hearest so often, how canst thou dare to examine and scrutinize the ways of the Almighty God who so far surpasses thy intellect? So far the angel to Esdras. Whereby he wishes to warn all men and to say to them: if we try in vain to comprehend natural things, and if he acts foolishly and presumptuously who ventures to find fault with the fire and the wind as if they were not properly made, because he cannot find out their weight and measure, then much more vain, curious, foolish, and presumptuous is the man who criticises the hidden decrees of God’s Providence, and blames them because in many instances they do not fall in with his views.
And He does not wish us to inquire curiously into them. No, O mortal! you cannot understand sich things, and therefore you should humbly adore what is above your comprehension. “Seek not the things that are too high for thee,” says the wise Ecclesiasticus, “and search not into things above thy ability: but the things that God hath commanded thee, think on them always, and in many of His works be not curious. For many things are shown to thee above the understanding of men. And the suspicion of them hath deceived many.”[1] A certain young man at Cordova was carrying a basket of fruit covered with a cloth; a friend met him and asked him what he had in the basket: “I should not have covered it,” answered the young man, “if I had wished people to know what it was.”[2] The same answer was once given to that great friend of God, St. Anthony. He was wondering at the strange dispensations of Divine Providence, and in his simplicity, and with his usual confidence in treating with God, he commenced to complain; “my good God,” he said, “why dost Thou permit sinners to live so long, while Thou takest so soon out of the world good men, whose lives might be useful? These good people in whom there is not the least harm are often severely punished by Thee for small faults they commit now and then; while others whose lives are scandalous are free from chastisement, and since they can do as they please, they are encouraged thereby to sin all the more, etc. How is that?” And he heard the following answer: “Anthony, what is it to thee? Look to thyself. These are decrees which God wishes to keep from the eyes of men, and it is not for thee to find fault
- ↑ Altiora te ne quæsieris, et fortiora te ne scrutatus fueris; sed quæ præcepit tibi Deus illa cogita semper, et in pluribus operibus ejus ne fueris curiosus. Non est enim tibi necessarium ea quæ abscondita sunt videre oculis tuis. Plurima enim super sensum hominum ostensa sunt tibi. Multos quoque supplantavit suspicio illorum.—Ecclus. iii. 23, 25, 26.
- ↑ Non velassem si sciri vellem.
