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This book deals with the fate of the City of God during the time of kings and prophets, from David to Christ, and sets out the prophecies of that time about Christ and the church, recorded in the sacred books. Chapter I. About the times of the prophets We know that the people of Israel must owe their existence according to the flesh to the seed of Abraham, and all nations according to faith. How these promises of God given to Abraham will be fulfilled will be shown by the city of God by its destinies in the order of times. Since we brought the previous book up to the reign of David, now, starting with the same reign, we will touch on the subsequent one, as far as it seems necessary for the work undertaken. So, all this time, from the time when Saint Samuel began to prophesy, and until those times when the people of Israel were taken captive to Babylonia and when, upon the return of the Israelites, according to the prophecy of Saint Jeremiah, after seventy years from captivity, the house of God was restored - all this time is the time of the prophets. For although it is not without reason that we can call the patriarch Noah himself, in whose days the earth was destroyed by a flood, prophets, and others who were before and after until the time when kings appeared among the people of God, taking into account that future relating to the city of God and the kingdom of heaven, which they either in some way predicted or foretold: and especially bearing in mind that some of them are literally called by this name in Scripture, such as, for example, Abraham (Gen. XX, 7) or Moses (Deut. XXXIV, 10). However, the days of the prophets are especially and primarily called the time from which Samuel began to prophesy, initially anointing Saul to the kingdom, and when he was rejected, at the command of God he anointed David himself, from whose tribe the rest (kings) followed, until such a succession of them had to be preserved. But if I wanted to mention everything that was predicted about Christ by the prophets, when the city of God experienced these times with the continuous replacement of its dying members with those born, I would have to say too much. This is, firstly, because Scripture, which, at first glance, stands with a chronological narrative about the kings, their deeds and destinies on a strictly historical basis, turns out, if properly examined with the help of the Spirit of God, to have as its task more, or at least no less, to foretell the future than to announce the past. And who, who has thought about this at all, does not understand what complex and extensive work will be required, how many books will need to be written in order to carefully study all this and present it in detail? Further, the very thing that has a completely clear form of prophecy contains so much about Christ and about the kingdom of heaven, which is the city of God, that to reveal this a more extensive treatise is needed than what the boundaries of this work allow. Therefore, I will try, if I can, to balance my speech so that, by God’s permission, continuing this work of mine, I will say neither too much nor too little. Chapter II. At what time was God's promise about the land of Canaan fulfilled? which carnal Israel received in actual possession In the previous book we said that at the beginning of God’s promises, two such promises were given to Abraham: one, that his seed would possess the land of Canaan; it is expressed in the words: “Get out of your land, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation” (Gen. XII, 1–2); another, much more remarkable, concerns not the carnal, but the spiritual seed, according to which Abraham is the father not of one Israeli nation, but of all the nations that follow in the footsteps of his faith. The last promise begins with the words: “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. XII, 3). We then showed many repetitions of these two promises. So, the seed of Abraham, that is, the people of Israel according to the flesh were already in the land of promise, and there they not only inhabited and held the cities of their enemies in their power, but also had kings and began to reign. By this, for the most part, the promises of God regarding the people themselves were already fulfilled - promises not only given to those three fathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, but also given through Moses, with the help of whom this very people was freed from Egyptian slavery and through whom the entire past was revealed at the time of his life when he led the people through the desert. But the promise of God regarding the land of Canaan, stretching from a certain Egyptian river to the great river Euphrates, was not yet fulfilled by the famous leader Joshua, who led this people into the land of promise and, having defeated the nations that inhabited it, divided it between twelve tribes, among whom God commanded it to be divided, and died; nor after him during the time of the judges. There were no new prophecies about this, and it was expected to be fulfilled. It was fulfilled under David and his son Solomon: his kingdom was extended exactly as promised (1 Kings IV, 21). And they conquered all those peoples and made them their subjects. Under these kings, the seed of Abraham was established in the land of promise according to the flesh, that is, in the land of Canaan, precisely in such a way that from the known earthly promise of God nothing remained for fulfillment, except perhaps that the Jewish people, if they had obeyed the laws of the Lord their God, would have remained in the same land in an unchanged position through the succession of generations until the end of this earthly age, as far as is necessary for temporary well-being. But since God knew that the Jewish people would not do this, he also used temporary punishments to encourage his few faithful to practice this and to warn, in what needed to be warned, those who were later to be in all languages ​​and in whose person, according to the revelation of the New Testament, another promise was to be fulfilled through the incarnation of Christ. Chapter III. On the threefold meaning of prophetic sayings, which refer either to the earthly or to the heavenly Jerusalem, or to both together Therefore, just as the divine revelations to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, already known to us, and all other signs or prophetic sayings that were given in the previous sacred Scriptures, so the rest of the prophecies from the time of the kings partly refer to the people of Abraham's flesh, partly to that seed of him, in whom all nations are blessed, joint heirs of Christ through the New Testament in the possession of eternal life and the kingdom of heaven; therefore, they relate partly to the maidservant who gives birth into slavery, that is, to earthly Jerusalem, which is in slavery along with her sons, and partly to the free city of God, that is, to the true Jerusalem, in eternal heaven, but whose sons, people living according to God, wander on earth. There are, however, between these prophecies some that make it clear that they relate to both - to the servant in the proper sense, to the free city - in the figurative sense. So, the prophetic sayings are of three kinds, some refer to earthly Jerusalem, others to heavenly, and some to both together. I find it necessary to confirm my words with examples. The prophet Nathan is sent to convict King David of grave sin and predict for him the disasters that should follow in the future. Who can doubt that these and other similar divine sayings, which someone is worthy of hearing either in the name of the people, that is, for the sake of welfare and public benefit, or regardless of the people, for their personal affairs, and by which they are given knowledge of something from the future concerning temporary life, refer to the earthly city? But where we read: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not such a covenant as I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; They broke that covenant of mine, although I remained in covenant with them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law within them, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be My people" (Jer. XXXI, 31-33), - there, without any doubt, a prophecy is uttered about the heavenly Jerusalem, the property of which is God Himself and for which to own Him and be in His power is the highest and most complete good. In addition, the other Jerusalem refers to what he calls the city of God, which is prophesied about the house of God having to be in it, and this prophecy seems to be fulfilled when King Solomon built his famous church. This also took place in earthly Jerusalem, according to history, and served as an image of the heavenly Jerusalem. This kind of prophecy, which is, as it were, a combination of two others, is of great importance in the Ancient canonical books containing the narration of historical events, and for the minds studying the sacred Scriptures, it served and serves as a strong incentive to explain allegorically what was historically predicted in Scripture and fulfilled on the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, as it must be fulfilled also on the seed of Abraham according to faith; and this is to such an extent that it seemed to some that in these books there was nothing predicted and accomplished, or accomplished, although not predicted, that would not give reason to apply something in a figurative sense to the highest city of God and its sons wandering in this life. But if this is so, then the sayings of the prophets, or rather, the sayings of all those Scriptures that are meant by the name of the Old Testament, will be only of two, and not three kinds. In this case, there will be nothing in it that relates only to earthly Jerusalem, if everything that is said and done about it or about it means something that refers as an allegorical prototype to heavenly Jerusalem; but there will be only two kinds of sayings: one relating to free Jerusalem, the other to both together. In my opinion, how greatly mistaken are those who think that in this kind of Scripture there are no events that would mean anything other than what happened in a certain way; So much is taken upon themselves by those who claim that there is an allegorical meaning hidden in everything. That's why I said that they have a threefold meaning, and not a twofold one. Adhering to this opinion, I do not blame, however, those who can extract a spiritual meaning from any event mentioned in the Scriptures, while maintaining the historical meaning intact. Every believer will, of course, consider it idle talk when anything is said that does not correspond to events that happened or were supposed to happen by human or divine power. But who will refuse to elevate this to spiritual understanding if he can, or will say that he who can should not do this? Chapter IV. About the transformative change in the Israeli kingdom and priesthood, and about the prophecies uttered by Samuel’s mother Anna, who represented the face of the church So, the history of the city of God, having reached the time of the kings, gave a prototype in that, after the rejection of Saul, David was the first to accept the kingdom so that for a long time his descendants reigned successively in earthly Jerusalem. By the event that actually took place, she designated and foreshadowed something regarding the change of things in the future that cannot be passed over in silence, namely, what concerns the two covenants, Old and New: the priesthood and the kingdom in this change of covenants were replaced by a Priest and, at the same time, a King - new and eternal, Who is Christ. For both Samuel, who took the place of the rejected priest Eli in his service to God, fulfilling the duties of priest and judge at the same time, and David, who, after the rejection of Saul, established himself in the kingdom, served as an example of what I am talking about. And Samuel’s mother herself, who was first barren and then gave birth, prophesies precisely about this when in delight she pours out her gratitude to God, dedicating to Him this child born by her and weaned from her breast with the same piety with which she asked for him. She says, “My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is exalted in my God, my mouth is opened wide against my enemies; for I rejoice in Your salvation. There is no one so holy as the Lord; for there is no other besides You; and there is no stronghold like our God. Do not multiply arrogant speeches; Do not let insolent words come out of your mouth; For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and His works are exalted. The bow of the strong is broken, but the weak are girded with strength. When you were full of bread, you came to your land hungry; even a barren woman gives birth seven times, but a woman with many children faints. The Lord kills and gives life, brings down to the underworld and raises up. The Lord makes the poor and enriches, humiliates and exalts. He lifts up the poor from the dust, He lifts up the needy from clay, making Him sit with the nobles, and He gives them the throne of glory for an inheritance; For the Lord has the foundations of the earth, and He built the world on them, give prayer to the one praying and bless the righteous year, for man is not strong by strength. The Lord will wipe out those who argue with Him; The Lord is holy. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty boast in his strength, and let not the rich man boast in his wealth, but let him who desires to boast boast in it. hedgehog (to) understand and know the Lord and do justice and righteousness in the midst of the earth. The Lord ascended into heaven and thundered: He will judge the end of the earth, he who is righteous, and will give strength to our kings and exalt the horn of His Christ” (1 Kings II, 1-10). Are these really just the words of a woman expressing gratitude for the birth of her son? Does the human mind really turn away from the light of truth to such an extent that it does not understand that what is being said exceeds the mental capabilities of the woman who expressed it? Further, the one who is properly impressed by the events themselves, which have already begun to take place in this earthly journey, will he not notice, perceive, realize that through the lips of this woman, whose very name is Anna, which in translation means grace, the Christian faith itself says this in a prophetic spirit, the very city of God, whose King and Founder is Christ, the very grace of God, which the proud are deprived of, and therefore fall, and the humble are fulfilled and therefore rebel; What exactly is this prophecy talking about? Perhaps someone will object that the woman did not predict anything, but only enthusiastically thanked God for the son she had asked for through prayer. But in this case, what did she want to say with the words: “The bow of the strong is broken, but the weak are girded with strength. even a barren woman gives birth seven times, but a woman with many children faints?” Did she give birth seven times, although she was no longer barren? She had only given birth to one son when she said this; and even after that she did not give birth to seven or six, but only three boys, including Samuel, and two girls. Then, when that people did not yet have any king, why does she say in conclusion: “And he will give strength to our kings, and exalt the horn of His Christ?” Where did she get this from if she didn’t prophesy? So, proclaims the Church of Christ, the city of the great King, full of grace, abounding in offspring; proclaims what was foretold about her long before by the lips of this pious mother: “My heart rejoiced in the Lord; my horn is exalted in my God." Truly the heart is rejoiced, truly the horn is exalted; because she rejoiced and was exalted not in herself, but in the Lord her God. “My mouth is opened wide against my enemies,” for even in difficult times the word of God is not silent. “I rejoice in Your salvation.” It was Christ Jesus, about whom, as we read in the Gospel, Elder Simeon, having seen him as a Child, says: “Now you are releasing Your servant, O Master, according to Your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen Your salvation” (Luke II, 29–30). So, the Church proclaims: “I rejoice in Your salvation. There is no one so holy as the Lord; for there is no other besides You; and there is no stronghold like our God" ; “There is no one so holy as the Lord,” for no one is holy except through Him. It follows: “Do not multiply the speeches of arrogant people; Do not let insolent words come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and His works are exalted”; He knows us, and knows us from a side that no one else knows; because “whoever thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself” (Gal. VI, 3). This is said to the opponents of the city of God, who belong to Babylon, who are prejudiced about their own strength, who boast in themselves and not in the Lord. Among them are the carnal Israelites, earthly citizens of earthly Jerusalem, who, as the apostle says, “not understanding the righteousness of God,” that is, the righteousness given to man by God, Who alone is righteous and justifier, “and striving to establish their own righteousness,” that is, as if invented for themselves, and not received from Him, “they did not submit to the righteousness of God” (Rom. X, 3), because they are proud and think that it is possible, by doing their own, and not God’s will, to please God, Who is the God of knowledge, and therefore the judge of conscience, seeing in it “the thoughts of men, that they are vanity” (Ps. 93:11), if they are thoughts of men, and not from Him. “The works,” he says, “are exalted with Him.” What kind of works can be understood in this case, if not those that the proud fall and the humble rise up? She sets out these undertakings in detail, saying: “The bow of the strong is broken, but the weak are girded with strength.” The bow was broken, that is, the effort of those who imagine themselves so powerful that without the gift and help of God, only by human strength those who in the depths of their soul cry out: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak” (Ps. VI: 3) are arrogant to fulfill the divine commandments; “Being full of bread,” he says, “lost (minorati sunt – decreased) 176 and the hungry have come into your land" (1 Samuel 2:5). Who are we to understand by those filled with bread, if not the same supposedly powerful ones, i.e., the Israelites, to whom the word of God was “entrusted” (Rom. III, 2)? Yes, among this nation the children of slaves have “become humble.” Although this word is not entirely Latin, it clearly expresses the fact that from the elders (in the family) they have become lesser: because in these breads themselves, that is, in the divine words, which at one time only the Israelites of all nations accepted, they feel the taste only of the earthly. And the peoples to whom that law was not given - these peoples, after becoming familiar with these words through the New Testament, greatly hungered, passed by the earth: because they felt in them the taste not of the earthly, but of the heavenly. And as if to answer the question why this happened, he says: “Even a barren woman gives birth seven times, but a woman with many children faints” (1 Samuel 2:5). The essence of what is predicted here is clear to those who know that the number seven denotes the fullness of the entire Church in general. Therefore, the Apostle John writes to seven churches (Apoc. 1:4), showing by this that he is writing to the fullness of one; and in the parables of Solomon, foreshadowing this, it is said: “Wisdom built for herself a house and established seven pillars” (Proverbs IX, 1). The City of God was barren among all nations until the fruit that we know was born. On the other hand, we see that earthly Jerusalem, which was the children of many, has become weak. His strength was the sons of the free; and since now there is a letter in him, but no spirit, then, having lost his strength, he became weak. “The Lord kills and gives life”; He killed the one who had many children, and brought to life this barren one, who gave birth to seven. It is more natural, however, to understand that He revives the same ones whom He killed. This is, as it were, repeated by the addition: “Brings down to the underworld and raises up.” The apostle speaks to such people: “If you have been raised with Christ, then seek the things that are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God” (Col. III, 1); they are put to death by the Lord, in any case, for the benefit of salvation. The apostle adds to them: “Set your mind on things above, and not on earthly things”; since these are the same ones who, hungry, passed by the earth. “For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. III, 2-3); this is how God mortifies the same ones, this is how He revives the same ones. But do He really “bring them down to the grave and raise them up”? We see both fulfilled in Him who was “given up for us all” (Rom. VIII, 32). and revived. And since His voice is heard in the prophecy: “Do not leave my soul in hell” (Is. XV, 10), then He brought Him down to hell and raised Him up. By this poverty of Him we have become rich. For “The Lord makes the poor and makes rich.” To understand what this means, let’s read further: “Humiliates and elevates”; humiliates, of course, the proud, but elevates the humble. For what is said elsewhere: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. V, 5), expresses the entire content of the speech of the one whose name means “grace.” The further addition: “He raises up the poor from the dust,” I don’t understand about anyone so well as about Him, who “being rich, became poor for our sakes, so that we through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. VIII, 9). For He raised Himself from the earth so quickly that His flesh did not know corruption. Nor do I consider inapplicable to Him what is added: “He lifts up the poor from clay.” For the beggar is the same as the poor. And by the clay from which He is raised, the Jewish persecutors are quite correctly understood. Having said that among them he persecuted the Church, the apostle says: “But what was an advantage for me, those for the sake of Christ I counted as loss. And I count all things as loss for the sake of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Him I have given up all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philip. III, 7-8). So, this poor man was raised from the earth above all the rich, and from the said clay this poor man, “planted with the great,” was raised above all the mighty. For to the question: “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what will happen to us? , He answered: “You also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:27–28); and this was the most powerful vow. But where do they get their vow, if not from Him about whom it is immediately said further: “He who makes a vow to him who makes a vow” 177? Otherwise they would have been one of those mighty men whose bow was broken. For only one who has received from Him what he dedicates can properly dedicate something to the Lord. Then follows: “And bless the years of the righteous,” that is, so that he always lives with Him about whom it is said: “And your years will not end” (Ps. 101:28). For there the summers are motionless, but here they pass, even perish; because before they pass, they are not yet there; and when they pass, they are no longer there. From this, that is: “Make a vow to the one who makes the vow, and bless the righteous year,” one is what we do, and the other is what we accept. But the other cannot be accepted unless the first is accomplished with His help. “For man is not strong by strength. The Lord will wipe out those who argue with Him,” i.e. those who envy the person making the vow and rebel against him in order not to give him the opportunity to fulfill this vow (due to some ambiguity of the Greek expression, one can understand by “bickering” those who bicker with people pleasing to God. For as soon as the Lord began to possess us, then the bickering, who previously bickered with us, already bickers with God and is defeated by us, but by forces not ours: the Lord makes sure that he is defeated by saints whom the holy Lord of saints has made holy). And therefore, “let not the wise boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty boast in his strength, and let not the rich boast in his wealth; but let him who understands and knows the Lord boast, and do justice and righteousness in the midst of the earth.” He understands and knows the Lord who understands and knows that even that which he understands and knows is given to him from the Lord. “What do you have,” says the apostle, “that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you didn’t receive it?” (I Cor. IV, 7) - that is, do you boast as if what you boast about depended on you? Judgment and righteousness are created by those who live correctly. But he who obeys the commands of God lives correctly; and “the goal of exhortation (i.e., what the command boils down to) is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). This “love,” as the Apostle John testifies, “is from God” (1 John IV, 7). Thus, to create justice and righteousness is also from God. But what does “in the middle of the earth” mean? Shouldn't the inhabitants of the earth's outskirts practice justice and truth? Who would say such a thing? Why is this added? If it were not for this addition, but if it were simply said: “does justice and righteousness,” this commandment would apply more clearly to both those and other people: both to the inhabitants of the solid land and to the inhabitants of coastal countries. But lest anyone think that even after the life spent in this body, there will be time left to create judgment and righteousness, which he did not do while he lived in the body, and thus have the opportunity to avoid divine judgment; then, in my opinion, it was added: “in the middle of the earth,” that is, while everyone lives in the body. For in this life, everyone carries around him his own land, which, when a person dies, the common land takes over in order to return it when he is resurrected. Therefore, it is necessary to create justice and truth “in the middle of the earth,” that is, when our soul is imprisoned in this earthly body. This will benefit us later, when everyone receives “according to what he did while living in the body, good or bad” (II Cor. V, 10). By the words “in the body,” the apostle in this case designates the time of life in the body. For he who blasphemes, for example, in an evil mind and in an ungodly thought, when this is not expressed by any bodily movements, will not remain without guilt on the grounds that he did not express it with a movement of the body, when he did it at a time when the body was also acting. In the same way, the corresponding meaning and expression of the psalm can be obtained: “God, my king from everlasting, who arranges salvation in the midst of the earth” (Ps. 73:12). By our God we must understand the Lord Jesus, Who, before the ages, since by Him the ages were created, accomplished our salvation in the midst of the earth, when the Word became flesh and dwelt in an earthly body. Then, after the prophecy expressed in the quoted words of Anna that the one who boasts should “boast not in himself, but in the Lord,” in view of the reward that will be on the day of judgment, (she) says: “The Lord ascended into heaven and thundered: He judges with the end of the earth”; speaks in full accordance with the Creed. Since the Lord Christ ascended to heaven and from there must come to judge the living and the dead. For, as the apostle says: “And “he ascended” what does it mean, if not that He first descended into the underworld of the earth? He who descended, He is also He who ascended above all the heavens, to fill everything” (Eph. IV: 9-10). He will roar through His clouds, which, upon ascending, He filled with the Holy Spirit. He spoke about them when, through the prophet Isaiah, he threatened slave Jerusalem, i.e. to the ungrateful grapes: “I will command the clouds not to rain on them” (Isa. V, 6). The expression: “He judges the ends of the earth” 178 has the same meaning as if it were said: “He judges the ends of the earth.” In this case, the end of the earth should be understood as the end of man: because what will be judged will not be those changes for better or worse that occur in the middle of life, but the last state in which the judge will be found. Therefore it is said: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew X, 22). Therefore, whoever constantly practices judgment and righteousness in the midst of the earth will not be condemned when the ends of the earth are judged. “And he will give strength to our kings,” so that, in judging, he will not condemn them. He will give them strength with which they, like kings, rule the flesh and conquer the world in Him who shed blood for them. “And he shall exalt the horn of his Christ.” How will Christ exalt the horn of Christ (i.e., the anointed one) of His? For the same one about whom it was said above: “The Lord will ascend into heaven,” and by which the Lord Christ is meant, the same one, as it is said in this place, “will lift up the horn of His Christ.” Who is this - the Christ of Christ? Will not, perhaps, the horn of each one of His faithful one exalt, as she herself says at the beginning of this song: “My horn is exalted in my God?” For we can rightly call all those who are anointed with His anointing Christs; and all of them, together with their Head, constitute one body - Christ. These prophecies were spoken by Anna, the mother of Samuel, a holy and highly illustrious man. It was in it that the prototype of the change of the old priesthood was given at that time, and this change has now taken place when “the woman with many children faints,” so that the new priesthood in Christ would receive “sterility”, giving birth “seven times.” Chapter V. What the man of God spoke to the priest Eli in a prophetic spirit, indicating that the priesthood established according to the order of Aaron should be abolished But the man of God, sent to the priest Eli, speaks about this even more clearly. Although his name is kept silent, judging by the duty assigned to him and the fulfillment of it, he was, without any doubt, a prophet. The Scripture says this: “And the man of God came to Eli, and said to him, Thus says the Lord: Did I not reveal myself to the house of your father, while they were still in Egypt, in the house of Pharaoh? And did He not choose him from all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, so that he would go up to My altar, and burn incense, and wear the ephod before Me? And have I not given to your father's house some of all the sacrifices of the children of Israel that were burned by fire? Why do you trample underfoot My sacrifices and My grain offerings, which I have commanded for My habitation, and why do you prefer your sons to Me, fattening yourselves with the firstfruits of all the offerings of My people Israel? Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: Then I said, “Your house and your father’s house shall walk before Me forever.” But now the Lord says: Let it not be so; For I will glorify those who glorify Me, and those who dishonor Me will be put to shame. Behold, the days are coming in which I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father's house, so that there will be no old man in your house; and you will see the misery of My habitation, even though the Lord does good to Israel, and there will not be an old man in your house all the days. I will not take you all away from my altar, to torment your eyes and torment your soul; but all the descendants of your house will die in middle age. And this is the sign that will follow your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: they will both die on the same day. And I will appoint for myself a faithful priest; he will do according to My heart and according to My soul; And I will make his house strong, and he will walk before My anointed always. And everyone who remains from your house will come to bow to him for a piece of silver and a piece of bread, and will say: “rank me with some Levitical position, so that I can have food” (1 Sam. II, 27-36). It cannot be said that this prophecy, in which the change of the old priesthood was so clearly predicted, was fulfilled in Samuel. True, although Samuel comes from the very tribe that was appointed by the Lord to serve the altar, he was not one of the sons of Aaron, whose descendants were to become priests. And through this the change that was subsequently accomplished by Jesus Christ was foreshadowed. This was a prophecy not of a word, but of a fact itself, its own meaning referring to the Old Testament, and its figurative meaning to the New Testament; in fact it meant what was said to the priest Eli through the prophet. For even after that there were priests from the family of Aaron, such as Zadok and Abiathar in the reign of David (2 Sam. XV), and then others, before the time came in which what had been predicted so long before regarding the impending change of the priesthood was to be accomplished through Christ. At the present time, who, looking at the matter honestly, will not see that this has been fulfilled? The Jews, indeed, had no tabernacle, no church, no altar, no sacrifice, and therefore no priest, about whom it was prescribed in the law of God that he should come from the seed of Aaron. This is indicated here by the words of the mentioned prophet: “Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: Then I said: “Your house and your father’s house will walk before Me forever.” But now the Lord says: Let it not be so; for I will glorify those who glorify Me, and those who dishonor Me will be put to shame.” That, in speaking of his father's house, He speaks not of the immediate father, but of that Aaron, who was made the first priest, and from whose descendants all others were after him, this is shown by the preceding words, when God says: “Did I not make myself known to the house of your father, while they were still in Egypt, in the house of Pharaoh? And did He not choose him from all the tribes of Israel to be His priest? Which of Elijah's fathers was in this Egyptian slavery and, upon liberation from it, was elected to the priesthood, except Aaron? So, about the last generation, he said in this case that there will be a time when there will be no more priests from among them: which we see has already been fulfilled. Let faith remain awake: the events are present; they are seen, they continue, they catch the eye of those who do not want to see them. “Behold,” he says, “the days are coming in which I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will be no old man in your house; and you will see the disaster of My habitation, even though the Lord does good to Israel, and there will not be an old man in your house all the days. I will not remove you all from My altar, to torment your eyes and torment your soul.” These foretold days have already come. There is not one priest according to the order of Aaron; and whoever is left from his family, when he sees how respected the Christian sacrifice is throughout the world and how this great honor has been taken away from him, his eyes languish and his soul is tormented by deep sorrow. Actually, the following words apply to the house of Eli, to whom this was said: “All the descendants of your house will die in middle age. And here is a sign for you that will follow with your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: they will both die on the same day.” So the sign was shown by the removal of the priesthood from his house. This sign foreshadowed the change in the priesthood of the house of Aaron. For the death of his sons foreshadowed the death not of people, but of the priesthood itself from the sons of Aaron. The following words refer to that priest, of whom Samuel was a type, becoming his (Elijah’s) successor. What is said next is said about Christ Jesus, the true Priest of the New Testament: “And I will appoint for myself a faithful priest; he will do according to My heart and according to My soul; and I will make his house strong.” This house is the eternal and heavenly Jerusalem. “He,” adds (the Lord), “shall walk before My anointed (Christ) all the days,” i.e. will be, just as it was said above about the house of Aaron: “I said then: “Your house and your father’s house will walk before Me forever.” And what was said “before My anointed (Christ)” must be understood about the house itself, and not about that Priest, who is Christ, Mediator and Savior. So His house will walk before Him. It can also be understood this way: “will walk” from death to life all the days until real mortality continues until the end of this age. Due to the fact that God says: “He will do according to My heart and according to My soul,” we should not imagine that God has a soul, although He is the Creator of the soul. This is attributed to God not in the proper sense, but in a figurative sense, just as arms, legs, and other bodily members are attributed to God. And so that, based on the latter kind of expressions, they do not think that man, with his bodily appearance, is created in the image of God, God is also given wings, which man does not have at all, and the address to Him is said, “Hide me in the shadow of Your wings” (Ps. XVI, 8). In this way, people are made to understand that this is being said about the ineffable nature, using not proper, but figurative names for things. The addition: “And everyone who remains from your house will come to bow to him” refers, in fact, not to the house of this Elijah, but to the house of Aaron, from which people remained until the coming of Christ, as, however, they still exist today. So, if the remnant is from those predestined remnants, about which another prophet said: “Only a remnant of it will be converted” (Ps. X, 22); why does the apostle say: “Even so at this time, according to the election of grace, a remnant has been preserved” (Rom. XI, 5); then it is natural to think that from among these remnants, the one about whom it is said: “He who remains from your house” truly believes in Christ, as very many of that people believed in the times of the apostles, just as at the present time there are those who, although very rarely, believe; Moreover, on them is fulfilled what the man of God added after this: “He will come to bow to him because of the ger of silver.” To whom is this worship, if not that High Priest, who is also God? For in that priesthood according to the order of Aaron, people did not come to the church or altar of God to worship the priest. And what does “hera of silver” mean, if not the brevity of the word of faith, regarding which the apostle recalls what was said (previously): “For the work is finished and will soon be decided in righteousness, the Lord will do a decisive work on earth” (Rom. IX, 28; Isa. X, 23)? And that by silver the word is often meant, this is evidenced by the psalm in which it is sung: “The word of the Lord is pure words, silver is kindled” (Ps. XI, 7). So, what does the one who came to worship the priest of God and the Priest of God say? “Rank me among some Levitical positions, so that I can have food.” Thus, he seems to say: “I do not want to remain in the honorable position of my fathers, which is insignificant: number me among one of Your priestly services (i.e., to the Levitical office). For I want to be a member of Your priesthood, at least in some way, even the most insignificant.” In this case, he calls the priesthood the people themselves, whose Priest is the Mediator of God and people, the man Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter speaks about this people: “A chosen race, a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. II, 9). Some, instead of “to some Levitical office,” translated “to some sacrifice”; but in this case, of course, the same Christian people. Why does the Apostle Paul say: “There is one bread, and we, who are many, are one body” (I Cor. X, 17). Thus, the addition of “and a piece of bread” perfectly denotes the very type of sacrifice that the Priest Himself speaks of. “The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John VI, 51). This sacrifice is not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek: let him who reads it understand. So, this short and savingly humble confession, consisting of the words: “Rank me among some Levitical positions, so that I can have food,” is the mentioned ger of silver; because it is both brief and represents the words of the Lord who dwells in the heart of the believer. And since He said above that He gave the house of Aaron food from the sacrifices of the Old Testament, when He said: “Did I not give to the house of your father some of all the sacrifices of the children of Israel that were burned by fire?” , for such were the sacrifices of the Jews, then accordingly it is now said “and a piece of bread... so that we may have food,” which in the New Testament constitutes the sacrifice of Christians. Chapter VI. About the Jewish priesthood and kingdom, which, although they are called established forever, have not been preserved; so that by these are meant other priesthoods and kingdoms, to which eternity is promised But although this was foreshadowed so sublimely and has now been justified in practice with such clarity, yet someone may, not without reason, become perplexed and say: “Why are you so sure that everything that is predicted to happen in those books will happen, if even what is said in them as a divine decree has not been fulfilled: “Your house and your father’s house will walk before Me forever”? After all, we see that this priesthood has been abolished and that there is not even hope that what was promised to that house would ever be fulfilled; because that priesthood, which, after the rejection and abolition of the former, took its place, is proclaimed eternal with even greater power.” The speaker does not understand this or forgets that the priesthood itself according to the order of Aaron was established in the form of the canopy of the future eternal priesthood; and therefore, when eternity was promised to him, it was promised not to a shadow or an image, but to what was shaded or represented by it. But so that they would not think about the canopy, as if it must certainly remain, a prophecy was also needed about its abolition. Likewise, the kingdom of Saul, in reality rejected and overthrown, was the shadow of a future kingdom that was to continue into eternity. The oil with which he was anointed, and from the anointing with which he was called Christ (the anointed one), must be considered to have a mysterious meaning and be recognized as a great sacrament. David himself revered this anointing in him to such an extent that “David’s heart began to hurt” from fear when, hiding in a dark cave, into which Saul also entered at the request of natural need, he secretly cut off a small edge of the latter’s clothing in order to have something to prove that he, having the opportunity to kill (Saul), spared him, and thus destroy in his soul the suspicion in his soul, according to which he, considering Saint David his enemy, with his cruelty pursued. He began to fear that he had committed a great sacrilege against Saul by thus touching his garment. For this is how it is written about it: “David’s heart was pained because he cut off the edge of Saul’s garment” (1 Sam. XXIV, 6). To the men who were with him and persuaded him to kill Saul, who had been betrayed into the hands of him, he said: “The Lord forbid that I should do this to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to lay my hand on him; for he is the Lord’s anointed” (1 Sam. XXIV, 7). This canopy of the future was given such veneration not for its own sake, but for the sake of what was prefigured to it. Therefore, the words of Samuel spoken to Saul: “You have acted badly in that you have not fulfilled the commandment of the Lord your God, which was given to you; for now would the Lord establish your reign over Israel forever. But now your reign cannot stand; The Lord will find Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord will command him to be the leader of His people, since you have not fulfilled what the Lord commanded you” (1 Sam. XIII, 13-14), should not be understood in the sense that God intended Saul himself to reign eternally and then changed his intention as a result of his sin; God, of course, knew that he would sin; but God was preparing his kingdom, which was an image of the eternal kingdom. Therefore he adds: “But now your reign cannot stand.” Therefore, what stood and will stand is the image of which is given in this kingdom; but “your reign will not stand”, because not only he himself will not reign forever, but also his descendants, so that in the person of his descendants, who inherit one another, what was said: “forever” will not receive apparent fulfillment. “The Lord,” says (Samuel), “will find Him a man after His own heart,” pointing either to David, or to the Mediator of the New Testament himself, typified in the anointing with which David and his descendants were anointed. God does not seek man as if He did not know where he is: simply through man He speaks humanly; He seeks us with these methods of speech. Not only for God the Father, but also for Himself We were already known to His Only Begotten, who came “to seek and save that which was lost” (Luke XIX, 19), that we were chosen in him before the creation of the world (Eph. 1:4). Therefore, in the Latin language the verb qua_eret (seeks) receives a preposition and turns into acquirit, the meaning of which is quite known, however, even without the addition of the preposition qua_erere has the meaning acquirere: why also profit (lucra). also called qua_estus. Chapter VII. About the dissolution of the kingdom of Israel, which represents the permanent separation of spiritual Israel from carnal Israel Again Saul sinned by disobedience, and again Samuel spoke to him in the word of the Lord: “Because you rejected the word of the Lord, He also rejected you, so that you should not be king” (1 Sam. XV, 23). And again, when Saul confessed his sin, begged for forgiveness and asked Samuel to return with him to propitiate God, Samuel says: “I will not turn back with you; For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you, so that you should not be king over Israel. And Samuel turned to leave. But Saul grabbed the hem of his garment and tore it. Then Samuel said, “Today the Lord has torn away the kingdom of Israel from you, and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.” And the Faithful of Israel will not speak a lie, nor repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent” (1 Sam. XV, 26-29). The one to whom it is said: “The Lord has rejected you, so that you should not be king over Israel,” and also: “Now the Lord has torn away the kingdom of Israel from you,” reigned over Israel for forty years, that is, as long as David reigned, and heard these words in the first half of his reign. Therefore, we must understand these words in the sense that none of his descendants should have reigned; and we must turn to the generation of David, from which came in the flesh the Mediator of God and people, the man Christ Jesus. The Scriptures do not contain what is read in many Latin codices: “Then Samuel said, “Today the Lord has torn apart (not “tore away”) the kingdom of Israel in your hand” (and not “from you”); we have given this place as we found it in the Greek codices. The expression "in thy hand" is to be understood in the same sense as "from Israel." In a figurative sense, this man represented the people of Israel; and this people lost their kingdom when Christ Jesus our Lord was anointed to the kingdom through the New Testament, and His kingdom became not carnal, but spiritual. When it is said about Him: “And you gave it to your neighbor,” this refers to carnal kinship: for Christ according to the flesh is from Israel, like Saul. The addition of “to one better than you” can, perhaps, be considered equivalent to the expression “to one better than you”; some translated it that way. The latter expression better conveys the meaning that since he is good, he is higher, according to another well-known prophetic saying, “Until I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Ps. 109:1). Among these enemies is Israel, from whom, as His persecutor, Christ took away the kingdom. There was, however, also Israel, in whom there was no guile (John I, 47), like a kind of wheat in those tares. The apostles came from there; There are so many martyrs from there, and the first of them is Stephen; from there are so many churches that the Apostle Paul mentions as glorifying God regarding his conversion (Gal. I, 22-24). I have no doubt that the following words must be understood as applied to this: “And Israel will be divided in two,” that is, into Israel - the enemy of Christ, and into Israel - committed to Christ; on Israel, referring to the slave, and on Israel, referring to the free woman. For initially both of these families existed together, just as Abraham still held onto a slave, until the barren woman, being fertilized by the grace of Christ, exclaimed: “Cast out this slave and her son” (Gen. XXI, 10). Although we know that for the sin of Solomon, during the reign of his son Rehoboam, Israel was divided into two and remained in this division, each part separately having its own kings until the whole of this people was ruined to the ground and resettled by the Chaldeans, but what does this have to do with Saul, when, if anything like this should have been threatened, such a threat should rather have been made to David, whose son Solomon was? And, finally, at the present time there is no division among the Jewish people, but they are randomly scattered throughout the earth in complete agreement in the same error. And the division with which God, in the person of Saul, who represented the image of the Israeli kingdom and people, threatened this kingdom and people, is predicted as eternal and unchangeable by the addition: “And the Faithful of Israel will not speak a lie, nor will he repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent" ; that is, a person will make a threat and not fulfill it, but not God, who does not repent like a person. For in those cases where it is said that He repents, a change in things is indicated in the presence of the unchangeable foreknowledge of God. Therefore, when it is said that He does not repent, it goes without saying that He does not change His decisions. These words express the unchangeable and in all respects always valid divine determination about the mentioned division of the people of Israel. Whoever from this people passed, or is passing, or will pass over to Christ, he was not from it according to divine foreknowledge (and not according to the unity of the nature of the human race). In general, each of the Israelis who, clinging to Christ, abides in Him, was never among those Israelis who want to remain His enemies until the end of this life, but was always in that division, which in this case was foreshadowed. For the Old Testament “from Mount Sinai, giving birth into slavery” (Gal. IV, 24) does not bring any other benefit except that which serves as evidence of the New Testament. Otherwise, “while they read Moses, a veil lies over their heart”; when any of them turns to Christ, “then this veil is removed” (II Cor. III, 15-16). Among those who convert, the desire itself changes from the Old to the new, so that everyone no longer strives to achieve not carnal, but spiritual happiness. Therefore, the great prophet Samuel himself, even before the anointing of King Saul, when he “cried to the Lord for Israel,” when he offered up a “burnt offering,” and when “the Philistines came to fight” against the people of God, and “the Lord thundered” against them, and “they were struck,” he took one stone, placed it between Mizpah, the new and the old, and gave it the name Aben-ezer, i.e. “stone of help,” and said: “Until this place the Lord has helped us” (1 Sam. VII, 9–12). Massifah means “aspiration.” And that stone of help is the medium of the Savior, through Whom one must move from the old Mizpah to the new, that is, from the desire for false carnal bliss in the carnal kingdom, to the desire that, through the New Testament, awaits true spiritual bliss in the kingdom of heaven. Since there is nothing better than the latter, then “up to this point” God helps. Chapter VIII. About the promises given to David in his son, which were not at all fulfilled in Solomon, but turn out to be most accurately fulfilled in Christ Now I find it necessary to show that from what relates to the subject we are talking about, God promised David, who succeeded Saul as king, and in this change a prototype was given of that final change, for the sake of which, through divine revelation, everything that was written was said. When many of King David's enterprises were successful, he decided to create a house for God, that is, that highly renowned church, which was later built by his son, King Solomon. While he was thinking about this, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Nathan, which the latter conveyed to the king. In this revelation, God, having said that it was not David who would build Him a house and that for a certain time He had not commanded anyone among His people to build Him a house of cedar, says: “Thus say to My servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the flock of sheep, that you might be a leader of My people Israel; and was with you wherever you went, and destroyed all your enemies before you, and made your name great, like the name of the great ones on earth. And I will build a place for My people Israel, and I will establish them, and they will live quietly in their place, and will no longer be troubled, and wicked people will no longer oppress them, as they did before, from the time that I appointed judges over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. And the Lord declares to you that He will build you a house. When your days are fulfilled, and you rest with your fathers, then I will raise up your seed after you, which will come from your loins, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son; and if he sins, I will punish him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men; but I will not take My mercy from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I rejected before you. And your house and your kingdom will be established forever before Me, and your throne will stand forever” (2 Kings VII, 8-16). Anyone who thinks that this great promise was fulfilled in Solomon is greatly mistaken. He draws attention to the words: “He will build an house for my name,” referring to Solomon’s building of the famous magnificent church; but does not pay attention to the words: “And your house and your kingdom will be established forever before Me.” Let him consider Solomon's house, filled with foreign women who worship false gods, and let him consider the king himself, once wise, but carried away and fallen into the same idolatry: he will not then dare to consider God either as having made a false promise, or not knowing that Solomon and his house would be so. On the other hand, we should have no room for doubt since we have seen that all this has already been fulfilled in our Lord Christ, “Who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:3), so that, like the carnal Jews, we should mean someone else in this promise. For the Jews themselves understand to such an extent that the son promised to David in the above passage of Scripture was not Solomon, that in their amazing blindness they expect someone else, after the Promised One had already revealed himself with such clarity. However, a certain image of the future was reflected in Solomon - in the fact that he built the