Jeremiah 17:8

For as it says in the psalm, "Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy," so also in the gospel, those who sow in laughter, that is, because of joy, shall reap in tears. Long ago did the Creator set these things side by side: Christ, by not changing them but only giving them emphasis, has made them new. "Woe to you, when all people speak well of you." That is what their ancestors used to do to the false prophets. No less does the Creator, by Isaiah, censure those who seek after the blessing and praise of people: "My people, those who call you blessed, lead you astray and upset the paths of your feet." And in other terms he even forbids them to have any confidence in a person, and consequently not in human praise, as by Jeremiah, "Cursed is the one who trusts in humankind."

(Vers. 7, 8.) Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord will be his hope (or confidence): and he will be like a tree, which is transplanted (or fruitful) over the waters, which sends its roots to the moisture, and will not fear when heat comes: and its leaves will be green (or its branches flourishing), and in the time of drought it will not be anxious (or will not fear) nor will it ever cease to bear fruit. Let this be said about the Jews and heretics, who have hope in man, namely in their Christ, whom they think to be not the Son of God, but a pure man who is to come. On the other hand, the man of the Church, who has confidence in the Lord, hears this: 'And know that the Lord himself is God' (Psalm 99:3). He has confidence in the Lord, and he will be compared to that tree, about which it is also sung in the first psalm: 'And he will be like a tree, planted near the streams of water, which will bear its fruit in due season, and its leaves will not wither.' But over the waters, the grace of the Holy Spirit, various gifts. He sends his roots to the moisture: so that he may receive abundance from the Lord. But we can also say in another way, that we have been translated from Jewish dryness into the eternal grace of baptism. And he will not fear, he says, when the heat comes, or the time of persecution, or the day of judgment: And its leaf will be green, or there will be leafy branches in it: so that he may never fear dryness, but may bring forth the grace of all virtues. And when the time, or year, of dryness comes, it will not be afraid, when the Lord, angry, commands the clouds not to rain upon Israel (Isaiah 5). […]

Let no one deceive himself. Let none be misled. Only the Lord can grant mercy. Sins committed against him can be cancelled by him alone who bore our sins and suffered for us, by him whom God delivered up for our sins. People cannot be above God, nor can the servant by any indulgence of his own remit or condone the graver sort of crime committed against his Lord, for that would make the apostate liable to this further charge, he knows not the words of the prophet: "Cursed is the one who puts his hope in humankind." It is our Lord we must pray to, it is our Lord we must win over by our penitence. For he has said he will deny the person who denies him, and he alone has received all power of judgment from his Father.

He said to him, "Yes, sir. The long duration of my illness makes me desire health. But, desire it as I may, I have no one." Do not lose heart, my good fellow, because you "have no one." You have God standing by you. One who is at once man and God under different aspects, for both must be confessed. The confession of the humanity without the confession of the divinity is unavailing, or rather earns a curse. For "cursed is one who puts his trust in humankind."

You have begun to love what is outside of yourself. You have gone outside of yourself. When a person's love goes away from him toward things that are outside of him, he begins to become vain along with useless goods, and somehow to spend his …