And wrapped it in mist as in swaddling bands of infancy.' For by swaddling bands of infancy the feet and arms are bound fast, lest they be tossed hither and thither with unloosed liberty.

Because therefore the persecutors of the holy Church, restless with instability of heart, and given over to this world, savor not of things full-grown but of childish things — being indeed constrained by obscurity and mist, not by understanding of the supernal judgment, lest they be able to persecute as much as they will — are referred to as wrapped in swaddling bands of infancy, because, as has been said, they savor indeed of childish things, but, constrained by the divine dispensation, they stretch not their arms whither they will; and though they desire lightly to perpetrate all evils, yet they are by no means permitted to fulfill all that they desire. There follows: VERSE 10. — 'I compassed it with My bounds.'

The Lord surrounds the sea with its own bounds, because by the dispensation of His judgments He tempers the wrath of persecutors, so that the swollen wave of frenzied raging may be broken upon the level shore of His hidden dispensation. There follows: