3. Therefore, “O Lord, art Thou become our refuge.” To Thee do we betake ourselves,
and with Thy help it will be well with us. For ill is it with us by ourselves. Because we have
left Thee, Thou hast left us to ourselves. Be we then found in Thee, for in ourselves were we
lost. “Lord, Thou art become our refuge.” Why then, brethren, should we doubt that the
Lord will make us gentle, if we give up ourselves to be tamed by him? Thou hast tamed the
lion which thou madest not; shall not He tame thee, who made thee? For from whence didst
thou get the power to tame such savage beasts? Art thou their equal in bodily strength? By
what power then hast thou been able to tame great beasts? The very beasts of burden, as
they are called, are by their nature wild. For in their untamed state they are unserviceable.
But because custom has never known them except as in the hands and under the bridle and
power of men, dost thou imagine that they could have been born in this tame state? But
now at all events mark the beasts which are unquestionably of savage kind. “The lion roareth,
who doth not fear?”1957 And yet wherein is it that thou dost find thyself to be stronger than
he? Not in strength of body, but in the interior reason of the mind. Thou art stronger than
the lion, in that wherein thou wast made after the image of God. What! Shall the image of
God tame a wild beast; and shall not God tame His own image?
4. In Him is our hope; let us submit ourselves to Him, and entreat His mercy. In Him
let us place our hope, and until we are tamed, and tamed thoroughly, that is, are perfected,
let us bear our Tamer. For oftentimes does our Tamer bring forth His scourge too. For if
thou dost bring forth the whip to tame thy beasts, shall not God do so to tame His beasts
(which we are), who of His beasts will make us His sons? Thou tamest thine horse; and what
wilt thou give thy horse, when he shall have begun to carry thee gently, to bear thy discipline,
to obey thy rule, to be thy faithful, useful1958 beast? How dost thou repay him, who wilt not
so much as bury him when he is dead, but cast him forth to be torn by the birds of prey?
Whereas when thou art tamed, God reserveth for thee an inheritance, which is God Himself,
and though dead for a little time, He will raise thee to life again. He will restore to thee thy
body, even to the full number of thy hairs; and will set thee with the Angels for ever, where
thou wilt need no more His taming hand, but only to be possessed by His exceeding1959
mercy. For God will then be “all in all;”1960 neither will there be any unhappiness to exercise
us, but happiness alone to feed us. Our God will be Himself our Shepherd; our God will be
Himself our Cup;1961 our God will be Himself our glory; our God will be Himself our wealth.
1957 Amos iii. 8.
1958 There is a paranomasia here in the original, which it is not possible to preserve in the translation: “Esse
jumentum, hoc est adjumentum infirmitatis suæ.”
1959 Piissimo.
1960 1 Cor. xv. 28.
1961 Potus.
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On the words of the Gospel, Matt. v. 22, ‘Whosoever shall say to his brother,…