Gregory the Great, on Ezek 1:4

“And I saw, and behold a whirlwind came out of the north: and a great cloud, and a fire infolding it, and brightness was about it: and out of the midst thereof, that is, out of the midst of the fire, as it were the resemblance of amber:”

“Well, the sending forth of a malign spirit is called a whirlwind. For a whirlwind shatters a building it touches by shaking it. And every temptation of the ancient enemy, which is carried out in the mind, is a whirlwind; because by shaking it through desires, it tears it from the state of its uprightness. But let us pass over in silence these things that will come upon the human race from the cunning enemy at the end, and turn our words to Judaea alone, from which the Prophet came, and whose destruction he beholds in prophesying. She endured a whirlwind from the north all the more grievously when the Lord was incarnate, inasmuch as she fell shaken from her uprightness and remained in cold perfidy through the torpor of the mind. Therefore a whirlwind came from the north when the malign spirit shook the life of the Jewish people in temptation. Where it is also rightly added: "And a great cloud." For the more anyone burned with cruelty, the more he deserved to be blinded in the darkness of his ignorance. Indeed, they denied the Redeemer of the human race whom they had awaited while understanding him in the law and the prophets, yet denied him when they saw him. Hence it came about that their mind was covered by a great cloud of their ignorance, so that they would not recognize him when seeking him afterward—him whom they had been able to proclaim before, yet refused to love. For when they beheld now his powers and miracles, but now his sufferings, a great cloud had come from the North into the hearts of the unbelievers, because from the cold of their sin, on account of the weakness of his passion, they were blind even amid the signs.”

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