BOOK SEVENTEENTH.

Argument

IN THIS BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE CITY OF GOD IS TRACED DURING THE PERIOD
OF THE KINGS AND PROPHETS FROM SAMUEL TO DAVID, EVEN TO CHRIST;
AND THE PROPHECIES WHICH ARE RECORDED IN THE BOOK OF KINGS,
PSALMS, AND THOSE OF SOLOMON, ARE INTERPRETED OF CHRIST AND THE
CHURCH.

1. Of the prophetic age.

By the favour of God we have treated distinctly of His
promises made to Abraham, that both the nation of
Israel according to the flesh, and all nations according to faith,
should be his seed, and the City of God, proceeding according
to the order of time, will point[343] out how they were fulfilled.
Having therefore in the previous book come down to the reign
of David, we shall now treat of what remains, so far as may
seem sufficient for the object of this work, beginning at the
same reign. Now, from the time when holy Samuel began to
prophesy, and ever onward until the people of Israel was led
captive into Babylonia, and until, according to the prophecy
of holy Jeremiah, on Israel’s return thence after seventy years,
the house of God was built anew, this whole period is the
prophetic age. For although both the patriarch Noah himself,
in whose days the whole earth was destroyed by the
flood, and others before and after him down to this time when
there began to be kings over the people of God, may not undeservedly
be styled prophets, on account of certain things
pertaining to the city of God and the kingdom of heaven,
which they either predicted or in any way signified should
come to pass, and especially since we read that some of them,
as Abraham and Moses, were expressly so styled, yet those
are most and chiefly called the days of the prophets from the
time when Samuel began to prophesy, who at God’s command
first anointed Saul to be king, and, on his rejection, David
himself, whom others of his issue should succeed as long as it[Pg 166]
was fitting they should do so. If, therefore, I wished to rehearse
all that the prophets have predicted concerning Christ,
while the city of God, with its members dying and being born
in constant succession, ran its course through those times, this
work would extend beyond all bounds. First, because the
Scripture itself, even when, in treating in order of the kings
and of their deeds and the events of their reigns, it seems to
be occupied in narrating as with historical diligence the affairs
transacted, will be found, if the things handled by it are considered
with the aid of the Spirit of God, either more, or
certainly not less, intent on foretelling things to come than on
relating things past. And who that thinks even a little about
it does not know how laborious and prolix a work it would be,
and how many volumes it would require to search this out by
thorough investigation and demonstrate it by argument? And
then, because of that which without dispute pertains to prophecy,
there are so many things concerning Christ and the
kingdom of heaven, which is the city of God, that to explain
these a larger discussion would be necessary than the due proportion
of this work admits of. Therefore I shall, if I can, so
limit myself, that in carrying through this work, I may, with
God’s help, neither say what is superfluous nor omit what is
necessary.

2. At what time the promise of God was fulfilled concerning the land of Canaan,
which even carnal Israel got in possession.

In the preceding book we said, that in the promise of God
to Abraham two things were promised from the beginning,
the one, namely, that his seed should possess the land of
Canaan, which was intimated when it was said, “Go into a
land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great
nation;”[344] but the other far more excellent, concerning not
the carnal but the spiritual seed, by which he is the father,
not of the one nation of Israel, but of all nations who follow
the footsteps of his faith, which began to be promised in these
words, “And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”[345]
And thereafter we showed by yet many other proofs that these
two things were promised. Therefore the seed of Abraham,
that is, the people of Israel according to the flesh, already was[Pg 167]
in the land of promise; and there, not only by holding and
possessing the cities of the enemies, but also by having kings,
had already begun to reign, the promises of God concerning
that people being already in great part fulfilled: not only
those that were made to those three fathers, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and whatever others were made in their times, but
those also that were made through Moses himself, by whom
the same people was set free from servitude in Egypt, and by
whom all bygone things were revealed in his times, when he
led the people through the wilderness. But neither by the
illustrious leader Jesus the son of Nun, who led that people
into the land of promise, and, after driving out the nations,
divided it among the twelve tribes according to God’s command,
and died; nor after him, in the whole time of the
judges, was the promise of God concerning the land of Canaan
fulfilled, that it should extend from some river of Egypt even
to the great river Euphrates; nor yet was it still prophesied as
to come, but its fulfilment was expected. And it was fulfilled
through David, and Solomon his son, whose kingdom was extended
over the whole promised space; for they subdued all
those nations, and made them tributary. And thus, under
those kings, the seed of Abraham was established in the land
of promise according to the flesh, that is, in the land of Canaan,
so that nothing yet remained to the complete fulfilment of
that earthly promise of God, except that, so far as pertains to
temporal prosperity, the Hebrew nation should remain in the
same land by the succession of posterity in an unshaken state
even to the end of this mortal age, if it obeyed the laws of the
Lord its God. But since God knew it would not do this, He
used His temporal punishments also for training His few
faithful ones in it, and for giving needful warning to those
who should afterwards be in all nations, in whom the other
promise, revealed in the New Testament, was about to be
fulfilled through the incarnation of Christ.

3. Of the threefold meaning of the prophecies, which are to be referred now to
the earthly, now to the heavenly Jerusalem, and now again to both.

Wherefore just as that divine oracle to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and all the other prophetic signs or sayings which are
given in the earlier sacred writings, so also the other prophecies[Pg 168]
from this time of the kings pertain partly to the nation
of Abraham’s flesh, and partly to that seed of his in which all
nations are blessed as fellow-heirs of Christ by the New Testament,
to the possessing of eternal life and the kingdom of the
heavens. Therefore they pertain partly to the bond maid who
gendereth to bondage, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, which is
in bondage with her children; but partly to the free city of
God, that is, the true Jerusalem eternal in the heavens, whose
children are all those that live according to God in the earth:
but there are some things among them which are understood
to pertain to both,—to the bond maid properly, to the free
woman figuratively.[346]

Therefore prophetic utterances of three kinds are to be
found; forasmuch as there are some relating to the earthly
Jerusalem, some to the heavenly, and some to both. I think
it proper to prove what I say by examples. The prophet
Nathan was sent to convict king David of heinous sin, and
predict to him what future evils should be consequent on it.
Who can question that this and the like pertain to the terrestrial
city, whether publicly, that is, for the safety or help of
the people, or privately, when there are given forth for each
one’s private good divine utterances whereby something of
the future may be known for the use of temporal life? But
where we read, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will make for the house of Israel, and for the house of Judah,
a new testament: not according to the testament that I settled
for their fathers in the day when I laid hold of their hand to
lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued
not in my testament, and I regarded them not, saith the
Lord. For this is the testament that I will make for the
house of Israel: after those days, saith the Lord, I will give
my laws in their mind, and will write them upon their hearts,
and I will see to them; and I will be to them a God, and
they shall be to me a people;”[347]—without doubt this is prophesied
to the Jerusalem above, whose reward is God Himself,
and whose chief and entire good it is to have Him, and
to be His. But this pertains to both, that the city of
God is called Jerusalem, and that it is prophesied the house[Pg 169]
of God shall be in it; and this prophecy seems to be fulfilled
when king Solomon builds that most noble temple. For
these things both happened in the earthly Jerusalem, as history
shows, and were types of the heavenly Jerusalem. And this
kind of prophecy, as it were compacted and commingled of
both the others in the ancient canonical books, containing
historical narratives, is of very great significance, and has exercised
and exercises greatly the wits of those who search holy
writ. For example, what we read of historically as predicted
and fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according to the flesh,
we must also inquire the allegorical meaning of, as it is to be
fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according to faith. And so
much is this the case, that some have thought there is nothing
in these books either foretold and effected, or effected although
not foretold, that does not insinuate something else which is
to be referred by figurative signification to the city of God on
high, and to her children who are pilgrims in this life. But
if this be so, then the utterances of the prophets, or rather the
whole of those Scriptures that are reckoned under the title
of the Old Testament, will be not of three, but of two different
kinds. For there will be nothing there which pertains to the
terrestrial Jerusalem only, if whatever is there said and fulfilled
of or concerning her signifies something which also
refers by allegorical prefiguration to the celestial Jerusalem;
but there will be only two kinds, one that pertains to the free
Jerusalem, the other to both. But just as, I think, they err
greatly who are of opinion that none of the records of affairs
in that kind of writings mean anything more than that they
so happened, so I think those very daring who contend that
the whole gist of their contents lies in allegorical significations.
Therefore I have said they are threefold, not twofold. Yet, in
holding this opinion, I do not blame those who may be able
to draw out of everything there a spiritual meaning, only
saving, first of all, the historical truth. For the rest, what
believer can doubt that those things are spoken vainly which
are such that, whether said to have been done or to be yet to
come, they do not beseem either human or divine affairs? Who
would not recall these to spiritual understanding if he could,
or confess that they should be recalled by him who is able?

[Pg 170]

4. About the prefigured change of the Israelitic kingdom and priesthood, and
about the things Hannah the mother of Samuel prophesied, personating
the Church.

Therefore the advance of the city of God, where it reached
the times of the kings, yielded a figure, when, on the rejection
of Saul, David first obtained the kingdom on such a footing
that thenceforth his descendants should reign in the earthly
Jerusalem in continual succession; for the course of affairs
signified and foretold, what is not to be passed by in silence,
concerning the change of things to come, what belongs to both
Testaments, the Old and the New,—where the priesthood and
kingdom are changed by one who is a priest, and at the same
time a king, new and everlasting, even Christ Jesus. For both
the substitution in the ministry of God, on Eli’s rejection as
priest, of Samuel, who executed at once the office of priest
and judge, and the establishment of David in the kingdom,
when Saul was rejected, typified this of which I speak. And
Hannah herself, the mother of Samuel, who formerly was
barren, and afterwards was gladdened with fertility, does not
seem to prophesy anything else, when she exultingly pours
forth her thanksgiving to the Lord, on yielding up to God the
same boy she had born and weaned with the same piety with
which she had vowed him. For she says, “My heart is made
strong in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God; my
mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; I am made glad in Thy
salvation. Because there is none holy as the Lord; and none
is righteous as our God: there is none holy save Thee. Do
not glory so proudly, and do not speak lofty things, neither
let vaunting talk come out of your mouth: for a God of
knowledge is the Lord, and a God preparing His curious
designs. The bow of the mighty hath He made weak, and
the weak are girded with strength. They that were full of
bread are diminished; and the hungry have passed beyond the
earth: for the barren hath born seven; and she that hath
many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh
alive: He bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up again. The
Lord maketh poor and maketh rich: He bringeth low and
lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth
up the beggar from the dunghill, that He may set him among[Pg 171]
the mighty of [His] people, and maketh them inherit the
throne of glory; giving the vow to him that voweth, and He
hath blessed the years of the just: for man is not mighty in
strength. The Lord shall make His adversary weak: the Lord
is holy. Let not the prudent glory in his prudence; and let
not the mighty glory in his might; and let not the rich glory
in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, to understand
and know the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in
the midst of the earth. The Lord hath ascended into the
heavens, and hath thundered: He shall judge the ends of the
earth, for He is righteous: and He giveth strength to our kings,
and shall exalt the horn of His Christ.”[348]

Do you say that these are the words of a single weak
woman giving thanks for the birth of a son? Can the mind
of men be so much averse to the light of truth as not to perceive
that the sayings this woman pours forth exceed her
measure? Moreover, he who is suitably interested in these
things which have already begun to be fulfilled even in this
earthly pilgrimage also, does he not apply his mind, and perceive,
and acknowledge, that through this woman—whose
very name, which is Hannah, means “His grace”—the very
Christian religion, the very city of God, whose king and
founder is Christ, in fine, the very grace of God, hath thus
spoken by the prophetic Spirit, whereby the proud are cut off
so that they fall, and the humble are filled so that they rise,
which that hymn chiefly celebrates? Unless perchance any
one will say that this woman prophesied nothing, but only
lauded God with exulting praise on account of the son whom
she had obtained in answer to prayer. What then does she
mean when she says, “The bow of the mighty hath He made
weak, and the weak are girded with strength; they that were
full of bread are diminished, and the hungry have gone
beyond the earth; for the barren hath born seven, and she
that hath many children is waxed feeble?” Had she herself
born seven, although she had been barren? She had only
one when she said that; neither did she bear seven afterwards,
nor six, with whom Samuel himself might be the
seventh, but three males and two females. And then, when[Pg 172]
as yet no one was king over that people, whence, if she did
not prophesy, did she say what she puts at the end, “He
giveth strength to our kings, and shall exalt the horn of His
Christ?”

Therefore let the Church of Christ, the city of the great
King,[349] full of grace, prolific of offspring, let her say what the
prophecy uttered about her so long before by the mouth of
this pious mother confesses, “My heart is made strong in
the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God.” Her heart is
truly made strong, and her horn is truly exalted, because not
in herself, but in the Lord her God. “My mouth is enlarged
over mine enemies;” because even in pressing straits the
word of God is not bound, not even in preachers who are
bound.[350] “I am made glad,” she says, “in Thy salvation.”
This is Christ Jesus Himself, whom old Simeon, as we read
in the Gospel, embracing as a little one, yet recognising as
great, said, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in
peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”[351] Therefore
may the Church say, “I am made glad in Thy salvation. For
there is none holy as the Lord, and none is righteous as our
God;” as holy and sanctifying, just and justifying.[352] “There
is none holy beside Thee;” because no one becomes so except
by reason of Thee. And then it follows, “Do not glory so
proudly, and do not speak lofty things, neither let vaunting
talk come out of your mouth. For a God of knowledge is
the Lord.” He knows you even when no one knows; for
“he who thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing
deceiveth himself.”[353] These things are said to the adversaries
of the city of God who belong to Babylon, who presume
in their own strength, and glory in themselves, not in the
Lord; of whom are also the carnal Israelites, the earth-born
inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem, who, as saith the apostle,
“being ignorant of the righteousness of God,”[354] that is, which
God, who alone is just, and the justifier, gives to man, “and
wishing to establish their own,” that is, which is as it were
procured by their own selves, not bestowed by Him, “are not
subject to the righteousness of God,” just because they are[Pg 173]
proud, and think they are able to please God with their own,
not with that which is of God, who is the God of knowledge,
and therefore also takes the oversight of consciences, there
beholding the thoughts of men that they are vain,[355] if they
are of men, and are not from Him. “And preparing,” she
says, “His curious designs.” What curious designs do we
think these are, save that the proud must fall, and the humble
rise? These curious designs she recounts, saying, “The bow
of the mighty is made weak, and the weak are girded with
strength.” The bow is made weak, that is, the intention of
those who think themselves so powerful, that without the gift
and help of God they are able by human sufficiency to fulfil
the divine commandments; and those are girded with strength
whose inward cry is, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I
am weak.”[356]

“They that were full of bread,” she says, “are diminished,
and the hungry have gone beyond the earth.” Who are to
be understood as full of bread except those same who were
as if mighty, that is, the Israelites, to whom were committed
the oracles of God?[357] But among that people the children
of the bond maid were diminished,—by which word minus,
although it is Latin, the idea is well expressed that from
being greater they were made less,—because, even in the
very bread, that is, the divine oracles, which the Israelites
alone of all nations have received, they savour earthly things.
But the nations to whom that law was not given, after they
have come through the New Testament to these oracles, by
thirsting much have gone beyond the earth, because in them
they have savoured not earthly, but heavenly things. And
the reason why this is done is as it were sought; “for the
barren,” she says, “hath born seven, and she that hath many
children is waxed feeble.” Here all that had been prophesied
hath shone forth to those who understood the number seven,
which signifies the perfection of the universal Church. For
which reason also the Apostle John writes to the seven
churches,[358] showing in that way that he writes to the totality
of the one Church; and in the Proverbs of Solomon it is said[Pg 174]
aforetime, prefiguring this, “Wisdom hath builded her house,
she hath strengthened her seven pillars.”[359] For the city of
God was barren in all nations before that child arose whom
we see.[360] We also see that the temporal Jerusalem, who had
many children, is now waxed feeble. Because, whoever in
her were sons of the free woman were her strength; but
now, forasmuch as the letter is there, and not the spirit,
having lost her strength, she is waxed feeble.

“The Lord killeth and maketh alive:” He has killed her
who had many children, and made this barren one alive, so
that she has born seven. Although it may be more suitably
understood that He has made those same alive whom He has
killed. For she, as it were, repeats that by adding, “He
bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up.” To whom truly the
apostle says, “If ye be dead with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of
God.”[361] Therefore they are killed by the Lord in a salutary
way, so that he adds, “Savour things which are above, not
things on the earth;” so that these are they who, hungering,
have passed beyond the earth. “For ye are dead,” he says:
behold how God savingly kills! Then there follows, “And
your life is hid with Christ in God:” behold how God makes
the same alive! But does He bring them down to hell and bring
them up again? It is without controversy among believers
that we best see both parts of this work fulfilled in Him, to
wit, our Head, with whom the apostle has said our life is hid
in God. “For when He spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all,”[362] in that way, certainly, He has killed
Him. And forasmuch as He raised Him up again from the
dead, He has made Him alive again. And since His voice
is acknowledged in the prophecy, “Thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell,”[363] He has brought Him down to hell and brought
Him up again. By this poverty of His we are made rich;[364]
for “the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich.” But that we
may know what this is, let us hear what follows: “He
bringeth low and lifteth up;” and truly He humbles the[Pg 175]
proud and exalts the humble. Which we also read elsewhere,
“God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the
humble.”[365] This is the burden of the entire song of this
woman whose name is interpreted “His grace.”

Farther, what is added, “He raiseth up the poor from the
earth,” I understand of none better than of Him who, as was
said a little ago, “was made poor for us, when He was rich,
that by His poverty we might be made rich.” For He raised
Him from the earth so quickly that His flesh did not see
corruption. Nor shall I divert from Him what is added, “And
raiseth up the poor from the dunghill.” For indeed he who
is the poor man is also the beggar.[366] But by the dunghill
from which he is lifted up we are with the greatest reason
to understand the persecuting Jews, of whom the apostle says,
when telling that when he belonged to them he persecuted
the Church, “What things were gain to me, those I counted
loss for Christ; and I have counted them not only loss, but
even dung, that I might win Christ.”[367] Therefore that poor
one is raised up from the earth above all the rich, and that
beggar is lifted up from that dunghill above all the wealthy,
“that he may sit among the mighty of the people,” to whom
He says, “Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones,”[368] “and to make
them inherit the throne of glory.” For these mighty ones
had said, “Lo, we have forsaken all and followed Thee.”
They had most mightily vowed this vow.

But whence do they receive this, except from Him of whom
it is here immediately said, “Giving the vow to him that
voweth?” Otherwise they would be of those mighty ones
whose bow is weakened. “Giving,” she saith, “the vow to
him that voweth.” For no one could vow anything acceptable
to God, unless he received from Him that which he
might vow. There follows, “And He hath blessed the years
of the just,” to wit, that he may live for ever with Him to
whom it is said, “And Thy years shall have no end.” For
there the years abide; but here they pass away, yea, they
perish: for before they come they are not, and when they
shall have come they shall not be, because they bring their[Pg 176]
own end with them. Now of these two, that is, “giving
the vow to him that voweth,” and “He hath blessed the years
of the just,” the one is what we do, the other what we receive.
But this other is not received from God, the liberal
giver, until He, the helper, Himself has enabled us for the
former; “for man is not mighty in strength.” “The Lord
shall make his adversary weak,” to wit, him who envies the
man that vows, and resists him, lest he should fulfil what he
has vowed. Owing to the ambiguity of the Greek, it may
also be understood “his own adversary.” For when God
has begun to possess us, immediately he who had been our
adversary becomes His, and is conquered by us; but not by
our own strength, “for man is not mighty in strength.”
Therefore “the Lord shall make His own adversary weak,
the Lord is holy,” that he may be conquered by the saints,
whom the Lord, the Holy of holies, hath made saints. For
this reason, “let not the prudent glory in his prudence, and
let not the mighty glory in his might, and let not the rich
glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in
this,—to understand and know the Lord, and to do judgment
and justice in the midst of the earth.” He in no
small measure understands and knows the Lord who understands
and knows that even this, that he can understand and
know the Lord, is given to him by the Lord. “For what
hast thou,” saith the apostle, “that thou hast not received?
But if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if
thou hadst not received it?”[369] That is, as if thou hadst of
thine own self whereof thou mightest glory. Now, he does
judgment and justice who lives aright. But he lives aright
who yields obedience to God when He commands. “The end
of the commandment,” that is, to which the commandment
has reference, “is charity out of a pure heart, and a good
conscience, and faith unfeigned.” Moreover, this “charity,”
as the Apostle John testifies, “is of God.”[370] Therefore to do
justice and judgment is of God. But what is “in the midst
of the earth?” For ought those who dwell in the ends of
the earth not to do judgment and justice? Who would say
so? Why, then, is it added, “In the midst of the earth?”[Pg 177]
For if this had not been added, and it had only been said, “To
do judgment and justice,” this commandment would rather
have pertained to both kinds of men,—both those dwelling
inland and those on the sea-coast. But lest any one should
think that, after the end of the life led in this body, there
remains a time for doing judgment and justice which he has
not done while he was in the flesh, and that the divine judgment
can thus be escaped, “in the midst of the earth” appears
to me to be said of the time when every one lives in
the body; for in this life every one carries about his own
earth, which, on a man’s dying, the common earth takes back,
to be surely returned to him on his rising again. Therefore
“in the midst of the earth,” that is, while our soul is shut
up in this earthly body, judgment and justice are to be done,
which shall be profitable for us hereafter, when “every one
shall receive according to that he hath done in the body,
whether good or bad.”[371] For when the apostle there says “in
the body,” he means in the time he has lived in the body.
Yet if any one blaspheme with malicious mind and impious
thought, without any member of his body being employed in
it, he shall not therefore be guiltless because he has not done
it with bodily motion, for he will have done it in that time
which he has spent in the body. In the same way we may
suitably understand what we read in the psalm, “But God, our
King before the worlds, hath wrought salvation in the midst
of the earth;”[372] so that the Lord Jesus may be understood to be
our God who is before the worlds, because by Him the worlds
were made, working our salvation in the midst of the earth,
for the Word was made flesh and dwelt in an earthly body.

Then after Hannah has prophesied in these words, that
he who glorieth ought to glory not in himself at all, but in
the Lord, she says, on account of the retribution which is to
come on the day of judgment, “The Lord hath ascended into
the heavens, and hath thundered: He shall judge the ends of
the earth, for He is righteous.” Throughout she holds to the
order of the creed of Christians: For the Lord Christ has
ascended into heaven, and is to come thence to judge the quick
and dead.[373] For, as saith the apostle, “Who hath ascended[Pg 178]
but He who hath also descended into the lower parts of the
earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended
up above all heavens, that He might fill all things.”[374] Therefore
He hath thundered through His clouds, which He hath
filled with His Holy Spirit when He ascended up. Concerning
which the bond maid Jerusalem that is, the unfruitful
vineyard is threatened in Isaiah the prophet that they
shall rain no showers upon her. But “He shall judge the
ends of the earth” is spoken as if it had been said, “even
the extremes of the earth.” For it does not mean that He
shall not judge the other parts of the earth, who, without
doubt, shall judge all men. But it is better to understand
by the extremes of the earth the extremes of man, since
those things shall not be judged which, in the middle time,
are changed for the better or the worse, but the ending in
which he shall be found who is judged. For which reason
it is said, “He that shall persevere even unto the end, the
same shall be saved.”[375] He, therefore, who perseveringly does
judgment and justice in the midst of the earth shall not be
condemned when the extremes of the earth shall be judged.
“And giveth,” she saith, “strength to our kings,” that He may
not condemn them in judging. He giveth them strength
whereby as kings they rule the flesh, and conquer the world
in Him who hath poured out His blood for them. “And
shall exalt the horn of His Christ.” For He of whom it was said above,
“The Lord hath ascended into the heavens,” meaning the Lord
Christ, Himself, as it is said here, “shall exalt the horn of His
Christ.” Who, therefore, is the Christ of His Christ? Does
it mean that He shall exalt the horn of each one of His believing
people, as she says in the beginning of this hymn,
“Mine horn is exalted in my God?” For we can rightly
call all those christs who are anointed with His chrism, forasmuch
as the whole body with its head is one Christ.[376] These
things hath Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the holy and
much-praised man, prophesied, in which, indeed, the change
of the ancient priesthood was then figured and is now fulfilled,
since she that had many children is waxed feeble, that[Pg 179]
the barren who hath born seven might have the new priesthood
in Christ.

5. Of those things which a man of God spake by the Spirit to Eli the priest,
signifying that the priesthood which had been appointed according to
Aaron was to be taken away.

But this is said more plainly by a man of God sent to Eli
the priest himself, whose name indeed is not mentioned, but
whose office and ministry show him to have been indubitably
a prophet. For it is thus written: “And there came a man
of God unto Eli, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I plainly
revealed myself unto thy father’s house, when they were in
the land of Egypt slaves in Pharaoh’s house; and I chose thy
father’s house out of all the sceptres of Israel to fill the office
of priest for me, to go up to my altar, to burn incense and
wear the ephod; and I gave thy father’s house for food all
the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel. Wherefore
then hast thou looked at mine incense and at mine offerings
with an impudent eye, and hast glorified thy sons above
me, to bless the first-fruits of every sacrifice in Israel before
me? Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I said thy
house and thy father’s house should walk before me for ever:
but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that
honour me will I honour, and he that despiseth me shall be
despised. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thy seed,
and the seed of thy father’s house, and thou shalt never have
an old man in my house. And I will cut off the man of thine
from mine altar, so that his eyes shall be consumed, and his
heart shall melt away; and every one of thy house that is
left shall fall by the sword of men. And this shall be a sign
unto thee that shall come upon these thy two sons, Hophni
and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them. And
I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to
all that is in mine heart and in my soul; and I will build
him a sure house, and he shall walk before my Christ for
ever. And it shall come to pass that he who is left in thine
house shall come to worship him with a piece of money, saying,
Put me into one part of thy priesthood, that I may eat bread.”[377]

We cannot say that this prophecy, in which the change of[Pg 180]
the ancient priesthood is foretold with so great plainness, was
fulfilled in Samuel; for although Samuel was not of another
tribe than that which had been appointed by God to serve at
the altar, yet he was not of the sons of Aaron, whose offspring
was set apart that the priests might be taken out of it. And
thus by that transaction also the same change which should
come to pass through Christ Jesus is shadowed forth, and the
prophecy itself in deed, not in word, belonged to the Old
Testament properly, but figuratively to the New, signifying
by the fact just what was said by the word to Eli the priest
through the prophet. For there were afterwards priests of
Aaron’s race, such as Zadok and Abiathar during David’s
reign, and others in succession, before the time came when
those things which were predicted so long before about the
changing of the priesthood behoved to be fulfilled by Christ.
But who that now views these things with a believing eye
does not see that they are fulfilled? Since, indeed, no tabernacle,
no temple, no altar, no sacrifice, and therefore no priest
either, has remained to the Jews, to whom it was commanded
in the law of God that he should be ordained of the seed of
Aaron; which is also mentioned here by the prophet, when
he says, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I said thy house
and thy father’s house shall walk before me for ever: but
now the Lord saith, That be far from me; for them that honour
me will I honour, and he that despiseth me shall be despised.”
For that in naming his father’s house he does not mean that
of his immediate father, but that of Aaron, who first was
appointed priest, to be succeeded by others descended from
him, is shown by the preceding words, when he says, “I was
revealed unto thy father’s house, when they were in the land
of Egypt slaves in Pharaoh’s house; and I chose thy father’s
house out of all the sceptres of Israel to fill the office of priest
for me.” Which of the fathers in that Egyptian slavery, but
Aaron, was his father, who, when they were set free, was
chosen to the priesthood? It was of his lineage, therefore, he
has said in this passage it should come to pass that they should
no longer be priests; which already we see fulfilled. If faith
be watchful, the things are before us: they are discerned, they
are grasped, and are forced on the eyes of the unwilling, so[Pg 181]
that they are seen: “Behold the days come,” he says, “that
I will cut off thy seed, and the seed of thy father’s house, and
thou shalt never have an old man in mine house. And I will
cut off the man of thine from mine altar, so that his eyes shall
be consumed and his heart shall melt away.” Behold the
days which were foretold have already come. There is no
priest after the order of Aaron; and whoever is a man of his
lineage, when he sees the sacrifice of the Christians prevailing
over the whole world, but that great honour taken away from
himself, his eyes fail and his soul melts away consumed with
grief.

But what follows belongs properly to the house of Eli, to
whom these things were said: “And every one of thine house
that is left shall fall by the sword of men. And this shall
be a sign unto thee that shall come upon these thy two sons,
Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of
them.” This, therefore, is made a sign of the change of the
priesthood from this man’s house, by which it is signified that
the priesthood of Aaron’s house is to be changed. For the
death of this man’s sons signified the death not of the men,
but of the priesthood itself of the sons of Aaron. But what
follows pertains to that Priest whom Samuel typified by succeeding
this one. Therefore the things which follow are said
of Christ Jesus the true Priest of the New Testament: “And
I will raise me up a faithful Priest that shall do according to
all that is in mine heart and in my soul; and I will build
Him a sure house.” The same is the eternal Jerusalem above.
“And He shall walk,” saith He, “before my Christ always.”
“He shall walk” means “he shall be conversant with,” just as
He had said before of Aaron’s house, “I said that thine house
and thy father’s house shall walk before me for ever.” But
what He says, “He shall walk before my Christ,” is to be
understood entirely of the house itself, not of the priest, who
is Christ Himself, the Mediator and Saviour. His house,
therefore, shall walk before Him. “Shall walk” may also be
understood to mean from death to life, all the time this mortality
passes through, even to the end of this world. But
where God says, “Who will do all that is in mine heart and
in my soul,” we must not think that God has a soul, for He[Pg 182]
is the Author of souls; but this is said of God tropically, not
properly, just as He is said to have hands and feet, and other
corporal members. And, lest it should be supposed from
such language that man in the form of this flesh is made in
the image of God, wings also are ascribed to Him, which man
has not at all; and it is said to God, “Hide me under the
shadow of Thy wings,”[378] that men may understand that such
things are said of that ineffable nature not in proper but in
figurative words.

But what is added, “And it shall come to pass that he who
is left in thine house shall come to worship Him,” is not said
properly of the house of this Eli, but of that Aaron, the men
of which remained even to the advent of Jesus Christ, of
which race there are not wanting men even to this present.
For of that house of Eli it had already been said above, “And
every one of thine house that is left shall fall by the sword of
men.” How, therefore, could it be truly said here, “And it
shall come to pass that every one that is left shall come to
worship him,” if that is true, that no one shall escape the
avenging sword, unless he would have it understood of those
who belong to the race of that whole priesthood after the order
of Aaron? Therefore, if it is of these the predestinated
remnant, about whom another prophet has said, “The remnant
shall be saved;”[379] whence the apostle also says, “Even so then
at this time also the remnant according to the election of
grace is saved;”[380] since it is easily understood to be of such
a remnant that it is said, “He that is left in thine house,”
assuredly he believes in Christ; just as in the time of the
apostle very many of that nation believed; nor are there now
wanting those, although very few, who yet believe, and in
them is fulfilled what this man of God has here immediately
added, “He shall come to worship him with a piece of money;”
to worship whom, if not that Chief Priest, who is also God?
For in that priesthood after the order of Aaron men did not
come to the temple or altar of God for the purpose of worshipping
the priest. But what is that he says, “With a piece
of money,” if not the short word of faith, about which the
apostle quotes the saying, “A consummating and shortening[Pg 183]
word will the Lord make upon the earth?”[381] But that
money is put for the word the psalm is a witness, where it
is sung, “The words of the Lord are pure words, money tried
with the fire.”[382]

What then does he say who comes to worship the priest of
God, even the Priest who is God? “Put me into one part of
Thy priesthood, to eat bread.” I do not wish to be set in the
honour of my fathers, which is none; put me in a part of Thy
priesthood. For “I have chosen to be mean in Thine house;”[383]
I desire to be a member, no matter what, or how small, of Thy
priesthood. By the priesthood he here means the people itself,
of which He is the Priest who is the Mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus.[384] This people the Apostle Peter
calls “a holy people, a royal priesthood.”[385] But some have
translated, “Of Thy sacrifice,” not “Of Thy priesthood,” which
no less signifies the same Christian people. Whence the
Apostle Paul says, “We being many are one bread, one body.”[386]
[And again he says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.”[387]]
What, therefore, he has added, to “eat bread,” also elegantly
expresses the very kind of sacrifice of which the Priest Himself
says, “The bread which I will give is my flesh for the life
of the world.”[388] The same is the sacrifice not after the order
of Aaron, but after the order of Melchisedec:[389] let him that
readeth understand.[390] Therefore this short and salutarily
humble confession, in which it is said, “Put me in a part of
Thy priesthood, to eat bread,” is itself the piece of money, for
it is both brief, and it is the Word of God who dwells in the
heart of one who believes. For because He had said above,
that He had given for food to Aaron’s house the sacrificial
victims of the Old Testament, where He says, “I have given
thy father’s house for food all things which are offered by fire
of the children of Israel,” which indeed were the sacrifices of
the Jews; therefore here He has said, “To eat bread,” which
is in the New Testament the sacrifice of the Christians.

[Pg 184]

6. Of the Jewish priesthood and kingdom, which, although promised to be established
for ever, did not continue; so that other things are to be understood
to which eternity is assured.

While, therefore, these things now shine forth as clearly
as they were loftily foretold, still some one may not vainly
be moved to ask, How can we be confident that all things
are to come to pass which are predicted in these books as
about to come, if this very thing which is there divinely
spoken, “Thine house and thy father’s house shall walk
before me for ever,” could not have effect? For we see that
priesthood has been changed; and there can be no hope that
what was promised to that house may some time be fulfilled,
because that which succeeds on its being rejected and changed
is rather predicted as eternal. He who says this does not
yet understand, or does not recollect, that this very priesthood
after the order of Aaron was appointed as the shadow
of a future eternal priesthood; and therefore, when eternity
is promised to it, it is not promised to the mere shadow and
figure, but to what is shadowed forth and prefigured by it.
But lest it should be thought the shadow itself was to remain,
therefore its mutation also behoved to be foretold.

In this way, too, the kingdom of Saul himself, who certainly
was reprobated and rejected, was the shadow of a
kingdom yet to come which should remain to eternity. For,
indeed, the oil with which he was anointed, and from that
chrism he is called Christ, is to be taken in a mystical sense,
and is to be understood as a great mystery; which David
himself venerated so much in him, that he trembled with
smitten heart when, being hid in a dark cave, which Saul
also entered when pressed by the necessity of nature, he had
come secretly behind him and cut off a small piece of his
robe, that he might be able to prove how he had spared him
when he could have killed him, and might thus remove from
his mind the suspicion through which he had vehemently
persecuted the holy David, thinking him his enemy. Therefore
he was much afraid lest he should be accused of violating
so great a mystery in Saul, because he had thus meddled
even his clothes. For thus it is written: “And David’s
heart smote him because he had taken away the skirt of his[Pg 185]
cloak.”[391] But to the men with him, who advised him to destroy
Saul thus delivered up into his hands, he saith, “The Lord forbid
that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s christ, to lay
my hand upon him, because he is the Lord’s christ.” Therefore
he showed so great reverence to this shadow of what was
to come, not for its own sake, but for the sake of what it
prefigured. Whence also that which Samuel says to Saul,
“Since thou hast not kept my commandment which the Lord
commanded thee, whereas now the Lord would have prepared
thy kingdom over Israel for ever, yet now thy kingdom shall
not continue for thee; and the Lord will seek Him a man after
His own heart, and the Lord will command him to be prince
over His people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord
commanded thee,”[392] is not to be taken as if God had settled
that Saul himself should reign for ever, and afterwards, on his
sinning, would not keep this promise; nor was He ignorant
that he would sin, but He had established his kingdom that
it might be a figure of the eternal kingdom. Therefore he
added, “Yet now thy kingdom shall not continue for thee.”
Therefore what it signified has stood and shall stand; but it
shall not stand for this man, because he himself was not to
reign for ever, nor his offspring; so that at least that word
“for ever” might seem to be fulfilled through his posterity
one to another. “And the Lord,” he saith, “will seek Him
a man,” meaning either David or the Mediator of the New
Testament,[393] who was figured in the chrism with which David
also and his offspring was anointed. But it is not as if He
knew not where he was that God thus seeks Him a man,
but, speaking through a man, He speaks as a man, and in this
sense seeks us. For not only to God the Father, but also to
His Only-begotten, who came to seek what was lost,[394] we had
been known already even so far as to be chosen in Him
before the foundation of the world.[395] “He will seek him”
therefore means, He will have His own (just as if He had
said, Whom He already has known to be His own He will
show to others to be His friend). Whence in Latin this word
(quærit) receives a preposition and becomes acquirit (acquires),[Pg 186]
the meaning of which is plain enough; although even without
the addition of the preposition quærere is understood as
acquirere, whence gains are called quæstus.

7. Of the disruption of the kingdom of Israel, by which the perpetual division of
the spiritual from the carnal Israel was prefigured.

Again Saul sinned through disobedience, and again Samuel
says to him in the word of the Lord, “Because thou hast despised
the word of the Lord, the Lord hath despised thee, that
thou mayest not be king over Israel.”[396] And again for the same
sin, when Saul confessed it, and prayed for pardon, and besought
Samuel to return with him to appease the Lord, he said, “I
will not return with thee: for thou hast despised the word of
the Lord, and the Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not
be king over Israel. And Samuel turned his face to go away,
and Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and rent it.
And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom
from Israel out of thine hand this day, and will give it to thy
neighbour, who is good above thee, and will divide Israel in
twain. And He will not be changed, neither will He repent:
for He is not as a man, that He should repent; who threatens
and does not persist.”[397] He to whom it is said, “The Lord
will despise thee that thou mayest not be king over Israel,”
and “The Lord hath rent the kingdom from Israel out of
thine hand this day,” reigned forty years over Israel,—that is,
just as long a time as David himself,—yet heard this in the
first period of his reign, that we may understand it was said
because none of his race was to reign, and that we may look
to the race of David, whence also is sprung, according to the
flesh,[398] the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus.[399]

But the Scripture has not what is read in most Latin
copies, “The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel out of
thine hand this day,” but just as we have set it down it is
found in the Greek copies, “The Lord hath rent the kingdom
from Israel out of thine hand;” that the words “out of thine
hand” may be understood to mean “from Israel.” Therefore
this man figuratively represented the people of Israel, which
was to lose the kingdom, Christ Jesus our Lord being about[Pg 187]
to reign, not carnally, but spiritually. And when it is said
of Him, “And will give it to thy neighbour,” that is to be referred
to the fleshly kinship, for Christ, according to the flesh,
was of Israel, whence also Saul sprang. But what is added,
“Good above thee,” may indeed be understood, “Better than
thee,” and indeed some have thus translated it; but it is
better taken thus, “Good above thee,” as meaning that because
He is good, therefore He must be above thee, according
to that other prophetic saying, “Till I put all Thine enemies
under Thy feet.”[400] And among them is Israel, from whom, as
His persecutor, Christ took away the kingdom; although the
Israel in whom there was no guile may have been there too,
a sort of grain, as it were, of that chaff. For certainly thence
came the apostles, thence so many martyrs, of whom Stephen,
is the first, thence so many churches, which the Apostle Paul
names, magnifying God in their conversion.

Of which thing I do not doubt what follows is to be understood,
“And will divide Israel in twain,” to wit, into Israel
pertaining to the bond woman, and Israel pertaining to the
free. For these two kinds were at first together, as Abraham
still clave to the bond woman, until the barren, made,
fruitful by the grace of God, cried, “Cast out the bond
woman and her son.”[401] We know, indeed, that on account
of the sin of Solomon, in the reign of his son Rehoboam
Israel was divided in two, and continued so, the separate parts
having their own kings, until that whole nation was overthrown
with a great destruction, and carried away by the Chaldeans.
But what was this to Saul, when, if any such thing was
threatened, it would be threatened against David himself,
whose son Solomon was? Finally, the Hebrew nation is not
now divided internally, but is dispersed through the earth indiscriminately,
in the fellowship of the same error. But that
division with which God threatened the kingdom and people
in the person of Saul, who represented them, is shown to be
eternal and unchangeable by this which is added, “And He
will not be changed, neither will He repent: for He is not as
a man, that He should repent; who threatens and does not persist,”—that
is, a man threatens and does not persist, but not[Pg 188]
God, who does not repent like man. For when we read that
He repents, a change of circumstance is meant, flowing from the
divine immutable foreknowledge. Therefore, when God is said
not to repent, it is to be understood that He does not change.

We see that this sentence concerning this division of the
people of Israel, divinely uttered in these words, has been
altogether irremediable and quite perpetual. For whoever
have turned, or are turning, or shall turn thence to Christ, it
has been according to the foreknowledge of God, not according
to the one and the same nature of the human race. Certainly
none of the Israelites, who, cleaving to Christ, have
continued in Him, shall ever be among those Israelites who
persist in being His enemies even to the end of this life,
but shall for ever remain in the separation which is here
foretold. For the Old Testament, from the Mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage,[402] profiteth nothing, unless because
it bears witness to the New Testament. Otherwise, however
long Moses is read, the veil is put over their heart; but
when any one shall turn thence to Christ, the veil shall be
taken away.[403] For the very desire of those who turn is
changed from the old to the new, so that each no longer
desires to obtain carnal but spiritual felicity. Wherefore
that great prophet Samuel himself, before he had anointed
Saul, when he had cried to the Lord for Israel, and He had
heard him, and when he had offered a whole burnt-offering,
as the aliens were coming to battle against the people of God,
and the Lord thundered above them and they were confused,
and fell before Israel and were overcome; [then] he took one
stone and set it up between the old and new Massephat
(Mizpeh), and called its name Ebenezer, which means “the
stone of the helper,” and said, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us.”[404] Massephat is interpreted “desire.” That stone of the
helper is the mediation of the Saviour, by which we go from
the old Massephat to the new,—that is, from the desire with
which carnal happiness was expected in the carnal kingdom
to the desire with which the truest spiritual happiness is expected
in the kingdom of heaven; and since nothing is better
than that, the Lord helpeth us hitherto.

[Pg 189]

8. Of the promises made to David in his son, which are in no wise fulfilled in
Solomon, but most fully in Christ.

And now I see I must show what, pertaining to the matter
I treat of, God promised to David himself, who succeeded Saul
in the kingdom, whose change prefigured that final change on
account of which all things were divinely spoken, all things
were committed to writing. When many things had gone prosperously
with king David, he thought to make a house for
God, even that temple of most excellent renown which was
afterwards built by king Solomon his son. While he was
thinking of this, the word of the Lord came to Nathan the
prophet, which he brought to the king, in which, after God
had said that a house should not be built unto Him by David
himself, and that in all that long time He had never commanded
any of His people to build Him a house of cedar, he
says, “And now thus shalt thou say unto my servant David,
Thus saith God Almighty, I took thee from the sheep-cote
that thou mightest be for a ruler over my people in Israel:
and I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have
cut off all thine enemies from before thy face, and have made
thee a name, according to the name of the great ones who are
over the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people
Israel, and will plant him, and he shall dwell apart, and shall
be troubled no more; and the son of wickedness shall not
humble him any more, as from the beginning, from the days
when I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will
give thee rest from all thine enemies, and the Lord will tell
[hath told] thee, because thou shalt build an house for Him.
And it shall come to pass when thy days be fulfilled, and
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy
seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I
will prepare his kingdom. He shall build me an house for
my name; and I will order his throne even to eternity. I
will be his Father, and he shall be my son. And if he commit
iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with
the stripes of the sons of men: but my mercy I will not take
away from him, as I took it away from those whom I put
away from before my face. And his house shall be faithful,[Pg 190]
and his kingdom even for evermore before me, and his throne
shall be set up even for evermore.”[405]

He who thinks this grand promise was fulfilled in Solomon
greatly errs; for he attends to the saying, “He shall build
me an house,” but he does not attend to the saying, “His
house shall be faithful, and his kingdom for evermore before
me.” Let him therefore attend and behold the house of
Solomon full of strange women worshipping false gods, and
the king himself, aforetime wise, seduced by them, and cast
down into the same idolatry: and let him not dare to think
that God either promised this falsely, or was unable to foreknow
that Solomon and his house would become what they
did. But we ought not to be in doubt here, or to see the
fulfilment of these things save in Christ our Lord, who was
made of the seed of David according to the flesh,[406] lest we
should vainly and uselessly look for some other here, like the
carnal Jews. For even they understand this much, that the
son whom they read of in that place as promised to David
was not Solomon; so that, with wonderful blindness to Him
who was promised and is now declared with so great manifestation,
they say they hope for another. Indeed, even in Solomon
there appeared some image of the future event, in that
he built the temple, and had peace according to his name (for
Solomon means “pacific”), and in the beginning of his reign
was wonderfully praiseworthy; but while, as a shadow of Him
that should come, he foreshowed Christ our Lord, he did not
also in his own person resemble Him. Whence some things
concerning him are so written as if they were prophesied
of himself, while the Holy Scripture, prophesying even by
events, somehow delineates in him the figure of things to
come. For, besides the books of divine history, in which his
reign is narrated, the 72d Psalm also is inscribed in the title
with his name, in which so many things are said which cannot
at all apply to him, but which apply to the Lord Christ
with such evident fitness as makes it quite apparent that in
the one the figure is in some way shadowed forth, but in the
other the truth itself is presented. For it is known within
what bounds the kingdom of Solomon was enclosed; and yet[Pg 191]
in that psalm, not to speak of other things, we read, “He
shall have dominion from sea even to sea, and from the river
to the ends of the earth,”[407] which we see fulfilled in Christ.
Truly he took the beginning of His reigning from the river
where John baptized; for, when pointed out by him, He began
to be acknowledged by the disciples, who called Him not only
Master, but also Lord.

Nor was it for any other reason that, while his father David
was still living, Solomon began to reign, which happened to
none other of their kings, except that from this also it might
be clearly apparent that it was not himself this prophecy
spoken to his father signified beforehand, saying, “And it
shall come to pass when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt
sleep with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed which
shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will prepare His kingdom.”
How, therefore, shall it be thought on account of what
follows, “He shall build me an house,” that this Solomon is
prophesied, and not rather be understood on account of what
precedes, “When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep
with thy fathers, I will raise up thy seed after thee,” that
another pacific One is promised, who is foretold as about to
be raised up, not before David’s death, as he was, but after
it? For however long the interval of time might be before
Jesus Christ came, beyond doubt it was after the death of
king David, to whom He was so promised, that He behoved
to come, who should build an house of God, not of wood and
stone, but of men, such as we rejoice He does build. For to
this house, that is, to believers, the apostle saith, “The temple
of God is holy, which temple ye are.”[408]

9. How like the prophecy about Christ in the 89th Psalm is to the things
promised in Nathan’s prophecy in the Books of Samuel.

Wherefore also in the 89th Psalm, of which the title is,
“An instruction for himself by Ethan the Israelite,” mention
is made of the promises God made to king David, and some
things are there added similar to those found in the Book of
Samuel, such as this, “I have sworn to David my servant
that I will prepare his seed for ever.”[409] And again, “Then
thou spakest in vision to thy sons, and saidst, I have laid[Pg 192]
help upon the mighty One, and have exalted the chosen One
out of my people. I have found David my servant, and with
my holy oil I have anointed him. For mine hand shall help
him, and mine arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall
not prevail against him, and the son of iniquity shall harm
him no more. And I will beat down his foes from before
his face, and those that hate him will I put to flight. And
my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name
shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me,
Thou art my Father, my God, and the undertaker of my salvation.
Also I will make him my first-born, high among the
kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore,
and my covenant shall be faithful (sure) with him.
His seed also will I set for ever and ever, and his throne as
the days of heaven.”[410] Which words, when rightly understood,
are all understood to be about the Lord Jesus Christ, under
the name of David, on account of the form of a servant, which
the same Mediator assumed[411] from the virgin of the seed of
David.[412] For immediately something is said about the sins of
his children, such as is set down in the Book of Samuel, and
is more readily taken as if of Solomon. For there, that is,
in the Book of Samuel, he says, “And if he commit iniquity,
I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes
of the sons of men; but my mercy will I not take away from
him,”[413] meaning by stripes the strokes of correction. Hence
that saying, “Touch ye not my christs.”[414] For what else is
that than, Do not harm them? But in the psalm, when
speaking as if of David, He says something of the same kind
there too. “If his children,” saith He, “forsake my law, and
walk not in my judgments; if they profane my righteousnesses,
and keep not my commandments; I will visit their
iniquities with the rod, and their faults with stripes: but my
mercy I will not make void from him.”[415] He did not say
“from them,” although He spoke of his children, not of himself;
but he said “from him,” which means the same thing
if rightly understood. For of Christ Himself, who is the head[Pg 193]
of the Church, there could not be found any sins which required
to be divinely restrained by human correction, mercy
being still continued; but they are found in His body and
members, which is His people. Therefore in the Book of
Samuel it is said, “iniquity of Him,” but in the psalm, “of
His children,” that we may understand that what is said of
His body is in some way said of Himself. Wherefore also,
when Saul persecuted His body, that is, His believing people,
He Himself saith from heaven, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me?”[416] Then in the following words of the psalm He
says, “Neither will I hurt in my truth, nor profane my covenant,
and the things that proceed from my lips I will not
disallow. Once have I sworn by my holiness, if I lie unto
David,”[417]—that is, I will in no wise lie unto David; for
Scripture is wont to speak thus. But what that is in which
He will not lie, He adds, saying, “His seed shall endure for
ever, and his throne as the sun before me, and as the moon
perfected for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven.”[418]

10. How different the acts in the kingdom of the earthly Jerusalem are from
those which God had promised, so that the truth of the promise should be
understood to pertain to the glory of the other King and kingdom.

That it might not be supposed that a promise so strongly
expressed and confirmed was fulfilled in Solomon, as if he
hoped for, yet did not find it, he says, “But Thou hast cast off,
and hast brought to nothing, O Lord.”[419] This truly was done
concerning the kingdom of Solomon among his posterity, even
to the overthrow of the earthly Jerusalem itself, which was
the seat of the kingdom, and especially the destruction of the
very temple which had been built by Solomon. But lest on
this account God should be thought to have done contrary to
His promise, immediately he adds, “Thou hast delayed Thy
Christ.”[420] Therefore he is not Solomon, nor yet David himself,
if the Christ of the Lord is delayed. For while all the
kings are called His christs, who were consecrated with that
mystical chrism, not only from king David downwards, but
even from that Saul who first was anointed king of that same
people, David himself indeed calling him the Lord’s christ,[Pg 194]
yet there was one true Christ, whose figure they bore by the
prophetic unction, who, according to the opinion of men, who
thought he was to be understood as come in David or in
Solomon, was long delayed, but who, according as God had
disposed, was to come in His own time. The following part
of this psalm goes on to say what in the meantime, while He
was delayed, was to become of the kingdom of the earthly
Jerusalem, where it was hoped He would certainly reign:
“Thou hast overthrown the covenant of Thy servant; Thou
hast profaned in the earth his sanctuary. Thou hast broken
down all his walls; Thou hast put his strongholds in fear.
All that pass by the way spoil him; he is made a reproach
to his neighbours. Thou hast set up the right hand of his
enemies; Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. Thou
hast turned aside the help of his sword, and hast not helped
him in war. Thou hast destroyed him from cleansing; Thou
hast dashed down his seat to the ground. Thou hast shortened
the days of his seat; Thou hast poured confusion over
him.”[421] All these things came upon Jerusalem the bond
woman, in which some also reigned who were children of the
free woman, holding that kingdom in temporary stewardship,
but holding the kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose
children they were, in true faith, and hoping in the true
Christ. But how these things came upon that kingdom, the
history of its affairs points out if it is read.

11. Of the substance of the people of God, which through His assumption of
flesh is in Christ, who alone had power to deliver His own soul from hell.

But after having prophesied these things, the prophet betakes
him to praying to God; yet even the very prayer is
prophecy: “How long, Lord, dost Thou turn away in the
end?”[422] “Thy face” is understood, as it is elsewhere said,
“How long dost Thou turn away Thy face from me?”[423] For
therefore some copies have here not “dost,” but “wilt Thou
turn away;” although it could be understood, “Thou turnest
away Thy mercy, which Thou didst promise to David.” But
when he says, “in the end,” what does it mean, except even
to the end? By which end is to be understood the last time,
when even that nation is to believe in Christ Jesus, before[Pg 195]
which end what He has just sorrowfully bewailed must come
to pass. On account of which it is also added here, “Thy
wrath shall burn like fire. Remember what is my substance.”[424]
This cannot be better understood than of Jesus
Himself, the substance of His people, of whose nature His
flesh is. “For not in vain,” he says, “hast Thou made all the
sons of men.”[425] For unless the one Son of man had been the
substance of Israel, through which Son of man many sons of
men should be set free, all the sons of men would have been
made wholly in vain. But now indeed all mankind through
the fall of the first man has fallen from the truth into vanity;
for which reason another psalm says, “Man is like to vanity:
his days pass away as a shadow;”[426] yet God has not made all
the sons of men in vain, because He frees many from vanity
through the Mediator Jesus, and those whom He did not foreknow
as to be delivered, He made not wholly in vain in the
most beautiful and most just ordination of the whole rational
creation, for the use of those who were to be delivered, and
for the comparison of the two cities by mutual contrast.
Thereafter it follows, “Who is the man that shall live, and
shall not see death? shall he snatch his soul from the hand
of hell?”[427] Who is this but that substance of Israel out of
the seed of David, Christ Jesus, of whom the apostle says,
that “rising from the dead He now dieth not, and death shall
no more have dominion over Him?”[428] For He shall so live and
not see death, that yet He shall have been dead; but shall
have delivered His soul from the hand of hell, whither He had
descended in order to loose some from the chains of hell; but
He hath delivered it by that power of which He says in the
Gospel, “I have the power of laying down my life, and I have
the power of taking it again.”[429]

12. To whose person the entreaty for the promises is to be understood to belong,
when he says in the psalm, “Where are Thine ancient compassions,
Lord?” etc.

