LXXVI. (214) But now Moses says that “Their cry has gone up to God, bearing witness to the grace of the living God.” For if he had not powerfully summoned up to himself the supplicatory language of that people it would not have gone up; that is to say, it would never have gained power and increase, would never have begun to soar so high, flying from the lowness of earthly things. On which account, in the next passage, God is represented as saying, “Behold the cry of the children of Israel has come up to Me.”{109}{#ex 3:9.} (215) Very beautifully here does Moses represent that their supplications have reached God, but they would not have reached him if he who was working him had not been a good man. But there are some souls which God even goes forward to meet: “I will come to you and bless you.” You see here how great is the kindness of the Creator of all things, when he even anticipates our delay and our intentions, and comes forward to meet us to the perfect benefiting of our souls. And the expression and used here is an oracle full of instruction. For, if a thought of God enters the mind, it immediately blesses it and heals all its diseases. (216) But the outward sense is always grieved and groans, and brings forth the perception of its objects with pain and intolerable anguish. As also God himself says, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” Now, the sense of sight brings forth the operation of seeing, the sense of hearing is the parent of the operation of hearing, so is the sense of taste of tasting; and, in short, each outward sense is respectively the parent of its corresponding operation; but still it does not produce all these effects in the foolish man without severe pain. For such a man is affected by pain when he sees, and when he hears, and when he tastes, and when he smells, and, in fact, when he exerts any one of these outward senses.
Page 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758596061626364
