Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?
Read Chapter 27
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
16. For he that is overcome by the love of earthly things, in no degree delights himself in God. The soul indeed can never exist without its delight, for it delights itself either in things below or in things above, and in proportion as it is employed with higher devotion towards those above, it grows deadened with the greater loathing towards those below, and as it glows with a keener interest for those below, it cools in proportion with an accursed illsensibility from those above. For both cannot possibly .be loved together and alike. Hence the Apostle John, well knowing that amongst the thorns of worldly attachments the crop of heavenly charity can never shoot, before he produces the seeds of the love eternal, with the holy hand of the word eradicates from the hearts of his hearers the thorns of worldly affections, in the words, Love not the world, neither the tleings that are in the world. And he directly subjoins, If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in hi...
What hope, he says, does the impious have, even though he has lived so far? With what sort of assurance does he expect any salvation from God like that by which I trust to be saved? How will he confidently invoke God, after falling into misfortune, as if his prayers should be really heard? - "Commentary on Job 27.8–10"
