(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing initially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.


ST. AUGUSTIN

THE CITY OF GOD, BOOKS XVI-XVII

[Translated by Rev. Marcus Dods, D.D.]


BOOK XVI.

ARGUMENT: IN THE FORMER PART OF THIS BOOK, FROM THE FIRST TO THE TWELFTH
CHAPTER, THE PROGRESS OF THE TWO CITIES, THE EARTHLY AND THE HEAVENLY, FROM
NOAH TO ABRAHAM, IS EXHIBITED FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE: IN THE LATTER PART, THE
PROGRESS OF THE HEAVENLY ALONE, FROM ABRAHAM TO THE KINGS OF ISRAEL, IS THE
SUBJECT.

CHAP. 1.--WHETHER, AFTER THE DELUGE, FROM NOAH TO ABRAHAM, ANY FAMILIES CAN
BE FOUND WHO LIVED ACCORDING TO GOD.

   IT is difficult to discover from Scripture, whether, after the deluge,
traces of the holy city are continuous, or are so interrupted by
intervening seasons of godlessness, that not a single worshipper of the one
true God was found among men; because from Noah, who, with his wife, three
sons, and as many daughters-in-law, achieved deliverance in the ark from
the destruction of the deluge, down to Abraham, we do not find in the
canonical books that the piety of any one is celebrated by express divine
testimony, unless it be in the case of Noah, who commends with a prophetic
benediction his two sons Shem and Japheth, while he beheld and foresaw what
was long afterwards to happen. It was also by this prophetic spirit that,
when his middle son--that is, the son who was younger than the first and
older than the last born--had sinned against him, he cursed him not in his
own person, but in his son's (his own grandson's), in the words, "Cursed be
the lad Canaan; a servant shall he be unto his brethren."(2) Now Canaan was
born of Ham, who, so far from covering his sleeping father's nakedness, had
divulged it. For the same reason also he subjoins the blessing on his two
other sons, the oldest and youngest, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of
Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall gladden Japheth, and he
shall dwell in the houses of Shem."(2) And so, too, the planting of the
vine by Noah, and his intoxication by its fruit, and his nakedness while he
slept, and the other things done at that time, and recorded, are all of
them pregnant with prophetic meanings, and veiled in mysteries.(3)

CHAP. 2.--WHAT WAS PROPHETICALLY PREFIGURED IN THE SONS OF NOAH.

   The things which then were hidden are now sufficiently revealed by the
actual events which have followed. For who can carefully and intelligently
consider these things without recognizing them accomplished in Christ?
Shem, of whom Christ was born in the flesh,  means "named." And what is of
greater name than Christ, the fragrance of whose i name is now everywhere
perceived, so that even prophecy sings of it beforehand, comparing it in
the Song of Songs,(4) to ointment poured forth? Is it not also in the
houses of Christ, that is, in the churches, that the "enlargement" of the
nations dwells? For Japheth means "enlargement." And Ham (i.e., hot), who
was the middle son of Noah, and, as it were, separated himself from both,
and remained between them, neither belonging to the first-fruits of Israel
nor to the fullness of the Gentiles, what does he signify but the tribe of
heretics, hot with the spirit, not of patience, but of impatience, with
which the breasts of heretics are wont to blaze, and with which they
disturb the peace of the saints? But even the heretics yield an advantage
to those that make proficiency, according to the apostle's saying, "There
must also be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest
among you."(1) Whence, too, it is elsewhere said, "The son that receives
instruction will be wise, and he uses the foolish as his servant."(2) For
while the hot restlessness of heretics stirs questions about many articles
of the catholic faith, the necessity of defending them forces us both to
investigate them more accurately, to understand them more clearly, and to
proclaim them more earnestly; and the question mooted by an adversary
becomes the occasion of instruction. However, not only those who are openly
separated from the church, but also all who glory in the Christian name,
and at the same time lead abandoned lives, may without absurdity seem to be
figured by Noah's middle son: for the passion of Christ, which was
signified by that man's nakedness, is at once proclaimed by their
profession, and dishonored by their wicked conduct. Of such, therefore, it
has been said, "By their fruits ye shall know them."(3) And therefore was
Ham cursed in his son, he being, as it were, his fruit. So, too, this son
of his, Canaan, is fitly interpreted "their movement," which is nothing
else than their work. But Shem and Japheth, that is to say, the
circumcision and uncircumcision, or, as the apostle otherwise calls them,
the Jews and Greeks, but called and justified, having somehow discovered
the nakedness of their father (which signifies the Saviour's passion), took
a garment and laid it upon their backs, and entered backwards and covered
their father's nakedness, without their seeing what their reverence hid.
For we both honor the passion of Christ as accomplished for us, and we hate
the crime of the Jews who crucified Him. The garment signifies the
sacrament, their backs the memory of things past: for the church celebrates
the passion of Christ as already accomplished, and no longer to be looked
forward to, now that Japheth already dwells in the habitations of Shem, and
their wicked brother between them.

   But the wicked brother is, in the person of his son (i.e., his work),
the boy, or slave, of his good brothers, when good men make a skillful use
of bad men, either for the exercise of their patience or for their
advancement in wisdom. For the apostle testifies that there are some who
preach Christ from no pure motives; "but," says be, "whether in pretence or
in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will
rejoice."(4) For it is Christ Himself who planted the vine of which the
prophet says, "The vine of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel;"(5)
and He drinks of its wine, whether we thus understand that cup of which He
says, "Can ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of?"(6) and, "Father, if
it be possible, let this cup pass from me,"(7) by which He obviously means
His passion. Or, as wine is the fruit of the vine, we may prefer to
understand that from this vine, that is to say, from the race of Israel, He
has assumed flesh and blood that He might suffer; "and he was drunken,"
that is, He suffered; "and was naked," that is, His weakness appeared in
His suffering, as the apostle says, "though He was crucified through
weakness."(8) Wherefore the same apostle says, "The weakness of God is
stronger than men; and the foolishness of God is wiser than men."(9) And
when to the expression "he was naked" Scripture adds "in his house," it
elegantly intimates that Jesus was to suffer the cross and death at the
hands of His own household, His own kith and kin, the Jews. This passion of
Christ is only externally and verbally professed by the reprobate, for what
they profess. they do not understand. But the elect hold in the inner man
this so great mystery, and honor inwardly in the heart this weakness and
foolishness of God. And of this there is a figure in Ham going out to
proclaim his father's nakedness; while Shem and Japheth, to cover or honor
it, went in, that is to say, did it inwardly.

   These secrets of divine Scripture we investigate as well as we can. All
will not accept our interpretation with equal confidence, but all hold it
certain that these things were neither done nor recorded without some
foreshadowing of future events, and that they are to be referred only to
Christ and His church, which is the city of God, proclaimed from the very
beginning of human history by figures which we now see everywhere
accomplished. From the blessing of the two sons of Noah, and the cursing of
the middle son, down to Abraham, or for more than a thousand years, there
is, as I have said, no mention of any righteous persons who worshipped God.
I do not therefore conclude that there were none; but it had been tedious
to mention every one, and would have displayed historical accuracy rather
than prophetic foresight. The object of the writer of these sacred books,
or rather of the Spirit of God in him, is not only to record the past, but
to depict the future, so far as it regards the city of God; for whatever is
said of those who are not its citizens, is given either for her
instruction, or as a foil to enhance her glory. Yet we are not to suppose
that all that is recorded has some signification; but those things which
have no signification of their own are interwoven for the sake of the
things which are significant. It is only the ploughshare that cleaves the
soil; but to effect this, other parts of the plough are requisite. It is
only the strings in harps and other musical instruments which produce
melodious sounds; but that they may do so, there are other parts of the
instrument which are not indeed struck by those who sing, but are connected
with the strings which are struck, and produce musical notes. So in this
prophetic history some things are narrated which have no significance, but
are, as it were, the framework to which the significant things are
attached.

CHAP. 3.--OF THE GENERATIONS OF THE THREE SONS OF NOAH.

   We must therefore introduce into this work an explanation of the
generations of the three sons of Noah, in so far as that may illustrate the
progress in time of the two cities. Scripture first mentions that of the
youngest son, who is called Japheth: he had eight sons,(1) and by two of
these sons seven grandchildren, three by one son, four by the other; in
all, fifteen descendants. Ham, Noah's middle son, had four sons, and by one
of them five grandsons, and by one of these two great-grandsons; in all,
eleven. After enumerating these, Scripture returns to the first of the
sons, and says, "Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a giant on the earth. He
was a giant hunter against the Lord God: wherefore they say, As Nimrod the
giant hunter against the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was
Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land
went forth Assur, and built Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and
Resen between Nineveh and Calah: this was a great city." Now this Cush,
father of the giant Nimrod, is the first-named among the sons of Ham, to
whom five sons and two grandsons are ascribed. But he either begat this
giant after his grandsons were born, or, which is more credible, Scripture
speaks of him separately on account of his eminence; for mention is also
made of his kingdom, which began with that magnificent city Babylon, and
the other places, whether cities or districts, mentioned along with it. But
what is recorded of the land of Shinar which belonged to Nimrod's kingdom,
to wit, that Assur went forth from it and built Nineveh and the other
cities mentioned with it, happened long after; but he takes occasion to
speak of it here on account of the grandeur of the Assyrian kingdom, which
was wonderfully extended by Ninus son of Belus, and founder of the great
city Nineveh, which was named after him, Nineveh, from Ninus. But Assur,
father of the Assyrian, was not one of the sons of Ham, Noah's son, but is
found among the sons of Shem, his eldest son. Whence it appears that among
Shem's offspring there arose men who afterwards took possession of that
giant's kingdom, and advancing from it, founded other cities, the first of
which was called Nineveh, from Ninus. From him Scripture returns to Ham's
other son, Mizraim; and his sons are enumerated, not as seven individuals,
but as seven nations. Arid from the sixth, as if from the sixth son, the
race called the Philistines are said to have sprung; so that there are in
all eight. Then it returns again to Canaan, in whose person Ham was cursed;
and his eleven sons are named. Then the territories they occupied, and some
of the cities, are named. And thus, if we count sons and grandsons, there
are thirty-one of Ham's descendants registered.

   It remains to mention the sons of Shem, Noah's eldest son; for to him
this genealogical narrative gradually ascends from the youngest. But in the
commencement of the record of Shem's sons there is an obscurity which calls
for explanation, since it is closely connected with the object of our
investigation. For we read, "Unto Shem also, the father of all the children
of Heber, the brother of Japheth the elder, were children born."(2) This is
the order of the words: And to Shem was born Heber, even to himself, that
is, to Shem himself was born Heber, and Shem is the father of all his
children. We are intended to understand that Shem is the patriarch of all
his posterity who were to be mentioned, whether sons, grandsons, great-
grand-sons, or descendants at any remove. For Shem did not beget Heber, who
was indeed in the fifth generation from him. For Shem begat, among other
sons, Arphaxad; Arphaxad begat Cainan, Cainan begat Salah, Salah begat
Heber. And it was with good reason that he was named first among Shem's
offspring, taking precedence even of his sons, though only a grandchild of
the fifth generation; for from him, as tradition says, the Hebrews derived
their name, though the other etymology which derives the name from Abraham
(as if Abrahews) may possibly be correct. But there can be little doubt
that the former is the right etymology, and that they were  called after
Heber, Heberews, and then, dropping a letter, Hebrews; and so was their
language called Hebrew, which was spoken by none but the people of Israel
among whom was the city of God, mysteriously prefigured in all the people,
and truly present in the saints. Six of Shem's sons then are first named,
then four grandsons born to one of these sons; then it mentions another son
of Shem, who begat a grandson; and his son, again, or Shem's great-
grandson, was Heber. And Heber begat two sons, and called the one Peleg,
which means "dividing;" and Scripture subjoins the reason of this name,
saying, "for in his days was the earth divided." What this means will
afterwards appear. Heber's other son begat twelve sons; consequently all
Shem's descendants are twenty-seven. The total number of the progeny of the
three sons of Noah is seventy-three, fifteen by Japheth, thirty-one by Ham,
twenty-seven by Shem. Then Scripture adds, "These are the sons of Shem,
after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their
nations." And so of the whole number "These are the families of the sons of
Noah after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the isles
of the nations dispersed through the earth after the flood." From which we
gather that the seventy-three (or rather, as I shall presently show,
seventy-two) were not individuals, but nations. For in a former passage,
when the sons of Japheth were enumerated, it is said in conclusion, "By
these were the isles of the nations divided in their lauds, every one after
his language, in their tribes, and in their nations."

   But nations are expressly mentioned among the sons of Ham, as I showed
above. "Mizraim begat those who are called Ludim;(15) and so also of the
other seven nations. And after 'enumerating all of them, it concludes,
"These are the sons of Ham, in their families, according to their
languages, in their territories, and in their nations." The reason, then,
why the children of several of them are not mentioned, is that they
belonged by birth to other nations, and did not themselves become nations.
Why else is it, that though eight sons are reckoned to Japheth, the sons of
only two of these are mentioned; and though four are reckoned to Ham, only
three are spoken of as having sons; and though six are reckoned to Shem,
the descendants of only two of these are traced? Did the rest remain
childless? We cannot suppose so; but they did not produce nations so great
as  to warrant their being mentioned, but were absorbed in the nations to
which they belonged by birth.

CHAP. 4.--OF THE DIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES, AND OF THE FOUNDING OF BABYLON.

   But though these nations are said to have been dispersed according to
their languages, yet the narrator recurs to that time when all had but one
language, and explains how it came to pass that a diversity of languages
was introduced. "The whole earth," he says, "was of one lip, and all had
one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they
found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there. And they said one to
another, Come, and let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly. And they
had bricks for stone, and slime for mortar. And they said, Come, and let us
build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top shall reach the sky; and
let us make us a name, before we be scattered abroad on the face of all the
earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the
children of men builded. And the Lord God said, Behold, the people is one,
and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing
will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Come, and let
us go down, and confound there their language, that they may not understand
one another's speech. And God scattered them thence on the face of all the
earth: and they left off to build the city and the tower. Therefore the
name of it is called Confusion; because the Lord did there confound the
language of all the earth: and the Lord God scattered them thence on the
face of all the earth."(1) This city, which was called Confusion, is the
same as Babylon, whose wonderful construction Gentile history also notices.
For Babylon means Confusion. Whence we conclude that the giant Nimrod was
its founder, as had been hinted a little before, where Scripture, in
speaking of him, says that the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, that
is, Babylon had a supremacy over the other cities as the metropolis and
royal residence; although it did not rise to the grand dimensions designed
by its proud and impious founder. The plan was to make it so high that it
should reach the sky, whether this was meant of one tower which they
intended to build higher than the others, or of all the towers, which might
be signified by the singular number, as we speak of "the soldier," meaning
the army, and of the frog or the locust, when we refer to the whole
multitude of frogs and locusts in the plagues with which Moses smote the
Egyptians.(1) But what did these vain and presumptuous men intend? How did
they expect to raise this lofty mass against God, when they had built it
above all the mountains and the clouds of the earth's atmosphere? What
injury could any spiritual or material elevation do to God? The safe and
true way to heaven is made by humility, which lifts up the heart to the
Lord, not against Him; as this giant is said to have been a" hunter against
the Lord." This has been misunderstood by some through the ambiguity of the
Greek word, and they have translated it, not "against the Lord," but
"before the Lord;" for enanti'on means both "before" and "against." In the
Psalm this word is rendered, " Let us weep before the Lord our Maker."(2)
The same word occurs in the book of Job, where it is written, "Thou hast
broken into fury against the Lord."(3) And so this giant is to be
recognized as a "hunter against the Lord." And what is meant by the term
"hunter" but deceiver, oppressor, and destroyer of the animals of the
earth? He and his people therefore, erected this tower against the Lord,
and so gave expression to their impious pride; and justly was their wicked
intention punished by God, even though it was unsuccessful. But what was
the nature of the punishment? As the tongue is the instrument of
domination, in it pride was punished; so that man, who would not understand
God when He issued His commands, should be misunderstood when he himself
gave orders. Thus was that conspiracy disbanded, for each man retired from
those he could not understand, and associated with those whose speech was
intelligible; and the nations were divided according to their languages,
and scattered over the earth as seemed good to God, who accomplished this
in ways hidden from and incomprehensible to us.

CHAP. 5.--OF GOD'S COMING DOWN TO CONFOUND THE LANGUAGES OF THE BUILDERS OF
THE CITY.

   We read, "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the
sons of men built:" it was not the sons of God, but that society which
lived in a merely human way, and which we call the earthly city. God, who
is always wholly everywhere, does not move locally; but He is said to
descend when He does anything in the earth out of the usual course, which,
as it were, makes His presence felt. And in the same way, He does not by
"seeing" learn some new thing, for He cannot ever be ignorant of anything;
but He is said to see and recognize, in time, that which He causes others
to see and recognize. And therefore that city was not previously being seen
as God made it be seen when He showed how offensive it was to Him. We
might, indeed, interpret God's descending to the city of the descent of His
angels in whom He dwells; so that the following words, "And the Lord God
said, Behold, they are all one race and of one language," and also what
follows, "Come, and let us go down and confound their speech," are a
recapitulation, explaining how the previously intimated "descent of the
Lord" was accomplished. For if He had already gone down, why does He say,
"Come, and let us go down and confound?"--words which seem to be addressed
to the angels, and to intimate that He who was in the angels descended in
their descent. And the words most appropriately are, not, "Go ye down and
confound," but, "Let us confound their speech;" showing that He so works by
His servants, that they are themselves also fellow-laborers with God, as
the apostle says, "For we are fellow-laborers with God."(4)

CHAP.6.--WHAT WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND BY GOD'S SPEAKING TO THE ANGELS.

   We might have supposed that the words uttered at the creation of man,
"Let us," and not Let me, "make man," were addressed to the angels, had He
not added "in our image;" but as we cannot believe that man was made in the
image of angels, or that the image of God is the same as that of angels, it
is proper to refer this expression to the plurality of the Trinity. And yet
this Trinity, being one God, even after saying "Let us make," goes on to
say, "And God made man in His image,"(5) and not "Gods made," or "in their
image." And were there any difficulty in applying to the angels the words,
"Come, and let us go down and confound their speech," we might refer the
plural to the Trinity, as if the Father were addressing the Son and the
Holy Spirit; but it rather belongs to the angels to approach God by holy
movements, that is, by pious thoughts, and thereby to avail themselves of
the unchangeable truth which rules in the court of heaven as their eternal
law. For they are not themselves the truth; but partaking in the creative
truth, they are moved towards it as the fountain of life, that what they
have not in themselves they may obtain in it. And this movement of theirs
is steady, for they never go back from what they have reached. And to these
angels God does not speak, as we speak to one another, or to God, or to
angels, or as the angels speak to us, or as God speaks to us through them:
He speaks to them in an ineffable manner of His own, and that which He says
is conveyed to us in a manner suited to our capacity. For the speaking of
God antecedent and superior to all His works, is the immutable reason of
His work: it has no noisy and passing sound, but an energy eternally
abiding and producing results in time. Thus He speaks to the holy angels;
but to us, who are far off, He speaks otherwise. When, however, we hear
with the inner ear some part of the speech of God, we approximate to the
angels. But in this work I need not labor to give an account of the ways in
which God speaks. For either the unchangeable Truth speaks directly to the
mind of the rational creature in some indescribable way, or speaks through
the changeable creature, either presenting spiritual images to our spirit,
or bodily voices to our bodily sense.

   The words, "Nothing will be restrained from them which they have
imagined to do,"(1) are assuredly not meant as an affirmation, but as an
interrogation, such as is used by persons threatening, as e.g., when Dido
exclaims,

   "They will not take arms and pursue?"(2)

We are to understand the words as if it had been said, Shall nothing be
restrained from them which they have imagined to do?(3) From these three
men, therefore, the three sons of Noah we mean, 73, or rather, as the
catalogue will show, 72 nations and as many languages were dispersed over
the earth, and as they increased filled even the islands. But the nations
multiplied much more than the languages. For even in Africa we know several
barbarous nations which have but one language; and who can doubt that, as
the human race increased, men contrived to pass to the islands in ships?

CHAP. 7.--WHETHER EVEN THE REMOTEST ISLANDS RECEIVED THEIR FAUNA FROM THE
ANIMALS WHICH WERE PRESERVED, THROUGH THE DELUGE, IN THE ARK.

   There is a question raised about all those kinds of beasts which are
not domesticated, nor are produced like frogs from the earth, but are
propagated by male and female parents, such as wolves and animals of that
kind; and it is asked how they could be found in the islands after the
deluge, in which all the animals not in the ark perished, unless the breed
was restored from those which were preserved in pairs in the ark. It might,
indeed, be said that they crossed to the islands by swimming, but this
could only be true of those very near the mainland; whereas there are some
so distant, that we fancy no animal could swim to them. But if men caught
them and took them across with themselves, and thus propagated these breeds
in their new abodes, this would not imply an incredible fondness for the
chase. At the same time, it cannot be denied that by the intervention of
angels they might be transferred by God's order or permission. If, however,
they were produced out of the earth as at their first creation, when God
said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature,"(4) this makes it
more evident that all kinds of animals were preserved in the ark, not so
much for the sake of renewing the stock, as of prefiguring the various
nations which were to be saved in the church; this, I say, is more evident,
if the earth brought forth many animals in islands to which they could not
cross over.

CHAP. 8.--WHETHER CERTAIN    MONSTROUS RACES OF MEN ARE DERIVED FROM THE
STOCK OF ADAM OR NOAH'S SONS.

   It is also asked whether we are to believe that certain monstrous races
of men, spoken of in secular history,(5) have sprung from Noah's sons, or
rather, I should say, from that one man from whom they themselves were
descended. For it is reported that some have one eye in the middle of the
forehead; some, feet turned backwards from the heel; some, a double sex,
the right breast like a man, the left like a woman, and that they
alternately beget and bring forth: others are said to have no mouth, and to
breathe only through the nostrils; others are but a cubit high, and are
therefore called by the Greeks "Pigmies:"(6) they say that in some places
the women conceive in their fifth year, and do not live beyond their
eighth. So, too, they tell of a race who have two feet but only one leg,
and are of marvellous swiftness, though they do not bend the knee: they are
called Skiopodes, because in the hot weather they lie down on their backs
and shade themselves with their feet. Others are said to have no head, and
their eyes in their shoulders; and other human or quasi-human races are
depicted in mosaic in the harbor esplanade of Carthage, on the faith of
histories of rarities. What shall I say of the Cynocephali, whose dog-like
head and barking proclaim them beasts rather than men? But we are not bound
to believe all we hear of these monstrosities. But whoever is anywhere born
a man, that is, a rational, mortal animal, no matter what unusual
appearance he presents in color, movement, sound, nor how peculiar he is in
some power, part, or quality of his nature, no Christian can doubt that he
springs from that one protoplast. We can distinguish the common human
nature from that which is peculiar, and therefore wonderful.

   The same account which is given of monstrous births in individual cases
can be given of monstrous races. For God, the Creator of all, knows where
and when each thing ought to be, or to have been created, because He sees
the similarities and diversities which can contribute to the beauty of the
whole. But He who cannot see the whole is offended by the deformity of the
part, because he is blind to that which balances it, and to which it
belongs. We know that men are born with more than four fingers on their
bands or toes on their feet: this is a smaller matter; but far from us be
the folly of supposing that the Creator mistook the number of a man's
fingers, though we cannot account for the difference. And so in cases where
the divergence from the rule is greater. He whose works no man justly finds
fault with, knows what He has done. At Hippo-Diarrhytus there is a man
whose hands are crescent-shaped, and have only two fingers each, and his
feet similarly formed. If there were a race like him, it would be added to
the history of the curious and wonderful.  Shall we therefore deny that
this man is descended from that one man who was first created? As for the
Androgyni, or Hermaphrodites, as they are called, though they are rare, yet
from time to time there appears persons of sex so doubtful, that it remains
uncertain from which sex they take their name; though it is customary to
give them a masculine name, as the more worthy. For no one ever called them
Hermaphroditesses. Some years ago, quite within my own memory, a man was
born in the East, double in his upper, but single in his lower half--having
two heads, two chests, four hands, but one body and two feet like an
ordinary man; and he lived so long that many had an opportunity of seeing
him. But who could enumerate all the human births that have differed widely
from their ascertained parents? As, therefore, no one will deny that these
are all descended from that one man, so all the races which are reported to
have diverged in bodily appearance from the usual course which nature
generally or almost universally preserves, if they are embraced in that
definition of man as rational and mortal animals, unquestionably trace
their pedigree to that one first father of all. We are supposing these
stories about various races who differ from one another and from us to be
true; but possibly they are not: for if we were not aware that apes, and
monkeys, and sphinxes are not men, but beasts, those historians would
possibly describe them as races of men, and flaunt with impunity their
false and vainglorious discoveries. But supposing they are men of whom
these marvels are recorded, what if God has seen fit to create some races
in this way, that we might not suppose that the monstrous births which
appear among ourselves are the failures of that wisdom whereby He fashions
the human nature, as we speak of the failure of a less perfect workman?
Accordingly, it ought not to seem absurd to us, that as in individual races
there are monstrous births, so in the whole race there are monstrous races.
Wherefore, to conclude this question cautiously and guardedly, either these
things which have been told of some races have no existence at all; or if
they do exist, they are not human races; or if they are human, they are
descended from Adam.

CHAP. 9.--WHETHER WE ARE TO BELIEVE IN THE ANTIPODES.

   But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on
the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us, men
who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is on no ground credible. And,
indeed, it is not affirmed that this has been learned by historical
knowledge, but by scientific conjecture, on the ground that the earth is
suspended within the concavity of the sky, and that it has as much room on
the one side of it as on the other: hence they say that the part which is
beneath must also be inhabited. But they do not remark that, although it be
supposed or scientifically demonstrated that the world is of a round and
spherical form, yet it does not follow that the  other side of the earth is
bare of water; nor even, though it be bare, does it immediately follow that
it is peopled. For Scripture, which proves the truth of its historical
statements by the accomplishment of its prophecies, gives no false
information; and it is too absurd to say, that some men might have taken
ship and traversed the whole wide ocean, and crossed from this side of the
world to the other, and that thus even the inhabitants of that distant
region are descended from that one first man. Wherefore let us seek if we
can find the city of God that sojourns on earth among those human races who
are catalogued as having been divided into seventy-two nations and as many
languages. For it continued down to the deluge and the ark, and is proved
to have existed still among the sons of Noah by their blessings, and
chiefly in the eldest son Shem; for Japheth received this blessing, that he
should dwell in the tents of Shem.

CHAP. 10.----OF THE GENEALOGY OF SHEM, IN WHOSE LINE THE CITY OF GOD IS
PRESERVED TILL THE TIME OF ABRAHAM.

   It is necessary, therefore, to preserve the series of generations
descending from Shem, for the sake of exhibiting the city of God after the
flood; as before the flood it was exhibited in the series of generations
descending from Seth. And therefore does divine Scripture, after exhibiting
the earthly city as Babylon or "Confusion," revert to the patriarch Shem.
and recapitulate the generations from him to Abraham, specifying besides,
the year in which each father begat the son that belonged to this line, and
how long he lived. And unquestionably it is this which fulfills the promise
I made, that it should appear why it is said of the sons of Heber, "The
name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided."(1) For
what can we understand by the division of the earth, if not the diversity
of languages? And, therefore, omitting the other sons of Shem, who are not
concerned in this matter, Scripture gives the genealogy of those by whom
the line runs on to Abraham, as before the flood those are given who
carried on the line to Noah from Seth. Accordingly this series of
generations begins thus: "These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an
hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood. And Shem
lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and
daughters." In like manner it registers the rest, naming the year of his
life in which each begat the son who belonged to that line which extends to
Abraham. It specifies, too, how many years he lived thereafter, begetting
sons and daughters, that we may not childishly suppose that the men named
were the only men, but may understand how the population increased, and how
regions and kingdoms so vast could be populated by the descendants of Shem;
especially the kingdom of Assyria, from which Ninus subdued the surrounding
nations, reigning with brilliant prosperity, and bequeathing to his
descendants a vast but thoroughly consolidated empire, which held together
for many centuries.

   But to avoid needless prolixity, we shall mention not the number of
years each member of this series lived, but only the year of his life in
which he begat his heir, that we may thus reckon the number of years from
the flood to Abraham, and may at the same time leave room to touch briefly
and cursorily upon some other matters necessary to our argument. In the
second year, then, after the flood, Shem when he was a hundred years old
begat Arphaxad; Arphaxad when he was 135 years old begat Cainan; Cainan
when he was 130 years begat Salah. Salah himself, too, was the same age
when he begat Eber. Eber lived 134 years, and begat Peleg, in whose days
the earth was divided. Peleg himself lived 130 years, and begat Reu; and
Reu lived 132 years, and begat Serug; Serug 130, and begat Nahor; and Nahor
79, and begat Terah; and Terah 70, and begat Abram, whose name God
afterwards changed into Abraham. There are thus from the flood to Abraham
1072 years, according to the Vulgate or Septuagint versions. In the Hebrew
copies far fewer years are given; and for this either no reason or a not
very credible one is given.

   When, therefore, we look for the city of God in these seventy-two
nations, we cannot affirm that while they had but one lip, that is, one
language, the human race had departed from the worship of the true God, and
that genuine godliness had survived only in those generations which descend
from Shem through Arphaxad and reach to Abraham; but from the time when
they proudly built a tower to heaven, a symbol of godless exaltation, the
city or society of the wicked becomes apparent. Whether it was only
disguised before, or non-existent; whether both cities remained after the
flood,--the godly in the two sons of Noah who were blessed, and in their
posterity, and the ungodly in the cursed son and his descendants, from whom
sprang that mighty hunter against the Lord,--is not easily determined. For
possibly--and certainly this is more credible--there were despisers of God
among the descendants of the two sons, even before Babylon was founded, and
worshippers of God among the descendants of Ham. Certainly neither race was
ever obliterated from earth. For in both the Psalms in which it is said,
"They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none
that doeth good, no, not one," we read further, "Have all the workers of
iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not
upon the Lord."(1) There was then a people of God even at that time. And
therefore the words, "There is none that doeth good, no, not one," were
said of the sons of men, not of the sons of God. For it had been previously
said, "God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if any
understood and sought after God;" and then follow the words which
demonstrate that all the sons of men, that is, all who belong to the city
which lives according to man, not according to God, are reprobate.

CHAP. 11.--THAT THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE IN USE AMONG MEN WAS THAT WHICH WAS
AFTERWARDS CALLED HEBREW, FROM HEBER, IN WHOSE FAMILY IT WAS PRESERVED WHEN
THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES OCCURRED.

   Wherefore, as the fact of all using one language did not secure the
absence of sin-infected men from the race,--for even before the deluge
there was one language, and yet all but the single family of just Noah were
found worthy of destruction by the flood, --so when the nations, by a
prouder godlessness, earned the punishment of the dispersion and the
confusion of tongues, and the city of the godless was called Confusion or
Babylon, there was still the house of Heber in which the primitive language
of the race survived. And therefore, as I have already mentioned, when an
enumeration is made of the sons of Shem, who each founded a nation, Heber
is first mentioned, although he was of the fifth generation from Shem. And
because, when the other races were divided by their own peculiar languages,
his family preserved that language which is not unreasonably believed to
have been the common language of the race, it was on this account
thenceforth named Hebrew. For it then became necessary to distinguish this
language from the rest by a proper name; though, while there was only one,
it had no other name than the language of man, or human speech, it alone
being spoken by the whole human race. Some one will say: If the earth was
divided by languages in the days of Peleg, Heber's son, that language,
which was formerly common to all, should rather have been called after
Peleg. But we are to understand that Heber himself gave to his son this
name Peleg, which means Division; because he was born when the earth was
divided, that is, at the very time of the division, and that this is the
meaning of the words, "In his days the earth was divided."(2) For unless
Heber had been still alive when the languages were multiplied, the language
which was preserved in his house would not have been called after him. We
are induced to believe that this was the primitive and common language,
because the multiplication and change of languages was introduced as a
punishment, and it is fit to ascribe to the people of God an immunity from
this punishment. Nor is it without significance that this is the language
which Abraham retained, and that he could not transmit it to all his
descendants, but only to those of Jacob's line, who distinctively and
eminently constituted God's people, and received His covenants, and were
Christ's progenitors according to the flesh. In the same way, Heber himself
did not transmit that language to all his posterity, but only to the line
from which Abraham sprang. And thus, although it is not expressly stated,
that when the wicked were building Babylon there was a godly seed
remaining, this indistinctness is intended to stimulate research rather
than to elude it. For when we see that originally there was one common
language, and that Heber is mentioned before all Shem's sons, though he
belonged to the fifth generation from him, and that the language which the
patriarchs and prophets used, not only in their conversation, but in the
authoritative language of Scripture, is called Hebrew, when we are asked
where that primitive and common language was preserved after the confusion
of tongues, certainly, as there can be no doubt that those among whom it
was preserved were exempt from the punishment it embodied what other
suggestion can we make, than that it survived in the family of him whose
name it took, and that this is no small proof of the righteousness of this
family, that the punishment with which the other families were visited did
not fall upon it?

   But yet another question is mooted: How did Heber and his son Peleg
each found a nation, if they had but one language? For no doubt the Hebrew
nation propagated from Heber through Abraham, and becoming through him a
great people, is one nation. How, then, are all the sons of the three
branches of Noah's family enumerated as founding a nation each, if Heber
and Peleg did not so? It is very probable that the giant Nimrod founded
also his nation, and that Scripture has named him separately on account of
the extraordinary dimensions of his empire and of his body, so that the
number of seventy-two nations remains. But Peleg was mentioned, not because
he rounded a nation (for his race and language are Hebrew), but on account
of the critical time at which he was born, all the earth being then
divided. Nor ought we to be surprised that the giant Nimrod lived to the
time in which Babylon was rounded and the confusion of tongues occurred,
and the consequent division of the earth. For though Heber was in the sixth
generation from Noah, and Nimrod in the fourth, it does not follow that
they could not be alive at the same time. For when the generations are few,
they live longer and are born later; but when they are many, they live a
shorter time, and come into the world earlier. We are to understand that,
when the earth was divided, the descendants of Noah who are registered as
founders of nations were not only already born, but were of an age to have
immense families, worthy to be called tribes or nations. And therefore we
must by no means suppose that they were born in the order in which they
were set down; otherwise, how could the twelve sons of Joktan, another son
of Heber's, and brother of Peleg, have already founded nations, if Joktan
was born, as he is registered, after his brother Peleg, since the earth was
divided at Peleg's birth? We are therefore to understand that, though Peleg
is named first, he was born long after Joktan, whose twelve sons had
already families so large as to admit of their being divided by different
languages. There is nothing extraordinary in the last born being first
named: of the sons of Noah, the descendants of Japheth are first named;
then the sons of Ham, who was the second son; and last the sons of Shem,
who was the first and oldest. Of these nations the names have partly
survived, so that at this day we can see from whom they have sprung, as the
Assyrians from Assur, the Hebrews from Heber, but partly have been altered
in the lapse of time, so that the most learned men, by profound research in
ancient records, have scarcely been able to discover the origin, I do not
say of all, but of some of these nations. There is, for example, nothing in
the name Egyptians to show that they are descended from Misraim, Ham's son,
nor in the name Ethiopians to show a connection with Gush, though such is
said to be the origin of these nations. And if we take a general survey of
the names, we shall find that more have been changed than have remained the
same.

CHAP. 12.--OF THE ERA IN ABRAHAM'S LIFE FROM WHICH A NEW PERIOD IN THE HOLY
SUCCESSION BEGINS.

   Let us now survey the progress of the city of God from the era of the
patriarch Abraham, from whose time it begins to be more conspicuous, and
the divine promises which are now fulfilled in Christ are more fully
revealed. We learn, then, from the intimations of holy Scripture, that
Abraham was born in the country of the Chaldeans, a land belonging to the
Assyrian empire. Now, even at that time impious superstitions were rife
with the Chaldeans, as with other nations. The family of Terah, to which
Abraham belonged, was the only one in which the worship

of the true God survived, and the only one, we may suppose, in which the
Hebrew language was preserved; although Joshua the son of Nun tells us that
even this family served other gods in Mesopotamia.(1) The other descendants
of Heber gradually became absorbed in other races and other languages. And
thus, as the single family of Noah was preserved through the deluge of
water to renew the human race, so, in the deluge of superstition that
flooded the whole world, there remained but the one family of Terah in
which the seed of God's city was preserved. And as, when Scripture has
enumerated the generations prior to Noah, with their ages, and explained
the cause of the flood before God began to speak to Noah about the building
of the ark, it is said, "These are the generations of Noah;" so also now,
after enumerating the generations from Shem, Noah's son, down to Abraham,
it then signalizes an era by saying, "These are the generations of Terah:
Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died
before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai;
and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of
Milcah, and the father of Iscah."(2) This Iscah is supposed to be the same
as Sarah, Abraham's wife.

CHAP. 13.--WHY, IN THE ACCOUNT OF TERAH'S EMIGRATION, ON HIS FORSAKING THE
CHALDEANS AND PASSING OVER INTO MESOPOTAMIA, NO MENTION IS MADE OF HIS SON
NAHOR.

   Next it is related how Terah with his family left the region of the
Chaldeans and came into Mesopotamia, and dwelt in Haran. But nothing is
said about one of his sons called Nahor, as if he had not taken him along
with him. For the narrative runs thus: "And Terah took Abram his son, and
Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarah his daughter-in-law, his son
Abram's wife, and led them forth out of the region of the Chaldeans to go
into the land of Canaan; and he came into Haran, and dwelt there." (1)
Nahor and Milcah his wife are nowhere named here. But afterwards, when
Abraham sent his servant to take a wife for his son Isaac, we find it thus
written: "And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his lord, and of
all the goods of his lord, with him; and arose, and went into Mesopotamia,
into the city of Nahor." (2) This and other testimonies of this sacred
history show that Nahor, Abraham's brother, had also left the region of the
Chaldeans, and fixed his abode in Mesopotamia, where Abraham dwelt with his
father. Why, then, did the Scripture not mention him, when Terah with his
family went forth out of the Chaldean nation and dwelt in Haran, since it
mentions that he took with him not only Abraham his son, but also Sarah his
daughter-in-law, and Lot his grandson? The only reason we can think of is,
that perhaps he had lapsed from the piety of his father and brother, and
adhered to the superstition of the Chaldeans, and had afterwards emigrated
thence, either through penitence, or because he was persecuted as a
suspected person. For in the book called Judith, when Holofernes, the enemy
of the Israelites, inquired what kind of nation that might be, and whether
war should be made against them, Achior, the leader of the Ammonites,
answered him thus: "Let our lord now hear a word from the mouth of thy
servant, and I will declare unto thee the truth concerning the people which
dwelleth near thee in this hill country, and there shall no lie come out of
the mouth of thy servant. For this people is descended from the Chaldeans,
and they dwelt heretofore in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the
gods of their fathers, which were glorious in the land of the Chaldeans,
but went out of the way of their ancestors, and adored the God of heaven,
whom they knew; and they cast them out from the face of their gods, and
they fled into Mesopotamia, and dwelt there many days. And their God said
to them, that they should depart from their habitation, and go into the
land of Canaan; and they dwelt,'' (3) etc., as Achior the Ammonite
narrates. Whence it is manifest that the house of Terah had suffered
persecution from the Chaldeans for the true piety with which they
worshipped the one and true God.

CHAP. 14--OF THE YEARS OF TERAH, WHO COMPLETED HIS LIFETIME IN HARAN.

   On Terah's death in Mesopotamia, where he is said to have lived 205
years, the promises of God made to Abraham now begin to be pointed out; for
thus it is written: "And the days of Terah in Haran were two hundred and
five years, and he died in Haran.'' (4) This is not to be taken as if he
had spent all his days there, but that he there completed the days of his
life, which were two hundred and five years: otherwise it would not be
known how many years Terah lived, since it is not said in what year of his
life he came into Haran; and it is absurd to suppose that, in this series
of generations, where it is carefully recorded how many years each one
lived, his age was the only one not put on record. For although some whom
the same Scripture mentions have not their age recorded, they are not in
this series, in which the reckoning of time is continuously indicated by
the death of the parents and the succession of the children. For this
series, which is given in order from Adam to Noah, and from him down to
Abraham, contains no one without the number of the years of his life.

CHAP. 15.--OF THE TIME OF THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM, WHEN, ACCORDING TO THE
COMMANDMENT OF GOD, HE WENT OUT FROM HARAN.

   When, after the record of the death of Terah, the father of Abraham, we
next read, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house," (5) etc., it is not to be
supposed, because this follows in the order of the narrative, that it also
followed in the chronological order of events. For if it were  so, there
would be an insoluble difficulty. For after these words of God which were
spoken  to Abraham, the Scripture says: "And Abram departed, as the Lord
had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him. Now Abraham was seventy-five
years old when he departed out of Haran." (6) How can this be true if he
departed from Haran after his father's death? For when Terah was seventy
years old, as is intimated above, he begat Abraham; and if to this number
we add the seventy-five years which Abraham reckoned when he went out of
Haran, we get 145 years. Therefore that was the number of the years of
Terah, when Abraham departed out of that city of Mesopotamia; for he had
reached the seventy-fifth year of his life, and thus his father, who begat
him in the seventieth year of his life, had reached, as was said, his
145th. Therefore he did not depart thence after his father's death, that
is, after the 205 years his father lived; but the year of his departure
from that place, seeing it was his seventy-fifth, is inferred beyond a
doubt to have been the 145th of his father, who begat him in his seventieth
year. And thus it is to be understood that the Scripture, according to its
custom, has gone back to the time which had already been passed by the
narrative; just as above, when it had mentioned the grandsons of Noah, it
said that they were in their nations and tongues; and yet afterwards, as if
this also had followed in order of time, it says, "And the whole earth was
of one lip, and one speech for all." (1) How, then, could they be said to
be in their own nations and according to their own tongues, if there was
one for all; except because the narrative goes back to gather up what it
had passed over? Here, too, in the same way, after saying, "And the days of
Terah in Haran were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran," the Scripture,
going back to what had been passed over in order to complete what had been
begun about Terah, says, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy
country," (2) etc. After which words of God it is added, "And Abram
departed, as the Lord spake unto him; and Lot went with him. But Abram was
seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran." Therefore it was
done when his father was in the 145th year of his age; for it was then the
seventy-fifth of his own. But this question is also solved in another way,
that the seventy-five years of Abraham when he departed out of Haran are
reckoned from the year in which he was delivered from the fire of the
Chaldeans, not from that of his birth, as if he was rather to be held as
having been born then.

   Now the blessed Stephen, in narrating these things in the Acts of the
Apostles, says: "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he
was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee
out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and
come into the land which I will show thee." (3) According to these words of
Stephen, God spoke to Abraham, not after the death of his father, who
certainly died in Haran, where his son also dwelt with him, but before he
dwelt in that city, although he was already in Mesopotamia. Therefore he
had already departed from the Chaldeans. So that when Stephen adds, "Then
Abraham went out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran," (4)
this does not point out what took place after God spoke to him (for it was
not after these words of God that he went out of the land of the Chaldeans,
since he says that God spoke to him in Mesopotamia), but the word "then"
which he uses refers to that whole period from his going out of the land of
the Chaldeans and dwelling in Haran. Likewise in what follows, "And
thenceforth, when his father was dead, he settled him in this land, wherein
ye now dwell, and your fathers," he does not say, after his father was dead
he went out from Haran; but thenceforth he settled him here, after his
father was dead. It is to be understood, therefore, that God had spoken to
Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran; but that he
came to Haran with his father, keeping in mind the precept of God, and that
he went out thence in his own seventy-fifth year, which was his father's
145th. But he says that his settlement in the land of Canaan, not his going
forth from Haran, took place after his father's death; because his father
was already dead when he purchased the land, and personally entered on
possession of it. But when, on his having already settled in Mesopotamia,
that is, already gone out of the land of the Chaldeans, God says, "Get thee
out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house," (5)
this means, not that he should cast out his body from thence, for he had
already done that, but that he should tear away his soul. For he had not
gone out from thence in mind, if he was held by the hope and desire of
returning, --a hope and desire which was to be cut off by God's command and
help, and by his own obedience. It would indeed be no incredible
supposition that afterwards, when Nahor followed his father, Abraham then
fulfilled the precept of the Lord, that he should depart out of Haran with
Sarah his wife and Lot his brother's son.

