Nor indeed is there any distinction between the state of the people and that of the priesthood: but it seems to me to be a simple fulfillment of the ancient curse, As with the people, so with the priest.^[1] Nor again are the great and eminent men affected otherwise than the majority; no, they are openly at war with the priest, and the piety of the people is an aid to their powers of persuasion. And indeed, provided that it is on behalf of the faith and of the highest and most important questions, let the people be thus disposed, and I do not blame them. To say the truth, I go so far as to praise and congratulate the people.

We are put as guards in the vineyards, but we do not cultivate our own. When we are involved with external affairs, we neglect to watch over our own activities. I think that God suffers greater outrage from no one, dearly beloved, than from priests. Those he has placed to reprove others he sees giving an example of wickedness in their own lives. We who ought to have restrained sin, ourselves commit it. More seriously, priests who ought to give of their own possessions frequently plunder the goods of others. If they see others living humbly and chastely, they often make fun of them. Consider what will become of the flocks when wolves become shepherds! They undertake to guard the flock and are not afraid to waylay the Lord’s flock.

We do not seek to gain souls; we devote ourselves daily to our own pursuits, we attend to earthly matters, we strive for human praise with all our will. From being set over others we have greater freedom to do anything we like, and so we turn the ministry we have received into an occasion for display. We abandon God’s cause, and we devote ourselves to earthly business; we accept a place of holiness and involve ourselves in earthly deeds. What is written in Hosea is truly fulfilled in us: And so it will be, like people, like priest.^[1]

And this indeed is what the Lord, in the wrath of just retribution, menaced through the prophet, saying, And there shall be like people, like priest.^[1] For the priest is as the people, when one who bears a spiritual office acts as do others who are still under judgment with regard to their carnal pursuits.

After he rebukes those of the circumcision who have trespassed the law of the covenant of God and warns them with what he has written, he prophesies that only a small number of them will be saved. These few are those whom the apostle calls the remnant according to the election of grace.^[1]

And God remembered Babylon the great, who came into his sight.^[1] This designates the confused multitude of all the lost. That he might give it to drink from the wine of his wrath.^[2] The retribution of due punishment to be returned to the wicked is here recorded. And all the islands fled, and no mountains could be found.^[3] I believe that these islands and mountains are literary figures for the church on account of the prominence of its stability, concerning which it is also said through Isaiah: Glorify the Lord in doctrine, the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea.

Therefore, the glory of the Lord is in the islands of the sea. That pertains obviously to the church, which is located in the midst of the godless nations as if an island in the sea. It is in that island that the glory of the Lord shines.

By sea he means the multitude of nations, and by coastlands, perhaps, he means cities. All their inhabitants will raise their voices when the divine wrath comes upon them. But the majesty of Christ will somehow be in the sea, that is, in all those nations, and they will realize that it is through divine Providence that they are destroyed and annihilated. They are destroyed because their impiety provoked the Almighty God; hence they will reject their gods who are unable to help them. That is how the majesty of the Lord is celebrated. It is clear that the purpose of the prophecy is to point to the mystery of Christ and to remind about the coming salvation in him. . . . Now, when the preaching of the holy apostles, which leads the nations from the idolatry to the grace of Christ, is spread to the ends of the earth, then, he says, they shall cry aloud from the sea, that is, all the nations of the world.

The Spirit of the Lord filled the world.^[1] But that will be done with the broken horns of sinners. The horns of the righteous one are said to be exalted,^[2] concerning which Isaiah prophesied: From the ends of the earth we heard praises announcing the glory of the righteous one. The church is understood to have seven horns, as does every world in which the sevenfold grace of the Spirit rules on account of his remarkable sevenfold operation. And eyes are mentioned here^[3] because of illumination. It is in relation to this, I believe, that Zechariah said, These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which run through all the earth.^[4]

He [Isaiah] was pricked by the thorn of sin;^[1] you are decked with the flowers of virtue. The moon shall be ashamed, and the sun confounded, when the Lord shall punish the host of heaven on high. This is explained by another passage. Even the stars are unclean in his sight;^[2] and again, He charges his angels with folly.^[3] The moon is ashamed, the sun is confounded, and the sky covered with sackcloth. Shall we fearlessly and joyously, as though we were free from all sin, face the majesty of the Judge? After all, the mountains shall melt away, that is, all who are lifted up by pride, and all the host of the heavens, whether they are stars or angelic powers, shall fade away like heavens when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.

The stars on the day of judgment will be seen obscurely, not because of a gradual waning of their own light but due to the overwhelming brilliance of the true light, who is the supreme Judge coming in majesty, and the light of the Father and the holy angels.^[1] Nevertheless, nothing should prevent us from understanding that the sun, the moon and other stars will be deprived temporarily of their own light, as happened to the sun at the Lord’s passion.^[2] But because the moon, which should have been full at that time, lay hidden behind the earth, Joel’s prophesy remains unfulfilled still today, for after he had said the sun will be turned to darkness, he added, and the moon to blood before the great and magnificent day of the Lord comes.^[3] Isaiah also spoke about the day of judgment, saying, The moon will be ashamed and the sun confounded when the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and is glorified in the presence of Jerusalem’s elders.