Jeremiah 5

Go about the ways of Jerusalem, and look, and consider, and seek in its squares, whether you may find a man who does judgment and seeks faith, and I will be merciful to it. But if they even say: The Lord lives, this too they will swear falsely. Great is the love of righteousness: not that God should deliver the city for ten righteous men, as in Abraham's question and God's answer, but that if he finds a single one in Jerusalem, now on the very point of perishing, who does judgment and seeks faith — or, as Symmachus translated, truth —, God would nonetheless have mercy on Jerusalem.

Disasters occur either to discipline the obstinate people or punish evil people. The same God declares in the Holy Scriptures, "I have struck your children in vain. They have not received correction." The prophet devoted and dedicated to God answers these words in the same way and says, "You struck them, but they have not grieved. You scourged them, but they have refused to receive correction." See, God inflicts stripes, and there is no fear of God.

And because it could happen that some would be found among the people who feigned the worship of God and swore by the Lord, he forestalls this: that God is in no way delighted by empty words, but by the truth of faith; and he says: 'I do not love them because they swear by me, and they swear in falsehood; but those whose hearts and lips agree'.

Who among us has amended his life, or what part of the Roman world, no matter how afflicted, is corrected? As we read, "For all have declined, they have become useless at same time." Therefore, the prophet cries out to God and says, "You have struck them, and they have not sorrowed. You have consumed them, and they have refused to accept discipline. They have hardened their faces harder than a rock and were unwilling to return." Present affairs show how truly this applies to us.

Lord, your eyes look upon faith. You struck them, and they did not grieve; you crushed them, and they refused to receive discipline; they hardened their faces beyond rock, and they would not return. After the words of the Lord, by which he had given command, saying: Go about the ways of Jerusalem and the rest, the prophet speaks to the Lord: Lord, your eyes look upon faith, which in Hebrew is called 'emuna': not the works of the Jews, in which they exulted according to the ceremonies of the law, but the faith of Christians, through which we have been saved by grace. From this passage we learn that punishments are inflicted for this reason: that vices may be corrected. Accordingly he says: You struck them, and they did not grieve; you crushed them, and they refused to receive discipline. For Jerusalem is corrected through every torment and scourge; and over and above all these they did not even feel shame for their own vices, but, hardening the impudence of their brow like a rock, they would not be converted to better things.

"Lord," he says, "your eyes are toward faithfulness," just as "the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous," for he turns them away from the unrighteous; so too the eyes of the Lord are toward faithfulness, for he turns them away from faithlessness. Therefore it is well said, by one who understands what he is saying in his prayer, "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness." Now what is written here is "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness." But since "if a man of understanding hears a wise word, he will praise it and add to it," see how many things it is possible to make out of the words "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness." Paul says, "But now these three abide: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love." Just as the eyes of the Lord are toward faithfulness, so the eyes of the Lord are toward hope, the eyes of the Lord are toward love. And since there is "a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline," the eyes of the Lord are toward love, and so the eyes of the Lord are toward power, and so the eyes of the Lord are toward self-discipline […] the eyes of the Lord toward righteousness. In this way the eyes of the Lord are upon all the virtues. If, then, you too wish the rays of the spiritual eyes of God to reach as far as you, take up the virtues. And it will be that, just as "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness," so "Lord, your eyes" are toward each of the good things you may acquire. And if you become so great that the eyes of the Lord shine upon you, you will say, "The light of your countenance has been marked upon us, O Lord."

Then let us look at what is said concerning sinners: "You scourged them, and they felt no pain." These perceptible scourges, when applied to living bodies, produce pain in them whether those scourged wish it or not; but the scourges of God are of such a kind that some of those scourged feel pain, while some of those scourged do not feel pain. Let us see whether we can explain what it is to feel pain from God's scourges and what it is not to feel pain, and that those who feel no pain from God's scourges are wretched, whereas those who do feel pain from God's scourges are blessed. For Wisdom says, "Who will set scourges over my thought, and over my lips a seal of prudence, that they may not spare me in my ignorances, and my sins may not destroy me?" Give heed to the "Who will set scourges over my thought?" So then there are scourges that scourge the thought. The scourges of God scourge the thought; for a word that fastens upon the soul and brings it to a sense (synaisthēsis) of the things it has done wrong scourges it; and it scourges the blessed man who feels pain at the scourges, for the things said reach him, and he does not despise the one who rebukes him. But whenever someone is found, so to speak, insensible, it will be said concerning him, "You scourged them, and they felt no pain." For when the same word is spoken by way of rebuke — let us say, so as to reach the mind of one whose conscience is defiled by some sin — if one of the hearers is grieved, so that it is said of him, "You have seen how so-and-so was pierced to the heart," but another of the hearers is not grieved but is insensible to those who rebuke, plainly it will be said of the one who does not even perceive, "You scourged them, and they felt no pain." This is one explanation concerning the "they felt no pain" or "they felt pain"; but let us see whether we have another as well. There occur in bodies certain deadenings and witherings of some parts, and often the deadened members suffer such things, in contrast to the living ones, that when things capable of producing pain are applied to a living member, the one to whom that which causes pain is applied feels pain, but when the things that cause pain are applied to the insensible member, that person does not feel it, whenever there is a deadening about it. If indeed you have seen these things in the body, transfer them to the soul, and see that there is also a certain soul with deadened members, so that it does not perceive from the scourges, even if some painful things are applied. Terrible things are applied, but a certain soul will not perceive them, while another will perceive them. And perhaps the one who does not perceive the pains applied to him grieves more, as it were, over not perceiving than he would over perceiving — praying rather to feel pain if painful things were applied (since this is a sign of his being alive), and being distressed at not perceiving the painful things. Just as this happens in the case of bodies, so I think that in the words "they shall wish that they had been burned up with fire" something of this sort is indicated: namely, when fire is applied to someone and the burning one does not perceive it, they will wish — having grasped the comparison of those who do not perceive their pains and those who do — to perceive at the fire rather than not to perceive. And one might pray, even when that judgment-fire is applied to the sinners, to perceive rather than not to perceive. These things are on account of the words "You scourged them, and they felt no pain."

"You consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction." When God, who exercises providence over all things, performs the purifying works for the salvation of a soul, then as far as it depends on him he has consumed it. And you will understand the words "You consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction" from the example of the one who hands on knowledge and the one who is unwilling to receive the knowledge from the one who hands it on. For let the teacher do everything that is in his power and bring everything to completion for the handing on of knowledge, while the other does not accept what is said; I would say concerning such a one to the teacher, "You consumed this man, and he was unwilling to receive instruction." Whenever, then, all that comes from providence is done toward us, so that we may be consumed and perfected, but we do not accept the things of the providence that draws us toward perfection, it might be said by one who understands, to God, "Lord, you consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction."

"They made their faces harder than rock." This too you will understand from things more bodily. Of those who sin, some, hearing words of rebuke over their sin, blush and shrink back and give way, when the rebuking word touches them; but others are of such a kind that they are shameless, feeling no shame over the things for which they are rebuked, for the things in which they have sinned. You might therefore say concerning these who feel no shame, "They made their faces harder than rock." If you have understood this in bodily terms, pass over with me in thought to the soul, understanding the "face" concerning which it is said, "but then face to face." And behold a hardened soul, such as was the hardened heart of Pharaoh, so that it stands unyielding against the things announced to it and, as it were, casts off what is said, not being molded according to the things announced. For there you will find that the words fit, "They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to turn back. And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because they did not wish to know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God. I will go to the great ones and speak to them." Having understood these things concerning those who do not wish to be instructed, who take no notice of God's scourges, he speaks having understood the cause of these things. Poor is their soul. "And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because they were not able, because they did not know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God."

Truly, slander humiliates a person, and slander troubles the poor person. The evil of slander is so great that it brings down both the perfect person … from his height, and the poor person, that is, the one who lacks great learning, as it seems to the prophet, who says, "Perhaps they are poor … therefore they will not hear. I will go to the great ones," meaning by "the poor" those lacking in intelligence, and here, of course, those not yet made orderly in the inner person or having attained to the perfect measure of their age. These, the proverb says, are troubled and made to waver.

But I said: Perhaps they are poor and foolish — or they could not — not knowing the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. I will go therefore to the nobles and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. He speaks here of the poor and the nobles not in terms of want and riches; rather, he compares the people with the princes. And the sense is: 'Seeing the obstinacy of the unbelieving people, and that with hardened face it would not receive discipline, I was reasoning this out with myself: perhaps the ignoble common crowd cannot know the teaching of God and is therefore excusable, because through inexperience it is not able to know the commandments of God. I will go therefore to the priests and to those who preside over the people, and will speak to them; for they have known the will of the Lord and know the judgment of their God'. He says this in the language of one who doubts, according to that saying of the Gospel: I will send my son; perhaps they will reverence him, so that from the ambiguity of the statement and the suspense of the words the free will of man may be shown.

Paul says about those who live in piety and prosperity, "I thank God that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge." And to those who are impious, the blessed Jeremiah says, "Maybe they are poor. For this reason, they could not hear the word of the Lord." Do you see that he calls poor those who have distanced themselves from piety? Therefore, God is merciful to those who sin because they are spiritually poor, and he places demands on those who act justly because they are spiritually rich. To the former he gives freely, on account of their poverty. From the latter he collects with great care, on account of their wealth of piety. That which he does to the righteous and to sinners, he does to both the rich and the poor.

"Well-off" refers to the priests and the teachers of the law; "poor" refers to the rest, insofar as they did not possess the wealth of divine knowledge. Yet he accuses both of lawlessness, proceeding in this way, "They all alike broke the yoke, they snapped the bonds." It was not without purpose the prophet said this. Instead, since the Lord promised lovingkindness, provided he found someone "doing justice and seeking faith," he explains that though he went looking, as he was commanded to do, he found they had all broken the yoke of the law.

And behold, these all the more together have broken the yoke, have burst the bonds. Therefore a lion from the forest struck them, a wolf at evening laid them waste, a leopard watching over their cities. Everyone who goes out from them will be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their turnings-away are strengthened. 'Those whom I thought to be teachers were found to be worse than the disciples; and the greater the authority among the rich, the greater the insolence of their sins'. For they broke the yoke of the law, as the Apostle says: Now therefore why do you tempt God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But through the grace of the Lord Jesus we believe that we are saved, in the same way as they also; and they burst the bonds of the precepts of God, and not of the Pharisees, of whom it is said in the second Psalm: Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us.

"I will go to the great ones and speak to them." Those who are great in soul are spoken of in praise. For among the Greeks too "greatness" (to hadron) is continually used to name the grandeur of the rational soul. For whenever someone undertakes great matters and has purposes worthy of account and always considers what is fitting — how he may live according to right reason, wishing and looking upon nothing lowly and small — such a one has the greatness and grandeur in his soul. These men, then, since they were poor — the former ones whom the word blamed — did not listen, says the prophet. For this reason they did not listen, because they are poor. "I will go to the great ones and speak to them." And if it is a blessed thing to speak "into the ears of those who hear," it is a blessed thing if one meets with a great and mighty hearer. Therefore, since these things are so spoken, knowing that it is no loss to those who speak, so much as to those who hear, not to accept the things announced, and that it accuses the poverty of their mind and of their understanding, let us beseech to receive from God, as the word increases greatness and grandeur in us in Christ Jesus, that we may be able to hear the sacred and holy words — to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.

And the prophet of God reproacheth severely those who have broken the yoke, and cut the bands of the fear of God. Now Israel became rebels because there was no fear [in them]; and they trod under foot the commandments because they were not mindful of what was threatened; and they despised the law because they remembered not the penalty of Him that ordained it. For He Who ordained the law because He knew to whom He was giving the law, against [the breaking of] His commandments multiplied His threats in His wisdom, so that although freewill might hold the law in contempt, the fear which followed thereafter might incite [Israel] to the keeping thereof. And because he that received the law became a rebellious slave, He made him to labour in bondage in the fear of tribulation. Before his face He displayed all the various forms of punishment, so that as long as he looked thereupon he might take heed to the commandments, and keep the law.

Jeremiah also speaks of sinners: A lion from the forest struck them, and a wolf destroyed them even to their houses; and a leopard kept watch over their cities. All who go out from them will be taken. In this, note that no one is taken except one who has gone out from the cities of God.

Because, then, they did these things, a lion from the forest struck them, namely the Babylonian kingdom; a wolf at evening laid them waste, signifying the Medes and Persians, in place of which in the vision of Daniel a 'bear' is set down, in whose mouth there were three rows; a leopard watching over their cities, prefiguring the onslaught of Alexander and his swift course from the west all the way to India. He calls him a leopard on account of his variegation, and because he fought against the Medes and Persians with very many nations subject to him. And there were, he says, four heads on the beast, and power was given to it. And because he is not prophesying of the future, but is weaving the history of the past or of things now on the very point of coming, for that reason he is silent about the Roman empire, of which perhaps it is said: Everyone who goes out from them will be taken. And he gives the causes why they suffered these things: because their transgressions are multiplied and they persevered in their transgressions. Hence it is said: and their turnings-away are strengthened. What we set down at the beginning, that the Hebrew word 'sacad' signifies 'watchfulness', is shown in the present place; for where we said 'a leopard watching', in the Hebrew is written 'nemer sacad'. According to tropology: those who are thought great in the Church, because they break the yoke and burst the bonds, are for that reason handed over to the disgrace of passions, so that they do the things that are not fitting.

We must conduct our festivals and rejoice with fear and trembling. A faithful Christian, the psalm says, must not sing the songs of the heathen or have anything to do with the principles and doctrines of strange assemblies. It may happen that through their songs, he might make mention of the names of idols, which God forbids the faithful to do. The Lord scolds certain people through Jeremiah and says, "Your children have forsaken me, and have sworn by those who are no gods."

On what ground shall I be able to be merciful to you? Your sons have forsaken me and swear by those who are not gods. I filled them, and they committed adultery, and in the house of the harlot they ran riot. They have become to me horses, lovers toward the females, and stallions; each one neighed after the wife of his neighbor. Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord, and on such a nation shall not my soul take vengeance? A Katalogos [a catalogue] of the sins of Jerusalem, while God says that he does not know on what ground he could have mercy on her. 'The sons', he says, 'of yours have forsaken me: by no means mine, but yours, because they swear by those who are not gods. I filled them, and they committed adultery'. Let those hear this who, brooding over the riches they have received from the Lord, are slaves to luxury.

Let us then, as is becoming, as at all times, yet especially in the days of the feast, be not hearers only, but doers of the commandments of our Savior. Having imitated the behavior of the saints, we may enter together into the joy of our Lord who is in heaven, which is not transitory but truly abides.… But they who are not doers are compared, in their disgrace, with beasts without understanding, and becoming like them in unlawful pleasures, they are spoken of as wanton horses. Also, for their craftiness, errors and being laden with death, they are called, by John, a "generation of vipers."

Angels do not change. Not one of them is a child, or a young man, or an old man, but in whatever state they were created, in the beginning, in that state they remain. Their substance is preserved pure and inviolate for them. But we change in our body, as has been shown, and in our soul and in the inner person, always shifting our thoughts with the circumstances. In fact, we are one sort of person when we are cheerful and when all things in our life are moving forward with the current. But we are another sort in precarious times, when we stumble against something that is not according to our wishes. We are changed through anger, assuming a certain savage state. We are also changed through our lusts of carnal things, becoming like beasts through a life of pleasure. "They become amorous horses," being madly in love with their neighbors' wives. The deceitful person is compared with a fox, as Herod was. The shameless person is called a dog, like Nabel the Carmelian. Do you see the variety and diversity of our change? Then, admire him who has fittingly adapted this title to us. For this very reason, a certain one of the interpreters seems to me to have handed over beautifully and accurately the same thought through another title. He says, "For the lilies," in place of, "For them that shall be changed." He thought that it was appropriate to compare the transitory state of human nature with the early death of flowers. But since this word has been inflected in the future tense (It is said, "For them that shall be changed," as if at some time later this change will be shown to us), let us consider whether there is suggested to us the doctrine of the resurrection, in which a change will be granted to us, but a change for something better and something spiritual.

Fasting can be utilized as a weapon against demonic armies: "For this kind does not come out except through prayer and fasting." Many good things come from fasting, but being satiated introduces the beginnings of insolence. It immediately rushes in alongside the delicacy you are eating and it accompanies rich sauces. All kinds of licentious behavior begin grazing at its table. After this, men start becoming "lusty horses" toward women because all this luxury begins to start a maddening itch that enters into their soul. Those who get drunk begin perverting themselves against nature, using a male like a female, or vice versa. Fasting, by contrast, reveals the proper boundaries for marriage. It curtails the excesses of even those things that may be permitted by law but that are abstained from by agreement so that the couple can devote themselves to prayer.But we should not limit the goodness of fasting only to abstaining from foods. True fasting, in whatever form, is the enemy of evil. "Loose the chains of injustice!" Forgive your neighbor when an offense occurs against you and forgive his debts. Do not "fast in order to bring about judgment and strife."14 You may not eat meat, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine but hold on to insolence. You wait till evening to indulge [in a meal] but spend the day in court. "Woe to those who are drunk, but not from wine!" Wrath can also be a drunkenness of the soul, making it senseless, like wine. Grief can also feel like being drunk, weighing down the mind. Fear is another form of drunkenness whenever it fears something where there is no need for fear, because the psalmist says, "deliver my soul from the fear of my enemy." When taken together, each of these passions that allow the mind to be taken over and to go out of control is rightly termed drunkenness.… Guard against this kind of drunkenness, but do not be given over to the kind that comes from wine, either. Do not start being a water drinker just because you have been drinking too much. Do not let drunkenness be what leads you into fasting. The door that leads to fasting is not entered through drunkenness. Neither is greed the entryway into justice, nor is intemperance the way to sound judgment. In summary, evil never leads to virtue. There is another door into fasting. Drunkenness leads to intemperance. Contentment is what opens the door to fasting.

