The unparalleled joy that many of them speak of, is what they find when
they are lowest in the dust, emptied most of themselves, and as it were
annihilating themselves before God; when they are nothing, and God is
all; seeing their own unworthiness, depending not at all on themselves,
but alone on Christ, and ascribing all glory to God. Then their souls
are most in the enjoyment of satisfying rest; excepting that, at such
times, they apprehend themselves to be not sufficiently self-abased; for
then above all times do they long to be lower. Some speak much of the
exquisite sweetness, and rest of soul, that
Isaiah says the same thing, 30.
632. On Esdras.--The story that the books were burnt with the temple proved
false by Maccabees: "Jeremiah gave them the law."
The story that he recited the whole by heart. Josephus and Esdras point out
that he read the book. Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici a Christo Nato ad
Annum 1198, 180: Nullus penitus Hebraeorum antiquorum reperitur qui
tradiderit libros periisse et per Esdram esse restitutos, nisi in IV Esdrae.
The story that he changed the letters.
Philo, in Vita Mosis: Illa lingua ac character quo antiquitus scripta est
lex sic permansit usque ad LXX.
Josephus says that the Law was in Hebrew when it was translated by the
Seventy.
Under Antiochus and Vespasian, when they wanted to abolish the books, and
when there was no prophet, they could not do so. And under the Babylonians,
when no persecution had been made, and when there were so many prophets,
would they have let them be burnt?
Jos