We have long felt that God is angry, yet we do not try to appease him. It is our sins that make the barbarians strong. It is our vices that vanquish Rome’s soldiers. As if there were here too little material for carnage, civil wars have made almost greater havoc among us than the swords of foreign foes. Miserable must those Israelites have been compared with whom Nebuchadnezzar was called God’s servant. Unhappy too are we who are so displeasing to God that he uses the fury of the barbarians to execute his wrath against us. Still, when Hezekiah repented, 185,000 Assyrians were destroyed in one night by a single angel.^[1] When Jehosaphat sang the praises of the Lord, the Lord gave his worshiper the victory.^[2] Again, when Moses fought against Amalek, it was not with the sword but with prayer that he prevailed.^[3] Therefore, if we wish to be lifted up, we must first prostrate ourselves.

By the mouth of his prophet God called the heathen king Nebuchadnezzar, king of kings. For Jeremiah said, Every people and kingdom that shall not put his neck into the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of kings, my servant, with famine and with sword and with pestilence will I visit that people.^[1] Though he is the great King, God does not begrudge the name of kingship to mortals. Though he is the great God, yet he did not grudge the name of godhead to the children of flesh. Though all fatherhood is his, he has called men fathers too. He said to the congregation, Instead of your fathers shall be your children.^[2] Though authority is his, he has given people authority one over another. While worship is his for honor, he has still allowed in the world for one human being to honor another. . . . Behold the grace and the love of our good Maker, that he did not begrudge to people the name of godhead and the name of worship, and the name of kingship and the name of authority, because he is the Father of the created things that are over the face of the world, and he has honored and exalted and glorified human beings above all creatures. For with his holy hands he formed them, and with his Spirit he breathed into them, and he became a dwelling place for them from ancient times.^[3] He abides in them and walks among them. For he said through the prophet, I will dwell in them and walk in them.^[4]

For Jeremiah also prophesied that the Lord commanded them to go into Babylon. He reproved as false prophets any of the other prophets who told the people not to go to Babylon. Let those who read the Scriptures remember this as we do. Let those who do not, give us credit. Jeremiah, then, on the part of God, threatened those who would not go to Babylon, whereas he promised rest to those who would go and even a kind of contentment in the cultivation of their vines, and planting of their gardens and the abundance of their fruits.