57. The judgments of God are a great deep. — Because, with a certain veil of our ignorance cast over it, the eye of the human mind can in no way penetrate the incomprehensibility of the divine judgment. For it is written: 'Thy judgments are a great deep' (Ps. 35:7 [36:6]). Let no one, therefore, seek to search out why, when one is rejected, another is chosen; or why, when one is chosen, another is rejected; because the surface of the deep is bound fast, and, as Paul testifies: 'Unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out' (Rom. 11:33). 58. What is said of the Jews' hardness and reprobation can be understood of Satan. — But by that which is said: 'From whose womb has the ice gone forth, and who has begotten the frost from heaven?'
nothing hinders that Satan also be understood in the frost and ice. For he as it were proceeded as ice from God's womb, because from the warmth of His secrets, being cold with the numbness of malice, he went out as the master of iniquity. He is the frost begotten from heaven, because, being about to bind fast the hearts of the reprobate, he was permitted to fall from the heights to the depths. He who, though well created among the heavenly beings, when in the cold of guilt he fell, bound fast the minds of his followers as it were like frost. Coming to earth, what he has wrought in men is set forth when there is added: 'The waters are hardened into the likeness of a stone.' For by waters peoples are designated, but by the stone the hardness of that same Satan.
When therefore he came to the depths, the waters were hardened into the likeness of a stone, because men, imitating his malice, lost the tender bowels of charity. And because his fraudulent counsels cannot be detected by the men he seduces, it is rightly subjoined: 'And the surface of the deep is bound fast.' For one thing lies hidden within him, and another he shows without. For he transforms himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14), and by the cunning art of deception he very often proposes praiseworthy things, that he may drag men to what is unlawful. The surface of the deep, therefore, is bound fast, because, while a good appearance of his persuasion is shown above like solid ice, his malice, lurking in the depth, is not seen. 59.
And concerning the proud who grow insolent because of the gifts received. — Yet we can also understand all these things otherwise, if we seek them out morally. [Ch. 23.] For while almighty God forms the minds of men in His fear, He as it were conceives them; and while He advances them to open virtues, He begets them; but if they are exalted because of the virtues received, He forsakes them. And we have often known certain men to be pricked by the consideration of their evils, to grow fervent with the dread of divine terror, and through the beginnings of that dread to arrive even at the summit of virtues; but while they are exalted over those very virtues which they receive, bound fast by the snare of vainglory, they return to their former numbness. Rightly therefore, when the Lord casts away such men, He says: 'From whose womb has the ice gone forth?'
For as it were from God's womb the ice goes forth, when those who had already grown warm within grow cold from the gift of virtues; and thence, growing numb, they seek outward glory, whence they ought to have burned more ardently for the love of things inward. And while this one is powerful in signs, that one in knowledge, this one in prophecy, that one in great works, and through these gifts he seeks to please men, all that had first grown warm within, loving outward praise, he turns into numbness. As it were, therefore, the ice goes forth from the womb, when after the benefits of the gifts one is separated from the bowels of heavenly piety. Are they not ice, who seek from men praises for the virtues they receive? And yet, recalling their gifts to His memory when the Judge comes, they say:
'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out demons, and in Thy name do many mighty works?' (Matt. 7:22). But how the Lord casts away this ice He shows, saying: 'I know you not whence you are; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity' (ibid.). This ice the Lord now carries in the womb, because within the bosom of the Church He tolerates it. But then He openly casts it out, when He repels such men from the heavenly secrets by the final and public judgment.
By these words, therefore, what is openly done, but that blessed Job be humbled from his highest virtues, lest in that wherein he had grown warm by living well, he should grow cold by being proud, and be cast out, repelled from the womb of the Divinity, if, puffed up, he should exalt himself within the bosom of his own heart? [Ch. 24.] 60. The punishment of pride is hardening. In what sense God is said to harden. — And because by a just judgment He permits proud minds to go forth into fault from the virtue received, it is rightly still subjoined: 'And who has begotten the frost from heaven?' For very often He grants the knowledge of the sacred word; but while he who receives it is exalted over that same knowledge, the wrath of the strict Judge blinds him in the sacred word itself, so that, pursuing outward favors through it, he no longer sees its inward meaning;
and he who was able to grow warm within, by going out grows cold, and, hardened, falls down into the depths, who, at first tractable to the knowledge of God, stood clear in the heights. Is not the sacred word a heaven, which, opening to us the day of understanding, illumines us with the Sun of righteousness — which, while the night of the present life holds us, shines upon us with the stars of the commandments? But because 'there must be heresies, that those who are approved may be made manifest' (1 Cor. 11:19), when the proud mind is repelled from sound understanding, by the vengeance of the strict Judge frost is begotten from heaven, so that, while the Sacred Scripture itself grows warm in the hearts of the elect, it may send forth cold those who proudly seek to know. For there they go astray, where they ought to have corrected their errors;
and while, from the resplendent understanding of the shining word, being themselves hardened and about to seduce others, they fall down, coming to the depths like frost, they bind others fast also. Yet the Lord declares that He Himself begets this in this sense — not that He Himself forms the minds of the wicked to fault, but that He does not free them from fault, as it is written: 'I will harden Pharaoh's heart' (Exod. 10:27 [4:21]). Which, because He mercifully would not soften it, He assuredly declared that He had strictly hardened. 61. When virtue is lost, its image is often retained. — But because, when the begun virtue of divine fear is lost, the image of virtue is retained for the sake of human praises, it is rightly subjoined: 'The waters are hardened into the likeness of a stone, and the surface of the deep is bound fast.'
For waters through ice grow hard on the surface, but remain fluid within. And what do we understand by waters, but the unstable hearts of the reprobate? For when they of set purpose desert virtue, they show themselves strong in good works through hypocrisy; and while in their inmost parts they flow down into vices, and outwardly feign themselves imitators of the saints and the strong, 'the waters are hardened into the likeness of a stone, and the surface of the deep is bound fast,' because, through an overlaid appearance of sanctity, their fluid and unstable conscience is covered from men. For while inwardly they are base to their very selves, yet before the eyes of others they are clothed with a certain habitual way of living. 63. God wisely represses the untimely fruits of virtue.
— But lest anyone should wish these words of the Lord to be understood only in a good sense, we ought thus also to build up for those inquiring, provided that we be by no means judged to have neglected what should have been searched out. For in the preceding verse it is said: 'Who is the father of the rain, or who has begotten the drops of dew?' And immediately it is added: 'From whose womb has the ice gone forth, and who has begotten the frost from heaven?' If therefore the following sentence is joined to the preceding words with no dissimilar sense, then surely its meaning is opened to us in a good sense also, without any obstacle of difficulty. [Ch. 25.] For when the earth is rained upon, the seeds cast into it are more fruitfully bound in. But again, if rain waters it immoderately, it turns into stalk the richness and vigor of the grain.
But if the sown seed, after the rain, is pressed by frost, the more it is kept from appearing outwardly the sooner, the more fruitfully it is rooted within; and the more it is forbidden to go forth, the more it is compelled to multiply, because, when it is restrained from an immature emergence, being loosened from the slowness of its conception, it is more richly filled unto fruit.
What is it, then, that the Lord first intimates that He is the father of the rain, but afterward relates that the ice goes forth from His womb, and declares that He begets the frost from heaven, except that in a wonderful manner He first floods the earth of our breast with the rain of hidden grace, to receive the seeds of the word, and afterward, lest it should flow forth too immoderately in the virtues conceived, He represses it with the discipline of His inward dispensation, so that what the rain of received grace waters, the rigor of discipline may also bind fast, lest, if it should bring forth the conceived virtues either before it ought, or more than is necessary, it should turn the crops into grass?
For very often, in those who are beginning a good work, while it is displayed before it is fitting, it is emptied of the grain of perfection; and very often virtues, while they abound more than is necessary, evaporate away. Whence the Lord either refuses the desires of His elect even before their time, or again represses their progress in due time beyond measure, lest, if they should advance either before they ought, or more than they ought, they should through the greatness of their progress fall into the defect of elation. For when the heart is pricked after sins, the earth that had grown dry is watered by the pouring in of rain; and when, having left iniquities behind, it purposes to perform good works, it as it were receives seed after the pouring in.
