Jeremias 17
Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Jeremias 17:5
Take care not to let trust in your own strength steal on you, for you are human, and "cursed is everyone who puts his hope in humankind." But put your trust fully and with your whole heart in God, and he will be your strength. Trust him lovingly and gratefully and say to him humbly and faithfully, "Trust in the Lord with your whole heart; he will be your strength." — LETTER 218
Jeremias 17:5
"What is your own opinion? What people do you call happy?" He [the psalmist] would not say, "Happy is the people whose strength is in their own mind." If he had said this, he would, it is true, distinguish that people from the former that made happiness consist in that visible and bodily good fortune, but he would not yet have passed beyond all the vanities and lying follies, for the same Scriptures teach elsewhere: "Cursed be everyone that places his hope in humankind." Therefore, he ought not to place it in himself, because he himself is human. Thus, in order to pass beyond the boundaries of all vanities and lying follies and to place happiness where it truly exists, he says, "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord." — LETTER 155
Jeremias 17:5
The Stoics, when questioned about where they place the efficient cause of the happy life that is the thing in people that makes life happy, answer that it is not bodily pleasure but a virtuous mind. What says the apostle? Does he agree? If he agrees, let us agree, too. But he does not agree, because Scripture reproves those who trust in their own virtue. And so the Epicurean who places a person's supreme good in the body is placing his hopes in himself. But after all, the Stoic who places a person's supreme good in the mind has indeed placed it in a person's better part. But even he has placed it in himself. Now the Stoic is a human just as much as the Epicurean. Cursed therefore is everyone who places his hope in humankind. So what now? Here we have three people set before our eyes: an Epicurean, a Stoic, a Christian. Let us question them one by one. "Tell us, Epicurean, what thing makes one blessed?" "Bodily pleasure," he replies. "Tell us, Stoic." "A virtuous mind." "Tell us, Christian." "The gift of God." — SERMON 150:8
Jeremias 17:5
But of these matters, all of which are true objects of faith, those only pertain to hope that are embraced in the Lord's Prayer. For "cursed is the one that trusts in humankind" is the testimony of Holy Scripture. Consequently, this curse attaches also to the person who trusts in himself. Therefore, we ought to ask for nothing that we either hope to do well or hope to obtain as a reward for our good works except from God the Lord. — Enchiridion 114
Jeremias 17:5
Out of that confession of faith that is briefly contained in the creed and that, pondered according to the flesh, is the milk of babes but spiritually considered and studied is the food of the strong, arises the good hope of believers, which holy charity accompanies. But of all those things that are to be believed by faith, only those pertain to hope that are contained in the Lord's Prayer. For "cursed is everyone who puts hope in humankind," as the divine Scriptures testify; and, consequently, one who puts hope in himself is also ensnared in the chain of this curse. Therefore, we ought to make petition only of the Lord God, whatever it is that we hope to do well or to obtain as a reward for good works. — Enchiridion 30:114
Jeremias 17:5
But it is said, "It is by his own fault that any one deserts the faith, when he yields and consents to the temptation which is the cause of his desertion of the faith." Who denies it? But because of this, perseverance in the faith is not to be said not to be a gift of God. For it is this that a man daily asks for when he says, "Lead us not into temptation;" and if he is heard, it is this that he receives. And thus as he daily asks for perseverance, he assuredly places the hope of his perseverance not in himself, but in God. I, however, am loth to exaggerate the case with my words, but I rather leave it to them to consider, and see what it is of which they have persuaded themselves—to wit, "that by the preaching of predestination, more of despair than of exhortation is impressed upon the hearers." For this is to say that a man then despairs of his salvation when he has learned to place his hope not in himself, but in God, although the prophet cries, "Cursed is he who has his hope in man." — PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 2:46
Jeremias 17:5
We must find out from what source true perseverance, worthy of the name, is to be had. There are those who attribute it to the powers of human will, not those that people have from divine assistance, but from their own free will. But that is an arrogant error. It is the error of the rich about whom the psalm speaks: "a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud." Glorying in their own false endurance, they wish "to confound the counsel of the poor person, but the Lord is his hope." Since they are people and attribute so much to themselves, that is, to their human will, they do not tend to apply to themselves the words of Scripture: "Cursed is everyone who trusts in humankind." — On Patience 15:12
Jeremias 17:5
This is the combat we are challenged to, this the struggle with the flesh, this the struggle with the devil, this the struggle with the world. But let us be wary of confidence, because the one who instituted this contest does not watch his own champions, nor does he encourage us to rely on our own strength. Anyone relying on his own strength, you see, is relying, being clearly human, on the strength of a person; and accursed is everyone who rests his hope in humankind. — SERMON 344:1
Jeremias 17:5
We have recognized ourselves, seen ourselves and taken a thorough look at ourselves. Let us groan and sigh in ourselves, pour out prayers, that we enter not into temptations. We must not rely on our own powers to overcome all these things. Blessed, after all, is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob, his hope in the Lord his God, not in himself, because he is a mere mortal. But cursed is everyone who places his hope in humankind. — SERMON 335B.5
Jeremias 17:5
In order that we fall not away from the virtue of the soul, we ought to watch especially against those snares of the suggestions of the devil that we presume not of our own strength. For "cursed is everyone who places his hope in humankind." And who is he, but mortal? We cannot therefore truly say that the person who places his hope in humankind places it in himself. For this also is to "live after humankind," what is it but to "live after the flesh"? Whoever therefore is tempted by such a suggestion, let him hear, and if he has any Christian feeling, let him tremble. Let him hear, I say, "If you live after the flesh, you shall die." — On Continence 10
Jeremias 17:5
People who despise being in need before God, lest they receive true perseverance from him, glory in their own false endurance and seek to "confound the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his hope." Nor do they regard, seeing they are human and attribute so much to their own, that is, to the human will, that they run into that which is written, "Cursed is everyone who puts his hope in humankind." — On Patience 12
Jeremias 17:5
Blessed are all who trust in God. If the blessed are those who trust in him, then the wretched are those who trust in themselves. Cursed, you see, is everyone who puts his hopes in humankind, so do not put them even in yourself, because you too are human. If you put your hopes in another person, that is the wrong kind of humility. But if you put your hopes in yourself, that is dangerous pride. What is the difference, anyway? Each is pernicious, neither is to be chosen. Humble in the wrong way, you cannot lift yourself up; dangerously proud, you are heading for a fall. — SERMON 13:2
Jeremias 17:7
"They shall not be ashamed in the evil time." In the day of trouble, in the day of distress, they shall not be "ashamed," as he is ashamed whose hope deceives him. Who is the man that is "ashamed"? He who saith, "I have not found that which I was in hopes of." Nor undeservedly either; for thou didst hope it from thyself or from man, thy friend. But "cursed is he that putteth his trust in man." Thou art ashamed, because thy hope hath deceived thee; thy hope that was set on a lie. For "every man is a liar." But if thou dost place thy hopes on thy God, thou art not made "ashamed." For He in whom thou hast put thy trust, cannot be deceived. Whence also the man whom we mentioned just above, the now "strengthened" righteous man, when fallen on an evil time, on the day of tribulation, what saith he to show that he was not "ashamed"? "We glory in tribulation; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; but hope maketh not ashamed." Whence is it that hope "maketh not ashamed"? Because it is placed on God. Therefore follows immediately, "Because the love of God is spread in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us." The Holy Spirit hath been given to us already: how should He deceive us, of whom we possess such an "earnest" already? — Expositions of the Psalms, Psalm 37
Jeremias 17:7
Nay, I say that either before the law, or in the time of the Old Testament, they were freed from sins,-not by their own power, because "cursed is every one that hath put his hope in man," and without any doubt those are under this curse whom also the sacred Psalm notifies, "who trust in their own strength;" nor by the old covenant which gendereth to bondage, although it was divinely given by the grace of a sure dispensation; nor by that law itself, holy and just and good as it was, where it is written, "Thou shalt not covet," since it was not given as being able to give life, but it was added for the sake of transgression until the seed should come to whom the promise was made; but I say that they were freed by the blood of the Redeemer Himself, who is the one Mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus. But those enemies of the grace of God, which is given to small and great through Jesus Christ our Lord, say that the men of God of old were of a perfect righteousness, lest they should be supposed to have needed the incarnation, the passion, and resurrection of Christ, by belief in whom they were saved. — A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, Book 1
Jeremias 17:9
The inquirer, then, might say that the prophet says only that Christ is God, without any reference to his human nature. Yet, in our apostolic doctrine, Christ is not only God in whom we may safely trust but also the mediator between God and humankind—the man Jesus. The prophet explains this in the words in which he seems to check himself, and to supply the omission: "The heart," he says "is inscrutable above all things, and he is man, and who shall know him?" He is man in order that, in the form of a servant, he might heal the hard in heart and that they might acknowledge as God him who became man for their sakes, that their trust might be not in humankind, but in God—man. — REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 13:8
Jeremias 17:9
His manhood was much more plainly and readily recognized by strangers, who, indeed, were not wrong in believing him to be man, but they did not understand his being God as well as man. Hence Jeremiah says, "He is man, and who shall know him?" He is a man, for it is made manifest that he is a brother. And who shall know him? For it is concealed that he is a husband [to the church]. This must suffice as a defense of our father Abraham against Faustus's imprudence and ignorance and malice. — REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 22:40
Jeremias 17:10
"And Thou shalt direct the righteous, O God, who searcheth the hearts and reins." How then can the righteous be directed but in secret? ...How then is the righteous man directed in so great confusion of pretence, save whilst God searcheth the hearts and reins; seeing all men's thoughts, which are meant by the word heart; and their delights, which are understood by the word reins? ...God then, searching our heart, and perceiving that it is there where our treasure is, that is, in heaven; searching also the reins, and perceiving that we do not assent to flesh and blood, but delight ourselves in the Lord, directs the righteous man in his inward conscience before Him, where no man seeth, but He alone who perceiveth what each man thinketh, and what delighteth each. For delight is the end of care; because to this end does each man strive by care and thought, that he may attain to his delight. He therefore seeth our cares, who searcheth the heart. He seeth too the ends of cares, that is delights, who narrowly searcheth the reins; that when He shall find that our cares incline neither to the lust of the flesh, nor to the lust of the eyes, nor to the pride of life, all which pass away as a shadow, but that they are raised upward to the joys of things eternal, which are spoilt by no change, He may direct the righteous, even He, the God who searcheth the hearts and reins. For our works, which we do in deeds and words, may be known unto men; but with what mind they are done, and to what end we would attain by means of them, He alone knoweth, the God who searcheth the hearts and reins. — Expositions of the Psalms 7.9
Jeremias 17:12
As if anticipating that the inquirer would ask next by what plain mark a young disciple, not yet able to distinguish the truth among so many errors, might find the true church of Christ, since the clear fulfillment of so many predictions compelled him to believe in Christ, the prophet answers this question in what follows and teaches that the church of Christ, which he describes prophetically, is conspicuously visible. His words are, "A glorious high throne is our sanctuary." This glorious throne is the church, of which the apostle says, "The temple of God is holy, which temple you are." — REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 13:13
Jeremias 17:14
So, the reason that we, being bad, have a good Father is in order that we may not always remain bad. No bad person can make a good one. If no bad person can make a good one, how can a bad person make himself good? The only one who can make a good person out of a bad one is the one who is always good. "Heal me, Lord," he says, "and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved." — SERMON 61:2
Jeremias 17:14
No evil person does good. And if no evil person does good, how could an evil person make himself good? He who is eternally good can make an evil person good. "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved." — SERMON 61:2
Jeremias 17:16
The Lord has indeed made every day—not only has made but also continues to make. I mean, he makes every day as follows: he makes his sun rise on the good and the bad and sends rain on the just and the unjust. So we are not to imagine that this ordinary kind of day, which is common to good and bad alike, is meant in this place, where we heard, "This is the day that the Lord has made." What particular sort of day can it be when it says, "Let us exult and be joyful in it"? What sort, but a good one? What sort, but a very choice, lovable, desirable one, the sort about which Jeremiah said, "And I have not yearned for the day of men, you know it well"? — SERMON 229B.2