And prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors,
Read Chapter 38
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Set. Protestants, "brake up for it my decreed place. "Marginal note, "established my decree upon it "(Haydock) or, "I gave order to break it "against the shore, Jeremias v. 22., and Amos v. 8.
5. For the Lord surrounds this sea with His boundaries, because He keeps low within the limits of contemplation our heart which is still agitated by the plague and trouble of its corruption; that (though it desires more) it may not ascend higher than the limit assigned to it. Or certainly the Lord surrounds this sea with His boundaries; because He calms by the secret distributions of His gifts our heart swelling with temptations: at one time keeping a wicked suggestion from arriving at pleasure, and at another a wicked pleasure from breaking out into consent. He then, Who watches the unlawful motions of the heart, and in some cases keeps them from coming as far as to consent, but in others restrains them even from delight, doubtless imposes boundaries on the raging sea, that it burst not forth in act, but that the gently murmuring wave of temptation may dash itself within the secret recesses of the mind. But because it is then mightily restrained, when it is opposed by delight in God a...
38. What is designated by ‘doors,’ but holy preachers, and what by the ‘bar,’ except the Lord Incarnate? For He has in truth opposed these doors as a firmer barrier against the force of the swelling sea, the more He has strengthened them by barring them Himself. For because these doors of Holy Church are strengthened by this bar being placed against them, they could be battered indeed by the waves, but they could not be broken through: so that though the wave of persecution might dash on them from without, yet it could not penetrate to the centre of their heart. And because holy Preachers open themselves by their preaching to their followers, but close themselves by their authority against those who oppose them, they are, not improperly, called ‘doors,’ that is, open to the conversation [al. ‘conversion’] of the humble, and closed to the terrors of the proud. They are, not improperly, called ‘doors:’ because they both open an entrance for the faithful, and again oppose themselves to th...
The Lord surrounds the sea with His boundaries, because He so restricts the wrath of persecutors by the dispensation of His judgments, that the swelling wave of their mad wrath is broken on the level shore of His secret dispensation.
