She has not preserved the genuineness of love toward me, but rather she denied the intimacy and underestimated the purity of spiritual communion with me. Nor was she willing to bring forth the fruits of my will.

Who is that adulterous woman whom the prophet Hosea points out, who said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, and everything that befits me? Let us grant that we may understand this also of the people of the Jews who went astray. Yet who else are false Christians (such as are all heretics and schismatics) prone to imitate, except false Israelites?

And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, but she shall not find them. Then shall she say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then it was better with me than now.’ Then he adds something, in order that they may not attribute to their seducers what they have that is sound and derived from the doctrine of truth, by which they lead them astray to the falseness of their own dogmas and dissensions. And in order that they may not think that what is sound in them belongs to them, he immediately added, And she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her money; but she made vessels of gold and silver for Baal.

The ways of the elect are hedged up with thorns when they find the pain of piercing in that which they desire in this world. He obstructs, as it were by interposing a wall, the ways of those whose desires the difficulty of attainment opposes. Their souls truly seek their lovers but do not find them. They follow malignant spirits but do not gain hold of those pleasures of this world that they desire. It is well added that she says immediately in consequence of this very difficulty: I will go and return to my former husband, for then it was better with me than now. For the Lord is the first husband, who united to himself the chaste soul by means of the love of the Holy Spirit. And the mind of each one then longs for him when it finds manifold bitternesses, as thorns in those delights that it desires in this world. For when the mind has begun to be stung by the adversities of the world that it loves, it then understands more fully how much better for it was its former husband. Those whom an evil will perverts, adversity frequently corrects.

So, therefore, understand that there were also many lovers of your soul who have been seduced by its splendor with whom it has been a prostitute. It was also said of these, I will go after my lovers, who give me my wine and my oil. But the soul has now come to that time that it should say, I will return to my first husband because it was better for me than now. You have returned, therefore, to your first husband. You have doubtless displeased your lovers with whom you used to commit adultery. Unless, therefore, you now remain with your husband in total faith and are joined to him in total love, because of the many evil deeds that you committed, your every movement and look and even your walk is suspected by him, if these should be too careless. He must see nothing further in you that is playful, licentious or prodigal. But when you turn aside your eyes in the slightest from your husband, immediately he necessarily is reminded of your former conduct. Therefore, that you may destroy the former things and he henceforth may be able to have confidence in you, not only must you do nothing immodest, but also you must not even think of such.

Through the prophet Hosea the divine word well expressed God’s concern and providence toward us. He speaks of the image of Jerusalem as a prostitute who is drawn with wicked ardor to the worship of idols. She says, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. The divine condescension replies, with a view to her salvation and not to her will, Behold, I will hedge in her paths with thorns, and I will hedge her in with a wall, and she will not find her ways. And she will pursue her lovers and not lay hold of them, and she will seek them and not find them, and she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now.’

And if [the adulterous spirit] comes and finds the house vacant, clean, and furnished, it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself and enters that house and lives in it. And the last of that man is worse than the first.^[1] If we give attention to these words, how can we give place to carelessness even in a small matter? For the unclean spirit dwelled in us before we believed, before we came to Christ when our soul, as I said previously, was still committing fornication against God and was with its lovers, the demons. But afterward it said, I will return to my first husband, and it came to Christ who created it from the beginning in his image. Necessarily the adulterous spirit yielded when it saw the legitimate husband. We therefore have been received by Christ, and our house has been cleansed from its former sins and has been furnished with the furnishing of the sacraments of the faithful which they who have been initiated know. But this house does not deserve to have Christ as its resident immediately unless its life and conduct are so holy, so pure and incapable of being defiled that it deserves to be called the temple of God.^[2]

Behold, I will mislead her not from what is necessary and useful to life . . . but from the things that are shameful and harmful to the fulfillment of any enjoyment. . . . And as her ways are usefully hedged around with thorns so that she may not lay hold of her lovers, in the same manner she believes herself—now running downhill toward ruin and destruction—to be led astray by the mercy of God when she is brought to desire virtue. Having received the light of the knowledge of Godin mind and heart, as I said, she is no longer able to find her old path.

Since she [Israel] is accessible like a well-watered land to the herds of demons, he [the Lord] promises to treat her as a wilder-ness. . . . He will display it to their desires as an austere, untrodden and waterless place, so that finding no resting place they will despise it and depart.

Speaking directly to the heart indicates the promulgation of the law, which shaped the hearts of the listener.

We who have Christ, the author of necessary things dwelling inside the heart, were at once enriched in every kind of virtue, and in the abundant and inalienable possession of the spiritual gifts. . . . He promises to speak in her heart. For the synagogue of the Judeans, exactly as the church from the nations, will be called to awareness by taking into mind the divine laws inscribed through the Spirit.

Whatever is necessary for life and understanding of God’s knowledge in Christ, through whom and in whom we saw the Father, enriched in unfading hope^[1]—as I said, in glory, pride of adoption, of grace and of reigning together with Christ himself—these are the possessions of the saints; this is the heavenly wealth.

The possessions of everyone baptized in Christ are the remission of sins and the mansions above, which someone procures through the way that leads to each one of these. For there are as many ways as there are different mansions. But the one who sins ceases to hold the possessions and is deprived of them, while the divine Word becomes silent in him. Yet whenever he [the Lord] touches his heart, he speaks in it and then gives him those possessions from there, that is, from the heart. For the kingdom of heaven is inside of us. Therefore, either our heart takes these goods away from us or he [the Lord] gives [them to us].

Just as those at that early time have learned through Achan’s punishment how serious is the transgression of the law,^[1] in the same manner these will come to the realization of their own trespasses through the captivity.

[Israel] will be humble and obedient just as in the beginning, when she was born to the knowledge of God through the law and gladly received the decree of the divine adoption. Accordingly, he calls the regeneration to the knowledge of God through the law the days [of her youth].

Therefore in a way similar to those of old who took harlots for wives, even so God too espoused to himself the nature that had played the harlot. This the prophets from the beginning declare to have taken place with respect to the synagogue. But that spouse was ungrateful toward him who had been a husband to her, whereas the church, when once delivered from the evils received from our fathers, continued to embrace the Bridegroom.

How great is God’s mercy! A prostitute fornicates with many lovers, and because of her offense is handed over to the beasts. After she returns to her husband, she is said not at all to be reconciled to him but rather to be betrothed. Now notice the difference between God’s union and that of men. When a man marries, he turns a virgin into a woman—that is, a nonvirgin. But when God joins with prostitutes, he changes them into virgins.

First, he [God] betrothed her [Israel] in Abraham (or rather, in Egypt) so that he may have an everlasting spouse. Second, on Mount Sinai in the betrothal, he gave her the equity and judgment of the law and the compassion added to the law, so that whenever she should sin she would be given up into captivity; whenever she should show penitence, she would be brought back to [her] homeland, and she would gain compassion. . . . By his crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, he [Jesus] betroths [her] not in the equity of the law but rather in faith and the grace of the gospel.

You have made a wise decision to seek an answer to the question whether there is some difference in God’s love of those who have had faith since childhood and of those who believed in the course of youth or later years. Holy Scripture has not failed to note this problem, nor has it left your matter untouched. Indeed, the Lord our God said meaningfully to the prophet Joel, Lament with me over my spouse in sackcloth and for the husband of her youth,^[1] while he wept either for the synagogue that formerly, in her virginity, had been espoused to the Word of God, or perhaps for a soul that had fallen from grace. Her offense had led her into serious crimes so that she became hated. And, having been cast aside because of her stain of impurity and the foul marks of wickedness and the stains of unbelief, she became an object of pity and a person despised, far removed from the grace of that spouse who had been worthy to hear the words I will espouse thee to me in faith and justice and mercy.

A betrothed woman was chosen, so that Christ’s church might already be symbolically indicated as bride, according to the words of the prophet Hosea: I will make you my bride in justice and right; I will make you my bride in mercy and benevolence, and I will espouse you in fidelity. Thus John says, He who has a bride is the bridegroom.^[1] And blessed Paul: I have promised you to one bridegroom, to present you to Christ as a chaste virgin.^[2] She is truly a bride who regenerates the new infancy of Christ by a virginal birth.^[3]

The sixth degree of chastity is that he not be deluded by the alluring images of women even when asleep. For although we do not believe that this delusion is sinful, nonetheless it is an indication of a desire that is still deeply ingrained. It is evident that this delusion can occur in a number of ways. For each person is tempted, even while asleep, according to how he behaves and thinks while awake. Those who have known sexual intercourse are led astray in one way, those who have had no part in union with a woman in another way. The latter are usually disturbed by simpler and purer dreams, such that they can be cleansed more easily and with less effort. But the former are deceived by filthier and more explicit images until, gradually and according to the measure of chastity for which each is struggling, even the mind that has fallen asleep learns to hate what it used to find pleasurable, and, through the prophet, the Lord grants it what is promised to brave men as the highest reward for their labors: I will destroy the bow and the sword and war from your land, and I will make you sleep securely.

And not only is the operation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit everywhere one, but also there is one and the same will, calling and giving of commands, which one may see in the great and saving mystery of the church. For as the Father called the Gentiles to the church, saying, I will call her my people which was Not my people, and her beloved who was not beloved; and elsewhere, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,^[1] so too the Lord Jesus to Ananias: Go, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before all nations.^[2]

Here to prevent their saying that you are deceiving us here with specious reasoning, he calls Hosea to witness, who cries and says, I will call them my people, who were not my people. Who then are the not-people? Plainly, the Gentiles. And who are the not-beloved? The same again. However, he says, they shall become at once people, and beloved, and children of God.^[1] For even they shall be called, he says, the children of the living God. But if they should assert that this was said of those of the Jews who believed, even then the argument stands. For if with those who after so many benefits were hardhearted and estranged and had lost their being as a people, so great a change was wrought, what is there to prevent even those who were not estranged after being taken to him but were originally aliens, from being called, and, provided they obey, from being counted worthy of the same blessings? Having then done with Hosea, he does not content himself with him only, but also brings Isaiah in after him, sounding in harmony with him.

You who were once not a people but now are the people of God, who did not seek after mercy but now have received mercy.^[1] By these verses he indicates clearly that he has written this letter to those who had come from the Gentiles to the faith, who were once separated from the way of life of the people of God but then through the grace of faith were joined to his people^[2] and obtained the mercy that they did not know how to hope for. He takes them, however, from the prophet Hosea, who predicted the calling of the Gentiles and said, I shall call [those who were] not my people my people and [those who did] not receive mercy [a people] having received mercy. And it will be in the place where it was said, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called sons of the living God.^[3]

Next the promise of God is said for those who hear; if they do what is commanded: And you will be my people and I will be your God.^[1] Not everyone who says they are a people of God are a people of God. Hence, that people who were proclaimed to be a people of God heard, You are not my people, in the passage, Therefore you are not my people. And it has been said to that people you are not my people. Elsewhere this people was called a people, for they have provoked me to jealousy with what is not God—he speaks concerning the former—they have provoked me with their idols. So I will provoke them to jealousy with those who are not a people, with a senseless nation I will provoke them.^[2]

And the holy people inherited an eternal kingdom; the holy people who were chosen instead of the people. For he provoked them to jealousy with a people that was not a people. And with a foolish people he angered them.^[1] For even if one has served the heathen, as soon as ever he draws near to the covenant of God, he is set free. The Gentiles are the new people chosen by God to replace the people of the old covenant as foretold by the prophet.