The exegetes make a strange effort in explaining this chapter, one twisting it here, the other there. Lyra interprets it from the persecution of the first church, and goes over to the Antichrist, that he will sit in the temple at Jerusalem, and I do not know what other trivial things he tells. I do not blame those, but rather want to follow them, who interpret it from the next time after Christ, which fruit was finally brought by the word of the apostles, who were first sent to the Jewish land, and then to all peoples in the whole world.
V. 1. This is the burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel.
We are forced to take "Israel" here as a transferred name for the church of Christ, since the gospel first began in this people, and the apostle Paul also expressly distinguishes the right Israel from the carnal: they are not all Israelites who are of Israel [Rom. 9, 6.], but they are of the believing seed [Gal. 3, 7.]. Israel according to the flesh has never been restored, nor shall it be restored. Therefore, since he speaks of a certain burden that is to come upon Israel, we must understand it of the believing Israel, since when this was prophesied by Zechariah, the kingdom of Israel was already scattered and desolate.
was. But he says it will be such a burden that Israel will suffer persecutions from the neighboring nations and all the wicked, who will exercise their tyranny against the believers who accept and believe the gospel. Then there will not only be outward violence, but also danger from false brethren who challenge the truth with cunning and deceit. This battle against the church of Christ goes on and on, so that some attack the believers by force, others by deceit and intend to 1) destroy them. All this will he hereafter abundantly expound.
Says the Lord, who stretched out the heavens, and founded the earth, and made the breath of man in him.
With necessity the prophet sends this title before, because in it lies the summa of comfort against this extremely heavy burden of the enemies of the gospel, as if he wanted to say: The evil, the cross and the tyranny of the adversaries, will indeed come, likewise the deceit of the false teachers, but all this shall not concern you. The Lord is on your side, it is he who founds heaven and earth, it is he who forms the breath of man, so that he can think of nothing without his will. But the word spiritus indicates the heart, the movement or disposition of the mind. This, says the Lord, is like clay; as the clay is in the hand of the potter, so are the counsels, the reasons of the counsels, in short, all the thoughts of man in the will of the Lord; he is the molder, who changes our counsels, directs and guides them according to his will, wherever he wills, like a potter. For here is the same word which we translated by "potter" in the previous chapter [v. 13]. Thus the prophet does not speak of the creating of minds, but how the dear God directs and drives the already created hearts and counsels as he wills and where he wills, so that without the will of the Lord we cannot even think anything, let alone carry out what we have thought etc. And this, I have said, is an exceedingly rich consolation for the godly, when in the cross.
1) Instead of eoKLntur we have assumed eoZitent.
When they are imprisoned, when they suffer persecution, when they are sentenced to death, that they do not fear the violence and tyranny of the enemies of the gospel, however much they do evil against them and threaten them with destruction; then, however much the false teachers attack them and oppose the teaching of the faith: When they suffer all these things, I say, let them not despair; let them know that the tyrants will not counsel anything but what the Lord wills, who is the maker of their breath. And so we are quite sure that it is not in the power of our enemies to harm a single hair of our head if the Lord does not allow it, no matter how much they rage against us and how many ways they use to bring us to death. etc.
V, 2. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of stupor to all the nations that are round about.
Most of the translations in our [Latin] Bibles are extraordinarily inconsistent. Jerome followed the Septuagint here and translated it by superliminare, but I do not like this. Now first of all let us get rid of that which concerns grammar, for this passage is very obscure. I translate and connect this passage like this: I will make Jerusalem a cup of stupor to all the nations round about, which are also against Judah in the siege against Jerusalem; that is, in that they besiege Jerusalem, they will also besiege Judah. But that I translate "a cup" or a bowl, and not "lintel," is proved by Exodus 12:22, although Jerome also translated the same word here by limen, but badly. For it must be read like this: "And put a tuft of hyssop in the blood that is in the basin, and sprinkle it on the threshold" etc. Next, what we have translated by commotio [staggering] is a very significant word, which actually means: to stagger, to stagger, as the drunkards are wont to do when neither the foot nor the mind do their duty properly. Habakkuk 2:5: "But wine deceiveth the proud man, that he cannot abide. "etc. [V. 16:] "Now therefore drink thou also, that thou mayest stagger," that is, stagger.
like a drunkard. So it is also said in Is. 51, 1) 17: "The yeasts of the cup of staggering thou hast drunk out, where the same word is, but [instead of soporis, of deep sleep] it is more correct to read: commotionis [of staggering]. Thus it is said in the Psalm [Ps. 60, 5.]:2) "Thou hast given us a drink of wine, that we staggered. "etc. Therefore, the opinion is as if he wanted to say: all nations, especially the godless Jews, who are around the believers, will stagger like the drunkards. They will indeed devour Jerusalem, but to their great misfortune, because by devouring it will happen that they stagger, "it will not get them the food". They will attack Jerusalem and Judah, which they think will swallow them whole, but by swallowing them up and overthrowing them, they will rather be swallowed up and overthrown themselves. So this again is an exceedingly rich consolation for the godly hearts that are oppressed under the cross, that they know that they will be victorious among the evils. For even though Christians are killed, they still rule over those who kill them, and through the cross they rule against persecution, through death they gain life etc.
Now let us deal with the movement of the heart. This victory can happen in two ways, either in kindness or in severity, that is, some of the enemies are devoured in wrath, some in mercy; namely, by the Church obtaining through prayer that many of the enemies and persecutors of the faith are converted to the faith, but others are devoured and perish by the terrible judgment of God. This is what happened to the Romans, many of whom, awakened by the blood of the martyrs, were converted to the faith and thus preserved, although they had previously persecuted the Christians most bitterly. But those who continued in their godlessness and did not cease to devour the Christians finally suffered great punishments for devouring them, and that for the sake of Jerusalem, that is, for the sake of the Christians, whose blood is esteemed in the sight of the Lord,
1) In our template: Lsa. 29.
2) In Weimar's margin: Ps. 59, 5.
so that it would have been better if they had not even touched the Christians. The same happened to the Jews, and it will also happen to our popes and princes, who do not cease to gnash and rage against the gospel of the great God, setting fire to their own house. And they have no hope that the Lord will not avenge their wickedness, who sees the cry of his servants and the cry of innocent blood, as he says in the first book of Moses [Cap. 2, 10]: "The blood of Abel cries out to me" etc. Next, that he says:
For it will also apply to Judah when Jerusalem is besieged.
This shows the extremely bitter hatred and tyranny of the enemies of the gospel, that they are not satisfied with having subjugated the Christians, as it is customary according to the law of war, but want to see them completely and utterly destroyed from the bottom up, so that not even the name remains. So from the bottom up they want the church of Christ to be destroyed, but Christ said [Matth. 16, 18.]: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
V. 3. Yet at that time I will make Jerusalem a burden stone to all the nations.
Another simile. "Burden" actually means "a load that one loads on himself," 3) as it is written in the first book of Moses, where Joseph commands that the sacks be filled and loaded on the donkeys etc. [Gen. 42, 25. f.] For with this the German idiom is true: "Thou shalt load it upon thee." Hence the opinion is, The enemies of the godly load themselves with a great burden: they wish to lift this stone on high and hurl it away, that it may be utterly shattered; they wish to have it thrust away from the earth; but while they think nothing of the kind, it falls upon their heads, and turns them, as it were, to dust. And so they themselves are shattered, and the Lord receives his own, whom he does not esteem less than his own apple. This again can happen in two ways: the one to salvation, the other to condemnation, as I mentioned above.
3) In the original: eyn load das eyner auff ßich leth.
that some will be converted and brought to judgment, while others will be condemned more severely.
For all the nations of the earth will gather against them.
As if he wanted to say: There are great and very strong enemies, who all set themselves against Jerusalem, stretch out all their sinews to tear it apart, so that they destroy it completely, but they may rage as they please, "they will not succeed in their intentions, for I will turn their evil deeds on their own heads. etc.
In that day, saith the Lord, I will make all horses afraid, and their riders afraid.
This is a declaration about the party that is angry, that is, he describes the punishment of the adversaries who cannot be moved or converted, that they should stop setting themselves against God in vain. Their horses are made timid, they themselves are smitten with anguish. And this is an interpretation of the staggering of which he said shortly before [v. 2.), namely, in that^ the HErr makes the hearts of the enemies despondent, so that they cannot help distrusting their cause, as he says in Habakkuk [Cap. 2, 16.) to the king of Babylon: "So now you also drink that you stagger," that is, just as you have raged, disturbed many kingdoms, destroyed many nations, so now the same will happen to you, you will again become a prey to the enemies etc.
But over Jerusalem I will have my eyes open.
Namely, everything happens in such a way, - contrary to what the wicked hope: while they think that they alone rule, and safely exercise their tyranny against the godly, they perish, as the Psalm says [Ps. 37, 35. f.]: "I have seen a wicked man, who was defiant, and spread himself out like a laurel tree. As one passed by, behold, he was gone." But the godly are exalted, and God takes care of them. While the world thought that it was over for them, the Lord looks at them with mercy and a favorable attitude, does not leave a hair on their heads.
He is very close to them in the midst of death, in the midst of misfortune. Namely, he gives the spirit of the wicked a form (est plastes spiritus) in such a way that they cannot harm the godly, however much they may attack them, however much they may plot against them and threaten them with evil etc.
V. 5. and the princes of Judah will say in their hearts.
That is, even though Judah will be so oppressed, even though it will feel the violence of the tyrants, there will still be comfort left in the hearts of the rulers, who will uphold the weary and fainthearted, so that they will not fall into miseries, that is, the ministers of the Word will anxiously care for the brethren, they will strengthen and fortify them by the Word, so that they will stand firm. They will be made confident, not in their strength, not by horses and weapons, as their adversaries, but in the Lord of hosts, their God. Thus the cross, the blood, the tyrants, the violence, the prison, the calamity, the death, 1) the persecution, - all these are seen before the hands and are before the eyes: and yet we triumph through a wonderful victory, which is not seen, which is not before the eyes (yes, the opposite is before the eyes), in all these things, and come forth as conquerors, namely through him who turns his face toward us, in whom is the embodiment of victory.
V. 6. I will make the princes of Judah a fiery furnace in the wood.
What our (Latin) interpreter translated by caminus is according to the Hebrew a hand barrel. But he (the prophet) takes it for a fiery mass, as red-hot iron is. For he alludes to the brazen hand-barrel for washing [Ex. 30:18.], which shines like filers. Now he describes the victory of the godly with other parables, as if he wanted to say: So much is lacking that the ones of mine should perish, that they should be oppressed or devoured, that they themselves should be the ones
1) The seven necessary commas preceding in this sentence are all missing in the Weimar one.
They will devour those who threatened them with death and all kinds of evil. For so shall the princes of Judah be against the enemies, as a fiery mass brought in wood, and as a torch in straw, where nothing can enter but conflagration and burning. Namely, they will prevail against all the tyranny of the world, as fire prevails over wood, a burning torch over straw. Again, we are presented with an exceedingly rich consolation, in which we see that the dear God compares all enemies altogether and all the power of the world to wood and straw, but we, who are weak before the world, who are thrown into prison, who are also killed, we, I say, he says, are torches by which this straw and dry wood is burned. This is what we are commanded to do, to fill our hearts with such rich consolations, so that we may use them when the need arises. For faith alone can grasp this; to the flesh it seems impossible, because in everything the opposite is before our eyes. So much is lacking that it could believe etc.
And Jerusalem shall also remain in her place at Jerusalem.
This also serves as a consolation, as if he wanted to say: Although the tyrants want the church to be completely destroyed, it will still exist, although not only the world, but also the gates of hell say no to it; rather, the church will remain unharmed, but they will perish. For the passage must not be understood of the bodily Jerusalem, as the words seem to read, for in the Hebrew this is expressly added: sub ea, that is, wherever it is, there it will be preserved, will not perish.
V. 7. and the Lord will save the tabernacles of Judah etc.
This is what I said above, that the church is constantly attacked, partly by force, partly by the deceitfulness of false prophets. Here we have nothing better to hope for, for we also experience both of these things today, which can serve as proof that we have received the Word of God rightly and truly from God. For it is not lacking
of such people who do violence against us, who would prefer that we all perish in a moment, then there is also no lack of false brothers and false prophets, yes, we have an abundance of them. But against all this the Lord saves the tabernacles of Judah, that is, he protects and preserves the church by the same Spirit by which he has always preserved it. "The house of David" was the royal house, therefore by the appellation "the house of David" the royal lineage is expressed. "The citizens" ninth the inhabitants of the fleshly Jerusalem. From all these he takes away the glory, so that neither the royal tribe nor other citizens may boast of any thing according to the flesh. For this alone do the false prophets chiefly, that they seek their glory. For honor, as St. Augustine says, is the mother of all heresy. And yet they do not want to be regarded as anything less by always having only this one thing in mind, that they do everything for the glory of God. It is therefore the summa of this passage: I will humble them through the cross and through tyrants, so that they, taught by experience, may know that it is with me alone that they are saved, and thus boast of me alone, not of their wisdom, not of their strength, not of their power, but "he who boasts," says Paul, "let him boast of the Lord" [1 Cor. 1:31]. Otherwise, the house of David will soon confront Judah, one will despise the other in comparison to himself, and the false teachers will want to be considered the best. For this evil there is no other, more effective remedy than that one comes to the knowledge of God; and this happens through the teaching of the cross, when they are pressed by adversity, that they are forced to despair of their strength and efforts, but assign the honor to God alone. Otherwise they cannot but boast of the flesh of their hearers, as the apostle Paul says, who everywhere deals with depriving the false teachers of their honor, and does not give them a nail's breadth. Many passages in Paul's letters are well known [2 Cor. 11, 22]: "They are Abraham's seed, so am I; they are Israelites, so am I; they are servants of Christ, so am I" etc.
V. 8: At that time the Lord will protect the people of Jerusalem.
The prophet goes on to describe the figurative or rather spiritual Jerusalem. "At that time", namely of the New Testament, when the kingdom of grace will be, the Lord will protect. The prophet speaks in the manner of a had, as if he wanted to say: Until now he has also protected Jerusalem, but hardly in a small measure. But when the gospel reigns, when grace is revealed through Christ, it will be a perpetual and constant protection, but in the way it exists in the spirit. For to the flesh it does not seem to be a protection, but a persecution, since the enemies attack and persecute the believers and treat them in the most shameful way, as is abundantly described above. Therefore, this protection is spiritual, which is grasped in faith, which believes the victory in death, righteousness in sin, deliverance in captivity, in short, in the cross the Lord etc.
And it shall come to pass, that he that shall be weak among them in that day shall be as David.
I think that the simplest view of this passage is that in the kingdom of Christ the merit of the believers is no longer considered, but only the mercy, grace and goodness of God; therefore, the kingdom of Christ is also called a kingdom of grace. In short, this is his opinion: that everything serves the believers for the best, because they are children of grace; everything is credited to them, "they cannot spoil it". Even if they have been foolish and infirm at times, the divine goodness closes their eyes; nothing is imputed to them. For all the sins of believers, though mortal sins, are nevertheless venial sins. But those who are out of grace are still not approved, however much they labor with many, very great, and very good works. They are no less displeasing to God than Saul was; because he fell from grace, nothing in him pleased God. On the other hand, he gave David credit for the greatest shameful deeds: the adultery, the murder, that he had given the Gentiles cause to blaspheme the Lord etc., as
is written in the sacred histories. All these sins, I say, although they were mortal sins, nevertheless became venial sins, "because he was one of the dear children, who 1 [it] cannot spoil". And so, says the prophet here, will be done with all the godly. David is the figure and image of all believers, so that, just as even the greatest sins are forgiven David, so all things are forgiven Christ's believers, if only they do not fall from the faith. Therefore, the kingdom of Christ is well described here, namely that it is nothing other than a kingdom of forgiveness, of granting and forgiving of sins. But it costs work, it costs effort, that we remain in this kingdom, that we do not fall out of it. For it is to be feared that a vain delusion will deceive us, which deceives many, thinking that they are in the kingdom of Christ, while they are not. These top sentences are quite certain: Every child of the church is a child of forgiveness and grace; likewise: No child can sin unto death (mortaliter). But if you make the subordinate clause: I am a child of grace, you are, he is, then you will indeed be able to deceive yourself very easily. Hence it is that unclean swine break into the sanctuary and defile everything, and become a cause for others to blaspheme against the grace of Christ. But David comes to grace, not through any merit that he has, if you want to look at the merit 2). He deserved judgment and wrath, but because he was guilty, he immediately obtained grace, where he said [2 Sam. 12, 13.], "I have sinned." For immediately the prophet [Nathan] 3) adds, "So also hath the Lord taken away thy sin." For if this confession is righteous in the heart, God cannot fail to make them children of grace.
1) Here Spalatin has made a correction, namely inserted "it", but accidentally after "not".
2) In our template: Liquidem si. For us, the si seems to be too much.
3) Inserted by us because both the Erlangen and the Weimar editions have understood "the prophet" from the prophet Zechariah, because they have put the quotation from the second book of Samuelis as a keyword for the following!
And the house of David will be like God's house.
In the house of God everything is joyful, lovely and peaceful; joy, delight, security, peace, mercy reign in it. So, he says, is the Church of Christ, in which, as in the house of God, there is no lack of good, and even if some evil remains, as long as we live in the sinful flesh, it is not imputed to us.
Like the Lord's angels before them.
This is added to describe the figure or the way of the church, how this kingdom of Christ is arranged in us while we are still alive, so that no one may dream himself a visible and bodily kingdom. He [a Christian] 1) is, he says, like an angel, that is, like a messenger, as if to say, He still has an angelic house, that is, everything is still hidden in word, there is still a kingdom of faith, everything is still in a dark word, as Paul [1 Cor. 13:12.] says, until the time comes when everything will be revealed face to face. Therefore, by this word he points us to the still contending Church, for everything is still covered, it is only believed. But before God it is visible and always before our eyes; for this revelation we also wait.
V. 9. And in that day I will remember to destroy all the nations.
This is a comfort by which he declares that he speaks of a kingdom of faith and a spiritual kingdom. For he also said the same thing at the beginning of this chapter about the ungodly opponents of the word and those who follow the word, how they strain all their sinews to completely destroy and destroy the church of Christ. Against all these evils he comforts the believers, as he did above, as if he wanted to say: The godless persecutors oppress my church, they want to destroy it in every way, but I will avenge them; I will protect them, and protect them in such a way that my Christians shall be unharmed; but the adversaries shall perish. I will look out, I will look at
1) This is how Luther interprets it in the previous relation.
You, my faithful, enjoy my goods safely and let me have my revenge. I will preserve you, though the gates of hell and all the power of the world oppose you; this also he has gloriously fulfilled. For the kingdom of the Romans, as well as the kingdom of the Jews, he has destroyed, and all those who have ever opposed the church of Christ have perished. etc.
V. 10. I will pour out the spirit of grace and prayer.
This is another description of the kingdom of the church, and it is the opinion: I will not allow my Christians to protect themselves with weapons and teams and warfare, because they will turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into sickles ^Jes. 2, 4.]. It will be a kingdom of peace, but I will give them other weapons with which to fight against the enemy, the spirit of graces and prayer (this is what he calls the Holy Spirit). "The Spirit of graces" he calls the Holy Spirit because He makes us a gracious God, and because we love one another in the closest union of hearts. In fact, this word is very broad when explained in more detail, because it is the feeling and awareness of the fullest favor among believers. Here, friendliness, cheerfulness, forbearance, philanthropic behavior and everything else that can be found in an extremely loving disposition prevail. Set against this the nurturing of anger, impatience, sullen disposition, and such other bitter movements of the heart, which are not in the church of Christ, where there is only favor, for they are favorable to God and to one's neighbor, even to one's enemies. This is what the apostle Paul says [Rom. 5, 5.]: The Holy Spirit is poured into our hearts etc.
Of prayer.
This is what the apostle Paul declared [Phil. 4, 5. 6.]: "The Lord is near. Do not be anxious, but in all things let your petition be made known in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving before God." As if he wanted to say: Do not be anxious, you have the Lord to pray for you.
Protector, the Lord is on your side, he will take up and uphold your cause; put away all fear, anger and bitterness. But if you want to fight something, fight through prayers. For there is nothing else by which we can fight Satan and make him waver than by prayers, or, to translate it more correctly here, by urgent supplications (obsecrationibus). For obsecratio is something stronger than oratio, as if he wanted to say: to pray in a holy cause, than if we add to our prayers: Through Jesus Christ our Lord etc.
Because they will look at me,.which one they have punctured.
This passage is quoted by the evangelist John in the 19th chapter, v. 37. But there is a wonderful sequence here. What follows until the end of the chapter is about lamentation, namely such a lamentation, which should be about Christ. This is also said in the Gospel [Matth. 24, 30]: All generations on earth will howl over him. But we do not want to refer it to the day of judgment, because we are dealing here with the description of the church. Therefore I understand it thus: the life of a Christian man is twofold, a life of the spirit and of the death of the flesh, since after we have been made righteous and transferred into the kingdom of God's grace, it still remains that we also mourn over our flesh, that we not only mourn and lament Christ who has suffered, but also follow him, that we at the same time die with him and crucify our flesh. And it is of this death of the flesh that he speaks here, not of the howling of the last judgment, when all eyes will see Christ as the judge who convicts all the ungodly of the guilt of having stabbed him. For the hands of the Jews who pierced Christ are the hands of all the wicked. But the Christians, as long as they live here, grieve at the death of their flesh, and that for the sake of Christ, since our old man was crucified together with Christ, died with him and was buried, as the apostle says in the letter to the Romans [Cap. 6, 6. 4.]. Therefore, to grieve for Christ's sake, is to be saddened by Christ's crucifixion, the
He says that we will follow death and burial, that our flesh and carnal mind will be killed, both by ourselves and by others, when we are attacked by the devil, by the world and by enemies. And so this is beautifully connected, as if he wanted to say: they will see how I was crucified for them, yes, how they themselves crucified me. For he bore our sins, says Isaiah [Cap. 53, 11.]. Therefore they immediately say with the apostle Paul [Gal. 5:24], "Those who belong to Christ crucify their flesh together with lusts and desires." They gladly bear poverty, hunger, weakness and any kind of adversity, even if life has to be put in danger, all of which is certainly hard and deserves the name of the cross. And this affliction is like the affliction for a first child, that is, harsh and violent.
V. 11: At that time there will be great lamentation in Jerusalem.
This is an extension of that mourning. "At Jerusalem," that is, in the Church of Christ.
Like that was with HadadRimon in the field Megiddo.
He looks back to the holy history [2 Chron. 35, 22. ff.] of the death of the very godly king Josiah, who, as he wanted to fight against Necho, the king of Egypt, was killed by bullets. This death gave all Israel cause for very bitter mourning, as can be seen in the history of 2 Chron. 35, 24. The prophet Jeremiah also wrote a lament or funeral song for him. Such great sorrow arose when the godly and blissful king was taken away. Such mourning, he says, will also be in the church over the dead Christ; the godly will follow his death, so that they will be conformed to their Lord.
V. 12: And the land will mourn, every generation in particular (per familias et familias).
That is, one will lament in every family especially. For this is how the Hebrew language tends to connect two words when it speaks distributively, as in Genesis [4 Mos.
17, 2. 6. (?): 1) Attulerunt virgam et virgam, that is, each one a stick especially. The opinion is: In the synagogue, the people are separated according to a certain order, which the Jews still observe today, as the men take their place, the women also theirs. He reminds the people of this custom here, so that they could grasp the matter more easily, as if he wanted to say: Everywhere in the whole world the sexes will mourn in the church. But there is a special emphasis on the word "especially", as if he wanted to say: There will not be a certain general rule prescribed for the killing of the flesh, but each individual, not bound by any certain laws, will restrain his flesh according to his opportunity. The foolish pope and the bishops should have been mindful of this, who impose fasting on the elderly alike, without any consideration of age or body condition, just as they do on the monks etc. St. Augustine, in a place where he prescribes the customs and ceremonies for his own, said most sacredly: Not equally for all, because you are not all equally strong. But the monkish envy has despised this, that of course one did not leave one nail's breadth to the other. This has also been the undoing of many: many have become senseless and have never again come to terms with what Satan intended with such foolish laws of ceremonies. Christians afflict themselves "especially," that is, each one martyring himself and afflicting his flesh as is fitting for him, so that the evil lusts may be subdued. For this is the right custom of torture. For every man has his cross, as Christ expressly says [Matth.
1) In the second verse of the 17th chapter (according to the counting in Hebrew: Cap. 17, 17.) is this doubling.
16, 24.]: "He takes up his cross and follows me." He does not say, "He takes up my cross. Thus the prophet very finely transfers the use of the synagogue to the spirit, that every Christian should deceive himself as much as he can bear, so that the lusts of the flesh may be killed, but in such a way that we give the body its glory, so that it may not perish. For we did not receive the body from God for this purpose. The Lord will set a measure for affliction, and the Spirit will teach each one how far he should afflict himself. The Lord will give us temptations that we can bear, and at the same time with the temptation also an exceedingly rewarding outcome, as the apostle [1 Cor. 10:13, Vulg.] says. For everywhere the apostle condemns "the spirituality of angels" [Col. 2, 18.], which labors with food, clothing, and other such trifling things, since the constitution of bodies is unequal, and not all can equally endure the same. Therefore, I will not let the examples of the saints be forced upon me, be it that of Jerome or Bernard, who also tortured himself so much by abstaining from food that he could not distinguish the taste of oil from that of water. And although Jerome tormented himself in a strange way, lay down naked on the ground, and I don't know what else he did, all this could not dampen the heat and the evil desire of his heart etc. One must strive to suppress the evil desires and all heart movements that fight against the spirit, anger, pride, envy, sloth, avarice, unchastity etc. So much is lacking in the fact that the monks have subdued these by abstaining from food, that rather they have ruled primarily alone in the monasteries. And this is the appearance of the church according to the inward and outward man.