The sons of Jonadab, we are told, drank neither wine nor strong drink and dwelled in tents pitched wherever night overtook them. According to the Psalter, they were the first to undergo captivity; for, when the Chaldaeans began to ravage Judah, they were compelled to take refuge in cities.

Others may think what they like and follow each his own bent. But to me a town is a prison and solitude paradise. Why do we long for the bustle of cities, we whose very name speaks of loneliness? To fit him for the leadership of the Jewish people, Moses was trained for forty years in the wilderness. And it was not until after these that the shepherd of sheep became a shepherd of people. The apostles were fishers on Gennesaret before they became fishers of people.^[1] But at the Lord’s call they forsook all that they had, father, net and ship, and bore their cross daily without so much as a rod in their hands.

The Lord clearly shows all that there is one King and Lord, the Father of all, of whom he had previously said, Neither will you swear by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.^[1] He had from the beginning prepared the marriage for his Son and used, with the utmost kindness, to call, by the instrumentality of his servants, the people of the former dispensation to the wedding feast. When they would not obey, he still invited them by sending out other servants. Yet even then they did not obey him but even stoned and killed those who brought them the message of invitation. He accordingly sent forth his armies and destroyed them and burned down their city. But he called together from all the highways, that is, from all nations, guests to the marriage feast of his Son, as also he says by Jeremiah: I have sent also to you my servants the prophets to say, Return now, everyone, from his very evil way, and amend your doings. And again he says by the same prophet: I have also sent to you my servants the prophets throughout the day and before the light. Yet they did not obey me or incline their ears to me. And you shall speak this word to them: This is a people that does not obey the voice of the Lord or receive correction. Faith has perished from their mouth.^[2] The Lord, therefore, who has called us everywhere by the apostles, is he who called those of old by the prophets, as appears by the words of the Lord. Although they preached to various nations, the prophets were not from one God and the apostles from another, but, proceeding from one and the same, some of them announced the Lord, others preached the Father. Others again foretold the advent of the Son of God, while yet others declared him as already present to those who then were far off.

Two things are worth marveling at: the law given by the father and the obedience rendered by the children and descendants. For they loved a life free from care and possessions and—what is most unexpected—put little stock in their property, even though they had children, because they made themselves dependent on the divine hope as far as they were concerned. But if these people embraced the consummate philosophy during the time of the law (which had no perfection because of the weakness of those who were given the law), what sort of people would they have been if they had heard the law of the gospel? But the God of all commands the prophet to tell all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, These people refuse to drink wine because they keep the commandment of their father, but you do not conduct yourselves according to my laws, although you receive the teachings of the prophets day and night. For this reason, I will bring on you all kinds of calamities, but the best of good things are promised to the offspring of Rechab, who keep the command of their father.