Waters cove?' Him, in His Saints. 363 Himself before His death, but in His own people, even after Book XXXHis Ascension. For hence is that which He exclaims from *- above, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? Behold, He Acts 9, had already ascended into heaven, and yet Saul, still pur- suing Him with the force of unbelieving waters, was touching Him, even as a wave swelling above the rest. For it is He in truth Who speaks right things by the good. He Who is wounded in the sufferings of the godly. In order then to shew, by the wondrous unity of charity, that it is He Who preaches by the mouths of His Saints to unworthy hearers, the Lord says. Wilt thou lift up thy voice in the cloud ? But to shew that it was He Who was enduring all kinds of adversity in His Saints, He subjoined. And shall the face of the waters cover thee f Thou understandest, As Myself, Whom all the wicked neither understand to be speaking by holy men when preaching, nor see to be suffering by them when dying. The Lord relates therefore what He suffers from men, that the pain of the afflicted man may be mitigated, as if He openly said to him, Weigh carefully My sufferings, and temper thine own with patience. For it is much less for thee to bear wounds, than for Me to bear the sufferings ofmen ^ i hu- 4. But we can consider these words still more minutely, "'^"^• if we anxiously examine our hearts, in the midst ofheavenly gifts. We are at this time indeed faithful, we now believe the heavenly truths which we hear, we now love the things which we believe. But when we are oppressed by some unnecessary cares, we are darkened by a confusion spread over us; and when God suggests to us, even when such, some wonderful notions respecting Himself, He lifts up, as it were. His voice in a cloud. While He speaks of Himself to our benighted minds. He, Who is not seen, is heard, as it were, in a cloud. For most exalted are the truths which we know of Him, but we do not yet behold Him by that secret inspiration, with which we are instructed. He there- fore Who speaks indeed to our hearts, but conceals His shape, forms His voice, as it were, in a cloud. But, lo ! we now hear the words of God speaking of Himself within, and we now know with what perseverance and with what zeal we ought to cling to His love ; and yet we fall back from B b 2