CHAP. 16.--OF THE ORDER AND NATURE OF THE PROMISES OF GOD WHICH WERE MADE
TO ABRAHAM,

   God's promises made to Abraham are now to be considered; for in these
the oracles of ]our God, (6) that is, of the true God, began to appear more
openly concerning the godly people, whom prophetic authority foretold. The
first of these reads thus: "And the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of
thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and go into
a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I
will bless thee and magnify thy name; and thou shall be blessed: and I will
bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee
shall all tribes of the earth be blessed." (1) Now it is to be observed
that two things are promised to Abraham, the one, that his seed should
possess the land of Canaan, which is intimated when it is said, "Go into a
land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation;" but
the other far more excellent, not about the carnal but the spiritual seed,
through which he is the father, not of the one Israelite nation, but of all
nations who follow the footprints of his faith, which was first promised in
these words, "And in thee shall all tribes of the earth be blessed."
Eusebius thought this promise was made in Abraham's seventy-fifth year, as
if soon after it was made Abraham had departed out of Haran because the
Scripture cannot be contradicted in which we read, "Abram was seventy and
five years old when he departed out of Haran." But if this promise was made
in that year, then of course Abraham was staying in Haran with his father;
for he could not depart thence unless he had first dwelt there. Does this,
then, contradict what Stephen says, "The God of glory appeared to our
father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran?"
(2) But it is to be understood that the whole took place in the same year,-
-both the promise of God before Abraham dwelt in Haran, and his dwelling in
Haran, and his departure thence, --not only because Eusebius in the
Chronicles reckons from the year of this promise, and shows that after 430
years the exodus from Egypt took place, when the law was given, but because
the Apostle Paul also mentions it.

CHAP. 17.--OF THE THREE MOST FAMOUS KINGDOMS OF THE NATIONS, OF WHICH ONE,
THAT IS THE ASSYRIAN, WAS ALREADY VERY EMINENT WHEN ABRAHAM WAS BORN.

   During the same period there were three famous kingdoms of the nations,
in which the city of the earth-born, that is, the society of men living
according to man under the domination of the fallen angels, chiefly
flourished, namely, the three kingdoms of Sicyon, Egypt, and Assyria. Of
these, Assyria was much the most powerful and sublime; for that king Ninus,
son of Belus, had subdued the people of all Asia except India. By Asia I
now mean not that part which is one province of this greater Asia, but what
is called Universal Asia, which some set down as the half, but most as the
third part of the whole world,--the three being Asia, Europe, and Africa,
thereby making an unequal division. For the part called Asia stretches from
the south through the east even to the north; Europe from the north even to
the west; and Africa from the west even to the south. Thus we see that two,
Europe and Africa, contain one half of the world, and Asia alone the other
half. And these two parts are made by the circumstance, that there enters
between them from the ocean all the Mediterranean water, which makes this
great sea of ours. So that, if you divide the world into two parts, the
east and the west, Asia will be in the one, and Europe and Africa in the
other So that of the three kingdoms then famous, one, namely Sicyon, was
not under the Assyrians, because it was in Europe; but as for Egypt, how
could it fail to be subject to the empire which ruled all Asia with the
single exception of India? In Assyria, therefore, the dominion of the
impious city had the pre-eminence. Its head was Babylon,-an earth-born
city, most fitly named, for it means confusion. There Ninus reigned after
the death of his father Belus, who first had reigned there sixty-five
years. His son Ninus, who, on his father's death, succeeded to the kingdom,
reigned fifty-two years, and had been king forty-three years when Abraham
was born, which was about the 1200th year before Rome was founded, as it
were another Babylon in the west.

CHAP. 18.--OF THE REPEATED ADDRESS OF GOD TO ABRAHAM, IN WHICH HE PROMISED
THE LAND OF CANAAN TO HIM AND TO HIS SEED.

   Abraham, then, having departed out of Haran in the seventy-fifth year
of his own age, and in the hundred and forty-fifth of his father's, went
with Lot, his brother's son, and Sarah his wife, into the land of Canaan,
and came even to Sichem, where again he received the divine oracle, of
which it is thus written: "And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said unto
him, Unto thy seed will I give this land." (3) Nothing is promised here
about that seed in which he is made the father of all nations, but only
about that by which he is the father of the one Israelite nation; for by
this seed that land was possessed.

CHAP. 19.--OF THE DIVINE PRESERVATION OF SARAH'S CHASTITY IN EGYPT, WHEN
ABRAHAM HAD CALLED HER NOT HIS WIFE BUT HIS SISTER.

   Having built an altar there, and called upon God, Abraham proceeded
thence and dwelt in the desert, and was compelled by pressure of famine to
go on into Egypt. There he called his wife his sister, and told no lie. For
she was this also, because she was near of blood; just as Lot, on account
of the same nearness, being his brother's son, is called his brother. Now
he did not deny that she was his wife, but held his peace about it,
committing to God the defence of his wife's chastity, and providing as a
man against human wiles; because if he had not provided against the danger
as much as he could, he would have been tempting God rather than trusting
in Him. We have said enough about this matter against the calumnies of
Faustus the Manichaean. At last what Abraham had expected the Lord to do
took place. For Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who had taken her to him as his
wife, restored her to her husband on being severely plagued. And far be it
from us to believe that she was defiled by lying with another; because it
is much more credible that, by these great afflictions, Pharaoh was not
permitted to do this.

CHAP. 20.--OF THE PARTING OF LOT AND ABRAHAM, WHICH THEY AGREED TO WITHOUT
BREACH OF CHARITY.

   On Abraham's return out of Egypt to the place he had left, Lot, his
brother's son, departed from him into the land of Sodom, without breach of
charity. For they had grown rich, and began to have many herdmen of cattle,
and when these strove together, they avoided in this way the pugnacious
discord of, their families. Indeed, as human affairs go, this cause might
even have given rise to some strife between themselves. Consequently these
are the words of Abraham to Lot, when taking precaution against this evil,
"Let there be no strife between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy
herdmen; for we be brethren. Behold, is not the whole   land before thee?
Separate thyself from me: if thou wilt go to the left hand, I will go to
the right; or if thou wilt go to the right hand, I will go to the left."
(1) From this, perhaps, has arisen a pacific custom among men, that when
there is any partition of earthly things, the greater should make the
division, the less the choice.

CHAP. 21--OF THE THIRD PROMISE OF GOD, BY WHICH HE ASSURED THE LAND OF
CANAAN TO ABRAHAM AND HIS SEED IN PERPETUITY.

   Now, when Abraham and Lot had separated, and dwelt apart, owing to the
necessity of supporting their families, and not to vile discord, and
Abraham was in the land of Canaan, but Lot in Sodom, the Lord said to
Abraham in a third oracle, "Lift up thine eyes, and look from the place
where thou now art, to the north, and to Africa, and to the east, and to
the sea; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to
thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: if
any one can number the dust of the earth, thy seed shall also be numbered.
Arise, and walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth
of it; for unto thee will I give it.'' (2) It does not clearly appear
whether in this promise that also is  contained by which he is made the
father of all nations. For the clause, "And I will make thy seed as the
dust of the earth," may seem to refer to this, being spoken by that figure
the Greeks call hyperbole, which indeed is figurative, not literal. But no
person of understanding can doubt in what manner the Scripture uses this
and other figures. For that figure (that is, way of speaking) is used when
what is said is far larger than what is meant by it; for who does not see
how incomparably larger the number of the dust must be than that of all men
can be from Adam himself down to the end of the world? How much greater,
then, must it be than the seed of Abraham,--not only that pertaining to the
nation of Israel, but also that which is and shall be according to the
imitation of faith in all nations of the whole wide world! For that seed is
indeed very small in comparison with the multitude of the wicked, although
even those few of themselves make an innumerable multitude, which by a
hyperbole is compared to the dust of the earth. Truly that multitude which
was promised to Abraham is not innumerable to God, although to man; but to
God not even the dust of the earth is so. Further, the promise here made
may be understood not only of the nation of Israel, but of the whole seed
of Abraham, which may be fitly compared to the dust for multitude, because
regarding it also there is the promise (1) of many children, not according
to the flesh, but according to the spirit. But we have therefore said that
this does not clearly appear, because the multitude even of that one
nation, which was born according to the flesh of Abraham through his
grandson Jacob, has increased so much as to fill almost all parts of the
world. Consequently, even it might by hyperbole be compared to the dust
for multitude, because even it alone is innumerable by man. Certainly no
one questions that only that land is meant which is called Canaan. But that
saying, "To thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever," may move some,
if by "for ever" they understand "to eternity." But if in this passage they
take "for ever" thus, as we firmly hold it means that the beginning of the
world to come is to be ordered from the end of the present, there is still
no difficulty, because, although the Israelites are expelled from
Jerusalem, they still remain in other cities in the land of Canaan, and
shall remain even to the end; and when that whole land is inhabited by
Christians, they also are the very seed of Abraham.

CHAP. 22.--OF ABRAHAM'S OVERCOMING THE ENEMIES OF SODOM, WHEN HE DELIVERED
LOT FROM CAPTIVITY AND WAS BLESSED BY MELCHIZEDEK THE PRIEST.

   Having received this oracle of promise, Abraham migrated, and remained
in another place of the same land, that is, beside the oak of Mature, which
was Hebron. Then on the invasion of Sodom, when five kings carried on war
against four, and Lot was taken captive with the conquered Sodomites,
Abraham delivered him from the enemy, leading with him to battle three
hundred and eighteen of his home-born servants, and won the victory for the
kings of Sodom, but would take nothing of the spoils when offered by the
king for whom he had won them. He was then openly blessed by Melchizedek,
who was priest of God Most High, about whom many and great things are
written in the epistle which is inscribed to the Hebrews, which most say is
by the Apostle Paul, though some deny this. For then first appeared the
sacrifice which is now offered to God by Christians in the whole wide
world, and that is fulfilled which long after the event was said by the
prophet to Christ, who was yet to come in the fresh, "Thou art a priest for
ever after the order of Melchizedek," (2)--that is to say, not after the
order of Aaron, for that order was to be taken away when the things shone
forth which were intimated beforehand by these shadows.

CHAP. 23. --OF THE WORD OF THE LORD TO ABRAHAM, BY WHICH IT WAS PROMISED TO
HIM THAT HIS POSTERITY SHOULD BE MULTIPLIED ACCORDING TO THE MULTITUDE OF
THE STARS; ON BELIEVING WHICH HE WAS DECLARED JUSTIFIED WHILE YET IN
UNCIRCUMCISION.

   The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision also. For when God
promised him protection and exceeding great reward, he, being solicitous
about posterity, said that a certain Eliezer of Damascus, born in his
house, would be his heir. Immediately he was promised an heir, not that
house-born servant, but one who was to come forth of Abraham himself; and
again a seed innumerable, not as the dust of the earth, but as the stars of
heaven,--which rather seems to me a promise of a posterity exalted in
celestial felicity. For, so far as multitude is concerned, what are the
stars of heaven to the dust of the earth, unless one should say the
comparison is like inasmuch as the stars also cannot be numbered? For it is
not to be believed that all of them can be seen. For the more keenly one
observes them, the more does he see. So that it is to be supposed some
remain concealed from the keenest observers, to say nothing of those stars
which are said to rise and set in another part of the world most remote
from us. Finally, the authority of this book condemns those like Aratus or
Eudoxus, or any others who boast that they have found out and written down
the complete number of the stars. Here, indeed, is set down that sentence
which the apostle quotes in order to commend the grace of God, "Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness;" (3) lest the
circumcision should glory, and be unwilling to receive the uncircumcised
nations to the faith of Christ. For at the time when he believed, and his
faith was counted to him for righteousness, Abraham had not yet been
circumcised.

CHAP. 24.--OF THE MEANING OF THE SACRIFICE ABRAHAM WAS COMMANDED TO OFFER
WHEN HE SUPPLICATED TO BE TAUGHT ABOUT THOSE THINGS HE HAD BELIEVED.

   In the same vision, God in speaking to him also says, "I am God that
brought thee out of the region of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to
inherit it." (1) And when Abram asked whereby he might know that he should
inherit it, God said to him, "Take me an heifer of three years old, and a
she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-
dove, and a pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the
midst, and laid each piece one against another; but the birds divided he
not. And the fowls came down," as it is written, "on the carcasses, and
Abram sat down by them. But about the going down of the sun, great fear
fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And He
said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a
land not theirs, and they shall reduce them to servitude and shall afflict
them four hundred years: but the nation whom they shall serve will I judge;
and afterward shall they come out hither with great substance. And thou
shalt go to thy fathers in peace; kept in a good old age. But in the fourth
generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full. And when the sun was setting, there was a flame, and a
smoking furnace, and lamps of fire, that passed through between those
pieces. In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy
seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river
Euphrates: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the
Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the
Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." (2)

   All these things were said and done in a vision from God; but it would
take long, and would exceed the scope of this work, to treat of them
exactly in detail. It is enough that we should know that, after it was said
Abram believed in God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, he did
not fail in faith in saying, "Lord God, whereby shall I know that  I shall
inherit it?" (5) for the inheritance of that land was promised to him. Now
he does not say, How shall I know, as if he did not yet believe; but he
says, "Whereby shall I know," meaning that some sign might be given by
which he might know the manner of those things which he had believed, just
as it is not for lack of faith the Virgin Mary says, "How shall this be,
seeing I know not a man ?" (3) for she inquired as to the way in which that
should take place which she was certain would come to pass. And when she
asked this, she was told, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." (4) Here also, in fine, a
symbol was given, consisting of three animals, a heifer, a she-goat, and a
ram and two birds, a turtle-dove and pigeon, that he might know that the
things which he had not doubted should come to pass were to happen in
accordance with this symbol. Whether, therefore, the heifer was a sign that
the people should be put under the law, the she-goat that the same people
was to become sinful, the ram that they should reign (and these animals are
said to be of three years old for this reason, that there are three
remarkable divisions of time, from Adam to Noah, and from him to Abraham,
and from him to David, who, on the rejection of Saul, was first established
by the will of the Lord in the kingdom of the Israelite nation: in this
third division, which extends from Abraham to David, that people grew up as
if passing through the third age of life), or whether they had some other
more suitable meaning, still I have no doubt whatever that spiritual things
were prefigured by them as well as by the turtle-dove and pigeon. And it is
said, "But the birds divided he not," because carnal men are divided among
themselves, but the spiritual not at all, whether they seclude themselves
from the busy conversation of men, like the turtle-dove, or dwell among
them, like the pigeon; for both birds are simple and harmless, signifying
that even in the Israelite people, to which that land was to be given,
there would be individuals who were children of the promise, and heirs of
the kingdom that is (5) to remain in eternal felicity. But the fowls coming
down on the divided carcasses represent nothing good, but the spirits of
this air, seeking some food for themselves in the division of carnal men.
But that Abraham sat down with them, signifies that even amid these
divisions of the carnal, true believers shall persevere to the end. And
that about the going down of the sun great fear fell upon Abraham and a
horror of great darkness, signifies that about the end of this world
believers shall be in great perturbation and tribulation, of which the Lord
said in the gospel, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not
from the beginning." (6)

   But what is said to Abraham, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a
stranger in a land not theirs, and they shall reduce them to servitude, and
shall afflict them 400 years," is most clearly a prophecy about the people
of Israel which was to be in servitude in Egypt. Not that this people was
to be in that servitude under the oppressive Egyptians for 400 years, but
it is foretold that this should take place in the course of those 400
years. For as it is written of Terah the father of Abraham, "And the days
of Terah in Haran were 205 years,"(1) not because they were all spent
there, but because they were completed there, so it is said here also, "And
they shall reduce them to servitude, and shall afflict them 400 years," for
this reason, because that number was completed, not because it was all
spent in that affliction. The years are said to be 400 in round numbers,
although they were a little more,--whether you reckon from this time, when
these things were promised to Abraham, or from the birth of Isaac, as the
seed of Abraham, of which these things are predicted. For, as we have
already said above, from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham, when the first
promise was made to him, down to the exodus of Israel from Egypt, there are
reckoned 430 years, which the apostle thus mentions: "And this I say, that
the covenant confirmed by God, the law, which was made 430 years after,
cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect."(2) So
then these 430 years might be called 400, because they are not much more,
especially since part even of that number had already gone by when these
things were shown and said to Abraham in vision, or when Isaac was born in
his father's 100th year, twenty-five years after the first promise, when of
these 430 years there now remained 405, which God was pleased to call 400.
No one will doubt that the other things which follow in the prophetic words
of God pertain to the people of Israel.

   When it is added, "And when the sun was now setting there was a flame,
and lo, a smoking furnace, and lamps of fire, which passed through between
those pieces," this signifies that at the end of the world the carnal shall
be judged by fire. For just as the affliction of the city of God, such as
never was before, which is expected to take place under Antichrist, was
signified by Abraham's horror of great darkness about the going down of the
sun, that is, when the end of the world draws nigh,--so at the going down
of the sun, that is, at the very end of the world, there is signified by
that fire the day of judgment, which separates the carnal who are to be
saved by fire from those who are to be condemned in the fire. And then the
covenant made with Abraham particularly sets forth the land of Canaan, and
names eleven tribes in it from the river of Egypt even to the great river
Euphrates. It is not then from the great river of Egypt, that is, the Nile,
but from a small one which separates Egypt from Palestine, where the city
of Rhinocorura is.