But the rest of this psalm runs thus: “Where are Thine
ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in
Thy truth? Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants,[Pg 196]
which I have borne in my bosom of many nations; wherewith
Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they
have reproached the change of Thy Christ.”[430] Now it may
with very good reason be asked whether this is spoken in the
person of those Israelites who desired that the promise made
to David might be fulfilled to them; or rather of the Christians,
who are Israelites not after the flesh but after the
Spirit.[431] This certainly was spoken or written in the time of
Ethan, from whose name this psalm gets its title, and that
was the same as the time of David’s reign; and therefore it
would not have been said, “Where are Thine ancient compassions,
Lord, which Thou hast sworn unto David in Thy
truth?” unless the prophet had assumed the person of those
who should come long afterwards, to whom that time when
these things were promised to David was ancient. But it
may be understood thus, that many nations, when they persecuted
the Christians, reproached them with the passion of
Christ, which Scripture calls His change, because by dying
He is made immortal. The change of Christ, according to
this passage, may also be understood to be reproached by the
Israelites, because, when they hoped He would be theirs, He
was made the Saviour of the nations; and many nations who
have believed in Him by the New Testament now reproach
them who remain in the old with this: so that it is said, “Remember,
Lord, the reproach of Thy servants;” because through
the Lord’s not forgetting, but rather pitying them, even they
after this reproach are to believe. But what I have put first
seems to me the most suitable meaning. For to the enemies
of Christ who are reproached with this, that Christ hath left
them, turning to the Gentiles,[432] this speech is incongruously
assigned, “Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants,”
for such Jews are not to be styled the servants of God; but
these words fit those who, if they suffered great humiliations
through persecution for the name of Christ, could call to mind
that an exalted kingdom had been promised to the seed of
David, and in desire of it, could say not despairingly, but as
asking, seeking, knocking,[433] “Where are Thine ancient compassions,[Pg 197]
Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? Remember,
Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, that I have borne
in my bosom of many nations;” that is, have patiently endured
in my inward parts. “That Thine enemies have reproached,
O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the change of Thy
Christ,” not thinking it a change, but a consumption.[434] But what
does “Remember, Lord,” mean, but that Thou wouldst have
compassion, and wouldst for my patiently borne humiliation
reward me with the excellency which Thou swarest unto David
in Thy truth? But if we assign these words to the Jews,
those servants of God who, on the conquest of the earthly
Jerusalem, before Jesus Christ was born after the manner of
men, were led into captivity, could say such things, understanding
the change of Christ, because indeed through Him
was to be surely expected, not an earthly and carnal felicity,
such as appeared during the few years of king Solomon, but a
heavenly and spiritual felicity; and when the nations, then
ignorant of this through unbelief, exulted over and insulted
the people of God for being captives, what else was this than
ignorantly to reproach with the change of Christ those who
understand the change of Christ? And therefore what follows
when this psalm is concluded, “Let the blessing of the
Lord be for evermore, amen, amen,” is suitable enough for
the whole people of God belonging to the heavenly Jerusalem,
whether for those things that lay hid in the Old Testament
before the New was revealed, or for those that, being now
revealed in the New Testament, are manifestly discerned to
belong to Christ. For the blessing of the Lord in the seed of
David does not belong to any particular time, such as appeared
in the days of Solomon, but is for evermore to be
hoped for, in which most certain hope it is said, “Amen,
amen;” for this repetition of the word is the confirmation of
that hope. Therefore David understanding this, says in the
second Book of Kings, in the passage from which we digressed
to this psalm,[435] “Thou hast spoken also for Thy servant’s house
for a great while to come.”[436] Therefore also a little after he
says, “Now begin, and bless the house of Thy servant for evermore,”[Pg 198]
etc., because the son was then about to be born from
whom his posterity should be continued to Christ, through
whom his house should be eternal, and should also be the
house of God. For it is called the house of David on account
of David’s race; but the selfsame is called the house of God
on account of the temple of God, made of men, not of stones,
where shall dwell for evermore the people with and in their
God, and God with and in His people, so that God may fill
His people, and the people be filled with their God, while God
shall be all in all, Himself their reward in peace who is their
strength in war. Therefore, when it is said in the words of
Nathan, “And the Lord will tell thee what an house thou
shalt build for Him,”[437] it is afterwards said in the words of
David, “For Thou, Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hast opened
the ear of Thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house.”[438]
For this house is built both by us through living well, and by
God through helping us to live well; for “except the Lord
build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”[439] And
when the final dedication of this house shall take place, then
what God here says by Nathan shall be fulfilled, “And I
will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant him,
and he shall dwell apart, and shall be troubled no more; and
the son of iniquity shall not humble him any more, as from
the beginning, from the days when I appointed judges over my
people Israel.”[440]

13. Whether the truth of this promised peace can be ascribed to those times
passed away under Solomon.

Whoever hopes for this so great good in this world, and
in this earth, his wisdom is but folly. Can any one think it
was fulfilled in the peace of Solomon’s reign? Scripture certainly
commends that peace with excellent praise as a shadow
of that which is to come. But this opinion is to be vigilantly
opposed, since after it is said, “And the son of iniquity shall
not humble him any more,” it is immediately added, “as from
the beginning, from the days in which I appointed judges
over my people Israel.”[441] For the judges were appointed over
that people from the time when they received the land of[Pg 199]
promise, before kings had begun to be there. And certainly
the son of iniquity, that is, the foreign enemy, humbled him
through periods of time in which we read that peace alternated
with wars; and in that period longer times of peace are
found than Solomon had, who reigned forty years. For under
that judge who is called Ehud there were eighty years of
peace.[442] Be it far from us, therefore, that we should believe
the times of Solomon are predicted in this promise, much less
indeed those of any other king whatever. For none other of
them reigned in such great peace as he; nor did that nation
ever at all hold that kingdom so as to have no anxiety lest it
should be subdued by enemies: for in the very great mutability
of human affairs such great security is never given to
any people, that it should not dread invasions hostile to this
life. Therefore the place of this promised peaceful and secure
habitation is eternal, and of right belongs eternally to Jerusalem
the free mother, where the genuine people of Israel
shall be: for this name is interpreted “Seeing God;” in the
desire of which reward a pious life is to be led through faith
in this miserable pilgrimage.[443]

14. Of David’s concern in the writing of the Psalms.

In the progress of the city of God through the ages, therefore,
David first reigned in the earthly Jerusalem as a shadow
of that which was to come. Now David was a man skilled
in songs, who dearly loved musical harmony, not with a
vulgar delight, but with a believing disposition, and by it
served his God, who is the true God, by the mystical representation
of a great thing. For the rational and well-ordered
concord of diverse sounds in harmonious variety suggests the
compact unity of the well-ordered city. Then almost all his
prophecy is in psalms, of which a hundred and fifty are contained
in what we call the Book of Psalms, of which some
will have it those only were made by David which are inscribed
with his name. But there are also some who think
none of them were made by him except those which are
marked “Of David;” but those which have in the title “For[Pg 200]
David” have been made by others who assumed his person.
Which opinion is refuted by the voice of the Saviour
Himself in the Gospel, when He says that David himself
by the Spirit said Christ was his Lord; for the 110th Psalm
begins thus, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my
right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”[444] And
truly that very psalm, like many more, has in the title, not
“of David,” but “for David.” But those seem to me to hold
the more credible opinion, who ascribe to him the authorship
of all these hundred and fifty psalms, and think that he prefixed
to some of them the names even of other men, who
prefigured something pertinent to the matter, but chose to
have no man’s name in the titles of the rest, just as God
inspired him in the management of this variety, which,
although dark, is not meaningless. Neither ought it to move
one not to believe this, that the names of some prophets who
lived long after the times of king David are read in the
inscriptions of certain psalms in that book, and that the
things said there seem to be spoken as it were by them.
Nor was the prophetic Spirit unable to reveal to king David,
when he prophesied, even these names of future prophets, so
that he might prophetically sing something which should suit
their persons; just as it was revealed to a certain prophet
that king Josiah should arise and reign after more than three
hundred years, who predicted his future deeds also along with
his name.[445]

15. Whether all the things prophesied in the Psalms concerning Christ and His
Church should be taken up in the text of this work.

And now I see it may be expected of me that I shall open
up in this part of this book what David may have prophesied
in the Psalms concerning the Lord Jesus Christ or His
Church. But although I have already done so in one instance,
I am prevented from doing as that expectation seems
to demand, rather by the abundance than the scarcity of
matter. For the necessity of shunning prolixity forbids my
setting down all things; yet I fear lest if I select some I shall
appear to many, who know these things, to have passed by[Pg 201]
the more necessary. Besides, the proof that is adduced ought
to be supported by the context of the whole psalm, so that
at least there may be nothing against it if everything does
not support it; lest we should seem, after the fashion of the
centos, to gather for the thing we wish, as it were verses out
of a grand poem, what shall be found to have been written
not about it, but about some other and widely different thing.
But ere this could be pointed out in each psalm, the whole
of it must be expounded; and how great a work that would
be, the volumes of others, as well as our own, in which we
have done it, show well enough. Let him then who will,
or can, read these volumes, and he will find out how many
and great things David, at once king and prophet, has prophesied
concerning Christ and His Church, to wit, concerning
the King and the city which He has built.

16. Of the things pertaining to Christ and the Church, said either openly or
tropically in the 45th Psalm.

For whatever direct and manifest prophetic utterances there
may be about anything, it is necessary that those which are
tropical should be mingled with them; which, chiefly on
account of those of slower understanding, thrust upon the
more learned the laborious task of clearing up and expounding
them. Some of them, indeed, on the very first blush, as
soon as they are spoken, exhibit Christ and the Church,
although some things in them that are less intelligible remain
to be expounded at leisure. We have an example of this
in that same Book of Psalms: “My heart bubbled up a good
matter: I utter my words to the king. My tongue is the pen
of a scribe, writing swiftly. Thy form is beautiful beyond the
sons of men; grace is poured out in Thy lips: therefore God
hath blessed Thee for evermore. Gird Thy sword about Thy
thigh, O Most Mighty. With Thy goodliness and Thy beauty
go forward, proceed prosperously, and reign, because of Thy
truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and Thy right hand
shall lead Thee forth wonderfully. Thy sharp arrows are most
powerful. The people shall fall under Thee: in the heart of
the King’s enemies. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever:
a rod of direction is the rod of Thy kingdom. Thou hast
loved righteousness, and hast hated iniquity: therefore God,[Pg 202]
Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of exultation above
Thy fellows. Myrrh and drops, and cassia from Thy vestments,
from the houses of ivory: out of which the daughters
of kings have delighted Thee in Thine honour.”[446] Who is there,
no matter how slow, but must here recognise Christ whom
we preach, and in whom we believe, if he hears that He
is God, whose throne is for ever and ever, and that He is
anointed by God, as God indeed anoints, not with a visible,
but with a spiritual and intelligible chrism? For who is so
untaught in this religion, or so deaf to its far and wide spread
fame, as not to know that Christ is named from this chrism,
that is, from this anointing? But when it is acknowledged
that this King is Christ, let each one who is already subject to
Him who reigns because of truth, meekness, and righteousness,
inquire at his leisure into these other things that are here
said tropically: how His form is beautiful beyond the sons
of men, with a certain beauty that is the more to be loved
and admired the less it is corporeal; and what His sword,
arrows, and other things of that kind may be, which are set
down, not properly, but tropically.

Then let him look upon His Church, joined to her so great
Husband in spiritual marriage and divine love, of which it is
said in these words which follow, “The queen stood upon
Thy right hand in gold-embroidered vestments, girded about
with variety. Hearken, O daughter, and look, and incline
thine ear; forget also thy people, and thy father’s house.
Because the King hath greatly desired thy beauty; for He is
the Lord thy God. And the daughters of Tyre shall worship
Him with gifts; the rich among the people shall entreat Thy
face. The daughter of the King has all her glory within, in
golden fringes, girded about with variety. The virgins shall
be brought after her to the King: her neighbours shall be
brought to Thee. They shall be brought with gladness and
exultation: they shall be led into the temple of the King.
Instead of thy fathers, sons shall be born to thee: thou shalt
establish them as princes over all the earth. They shall be
mindful of thy name in every generation and descent. Therefore
shall the people acknowledge thee for evermore, even for[Pg 203]
ever and ever.”[447] I do not think any one is so stupid as to
believe that some poor woman is here praised and described,
as the spouse, to wit, of Him to whom it is said, “Thy throne,
O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of direction is the rod of
Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity:
therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the
oil of exultation above Thy fellows;”[448] that is, plainly, Christ
above Christians. For these are His fellows, out of the unity
and concord of whom in all nations that queen is formed,
as it is said of her in another psalm, “The city of the great
King.”[449] The same is Sion spiritually, which name in Latin
is interpreted speculatio (discovery); for she descries the
great good of the world to come, because her attention is
directed thither. In the same way she is also Jerusalem
spiritually, of which we have already said many things. Her
enemy is the city of the devil, Babylon, which is interpreted
“confusion.” Yet out of this Babylon this queen is in all
nations set free by regeneration, and passes from the worst
to the best King,—that is, from the devil to Christ. Wherefore
it is said to her, “Forget thy people and thy father’s
house.” Of this impious city those also are a portion who
are Israelites only in the flesh and not by faith, enemies also
of this great King Himself, and of His queen. For Christ,
having come to them, and been slain by them, has the more
become the King of others, whom He did not see in the flesh.
Whence our King Himself says through the prophecy of a
certain psalm, “Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions
of the people; Thou wilt make me head of the nations. A
people whom I have not known hath served me: in the hearing
of the ear it hath obeyed me.”[450] Therefore this people of
the nations, which Christ did not know in His bodily presence,
yet has believed in that Christ as announced to it; so that it
might be said of it with good reason, “In the hearing of the
ear it hath obeyed me,” for “faith is by hearing.”[451] This
people, I say, added to those who are the true Israelites both
by the flesh and by faith, is the city of God, which has
brought forth Christ Himself according to the flesh, since He[Pg 204]
was in these Israelites only. For thence came the Virgin
Mary, in whom Christ assumed flesh that He might be man.
Of which city another psalm says, “Mother Sion, shall a man
say, and the man is made in her, and the Highest Himself
hath founded her.”[452] Who is this Highest, save God? And
thus Christ, who is God, before He became man through Mary
in that city, Himself founded it by the patriarchs and prophets.
As therefore was said by prophecy so long before to this queen,
the city of God, what we already can see fulfilled, “Instead
of thy fathers, sons are born to thee; thou shalt make them
princes over all the earth;”[453] so out of her sons truly are set
up even her fathers [princes] through all the earth, when the
people, coming together to her, confess to her with the confession
of eternal praise for ever and ever. Beyond doubt,
whatever interpretation is put on what is here expressed
somewhat darkly in figurative language, ought to be in agreement
with these most manifest things.

