25. [XXIV.]—God by His Wonderful Power Works in Our Hearts Good Dispositions of Our Will.

Now I want him to tell us whether that king of Assyria,62    The reading “Assyrius” is replaced in some editions by the more suitable word “Assuerus.” whose holy wife Esther “abhorred his bed,”63    This “exsecrabatur cubile” seems to refer to Esther’s words in her prayer, βδελυσσομαι κοίτην ἀπεριτμητων, “I abhor the couch of the uncircumcised” (Esth. iv., Septuagint). whilst sitting upon the throne of his kingdom, and clothed in all his glorious apparel, adorned all over with gold and precious stones, and dreadful in his majesty when he raised his face, which was inflamed with anger, in the midst of his splendour, and beheld her, with the glare of a wild bull in the fierceness of his indignation; and the queen was afraid, and her colour changed as she fainted, and she bowed herself upon the head of the maid that went before her; 64    Esth. v. 1.—I want him to tell us whether this king had yet “hastened to the Lord, and had desired to be directed by Him, and had subordinated his own will to His, and had, by cleaving fast to God, become one spirit with Him, simply by the force of his own free will.” Had he surrendered himself wholly to God, and entirely mortified his own will, and placed his heart in the hand of God? I suppose that anybody who should think this of the king, in the state he was then in, would be not foolish only, but even mad. And yet God converted him, and turned his indignation into gentleness. Who, however, can fail to see how much greater a task it is to change and turn wrath completely into gentleness, than to bend the heart to something, when it is not preoccupied with either affection, but is indifferently poised between the two? Let them therefore read and understand, observe and acknowledge, that it is not by law and teaching uttering their lessons from without, but by a secret, wonderful, and ineffable power operating within, that God works in men’s hearts not only revelations of the truth, but also good dispositions of the will.

CAPUT XXIV.

25. Sed vellem ut iste diceret, utrum rex ille Assyrius cujus Esther sancta mulier exsecrabatur cubile, quando considebat in throno regni sui, et omni stola illustrationis suae indutus erat, totus auro variatus lapidibusque pretiosis, et erat formidolosus valde, et elevata facie sua inflammata in claritate intuitus est eam, tanquam taurus in impetu indignationis suae; et timuit regina, et conversus est color ejus per dissolutionem, et inclinavit se super caput delicatae suae, quae praecedebat eam: vellem ergo diceret iste nobis, utrum rex ille ad Dominum jam cucurrerat, et ab eo se regi cupiverat, suamque voluntatem ex ejus voluntate suspenderat, et ei jugiter inhaerendo unus cum illo spiritus factus erat, nonnisi de arbitrii libertate; utrum se totum 0373 Deo tradiderat, omnemque suam mortificaverat voluntatem, et cor suum in manu Dei posuerat. Puto non desipere, sed insanire hominem, quisquis de illo rege, qualis tunc erat, haec senserit: et tamen convertit Deus et transtulit indignationem ejus in lenitatem (Esther V, sec. LXX). Quis autem non videat, multo majus esse, indignationem a contrario in lenitatem convertere atque transferre, quam cor neutra affectione praeoccupatum, sed inter utramque medium in aliquid declinare? Legant ergo et intelligant, intueantur atque fateantur, non lege atque doctrina insonante forinsecus, sed interna et occulta, mirabili ac ineffabili potestate operari Deum in cordibus hominum, non solum veras revelationes, sed bonas etiam voluntates.