Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the
God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
The Prophet points out here the only remedy, to preserve the
faithful from being led away by bad examples and that is, to fix their eyes on
God, and to believe that he will be their deliverer.
Nothing is more difficult than to refrain from doing wrong,
when the ungodly provoke us; for they seem to afford us a good reason for
retaliation. And when no one injures us, yet custom is deemed almost a law:
thus it happens that we think that to be lawful which is sanctioned by the
manners and customs of the age; and when success attends the wicked, this
becomes a very strong incentive.
Thus it happens, that the faithful can hardly, and with no
small difficulty, keep themselves within proper bounds: when they see that
wickedness reigns everywhere, and that with impunity; and still more, when they
see the abettors of wickedness increasing in esteem and wealth, immediately the
corrupt lust of emulation creeps in.
But when the faithful themselves are provoked by injuries,
there seems then to be a just reason for doing wrong; for they say that they
willfully do harm to no one, but only resist an injury done to them, or
retaliate fraud with fraud: this they think is lawful.
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