church; in that, according to his name, he reigned peacefully (for the name Solomon means “peacemaker”); the fact that the beginning of his reign deserved all sorts of praise. But he did not imagine this very personality as his own, but rather foreshadowed our Lord Christ as the shadow of the future. Therefore, the Scripture says something about him as if the mentioned prophecy applied to him, while the Holy Scripture, prophesying the events themselves, paints a picture of his future in a certain way. Thus, in addition to the books of divine history containing the narrative of his reign, the seventy-first psalm is inscribed with his name; This psalm says a lot that absolutely cannot relate to it, but with complete clarity refers to the face of the Lord Christ, from which it becomes obvious that a certain image is shaded in it, and the truth itself is presented in Christ. It is known, for example, what limits the kingdom of Solomon was limited to; and yet in the mentioned psalm, among other things that I am silent about, you can read: “He will rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth” (Ps. 72:8). This we see fulfilled in Christ. His possession began from the river, where He received baptism from John and, at the latter’s direction, became recognized by the disciples, who called Him not only Teacher, but also Lord. And Solomon began to reign during the life of his father David, which had never happened to any of the kings of Judah, for no other reason than so that it would be clear that he was not the one who was predicted by the prophecy addressed to his father: “When your days are fulfilled, and you rest with your fathers, then I will raise up after you your seed, which will come from your loins, and I will strengthen the kingdom him." How then, on the basis of the words that follow: “He will build an house for My name,” do they believe that this is a prophecy about Solomon, and do not think on the basis of the previous words: “When your days are fulfilled, and you rest with your fathers, then I will raise up your seed after you,” that another peacemaker is promised, about whom it was predicted that he would be raised not before, like Solomon, but after the death of David? No matter how great the period of time was before the coming of Jesus Christ, without any doubt, after the death of David, as He was promised to him, He had to come who would create a house for God not from wood and stones, but from people - one whose creation we welcome to those who came. To this house, that is, to the faithful of Christ, the apostle says: “The church of God is holy; and this church is you” (I Cor. III, 17). Chapter IX. About the great similarity of the prophecy about Christ, set out in the eighty-eighth psalm, with those promises given in the books of Kings in the words of the prophet Nathan Therefore, in the eighty-eighth psalm, which is called “The Teaching of Etham Ezrahite,” the promises of God given to King David are mentioned, and among them are some similar to those set out in the book of Kings. Such, for example, is the following: “I swore to David my servant: I will establish your seed forever” (Ps. 89:4–5). And again: “Once upon a time You spoke in a vision to Your saint, and said: “I helped the courageous, I lifted up the chosen one from the people. I found David My servant and anointed him with My holy oil. My hand will be with him, and My arm will strengthen him. The enemy will not prevail against him, and the son of iniquity will not oppress him. I will crush his enemies before him, and smite those who hate him. And My truth and My mercy will be with him, and his horn will be exalted in My name. And I will lay his hand on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers. He will call Me: You are my father. My God and the rock of my salvation. And I will make him the firstborn, above the kings of the earth. I will preserve My mercy for him forever, and My covenant with him will be faithful. And I will continue his seed forever, and his throne as the days of heaven” (Ps. 89:20-30). All this, when rightly understood, applies to the Lord Jesus, who is understood by the name of David because of the appearance of the servant who received this Mediator from the Virgin of the seed of David. Following this, something is said about the sins of his sons that is read in the book of Kings and seems to most directly relate to Solomon. There, that is, in the book of Kings, God says: “If he sins, I will punish him with the rod of men and the blows of the sons of men; but I will not take My mercy from him” (2 Kings VII, 14–15), denoting corrective blows with blows (tactibus - touches). Hence the expression: “Do not touch My anointed” (Ps. 104:15), that is, do not offend. In the psalm, speaking as if about David, God, in order to express something of the same kind here, says: “If his sons forsake My law, and do not walk in My commandments; If they break My statutes and do not keep My commandments, I will strike their iniquity with a rod, and their iniquity with blows; But I will not take My mercy from him” (Ps. 89:31–34). He did not say “from them,” although he spoke about his sons, and not about him; but said “from him,” which, correctly understood, has an important meaning. For it is not in Christ himself, Who is the Head of the Church, that there could be any sins that would need to be curbed by human punishments, while preserving divine mercy; but they could be in His body and members, that is, in His people. The psalm says “his sons” to let us understand that in some way what is said about Him is what is said about His body. Therefore, He Himself, when Saul was pursuing His body, that is, His faithful, said from heaven: “Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting Me? (Acts 9:4). Then in the subsequent words of the psalm He says: “I will not change My truth. I will not break My covenant, nor change what has gone out of My mouth. Once I swore by My holiness: Shall I lie to David? (Ps. 89:34–36); that is, I will under no circumstances lie to David. And what He does not lie about, He makes clear, saying: “His seed will remain forever, and his throne is like the sun before Me; He will be firm as the moon forever, and a faithful witness in the heavens” (Ps. 89:37–38). Chapter X. What happened in the kingdom of earthly Jerusalem contradicts the promises of God to such an extent that it makes it clear that the truth of the promise refers to the glory of another King and kingdom After this most powerful confirmation of such a great promise, so that they would not think that it was fulfilled on Solomon (since they hoped for it, but did not see the fulfillment), the psalm says: “But now You have rejected and despised” (Ps. 89:39). This happened to the kingdom of Solomon under his descendants, when even earthly Jerusalem, which was the capital of that kingdom, was destroyed, when the temple of Jerusalem itself, built by Solomon, was destroyed. But so that on this basis they would not think that God acted contrary to his promises, the psalm adds: He has put aside “Thy anointed Christ.” Therefore, if the Lord's Christ was put aside, it was not Solomon, nor was it David himself. For, although all kings who have received consecration by the mysterious anointing are called Christ, not only starting with David, but even with Saul himself, who was anointed the first king of the people of Israel (David himself calls him the Christ of the Lord, 1 Sam. 24:7), but there was only one true Christ, whose image, by virtue of the prophetic anointing, they bore, who, in the opinion of people who thought to see Him in the person of David or Solomon, was postponed for a long time, but by order of God was preparing to come in due time. And what happened in the meantime, while He was delayed, happened to the kingdom of earthly Jerusalem, where many hoped that He would reign? He destroyed all its fences and turned its fortress into ruins. All who pass by plunder it; he became a laughing stock among his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his opponents, you have made all his enemies glad. You turned back the edge of his sword, and did not strengthen him in battle; took away his shine, and his throne cast him to the ground; He shortened the days of his youth and covered him with shame” (Ps. 89:40–46). All this happened to the slave Jerusalem, in which some of the sons of the free reigned, holding this kingdom at temporary disposal, but the kingdom of heavenly Jerusalem, whose sons they were, held in the true faith and hoped to find it in the true Christ. And how all this broke out over that kingdom is clearly shown by the history of the events that took place. Chapter XI. About the essence of the people of God, which through the taking on of flesh is in Christ, the only one who had the power to tear his soul out of hell After these predictions, the prophet turns to God in prayer; but this prayer itself is a prophecy. “How long, Lord, will you hide yourself continually?” This is just as it is said elsewhere: “How long will you hide your face from me?” (Ps. XII, 1). It can, however, be understood this way: “You are hiding your mercy, which you promised to David.” “Unceasingly” means “until the end.” By the end this should be understood as the last time when this people will have to believe in Christ Jesus; but before this end, those disasters that the prophet lamented above must happen. In view of them, it is also said here further: “Thy anger will kindle like fire. Remember my composition (essence).” In this place Jesus himself is best understood by the essence of his people, from which comes the nature of his flesh. “Is it food in vain,” the prophet continues, “thou hast created all the sons of men?” (Ps. 89:47–48). For if the essence of Israel had not been the one Son of Man, through whom many sons of men would have been set free, then it is certain that all the sons of men would have been created in vain. Now, although human nature, as a result of the sin of the first man, fell from truth into vanity, why does another psalm say: “Man is like vanity; his days pass away like a shadow” (Ps. 119:4), however, God did not create all the sons of men in vain, because He frees many from vanity through the Mediator Jesus, and to those about whose non-liberation He had foresight, whether for the benefit of those who would be freed, or for comparison between two opposite cities (but, in any case, not in vain) He gave their place in the most beautiful and fair order of rational creation in general. It follows: “Which man has lived and not seen death, and has delivered his soul from the hand of the underworld?” (Ps. 89:49). Who is this man, if not this essence of Israel from the seed of David, Christ Jesus, about whom the apostle says that “Christ, having risen from the dead, dies no more: death no longer has power over Him” (Rom. VI, 9)? He will live and not see death, but in such a way, however, that he will die, but will deliver his soul from the hand of the underworld, into which he will descend to free some from the bonds of hell; He will deliver with the same power that he speaks of in the Gospel: “I have power to lay it down (life), and I have power to take it up again” (John X, 18). Chapter XII. On whose behalf it is necessary to present to those coming the insistent demand for the fulfillment of the promises about which the psalm says: “Where are your ancient mercies, O Lord,” and so on. Further in this psalm we read: “Where are Your former mercies, O Lord? You swore to David by Your truth. Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I bear in my bosom from all the mighty nations. How Thy enemies revile, O Lord, how they dishonor the footsteps of Thy anointed one” (Ps. 89:50–52). It is not without reason to ask: is this being said on behalf of those Israelis who wanted the promise given to David to be fulfilled for them, or, rather, on behalf of Christians who are Israelis not in the flesh, but in the spirit? This was said or written at the time when Etham lived, from whose name this psalm received its title; this time was the time of the reign of David. Therefore the expression: “Where are Your former mercies, O Lord? You swore to David by Your truth” would not have been used if the prophet had not represented in his person those who lived much later, for whom the time in which the mentioned promises were given to David was the time of the past. Moreover, it can be understood that many pagans, during the persecution of Christians, reproached them with the suffering of Christ, which in Scripture is called a change (trace): because through death He became immortal. It can, however, be understood in such a way that Christ’s change became a reproach to the Israelites in the sense that He, whom they were waiting for as their Christ, became the Christ of the pagans. For this they are now being reproached by many nations who believed in Him through the New Testament, while they remained under the Old. That is why it is said: “Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants,” because if the Lord does not forget them, but rather takes pity on them, then after this reproach they too will believe. But the meaning that I indicated before seems to me more suitable. The enemies of Christ, who are reproached that Christ, having gone over to other nations, abandoned them, would not be suited by such an exclamation: “Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Thy servants.” Such Jews cannot be called servants of God. Such words are appropriate for those who, having undergone the grave humiliation of persecution for the name of Christ, could remember that the most exalted kingdom was promised to the seed of David; and with the desire for this kingdom, not in despair, but expressing a request, aspiration, persistent, finally, solicitation, they could say: “Where are Your former mercies, Lord? You swore to David by Your truth. Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I bear in my bosom from all the mighty nations.” The expression: “Remember, Lord,” what does it mean if not - have pity, and as a reward for patiently enduring humiliation, reward with the height that you swore to David by Your truth? If we attribute these words to the Jews, then this could be said by those servants of God who, after the destruction of earthly Jerusalem, before the birth of Jesus Christ according to humanity, were taken into captivity with a clear understanding of the change of Christ, that is, that through Him one should expect not earthly and bodily happiness, which distinguished the few years of Solomon’s reign, but heavenly and spiritual. Not knowing this, the unbelief of the peoples, when it triumphed and mocked the captivity of the people of God, with what else did it reproach those who did not know, if not by the change of Christ? The following words that end the psalm: “Blessed is the Lord forever! Amen, amen,” are completely befitting of all the people of God who belong to the heavenly Jerusalem, whether they come from the faces of those who were hidden in the Old Testament until the revelation of the New, or from the faces of those who, after the revelation of the New Testament, are found to openly belong to Christ. For it is to be hoped that the blessing of the Lord on the seed of David will not remain for some certain time, as it was revealed in the days of Solomon, but “forever.” This sure hope says: “Amen, amen.” The repetition of this word is a confirmation of that hope. Realizing this, David, in that place of the second book of Kings, from which we moved on to the present psalm, says: “Thou hast yet proclaimed the house of Thy servant afar off.” Therefore, a little further he says: “Now begin and bless the house of Your servant... forever” (2 Kings VII, 19:29), etc., since at that time he was supposed to give birth to a son, from whom his generation would continue until Christ; and through Christ his house had to be eternal and, at the same time, the house of God. He is the house of David, because of the lineage of David; but at the same time it is the house of God, because of the church of God, created not from stones, but from people, in which the people will dwell forever with God and in their God, and God with the people and in His people; so that God will fill His people, and the people will be filled with their God, and God will be in all, Himself making a reward in the world, being valiant in battle. Therefore, after what was said through the mouth of Nathan: “The Lord declares to you that He will build you a house,” it is said through the mouth of David: “You, Lord of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to Your servant, saying: “I will build you a house” (2 Sam. VII, 11:27). We build this house with a good life, and God also creates it, helping us with a good life. When the time comes for the final consecration of this house, then what God said on this occasion through the prophet Nathan will be fulfilled with the words: “I will build a place for my people Israel, and I will root them, and they will live peacefully in their place, and will no longer be disturbed, and wicked people will no longer oppress them as before, since I appointed judges over my people Israel” (2 Kings VII, 10-11). ). Chapter XIII. Can the fulfillment of the promise of peace be attributed to the times that passed under Solomon? Anyone who expects such a great good in this life and on this earth is acting foolishly. Wouldn't anyone think that this was fulfilled during the peaceful reign of Solomon? Scripture, indeed, presents the world of this reign primarily as the shadow of the future. But such an assumption is carefully eliminated when, after the words, “Wicked people will no longer oppress him,” he is immediately added: “As before, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel.” Before kings began to be appointed, judges were appointed over that people, from the time they took possession of the land of promise. Wicked people, that is, foreign enemies, constantly disturbed and offended him, since, according to the testimony of Scripture, times of peace gave way to wars; but even during this period there are even longer times of peace than the time of Solomon, who reigned for forty years. For example, under the judge, who was called Ehud, the peace lasted eighty years. It should not therefore be thought that this promise foretold the times of Solomon, much less the times of any other king. Of the latter there was not one who reigned as peacefully as Solomon; and in general this people never had such a reign when they were not exposed to the danger of falling under the power of enemies. With such variability in human affairs, no people have ever been provided with security to such an extent that they did not fear enemy attacks on this earthly life. So, the place that is promised as a place of peaceful and safe habitation is an eternal place, and is predestined by the Eternal in free Jerusalem, where the people of Israel will truly be: for this name translated means “he who sees God.” It is in pious expectation of such a reward that one should live by faith during this difficult journey. Chapter XIV. About the diligence with which David put the psalms in order So, during the forward movement of the city of God in time, in the former shadow of the future earthly Jerusalem, David reigned, firstly. David was a man knowledgeable in singing, loving music not due to the usual inclination to pleasure, but due to his purely spiritual mood; and with it, as a mysterious prototype of something great, he served his God, Who is the true God. For a reasonable and proportionate combination of different sounds best speaks of the unity of a well-ordered city, formed as a harmonious combination of dissimilar parts. Further, almost all of his prophecies are contained in the psalms, which are contained among the one hundred and fifty in the book we call the book of Psalms. Of these psalms, some consider only those inscribed with his name to be the works of David. Some people think that he composed only those inscribed “David”; and those inscribed "to David" were composed by others, but dedicated to him. This opinion is refuted by the Gospel testimony of the Savior himself, when He says that David himself, by the inspiration of the Spirit, called Christ his Lord; because the one hundred and ninth psalm begins like this: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Ps. 109:1). The psalm is not inscribed “David”, but “To David,” like many others. But it seems to me more probable the opinion of those who attribute all one hundred and fifty psalms to David himself and think that he himself inscribed some with other people’s names, giving some kind of prototype in relation to the subject, and in the inscription of the rest he did not want to put any human name, according to the fact that such a varied order, although obscure, but in any case not without meaning, was inspired by the Lord in him. The likelihood of this should not be reduced by the fact that in the inscription of some psalms in this book the names of some prophets who lived much later than King David are read, as if what is said in these psalms is said on their behalf (Ps. 64, Ps. 111, Ps. 145, etc.). The Prophetic Spirit could also reveal these names of future prophets to the prophesying King David, so that he could prophetically sing something corresponding to their face, just as King Josiah, who was to be born and reign more than three hundred years later, was revealed by name to a certain prophet who predicted his future actions. Chapter XV. Is it necessary, according to the consistent course of this study, to cite all the prophecies about Christ and about the Church, which are set out in the psalms? I see that they are already expecting me to present in the present place of this book those prophecies that David spoke in the psalms about the Lord Jesus Christ or about His Church. But I am prevented from satisfying this expectation (although in one case I have already done this) rather by their abundance than by their lack. I refrain from stating them all to avoid lengthiness; and I am afraid to select some, lest many who know them might think that I have omitted something more important. Moreover, the evidence presented must be connected with the speech of the entire psalm, so that nothing contradicts it (that is, so that there are no accusations that phrases taken out of context are cited); Otherwise, it may seem that we, as in a certain kind of poem composed of fragments, select for our purpose, as if individual lines from a large poem, what turns out to be written not about that subject at all, but about another, very distant from it. To indicate it in any psalm, you need to set out the entire psalm; and how much work it costs is sufficiently shown by both the books of others and our own, in which we did this. Whoever wants and can, let him read them: in them he will find how many and what prophecies the king and prophet David spoke about Christ and about His Church, that is, about the King and about the city that He created. Chapter XVI. What is said directly or figuratively in the forty-fourth psalm regarding Christ and the Church Although prophetic sayings on any subject have a direct and clear meaning, they are inevitably mixed with those that have a figurative meaning. The latter make it especially difficult for teachers to interpret and explain prophecies to people who are not very understanding. Some, however, from the very first time, as soon as they speak out, directly point to Christ and the Church; although they leave something less clear about them for further explanation. This is the following prophecy in the same book of Psalms: “Good words are poured out from my heart; I say: my song is about the King; my tongue is a cursive cane. You are more beautiful than the sons of men; grace poured out from Your mouth; Therefore God has blessed You forever. Gird Your sword on Your thigh, O Mighty One, with Your glory and Your beauty. And in this Your adornment hasten, sit on the chariot for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness, and Your right hand will show You wondrous deeds. Your arrows are sharp; nations will fall before You; they are in the heart of the King's enemies. Thy throne, O God, endures forever; the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You loved righteousness and hated iniquity; Therefore, O God, Your God has anointed You with the oil of joy more than Your fellows. All Your garments are like myrrh and scarlet and casia; from the palaces of ivory they rejoice Thee. The daughters of kings are among those honored by You” (Ps. 45:2–10). Who, no matter how stupid he may be, will not recognize in these words Christ, whom we preach and in whom we believe, when he hears that He is called God, whose throne is “forever,” and anointed by God—anointed, of course, as God anoints, not with a visible, but with a spiritual and mental anointing? Is there anyone so ignorant of this religion or so deaf to the rumors about it, so far and wide spread, that he would not know that Christ received His name from Christma, that is, from the anointing? Having recognized Christ as the King, he, having already become a subject of the One who reigns “for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness,” will at his leisure understand for himself the rest of what is said in this case in a figurative sense: how He is more beautiful than all the sons of men, more beautiful in a special kind of beauty, the more attractive and amazing, the less physical beauty it is; what kind of sword does He have, what kind of arrows and everything else, which is also spoken of not in the proper, but in a figurative sense. Then He will see His Church united with His Spouse by a spiritual union and divine love. She is further described in the following words: “The queen stood at Your right hand in Ophir gold. Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house. And the King will desire your beauty; for He is your Lord, and you shall worship Him. And the daughter of Tyre with gifts, and the richest of the people will pray to your face. All the glory of the King's daughter is within; her clothes are embroidered with gold. In speckled clothes she is led to the King; after her the virgins, her friends, are led to You. They are brought in with joy and rejoicing and enter the palace of the King. Instead of Your fathers, Your sons will be: You will make them princes throughout all the earth. I will make Your name memorable to generation and generation; therefore the nations will praise You forever and ever” (Ps. 45:10–18). I do not think that anyone would be so stupid as to imagine that in this place any ordinary woman is praised and described, the wife of Him to whom it is said: “Thy throne, O God, endures forever; the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You loved righteousness and hated iniquity; Therefore, O God, Your God has anointed You with the oil of joy more than Your fellows.” Of course, Christ anointed more than Christians. For the latter are His partners. Of these, from all nations, through unity and harmony, this queen is made up, in accordance with what is said about her in another psalm: “The city of the great King” (Ps. 47:3). She is also Zion in the spiritual sense; This name translated into Latin means “looking out.” In this case, the great good of the future century is visible, since her efforts are directed towards it. She is also Jerusalem in the same spiritual sense, about which much has already been said. Her enemy is the city of the devil, Babylon, which means “confusion.” Through rebirth, however, this queen is freed from Babylon among all nations, and passes from the evil king to the good King, that is, from the devil to Christ. That is why it is said to her: “Forget your people and your father’s house.” Part of this wicked city are the Israelites according to the flesh, and not according to faith: they are even enemies of the great King and His queen. Christ, who came to them and was killed by them, became more and more the Christ of other peoples, whom he had not seen in the flesh. Therefore, in the prophecy of one psalm, our King himself says: “You delivered me from the rebellion of the people, you made me the head of the foreigners; a people whom I did not know serves me; by one rumor about me they obey me” (Ps. XVII, 44–45). These people from the nations, whom Christ did not know when he appeared in the flesh, but in whom they believed as Christ when it was announced to them, so that it is rightly said about them: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. X, 17), - these people, I say, joined to the true Israelites both in the flesh and in faith, constitute the city of God, who gave birth in the flesh to Christ himself. a time when it consisted of only the mentioned Israelis. For from there was the virgin Mary, in whom Christ took flesh to be a man. About this city, another psalm says: “About Zion they will say: “Such and such a man was born in it, and the Most High Himself strengthened it” (Ps. 87:5). Who is this Almighty if not God? Therefore, God Christ, before he became man in this city through Mary. He himself founded it in the patriarchs and prophets. So, if this queen, the city of God, was prophetically predicted long ago and fulfilled before our eyes: “In place of Your fathers there will be Your sons; You will make them princes throughout the whole earth" ; For of her sons are her leaders and fathers throughout the whole earth; if peoples confess to her, flocking to her in recognition of her endless merits in the century of the century; then, without any doubt, everything that is said in this place in somewhat obscure figurative terms, no matter how it is understood, must correspond to the stated clearest meaning of this place. Chapter XVII. That the hundred and ninth psalm refers to the priesthood of Christ, and the twenty-first psalm to His sufferings The same is true in relation to that psalm in which Christ the Priest is predicted in the clearest way, as in the psalm discussed above Christ the King is predicted: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Ps. 109:1). The seating of Christ at the right hand of God the Father is an object of faith, not vision; nor does it appear that His enemies are placed under His feet; this is done, but will be revealed in the end; for now this too is an object of faith, but later it will be an object of vision. But what follows: “The Lord will send the rod of Your strength from Zion: rule among Your enemies” (Ps. 109:2), is so obvious that to deny it is a sign of not only dishonesty and feeble-mindedness, but even shamelessness. The enemies themselves confess that from Zion the law of Christ was sent, which we call the Gospel and which we recognize as the rod of His power. They themselves testify to His dominion among His enemies with gnashing of teeth and with the consciousness of their powerlessness against Him. Then, regarding what was said a little further: “The Lord has sworn, and will not repent (these words indicate the inevitable fulfillment in the future of what is added): You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 109:4), - who, meaning that the priesthood and sacrifices according to the order of Aaron are no longer anywhere, and everywhere under the priesthood of Christ what Melchizedek brought, when blessed Abraham (Gen. XIV, 18), one may wonder who these words refer to? So, with this, which is quite clear, is compared, when understood correctly, what is said in the same psalm in a somewhat darker way: this is what we have already done in our words written for the people. So in another psalm, where Christ, in words of prophecy, speaks of humiliation in His suffering: “They pierced my hands and my feet. One could count all my bones, but they look and make a spectacle out of me” (Ps. XXI, 17–18). With these words He pointed to the body stretched out on the cross, with its hands and feet nailed to the tree, and to the fact that He presented Himself as a spectacle for those watching and examining Him. He even added: “They divide my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothes” (Ps. XXI, 19). The gospel story tells how the last prophecy was fulfilled (Matthew XXVII, 35). There is no doubt that the rest, which is said less clearly in the same psalm, will be understood correctly if it corresponds to what is expressed so clearly; and this is all the more so since what we consider not to have happened, but consider only to be happening, turns out to be currently happening throughout the whole world, as predicted in that psalm from a time so distant from us. For it says a little further: “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the tribes of the heathen will bow before You, for the Lord is the kingdom, and He is the ruler over the nations” (Ps. XXI, 28-29). Chapter XVIII. About the third, fortieth, fifteenth and sixty-seventh psalms, in which the death and resurrection of the Lord is predicted The prophecies of the psalms about His resurrection did not remain silent. For what else is sung in the third psalm on behalf of Him: “I lie down, sleep and get up, for the Lord protects me” (Ps. III, 6)? Will anyone be so lost in common sense that he would think that the prophet wanted to present to us as something great the fact that he would fall asleep and get up, if by sleep this did not mean death, and by awakening - the resurrection, which in such expressions was to be foreshadowed about Christ? This is indicated much more clearly in the fortieth psalm, where, according to custom, on behalf of the same Mediator, what was predicted to happen was told in the form of the past; for what was to happen, in the predestination and foreknowledge of God, was as if already accomplished, so undoubted was it. “My enemies,” we read in the psalm, “speak evil about me: “When will he die and his name perish?” And if anyone comes to see me, he tells a lie; his heart contains untruth, and he goes out and interprets. All those who hate me whisper among themselves against me, plotting evil against me: “The word of Belial came upon him; he fell ill; he will rise no more" (Ps. 40:6–9)? This time these words are placed in such a connection that their meaning is unambiguous: “He died; He will not be resurrected." For the previous words show that His enemies planned and prepared His death, and this was carried out through the agency of him who went in to see and went out to betray. Who does not remember Judas, who turned from His disciple into a traitor? So, since they had to fulfill what they had undertaken, that is, to kill Him, then, showing that they would in vain, out of vain malice, kill the One who was to be resurrected. He adds this verse as if to say: “What are you vain people doing? Whatever your crime is, that will be my dream.” And that they will commit such a great crime, however, not with impunity, He shows in the following verses, saying: “Even the man who was at peace with me, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, lifted up his heel against me (that is, trampled me underfoot). But You, Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up, and I will repay them” (Ps. 41:10-11). Who will now deny this, seeing how, after the suffering and resurrection of Christ, the Jews were exterminated in a bloody war and were uprooted from their settlements? The one they killed rose again and rewarded them with temporary admonition, in addition to what he leaves for the incorrigible for the future, when he judges the living and the dead. And the Lord Jesus himself, pointing out the spread bread of His betrayer to the apostles, recalled this very verse of the psalm and said that it was fulfilled on Him: “He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me” (John XIII, 18). The words “in whom I trusted” do not correspond to the Head, but to the body. The Savior Himself knew, of course, the one about whom he had previously said: “One of you is a devil” (John VI, 70). But He is in the habit of representing His members in His person and ascribing to Himself those things pertaining to them, since both Head and body constitute one Christ; hence the famous expression in the Gospel: “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.” Explaining this, He says: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me” (Matthew XXV, 35:40). So, He said that He trusted, because His disciples placed their hope in Judas at the time when Judas was numbered among the apostles. The Jews do not think that the Christ they are waiting for can die. Therefore, they believe that the one predicted by the Law and the Prophets is not our Christ, but some one of theirs, whom they imagine to be alien to mortal suffering. Therefore, with amazing vanity and blindness, they assert that the words we have cited do not mean death and resurrection, but sleep and awakening. But Psalm fifteen also gives them loud testimony: “Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad; even my flesh will rest in hope; for You will not leave my soul in hell and You will not allow Your holy one to see corruption” (Ps. XV, 9-10). Who could say that his flesh calmed down in the hope that his soul would not remain in hell, but, immediately returning to it (the flesh), would revive it again, so that it would not decay, as corpses decay - who could say this except the One who was resurrected on the third day? They cannot say this about the prophet and king David. Psalm sixty-seven also cries out loudly: “God is God for our salvation; in the power of the Lord Almighty are the gates of death” (Ps. 67:21). Can anything be said more clearly? God for salvation is Jesus, which means Savior. This is exactly the meaning that was given to this name when, even before the birth of Christ, it was said from the Virgin: “Thou shalt give birth to a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew I, 21). Since His blood was shed for the remission of these sins, He should not have had any other outcome from this life than death. Therefore, after the words: “God for us is God for salvation,” it is immediately added: “The gates of death are in the power of the Lord Almighty,” to show that He will save by His death. But the last words were spoken with an expression of some surprise, as if they wanted to say: “Such is the real life of mortals, that even for the Lord himself there is no other way out of it except through death.” Chapter XIX. About the sixty-eighth psalm, in which the stubborn unbelief of the Jews is exposed Since the Jews are decidedly not affected to such an extent by the clear evidence of this prophecy, even at a time when events showed their obvious and exact fulfillment; then what is written in the psalm following this one is fulfilled on them. And here on behalf of Christ it is said prophetically about what relates to His suffering, and among other things, what is known from the Gospel is mentioned: “And they gave me gall for food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Ps. 68:22; Matt. XXVII, 34). And then, as if after such a feast and such dishes offered to Him, the following speech is introduced: “Let their table be a snare for them, and their peaceful feast a snare. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and let their loins relax forever” (Ps. 69:23–24), and so on. This was expressed as a wish; but under the guise of a wish, a prophetic prediction is presented. Is it any wonder after this that those whose eyes are darkened so as not to see do not see the obvious? Is it surprising that those whose loins are relaxed to look down do not perceive heavenly things? The last words transferred from the body denote spiritual vices. The evidence given from the psalms, that is, from the prophecies of King David, is enough, and it’s time for us to know the limit. Let those who read this and know them all forgive and not complain if, in their opinion or in their opinion, it turns out that I have omitted something more important. Chapter XX. About the reign and merits of David, and about his son Solomon, and about those prophecies relating to Christ that are found either in the books added to those written by Solomon, or in those So, in earthly Jerusalem reigned David, the son of heavenly Jerusalem, highly praised in the divine Scripture, for his very transgressions were atone for such piety through the saving humiliation of repentance that he is undoubtedly among those about whom he himself says: “Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered!” (Ps. XXXI, 1). After his death, his son Solomon reigned over the same people, who began to reign, as was said above, while his father was still alive. This one, after a good start, had a bad ending. Happy circumstances, wearying the souls of the wise, caused him more harm than the benefit of wisdom itself, memorable now and henceforth, and at that time glorified far and wide. They find that he also prophesied in his books. Three of his books: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs are considered canonical. The other two, one of which is called Wisdom, and the other Ecclesiasticus, due to some similarity in presentation, are also usually called Solomon’s; but scientists have no doubt that they do not belong to him. However, the church, especially the Western one, has accepted them among the sacred since ancient times. One of them, called the Wisdom of Solomon, sets out the clearest prophecy about the suffering of Christ. His wicked killers appear to be saying: “Let us catch the righteous, for he is unpleasant to us and opposes our deeds, and reproaches the sins of our laws, and dishonors the sins of our teaching. He proclaims to us the understanding of God and calls himself the son of God. He is the accuser of our thoughts. It is hard for us to see him, for his ways are righteous. Let's see if his words are true: if he is a true son of God, (God) will protect him, deliver him from the hands of those who oppose (him). We will torture him with vexation and torment, so that we may see his meekness and test his patience. We will condemn him to a shameful death.” Thus they thought and were deceived, for their malice blinded them” (Wis. II, 