LIIl. Zelus Dei homines affligil, qui voluntcUem ejus negliguni.
LIIl. Zelus Dei homines affligil, qui voluntcUem ejus negliguni.
Just as God, through divine power, subdues and casts down the devil and the vices that accompany him, crushing them completely, so too does He often afflict those who oppose themselves and who do not accept the blessed and just admonitions, punishing them with physical suffering through His zeal and scattering them, and He afflicts them with many calamities. Just as the strength of a lion devours other animals, so too does the strength and zeal of God crush the heart of the Devil; it first shatters the lie with which the Devil built his own downfall, and this zeal utterly breaks it down, killing his enemies who say within themselves that they can do nothing but what their nature demands, and who constantly look to whatever pleases them, while they entangle themselves in the vices of the Devil, neglecting the will of God and rejecting the works of God as if God did not exist. Therefore, the zeal of God scatters and crushes them, just as they have been scattered, about whom the prophet Jeremiah speaks, saying:
Read the original Latin
Et sicut Diabolum ac vitia quae cum illo sunt, divina potestate domat el prosternit, ac prostrata conterit: ita etiam multoties homines qui se ipsi opponunt, et qui beatas et justas admonitiones non suscipiunt, corporali ilagello per zelum suum castigat et dispergit, ac plurimis calamitatibus corporaiiter affligit.
Quemadmodum enim fortitudo leonis caetera animalia devorat, sic etiam fortitudo et zelus Dei viscera Diaboli conterit; ac primum mendacium, cum quo idem Diabolus in semetipso casum sibimetipsi aediflcavit, idem zelus omnino comminuit, atque inimicos suos occidit, qui intra se dicunt, quod aliud quam natura eorum expostulet, facere non possint, et qui ad unaquaeque, quae ipsis placita sunt, assidue aspiciunt, et qui vitiis Diaboli se involvunt, voluntatem Dei negligentes, et opera Dei, quasi Deus non sit, repudiantes.
Unde zelo Dei disperguntur et conteruntur, quemadsiodum et illi dissipati sunt, de quibus Jeremias propheta loquitur dicens:
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