Jeremiah 16

Elijah lived a virgin life; so also did Elisha and many of the sons of the prophets. To Jeremiah the command came: "You will not take a wife." He had been sanctified in his mother's womb, and now he was forbidden to take a wife because the captivity was near. The apostle gives the same counsel in different words: "I think, therefore, that this is good by reason of the present distress, namely, that it is good for a person to be as he is." What is this distress that does away with the joys of wedlock? The apostle tells us, in a later verse: "The time is short. It remains that those who have wives be as though they had none."

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Do not take a wife, and let there be no sons and daughters for you in this place! For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are begotten in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers, of whose stock they were born in this land: They shall die by the deaths of sicknesses; they shall not be lamented and they shall not be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth, and they shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be food for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth. If, at the time of the impending captivity, the prophet is forbidden to marry a wife, so that he may not have tribulation of the flesh and, on top of his own grief, be tormented also by the miseries of his wife and children, how much more does the Apostle command, because the time has been shortened and the consummation is at hand, that even those who have wives should be as though they had none! Hence superfluous is the reproach of the new heretic against our teaching that second and third marriages do not derive from law but from indulgence. For it is one thing to do what is good in itself, another to be granted something lest you do worse. For he himself also states the reasons why he wishes young widows to marry, adding: for some of them have already turned back after Satan. And at the same time this teacher of continence and perpetual chastity, who blasphemously makes himself equal to God, praises third and fourth marriages, which I would call not so much marriages as consolations of miseries and the last plank of the shipwrecked; unless perhaps he grants indulgence to his Amazons, so that they may wage the wars of lust right up to decrepit old age.

But why the prophet is kept from marrying a wife, the reason is plain: because with the siege close at hand all were to perish by pestilence and sword and famine, and the number of the dying would be so great that the duty of burial would be overwhelmed, and the corpses would lie like dung to be torn by birds and beasts. And this too must be noted, that to waste away through sicknesses and long infirmity is the wrath of God. Hence Joram also, the son of Jehoshaphat, is consumed by infirmity, and the Apostle teaches that those who have violated holy things fall sick and waste away and die.

For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of feasting, nor go to lament, nor comfort them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, my mercy and compassions. And both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried nor lamented, and they shall not cut themselves, nor shall baldness be made for them. And they shall not break bread among them for the mourner, to comfort him over the dead, and they shall not give them the drink of the cup to comfort them over their father and mother. And you shall not enter the house of feasting, to sit with them and eat and drink. The Apostle commands that with those who turn away from God not even food is to be taken; and further: do not even say hail to such! And the Savior forbids the apostles to greet anyone on the way; hence Elisha too forbids Gehazi to give greetings as he went to heal the boy. Now it is the custom to bring food to those who mourn and to prepare a feast, which the Greeks call perideipna, and which among our people are commonly named 'parentalia' [ancestral rites], because rites are performed for parents. Divine Scripture also says elsewhere: give wine to those who are in mourning, that is, so that they may forget their grief. The prophet is therefore commanded not to comfort anyone of the people, not to mix himself in the feasts of the enemies of God, not to perform rites over the funerals of the dead. For it is one thing to die by the common law of nature, another to be slain by the sentence of God. 'I have taken away', he says, 'my peace from this people, and they are unworthy of mercy, and I will spare no age, but both great and small shall perish alike, so that they shall lack even burial'. Nor shall they cut themselves, he says, nor shall baldness be made for them. This custom existed among the ancients and still persists today among some of the Jews, that in mourning they cut their arms and make baldness; which we read Job also did. Hence the prophet is told not to break bread among them nor to go in to comfort them over the dead, not to give drink, not to enter the house of feasting, and not to mix with those who have been made ready for God's sentence. But if this is said of those who mourn, what will become of the heretics, whose word spreads like a cancer, and who daily lay low in the Church the corpses of the deceived?

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will take away from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. And when you have announced to this people all these words, and they have said to you: Why has the Lord spoken all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity, and what is our sin that we have sinned against the Lord our God?, you shall say to them: Because your fathers forsook me, says the Lord, and went after strange gods and served them and worshiped them, and forsook me and did not keep my law. But you too have done worse than your fathers. When the Church has sinned, all joy and all gladness is taken away from her, of which the Apostle says: rejoice; again I say: rejoice; the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, of whom it is written: he who has the bride is the bridegroom.

