Jeremiah 17:5

In order that we fall not away from the virtue of the soul, we ought to watch especially against those snares of the suggestions of the devil that we presume not of our own strength. For "cursed is everyone who places his hope in humankind." And who is he, but mortal? We cannot therefore truly say that the person who places his hope in humankind places it in himself. For this also is to "live after humankind," what is it but to "live after the flesh"? Whoever therefore is tempted by such a suggestion, let him hear, and if he has any Christian feeling, let him tremble. Let him hear, I say, "If you live after the flesh, you shall die."

Take care not to let trust in your own strength steal on you, for you are human, and "cursed is everyone who puts his hope in humankind." But put your trust fully and with your whole heart in God, and he will be your strength. Trust him lovingly and gratefully and say to him humbly and faithfully, "Trust in the Lord with your whole heart; he will be your strength."

People who despise being in need before God, lest they receive true perseverance from him, glory in their own false endurance and seek to "confound the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his hope." Nor do they regard, seeing they are human and attribute so much to their own, that is, to the human will, that they run into that which is written, "Cursed is everyone who puts his hope in humankind."

"What is your own opinion? What people do you call happy?" He [the psalmist] would not say, "Happy is the people whose strength is in their own mind." If he had said this, he would, it is true, distinguish that people from the former that made happiness consist in that visible and bodily good fortune, but he would not yet have passed beyond all the vanities and lying follies, for the same Scriptures teach elsewhere: "Cursed be everyone that places his hope in humankind." Therefore, he ought not to place it in himself, because he himself is human. Thus, in order to pass beyond the boundaries of all vanities and lying follies and to place happiness where it truly exists, he says, "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord."

The Stoics, when questioned about where they place the efficient cause of the happy life that is the thing in people that makes life happy, answer that it is not bodily pleasure but a virtuous mind. What says the apostle? Does he agree? If he agrees, let us agree, too. But he does not agree, because Scripture reproves those who trust in their own virtue. And so the Epicurean who places a person's supreme good in the body is placing his hopes in himself. But after all, the Stoic who places a person's supreme good in the mind has indeed placed it in a person's better part. But even he has placed it in himself. Now the Stoic is a human just as much as the Epicurean. Cursed therefore is everyone who places his hope in humankind. So what now? Here we have three people set before our eyes: an Epicurean, a Stoic, a Christian. Let us question them one by one. "Tell us, Epicurean, what thing makes one blessed?" "Bodily pleasure," he replies. "Tell us, Stoic." "A virtuous mind." "Tell us, Christian." "The gift of God."

But of these matters, all of which are true objects of faith, those only pertain to hope that are embraced in the Lord's Prayer. For "cursed is the one that trusts in humankind" is the testimony of Holy Scripture. Consequently, this curse attaches also to the person who trusts in himself. Therefore, we ought to ask for nothing that we either hope to do well or hope to obtain as a reward for our good works except from God the Lord.

Out of that confession of faith that is briefly contained in the creed and that, pondered according to the flesh, is the milk of babes but spiritually considered and studied is the food of the strong, arises the good hope of believers, which holy charity accompanies. But of all those things that are to be believed by faith, only those pertain to hope that are contained in the Lord's Prayer. For "cursed is everyone who puts hope in humankind," as the divine Scriptures testify; and, consequently, one who puts hope in himself is also ensnared in the chain of this curse. Therefore, we ought to make petition only of the Lord God, whatever it is that we hope to do well or to obtain as a reward for good works.

Blessed are all who trust in God. If the blessed are those who trust in him, then the wretched are those who trust in themselves. Cursed, you see, is everyone who puts his hopes in humankind, so do not put them even in yourself, because you too are human. If you put your hopes in another person, that is the wrong kind of humility. But if you put your hopes in yourself, that is dangerous pride. What is the difference, anyway? Each is pernicious, neither is to be chosen. Humble in the wrong way, you cannot lift yourself up; dangerously proud, you are heading for a fall.

Then, since many words have been gone through, there was indeed something to say about each of the things spoken, but time does not allow, as it presses upon us. Let us therefore speak on the passage read next: "Cursed is the man who has his hope on man." From this †, against those who suppose that the Son of God, the Savior, was but a man of God (for they dared, along with many of the evils of men, to say this also, that "the only-begotten," "the firstborn of all creation," is not God); for "cursed is he who has his hope on man." It is clear that they are cursed who have their hope on man. I would say that I do not have my hope on man, since, hoping on Christ Jesus, I do not know a man. Not only do I not know a man, but I know Wisdom, righteousness-itself, a man through whom "all things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, whether visible or invisible, whether principalities or authorities." "Cursed is the man who has his hope on man." Even if the Savior bears witness that the one he wore was a man—yet even if he was a man, still now he is by no means a man. For "even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer," says the apostle. I, through him, am no longer a man, if I follow his words; but he says, "I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High." Therefore, just as he is "the firstborn from the dead," so he has become the firstborn of all men, having been transformed into God. "Cursed," then, "is the man who has his hope on man, and will make the flesh of his arm his support"—whoever ratifies the things of the flesh, whoever acquires bodily strength and wages war according to the flesh. […]

All things which are good, even those of which man is the agent, really come from God rather than man. "It is the spirit," we are told, "that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer." Hence there is a curse on the man who …

Nay, he is false and sinful, and has lost his integrity; so his being flesh signifies, Gen. vi. The great malignity there is in this sin; it is the departure of the evil heart of unbelief from the living God.

Thus saith the Lord,....

Cursed be the man that trusteth in man - This reprehends their vain confidence in trusting in Egypt, which was too feeble itself to help, and, had it been otherwise, too ill disposed towards them to help them heartily. An arm of flesh is put here for a weak and ineffectual support. And he who, in reference to the salvation of his soul, trusts in an arm of flesh - in himself or others, or in any thing he has done or suffered, will inherit a curse instead of a blessing.

In the rest of the prophecy Jeremiah dwells upon the moral faults which had led to Judah’s ruin. Jer 17:6 Like the heath - Or, “like a destitute man” Psa 102:17. The verbs “he shall see” (or fear) and “shall inhabit” plainly show that a man is here meant and not a plant. Jer 17:8 The river - Or, “water-course” Isa 30:25, made for purposes of irrigation.