17. Of those things in the 110th Psalm which relate to the priesthood of Christ,
and in the 22d to His passion.

Just as in that psalm also where Christ is most openly
proclaimed as Priest, even as He is here as King, “The Lord
said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make
Thine enemies Thy footstool.”[454] That Christ sits on the right
hand of God the Father is believed, not seen; that His enemies
also are put under His feet doth not yet appear; it is
being done, [therefore] it will appear at last: yea, this is now
believed, afterward it shall be seen. But what follows, “The
Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Sion, and
rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,”[455] is so clear, that to
deny it would imply not merely unbelief and mistake, but
downright impudence. And even enemies must certainly
confess that out of Sion has been sent the law of Christ which
we call the gospel, and acknowledge as the rod of His strength.
But that He rules in the midst of His enemies, these same
enemies among whom He rules themselves bear witness,
gnashing their teeth and consuming away, and having power
to do nothing against Him. Then what he says a little after,[Pg 205]
“The Lord hath sworn and will not repent,”[456] by which words
He intimates that what He adds is immutable, “Thou art a
priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,”[457] who is permitted
to doubt of whom these things are said, seeing that
now there is nowhere a priesthood and sacrifice after the
order of Aaron, and everywhere men offer under Christ as the
Priest, which Melchizedek showed when he blessed Abraham?
Therefore to these manifest things are to be referred, when
rightly understood, those things in the same psalm that are set
down a little more obscurely, and we have already made known
in our popular sermons how these things are to be rightly understood.
So also in that where Christ utters through prophecy
the humiliation of His passion, saying, “They pierced my
hands and feet; they counted all my bones. Yea, they looked
and stared at me.”[458] By which words he certainly meant His
body stretched out on the cross, with the hands and feet pierced
and perforated by the striking through of the nails, and that
He had in that way made Himself a spectacle to those who
looked and stared. And he adds, “They parted my garments
among them, and over my vesture they cast lots.”[459] How
this prophecy has been fulfilled the Gospel history narrates.
Then, indeed, the other things also which are said there less
openly are rightly understood when they agree with those
which shine with so great clearness; especially because those
things also which we do not believe as past, but survey as
present, are beheld by the whole world, being now exhibited
just as they are read of in this very psalm as predicted so
long before. For it is there said a little after, “All the ends
of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all
the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him; for the
kingdom is the Lord’s, and He shall rule the nations.”

18. Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in which the death and resurrection
of the Lord are prophesied.

About His resurrection also the oracles of the Psalms are
by no means silent. For what else is it that is sung in His
person in the 3d Psalm, “I laid me down and took a sleep,
[and] I awaked, for the Lord shall sustain me?”[460] Is there[Pg 206]
perchance any one so stupid as to believe that the prophet
chose to point it out to us as something great that He had
slept and risen up, unless that sleep had been death, and that
awaking the resurrection, which behoved to be thus prophesied
concerning Christ? For in the 41st Psalm also it is
shown much more clearly, where in the person of the Mediator,
in the usual way, things are narrated as if past which were
prophesied as yet to come, since these things which were yet
to come were in the predestination and foreknowledge of God
as if they were done, because they were certain. He says,
“Mine enemies speak evil of me; When shall he die, and his
name perish? And if he came in to see me, his heart spake
vain things: he gathered iniquity to himself. He went out
of doors, and uttered it all at once. Against me all mine
enemies whisper together: against me do they devise evil.
They have planned an unjust thing against me. Shall not
he that sleeps also rise again?”[461] These words are certainly
so set down here that he may be understood to say nothing
else than if he said, Shall not He that died recover life again?
The previous words clearly show that His enemies have meditated
and planned His death, and that this was executed by
him who came in to see, and went out to betray. But to
whom does not Judas here occur, who, from being His disciple,
became His betrayer? Therefore because they were
about to do what they had plotted,—that is, were about to
kill Him,—he, to show them that with useless malice they
were about to kill Him who should rise again, so adds this
verse, as if he said, What vain thing are you doing? What
will be your crime will be my sleep. “Shall not He that
sleeps also rise again?” And yet he indicates in the following
verses that they should not commit so great an impiety
with impunity, saying, “Yea, the man of my peace in whom
I trusted, who ate my bread, hath enlarged the heel over
me;”[462] that is, hath trampled me under foot. “But Thou,” he
saith, “O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I
may requite them.”[463] Who can now deny this who sees the
Jews, after the passion and resurrection of Christ, utterly
rooted up from their abodes by warlike slaughter and destruction?[Pg 207]
For, being slain by them, He has risen again, and
has requited them meanwhile by temporary discipline, save
that for those who are not corrected He keeps it in store for
the time when He shall judge the quick and the dead.[464] For
the Lord Jesus Himself, in pointing out that very man to the
apostles as His betrayer, quoted this very verse of this psalm,
and said it was fulfilled in Himself: “He that ate my bread
enlarged the heel over me.” But what he says, “In whom I
trusted,” does not suit the head but the body. For the
Saviour Himself was not ignorant of him concerning whom
He had already said before, “One of you is a devil.”[465] But
He is wont to assume the person of His members, and to
ascribe to Himself what should be said of them, because the
head and the body is one Christ;[466] whence that saying in the
Gospel, “I was an hungered, and ye gave me to eat.”[467] Expounding
which, He says, “Since ye did it to one of the least
of mine, ye did it to me.”[468] Therefore He said that He had
trusted, because His disciples then had trusted concerning
Judas; for he was numbered with the apostles.[469]

But the Jews do not expect that the Christ whom they
expect will die; therefore they do not think ours to be Him
whom the law and the prophets announced, but feign to
themselves I know not whom of their own, exempt from the
suffering of death. Therefore, with wonderful emptiness and
blindness, they contend that the words we have set down
signify, not death and resurrection, but sleep and awaking
again. But the 16th Psalm also cries to them, “Therefore
my heart is jocund, and my tongue hath exulted; moreover,
my flesh also shall rest in hope: for Thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell; neither wilt Thou give Thine Holy One to see
corruption.”[470] Who but He that rose again the third day
could say His flesh had rested in this hope; that His soul,
not being left in hell, but speedily returning to it, should
revive it, that it should not be corrupted as corpses are wont
to be, which they can in no wise say of David the prophet and
king? The 68th Psalm also cries out, “Our God is the God[Pg 208]
of salvation: even of the Lord the exit was by death.”[471] What
could be more openly said? For the God of salvation is the
Lord Jesus, which is interpreted Saviour, or Healing One. For
this reason this name was given, when it was said before He was
born of the virgin: “Thou shalt bring forth a Son, and shalt
call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their
sins.”[472] Because His blood was shed for the remission of their
sins, it behoved Him to have no other exit from this life than
death. Therefore, when it had been said, “Our God is the God
of salvation,” immediately it was added, “Even of the Lord the
exit was by death,” in order to show that we were to be saved
by His dying. But that saying is marvellous, “Even of the
Lord,” as if it was said, Such is that life of mortals, that not
even the Lord Himself could go out of it otherwise save
through death.

19. Of the 69th Psalm, in which the obstinate unbelief of the Jews is
declared.

But when the Jews will not in the least yield to the testimonies
of this prophecy, which are so manifest, and are also
brought by events to so clear and certain a completion, certainly
that is fulfilled in them which is written in that psalm
which here follows. For when the things which pertain to
His passion are prophetically spoken there also in the person,
of Christ, that is mentioned which is unfolded in the Gospel:
“They gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar for drink.”[473] And as it were after such a feast
and dainties in this way given to Himself, presently He
brings in [these words]: “Let their table become a trap before
them, and a retribution, and an offence: let their eyes be
dimmed that they see not, and their back be always bowed
down,”[474] etc. Which things are not spoken as wished for,
but are predicted under the prophetic form of wishing. What
wonder, then, if those whose eyes are dimmed that they see
not do not see these manifest things? What wonder if
those do not look up at heavenly things whose back is always
bowed down that they may grovel among earthly things?
For these words transferred from the body signify mental[Pg 209]
faults. Let these things which have been said about the
Psalms, that is, about king David’s prophecy, suffice, that we
may keep within some bound. But let those readers excuse us
who knew them all before; and let them not complain about
those perhaps stronger proofs which they know or think I
have passed by.

20. Of David’s reign and merit; and of his son Solomon, and that prophecy
relating to Christ which is found either in those books which are joined to
those written by him, or in those which are indubitably his.

David therefore reigned in the earthly Jerusalem, a son
of the heavenly Jerusalem, much praised by the divine testimony;
for even his faults are overcome by great piety, through
the most salutary humility of his repentance, that he is altogether
one of those of whom he himself says, “Blessed are
they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”[475]
After him Solomon his son reigned over the same whole people,
who, as was said before, began to reign while his father was
still alive. This man, after good beginnings, made a bad end.
For indeed “prosperity, which wears out the minds of the wise,”[476]
hurt him more than that wisdom profited him, which even
yet is and shall hereafter be renowned, and was then praised
far and wide. He also is found to have prophesied in his
books, of which three are received as of canonical authority,
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. But it has
been customary to ascribe to Solomon other two, of which one
is called Wisdom, the other Ecclesiasticus, on account of some
resemblance of style,—but the more learned have no doubt
that they are not his; yet of old the Church, especially
the Western, received them into authority,—in the one of
which, called the Wisdom of Solomon, the passion of Christ
is most openly prophesied. For indeed His impious murderers
are quoted as saying, “Let us lie in wait for the
righteous, for he is unpleasant to us, and contrary to our
works; and he upbraideth us with our transgressions of the
law, and objecteth to our disgrace the transgressions of our
education. He professeth to have the knowledge of God, and
he calleth himself the Son of God. He was made to reprove
our thoughts. He is grievous for us even to behold; for his[Pg 210]
life is unlike other men’s, and his ways are different. We
are esteemed of him as counterfeits; and he abstaineth from
our ways as from filthiness. He extols the latter end of the
righteous; and glorieth that he hath God for his Father. Let
us see, therefore, if his words be true; and let us try what
shall happen to him, and we shall know what shall be the
end of him. For if the righteous be the Son of God, He will
undertake for him, and deliver him out of the hand of those
that are against him. Let us put him to the question with
contumely and torture, that we may know his reverence, and
prove his patience. Let us condemn him to the most shameful
death; for by His own sayings He shall be respected.
These things did they imagine, and were mistaken; for their
own malice hath quite blinded them.”[477] But in Ecclesiasticus
the future faith of the nations is predicted in this manner:
“Have mercy upon us, O God, Ruler of all, and send Thy fear
upon all the nations: lift up Thine hand over the strange
nations, and let them see Thy power. As Thou wast sanctified
in us before them, so be Thou sanctified in them before
us, and let them acknowledge Thee, according as we also have
acknowledged Thee; for there is not a God beside Thee, O
Lord.”[478] We see this prophecy in the form of a wish and
prayer fulfilled through Jesus Christ. But the things which
are not written in the canon of the Jews cannot be quoted
against their contradictions with so great validity.

