Eusebius of Caesarea

In his own words on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:6

  The Hebrew Scripture introduces Moses at first as declining the leadership of the people by what he said to God who conversed with him: "I beg you, O Lord, appoint someone else who is able, whom you will send." Afterwards it portrays Saul as hiding himself to avoid assuming the kingdom and the prophet Jeremiah as humbly declining his mission.

  PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL 12:9

• Jeremiah 2:21-22

  So also God is introduced by the prophet as saying to the person who had become evil by his own choice, "Yet I had planted you a fruitful vine. How have you turned back into a wild vine?" Anywhere it is said that evils happen to the wicked from God, it must be understood as an accidental coincidence of name. This name is given to the chastisements that God in his goodness is said to send not for the hurt of those who are chastised but for their benefit and profit, in the same way that a physician might be thought to apply bad things in his painful and bitter remedies to save the sick.

  PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL 13:3