And very many, when they conceive holy desires, burn to be exercised already in the highest virtues, so that not only does fault not defile their action, but does not even beat upon their thought. And they are still placed in the body, yet they wish now to suffer nothing from the fellowship of the present life; they seek to imitate through intention the inward stability of the mind, but they are beaten back by intervening temptations, so that, namely, they may remember their own weakness, and not be elated over the virtues they receive. And while this is done by the wondrous repression of discipline, what else is it than that above the flooded earth frost is begotten from heaven?
What else is it than that from God's womb the ice is produced, when from the inward secret the dispensation goes forth, and our wills, even in good desires, are bridled? 63. Which is confirmed by the example of St. Paul. — Let us see by how great an ice of discipline Paul, being namely the flooded earth, is pressed, when he says: 'To will is present with me, but to perform that which is good I find not' (Rom. 7:18). For he who asserts that he has the will, already, through the pouring in of grace, shows what seeds lie hidden within him. But while he finds not to perform the good, he assuredly indicates how great an ice of the heavenly dispensation presses him. Had not this ice pressed the hearts of those to whom he said, 'that you do not the things that you would' (Gal. 5:17)? As though he openly said:
The hidden seeds of your heart already seek to come forth into fruit, but they are pressed by the frost of the supernal governance, so that they may afterward stand forth the more fruitfully, the more patiently they bear the pressing weights of the rich judgment. [Ch. 26.] 64. Thence grave temptations arise, which are overcome by the habit of living well. — And because very often human hearts, since they cannot burst forth to the virtues they desire, by that very fact by which they recoil from the perfection of their intention, are wearied by the goads of temptations, yet nevertheless they compress those same temptations of thoughts, and by the practice of exercise compose themselves in a certain rigor of living, it is well subjoined: 'The waters are hardened into the likeness of a stone.'
Because, even if fluid thoughts assail inwardly, they by no means drag as far as consent to depraved deeds. But the mind, under an ingrained habit of living well, as under a certain hardness, hides outwardly whatever within grows soft from the beating of temptation. Whence it is also well subjoined: 'And the surface of the deep is bound fast.' Because a depraved thought, even if it come as far as suggestion, does not leap forth as far as consent, because the imposed rigor of holy deliberation presses the fluctuating motions of the mind. 65. Adversity makes the saints stronger. — Also, by the frost or ice may be designated the adversity of the present life, which, while by its harshness it compresses the saints, renders them stronger.
For while almighty God permits us to be exercised by troubles, and advances us to a state of better life by intervening sadness, by a wondrous counsel He begets frost and ice over the future crop, so that each elect one may in this life, as in winter, endure the adversity of winds and colds, and afterward, as in summer serenity, may display the fruits which here he conceived. Whence also by the voice of the Bridegroom it is said to each soul hastening, after the whirlwinds of this world, to those pleasant places of eternity: 'Arise, make haste, my love, my fair one, and come; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone' (Cant. 2:10-11). And because, if only prosperous things are present to us, we are dissolved, but unto virtues we are better made solid through adversities, it is rightly subjoined: [Ch.
27.] 'The waters are hardened into the likeness of a stone.' For minds which had flowed softly through prosperity, being bound fast by adversities, grow hard; and each one is brought to the likeness of a stone when, weak as he is, through the endurance received from above he imitates the passions of his Redeemer. Into the likeness of a stone indeed the water had grown hard, when he who was first an impatient persecutor afterward, as Paul, said: 'I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh' (Col. 1:24). 66. And it makes them more solicitous to guard the inward gifts. — And because, when they are pressed down by adversities, they more skillfully guard the inward gifts, it is rightly added: 'And the surface of the deep is bound fast.' For gladness is wont to open the mind, and by opening to lose it;
but adversities, when they press us down outwardly, make us more cautious within. After the frost or ice, therefore, the surface of the deep is bound fast, because our mind, to preserve the deep gifts which it has received, is fortified by adversities. Isaiah had bound fast the surface of his own deep, when he said: 'My secret to myself, my secret to myself' (Isa. 24:16). Paul had bound fast the surface of his own deep, who, sweating amid so many perils and adversities, under a certain pretext speaks of himself, saying: 'I heard secret words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter' (2 Cor. 12:4). And again: 'But I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he sees in me, or hears anything from me' (ibid. 6).
He, therefore, who, bearing adversities outwardly, feared to open his secrets lest perchance he should flow away in praises, what else did he do but press the deep of his own secrets by a bound-fast surface? There follows: