約伯倫理 第 888 章

32. He shall be carried off by the devil, who is fitly called a burning wind. — Who in this place is called a burning wind, but the malignant spirit, who kindles the flames of desires in the heart, that he may drag it to the eternity of torments? Therefore the burning wind is said to carry off any perverse person, because the treacherous malignant spirit, who inflames each living person to vices, drags the dying person to torments. For because a burning wind is wont to be understood as the unclean spirit, who by the blast of evil suggestion kindles the hearts of the wicked to earthly desires, the prophet Jeremiah testifies, saying: 「I see a boiling pot, and the face thereof from the face of the north」 (Jeremiah 1:13).

For the boiling pot is the human heart, if it is fervent with the ardours of secular cares and the anxieties of desires. Which is kindled from the face of the north, that is, inflamed by the suggestions of the devil. For he is wont to be called by the name of the north, who said: 「I will sit in the mount of the covenant, in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the height of the clouds」 (Isaiah 14:13-14). To the burning of this burning wind, therefore, the mind of each of the elect is tempered, when in it the fervour of vices is extinguished, and the flame of carnal desires grows cold. Whence also holy Church, glad, cries out in the praises of her Spouse: 「I sat under the shadow of him whom I had desired」 (Song of Songs 2:3). Of the tempering of this ardour it is said to her, the Lord promising through Isaiah:

「Instead of the spikenard shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the nettle shall grow the myrtle tree」 (Isaiah 55:13). For instead of the spikenard the fir tree comes up in her, when in the heart of the saints, instead of the abjection of earthly thought, the height of supernal contemplation arises. But the nettle is altogether of a fiery nature, while the myrtle is said to be of a tempering virtue. Instead of the nettle, therefore, the myrtle grows, when the minds of the just come from the itching and ardour of vices to the tempering and tranquillity of thoughts, while now they do not desire earthly things, while they extinguish the flames of the flesh with heavenly desires. — On account of this refreshment of the mind, given from heaven, it is said also to Mary: 「The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee」 (Luke 1:35).

Although in this matter, by the term of overshadowing, both natures of the God to be incarnate could be signified. For a shadow is formed from light and body. But the Lord is light through His divinity, who, an animating soul mediating, deigned to become a body in her womb through His humanity. Because therefore the incorporeal light was to be embodied in her womb, to her who conceived the incorporeal unto a body it is said: 「The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee」; that is, the incorporeal light of divinity shall receive in thee a body of humanity. But let us now pursue what we had begun concerning any wicked person. The burning wind therefore carries him off, because the malignant spirit, namely, snatches afterwards to the flames of Gehenna him whom he now inflames with the fire of perverse concupiscence. There follows: