heavens."[1] And in another chapter, "This is your God, who created the ends of the earth; He hungereth not, neither is weary, and there is no searching of His understanding."[2] So, too, Jeremiah says: "Who hath made the earth by His power, and established the world by His wisdom, and by His discretion hath stretched out the heavens, and a mass of water in the heavens, and He caused the clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth; He made lightnings with rain, and brought forth winds out of His treasures."[3] One can see how consistently and harmoniously all the prophets spoke, having given utterance through one and the same spirit concerning the unity of God, and the creation of the world, and the formation of man. Moreover, they were in sore travail, bewailing the godless race of men, and they reproached those, who seemed to be wise, for their error and hardness of heart. Jeremiah, indeed, said: "Every man is brutishly gone astray from the knowledge of Him; every founder is confounded by his graven images; in vain the silversmith makes his molten images; there is no breath in them: in the day of their visitation they shall perish."[4] The same, too, says David: "They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; there is none that doeth good, no, not one; they have all gone aside, they have together become profitless."[5] So also Habakkuk: "What profiteth the graven image that he has graven it a lying image? Woe to him that saith to the stone. Awake; and to the wood. Arise."[6] Likewise spoke the other prophets of the truth. And why should I recount the multitude of prophets, who are numerous, and said ten thousand things consistently and harmoniously? For those who desire it, can, by reading what they uttered, accurately understand the truth, and no longer be carried away by opinion and profitless labour. These, then, whom we have already mentioned, were prophets among the Hebrews,—illiterate, and shepherds, and uneducated.