'But if', he says, 'the people asks you why it suffers these things, and seeks the causes of its miseries, you shall answer them: because your fathers forsook me, says the Lord, those who preside over you in the churches, and went after strange gods — whose god is the belly, and avarice and luxury, and their glory is in their shame — and served them — for by whatever one is overcome, of that he is also the slave — and worshiped them — for each one worships what he loves — and forsook me and did not keep my law'. It belongs properly to priests not only to teach the law but also to do it, so that they may teach the peoples subject to them and the flock entrusted to them not by words at all, but by examples.

And lest they should perhaps say: 'it is an unjust sentence that the fathers eat the sour grape and the children's teeth are set on edge', he adds: but you too have done worse than your fathers, so that just punishments may be brought upon those who have sinned worse than their fathers.

For behold, each one walks after the depravity of his evil heart, so as not to hear me. And I will cast you out of this land into a land which you do not know, you and your fathers, and there you shall serve strange gods day and night, who will not give you rest. Once forsaken by the Lord, they do the things that are not fitting, so as to go after the desires of their evil heart, out of which come the worst thoughts; and for this reason they are separated from the Church, so as to go into a far country, which neither they nor their fathers had known before they sinned, so that there they may serve strange gods, who are not gods, but are thought to be so by the error of those who worship them. But in adding 'day and night', he shows the perpetual perseverance of sinners in wickedness, since both in the days they serve shameful deeds and in the nights lust. Who will not give, he says, you rest; there is no doubt that he means the false gods, of whom he said: and there you shall serve strange gods. Whatever, therefore, we sin, whatever we do by day and night and whatever evil works we commit, is the dominion of demons, who never give us rest and always drive us to add offenses to offenses and to make a heap of sins.

Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and it shall no longer be said: The Lord lives, who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but: The Lord lives, who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands to which I cast them; and I will bring them back into their land, which I gave to their fathers. Plainly the future restoration of the people of Israel is foretold, and mercy after the captivity, which according to the letter was in part fulfilled under Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest and Ezra, and according to the spiritual understanding is described as to be fulfilled more truly and more perfectly in Christ. 'The time will come', he says, 'when it will no longer be said that the people was brought back from Egypt through Moses and Aaron, but that it was brought back from the land of the north when Cyrus, king of the Persians, released the captives'. And out of all, he says, the lands; which will be fulfilled not at all in the time of Cyrus, but at the very end, as the Apostle says: 'after the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved'. We can also say this of the persecutions which befell our people from the days of Nero, of whom the Apostle writes: and I was delivered from the mouth of the lion, down to the times of Maximinus: how the Lord had mercy on his people and brought them back into their land, no doubt into the Church, which he gave to their fathers, the apostles and apostolic men.

God made you a hunter, not a conqueror, who said: Behold, I send many hunters (Jer. XVI, 16): hunters not of sin, but of absolution; hunters not of blame certainly, but of grace. Christ is the fisherman, to whom it is said: Henceforth you shall be a life-giving man (Luke V, 10). So send forth your nets, so send forth your eyes, so send forth your words: that you may not oppress anyone, but may raise up the struggling.

The apostles were fishermen, and the Lord said to them, "I will make you fishers of people." Moreover, it is said by the prophet that God intended to send fishers at first, and afterwards hunters. At first, he did send fishers, and now, afterwards, he is sending hunters. Why fishers? Why hunters? Because, from the abyss and from the depth of the sea of idolatrous superstition, the believers fished with the nets of faith. But why have the hunters been sent? Because those people were wandering through the mountains and the hills, that is, through the pride of humankind, through the worldly obstacles. One mountain was Donatus, another Arius, a third was Plotinus and the last was Novatus. Through such mountains they were straying, and their wanderings called for hunters. Therefore, the duties of fishers and of hunters have been assigned, lest, by chance, they should say to us, "Why did the apostles force no one, urge no one?" Because one who is a fisher throws nets, calling out in this fashion: "Let it not go in that direction. Let it not go in this direction. Head it off there, strike it, terrify it. Do not let it get out, do not let it escape." But our net is our life. Let love alone be preserved. Do not worry about how annoying you may be to him, but about how dear he is to you. What kind of devotion is it if you spare him and he perishes?