Humanity … did not understand and neglected to follow God and to become like his Creator. And becoming a slave of the passions of the flesh, "he is compared with senseless beasts and is become like them." Now he is like an amorous horse that neighs after his neighbor's wife. Now like a ravenous wolf, lying in wait for strangers, but at another time, because of his deceit toward his brother, he makes himself like the villainous fox. Truly, there is excessive folly and beast-like lack of reason that he, made according to the image of the Creator, neither perceives his own from the beginning nor even wishes to understand such great dispensations that were made for his sake. At least, he should learn his own dignity from them, but he is unmindful of the fact, and he throws aside the image of the heavenly, but he has taken up the image of the earthly.

At another time, he speaks of us under the figure of a colt. He means by that that we are unyoked to evil, unsubdued by wickedness, unaffected and high-spirited only with him our Father. We are colts, not stallions "who whinny lustfully for their neighbor's wife," beasts of burden unrestrained in their lust. Rather, we are free and newly born, joyous in our faith, and hold fast to the course of truth. We are swift in seeking salvation, and we spurn and trample on worldliness.

If birth is an evil, then the blasphemers must place the Lord who went through birth and the virgin who gave him birth in the category of evil. Abominable people! In attacking birth they are maligning the will of God and the mystery of creation. This is the basis of Cassian's docetism, Marcion's too, yes, and Valentinus's "semi-spiritual body." It leads them to say, "Humanity became like cattle in coming to sexual intercourse." But it is when a man, swollen with lust, really and truly wants to go to bed with a woman not his own, that that sort of man actually becomes a wild beast. "They turned into stallions crazed for mares; each was whinnying for his neighbor's wife."

Rebuking censures what is base and highlights what is noble. This is shown by Jeremiah: "They were horses mad for females. Each one neighed for his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit them for these things? says the Lord. Should not I avenge my soul against such a nation as this?" He everywhere interweaves fear, because "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of reason."

The neighing horse depicts the recklessness of young men.

Those who do indeed reject the Spirit's counsel, and are the slaves of fleshly lusts, and lead lives contrary to reason, and who, without restraint, plunge headlong into their own desires, having no longing after the Divine Spirit, do live after the manner of swine and of dogs; these men does the apostle very properly term "carnal," because they have no thought of anything else except carnal things. For the same reason, too, do the prophets compare them to irrational animals, on account of the irrationality of their conduct, saying, "They have become as horses raging for the females; each one of them neighing after his neighbour's wife." And again, "Man, when he was in honour, was made like unto cattle." This denotes that, for his own fault, he is likened to cattle, by rivalling their irrational life. And we also, as the custom is, do designate men of this stamp as cattle and irrational beasts.

They have become horses, lovers toward the females. For 'stallions' in the Hebrew is written 'mosechim', which all with one accord translated helkontes, that is, 'drawing', so that the size of the genitals may be shown, according to that saying of Ezekiel: like the flesh of asses is their flesh. This is what is written in another place: they were likened to senseless beasts and became like them. And at the same time he shows so great a madness of lust that he calls it not the appetite of pleasure but chremetismon, that is, 'neighing', and keeps the metaphoran [metaphor] of horses raging for lust.

Yet for all this some are so cold and senseless, as to be always seeking only the things that are here, and uttering those absurd sayings, "Let me enjoy all things present for a time, and then I will consider about things out of sight: I will gratify my belly, I will be a slave to pleasures, I will make full use of the present life; give me to-day, and take tomorrow." Oh excess of folly! Why, wherein do they who talk so differ from goats and swine? For if the prophet permits not them to be accounted men, that "neigh after their neighbors wife," who shall blame us for esteeming these to be goats and swine, and more insensible than asses, by whom those things are held uncertain, which are more evident than what we see?

Murder is rare among slaves because of their dread and terror of capital punishment, but it is common among the rich because of their hope and trust in impunity. Perhaps we are wrong in putting in the category of sins what the rich people do, because, when they kill their slaves, they think that it is legal and not a crime. Not only this, they abuse the same privilege even when practicing the filth of unchastity. How few among the rich, observing the sacrament of marriage, are not dragged down headlong by the madness of lust? To how few are not home and family regarded as harlots? How few do not pursue their madness toward anybody on whom the heat of their evil desires centers? It was about such people that the divine Word said, "They are become as stallions rushing madly on the mares."

'When you have done these things', he says, 'are you not deserving of a fitting visitation?' And note that here 'visitation' is put for penalty and punishments, according to what is written: I will visit their iniquities with the rod. And on such a nation shall not my soul take vengeance? After she has been bound by sins, she is no longer called the people of God, but a nation, from which the soul of God has withdrawn, according to what is written: your new moons and sabbaths and feast days my soul hates. But what in the Old Testament is said by way of affection, in the New is written as truth, as the Savior says: I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up.

Go up upon her walls — or bulwarks — and destroy, but do not make a full end! Take away her shoots — or props —, because they are not the Lord's! For with transgression the house of Israel and the house of Judah has transgressed against me, says the Lord. He commands the nations of which he had said above: a lion from the forest struck them, a wolf laid them waste, and a leopard in their cities, to go up upon the walls of Jerusalem, or its bulwarks, and destroy it, but not to make a full end, so that the remnant may be saved and there may be one to announce the glory of God among the nations; and he mingles clemency with severity. And as for what he added: take away her shoots or props, he orders all the aids to be removed which she lost by her own fault, because the house of Israel and the house of Judah transgressed against God, signifying the ten tribes and the two. Let the Church hear this: that the walls and bulwarks of those who have no hope in the Lord and transgress against him are quickly destroyed, but that nevertheless a full end is not made, on account of the clemency of the judge and not on account of the merits of the offenders.

Accusation is the censure of wrongdoers. This mode of instruction God employs by David, when he says, "The people whom I did not know served me, and when their ears heard they obeyed me. Sons of strangers came to me, and halted from their ways." And by Jeremiah: "And I gave her a divorce decree, but covenant-breaking Judah did not fear." And again: "And the house of Israel disregarded me. The house of Judah lied to the Lord."

They have denied the Lord and said: He is not — or these things are not — nor will evil come upon us; sword and famine we shall not see. The prophets have come to wind, and an answer — or a word — was not in them. These things therefore will come upon them. Because they have denied the Lord — or they have lied to the Lord — and said: 'He is not, by whose judgment all things come to pass, but all these things have happened by chance; and the things which the voices of the prophets threaten us with will not come, nor shall we see the sword, nor shall we endure the famine of a siege; and whatever the prophets spoke, they spoke to the wind, and all things have passed away void, nor did they have an answer, that is, an oracle, or the word of God was not in them', therefore they will endure what the following discourse describes. Let the Church hear this, when it is negligent and rejects the providence of God: that it will endure both sword and famine, unless it believes that the things which are spoken will come.

We say then that the power of the divine message resembles a live coal and fire. And the God of all somewhere said to the prophet Jeremiah, "Behold, I have made my words in your mouth to be fire, and this people to be wood, and it shall devour them." And again, "Are not my words as burning fire, says the Lord?" Rightly, therefore, did our Lord Jesus Christ say to us, "I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled." For already some of the Jewish crowd believed on him, whose firstfruits were the divine disciples. The fire, being once kindled, was soon to seize on the whole world immediately after the whole dispensation had attained to its completion.… He had borne his precious passion on the cross and had commanded the bonds of death to cease. He rose on the third day from the dead.

Thus says the Lord God of hosts: Because you have spoken this word, behold, I give my words in your mouth into fire, and this people into wood, and it will devour them. 'You said: The prophets have come to wind, and the things they threaten will not come; therefore, O prophet, I give my words in your mouth, which are to have the power of fire, and which are to turn this people into wood, so that the unbelieving may be burned up together by your discourse and prophecy.' So God is called a consuming fire, that he may consume in us whatever, upon the foundation of Christ, we have built of hay, wood, stubble.

Behold, I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the Lord, a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you will not know, nor will you understand what it says. Its quiver is like an open sepulchre; all are mighty. And it will eat your crops and your bread, it will devour your sons and your daughters, it will eat your flock and your herds, it will eat your vine and your fig tree, and it will crush with the sword your fortified cities, in which you have confidence. Nevertheless in those days, he says, I will not make you into utter destruction. 'Not after a long time, nor, as you falsely believe, will the prophets speak to you into the wind; but even now I will bring upon you a nation of the Babylonians, which will come from afar, a strong nation' — for which in the Hebrew is written 'etham' —, 'an ancient nation' — over which Nimrod the giant once held dominion —, 'whose language you will not know or' — as is written in the Hebrew — 'nor will you understand what it says; for it is a solace in misfortunes if you have such enemies as you can entreat and as understand your prayers'.

And what follows: its quiver is like an open sepulchre, which is not said in the edition of the Seventy, signifies the Babylonian armament. Nor is there any doubt that the kingdom of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medes and the Persians is most skilled in archery.

And at the same time he describes the devastation of the land of Judea and the slaughter of many, the driving off of cattle, the overthrow of cities and of walls: that all things are taken by the hostile sword, and that yet amid such great evils he does not destroy them to extermination, but keeps a remnant safe, either of those who were led into Babylon and released for the cultivation of the fields of the land of Judea, or of those who, after the heat of persecution, kept the faith of the Lord either by flight or by confession.

God, who judges "little by little," gives to those being chastised room for repentance, and does not, in punishing at the very moment of sin, bring the full completion of the punishment upon the one who has sinned. For this reason, "judging little by little," he chastises. And an example of this is in Leviticus; for in the curses against those who transgress the Law it is written, after the earlier punishments: "And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn back, says the Lord, I too will add to you seven plagues." And again he recounts another punishment: "And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn back, but walk toward me crookedly, I too will walk with you in crooked wrath." And you will find God measuring out punishments with sparing restraint, since he wishes to lead the one who has sinned to conversion, and does not repay them all at once. Such things, then, so far as the letter goes, had come about concerning the people; and the word, threatening them with what they will suffer, says after those things: "And it shall be in those days, says the Lord your God, I will not strike you unto complete destruction." But whether these things especially reach even to the punishments that are to come — if not, let the one who is able pass over from the things that befell the people in this life to those punishments as well; for I, being persuaded, would say that just as "they serve a copy and shadow of heavenly things," so it was with a copy and shadow of the true punishments that that people was punished for their own sins, so that every punishment according to the Law and the Prophets which concerns the people contains a shadow of the true punishments.

If, then, for those people no complete destruction came upon them for their sins, but at some point in the end there would be — nor will there ever fail to be, even after the departure, a punishment upon those who have sinned. But the complete destruction came upon Jerusalem when the captivity is that of Nebuchadnezzar. And yet someone will say that not even then was there complete destruction, nor even in the times of the Maccabees. But the complete destruction came upon the people at the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ. For as long as the Savior was not saying to them, "Behold, your house is forsaken to you," it was not forsaken. But when he wept over Jerusalem, saying, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to her, how often have I wished to gather together your children, in the way a hen gathers together her chicks under her wings, and you would not? Behold, your house is left to you desolate," the house was forsaken, "Jerusalem was surrounded by armies," as the house had been forsaken, and "her desolation drew near." Then, after their transgression, salvation came to us. So those people were being chastised, and complete destruction did not reach them until the sojourn of my Lord Jesus.

But I consider whether such things may also be the case concerning us, and whether certain punishments come about, so that these here have no experience of second punishments but are content with the former, while others come even to the second, though not also to the third, and others will come even to the fourth. For the phrase "I will add seven plagues" indicates some mystery, since one plague comes, and a second, and a third, up to the seven that have been mentioned, upon certain people. But not all are struck with seven plagues; rather, I think some will be struck with six plagues, others five, others four, others three or two, while those most inferior of all in punishments I suppose will be struck with one plague. God, then, knows the things concerning the plagues as well. Therefore it is written here at the beginning of the reading: "And it shall be in those days," those concerning the things spoken of, "I will not make you unto complete destruction." But it is not in those days that complete destruction comes; for there are certain days, when he will make those whom he will make unto complete destruction.

But if you say: Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? you shall say to them: As you have forsaken me and served a foreign god — or foreign gods — in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land not yours. Great is the folly of not knowing why they have suffered, when they have sinned so greatly; and brief is the answer to those who are in doubt: as you have served a foreign god — that is, Baal — or foreign gods of all the nations in the land of Judea, so you shall serve foreign gods in a land not yours, no doubt the Babylonians and Chaldea. 'For if a strange religion delights you, what need is there to take up an error from afar? Dwell with such people; nay rather, serve those whose gods you worship.' This can also be taken of heretics, of whom it is written: they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us: that the Lord casts out of the Church the heretics who for a long time under his name have venerated the images of their own lies, so that they may worship outside what they formerly venerated inside, and the chaff may be separated from the wheat.

"And it shall be, when you say, 'For what reason has the Lord our God done to us all these evils?' — and you shall say to them, 'Because you forsook me and served other gods in your land, so shall you serve in a land not your own.'" Let the letter be understood, and it suffices for the present to set forth the reminder from the letter for those able to hear. So then, the sons of Israel had the holy land, the temple, the house of prayer. They ought to have served God. But transgressing the divine commandments, they both practiced idolatry and took up the idols of Damascus, as it is written in the books of Kingdoms, and they took up other idols of the nations into the holy land. Through the idols of the nations which they took up, they made themselves worthy to be cast down into the land of the idols, to end up there where they worshiped the idols. So the word says to them according to the letter: "Because you forsook me and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve foreign gods in a land not your own." Everyone who deifies anything serves foreign gods. Do you make a god of foods and drinks? Your god is "the belly." Do you honor silver as a great good, and the wealth here below? Your god and lord is mammon. For Jesus called it lord of the lovers of money, saying: "You cannot serve God and mammon; no one can serve two lords." Therefore the one who honors silver and admires wealth and considers it to be a good, and welcomes the rich as gods, while despising the poor as not having their God — this one deifies silver. If anyone, being in the land of God, the Church, worships foreign gods, deifying the things not worthy to be deified, he will be cast out into a foreign land, and let him worship the gods whom he worshiped within. Let the lover of money be outside, cast out from the Church; let the glutton be outside, having been put out of the Church. These things according to one figurative interpretation, so that I may not now busy myself with what is beyond me — concerning the land, about which the Savior said, "Who will give you what is our own?" — and that, when worship has taken place in someone's land, God so arranged that some should be cast out from his own land and come to the land about which it is written: "Hear, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies? You were reckoned together with those going down into Hades. You forsook the fountain of life, the Lord. If you had walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in peace for time everlasting."

Now, then, we are in a foreign land, and we pray to do the opposite of what the sons of Israel did in the holy land. For they worshiped foreign gods in the holy land; but we, in a foreign land, worship the God who is foreign to the land, foreign to the affairs upon the earth. For the ruler of this age rules here, and God is foreign to his sons. But when I say "foreign," I do not mean this — not that he did not create the world, but that he is foreign to the lord of wickedness, foreign to the present sins. And yet, even wishing to worship the God who is foreign to the affairs of sin in this land of affliction, let us see what we do. Do we not say, "How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?" But rather: How shall we sing the song of the Lord not in a foreign land? We seek a place for this, of singing the song of the Lord, a place for worshiping the Lord our God in a foreign land. What, then, is the place? I have found it: he came to this land bearing the body that saves, taking up "the body of sin" "in the likeness of the flesh of sin," so that in this place, because of Christ Jesus who has sojourned here and abolished the ruler of this age and abolished sin, I might be able to worship God here, and after this I shall worship in the holy land. For if one who worshiped the idols in the holy land departed into the foreign land, one who has worshiped God in the foreign land will depart to the holy land in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages. Amen.

Declare this to the house of Jacob and make it heard in Judah, saying: Hear, O foolish people, who have no heart, who having eyes do not see, and ears and do not hear! In many ways he draws sinners back to salvation, and he calls foolish the people that has abandoned the author of wisdom, and he compares them to the images of which it is written: They have eyes and do not see; they have ears and do not hear. Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them. Properly, however, he speaks to Judah and to the house of Jacob — for Israel had already for a long time been in exile among the Assyrians — and at the same time he gives us to understand that even without a precept we ought to understand by natural sense the things that are right.

That it is the height of folly not to fear, the Lord says in Jeremiah: "Hear, O foolish people, who have no heart: who having eyes, see not, and ears, and hear not. Will you then not fear me, and will you not be grieved at my presence? I who have set the sand as the boundary of the sea, an everlasting decree, which it shall not pass beyond." Do you not fear me?

Not understanding him who had been anointed and sent and who was the author of such wonderful works, they returned to their usual ways and talked about him in a foolish and vain way. For although they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded out of his mouth, yet their wish was to treat them as valueless. They said, "Is not this the son of Joseph?" But what does this diminish from the glory of the worker of the miracles? What prevents him from being both venerated and admired, even had he been, as was supposed, the son of Joseph? Didn't you see the miracles? Satan fallen, the herds of devils vanquished, multitudes set free from various kinds of maladies? You praise the grace that was present in his teaching. Then do you, in Jewish fashion, think lightly of him because he considered Joseph for his father? How ignorant can you be! It is true what they say about them: "Lo! A people foolish and without understanding, they have eyes and see not, ears, and hear not."

One who does not carefully weigh every word of the opinions uttered cannot rightly discover the value of the assertion. For someone like this, who only possesses skill in disputation and ornaments of speech, cannot penetrate to the very heart of Scripture and the mysteries of its spiritual meanings. True knowledge is acquired only by true worshipers of God. And certainly this people does not possess it to whom it is said, "Hear, O foolish people, you who have no heart, you who have eyes but do not see and who have ears but do not hear." And again, "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from acting as my priest." It is said that in Christ "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden." So how can we hold the opinion that someone has acquired spiritual knowledge when that person has not even wanted to find Christ, or, when he does find him, blasphemes him with impious lips or at least defiles the catholic faith by his impure actions? "The Spirit of God will avoid deception and does not live in a body that is subject to sin." There is then no way of arriving at spiritual knowledge but by this which one of the prophets has accurately described: "Sow to yourselves for righteousness. Reap the hope of life. Enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge."

Through all the story of waters be mindful of that first word, "Let the waters be gathered." It was necessary for them to flow that they might reach their own place. Then, being in the places appointed, they were to remain by themselves and not to advance further. For this reason, according to the saying of Ecclesiastes, "All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea does not overflow." It is through the divine command that waters flow, and it is due to that first legislation, "Let the waters be gathered into one place," that the sea is enclosed within boundaries. For fear that the flowing water, spreading beyond the beds that hold it, always passing on and filling up one place after another, should continuously flood all the lands, it was ordered to be gathered into one place. Therefore, the sea, frequently raging with the winds and rising up in waves to towering heights, whenever it merely touches the shores breaks its onrush into foam and retires. "Will you not then fear me, says the Lord? I have set the sand as a bound for the sea." With the weakest of all things, sand, the sea, irresistible in its violence, is bridled.

When I say "we," I do not refer to human power but to the grace of God, who in the weakness of people shows forth his own power. This the prophet, speaking in the person of the Lord, says, "Will not you, then, fear me? I have set the sand as the boundary for the sea." For by this weakest and most contemptible of all things, sand, the mighty One has bound the great and ponderous sea. Therefore, since our condition is somewhat similar, it would follow that some of the true brethren should be sent continuously from your charity to visit us in our afflictions and that affectionate letters should come more frequently to us, on the one hand to strengthen our zeal, and on the other to correct us if we fail in any respect. Indeed, we do not deny that we are subject to many faults, since we are people and are living in the flesh.

That it is the height of folly not to fear, the Lord says in Jeremiah: "Hear, O foolish people, who have no heart: who having eyes, see not, and ears, and hear not. Will you then not fear me, and will you not be grieved at my presence? I who have set the sand as the boundary of the sea, an everlasting decree, which it shall not pass beyond." Do you not fear me?

The vessel was severely tossed by the violence of the tempest and the breaking of the waves. And along with the ship, the faith of the disciples also was tossed, so to speak, by similar agitations. But Christ, whose authority extends over all, immediately arose. He at once appeased the storm, restrained the blasts of wind, quieted their fear and yet further proved by his actions that he is God at whom all created things tremble and quake and to whose nods is subject the very nature of the elements. He rebuked the tempest, and Matthew says that the manner of the rebuke was with God-like authority. He tells us that our Lord said to the sea: "Peace! Be still!" What can there be more grand than this in majesty? Or what can equal its sublimity? Appropriately worthy of God is the word and the might of the commandment, so that we too may utter the praise written in the book of Psalms: "You rule the power of the sea. You still the turbulence of its waves." He too has himself said somewhere by one of the holy prophets, "Why do you not fear me," says the Lord, "nor tremble at my presence? I who have set the sand as the bound of the sea, a commandment forever, and it has not passed it." For the sea is subject to the will of him who made all creation and is, as it were, placed under the Creator's feet, varying its motions at all times according to his good pleasure and yielding submission to his lordly will.

But there is another quarrel involved in which the young gentleman of culture comes into violent collision with the young lady of the cauliflowers. The first essential of the merely bookish view of the sea is that it is boundless, and gives a sentiment of infinity. Now it is quite certain, I think, that the cauliflower simile was partly created by exactly the opposite impression, the impression of boundary and of barrier. The girl thought of it as a field of vegetables, even as a yard of vegetables. The girl was right. The ocean only suggests infinity when you cannot see it; a sea mist may seem endless, but not a sea. So far from being vague and vanishing, the sea is the one hard straight line in Nature. It is the one plain limit; the only thing that God has made that really looks like a wall. Compared to the sea, not only sun and cloud are chaotic and doubtful, but solid mountains and standing forests may be said to melt and fade and flee in the presence of that lonely iron line. The old naval phrase, that the seas are England's bulwarks, is not a frigid and artificial metaphor; it came into the head of some genuine sea-dog, when he was genuinely looking at the sea. For the edge of the sea is like the edge of a sword; it is sharp, military, and decisive; it really looks like a bolt or bar, and not like a mere expansion. It hangs in heaven, grey, or green, or blue, changing in colour, but changeless in form, behind all the slippery contours of the land and all the savage softness of the forests, like the scales of God held even. It hangs, a perpetual reminder of that divine reason and justice which abides behind all compromises and all legitimate variety; the one straight line; the limit of the intellect; the dark and ultimate dogma of the world.

Will you not then fear me, says the Lord, and will you not grieve before my face — or fear — ? I who set the sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting precept, which it will not pass. And they will be moved and will not be able — or it will be troubled and will not be able — and its waves will swell — or will sound — and will not pass over it. But to this people there has come to be an unbelieving and provoking heart, and they have withdrawn and gone away, and they have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives us the early and the late rain in its season, keeping for us the fullness of the yearly harvest! He recounts his benefits in order to convict the ungrateful. 'Me,' he says, 'you will not fear, I who have bestowed such great things on you? I do not ask for the love of the perfect, but for the fear of beginners, I who set the sand as a boundary for the sea, I who by my precept have reined in at the shores so mighty an element and the immense masses of the deeps, according to that which is written: He set a precept, and it will not pass.

And again God demanded from the Jews the fear of Himself by the hand of Jeremiah, and reproached them by the testimony of the dumb things in nature, which, though silent, trembled at the fear of Him, while the Jews despised His commandments. "Fear ye not Me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at My presence? For I have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, [by] an everlasting law, and it shall not pass over it." And here again the Creator demanded fear and trembling from created things, and because they forsook His fear they were reproached through the dumb things of nature, which feared and trembled at the Majesty of the Creator, while His commandments were despised by the children of men. And God in all places shewed the majesty of His nature by the hand of the Prophet, that He might cast the fear thereof into those who listened. For to those who would have despised His meekness----if it had been shewn unto them----He revealed the majesty of His nature that they might tremble thereat; and to others He shewed His gentleness and meekness, which at the report of His humiliation would increase [their] love [for Him].

Things that have no sense of hearing hear me and perceive me; and the people once mine, made foolish by its own fault, not only despises but even provokes its sweet God. They have withdrawn,' he says, 'from me, and turned their backs on me, and gone away with hurried step, nor did a silent conscience draw them back, so that they should say in their hearts: Let us fear him who gives us the early and the late rain! — through all of which I have shown good things, the fullness of the yearly harvest', for which Aquila's first edition and Symmachus translated 'weeks'; for in the Hebrew is written 'sabaoth', which, owing to the ambiguity of the word, signifies both 'weeks' and 'fullness'.

Our iniquities have turned these things aside, and our sins have withheld good from us. Therefore, if at any time the sea both oversteps its boundaries and the rain is held back, by no means has the hand of the Lord been shortened, so as not to do these things; but our sins have turned aside these things as they were coming to us, so that they went on to others who had not sinned. 'And they have withheld,' he says, 'the good that was already coming to us, according to that which is written according to the letter: I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it'. But we can take the early and the late rain as the law and the Gospel, and as the various callings from the first hour to the eleventh, in which one reward of eternal life is promised to the laborers of the vineyard.

For among my people there have been found ungodly men lying in wait like fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men! As a trap full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. That the early and the late rain might turn aside from them and all good things might not come, the causes are added: because there have been found among his people 'ungodly men'. He did not say 'unjust' and 'sinners', as the new heresy would have it, but 'ungodly'. Ungodliness openly denies God; iniquity and sin, if it confesses its error, easily bends God to mercy. And for what we have said, lying in wait like fowlers, which is not found in the Seventy, Aquila and Symmachus translated the word 'iasir' as like the net of a fowler, because even he who among them seems good and upright lays snares like a fowler, while they hunt one another to death and fill their own houses with the losses and costs of others, so that that saying of the philosophers is fulfilled: Every rich man is either unjust or the heir of an unjust man. And would that these things were done only by those who seem to be outside, and whom the Lord judges, and were not fulfilled in our own little assemblies by those whom avarice, the root of all evils, possesses, so that we look not at the faces of those who come to us, but at their hands!

Therefore they have been magnified and enriched. They have grown fat and sleek, and they have passed over my words most wickedly. They have not judged the cause, the cause — or judgment — of the orphan they have not directed, and the judgment of the poor — or of the widow — they have not judged. Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord, or shall my soul not take vengeance on a nation such as this? If I should wish to note one by one the things that have been left out in the edition of the Seventy, it will become long. 'Those who lay snares,' he says, 'and rejoice in the nakedness of others, therefore they have been magnified and enriched.' Because they did the things above, they have grown fat and sleek, according to that which is written: He grew fat and sleek, and the beloved kicked. And they have passed over my words, because in the consciousness of their riches they said that saying from the Gospel: Soul, you have many goods laid up for very many years; rest, eat, drink, feast! Moreover, they passed over to their own harm, and, despising all men, they did not set the judgment of God before their eyes. They despised the orphan and the poor, for which the Seventy said 'widows', which is not found in the Hebrew; for 'hebionim' properly denotes 'poor', not 'widows'. But what follows, Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord, or shall my soul not take vengeance on a nation such as this?, has already been discussed above.

Astonishment and wonders have come to pass in the land: the prophets prophesied a lie — or wicked things — and the priests clapped with their hands, and my people loved such things! What then will you do at the last — or after these things — ? Above he had said: I will go to the chief men and will speak to them; perhaps they have known the way of the Lord. And behold, these rather have together broken the yoke, they have burst the bonds; now he describes who the chief men are, namely the prophets and the priests, some of whom foretell things to come, while others determine from the law the things to be done. 'And behold,' he says, 'while those men prophesied a lie, the priests clapped with their hands.' And so that it may be shown that the people too is not without fault, which lets itself be led away by such men, it is written: and my people loved such things: once mine, but after it loved them, it ceased to be mine. What then will they do when the last time of judgment has come, or the necessity of captivity? Hence there are astonishment and wonders, because neither among the princes nor among the people was anyone found who thought rightly.