d upon his mercy. Should Christ not revenge himself
when they shamed and mocked his precious blood?

18. Unto all the abominable sins mentioned, we must heap blasphemies;
for when wrath and punishment come upon us we make outcry,
complaining that the Gospel--or the new doctrine, as it is now
called--is responsible. The Jews blame us Christians alone for the
fact that they are scattered throughout the world. Their prayers day
and night are directed against us, in blasphemies and reproaches
inexpressible. Nevertheless, it was not the Christians who harassed
and scattered them, but the heathenish Roman emperor.

But whom other than themselves have the Jews to blame for their
condition? for they would not tolerate Christ, when he brought them
only help and boundless grace. Refusing to accept him whom God gave
and in whom he promised all blessings, they necessarily lost their
daily bread from God, except as they rebelliously extort it by usury
and wickedness. They had also to suffer the loss of their national
life, their priesthood and public worship, forgiveness of sins and
redemption, and so remain eternally captive under the wrath and
condemnation of God. Such is the just and inevitable punishment of
the unwise--the foolish--who refused to recognize their opportunity
when Christ was with them.

19. With this terrible example before our eyes, we are still
unrepentant, pursuing the same course the Jews followed, not only in
disobedience to the will of God, but in rejecting his grace. For that
grace we should earnestly long and pray, striving to secure to our
children after us baptism, the ministry and the sacrament, in their
purity. In return for our perversity, it will eventually be with us
as with the Jews and other ungrateful persecutors and rejecters.

20. Then let him who will receive advice and help, faithfully heed
Paul's counsel and redeem the time, not sleeping away the blessed
golden hour of grace; as Christ earnestly admonishes in the parable
of the five foolish virgins. Mt 25, 13. The foolish virgins might
have made their purchases in season, before the bridegroom's arrival;
but failing to attend to the matter until time to meet the
bridegroom, they missed both the market and the wedding.

21. The ancient poets and sages make use of a similar illustration at
the expense of the cricket or grasshopper. As the fable runs, when
winter came the grasshoppers, having nothing to eat, went to the ants
and asked the