But as regards those three books which it is evident are
Solomon’s, and held canonical by the Jews, to show what of
this kind may be found in them pertaining to Christ and the
Church demands a laborious discussion, which, if now entered
on, would lengthen this work unduly. Yet what we read in
the Proverbs of impious men saying, “Let us unrighteously
hide in the earth the righteous man; yea, let us swallow him
up alive as hell, and let us take away his memory from the
earth: let us seize his precious possession,”[479] is not so obscure
that it may not be understood, without laborious exposition,
of Christ and His possession the Church. Indeed, the gospel
parable about the wicked husbandmen shows that our Lord
Jesus Himself said something like it: “This is the heir; come,[Pg 211]
let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.”[480] In like
manner also that passage in this same book, on which we have
already touched[481] when we were speaking of the barren woman
who hath born seven, must soon after it was uttered have
come to be understood of only Christ and the Church by those
who knew that Christ was the Wisdom of God. “Wisdom
hath builded her an house, and hath set up seven pillars; she
hath sacrificed her victims, she hath mingled her wine in the
bowl; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent her
servants summoning to the bowl with excellent proclamation,
saying, Who is simple, let him turn aside to me. And
to the void of sense she hath said, Come, eat of my bread,
and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you.”[482] Here
certainly we perceive that the Wisdom of God, that is, the
Word co-eternal with the Father, hath builded Him an house,
even a human body in the virgin womb, and hath subjoined
the Church to it as members to a head, hath slain the martyrs
as victims, hath furnished a table with wine and bread, where
appears also the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, and
hath called the simple and the void of sense, because, as saith
the apostle, “He hath chosen the weak things of this world
that He might confound the things which are mighty.”[483] Yet
to these weak ones she saith what follows, “Forsake simplicity,
that ye may live; and seek prudence, that ye may have
life.”[484] But to be made partakers of this table is itself to
begin to have life. For when he says in another book, which
is called Ecclesiastes, “There is no good for a man, except
that he should eat and drink,”[485] what can he be more credibly
understood to say, than what belongs to the participation of
this table which the Mediator of the New Testament Himself,
the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes with His
own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all
the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a
shadow of that which was to come; wherefore also we recognise
the voice in the 40th Psalm as that of the same
Mediator speaking through prophesy, “Sacrifice and offering[Pg 212]
Thou didst not desire; but a body hast Thou perfected for me.”[486]
Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, His body
is offered, and is served up to the partakers of it. For that
this Ecclesiastes, in this sentence about eating and drinking,
which he often repeats, and very much commends, does not
savour the dainties of carnal pleasures, is made plain enough
when he says, “It is better to go into the house of mourning
than to go into the house of feasting.”[487] And a little after
He says, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
and the heart of the simple in the house of feasting.”[488] But
I think that more worthy of quotation from this book which
relates to both cities, the one of the devil, the other of Christ,
and to their kings, the devil and Christ: “Woe to thee, O land,”
he says, “when thy king is a youth, and thy princes eat in
the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the
son of nobles, and thy princes eat in season, in fortitude, and
not in confusion!”[489] He has called the devil a youth, because
of the folly and pride, and rashness and unruliness, and other
vices which are wont to abound at that age; but Christ is the
Son of nobles, that is, of the holy patriarchs, of those belonging
to the free city, of whom He was begotten in the flesh.
The princes of that and other cities are eaters in the morning,
that is, before the suitable hour, because they do not expect
the seasonable felicity, which is the true, in the world to come,
desiring to be speedily made happy with the renown of this
world, but the princes of the city of Christ patiently wait
for the time of a blessedness that is not fallacious. This is
expressed by the words, “in fortitude, and not in confusion,”
because hope does not deceive them, of which the apostle
says, “But hope maketh not ashamed.”[490] A psalm also saith,
“For they that hope in Thee shall not be put to shame.”[491]
But now the Song of Songs is a certain spiritual pleasure of
holy minds, in the marriage of that King and Queen-city, that
is, Christ and the Church. But this pleasure is wrapped up
in allegorical veils, that the Bridegroom may be more ardently
desired, and more joyfully unveiled, and may appear; to whom
it is said in this same song, “Equity hath delighted Thee;”[Pg 213][492]
and the bride who those hears, “Charity is in thy delights.”[493]
We pass over many things in silence, in our desire to finish
this work.

21. Of the kings after Solomon, both in Judah and Israel.

The other kings of the Hebrews after Solomon are scarcely
found to have prophesied, through certain enigmatic words or
actions of theirs, what may pertain to Christ and the Church,
either in Judah or Israel; for so were the parts of that
people styled, when, on account of Solomon’s offence, from the
time of Rehoboam his son, who succeeded him in the kingdom,
it was divided by God as a punishment. The ten tribes,
indeed, which Jeroboam the servant of Solomon received,
being appointed the king in Samaria, were distinctively called
Israel, although this had been the name of that whole people;
but the two tribes, namely, of Judah and Benjamin, which for
David’s sake, lest the kingdom should be wholly wrenched
from his race, remained subject to the city of Jerusalem,
were called Judah, because that was the tribe whence David
sprang. But Benjamin, the other tribe which, as was said,
belonged to the same kingdom, was that whence Saul sprang
before David. But these two tribes together, as was said,
were called Judah, and were distinguished by this name from
Israel, which was the distinctive title of the ten tribes under
their own king. For the tribe of Levi, because it was the
priestly one, bound to the servitude of God, not of the kings,
was reckoned the thirteenth. For Joseph, one of the twelve
sons of Israel, did not, like the others, form one tribe, but two,
Ephraim and Manasseh. Yet the tribe of Levi also belonged
more to the kingdom of Jerusalem, where was the temple of
God whom it served. On the division of the people, therefore,
Rehoboam, son of Solomon, reigned in Jerusalem as the
first king of Judah, and Jeroboam, servant of Solomon, in
Samaria as king of Israel. And when Rehoboam wished as
a tyrant to pursue that separated part with war, the people
were prohibited from fighting with their brethren by God, who
told them through a prophet that He had done this; whence
it appeared that in this matter there had been no sin either
of the king or people of Israel, but the accomplished will of[Pg 214]
God the avenger. When this was known, both parts settled
down peaceably, for the division made was not religious but
political.

22. Of Jeroboam, who profaned the people put under him by the impiety of
idolatry, amid which, however, God did not cease to inspire the prophets,
and to guard many from the crime of idolatry.

But Jeroboam king of Israel, with perverse mind, not believing
in God, whom he had proved true in promising and
giving him the kingdom, was afraid lest, by coming to the
temple of God which was in Jerusalem, where, according to
the divine law, that whole nation was to come in order to
sacrifice, the people should be seduced from him, and return
to David’s line as the seed royal; and set up idolatry in
his kingdom, and with horrible impiety beguiled the people,
ensnaring them to the worship of idols with himself. Yet
God did not altogether cease to reprove by the prophets, not
only that king, but also his successors and imitators in his
impiety, and the people too. For there the great and illustrious
prophets Elijah and Elisha his disciple arose, who also
did many wonderful works. Even there, when Elijah said,
“O Lord, they have slain Thy prophets, they have digged
down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my
life,” it was answered that seven thousand men were there
who had not bowed the knee to Baal.[494]

23. Of the varying condition of both the Hebrew kingdoms, until the people of
both were at different times led into captivity, Judah being afterwards
recalled into his kingdom, which finally passed into the power of the
Romans.

So also in the kingdom of Judah pertaining to Jerusalem
prophets were not lacking even in the times of succeeding
kings, just as it pleased God to send them, either for the
prediction of what was needful, or for correction of sin and
instruction in righteousness;[495] for there, too, although far less
than in Israel, kings arose who grievously offended God by
their impieties, and, along with their people, who were like
them, were smitten with moderate scourges. The no small
merits of the pious kings there are praised indeed. But we
read that in Israel the kings were, some more, others less, yet[Pg 215]
all wicked. Each part, therefore, as the divine providence
either ordered or permitted, was both lifted up by prosperity
and weighed down by adversity of various kinds; and it was
afflicted not only by foreign, but also by civil wars with each
other, in order that by certain existing causes the mercy or
anger of God might be manifested; until, by His growing indignation,
that whole nation was by the conquering Chaldeans
not only overthrown in its abode, but also for the most part
transported to the lands of the Assyrians,—first, that part of
the thirteen tribes called Israel, but afterwards Judah also,
when Jerusalem and that most noble temple was cast down,—in
which lands it rested seventy years in captivity. Being
after that time sent forth thence, they rebuilt the overthrown
temple. And although very many stayed in the lands of the
strangers, yet the kingdom no longer had two separate parts,
with different kings over each, but in Jerusalem there was
one prince over them; and at certain times, from every direction
wherever they were, and from whatever place they could,
they all came to the temple of God which was there. Yet
not even then were they without foreign enemies and conquerors;
yea, Christ found them tributaries of the Romans.

24. Of the prophets, who either were the last among the Jews, or whom the
gospel history reports about the time of Christ’s nativity.

But in that whole time after they returned from Babylon,
after Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah, who then prophesied,
and Ezra, they had no prophets down to the time of the
Saviour’s advent except another Zechariah, the father of John,
and Elisabeth his wife, when the nativity of Christ was already
close at hand; and when He was already born, Simeon the
aged, and Anna a widow, and now very old; and, last of all,
John himself, who, being a young man, did not predict that
Christ, now a young man, was to come, but by prophetic knowledge
pointed Him out although unknown; for which reason
the Lord Himself says, “The law and the prophets were until
John.”[496] But the prophesying of these five is made known to
us in the gospel, where the virgin mother of our Lord herself
is also found to have prophesied before John. But this
prophecy of theirs the wicked Jews do not receive; but those[Pg 216]
innumerable persons received it who from them believed the
gospel. For then truly Israel was divided in two, by that
division which was foretold by Samuel the prophet to king
Saul as immutable. But even the reprobate Jews hold
Malachi, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra as the last received into
canonical authority. For there are also writings of these, as
of others, who being but a very few in the great multitude
of prophets, have written those books which have obtained
canonical authority, of whose predictions it seems good to me
to put in this work some which pertain to Christ and His
Church; and this, by the Lord’s help, shall be done more conveniently
in the following book, that we may not further
burden this one, which is already too long.

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