Cloud (II)

Ecclus. xxiv. 6. Hosea vi. 4. & xiii. 3. Mat. xxiv. 30. Luke xxi. 17. Rev. xiv. 14,15, 16. Job xxvi. 8. Isai. xlv. 8.II. CLOUD is used sometimes for morning Mists, Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. And Isaiah xviii. 7. Quasi nubes roris. The Scripture represents the Clouds as Conservatories of Water or Rain, which are scattered upon the Earth at God’s Command. Qui ligat aquas in nubibus suis. God confines the Waters in the Clouds as in a Bottle, he scatters them afterwards on the Earth as it were 2 Sam. xxii. 12.through the Nozzle of a watering Pot; Cribrans aquas de nubibus cœli. Job speaking of the matter of the Chaos, which covered the whole Earth at the beginning of the World, says, that God had Job xxxviii. 9.hem’d in the Sea or the Waters as it were with a Cloud, and covered it with darkness, as a Child at nurse is wrapped up in its Blankets. The Author of Ecclesiasticus uses the same expression. Quasi nubicula texi omnem terram. Isaiah prays to God to hasten the coming of the righteous One, and to command the Clouds to pour him down upon the Earth. Et nubibus pluant Justum. When the sacred Writers speak of the coming of the Son of God at his second Advent, they describe him to us as descending upon the Clouds, and encompassed with all his Majesty.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages