Jeremiah 23

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and tear the flock of my pasture — or O shepherds, who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture —, says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, you have driven them out and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the wickedness of your pursuits, says the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I shall have driven them out there, and I will bring them back to their fields — or I will restore them to their pastures — and they shall grow and be multiplied. And I will raise up shepherds over them and they shall feed them; they shall fear no more and shall not be dismayed, and none shall be sought from the number, says the Lord. The prophetic discourse is addressed to the shepherds, or concerns the shepherds; and since we read it written of Jeconiah, the next-to-last king of Judea, who was of the stock of David: O land, land, land, hear the words of the Lord! Write this man down as rejected — or barren — and there shall not be of his seed a man who shall sit upon the throne of David, and all hope of the Jewish kingdom had been cut off, the discourse passes over to the princes of the Church, and, the synagogue with its shepherds being abandoned and condemned, it is addressed to the apostles, of whom it is said: and I will raise up shepherds over them and they shall feed them; they shall fear no more and shall not be dismayed, and none shall be sought from the number, says the Lord. For the apostles will feed the flock of the Church confidently and without any fear, and the remnant of the people of Israel will be saved from all the lands and will be brought back to their fields or to their pastures, and they will grow and be multiplied. But upon the evil shepherds, the scribes and Pharisees, the Lord will visit because of the wickedness of their pursuits. We can also understand this according to tropology of the princes of the Church who nevertheless do not rule the sheep of the Lord worthily: that, these being cast off and condemned, the people may be saved, handed over to others who have proved worthy, and the remnant may be saved. Those shepherds destroy the sheep who teach heresy; those tear and scatter them who make schisms; those drive them out who separate them from the Church against righteousness; those do not visit them who withhold their hand from the penitent. On all these the Lord will have mercy, restoring to them their former pastures and taking away the evil shepherds.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will raise up for David a righteous branch — or a righteous Rising — and a king shall reign and shall be wise — or shall understand — and shall do judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell confidently, and this is the name by which they shall call him — or he shall call him — : the Lord our righteous one or our righteousness, which in Hebrew is said 'sadecenu'. This, which has been wrongly added in the Seventy: in the prophets, must be cut away entirely; for another chapter follows, which has been passed over by them, and when it is finished the title is: to the prophets or against the prophets, of which we shall speak in its own place. So, the shepherds of the synagogue having been cast off, namely the scribes and Pharisees, and the remnant out of Israel having been saved, and the apostles of the Gospel having been set in the place of the former princes, there is brought in the shepherd of shepherds and prince of princes and king of kings and lord of lords, namely Christ our Savior, who is properly the 'righteous branch' or 'righteous Rising', of whom we read: in his days righteousness shall rise and in another place: behold a man, the Rising is his name, and beneath him it shall rise, and he shall build a temple to the Lord, so that, as in Isaiah he is called 'Emmanuhel', that is, 'God with us', so in Jeremiah he receives the name 'our righteousness'; whence the Apostle too says: who was made for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Opposed to him, the Antichrist and the devil who dwells in him is called in Zechariah the 'foolish shepherd'. And he shall do, he says, judgment and righteousness in the land; for the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. In those days both the two and the ten tribes, Judah and Israel, shall be saved alike, and out of two rods, according to Ezekiel, one rod shall be made; and its name, if according to the Seventy the Lord shall have called him, shall be Iosedec, that is, the righteous Lord; if according to the Hebrew, who said: they shall call his name, it shall be said: the Lord our righteousness; for this is what adonai sadecenu means, for which Symmachus translated: O Lord, justify us!

There was only one remedy in the secret of the divine plan that could help the fallen living in the general ruin of the entire human race. This remedy was that one of the sons of Adam should be born free and innocent of original transgression, to prevail for the rest by his example and by his merits. This was not permitted by natural generation. There could be no clean offspring from our faulty stock by this seed. The Scripture says, "Who can make a clean thing conceived of an unclean seed? Isn't it you alone?" David's Lord was made David's Son, and from the fruit of the promised branch sprang. He is one without fault, the twofold nature coming together into one person. By this one and the same conception and birth sprung our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom was present both true Godhead for the performance of mighty works and true manhood for the endurance of sufferings.

These things were fulfilled according to the type in the case of Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak. However, this prophecy was not altogether fulfilled, for many would rise up against them—not only their neighbors but also later on the Macedonians and finally the Romans. But the prophecy proclaims the everlasting nature of grace. Therefore, it is clear that these things were not fulfilled during their lifetimes but during the lifetimes of the apostles, for they alone had the gift of the Holy Spirit.… The Jews shamelessly endeavor to apply this to Zerubbabel. But they need to understand that he was no king—just a popular leader—and he was not called Jozadak. Neither is the meaning of the name appropriate to him, the word meaning "the Lord our righteousness" or, in the Syriac rendering, "Lord, make us righteous"—neither of which applies to Zerubbabel. Since, however, he was a type of Christ the Lord and brought back the captives from Babylon to Judah, just as the Lord transferred those enslaved by the devil to truth, anyone applying this to him in the manner of a type would do nothing beyond reason. It is necessary that we understand, however, that it is the Lord Jesus Christ, a descendant of David according to the flesh, who is proclaimed by the prophets as "the righteous dawn," "the righteous king" and "the Lord of righteousness."

Now I have shown a short time ago that the church is the seed of Abraham; and for this reason, that we may know that He who in the New Testament "raises up from the stones children unto Abraham," is He who will gather, according to the Old Testament, those that shall be saved from all the nations, Jeremiah says: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, who led the children of Israel from the north, and from every region whither they had been driven; He will restore them to their own land which He gave to their fathers."

Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and they shall no longer say: The Lord lives, who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but: The Lord lives, who brought out and brought back the seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands to which I had driven them out there, and they shall dwell in their own land. This whole chapter is not found in the Seventy; and its sense is this: that the people of God is no longer to be freed from Egypt through Moses, but through Jesus Christ from the whole circle of the earth, into which it had been scattered. This is fulfilled in part even now in the world, and will be fulfilled wholly when from the east and the west, the north and the south they shall come and recline with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so that, after the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel may be saved.

Now I have shown a short time ago that the church is the seed of Abraham; and for this reason, that we may know that He who in the New Testament "raises up from the stones children unto Abraham," is He who will gather, according to the Old Testament, those that shall be saved from all the nations, Jeremiah says: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, who led the children of Israel from the north, and from every region whither they had been driven; He will restore them to their own land which He gave to their fathers."

Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and they shall no longer say: The Lord lives, who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but: The Lord lives, who brought out and brought back the seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands to which I had driven them out there, and they shall dwell in their own land. This whole chapter is not found in the Seventy; and its sense is this: that the people of God is no longer to be freed from Egypt through Moses, but through Jesus Christ from the whole circle of the earth, into which it had been scattered. This is fulfilled in part even now in the world, and will be fulfilled wholly when from the east and the west, the north and the south they shall come and recline with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so that, after the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel may be saved.

To the prophets or in the prophets or against the prophets. This title, as we said above, has been placed in the edition of the Seventy as the end of the preceding chapter, where we read it written: and this is the name which the Lord shall call him, Iosedec, in the prophets. Not knowing this, very many invent various ravings of explanation; and it would have been much better simply to confess ignorance than to make others heirs of their own unskilfulness. The discourse, moreover, is against the prophets, nay rather the false prophets of Jerusalem and Samaria, whom he now calls by the common and popular name 'prophets', of whom it is written in what follows: and in the prophets of Samaria I saw iniquity and immediately: and in the prophets of Jerusalem I saw horrible things. But when he puts the conjunction 'and', he shows that the things above were said of the prophets of the Lord, who themselves too proved like the false prophets.

My heart is broken in the midst of me — or in me —, all my bones have trembled — or have been shaken —; I have become like a drunken man and like a man soaked — or overcome — with wine before the face of the Lord and before the face of his holy words or and before the face of the comeliness of his glory. Having considered the countenance of almighty God, that is, of the Father, and having considered the countenance of the Son, who according to the Apostle is called the 'radiance of his glory' and the 'form of the substance of God', the prophet shudders in both mind and body and understands that he is nothing, according to what is said in another place too: I have become like a beast of burden before you; or else he offers to God the victim of his conscience and humility, according to that which is written in the psalms: a sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise. But the bones which trembled or were shaken, let us understand to be those of which the same David sings: all my bones shall say: Lord, who is like you? He became as one drunk and like a man soaked — or overcome — with wine, having no understanding and no wisdom; for the Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain. But if this is so, where are those who preach perfect righteousness in man? And if they answer that they say this of the saints, not of themselves, certainly I think no one is holier than Jeremiah, who, a virgin, a prophet, and sanctified in the womb, by his very name prefigures the Lord Savior. For Jeremiah means 'the exalted one of the Lord'.

Because the land is filled with adulterers, because before the face of cursing — or of the oath — the land has mourned, the fields — or pastures — of the desert have dried up; their course has become evil and their strength unlike. This, which we have set down from the Hebrew: because the land is filled with adulterers, is not found in the Seventy, who said 'oath' for 'cursing'. And he gives the causes: that because of adulteries and curses, or superfluous swearing, nay rather perjuries, barrenness of the crops followed. Whatever you understand of the land of Judea according to the letter, refer to the congregation of believers, since because of adulteries and lies or perjuries there is in the churches a barrenness of the virtues and gifts of God.

For prophet and priest are polluted, and in my house I have found their evil, says the Lord. Therefore their way shall be like a slippery place in darkness; they shall be driven on and shall fall in it, for I will bring — or I will inflict — evils upon them, the year of their visitation, says the Lord. When evils are found in the Church of God, and especially in its princes, let us know that this has been fulfilled: prophet and priest are polluted; in my house I have found their evils, says the Lord. Now the house of Christ is the Church, of which Paul too writes to Timothy: that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. In the prophet understand the teacher, in the priest the dignity of the ministry; and if they have consented with a depraved mind, their way will be into a slippery place and into darkness, and they will not have the Lord saying: I have come as light into the world, that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness. Whence the holy man, fleeing all darkness, says: the light of your countenance, O Lord, has been signed upon us; you have given gladness in my heart. But when they are in darkness and on the slippery way, that is, in heretical error, at every motion they will be driven on and will fall. And the Lord inflicts evils upon them: not that they are evils in such a way that the Lord inflicts evils, but they are evils to those who undergo the punishments; otherwise the same things are both evils and goods: evils with respect to those whom they torment, goods with respect to those whom they amend. And this must be noted, that the year of the Lord's visitation is called the correction and torment of sinners, according to that which is written: I will visit their iniquities with the rod and their sins with stripes; but my mercy I will not scatter from him.

Let their way become dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them. He demanded that the situation of sinners be wholly arduous, so that their way, which seems to them clear and firm as they linger pleasurably on it, may become dark and slippery so that they cannot stand on it any longer. As the prophet Jeremiah says, "Therefore their way has become slippery in the dark. They shall be thrown down and fall on it." But if they decide to linger further in their evil ways, he asks that the Lord's power pursue them, so that he may not cause them to cling to their sins as they hasten to aspire after their own destruction. What a blessed proliferation of so many obstacles! How vehement is the prayer in this verse that the most salutary opposition is afforded them!

Wherefore, as children of light and truth, avoid the dividing of your unity, and the wicked doctrine of the heretics, from whom "a defiling influence has gone forth into all the earth." But where the shepherd is, there do ye as sheep follow. For there are many wolves in sheep's clothing, who, by means of a pernicious pleasure, carry captive those that are running towards God; but in your unity they shall have no place.

And in the prophets of Samaria I saw folly — or iniquity —; they prophesied in Baal and deceived my people Israel. I think that by the prophets of Samaria, according to the mystical senses, the heretics are properly meant, and all who boast of a knowledge falsely so named. And as the prophets of Samaria, whatever they spoke, prophesied in Baal, namely an idol consecrated to demons, so the heretics, whatever they speak inside the Church or outside the Church, speak in demons, in order to trip up the people 'Israhel', which formerly 'saw God'; whence too he says significantly: and in the prophets of Samaria I saw folly; for they do not have him of whom it is said: 'Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God'.

And in the prophets of Jerusalem I saw a likeness — or horrible things —, adultery and the path of falsehood; and they strengthened the hands of the most wicked, so that no one turned back from his wickedness — or from his most wicked way —; they have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah. 'Not only', he says, 'have these things been found in the conventicles of the heretics, but in the prophets of Jerusalem too, that is, in the teachers of the Church, I have seen like things, or horrible things: men adulterating the word of God and walking along the way of falsehood, so that they acquiesced in the deceits of the heretics and strengthened the hands of the most wicked and joined their evils to their own crimes, and led to destruction those whom they ought to have corrected. Let those who have done this not think themselves unpunished! For both they themselves and those whom they favor will be as Sodom, and all who dwell with them and do not withdraw from such men, as Gomorrah'. Let the most wicked doctrine exult, then, as much as it will, and let the prophets of Jerusalem glory that they have prevailed through falsehood and strengthened the hands of the most wicked: their end will be as Sodom and Gomorrah.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts to the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood — or with pains, and according to Symmachus with bitterness — and I will give them gall to drink — or bitter water —, for from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the land. Let us use this testimony against those who send out into the world letters full of lies and fraud and perjury, so as both to pollute the ears of the hearers and to injure the reputation of the simple: that what is written is fulfilled in them: from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the land; for it is not enough for them to devour their own iniquity and to injure their neighbors, but those whom they have once hated they try to defame throughout the whole world, and to sow blasphemies everywhere.

I know other persons, however, whom an abysmal lack of wisdom and prudence so deceives and tricks that they think that the faith that they pretend to have will help them before God without the works of justice. They commit abominable crimes without fear by reason of this kind of error, while they believe that God is the avenger not of crimes but of lack of faith. Not only are they willing thus to ruin themselves, but also they strive by their snares to trap others in whom there is not light of divine knowledge. Do not listen to the words of the prophets who invent a vain vision for themselves, which they speak as false prophets from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. They say to those that reject the words of the Lord, "Peace shall be yours," and to all who walk according to their own desires, to everyone who walks in the error of his heart, they have said, "No evil shall come on you."

The Lord cries out and says, "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who invent a vain vision for themselves, which they speak as false prophets from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. They say to them that reject the words of the Lord, "Peace shall be yours." They who themselves have neither peace nor the church are now offering peace; they who have withdrawn from the church are permitting the bringing back and recalling of the lapsed. God is one, and Christ, one, and the church, one, and the chair established on Peter by the voice of the Lord, one. Another altar cannot be set up or a new priesthood be made contrary to the one altar and the one priesthood.

Against such people as these the Lord cries out, from these he reins in and recalls his erring people, saying, "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who invent a vain vision for themselves, which they speak as false prophets from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. They say to those who reject the words of the Lord, 'Peace shall be yours' and to all who walk according to their own desires, to everyone who walks in the error of his heart, they have said, 'No evil shall come on you.' "

The guilt decreed against the wicked heretics is inevitable. They reject the words of the holy apostles and evangelists and pervert them to that meaning that seems to them to be right without due examination. They fall from the straight way and wander from the doctrines of piety, deceiving and being deceived. For while, so to speak, they have bidden farewell to the sacred Scriptures, they speak from their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord, as Scripture says. Even though the blessed Evangelist John wrote to us, that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, they drag to the exact opposite both the tenet concerning him and the quotation that proves it, saying that the only-begotten Word of God was not in the beginning, nor true God, and he was not even with God, that is in union with him by nature; God, who has no body, cannot be imagined to be confined to in any one place.

God gives the promise, "I will deliver them from the hand of the grave, and from death I will redeem them." So the blessed prophets are in harmony with the decrees from on high. They speak to us not of their own heart or of the will of people but from the mouth of God, as it is written. It is the Holy Spirit speaking within them that declares in every matter what is the sentence of God and his almighty and unalterable will. The prophet Isaiah has said to us, "Your dead shall arise. Those in the graves shall be raised. They who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew from you is healing to them." And by the dew I imagine he means the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, and that influence that abolishes death as being that of God and of life.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you and deceive you! They speak the vision of their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. They say to those who blaspheme me — or cast away my word — : The Lord has spoken: peace shall be to you; and to everyone who walks in the perversity of his heart they have said: Evils shall not come upon you. Lest the people should think itself free of guilt if it acquiesced in perverse teachers, 'Do not', he says, 'listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you a lie and deceive you', — for the punishment will be equal for master and disciple — 'they do not speak from the mouth of the Lord, but the things they have feigned in their own heart. They say to those who blaspheme me' — namely to heretics and perverse men — 'or who cast away my speech, what do they say?: The Lord has spoken: peace shall be to you; do not fear harsh punishments nor be terrified by empty threats; peace shall be to you, and tranquillity, and whatever we say and announce to you, the Lord has spoken; nor shall evil come upon you, which you fear because of a bad conscience, but good, which the Lord has spoken to you.'

For who has been present in the counsel of the Lord and seen and heard his speech? who has considered his word and heard? Where we translated 'in the counsel of the Lord' and in the Hebrew is written 'bassod', Aquila translated 'secret', Symmachus 'speech', the Seventy and Theodotion 'substance' or 'subsistence'. And the sense is: 'Do not believe, O untaught crowd, the prophets who announce false things to you, who say this: The Lord has spoken: peace shall be to you; evil shall not come upon you! For whence can they know the secrets of God, or at whose announcing have they learned the counsel of the Lord? How has the word of the divine dispensation reached them?' Some of our own think that in this place they have found where the substance of God is written of.

Behold, the whirlwind — or tempest and commotion — of the Lord's indignation goes forth, and a tempest bursting forth shall come upon the head of the ungodly, and the fury of the Lord shall not turn back until he does and until he fulfills the thought of his heart; in the last days you shall understand his counsel. He who had said above: 'It has been spoken to us by the Lord: peace shall be to you', and had rebuked them because they could not know the things to come nor know the sentence of God, now shows by contraries that they know nothing at all: for instead of peace and security a Babylonian tempest is coming, and coming not upon just anyone, but upon the heads of the ungodly, whether of the whole people or of those who announced false things to the people. Nor is the wrath and fury of God to be appeased as in times past, but what he foretold and very often threatened is to be fulfilled in deed, and his thought and sentence are to be proved by the punishments of the ungodly. 'When', he says, 'the last time of the captivity has come, and the exulting victor has taken hold of you and bound your hands with the grating of chains, then you shall understand his counsel, which you now vainly boast that you know'.

It is the custom in Scripture, after what is bitter, to say kind things for encouragement, and after what is good to say more bitter words. Scripture does this in order that, when they have disdained the wealth of the goodness of God, they may not store up for themselves anger in a day of anger. Hence God said, "If anger comes, it will not withdraw unless God has accomplished what he wants." And if God wants, anger also occurs, in order that what God wants does occur. For if anyone does not want to be in the will of the Word of God, the anger is unleashed on him. Thus let us not show a need for an anger or wrath that disciplines.

We must, however, examine such things carefully. For there are verily men, who have not been counted worthy of Christ's grace, but make the reputation of being saints and honourable an opportunity of gain. Of such one may say, that they are bold and shameless hypocrites, who seize honours for themselves, even though God has not called them thereto; they praise themselves, and imitate the bold doings of the false prophets of old, of whom God said; "I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken unto them, yet they prophesied." And so too may He say of these, I have not sanctified them, but they falsely assume the gift for themselves: they have not been counted worthy of My grace, but wickedly seize those things which I bestow on such alone as are worthy to receive them. These, making a show of fasting, walk sadly with downcast looks, while full of fraud and baseness. And often they pride themselves on letting their nails grow long: and are especially fond of their complexion being sallow: and though no one compel them, they delight in enduring such misery as men have to bear in prison, hanging collars on their necks, and putting fetters sometimes on their hands and feet. Such persons the Saviour has commanded us to avoid, saying; "Beware of those who come to you in sheep's clothing: but within are ravening wolves."

I did not send the prophets, and they ran; I did not speak to them, and they prophesied. If they had stood in my counsel and made my words known to my people, I would surely have turned them from their evil way and from their most wicked thoughts. This sense the Apostle too unfolds to the Romans: and as they did not see fit to have God in knowledge, God handed them over to a reprobate sense, so that they do the things that are not fitting, filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, wickedness, avarice and the rest. For when false teachers have once handed themselves over to lies and perjuries and to the deaths of those they have deceived, they run, not step by step nor with considered pace, but headlong, to the destruction both of themselves and of those whom they have deceived. Nor does the Lord speak to them, but they themselves speak as if from the mouth of the Lord, of whom it is also said: 'if they had stood in my counsel — that is: if they had been willing to acquiesce in my will — and had made my words known to my people, not flattering them and ruining them with adulation, so as to say: You have no sins, you possess perfect righteousness, holiness and chastity and righteousness are found in you alone; then I would not have handed them over to uncleanness and ignominy, to do the things that are not fitting and to follow their most wicked thoughts'. Let us contemplate the heretics: how, once despairing of salvation, they hand themselves over to gluttony and delights, eat meats, frequent the baths, are fragrant with musk, and, anointed with various unguents, seek beauty of body. For once and for all they do not hope for the things to come, nor do they believe in the resurrection. What they do not disclose in speech, they show in deeds; for if they believed, they would not do these things. And in this place, where it is written: if they had stood in my counsel, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion and the Seventy translated similarly, as above.

This enables us to see, brethren, that they of Nicaea breathe the spirit of Scripture, in that God says in Exodus, `I am that I am,' and through Jeremiah, `Who is in His substance and hath seen His word;' and just below, `if they had stood in My subsistence and heard My words:' now subsistence is essence, and means nothing else but very being, which Jeremiah calls existence, in the words, `and they heard not the voice of existence.' For subsistence, and essence, is existence: for it is, or in other words exists.

What if these formulas also are scriptural, and of these two formulas, one is used with such clearness that one knows it has not been invented by me but has already been authorized by sacred Scripture? David, who sings hymns in the book of Psalms, which is called the key of all the mysteries, in the thirty-fifth psalm chants a psalm to God, sings praise to God in this way: "For in you is the source of life. In your light we shall see the light." Do we think that that is addressed to God or to Christ or to both? Because to both, it is rightly addressed, for in the Father is the Son, and in the Son is the Father. But if it is addressed to God the Father, it will be this: "If they had stood in my substance, they would have also seen my Word." But if it is addressed to the Son, it will be this: "Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father also."

He also observes the rule, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God." But one who departs from the strict observance of the commandment in performing his actions clearly shows that he has given small thought to God. Mindful, therefore, of the voice of him who said, "Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord" and again, "Am I a God at hand and not a God afar off?" Also, "Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." We should perform every action as if under the eyes of the Lord and think every thought as if observed by him. Thus, fear will abide constantly within us who hate iniquity, as it is written, insolence, pride, and the ways of the wicked, and love will be made perfect, fulfilling the words of the Lord: "I seek not my own will but the will of him that sent me."

Jeremiah the prophet, gifted with consummate wisdom, or rather the Holy Spirit in Jeremiah, exhibits God. "Am I a God at hand," he says, "and not a God afar off? Shall a man do ought in secret, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? Saith the Lord." For "the Lord who created the earth by His power," as Jeremiah says, "has raised up the world by His wisdom;" for wisdom, which is His word, raises us up to the truth, who have fallen prostrate before idols, and is itself the first resurrection from our fall.

He has been more obedient to human authority than to God. It matters not whether he has published what he has done with less either of disgrace or of guilt among people. Be that as it may, he will not be able to escape and avoid God his judge, seeing that the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms, "Your eyes did see my substance, that it was imperfect, and in your book shall all people be written." And again, "People see the outward appearance, but God sees the heart." The Lord also forewarns and prepares us, saying, "And all churches shall know that I am he who searches the reins and heart." He looks into the hidden and secret things and considers those things that are concealed; nor can anyone evade the eyes of the Lord, who says, "I am a God near at hand and not a God afar off. If a person shall be hidden in secret places, shall I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?" He sees the heart and mind of every person, and he will not judge our deeds alone, but even our words and thoughts. He looks into the minds and the wills and conceptions of all people, in the very lurking places of the heart that are still closed up.

He was fully conscious of his own wound and the power of him from whom nothing can be hidden, who says through the prophet, "I am a God near at hand and not a God afar off." For nobody can escape the notice of him who fills heaven and earth, and nobody can conceal from him the secrets of his heart.

Am I a God from near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God from afar? If a man is hidden in secret places, shall I not see him?, says the Lord; do I not fill heaven and earth?, says the Lord. LXX: I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God from afar. If a man shall hide in secret places, shall I not see him?, says the Lord; do I not fill heaven and earth?, says the Lord. Aquila and Symmachus translated similarly: Am I a God from near — or nearby — and not a God from afar? But the Seventy and Theodotion translated in a contrary sense, so as to say: I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God from afar: namely, the former assert that God knows not only things nearby but also those which are far off, and sees not only present things but future ones; while these think that God is present everywhere and that there is no place where God is not present. For God draws near to all, and especially to the saints, as a garment clings to the skin; but sinners, withdrawing far from him, will perish. This sense we read in the psalms too: Whither shall I go from your spirit, and whither shall I flee from your face? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present; if I take my wings at dawn and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. Amos too agrees with these words, saying: if they go down even to hell, from there my hand shall bring them out, and if they go up even to heaven, from there I will drag them down; and if they are hidden on the summit of Carmel, searching I will take them away from there, and if they have hidden themselves from my eyes in the depth of the sea, there I will command the serpent and it shall bite them. And again in the psalm above: For darkness, he says, shall not be darkened to you, and night shall be lit up as day; as its darkness, so also its light. And as for its being said frequently in the prophets: 'thus says the Lord', it is always added for this reason: that they should not be despised as words of the prophets, but that people should be continually reminded that the words they speak are God's.

From this time on, bid everything farewell for these five days and begin to observe the feast. Away with the business of the law courts! Away with the business of the city council! Away with daily affairs together with their contracts and business deals! I wish to save my soul. "What does it profit a person if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul?" The Magi went forth from Persia. You go forth from the affairs of daily life. Make your journey to Jesus. It is not far to travel if we are willing to make the trip. We need not cross the sea or climb the mountain crests. If you prove your piety and full compunction, you can see him without leaving home, you can tear down the whole wall, remove every obstacle and shorten the length of the journey. As the prophet said, "I am a God near at hand and not a God afar off," and, "The Lord is close to all who call on him in truth."

For were He distant from us in place, thou mightest well doubt, but if He is present everywhere, to him that strives and is in earnest He is near. Wherefore also the prophet said, "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me;" and God Himself again, "I am a God nigh at hand, and not a God afar off." Then as our sins separate us from Him, so do our righteousnesses draw us nigh unto Him. "For while thou art yet speaking," it is said, "I will say, Here I am." What father would ever be thus obedient to his offspring? What mother is there, so ready, and continually standing, if haply her children call her? There is not one, no father, no mother: but God stands continually waiting, if any of his servants should perchance call Him; and never, when we have called as we ought, hath He refused to hear. Therefore He saith, "While thou art yet speaking," I do not wait for thee to finish, and I straightway hearken.

so also our mind, the more loftily and highly it approaches Christ and presents itself nearer to the splendor of his light, so much the more magnificently and clearly will it be irradiated by his light, as he himself also says through the prophet: "Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you, says the Lord." And again he says: "I am a God drawing near, and not a God from afar."

But of what creature can it be said that it fills all things, as is written of the Holy Spirit: "I will pour My Spirit upon all flesh." This cannot be said of an Angel. Lastly, Gabriel himself, when sent to Mary, said: "Hail, full of grace," plainly declaring the grace of the Spirit which was in her, because the Holy Spirit had come upon her, and she was about to have her womb full of grace with the heavenly Word. For it is of the Lord to fill all things, Who says: "I fill heaven and earth." If, then, it is the Lord Who fills heaven and earth, Who can judge the Holy Spirit to be without a share in the dominion and divine power, seeing that He has filled the world, and what is beyond the whole world, filled Jesus the Redeemer of the whole world? For it is written: "But Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, departed from Jordan," Who, then, except one who possessed the same fulness could fill Him Who fills all things?

Wherefore, if we sensibly hold to those things which be worthy of the Son of God, we ought to understand Him to have been sent in such a way that the Word of God, out of the incomprehensible and ineffable mystery of the depths of His majesty, gave Himself for comprehension to our minds, so far as we could lay hold of Him, not only when He "emptied" Himself, but also when He dwelt in us, as it is written: "I will dwell in them." Elsewhere also it stands that God said: "Go to, let us go down and confound their language." God, indeed, never descends from any place; for He says: "I fill heaven and earth." But He seems to descend when the Word of God enters our hearts, as the prophet has said: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight." We are to do this, so that, as He Himself promised, He may come together with the Father and make His abode with us. It is clear, then, how He comes.

For, if we may presume to speak of ourselves after His image and likeness, as Scripture says, in the same way as He is established in the fulness of His Majesty, and sees all things, heaven, air, earth and sea, embracing the universe and penetrating each part, so that nothing escapes Him, and there is nothing which does not consist in Him and depend on Him, and which is not full of Him, as He Himself says, "I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord," so likewise the mind of man sees all things and is not seen, but maintains its own essence invisible.

"And the beauty of the field is with Me." The fairness of the field, the abundance of all things engendering upon earth, "is with Me," He saith. How with Him? Were they so, even before they were made? Yea, for with Him were all things to come, and with Him are all things by-gone: things to come in such sort, that there be not withdrawn from Him all things by-gone. With Him are all things by a certain cognition of the ineffable wisdom of God residing in the Word, and the Word Himself is all things. Is not the beauty of the field in a manner with Him, inasmuch as He is everywhere, and Himself hath said, "Heaven and earth I fill"? What with Him is not, of whom it is said, "If I shall have ascended into heaven, Thou art there; and if I shall have descended into hell, Thou art present"? With Him is the whole: but it is not so with Him as that He doth suffer any contamination from those things which He hath created, or any want of them.

How shall I call on my God—my God and my lord? For when I call on him, I ask him to come into me. And what place is there in me into which my God can come—into which God can come, even he who made heaven and earth? Is there anything in me, O Lord my God, that can contain you? Do indeed the heaven and the earth that you have made and in which you have placed me, contain you? Or, since nothing could exist without you, does whatever exists contain you? Why, then, do I ask you to come into me, since I indeed exist and could not exist if you were not in me? Because I am not yet in hell, though you are even there. For "if I go down into hell, you are there." I could not exist, O my God, I could not exist at all, unless you were in me. Or should I not rather say that I could not exist unless I were in you, "from whom, through whom and in whom are all things?" It is even so, O Lord, even so. Where do I ask you to be, since I am in you? Or, from where can you come into me? Where may I go beyond heaven and earth, in order that my God may then come into me, he who has said, "I fill heaven and earth."

A person's conscience accuses itself if he doesn't love someone who loves him, or love in return someone who loves him, expecting nothing from that person but indications of his love. So he mourns if someone dies, experiences the gloom of sorrow, that saturating of the heart in tears. All sweetness turns into bitterness on the loss of the life of the dying, the death of the living. Blessed is the one who loves you and has his friend in you.… For he alone loses none dear to him. All are dear to him who cannot be lost. And who is this but our God, the God who created heaven and earth and fills them, because by filling them he created them? No one loses you but the one who leaves you.

It was by this same divine creative force, which knows not what it is to be made but only how to make, that roundness was given to the eye, to the apple and to other objects that are by nature round and that we see all about, taking on their form with no extrinsic cause but by the intrinsic power of the Creator, who said, "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" and whose wisdom "reaches from end to end mightily and orders all things sweetly."

The question still remains whether they will see God with their eyes open and by means of these bodily eyes. For, of course, if spiritual eyes in a spiritual body can see no better than our present eyes can see, then it will certainly be impossible for even spiritual eyes to behold God. If the spiritual realm, without material form, circumscribed by no place but everywhere wholly present, is to be visible to the eyes of a spiritual body, then those eyes will most certainly have to have a power altogether unlike the power of any eyes on earth. It is true that we say that God is in heaven and on earth, and he himself through a prophet says, "I fill heaven and earth." But this does not mean that in heaven we shall say that God has one part there and another part on earth. For he is entirely in heaven, and he is entirely on earth. He is in both simultaneously, not merely successively—which is utterly impossible in the case of any material substance.

Therefore, God is poured forth in all things. He says by the prophet, "I fill heaven and earth," and, as I quoted a short time before of his wisdom, "He reaches from end to end mightily and orders all things sweetly." It is likewise written, "the Spirit of the Lord filled the whole world," and one of the psalms has these words addressed to him: "Where shall I go from your Spirit, or where shall I flee from your face? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I descend into hell, you are there."Yet God so permeates all things as to be not a quality of the world but the very creative substance of the world, ruling the world without labor, sustaining it without effort. Nevertheless, he is not distributed through space in a physical sense so that half of him should be in half of the world and half in the other half of it. He is wholly present in all of it in such a way as to be wholly in heaven alone and wholly in the earth alone, and wholly in heaven and earth together; not confined in any place, but wholly in himself everywhere.

Listen to him: "Come to me, all you who labor." You do not put an end to your labor by running away. You prefer to run away from him, do you, not to him? Find somewhere, and run away there. But if you cannot run away from him, for the good reason that he is present everywhere, the next thing to do is to run away to God, who is present right where you are standing. Run away, then. So, you see, you have run away beyond the heavens, he is there. You have gone right down to hell, he is there. Whatever solitary places of the earth you may choose, there he is, the one who said, "I fill heaven and earth." So if he fills heaven and earth and there is nowhere you can run away to from him, do not go on laboring with all that trouble. Run away to him where he is present right beside you, to avoid experiencing him as he comes to judge you.

So the aspect he chose was the one by which Christ came into the world. He came, after all, insofar as he was man. Because insofar as he was God, he was always here. Is there anywhere God is not, I mean, seeing that he said, "I fill heaven and earth"? Christ is certainly the power of God and the wisdom of God. Of this wisdom it says, "She reaches from end to end mightily and disposes all things sweetly." So then, "he was in this world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him." He was here, and yet he also came. He was here by divine greatness; he came by human weakness. So because he came by human weakness, that is why Paul declared his coming by saying, "The word is human." The human race would not have been set free unless the Word of God had agreed to be human. After all, people are said in particular to be human who show some humanity, above all by giving hospitality to human persons. So if human beings are called human because they receive human beings into their homes, how human must that one be who received humanity into himself by becoming human?

"And He that sent me is with me." He had already said this also before, but of this important point He is constantly reminding them, "He sent me," and "He is with me." If then, O Lord, He is with Thee, not so much hath the One been sent by the other, but ye Both have come. And yet, while Both are together, One was sent, the Other was the sender; for incarnation is a sending, and the incarnation itself belongs only to the Son and not to the Father. The Father therefore sent the Son, but did not withdraw from the Son. For it was not that the Father was absent from the place to which He sent the Son. For where is not the Maker of all things? Where is He not, who said, "I fill heaven and earth"? But perhaps the Father is everywhere, and the Son not so? Listen to the evangelist: "He was in this world, and the world was made by Him." Therefore said He, "He that sent me," by whose power as Father I am incarnate, "is with me, hath not left me."

"I have known all that is hidden and all that is open to view. I was a pupil of Wisdom, who formed them all." There, in brief, you have the profession of our philosophy. The process of learning about these, if practiced under good supervision, leads upward via Wisdom, who formed the whole universe, to the ruler of the universe, a being hard to catch, hard to track down, who always distances himself in retreat from his pursuer. But this same ruler, distant as he is, has—truth be told!—drawn near. "I am God who is near at hand, declares the Lord." In his essential being he is distant—how could a creature subject to birth ever draw near to the unborn and the uncreated?—but very close by the exercise of that power that had enfolded all things in its embrace. It is written, "Can anyone act in secret without my seeing him?" Yes, the power of God is always present, touching us with a power that sees, is good and instructs.

But let our speech and petition when we pray be under discipline, observing quietness and modesty. Let us consider that we are standing in God's sight. We must please the divine eyes in our bodily manner and with appropriate restraint of voice. For as it is characteristic of a shameless person to be noisy with his cries, so it is fitting for the modest to pray with moderated petitions. Moreover, in his teaching the Lord has bidden us to pray in secret—in hidden and remote places, in our very bedchambers—which is best suited to faith, that we may know that God is everywhere present, hears and sees all and in the plenitude of his majesty penetrates even into hidden and secret places, as it is written, "I am a God at hand, and not a God afar off. If a person shall hide himself in secret places, shall I not then see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?"

Accordingly, we must consider that one and the same nature of the Trinity fills the whole in such a way that there is no place where it is not. So, it is everywhere complete and in no way contained in a place. It is complete in individual spirits and bodies and complete at the same time in all creatures. Now we are not speaking about grace by which God with a free gift of his mercy offers himself to human beings for their salvation, but about nature by which God both fills and contains all the things which he made; according to this, he says, "Do I not fill heaven and earth?"

How, again, can justice be done to the scriptural fact that God pervades and fills the universe ("Do not I fill heaven and earth?' says the Lord," and, "The spirit of the Lord fills the world") if part of it limits him and part of it is limited by him? It cannot, for he must either occupy a complete vacuum and our universe vanish—involving the blasphemy that God has been rendered corporeal and does not possess the universe he made; or his body must be contained by bodies, which is impossible; or he must be knit through them as a contrasted strand, like liquids in mixture, parting some, parted by others—which is a more absurd old wives' tale than even Epicurus's atoms. It follows, then, that talk of God's body has no solid body to it and must collapse. What if we call God "immaterial," the fifth element envisaged by some, borne along the circular drift? Let us assume that he is some immaterial, fifth body, incorporeal, if they wait for it so to suit their free-drifting, self-constructing argument—I will not quarrel over the point. What place will he have in the moving drift of things—leaving out of account the blasphemy of identifying the creatures' motion with their creator's, the mover's (if they will concede the term) with that of the moved? What moves this fifth element? What moves the whole? What moves that which moves the whole? And so on ad infinitum. Must not this moving fifth element be in space? Suppose that they call it something other than the fifth element, an angelic body, say. What grounds have they for asserting that angels are bodies? What are these bodies? How far will God transcend angels who are his ministers? If supra-angelic, a countless swarm of bodies will be fetched in, an abyss of nonsense with no halting place.So we have proved that God is not a body. No divinely inspired teacher has asserted or accepted that idea; the verdict of our fold is against it. He can only be incorporeal. But the term "incorporeal," though granted, does not give an all-embracing revelation of God's essential being. The same is true of "ingenerate," "unoriginate," "immutable," and "immortal," indeed of all attributes applied or referred to God. For what has the fact of owning no beginning, of freedom from change, from limitation, to do with his real, fundamental nature? No, the full reality is left to be grasped, philosophically treated and scrutinized by a more advanced theorist of God. Just as predicating "is body" or "is begotten" of something or other where these predicates are applicable is not enough clearly to set out the things, but you must also, if an object of knowledge is to be displayed with adequate clarity, give the predicates their subject (people, cows and horses, you see, are "corporeal," "begotten" and "mortal"), so, in the same way, an inquirer into the nature of a real being cannot stop short at saying what it is not but must add to his denials a positive affirmation (and how much easier it is to take in a single thing than to run the full gamut of particular negations!). The point of this is that comprehension of the object of knowledge should be effected by negation of what the thing is not and by positive assertion of what it is. A person who tells you what God is not but fails to tell you what he is is rather like someone who, asked what twice five is, answers "not two, not three, not four, not five, not twenty, not thirty, no number, in short, under ten or over ten." He does not deny it is ten, but he is also not settling the questioner's mind with a firm answer. It is much simpler, much briefer, to indicate all that something is not by indicating what it is, than to reveal what it is by denying what it is not.