12-21). In Ecclesiasticus, the future faith of the pagans is predicted in the following expressions: “Have mercy on us, Sovereign Lord, and fear all nations: lift up Your hand against foreign nations, that they may see Your power. Just as You were sanctified in us before them, so You are exalted in them before us; and let them know, as we have also known, that there is no God besides You, O Lord” (Sir. XXXVI, 1–5). This prophecy, expressed in the form of a wish and a prayer, we see fulfilled through Jesus Christ. But against disputants, evidence brought from scriptures outside the Jewish canon does not have such force. As for those three books which are known to be Solomon's and which the Jews regard as canonical, to indicate what is in them in the same way pertaining to Christ and the Church requires a careful investigation, which would lead us beyond the proper bounds if we were to go into it at the present time. However, the words of the wicked quoted in Proverbs: “Let us lie in wait for the blameless without guilt, we will swallow them up alive, like the grave, and whole, like those going down into the grave; let us gather up all precious possessions” (Prov. I, 11-13) are not so obscure that they cannot be applied to Christ and His property without special and careful interpretation. Churches. The Lord Jesus himself puts something similar in the Gospel parable into the mouths of evil workers: “This is the heir; let’s go, kill him and take possession of his inheritance” (Matthew XXI, 38). These are also the words in the same book that we cited earlier, when we spoke about the barren woman who gave birth to seven: those who knew that Christ is God’s Wisdom usually referred them only to Christ and the Church after they were uttered. “Wisdom built herself a house, hewed out its seven pillars, slaughtered a sacrifice, dissolved her wine and prepared a meal for herself; sent her servants to proclaim from the heights of the city: “Whoever is foolish, turn here!” And she said to the weak-minded: “Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine that I have mixed” (Proverbs IX, 1-5). In these words we truly recognize God’s Wisdom, that is, the Word co-eternal with the Father, who created for Himself in the virgin womb a home - the human body, and to this body, like members to the head, joined the Church; who sacrificed the victims of martyrs; who prepared a meal of wine and bread, in which the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek was manifested; calling upon the foolish and the poor with meaning: for, according to the words of the Apostle, “he has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong things” (1 Cor. 1:27). However, to these weak ones It further says: “Leave foolishness, and live and walk in the way of reason” (Proverbs IX, 6). To be a partaker of His table means to begin to live. For in another book, which is called Ecclesiastes, when it is said: “There is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat, drink and be merry” (Eccl. VIII, 15), what else is meant, if not what relates to the sacrament of that meal, which this Mediator of the New Testament, a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, offers from His body and blood? After all, this sacrifice replaced those sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were performed as the shadow of the future. This makes us understand in the thirty-ninth psalm the voice of the same Mediator, who says: “You did not desire sacrifices and offerings; You have opened my ears” (Ps. XXXIX, 7). Instead of all those sacrifices and offerings, His body is brought and distributed to the participants. That Ecclesiastes himself, in the saying about eating and drinking, which he often repeats and which forces us to pay special attention to, does not mean food that gives carnal pleasure, he shows quite clearly when he says: “It is better to go to a house of mourning for the dead, than to go to a house of feasting.” And a little further: “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the heart of fools is in the house of joy” (Eccl. VII, 2:4). But in particular, I consider it necessary to recall from this book what concerns two cities, one of the devil, the other of Christ, and their kings, the devil and Christ. “Woe to you, O earth,” says Ecclesiastes, “when your king is a child, and when your princes eat early! It is good for you, land, when your king is from a noble family, and your princes eat at the right time, for strengthening, and not for satiety!” (Eccl. X, 16:17). He calls the devil a youth because of stupidity, pride, arrogance and other vices that are usually abundant at this age; He calls Christ the son of the noble ones, that is, the holy patriarchs belonging to the free city, from whom He came in the flesh. The princes of the first city eat early, i.e. until the appropriate hour, because they do not expect timely and true happiness in the next century, wanting to quickly enjoy the splendor of this century. The princes of the city of Christ are patiently awaiting the time of true bliss. He points to this with the words: “not for satiety”; because they will not be deceived by hope, about which the apostle says: “Hope does not put one to shame” (Rom. V, 5). The psalm also speaks (about this): “I trust in You, let me not be ashamed” (Ps. XXIV, 2). Following this, the Song of Songs represents some spiritual pleasure of holy minds in the union of this King and the queen of the city, that is, Christ and the Church. But this pleasure is presented under allegorical veils, so that it is more ardently desired and more pleasantly revealed, and the groom, to whom this Song says: “They love you worthily,” would become visible! (Song. I, 3), and the bride, to whom they also say: “How beautiful you are, how attractive, beloved” (Song. VII, 6). We pass over a lot of things in silence in order to keep real work within proper boundaries. Chapter XXI. About the kings after Solomon in both Judah and Israel The rest of the Jewish kings after Solomon, if they turned out to be prophesies about Christ and the Church, it was only due to some mystery of their sayings and actions; and this is both in Judah and Israel. The last names were given to parts of this people from the time when, as a result of God’s punishment for the sins of Solomon, it was divided under his son Rehoboam, who succeeded his father in reign. The ten tribes, which Solomon's servant Jeroboam took over, then began to be called Israel, although this was the name of the entire people. And the two tribes, that is, Judah and Benjamin, which remained subject to Jerusalem for the sake of David, so that the royal power would not cease in his generation, bore the name of Judah: since David was from this tribe. The other tribe, which, as I said, belonged to this kingdom, Benjamin, was the tribe from which Saul, who reigned before David, came. Both these tribes together, as it is said, were called Judah; and by this name they were distinguished from Israel, by which name the ten tribes, which had their own king, were primarily called. The tribe of Levi, which was priestly and therefore obliged to serve God and not the kings, was considered the thirteenth. This is because Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, left behind not one, like the others, but two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. However, the tribe of Levi belonged more to the kingdom of Jerusalem, where the church of God was located, which it served. So, after the division of the people, Rehoboam, king of Judah, son of Solomon, reigned first in Jerusalem, and Jeroboam, king of Israel, Solomon’s servant, reigned first in Samaria. And when Rehoboam wanted to achieve power over the separated part by war, the people were forbidden to fight with their brothers: God said through the prophet that this division was His work. From this it became clear that in this matter there was no sin either on the part of the king of Israel or on the part of the people, but there was a fulfillment of the will of the punishing God. Having learned about this, both parts calmed down, establishing mutual peace: for the division was not of religion, but of the kingdom. Chapter XXII. About Jeroboam, who desecrated the people subject to him with the wickedness of idolatry, in which, however, God did not stop raising up prophets and protecting many from the crime of idolatry But out of absurd recklessness, the king of Israel, Jeroboam, not believing God, whose truthfulness he experienced in the fulfillment of the promise of the kingdom given to him, was afraid that the people, coming to the church of God, which was in Jerusalem and where, according to the divine law, all Jews were supposed to come to make sacrifices, would not break away from him and would not return again to the rule of the tribe of David, as a royal tribe. He established idolatry in his kingdom and led the people of God along with him to the wicked veneration of statues. However, God did not cease in every possible way to denounce through the prophets not only this king, but also his successors, who were imitators of his wickedness, and the people themselves. For those famous great prophets also appeared there who performed many miracles: Elijah and his disciple Elisha. There, when Elijah said: “The children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, destroyed Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword; I am left alone, but they are also looking for my soul in order to take it away” (1 Kings XIX, 10), he was given the answer that there were still seven thousand men there who did not bend the knee to Baal. Chapter XXIII. About the unequal state of both the Jewish kingdoms, until both peoples were taken into captivity at different times; about the return of Judah to his kingdom, which recently passed into the power of the Romans In turn, in the kingdom of Judah, confined to Jerusalem, even during the times of subsequent kings there was no shortage of prophets. God sent them At his own discretion, either to foretell what needed to be foreshadowed, or to expose sins and teach justice. For even there, although much less often than in Israel, kings still appeared who seriously offended God with their wickedness and were subjected to moderate punishments along with the people who imitated them. But there the considerable merits of the pious kings are put on display with praise. In Israel the Scriptures favor some more and others less, but do not approve of all. So, both parts of the people, according to how divine providence commanded or allowed, alternately increased their well-being and suffered disasters. They were subjected to disasters not only external, but also internal, internecine wars, according to how, when there were known reasons, the mercy or wrath of God was manifested; until this anger increased to such an extent that all this people, defeated by the Chaldeans, were not only destroyed in their place of residence, but for the most part resettled in the lands of the Assyrians. First, the part that was called Israel among the ten tribes was subjected to this; and then, after the destruction of Jerusalem and its most famous church, Judea suffered the same. In the lands of the Assyrians, the people spent seventy years of captivity. These years later, being released from there, he restored the destroyed church; and although many of this people lived in foreign lands, it was not divided after that into two kingdoms and did not have two special kings in each separately. They now had only one prince in Jerusalem; and at certain times they all flocked to the church of God, which was there, from everywhere, where anyone lived and from where anyone could. They were not protected from enemies and conquerors at this time either: Christ found them tributary to the Romans. Chapter XXIV. About the prophets, or those who were the last among the Jews, or about those who, according to the testimony of the Gospel history, were in contact with the time of the birth of Christ During all this time, since they returned from Babylonia, after Malachi, Haggai and Zechariah, who prophesied then, and after Ezra, they had no prophets until the coming of the Savior, except for another Zechariah, the father of John, and his wife Elizabeth - when the birth of Christ was already very close, and after His birth - except for the elder Simeon, the widow, the already elderly Anna and the very last, John. This one, being a youth and during the youth of Christ, although he did not predict about Him as being, but with prophetic knowledge indicated Him as unknown. Therefore, the Lord himself says: “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John” (Matt. XI, 13). The prophecies of these five are known to us from the Gospel; In the same place, the Virgin herself, the mother of the Lord, appears to be prophesying before John. But the rejected Jews do not accept their prophecies; and those among them who believed in the Gospel in countless numbers accepted these prophecies. For at that time Israel was truly divided in two by that division which, as irrevocable, was predicted to King Saul through the prophet Samuel. Malachi, Haggai, Zechariah and Ezra, among the rejected Jews, are considered accepted among the latter, having canonical significance. For their books, among the books of a few of the great number of prophets, were accepted into the canon. Of their prophecies relating to Christ and His Church, I find it necessary to present some of them in this work; but it will be more convenient to do this in the next book, so that the present, already extensive, does not increase even more. pleni panibus minorati sunt - those who are rich in bread have diminished. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” In 1 Samuel 2 - “Give (give) prayer to the one who prays.” In Augustine “votum voventi”, in the Septuagint εὐχὴν τῶ. εὐχομένω. . The words votum and εὐχή are translated in three ways: 1) prayer, 2) vow, 3) dream (will, aspiration). - Editorial “The ABC of Faith” Ipse iudicabit extrema terra_e. You might be interested in: