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*H And the Lord said to me: Go yet again, and love a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress: as the Lord loveth the children of Israel, and they look to strange gods, and love the husks of the grapes.
Ver. 1. Woman. This second woman denotes the penitent Israel, yet not quite reconciled. The people in captivity are separated both from her idols and from God, though the latter still retains an affection for them. Osee does not marry this woman, but gives his word. We must not urge the parable too far. He acts as a figure of the Lord, who has received an outrage. C. — Grace is still offered to sinners, whose persons are never hated by God. W. — Husks. Sept. &c. "cakes made with grapes," for idols. Theod. S. Jer.
* Summa
*S Part 3, Ques 5, Article 2
[II-II, Q. 5, Art. 2]
Whether in the Demons There Is Faith?
Objection 1: It would seem that the demons have no faith. For Augustine says (De Praedest. Sanct. v) that "faith depends on the believer's will": and this is a good will, since by it man wishes to believe in God. Since then no deliberate will of the demons is good, as stated above (I, Q. 64, A. 2, ad 5), it seems that in the demons there is no faith.
Obj. 2: Further, faith is a gift of Divine grace, according to Eph. 2:8: "By grace you are saved through faith . . . for it is the gift of God." Now, according to a gloss on Osee 3:1, "They look to strange gods, and love the husks of the grapes," the demons lost their gifts of grace by sinning. Therefore faith did not remain in the demons after they sinned.
Obj. 3: Further, unbelief would seem to be graver than other sins, as Augustine observes (Tract. lxxxix in Joan.) on John 15:22, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin." Now the sin of unbelief is in some men. Consequently, if the demons have faith, some men would be guilty of a sin graver than that of the demons, which seems unreasonable. Therefore in the demons there is no faith.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (James 2:19): "The devils . . . believe and tremble."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (Q. 1, A. 4; Q. 2, A. 1), the believer's intellect assents to that which he believes, not because he sees it either in itself, or by resolving it to first self-evident principles, but because his will commands his intellect to assent. Now, that the will moves the intellect to assent, may be due to two causes. First, through the will being directed to the good, and in this way, to believe is a praiseworthy action. Secondly, because the intellect is convinced that it ought to believe what is said, though that conviction is not based on objective evidence. Thus if a prophet, while preaching the word of God, were to foretell something, and were to give a sign, by raising a dead person to life, the intellect of a witness would be convinced so as to recognize clearly that God, Who lieth not, was speaking, although the thing itself foretold would not be evident in itself, and consequently the essence of faith would not be removed.
Accordingly we must say that faith is commended in the first sense in the faithful of Christ: and in this way faith is not in the demons, but only in the second way, for they see many evident signs, whereby they recognize that the teaching of the Church is from God, although they do not see the things themselves that the Church teaches, for instance that there are three Persons in God, and so forth.
Reply Obj. 1: The demons are, in a way, compelled to believe, by the evidence of signs, and so their will deserves no praise for their belief.
Reply Obj. 2: Faith, which is a gift of grace, inclines man to believe, by giving him a certain affection for the good, even when that faith is lifeless. Consequently the faith which the demons have, is not a gift of grace. Rather are they compelled to believe through their natural intellectual acumen.
Reply Obj. 3: The very fact that the signs of faith are so evident, that the demons are compelled to believe, is displeasing to them, so that their malice is by no means diminished by their belief. _______________________
THIRD
*H And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a core of barley, and for half a core of barley.
Ver. 2. Core. Sept. "gomor of barley, and for a nebel of wine." The woman must consequently have been of very mean condition. In the East wives are still, even among Christians, purchased according to their rank, often without being seen or consulted. The parents give part of the price to the bride. C. — The unbelieving Jews, who refrain from idols, receive some temporal advantages; but not thirty pieces of silver, or three cores of wheat, denoting the faith of the blessed Trinity and the observance of the decalogue, whereby they might obtain eternal life. Towards the end of the world they shall be converted. W.
*H And I said to her: Thou shalt wait for me many days: thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt be no man's, and I also will wait for thee.
Ver. 3. Man's. After the person was espoused, any infidelity was punished as if she had been married. It does not appear that Osee took this woman to wife. C. — But he signified that the people must wait for God, in captivity. Theod. Sanct. lv.
*H For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim.
Ver. 4. Altar. Heb. "statue;" matseba instead of mozbé, as (H.) others agree with S. Jerom, and there seems to have been no variation in his time. — Theraphim. Images or representations, (Ch.) either good or bad. As the other things mentioned were good, such lawful images as were used in the temple must be meant. 3 K. vii. 36. W. — S. Jerom explains it of cherubim. Sept. "altar, priesthood, and manifestations (Urim, &c.) being wanting." H. — Yet some take it in a bad sense. The Jews adhere neither to God nor to idols. Vat. &c. — What misfortune, however, would the latter be? In exile the Jews were deprived of the exercise of their religion, and of their princes. C. — But this was only a figure of what they endured since they rejected Christ. Orig. Philoc. i. S. Jer. — This wretched state will probably continue till they at last embrace the yoke of Christ, the true king of ages. C.
* Footnotes
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Ezechiel
34:23
And I WILL SET UP ONE SHEPHERD OVER THEM, and he shall feed them, even my servant David: he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
*H And after this the children of Israel shall return and shall seek the Lord, their God, and David, their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and his goodness, in the last days.
Ver. 5. David, their king. That is, Christ, who is of the house of David. Ch. — After the captivity, the Jews submitted to Zorobabel. Yet this only foreshewed a more sincere conversion to Jesus Christ. In fact, the house of David never regained the throne, (C.) and it is not clear that Zorobabel had any authority over the people. H. — Christ is the literal object of this prediction. C.