約伯倫理 第 693 章

Verse 19. — 'They who were once my counsellors abominated me, and he whom I loved most has turned against me.' 56. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees abominated Him. — It is clear to all that God needs no counsellors, He who furnishes to those very counsellors of men the counsel of wisdom. Concerning whom it is also written: 'Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counsellor?' (Rom. 11:34, from Isa. 40:13). But just as, when bread or a garment is given to one in need, the Lord testifies that He has received it (Matt. 25:40), so when right counsel is given to anyone who does not know it, He Himself receives it, whose member is he who is instructed. For we are all faithful, members of our Redeemer;

And just as He Himself is fed in us through the mercy of His bounty, so He Himself is aided in us through the counsel of teaching. The scribes, therefore, and the doctors of the Law, who were accustomed to train the people unto life, what else were they but the counsellors of the Redeemer who was to come? Yet, when they beheld the Lord made incarnate, they by their counsels divided many from faith in Him, although before they seemed to have taught many, through the words of the prophets, to believe the mystery of His incarnation. And because he is the more in love before God who draws the greatest number to His love, it is still further said concerning that same order of the doctors of the Law and of the Pharisees: 'And he whom I chiefly loved hath turned away from me.'

For that very order, at the persuasion of perfidy, was turned away from the faith of the truth—that order which formerly, serving in the labour of preaching, was most loved; which the throng of the peoples followed not only unto unbelief, but even unto persecuting the Lord, and was kindled with the torches of its cruelty even unto His Passion. In which Passion, indeed, the hearts of the disciples were troubled. Whence now also it is added: