V. Upon What Account Israel, Falsely So Named, is Rejected by God, Demonstrated from the Prophetic Predictions.

For those are most certainly to be avoided who blaspheme God. The greatest part of the ungodly, indeed, are ignorant of God; but these men, as fighters against God, are possessed with a wilful evil disposition, as with a disease. For from the wickedness of these heretics "pollution is gone out upon all the earth,"¹ as says the prophet Jeremiah. For the wicked synagogue is now cast off by the Lord God, and His house is rejected by Him, as He somewhere speaks: "I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine inheritance."² And again, says Isaiah: "I will neglect my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor digged, and thorns shall spring up upon it, as upon a desert; and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it."³ He has therefore "left His people as a tent in a vineyard, and as a garner in a fig or olive yard, and as a besieged city."⁴ He has taken away from them the Holy Spirit, and the prophetic rain, and has replenished His Church with spiritual grace, as the "river of Egypt in the time of first-fruits;"⁵ and has advanced the same "as an house upon an hill, or as an high mountain; as a mountain fruitful for milk and fatness, wherein it has pleased God to dwell. For the Lord will inhabit therein to the end."⁶ And He says in Jeremiah: "Our sanctuary is an exalted throne of glory."⁷ And He says in Isaiah: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord shall be glorious, and the house of the Lord shall be upon the top of the mountains, and shall be advanced above the hills."⁸ Since, therefore, He has forsaken His people, He has also left His temple desolate, and rent the veil of the temple, and took from them the Holy Spirit; for says He, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."⁹ And He has bestowed upon you, the converted of the Gentiles, spiritual grace, as He says by Joel: "And it shall come to pass after these things, saith God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons shall prophesy, and your daughters shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams."¹⁰ For God has taken away all the power and efficacy of His word, and such like visitations, from that people, and has transferred it to you, the converted of the Gentiles. For on this account the devil himself is very angry at the holy Church of God: he is removed to you, and has raised against you adversities, seditions, and reproaches, schisms, and heresies. For he had before subdued that people to himself, by their slaying of Christ. But you who have left his vanities he tempts in different ways, as he did the blessed Job.¹¹ For indeed he opposed that great high priest Joshua the son of Josedek;¹² and he oftentimes sought to sift us, that our faith might fail.¹³ But our Lord and Master, having brought him to trial, said unto him: "The Lord rebuke thee, O devil; and the Lord, who hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Is not this plucked out of the fire as a brand?"¹⁴ And who said then to those that stood by the high priest, "Take away his ragged garments from him;" and added, "Behold, I have taken thine iniquities away from thee;" He will say now, as He said formerly of us when we were assembled together, "I have prayed that your faith may not fail."¹⁵