world, but unto the world without end: ' whither His seed, which is His heritage, the seed of Abraham, which is Christ, will pass.2 But if ye are Christ's, ye are also Abraham's seed: and if ye are destined His heirs for ever, " He will establish His seed unto world without end: and His throne as the days of Heaven." The thrones of earthly kings are as the days of the earth: different are the days of Heaven from those of earth. The days of Heaven are those years of which it is said, "Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." 3 The days of the earth are soon overtaken by their successors: those which precede are shut out from us: nor do those which succeed remain: but they come that they may go, and are almost gone before they are come. Such are the days of earth. But the days of Heaven, which are also the " One day " of Heaven,4 and the never failing years, have neither beginning nor end: nor is any day there narrowed between yesterday and to-morrow: no one there expects the future, nor loses the past: but the days of Heaven are always present, where His throne shall be for ever and ever.'...29. This is a strong pledge of the promise of God. The sons of this David are the children of the Bridegroom; all Christians therefore are called His sons. But it is much indeed that God promises, that if Christians, that is, " If his children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments " (ver. 30); " if they profane My statutes, and keep not My commandments " (ver. 31); I will not spurn them, nor will I send them away from Me in perdition: but what will I do? "I will visit their offences with the rod, and their sin with scourges " (ver. 32). It is not the mercy of one that calls them only; but also that chastises and scourges them. Let therefore thy Father's hand be upon thee, and if thou art a good son, repel not chastening; for " what son is there, to whom his father giveth not chastening?"6 Let Him chasten him, so long as He takes not from him His mercy: let Him beat him when obstinate, as long as He does not disinherit him. If thou hast well understood the promises of thy Father, fear not to be scourged, but to be disinherited: " for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth: and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." 1 Does the sinful son spurn chastening, when he sees the only Son without sin scourged? "I will visit their offences with the rod." Thus too the Apostle threatens: "What will ye? shall I come unto 1 In srculum seculi. 2 Gal. iii. 15, 29.
3 Ps. cii. 27. 4 Oxf. mss. add "which are," etc.
3 [Here he adds: " Let us, if you please, reserve what remains; since the Psalm is a long one, and we have yet some farther opportunity of speaking with you in Christ's name. Refresh your strength therefore: I do not mean that of your mind, for in mind I see that you are incapable of fatigue; but on account of the slaves of tile soul, that your bodies may be sustained in their service, refresh yourselves for a little, and being refreshed return to your meal." — C.T * Heb. xii. 7. 7 Heb. xii. 6.
you with a rod? " s Let not pious sons say, if Thou art coming with a rod, come not at all. For it is better to be taught with the Father's rod, than to perish in the caresses of the robber. 30. " Nevertheless, My mercy will I not utterly take from Him " (ver. 33). From whom? From that David to whom I gave these promises, whom " I anointed with my holy oil of gladness above His fellows."9 Do you recognise Him from whom God will not utterly take away His mercy? That no one may anxiously say, since He speaks of Christ as Him from whom He will not take away His mercy, What then will become of the sinner? Did He say anything like this, " I will not take My loving-kindness utterly from them"? "I will visit," He saith, " their offences with the rod, and their sin with scourges." Thou didst expect for thy own security, " I will not utterly take my lovingkindness from " them. And indeed this is the reading of some books, but not of the most accurate: though, where they have it, it is a reading by no means inconsistent with the real meaning. For how can it be said that He will not utterly take His mercy from Christ? Has the Saviour of the body committed aught of sin either in Heaven or in earth, " who sitteth even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession forus"?10 Yet it is from Christ: but from His members, His body which is the Church. For in this sense He speaks of it as a great thing that He will not take away His mercies from Him, supposing us not to recognise the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; " for there the Man is not counted for His Person, but the One Person is God and Man. He therefore does not utterly take His mercies from Him, when He takes not His mercy from His body, His members,12 in which, even while He was enthroned in Heaven, He was still suffering persecutions on earth; and when He cried from Heaven, " Saul, Saul," not why persecutest thou My servants, nor why persecutest thou My saints, nor My disciples, but, " why persecutest thou Me?"'3 As then, while no one persecuted Him when sitting in Heaven, He cried out, " Why persecutest thou Me?" when the Head recognised its limbs, and His love allowed not the Head to separate Himself from the union of the body: so, when He taketh not away His mercies from Him, it is surely that He taketh it not from us, who are His limbs and body. Yet ought we not on that account to sin not without apprehension, and perversely to assure ourselves that we shall not 12 i.e we may consider it as not said of Him at all, for though He is Man, yet being God also He would not, in His own Person, need assurance; therefore it is said of Him in His members.
li Acts ix. 4.
