Jeremias 2:27

In the Wisdom of Solomon: “All the idols of the nations they counted gods, which neither have the use of their eyes for seeing, nor their nostrils to receive breath, nor their ears for hearing, nor the fingers on their hands for handling; but their feet also are slow to walk. For man made them; and he who has borrowed his breath, he fashioned them. But no man will be able to fashion a god like to himself. For since he is mortal, he fashioneth a dead thing with wicked hands. …

6. But while, in that sixteenth year of my age, I resided with my parents, having holiday from school for a time (this idleness being imposed upon me by my parents’ necessitous circumstances), the thorns of lust grew rank over my head, and there was no hand to pluck them out. Moreover when my father, seeing me at the baths, perceived that I was becoming a man, and was stirred with a restless youthfulness, he, as if from this anticipating future descendants, joyfully told it to my mother; rejoicing in that intoxication wherein the world so often forgets Thee, its Creator, and falls in love with Thy creature instead of Thee, from the invisible wine of its own perversity turning and bowing down to the most infamous things. …

19. Come ye, hear, and I will tell, all ye that fear God” ( ver. 16 ). Let us come, let us hear, what he is going to tell, “Come ye, hear, and I will tell.” But to whom, “Come ye, and hear”? “All ye that fear God.” If God ye fear not, I will not tell. It is not possible that it be told to any where the fear of God is not. Let the fear of God open the ears, that there may be something to enter in, and a way whereby may enter in that which I am going to tell. But what is he going to tell? “How great things He hath done to my soul.” Behold, he would tell: but what is he going to tell? Is it perchance how widely the earth is spread, how much the sky is extended, and how many are the stars, and what are the changes of sun and of moon? This creation fulfilleth its course: but they have very curiously sought it out, the Creator thereof have not known. …

7. But I would not that ye should seek without yourselves, how the Jordan was turned back, I would not ye should augur anything evil. For the Lord chideth those who have “turned” their “back” unto Him, “and not their face.” And whoever forsaketh the source of his being, and turneth away from his Creator; as a river into the sea, he glides into the bitter wickedness of this world. It is therefore good for him that he turn back, and that God whom he had set behind his back, may be before his face as he returneth; and that the sea of this world, which he had set before his face, when he was gliding on towards it, may become behind him; and that he may so forget what is behind him, that he may “reach forward to what is before him;” which is profitable for him when once converted.…

4. “Their idols,” he saith, “are silver and gold, even the work of men’s hands” ( ver. 4 ). That is, although we cannot display our God to your carnal eyes, whom ye ought to recognise through his works; yet be not seduced by your vain pretences, because ye can point with the finger to, the objects of your worship. For it were much worthier for you not to have what to point to, than that your hearts’ blindness should be displayed in what is exhibited to these eyes by you: for what do ye exhibit, save gold and silver? They have indeed both bronze, and wood, and earthenware idols, and of different materials of this description; but the Holy Spirit preferred mentioning the more precious material, because when every man hath blushed for that which he sets more by, he is much more easily turned away from the worship of meaner objects. …

The Saviour also wept over the city of Jerusalem because its inhabitants had not repented; and Peter washed out his triple denial with bitter tears, thus fulfilling the words of the prophet: “rivers of waters run down mine eyes.” Jeremiah too laments over his impenitent people, saying: “Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for…my people!” And farther on he gives a reason for his lamentation: “weep ye not for the dead,” he writes, “neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more.” The Jew and the Gentile therefore are not to be bemoaned, for they have never been in the Church and have died once for all (it is of these that the Saviour says: “let the dead bury their dead”); weep rather for those who by reason of their crimes and sins go away from the Church, and who suffering condemnation for t …

12. Having reached this point of my discourse, and being reminded of the passages just before mentioned, in which God was addressed as the Father of men, I am greatly amazed at men’s insensibility. For God with unspeakable loving-kindness deigned to be called the Father of men, He in heaven, they on earth, and He the Maker of Eternity, they made in time, He who holdeth the earth in the hollow of His hand , they upon the earth as grasshoppers. Yet man forsook his heavenly Father, and said to the stock, Thou art my father, and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me . And for this reason, methinks, the Psalmist says to mankind, Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house , whom thou hast chosen for a father, whom thou hast drawn upon thyself to thy destruction.

117. Prudence held the first place in holy Abraham. For of him the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and that was counted to him for righteousness;” for no one is prudent who knows not God. Again: “The fool hath said, There is no God;” for a wise man would not say so. How is he wise who looks not for his Maker, but says to a stone: “Thou art my father”? Who says to the devil as the Manichæan does: “Thou art the author of my being”? How is Arius wise, who prefers an imperfect and inferior creator to one who is a true and perfect one? How can Marcion or Eunomius be wise, who prefer to have an evil rather than a good God? And how can he be wise who does not fear his God? For: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Elsewhere, too, it stands: “The wise turn not aside from the mouth of the Lord, but come near Him in their confession of His greatness.” So when the Scripture say …