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AND this care of His and providence with regard to us the Divine word
has finely described by the prophet Hosea under the figure of Jerusalem as
an harlot, and inclining with disgraceful eagerness to the worship of
idols, where when she says: "I will go after my lovers, who give me my
bread, and my water, and my wool, and my flax, and my oil, and my drink;"
the Divine consideration replies having regard to her salvation and not to
her wishes: "Behold I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it
up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow
after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and
shall not find them, and shall say: I will return to my first husband,
because it was better with me then than now." And again our obstinacy,
and scorn, with which we in our rebellious spirit disdain Him when He urges
us to a salutary return, is described in the following comparison: He says:
"And I said thou shalt call Me Father, and shalt not cease to walk after
Me. But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of Israel
despised Me, saith the Lord." Aptly then, as He has compared Jerusalem
to an adulteress forsaking her husband, He compares His own love and
persevering goodness to a man who is dying of love for a woman. For the
goodness and love of God, which He ever shows to mankind,--since it is
overcome by no injuries so as to cease from caring for our salvation, or be
driven from His first intention, as if vanquished by our iniquities,--
could not be more fitly described by any comparison than the case of a man
inflamed with most ardent love for a woman, who is consumed by a more
burning passion for her, the more he sees that he is slighted and despised
by her. The Divine protection then is inseparably present with us, and so
great is the kindness of the Creator towards His creatures, that His
Providence not only accompanies it, but actually constantly precedes it, as
the prophet experienced and plainly confessed, saying: "My God will prevent
me with His mercy." And when He sees in us some beginnings of a good
will, He at once enlightens it and strengthens it and urges it on towards
salvation, increasing that which He Himself implanted or which He sees to
have arisen from our own efforts. For He says "Before they cry, I will hear
them: While they are still speaking I will hear them;" and again: "As soon
as He hears the voice of thy crying, He will answer thee." And in His
goodness, not only does He inspire us with holy desires, but actually
creates occasions for life and opportunities for good results, and shows to
those in error the direction of the way of salvation.
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