Bede, on Prov 16:15

“In the cheerfulness of the king’s countenance is life: and his clemency is like the latter rain.”

“And mercy is like the late rain. The late rain in Judea until this day is accustomed to come to the already mature crops; where the Lord also promises the early rain, saying through the prophet, I will give you the early and the latter rain for your land (Isaiah XXX). Therefore, the early rain is, or is called temporary elsewhere when we first receive the seeds of believing in Christ; but the late rain, when, taken from this life with the mature fruits of virtues, we are stored in the Lord's barn. And rightly the mercy of the king is compared to the late rain because the fruit of life which we receive by acting well is not achieved by the freedom of our will, but by the irrigation of the heavenly gift.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.