Job 38:24

"Where does the frost of frost come from? How to know him, if not considering him as the beginning of pains? Because frost is an extremely fine species of hail. "How does the south wind spread under the sky? Whatever this wind holds our heavy bodies, there is, I believe, no passage from the holy books where it is the image of evil, as the aquilon is never the figure of good. The reason is that this one comes from the regions where the light appears, the latter from the countries from which it is farther away. "He is spreading under the sky; The image of the help that God gives us against all these calamities, as long as we live, not in heaven but under heaven.

By what way is the light scattered? The heat is divided over the earth. For He in truth is the way, Who says, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The light is, therefore, scattered by this way, because all the Gentile world is enlightened by His presence. But He rightly said, Is scattered, because the light of preaching was not contracted or confined, but shone forth with its brightness far and wide by the voices of the Apostles. But because the power of love glows within, when the light of conversion has been received, in order that either our past sins may be anxiously lamented, or future blessings be most ardently sought for, it is suitably added, The heat is divided over the earth. For when the light is spread abroad the heat is divided over the earth; because when righteousness is openly preached, the anxious desire of the heart to seek God is spread forth in the practice of virtues; so that one person shines forth in the word of wisdom, another in the word of knowledge; one is mighty in the grace of healing, another in the working of mighty deeds; and that thus, while they severally receive unequally the gifts of the Spirit, they are all necessarily united to each other, and unanimously inflamed. But after the light is said to be spread abroad, it can readily be understood that persecution is designated by 'heat:' because as the light of preaching shone brightly, so the heat of persecution immediately blazed forth from the hearts of the unbelievers. For, that persecution is described by 'heat,' the discourse of the Lord bears witness, speaking of the seeds which had been cast on the rocky ground, When the sun arose they were all scorched, and because they had not root, they withered away. And when He expounded it a little after, He called 'heat,' persecution. The heat therefore is divided over the earth, when the light is spread abroad, because, as the life of the faithful became bright, the cruelty of the faithless was kindled. For the heat was divided, when persecution was raging, now at Jerusalem, now at Damascus, and now in other countries far away. But because we have heard blessed Job questioned in the former words, respecting the secret judgment; it now behoves us to examine more accurately this which is said of the scattered light, or divided heat. For he is still examined with lofty questioning, in order that he may at least learn that he…