In this great household of the church not only are there vessels of every kind—gold, silver, wooden and earthen—but also a great variety of pursuits. "The house of God, which is the church of the living God," has hunters, travelers, architects, builders, farmers, shepherds, athletes, soldiers. To all of these this short admonition will be appropriate, for it will produce in each proficiency in action and energy of will. You are a hunter sent forth by the Lord, who says, "Behold, I send many hunters, and they shall hunt them on every mountain." Take good care, therefore, that your prey does not elude you, so that, having captured them with the word of truth, you may bring back to the Savior those who have been made wild and savage by iniquity.

"He rains on the wicked snares." Without any doubt, it is the Lord who contrives snares for sinners, in order to entrap those who abuse their freedom and to compel them to tread the right path under his bridle, thereby making it possible for them to advance through him who says, "I am the way." Wherefore, in Jeremiah, the Lord sends fishers and hunters to spread nets for the lost fish tossed about in whirlpools and to hunt down and save the beasts that wander through mountains and hills. This and the following verses do not promise punishment to sinners, as many believe, but rather give them promise of healing.

But our writers more rightly and better think that the prophet prophesied these things about the future. For since he had said above: I will bring them back into their land, which I gave to their fathers, he now shows how they are to be brought back: that first he sends the apostles, to whom the Savior said: come after me, and I will make you fishers of men, and afterwards hunters, whom we can take to be either churchmen or angels, who, once the time of the consummation has come, are to hunt all the saints from the mountains of lofty doctrines and from the hills of good works and from the caves of the rocks, the apostles and apostolic men. For not only is Christ the rock, but he also granted to the apostle Peter that he should be called rock; those who rest in his thoughts are rightly said to have been transferred from the rock.

Behold, I will send many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after this I will send them many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the caves of the rocks, for my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from my face, and their iniquity was not concealed from my eyes. And I will repay first their double iniquities and sins, with which they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their idols and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. The interpretation of this passage is diverse. For the Jews suppose that the Chaldeans are signified, who are described under the name of fishers, and afterwards the Romans, who are compared to hunters and who hunted the unhappy people from the mountains and hills and caves of the rocks. And the Lord says that he himself did this because he looked upon their ways and repaid their iniquities, with which they had defiled the land by venerating images, and had polluted his inheritance with the abominations of idols.

It is recorded in the Gospel according to Matthew that our Savior came alongside the Sea of Galilee and saw "Simon and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen." Then the text says that the Savior, seeing them, said: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they left their nets and followed him." And Jesus made them take up the work of fishing for men. And "he found two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with their father, mending their nets; and these too he called" to the same skill, and he made these also fishers of men. And if anyone has considered those who have from God the grace of a word woven together like nets and composed out of the sacred Scriptures like a casting-net, so that the mesh is thrown around the souls of the hearers, and has considered too that this is done skillfully according to the art, he will see in a certain manner that not only then but also now our Savior sends out fishers of men, having trained them, so that we may be able to come up from the sea and to flee its bitter waves.

But those fish, the soulless ones, when they come up in the dragnets and in the casting-nets and in the nets or on the hooks, die a death in which life does not succeed death. But the one caught by the fishermen of Jesus and brought up from the sea also himself dies, yet he dies to the world, he dies to sin, and after dying to the world and to sin he is made alive by the Word of God and takes up another life. As if, for the sake of argument, you could conceive of the soul of the fish changing after it goes out from the body of the fish and becoming something better than a fish (I have taken an illustration; let no one seize on it as a pretext † as though he had not heard), then you will conceive of something of this sort. You have come up from the sea, having fallen under the nets of the disciples of Jesus; having gone out, you change your soul, you are no longer a fish spending its time in the salty waves of the sea, but immediately your soul changes and is transformed and becomes something better and more divine than what it was before. And that it is transformed and changed, hear Paul saying: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." And when he has been transformed, this fish caught by the fishermen of Jesus, leaving behind his haunts in the sea, makes his haunts in the mountains, so that he no longer has need of the fishermen who bring him up from the sea, but of certain others, who are named hunters, who hunt "from every mountain and from every hill."

Having therefore come up from the sea and been caught in the nets of the disciples of Jesus, change from the sea, forget it, come to the mountains, the prophets, and to the hills, the righteous, and make your haunts there, so that afterward, when the time of your departure comes upon you, you may be hunted by the hunters. And who would these be but those appointed over receiving the souls that are on the hills, those not lying below? And see whether the prophet does not cry out mystically in saying these things and presenting this meaning in the words: "Behold, I send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall fish for them; and after this I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain and upon every hill."

If, then, you wish to be caught by the hunters, see that you do not make your haunts in the hollows, nor spend your time somewhere below, but seek out the mountains. Go up to the mountain where Jesus was transfigured, go up to the mountain onto which "seeing the crowds Jesus went up," and the disciples followed him, where "opening his mouth he taught, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," and the beatitudes that follow these.

And it is not permitted for these hunters to catch from anywhere else than from the mountains and the hills and from the clefts of the rocks. For these three things are spoken of in the prophet: "For I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain and upon every hill and from the clefts of the rocks." From where, then, shall I understand the rocks and the clefts in the rocks? I come to Exodus, I seek to find a trace of an account of the clefts of the rocks, I find Moses there wishing to know God, and God promising to him and saying: "Behold, I will place you in a hole of the rock, and you shall behold my back parts; but my face shall not be seen by you." If you understand the rock there and see there the hole in the rock, he who sees beholds God through the hole in the rock, you will see also the many rocks and their clefts. Who, then, is that one rock? "And the rock was Christ"; "for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them," and "he set my feet upon a rock," as is said in the thirty-ninth Psalm. What is the hole in the rock? If you see the sojourn of Jesus, conceiving the whole of him as a rock, you will see the hole in accordance with his sojourn, through which hole the things after God are contemplated. For such a thing is meant in the words "and you shall see my back parts."

But I have found one hole of one rock; I pass over in my discourse from the hole to the cleft of the rock, I seek also the many rocks. If I come to the chorus, whether of the prophets or of the apostles or even of the holy angels who have ascended higher, I say that all the imitators of Christ, since he is a rock, become rocks. And just as he has a hole through which the back parts of God are perceived, in the same manner each one, giving a way for God to be perceived through the things spoken by him, makes in himself a hole, or, if you wish to name it otherwise, a cleft. From which hole or cleft you will see, through Moses, the law, and through Isaiah his prophecy, and through Jeremiah other words of God. And if there is also an angel speaking, as he spoke according to what is said in the words "and the angel who speaks in me," there too I take my stand upon the angel, and I see there too a rock and a hole of a rock, and I see God angelically.

But I have need of an example, so that I may present how it is possible, having come to an angel, to see God also through the angel. For it is written in Exodus: "An angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of a bush. And Moses sees that the bush burns with fire, and the bush is not consumed." And the Scripture did not say, as it said at the beginning that "an angel appeared," so say that it was an angel of the Lord, but "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." God, then, was there being contemplated in the angel, as through the rock God is known, and through the hole that is in it.

You do not know, then, when the hunters are sent. On this account never come down from the mountains, nor leave the hills, nor be outside the clefts of the rocks; for if you are found outside, it will be said to you, as to one who happens to be outside and speaks the things of those outside: "Fool, this night they demand your soul from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" These things will be said to you; and these things too will be said to you, if you should say: "I will pull down my barns and build greater ones, and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have good things laid up for many years; rest, eat, drink, be merry." You see the one below the mountains, the one below the hills, the one outside the clefts of the rocks, how he is deceived even in his judgment concerning good things, thinking these to be good things. Therefore he says: "And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have good things laid up for many years." He has reckoned the grain and the abundance of earthly things to be good things; for he did not see that the truly good things are not in the accursed earth, but the truly good things are in heaven. He was laying up treasure on earth, since he supposed that the things on earth were good. But if anyone should change from laying up treasure "on earth," being persuaded by Jesus, to laying up treasure "in heaven," it will not be said to him: "Fool, this night they demand your soul from you," but the hunters, coming, seeking not the things below but the living creatures in the mountains, those in the hills, those sheltered in the clefts of the rocks, will catch these and lead them away from that hunting. Where? To the rest of the holy and blessed ones in Christ Jesus.

And he shows that either the apostles or those who are afterwards to be hunted had sins and received their double iniquities. For the servant who knows the will of his lord and does not do it shall be beaten much. And it must be known that in the Hebrew 'first' is set down, and in the edition of the Seventy it is omitted. But when he says: I will repay first their double iniquities and sins, he intimates that after they have received evils, they will receive good things too. And these who are afterwards to be transferred have defiled the land of the Lord with the carcasses of their idols and have filled his inheritance with their abominations, so that the whole world may become subject to God and be preserved not at all by its own merit, but by his mercy. What we have set down here from the Hebrew: they are not hidden from my face, is not found in the Seventy.

For "my eyes," he says, "are upon all their ways." Upon such as these, who make their haunts in the mountains and in the hills and in the clefts of the rocks, upon all their ways God has his eyes. "And they were not hidden from my face," such as these; for the wicked are hidden from the face of God. Adam, after the transgression, heard "the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening" and hid himself; but the holy one is not hidden, but has a heart with boldness before God in accordance with the holy conduct of life. For "if our conscience does not condemn us, we have boldness before God, and whatever we ask we receive from him." Now Adam, even if he sinned, did not sin a sin exceeding in grievousness; on this account he hid himself "from the face of God." But Cain, more sinful than he and most impious, the fratricide, what did he do? "He went out from the face of God." So that, by comparison of evils, to be hidden from the face of God is the lesser; for this one hides not shamelessly, but out of reverence for God. "They were not hidden," then, "from my face." These, who did these things, were once in sins and were fished up from the sins that are in the sea.

Therefore, that those who were fished up and afterward came to the mountains might not suppose that these things came about for them out of righteousness, the word reminds not only them but also us of our former sins. Therefore, after the benefits, it is said: "And their wrongdoings were not hidden from before my eyes."

The following words are going to produce a struggle for us. For whether we understand them as consequent, we shall take careful thought concerning the recompense of sins; or whether they seem not to be consequent upon the things previously set forth concerning those fished up and hunted, in that way too they cast us into no ordinary struggle. For he says: "And I will first repay double their iniquities and their sins, whereby they profaned my land with the carcasses of their abominations and with their lawlessnesses, with which they filled my inheritance." Whether some, not understanding it, removed the word "first" from what was written, or whether the Seventy managed to remove it, God would know. We, however, comparing with the remaining editions, found it stands written: "And I will first repay double their iniquities," so that it may be made clear that, even if they should be worthy of blessedness on account of their later works, since they are human beings and have been in sins, they must first receive back their sins. And see whether the word is not true. Who will not receive back his sins except the one who, after believing and receiving forgiveness of sins (so as to hear Jesus saying: "Your sins are forgiven you"), no longer sins? But if after the forgiveness of sins and the dispensation of the washing of regeneration we should sin, as we, the many, who have not been perfected like the apostles, and after sinning and along with sinning we should also do some things duly, what awaits us must be considered. Then, if we depart from life having sins, but having also brave deeds, shall we be saved on account of the brave deeds, but released concerning the things sinned in knowledge? Or shall we be punished on account of the sins, but nowhere receive a reward for the brave deeds? But neither the one — I mean receiving back the worse things but not receiving the better — is in accordance with a just God, nor the other — I mean receiving back the better things but not receiving the worse — is in accordance with a just God, who wishes to purge and cut out wickedness. For suppose that you have built, upon the foundation Christ Jesus which you were taught, not only "gold and silver and precious stone" — if indeed you have gold, and much gold or little; suppose that you have silver, precious stone, and I say not these alone, but suppose that you have also "wood and hay and stubble" — what do you wish to happen to you after your departure? Whether at some point to enter into the holy places with your wood and with your hay and stubble, so that you may defile the kingdom of God? But again, do you wish to remain behind on account of the hay, on account of the wood, on account of the stubble in the fire, and to receive nothing for the gold and silver and precious stone? Neither is this reasonable.

What, then? First it follows that, on account of the wood, one receives back the fire that consumes the wood and the hay and the stubble; for our God is said in his essence, to those who are able to understand, to be a consuming fire. And the prophet was silent as to what it consumes when he said: "Our God is a consuming fire," but he left it to us to understand. When he said: "God is a consuming fire," there is something that is consumed. What, then, is that which is consumed? For he does not consume that which is according to his image and likeness, he does not consume his own creation, but the hay that was built upon, the wood that was built upon, the stubble that was built upon.

The passage was exceedingly hard to expound. There were promises, and after the promises he says: "And I will first repay double their iniquities." Of necessity the word "first" is added; for first the things of iniquity, then the things of righteousness are repaid, for God does not repay in reverse order. If he first repaid the good things, so that we might receive back the good things, but now he repays the evil things, the good things would have to cease, so that we might receive back the evil things. But first we shall receive back the evil things, and after these the good things, so that through the abolition of the evils the things of the chastisement of those who suffer may reach their end, so that after these he may repay the good things. Therefore you will find in the sacred Scriptures God speaking first the things that seem to be more gloomy and after these the better things. "I will kill and I will make alive; I will strike, and I will heal." "He himself makes to suffer pain and again restores; he struck, and his hands healed." Upon these things it is possible for the one who understands and is piously disposed toward what is said to say: "Lord, who shall sojourn in your tabernacle? Or who shall dwell in your holy mountain? He that walks blameless and works righteousness, that speaks truth in his heart; who did not deceive with his tongue, and did not do evil to his neighbor, and did not take up a reproach against those nearest to him." (But we reproach even those who repent and turn back, though the Scripture says: "Do not reproach a person who turns away from sin.") "He did not take up a reproach against those nearest to him; the evildoer is brought to nothing before him, but he glorifies those who fear the Lord." All of us, then, who have material for that fire, shall first receive back our sins.

But one of those who hear will say: expound also the word "double"; for suppose that I first receive back my sins, so that when I have received back the sins, after this there may be fulfilled what is said by the apostle: "If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire" — why then do I receive back my sins "double"? But it must be said that "the servant who knew the will of the master and did not act according to his will shall be beaten," not with few but with "many stripes." It is fitting, then, that those from among the nations who sin receive back their sins single, but that we receive back our faults double; "for if we sin willingly after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a zeal of fire that is about to devour the adversaries." The things concerning those who would be fished up and hunted and would first receive back double their sins were prophesied. After these things the calling of the nations is prophesied more clearly, of those not being called but already called, and of those not not knowing what they should confess and for what they should give thanks, but of those who have already learned. For in the former things we were learning that they were called, fished up, hunted, but what they will experience in the latter things. Let us see what he prophesies concerning us who are already learning to pray, or rather have learned.

"As in the provocation, and in the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers proved Me." Let such be no more your fathers: imitate them not. They were your fathers, but if ye do not imitate them, they shall not be your fathers: yet as ye were born of them, they were your fathers. And if the heathen who came from the ends of the earth, in the words of Jeremias, "The Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our forefathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit:" if the heathen forsook their idols, to come to the God of Israel; ought Israel whom their own God led from Egypt through the Red Sea, wherein He overwhelmed their pursuing foes; whom He led out into the wilderness, fed with manna, never took His rod from correcting them, never deprived them of the blessings of His mercy; ought they to desert their own God, when the heathen have come unto Him?

So the shepherds came from nearby to see, and the Magi came from far away to worship. This is the humility for which the wild olive deserved to be grafted into the olive tree and against nature to produce olives, because it deserved to change nature through grace. They come, you see, from the uttermost bounds of the earth, saying, according to Jeremiah, "Truly our fathers worshipped lies." And they come, not just from one part of the world, but as the gospel according to Luke says, from East and West, from North and South, to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

Further, Jeremiah says of Christ, "Behold the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch. A king shall reign and shall be wise. He shall execute justice and judgment in the earth. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently. This is the name that they shall call him: The Lord our just one." On the calling of the Gentiles that he foresaw and we today see as realized, the prophet had this to say: "O Lord, my might and my strength, and my refuge in the day of tribulation; to you the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say, 'Surely our ancestors have possessed lies, a vanity that has not profited them.' "

Having been brought near, they make Christ their glorying. For again, God the Father has said of them, "And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in his name shall they glory, says the Lord." This also the blessed psalmist teaches, speaking as it were to Christ the Savior of all and saying, "Lord, they shall walk in the light of your countenance, and in your name shall they exult all the day, and in your righteousness shall they be exalted. For you are the glorying of their strength." We shall find also the prophet Jeremiah calling out to God, "Lord, my strength and my help, and my refuge in the day of my evils, to You shall the heathen come from the ends of the earth, and say, 'Our fathers took for themselves false idols, in which there is no help.' "

O Lord, my strength and my might and my refuge in the day of tribulation or of evils! All the strength of men without the power of God, which is Christ, is reckoned feeble and of no account; hence one must flee to God and say: Lord, you have become a refuge for us from generation to generation; and in another place: he who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide in the protection of the God of heaven. And the day of tribulation or of evils is to be understood as that of which the Apostle also says: that he might rescue us from the present evil age, and: redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

To you the nations shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say: Truly our fathers possessed a lie, vanity, which did not profit them. LXX: to you the nations shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say: How false are the idols our fathers possessed, and there is no profit in them! After Israel has been cast out and carried away by the fishers and hunters, the multitude of the nations is accordingly called to faith and confesses that it, or its fathers, had been engaged in their former error. And those who say: 'how false are the idols our fathers possessed, in which there is no profit!' confess that the things to which they are passing over are true and supported by every protection.

"Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in the day of evils; to you the nations shall come from the end of the earth and shall say: As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them." From the end of the earth the nations came to God, and the nations have said: "As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them"? How "from the end of the earth"? There are some who are first of the earth and there are some who are last of the earth. Who are the first? "The wise of the world" are first of the earth, not simply first; "the wise of the world, the well-born," the rich, the men of rank. Who are the last? "The foolish things of the world God has chosen, the base things, the things despised, the things that are not." "The nations shall come," then, "from the end of the earth," as if he said: from the last of the human beings on earth, from the foolish, from the base, from the despised, "and they shall say: As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them." Not that there are some true idols, in contradistinction to which the false ones are spoken of, but idols which are by nature false; "and there is no profit in them."

For I am very much God's debtor, who gave me such great grace that many people were reborn in God through me and afterwards confirmed, and that clerics were ordained for them everywhere, for a people just coming to the faith, whom the Lord took from the utmost parts of the earth, as he once had promised through His prophets: "To you the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say, 'How false are the idols that our ancestors got for themselves, and there is no profit in them.' " And again: "I have set you as a light among the Gentiles, that you may be for salvation unto the utmost part of the earth."

Hermes Trismegistus lamented these vain, deceptive, pernicious, sacrilegious things because he foresaw that the time was coming when they would be abolished. He was as impudent in his grief as imprudent in his prophecy, since the Holy Spirit had made no revelation to him as to the holy prophets who exultantly proclaimed their inspired visions: "Shall a person make gods to himself, and they are not gods?" And again: "And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will destroy the names of idols out of the earth, and they shall be remembered no more." It is relevant to recall that holy Isaiah uttered a particular prophecy concerning Egypt: "And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst thereof" and the rest.

Although Hermes calls these idols gods, he nevertheless admits that they were made by people whose example we should not follow, and thus, willy-nilly, he proves that these idols should not be worshiped by people who are unlike the people who made them, that is, by wise, believing and religious people. Moreover, he implies that the fabricators brought on themselves the guilt of reckoning as gods things that are not gods. Very true is that prophecy: "Shall a person make gods to himself, and they are not gods?" This, then, is what Hermes means by fabricated gods. Such gods, made and adored by such people, are but evil spirits imprisoned by magic in idols and bound there by the chains of their own passions.

Shall a man make gods for himself, and they are not gods? This too the nations say, who have come to the Savior from the ends of the earth, rebuking the ignorance both of themselves and of their ancestors, by which they thought that gods are made by man, when it belongs to God to make men.

"Shall a man make gods for himself?" Not only from images do human beings make gods for themselves, but you will find human beings making gods for themselves also from fabrications; for as many as are able to fabricate another god and another cosmogony besides the one recorded by the Spirit, a dispensation of the world besides the true world, all these have made gods for themselves and have worshiped the works of their hands. For instance, conceive for me, whether among the Greeks those who begot doctrines, say, of this philosophy or of that, or among the heresies those who first begot doctrines, these have made for themselves idols and fabrications of the soul, and turning aside have worshiped the works of their own hands, having accepted their own fabrications as truth. Convicting, then, all those who make gods for themselves both perceptibly and intelligibly, the word says: "Shall a man make gods for himself, and are these not gods? Therefore, behold, I will show them my hand at this time, and I will make known to them my power." At what time but this? And indicating the time of the coming of the Lord: "And they shall know," he says, "that my name is Lord."

Therefore, behold, I will show them at this turn, I will show them my hand and my power, and they shall know that my name is the Lord. The hand of God, through which he has wrought all things, and the power, of which the Apostle said: 'Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God', is shown to the nations once the passion of the Son has been completed. And beautifully he said: 'I will show them at this turn; and I will show them plainly, and not as before in shadow and in image and in prophecy of things to come, so that, after they have come to know it, they may know my name and hear from the Son: Father, I have made your name manifest to men'.