[Psalm LXXXIX.
perish, be our actions what they may. For there are certain sins and certain offences, to define and discourse of which it is either impossible for me, or if it were possible, it would be too tedious for the time we have at present. For no man can say that he is without sin; for if he says so, he will lie; " if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." ' Each one therefore is needfully scourged for his own sins; but the mercy of God is not taken away from him, if he be a Christian. Certainly if thou committest such offences as to repel the hand of Him who chasteneth, the rod of Him who scourgeth thee, and art angry at the correction of God, and fliest from thy Father when He chasteneth thee, and wilt not suffer Him to be thy Father, because He spares thee not when thou dost sin; thou hast estranged thyself from thy heritage, He has not thrown thee off; for if thou wouldest abide being scourged, thou wouldest not abide disinherited. " Nor will I do hurt in My truth." For His mercy in setting free shall not be taken away, lest His truth in taking vengeance do harm.
31. " My covenant will I not profane, nor reject the thing that is gone out of my lips " (ver. 34). Because his sons sin, I will not on this account be found false: I have promised; I will do. Suppose they choose to sin even as past hope, and so fall into sins as to offend their Father's countenance, and deserve to be disinherited; is it not still God Himself, of whom it is said, "From these stones" He "will raise up sons to Abraham"?2 Therefore I tell you, brethren, many Christians sin venially,3 many are scourged and so corrected for their sin, chastened, and cured; many turn away altogether, striving with a stiff neck against the discipline of the Father, even wholly refusing God as their Father, though they have the mark of Christ, and so fall into such sins, that it can only be announced against them, " that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 4 Nevertheless, Christ shall not be destitute of an inheritance on their account: not for the chaff's sake shall the wheat also perish: s nor on account of bad fish shall nothing be cast into the vessels from that net.6 " The Lord knows them that are His."7 For He who predestined us before we were born, promised undoubtingly: " For whom He did predestinate, them- He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." 8 Let desperate sinners sin as far as they choose: let the members of Christ reply, • Rom viii. 39, 30.
"If God is with us, who shall be against us?" God will not therefore do hurt in His truth, nor will He " profane His Testament." His Testament remains immovable, because in His foreknowledge He predestined His heirs; and " He will not reject the thing that is gone out of His lips."
32. Listen for thy confirmation in hope, for thy security, if thou knowest thyself to be among the members of Christ. " I have sworn once by My holiness that I will not lie unto David " (ver. 35). Dost thou wait till God swear a second time? How often is He to swear, if in one oath He is false? One oath He made for our life, who sent His Only One to die for us. " I have sworn once by My holiness, that I will not lie unto David." " His seed shall endure for ever" (ver. 36). His seed endures for ever; because the Lord knows them that are His. " And His seat is like as the sun before me: " "and as the moon perfect for evermore: and the faithful witness in heaven" (ver. 37). They are His seat, in whom He sits and reigns. But if His seat, His members also; because even our members are the seat of our head. See how all our other members sustain our head: but the head supports nothing above itself, but is itself supported by the rest of our limbs, as if the whole body of a man were the seat of his head. His seat, therefore, all in whom God reigns, " shall be like as the sun before Me," He saith: because the righteous in the kingdom of My Father " shall shine like the sun." 9 But the sun is meant in a spiritual, not a bodily sense, as that which shines from Heaven, which He maketh to rise upon the just and unjust.10 Finally, that sun is not before men's eyes only, but even those of cattle and the smallest insects; for which of the vilest animals sees not that sun? What does he say to distinguish the sun meant here? "Like as the sun before Me." Not before men, before the flesh, before mortal animals, but " before Me, and as the moon." But what moon? one " that is perfect for evermore." For although that moon which we know becomes perfect, the next day she begins to wane, after her orb is full. " He shall be as the moon perfect for evermore," He saith. His seat shall be made perfect as the moon, but that moon is one which will be perfect for evermore. If as the sun, why also as the moon? the Scriptures usually signify by the moon the mortality of this flesh, because of its increasings and decreasings, because of its transitory nature. The moon is also interpreted as Jericho: one who was descending from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among robbers: " for he was descending from immortality to mortality. Similar then is the flesh to 9 Matt. xiii. 43.
10 Matt. v. 45.
11 Luke x. 30.
Psalm LXXXIX.l that moon, which every month suffers increase and decrease: but that flesh of ours will be perfect in the resurrection: " and a faithful witness in heaven." Thus then, if it was our mind only that would be perfected, he would compare us only to the sun: if our body only, to the moon; but as God will perfect us in both, in respect of the mind it is said, " like as the sun before Me," because God only seeth the mind: and " as the moon," so is the flesh: which " shall be made perfect for evermore," in the resurrection of the dead: " and a faithful witness in Heaven," because all that was asserted of the resurrection of the dead was true. I beseech you, hear this again more clearly, and remember it: for I know that some understand, while others are yet enquiring perhaps what I meant. There is no article of the Christian faith which has encountered such contradiction as that of the resurrection of the flesh. Finally, He who was born for a sign that should be spoken against,' resumed His own flesh after death to meet the caviller; and He who could have so completely cured His wounds that their scars would have entirely vanished, retained those scars in His body, that He might cure the wounds of doubt in the heart. Indeed nothing has been attacked with the same pertinacious, contentious contradiction, in the Christian faith, as the resurrection of the flesh. On the immortality of the soul many Gentile philosophers have disputed at great length, and in many books they have left it written that the soul is immortal: when they come to the resurrection of the flesh, they doubt not indeed, but they most openly deny it, declaring it to be absolutely impossible that this earthly flesh can ascend to Heaven. Thus that moon shall be perfect for evermore, and shall be the faithful witness in heaven against all gainsayers.
33. These promises, so sure, so firm, so open, so unquestioned, were made concerning Christ. For although some are mysteriously veiled, yet some are so clear, that ail that is obscure is easily revealed by them. Such being the case, see what follows: " But Thou hast approved and brought to nothing and forsaken Thine Anointed" (ver. 38). "Thou hast overthrown the testament of Thy servant, and profaned His holiness on the ground " (ver. 39). "Thou hast broken down all His hedges, and made His strongholds a terror" (ver. 40)...How is this? Thou hast promised all those things: and Thou hast brought to pass their reverse. Where are now the promises which but a little before filled us with delight? which we so joyfully applauded, which we so fearlessly made our boast of? It is as if one promised, and another destroyed. And this is the mystery: for the words are not " another," but " Thou," Thou who didst promise, who didst even swear in condescension to human doubt, Thou hast promised this, and done thus! Whence shall I get Thy oath, where shall I find Thy promise fulfilled? Would then God promise, or swear thus falsely? and yet why then these promises, and these acts? I answer, that He acted thus in fulfilment of those promises. But who am I, to say this?
Let us see therefore whether it is the language of the Truth; what I say will not then be without foundation. It was David to whom the fulfilment of these promises in his seed, that is, in Christ, was promised: and as they were addressed to David, men expected their completion in David. Further, lest when any Christian asserted these promises to have referred to Christ, another by applying them to David, because he described the fulfilment of all of them in David, might thus err; He cancelled them in David, thus obliging us when we see them unfulfilled in David, to look to another quarter for their fulfilment. Thus also in the case of Esau and Jacob, we find the elder worshipped by the younger, though it is written, " The elder shall serve the younger; " 2 so when you see it unfulfilled in those two brothers, you look for two peoples in whom to discover the completion of what God in His truth deigns to promise. " From the fruit of thy body," saith the Lord unto David, " shall I set upon thy sea." 3 He promised from his seed something for evermore: and Solomon, born to him, became master of such wisdom,4 that the promise of God respecting the fruit of David's body was believed to have been fulfilled in him; but Solomon fell,5 and gave room for hoping for Christ; that since God can neither be deceived nor deceive, He might not make His promise to rest in one who He knew would fall, but you might after the fall of Solomon look back to God, and demand His promise. Hast Thou, O Lord, deceived? Hast Thou failed to fulfil Thy promise? Dost Thou not exhibit what Thou hast sworn? Perhaps God might reply, I swore and promised: but Solomon would not persevere. What then?
Didst not Thou, Lord God, know beforehand that he would not persevere? Indeed Thou didst know. Why then didst Thou promisewme what should be eternal in one who would not persevere? Hast Thou not answered; " But if his children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments; if they keep not My statutes, and profane My testament; " yet My promise shall remain, and My oath shall be fulfilled: " I have sworn once in My Holiness," within, in a certain mystery, in the very spring whence the Prophets 2 Gen. xxv. 23, 3 Ps. cxxxii. 11.
* Oxf. mss. " and such prudence." s x Kings xi. I, etc.
[Psalm LXXXIX.
drank, whence they burst forth to us of these things, " I have sworn once " that I will not fail David. Show forth then what Thou hast sworn, give us what Thou hast promised. The fulfilment is taken from that David, that it might not be looked for in that David: wait therefore for what I have promised.
34. Even David himself knew this. Consider his words; " Thou hast rejected and brought him down to nothing." Where then is Thy promise? " Thou hast put off Thine anointed." This expression cheers us, among much that is sorrowful: for the promise of God is still valid; for ' Thou hast put off Thine Anointed, not taken Him away. See then what was the fate of that David, in whom the ignorant hoped for the fulfilment of the promises of God, in order that those promises might be more firmly relied upon for their fulfilment in another. " Thou hast put off Thine Anointed: Thou hast overthrown the testament of Thy servant." For where is the Old Testament of the Jews? where that land of promise, in which they sinned while they dwelt in it, on the overthrow of which they wandered afar? Ask you for the kingdom of the Jews; it exists not: you ask for the altar of the Jews; it is not: you ask for the sacrifice of the Jews; it is not: you ask for the priesthood of the Jews; it is not. " Thou hast overthrown the testament of Thy servant, and profaned his holiness on the earth." Thou hast shown that what they thought holy, was earthly. " Thou hast broken down all his hedges," with which Thou hast entrenched him: for how could he have been spoiled unless his hedges had been broken down? " Thou hast made his strongholds a terror." Why terror? That it should be said to the sinners, " For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee."1 " All they that go by the way have spoiled him: " that is, all the heathen that go by the way, meaning, all who pass through this life, have spoiled Israel, have spoiled David. First of all, see his fragments in all nations: for it is of the Jews that it is said, " They shall be a portion for foxes." 3 For the Scripture calls wicked, crafty, and cowardly kings, whom another's virtue terrifies, foxes. Thus when our Lord Himself was speaking of the threatening Herod, He said, "Go ye, and tell that fox."4 The king who fears no man, is not a fox: like that Lion of Judah, of whom it is said, " Stooping down Thou didst rise up, and didst sleep as a lion." ' At Thy will Thou didst stoop down, at Thy will didst rise; because Thou wouldest, Thou didst sleep. And thus in another Psalm he says, "I6 slept."?
' Non aiilu/ijti led diilulisti.
■ Rom. xi. ji. 3 P». lxiii. 10. * Luke xiii. 3a.
* Gen. xtix. 9. -j Efo. 1 Ps. iv. 8.
Was not the sentence complete, " I slept, and took rest, and rose up again, because the Lord shall uphold Me "? Why is the word ego added? and thus with a strong emphasis on the word I, they raged against Me, they troubled Me: but had I not willed, / had not slept. Those then concerning whom it was declared that they should be a portion for foxes, are now spoken of as follows; " All they that go by have spoiled him: and he is become a reproach to his neighbours" (ver. 41). "Thou hast set up the right hand of his enemies, and made all his adversaries to rejoice" (ver. 42). Look at the Jews, and see all things fulfilled that were predicted. " Thou hast turned away the help of his sword." How they were used to fight few in number, and to strike down many. " Thou hast turned away the help of his sword, and Thou givest him not victory in the battle " (ver. 43). Naturally8 then is he conquered, naturally taken prisoner, naturally made an outcast from his kingdom, naturally scattered abroad: for he lost that land, for which he slew the Lord. " Thou hast loosed him from cleansing " (ver. 44). What is this? Amongst all the evils, this is a matter for great fear; for howsoever God may beat, howsoever He may be wroth, howsoever He may flog and scourge, yet let Him scourge him bound, whom He is to cleanse, not " loose him from cleansing." For if He loose him from being purified, he becomes incapable of cleansing, and must be an outcast. From what cleansing then is the Jew loosed?
From faith; for by faith we live: 9 and it is said of faith, " purifying their hearts by faith: " IO and as it is only the faith of Christ that cleanses; by disbelief in Christ, they are loosed from purification. " Thou hast loosed him from cleansing, and cast his throne down to the ground." And so Thou hast broken it. " The days of his seat hast Thou shortened " (ver. 45 ). They imagined that they should reign for ever. "And covered him with confusion." All these things happened to the Jews, Christ yet not being taken away, but His advent deferred.
35. Let us therefore see whether God fulfils His promises. After these stern penalties which have been recorded as having been inflicted upon this people and kingdom, that God might not be supposed to have fulfilled His promises in it, and so not to grant another kingdom in Christ, of which kingdom there shall be no end; the Prophet addresses Him in these words, " Lord, how long wilt Thou hide Thyself unto the end?" (ver. 46). For possibly it was not from them and to the end; because " blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall » Mtrito.
9 Gal. iii. 11.
0 Acts xv y.
Psalm LXXXIX.]
be saved." ■ But in the mean while " shall Thy wrath burn like fire."
36. " O remember what my substance is " (ver. 47). That David, who was placed among the Jews in the flesh, in Christ in hope, speaks; " Remember what is my substance." For not because the Jews fell away, did my substance fail: for from that people came the Virgin Mary, and from her the flesh of Christ; that Flesh sins not, but purifies sins; there, saith David, is my substance. " O remember what my substance is." For the root has not entirely perished; the seed shall come to whom the promise was made, ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator.1 " For Thou hast not made all the sons of men for nought" (ver. 47). Lo! all the sons of men have gone into vanity: yet Thou hast not made them for nought. If then all went into vanity, whom Thou hast not made for nought; hast Thou not reserved some instrument to purify them from vanity? This which Thou hast reserved to Thyself to cleanse men from vanity is Thy Holy One, in Him is my substance: for from Him areall, whom Thou hast not made for nought, purified from their own vanity. To them it is said, " O ye sons of men, how long are ye heavy in heart? Wnerefore have ye such pleasure in vanity, and seek after leasing? " 3 Perhaps they might become anxious, and turn from their vanity, and when they found themselves polluted with it, might seek for purification from it: then help them, make them secure. " Know this also, that the Lord hath made wonderful His Holy One." 4 He has made His Holy One to be admired: thence He has purified all from their vanity: there, saith David, is my substance: O remember it! " For Thou hast not made all the sons of men for nought." Thou hast therefore reserved something to purify them: and who is He whom Thou hast reserved? " What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?" This man then who shall live and not see death, shall purify them from nothingness. For He made not all men for nought, nor can He who made them so despise His own creatures, as not to convert and purify them.
37. " What man is he that shall live, and shall not see death?" (ver. 48). For being raised from the dead He dieth no more, and death hath no more dominion over Him. 5 And as in another Psalm it is said, " Thou shalt not leave my soul in Hell, neither shalt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption," 6 the Apostolic teaching takes up this testimony, and in the Acts of the Apostles 7 thus argues against the unbelieving; Men and brethren, we know that the patriarch David is dead and buried, and his flesh Rim. xi. 35. O. iv. 3.
A.U.1..'J.
2 Gal.iii. io.
3 Rom. vi. 9.
3 Ps. iv. 3. 6 Ps. xvi. 10.
hath seen corruption. Therefore it cannot be said of him, " neither shalt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption." Of whom then is it said? " What man is he that shall live, and shall not see death? " Perhaps there is no man such. Nay, but "who is it?" is said to make thee inquire, not despair. But perhaps there may be some man " that shall live, and shall not see death," and yet perhaps he did not speak of Christ, who died? There is no man " that shall live, and shall not see death," except Him who died for mortals. That thou mayest be assured that it is said of Him, consider the sequel; " What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?" Did He never die then? He did. How then shall He live, and never see death? " He shall deliver His own soul from the hands of Hell." He is spoken of alone indeed, in that He alone of all others " shall live, and shall not see death: He shall deliver His own soul from the hand of Hell," because although the rest of His faithful shall rise from the dead, and shall themselves live for evermore, without seeing death; yet they shall not themselves deliver their own souls from the hands of Hell. He who delivers His own soul from the hands of Hell, Himself delivers those of His believers: they cannot do so of themselves. Prove that He delivers His own soul. " I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again.