This is all common sense, surely, but now that we have proved deity incorporeal, we shall take the examination a stage further. The problem is this: is deity located in space or not? If it is not, then your shrewd critic might ask how it can even exist at all. Granted that what does not exist has no spatial location, it may well be the case that what has no spatial location does not exist. But if deity is spatially located there are two possible consequences: either the universe contains it, or it is located above the universe. Taking the first alternative, then, it is either contained in a part of the universe or the whole of it. Supposing deity is contained in a part of the universe, it will be delimited by something smaller; if in the whole, by something larger, quite different in relative scale, I mean, as between deity inside and the surrounding universe, granted the universe is going to be contained by the universe and all spatial location to have its bounding line. These consequences follow the hypotheses that the universe contains God. Again, where was it before the universe was created? This produces a considerable problem, you see. If, on the other hand, deity is located above the universe, what is the dividing line between it and the universe? Where is this higher place? How are higher and lower levels to be recognized; where there is no dividing line between to separate them? There will have, surely, to be something in between, something to bound the universe off from what lies above it. In that case this something in between must have the very spatial location we rejected. I do not now insist on the fact that deity must be delimited if it be mentally comprehended, for comprehension is one form of delimitation.Why have I made this digression, too labored, I dare say, for the general ear but in tune with the prevalent fashion in discussions, a fashion that despises noble simplicity and substitutes tortuous conundrums? I did it to make the tree known by its fruits, to make the darkness that activates dogmas like these, I mean, known by the obscurity of their expression. I did not do it to gain a reputation for startling oratory or extraordinary wisdom as a marvelous Daniel for "showing hard sentences and dissolving doubts." No, I wanted to make plain the point my sermon began with, which was this: the incomprehensibility of deity to the human mind and its totally unimaginable grandeur. Not that deity resents our knowledge: resentment is a far cry from the divine nature, serene as it is, uniquely and properly "good," especially resentment of its most prized creation. What can mean more to the Word than thinking beings, since their very existence is an act of supreme goodness? It is not that he treasures his own fullness of glory, keeping his majesty costly by inaccessibility. It would be utterly dishonest, utterly out of character not merely for God but also for an ordinary good person with anything of a proper conscience about him to get himself the senior place by keeping others out.

And how will it be possible to set the text, "Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord," side by side with the whole world understood as Jesus' shoe? It is worthwhile, however, to give attention to whether we must understand the words in relation to the fact that the Word and Wisdom have permeated the whole world, and the Father is in the Son, as we presented it, or he who first girded himself with all creation, because the Son was in him, granted to the Savior, since he was second after him and God the Word, to pervade the whole creation.

Elsewhere we read the words of the prophet: "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" God tells why he fills all things: "because I am with you to save you." Behold, the Lord shows us not only his rule and its all pervading fullness but also the power and benefits accruing from this very fullness. For the fullness of divinity carries as its reward the salvation of what it fills. Paul, in the Acts of the Apostles, said, "for in him we live and move and are."

If the sun, being corporeal, for it is visible and susceptible to disintegration, cannot be polluted when it passes through corpses, putrid mud and many other evil-smelling substances, much more impervious to such pollution is the maker of the sun, the creator of the universe, the incorporeal one, the invisible, the unchangeable, the one who always remains the same. And that those things are so the following reflection will bear out. We both assert and believe that his nature is infinite, for we have heard him exclaim: "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? says the Lord."

I have heard what the prophets said who prophesy a lie in my name and say: I have dreamed, I have dreamed — or I have seen a dream —. How long is this in the heart of the prophets who prophesy a lie and prophesy the seductions — or the wishes — of their own heart? Who wish — or think — to make my people forget my name because of their dreams, which each one tells to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal or in Baal. Since the preceding title is against the prophets or to the prophets, whom we clearly understand to be false prophets — and there are many kinds of prophesying, one of which is by dreams, such as was in Daniel —, therefore the prophetic discourse is directed also at those who believe in dreams and think that all they see is divine revelation, which is properly opened to the saints and servants of God. And if we read that Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, ungodly kings, saw dreams which were true, it was not of the merit of those who saw them, but so that on their occasion the holy men Joseph and Daniel might become renowned, and the hard and untamable hearts of the tyrants might feel the majesty of the Lord by their own conscience. There are even today dreamers in the Church, and especially in our flock, who vaunt their errors as the prophecy of the Lord and frequently thrust upon us: I have dreamed, I have dreamed; whom the Lord rebukes, saying: 'How long is this in the heart of the prophets who prophesy a lie and prophesy the seductions of their own heart? And they do this in order that, as the ancient people which went out of Egypt forgot the name of God, so their descendants too may forget me'. But prophesying of this kind is not in the name of the Lord, but in the name of Baal, which is properly the idol of the Sidonians, or the Babylonian one, and is called by a kindred name Bel.

Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, and let him who has my word speak my word truly! what has chaff to do with wheat?, says the Lord; are not my words like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer — or an axe — breaking the rock? It belongs to those to expound a dream who merit to have the word of God and to say: 'thus says the Lord', to whom the Lord has spoken, in whom there is truth and not fraudulent falsehood. What has the chaff of the heretics to do with the wheat of the Church? Of this John the Baptist speaks more fully: that Christ will purge his threshing floor and with the winnowing fan leave the chaff to be scattered by the blasts of the winds and burned with fire, but will store the wheat in the barns, that it may become heavenly bread and each of the believers may say: taste and see that the Lord is sweet! And beautifully is perverse doctrine compared to chaff, which has no marrow and cannot nourish the peoples of believers, but is threshed out of empty stalks.

"Fire" is called "the Gospel" and "salvation" is called "preaching," or "fire" could also refer to participation in the Holy Spirit, which is similar to experiencing fire. And indeed, this is also why the most wise John the Baptist concerning himself and all of us said, "I baptize you with water for repentance" etc., [looking ahead] to our Savior Jesus Christ [who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire]. Rightly, therefore, did Christ say, "I have come to bring fire upon the earth, and I wish that it were already kindled."

And because the heretics are always wont to promise prosperity and to open the kingdoms of heaven to sinners, so as to say: 'The kingdoms of heaven are prepared for you; you can imitate the majesty of God, so as to be without sin; for you have received the power of free will and the knowledge of the law, through which you may attain what you will', and they deceive the wretched with blandishments, and especially silly women laden with sins, who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth, and they deceive all their hearers with adulation, therefore the Lord, comparing his own words with the chaff of the heretics, says: 'are not my words like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer breaking the rock? For my word', he says, 'announces future punishments, to deter men from sinning', and he threatens the chaff of sinners with burning, so that the hearts of the heretics, hard and untamable like flint, may be broken by the hammer of his word, as he takes away the heart of stone to put in its place a heart of flesh, namely a soft one, and one that can receive and feel the precepts of God. Something of the kind the Lord says through Ezekiel too: that the false prophets with their blandishments daub a wall without mortar, which afterward is overthrown by a violent rain and by the truth of judgment, and the false prophetesses sew pillows under every elbow of the hand, to make sinners rest and never soften the wrath of God with tears. For 'hammer' the Seventy translated 'axe', namely the one of which John the Baptist speaks: already the axe is laid at the roots of the trees. This axe cuts down the unfruitful trees and this hammer breaks the hardest stones. Whence too Nahum the prophet says: his fury — no doubt God's — shall consume principalities, and the rocks shall be broken by him. This against the heretics. But of churchmen it is written that hammer and axe were not heard in the house of God.

"Thus, I am against the prophets who steal my words, says the Lord." The prophet includes this with reference to the false prophets who were stealing true prophecies from true prophets and then passing them on in secret to someone whom they forbade to speak about this. What they had in mind was the following: If the prophecy was fulfilled, they would say, "See, we have a witness that we were prophesying the same thing." But if the prophecy was not fulfilled, they would blame Jeremiah and other true prophets, as if they deceived people.However, there is another kind of false prophet who would say anything to please listeners. They would reassure people, "No calamity will come on you," and according to the custom of false prophets, they would support this claim in the name of the Lord. They are like those against whom Jeremiah spoke previously, those who mix their false dreams with pronouncements of the Spirit and deceive the people.

Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words each one from his neighbor; behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who take up their tongues and say: He says — or they slumber a slumber — ; behold, I am against the prophets who dream a lie, says the Lord, who tell them and seduce my people in their lies and in their wonders — or astonishments and terrors — of their own, when I had not sent them nor commanded them, who have been of no profit to this people, says the Lord. Falsehood always imitates truth, and unless it has some likeness of what is right, it cannot deceive the innocent. As, then, among the former people the prophets lied and said: 'thus says the Lord' and: 'I saw the Lord' and: 'the word of the Lord which came to this man or that', so the heretics take up testimonies of the Scriptures from the Old and New Instrument and steal the words of the Savior each one from his neighbor, from prophets and apostles and evangelists, and take up their tongues, to utter with the mouth the poisons of the heart, and slumber a slumber — of whom it was truly said: they have slumbered their sleep and found nothing — or, according to the Hebrew: and they say: He says, so that 'the Lord' is understood, or certainly 'the divine word'. The Lord therefore threatens that he himself will come against masters of this kind, who seduce his people in their lies and in their astonishments and wonders. For they promise great and incredible and immense things in order to seduce the wretched; who have been of no profit to the people of God, and fulfill that apostolic word: teaching what they ought not, for the sake of base gain; who are wont to announce to the wicked prosperity, and the contrary.

Since the false prophets also avail themselves of the phrase "thus says the Lord," pretending to be the true prophets, there is need of signs that distinguish each of them. Therefore there was, according to the apostle, a gift of distinguishing spirits, and one who possessed this gift distinguished spirits, both the divine and the bad ones, just as a moneychanger distinguishes genuine currency from counterfeit. But aside from this general knowledge, what was just said also suffices for distinguishing. For, my word, he says, is not empty and a nourishment for what is irrational, but it is like wheat and nourishment for what is rational.

I do not like the pretensions of Government — the grounds on which it demands my obedience — to be pitched too high. I don't like the medicine-man's magical pretensions nor the Bourbon's Divine Right. This is not solely because I disbelieve in magic and in Bossuet's Politique. I believe in God, but I detest theocracy. For every Government consists of mere men and is, strictly viewed, a makeshift; if it adds to its commands 'Thus saith the Lord', it lies, and lies dangerously.

If therefore this people or a prophet or a priest asks you, saying: What is the burden of the Lord — or what is the taking up of the Lord — ?, you shall say to them: You are the burden — or the taking up — ; for I will cast you away — or I will dash you down, — says the Lord. And the prophet and the priest and the people who says: The burden — or the taking up — of the Lord, I will visit — or I will avenge — upon that man and upon his house. These things you shall say each one to his friend and to his brother: What has the Lord answered and what has the Lord spoken? and the burden — or the taking up — of the Lord shall be remembered no more, for the burden — or the taking up — shall be to each one his own word. The Hebrew word 'massa' Aquila translates arma, that is, 'burden' and 'weight'; Symmachus, the Seventy and Theodotion 'taking up'. Wherever, then, what the Lord threatens is heavy and full of weight and toil and unbearable, in the title too it is called arma, that is, 'weight'; but wherever the Lord promises prosperity, or after a threat promises better things, there it is called 'vision' or certainly 'word of the Lord'; and it was clear from the very title of the prophecy, 'of weight' or 'of vision' and 'of the word of God', what kind of prophecy would follow. Since, therefore, the prophets were wont to announce sad things to the sinful people and to threaten punishments, in order to draw them back to repentance, while the Lord, merciful and compassionate, long deferred the sentence, the people, deceived and seduced by the fraud of the false prophets, thought that the things the Lord threatened would not come, and they had turned a serious matter into sport and jest, and when the prophets prophesied they would say as if mocking: 'Here again he sees a weight and burden of the Lord'. And so it came about that it was no longer called 'vision', but in jest and derision 'burden' and 'weight'. The Lord therefore commands that, whether the people or a prophet or a priest should ask Jeremiah what the weight or what the taking up of the Lord is, he should answer them and say: 'You are the burden and you the taking up; for I will take you up and cast you away and dash you down and make you perish. But if anyone hereafter, whether of the prophets or of the priests or of the people, dares to name the burden and weight of the Lord, I will visit', he says, 'upon that man and upon his house, and I will blot him out forever'. Let each one therefore say to his neighbor and friend by no means: What is the burden of the Lord?, but: 'What has the Lord answered and what has the Lord spoken? Forget the old word; let burden and weight or taking up no longer sound in your mouth, for to each man his own word and his own work will be reckoned as a burden and weight, according to that which is written: by your mouth you shall be justified and by your mouth you shall be condemned'.

And you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. Thus shalt thou say — or shall you say — to the prophet: What has the Lord answered you and what has the Lord spoken? But if you say: The burden of the Lord — up to here it is not found in the Seventy; and there follows: because of this, thus says the Lord: Because you have said this word: The burden — or the taking up — of the Lord, and I sent to you saying: Do not say the burden — or the taking up — of the Lord, therefore, behold, I will lift — or I will take up — you, carrying you, and I will forsake you and the city which I gave to you and to your fathers, from before my face, and I will give you over to everlasting reproach and eternal ignominy, which shall never be blotted out by oblivion. The Lord commanded that the word of 'burden' and 'weight' and 'taking up' should by no means be spoken among the people, but that of 'answer' and 'word of God'. And because the people had disdained to fulfill this, he interprets the very word upon them and says: 'Since you have said what I did not wish, and this when I often sent prophets and ordered you not to say it, therefore I will fulfill in deed upon you your word of taking up, burden and weight; for I will take you up and lift you and carry you, and dash you down, and make you fall from on high to the ground — and not only you, but your city too, which I gave to your fathers — and I will give', he says, 'over to reproach and everlasting ignominy, which shall never be blotted out by oblivion'. We know that this was done at the time of the Babylonian captivity too; but it is fulfilled more fully and more perfectly after the passion and resurrection of the Savior, when the Lord said: your house shall be left to you desolate, and the sentence will remain until its end. Let us also say it otherwise, at least according to the Seventy: lēmma means not only 'taking up' but also 'gift and present'. Since, therefore, the people always promised itself prosperity, he says that they ought by no means to say this any longer; for they are unworthy of the gifts and presents of God, and are rather to be cast away and wholly abandoned by the help of God. And moreover, things are often shown both by words and by the interpretation of names, as the changed names of Abraham, of Sarah, and of Peter and the sons of Zebedee signify a change of things, and in this same prophet 'Phaschor' is called 'fear' or 'removal' and 'settler' or 'stranger'. It must be noted that the words: of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God the Latin and Greek codices do not have, and the Hebrews read them in their volumes against themselves, which properly signifies the mystery of the Trinity.