CHAP. 25.--OF SARAH'S HANDMAID, HAGAR, WHOM SHE HERSELF WISHED TO BE
ABRAHAM'S CONCUBINE.

   And here follow the times of Abraham's sons, the one by Hagar the bond
maid, the other by Sarah the free woman, about whom we have already spoken
in the previous book. As regards this transaction, Abraham is in no way to
be branded as guilty concerning this concubine, for he used her for the
begetting of progeny, not for the gratification of lust; and not to insult,
but rather to obey his wife, who supposed it would be solace of her
barrenness if she could make use of the fruitful womb of her handmaid to
supply the defect of her own nature, and by that law of which the apostle
says, "Likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the
wife,"(3) could, as a wife, make use of him for childbearing by another,
when she could not do so in her own person. Here there is no wanton lust,
no filthy lewdness. The handmaid is delivered to the husband by the wife
for the sake of progeny, and is received by the husband for the sake of
progeny, each seeking, not guilty excess, but natural fruit. And when the
pregnant bond woman despised her barren mistress, and Sarah, with womanly
jealousy, rather laid the blame of this on her husband, even then Abraham
showed that he was not a slavish lover, but a free begetter of children,
and that in using Hagar he had guarded the chastity of Sarah his wife, and
had gratified her will and not his own,--had received her without seeking,
had gone in to her without being attached, had impregnated without loving
her,--for he says, "Behold thy maid is in thy hands: do to her as it
pleaseth thee;"(4) a man able to use women as a man should,--his wife
temperately, his handmaid compliantly, neither intemperately!

CHAP. 26.--OF GOD'S ATTESTATION TO ABRAHAM, BY WHICH HE ASSURES HIM, WHEN
NOW OLD, OF A SON BY THE BARREN SARAH, AND APPOINTS HIM THE FATHER OF THE
NATIONS, AND SEALS HIS FAITH IN THE PROMISE BY THE SACRAMENT OF
CIRCUMCISION.

   After these things Ishmael was born of Hagar; and Abraham might think
that in him was fulfilled what God had promised him, saying, when he wished
to adopt his home-born servant, "This shall not be thine heir: but he that
shall come forth of thee, he shall be thine heir."(2) Therefore, lest he
should think that what was promised was fulfilled in the handmaid's son,
"when Abram was ninety years old and nine, God appeared to him, and said
unto him, I am God; be well-pleasing in my sight, and be without complaint,
and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will fill thee
exceedingly."(2)

   Here there are more distinct promises about the calling of the nations
in Isaac, that is, in the son of the promise, by which grace is signified,
and not nature; for the son is promised from an old man and a barren old
woman. For although God effects even the natural course of procreation, yet
where the agency of God is manifest, through the decay or failure of
nature, grace is more plainly discerned. And because this was to be brought
about, not by generation, but by regeneration, circumcision was enjoined
now, when a son was promised of Sarah. And by ordering all, not only sons,
but also home-born and purchased servants to be circumcised, he testifies
that this grace pertains to all. For what else does circumcision signify
than a nature renewed on the putting off of the old? And what else does the
eighth day mean than Christ, who rose again when the week was completed,
that is, after the Sabbath? The very names of the parents are changed: all
things proclaim newness, and the new covenant is shadowed forth in the old.
For what does the term old covenant imply but the concealing of the new?
And what does the term new covenant imply but the revealing of the old? The
laughter of Abraham is the exultation of one who rejoices, not the scornful
laughter of one who mistrusts. And those words of his in his heart, "Shall
a son be born to me that am an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is
ninety years old, bear?" are not the words of doubt, but of wonder. And
when it is said, "And I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the
land in which thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an
everlasting possession," if it troubles any one whether this is to be held
as fulfilled, or whether its fulfilment may still be looked for, since no
kind of earthly possession can be everlasting for any nation whatever, let
him know that the word translated everlasting, by our writers is what the
Greeks term aiw'nion, which is derived from aiw`n, the Greek for saeculum,
an age. But the Latins have not ventured to translate this by secular, ;est
they should change the meaning into something widely different. For many
things are called secular which so happen in this world as to pass away
even in a short time; but what is termed aiw'nion either has no end, or
lasts to the very end of this world.

CHAP. 27.--OF THE MALE, WHO WAS TO LOSE HIS SOUL IF HE WAS NOT CIRCUMCISED
ON THE EIGHTH DAY, BECAUSE HE HAD BROKEN GOD'S COVENANT.

   When it is said, "The male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his
foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he hath
broken my covenant,"[3] some may be troubled how that ought to be
understood, since it can be no fault of the infant whose life it is said
must perish; nor has the covenant of God been broken by him, but by his
parents, who have not taken care to circumcise him. But even the infants,
not personally in their own life, but according to the common origin of the
human race, have all broken God's covenant in that one in whom all have
sinned.[4] Now there are many things called God' s covenants besides those
two great ones, the old and the new, which any one who pleases may read and
know. For the first covenant, which was made with the first man, is just
this: "In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die."[5] Whence it is
written in the book called Ecclesiasticus, "All flesh waxeth old as doth a
garment. For the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shall die the
death."[6] Now, as the law was more plainly given afterward, and the
apostle says, "Where no law is, there is no prevarication,"[7] on what
supposition is what is said in the psalm true,"[1] accounted all the
sinners of the earth prevaricators,"[8] except that all who are held liable
for any sin are accused of dealing deceitfully (prevaricating) with some
law? If on this account, then, even the infants are, according to the true
belief, born in sin, not actual but original, so that we confess they have
need of grace for the remission of sins, certainly it must be acknowledged
that in the same sense in which they are sinners they are also
prevaricators of that law which was given in Paradise, according to the
truth of both scriptures, "I accounted all the sinners of the earth
prevaricators," and "Where no law is, there is no prevarication." And thus,
because circumcision was the sign of regeneration, and the infant, on
account of the original sin by which God's covenant was first broken, was
not undeservedly to lose his generation unless delivered by regeneration,
these divine words are to be understood as if it had been said, Whoever is
not born again, that soul shall perish from his people, because he hath
broken my covenant, since he also has sinned in Adam with all others. For
had He said, Because he hath broken this my covenant, He would have
compelled us to understand by it only this of circumcision; but since He
has not expressly said what covenant the infant has broken, we are free to
understand Him as speaking of that covenant of which the breach can be
ascribed to an infant. Yet if any one contends that it is said of nothing
else than circumcision, that in it the infant has broken the covenant of
God because, he is not circumcised, he must seek some method of explanation
by which it may be understood without absurdity (such as this) that he has
broken the covenant, because it has been broken in him although not by him.
Yet in this case also it is to be observed that the soul of the infant,
being guilty of no sin of neglect against itself, would perish unjustly,
unless original sin rendered it obnoxious to punishment.

CHAP. 28.--OF THE CHANGE OF NAME IN ABRAHAM AND SARAH, WHO RECEIVED THE
GIFT OF FECUNDITY WHEN THEY WERE INCAPABLE OF REGENERATION OWING TO THE
BARRENNESS OF ONE, AND THE OLD AGE OF BOTH.

   Now when a promise so great and clear was made to Abraham, in which it
was so plainly said to him, "I have made thee a father of many nations, and
I will increase thee exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and
kings shall go forth of thee. And I will give thee a son of Sarah; and I
will bless him, and he shall become nations, and kings of nations shall be
of him,"(1) --a promise which we now see fulfilled in Christ,--from that
time forward this couple are not called in Scripture, as formerly, Abram
and Sarai, but Abraham and Sarah, as we have called them from the first,
for every one does so now. The reason why the name of Abraham was changed
is given: "For," He says, "I have made thee a father of many nations."
This, then, is to be understood to be the meaning of Abraham; but Abram, as
he was formerly called, means "exalted father." The reason of the change of
Sarah's name is not given; but as those say who have written
interpretations of the Hebrew names contained in these books, Sarah means
"my princess," and Sarai "strength." Whence it is written in the Epistle to
the Hebrews, "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to
conceive seed."[2]  For both were old, as the Scripture testifies; but she
was also barren, and had ceased to menstruate, so that she could no longer
bear children even if she had not been barren. Further, if a woman is
advanced in years, yet still retains the custom of women, she can bear
children to a young man, but not to an old man, although that same old man
can beget, but only of a young woman; as after Sarah's death Abraham could
of Keturah, because he met with her in her lively age. This, then, is what
the apostle mentions as wonderful, saying, besides, that Abraham's body was
now dead;[3] because at that age he was no longer able to beget children of
any woman who retained now only a small part of her natural vigor. Of
course we must understand that his body was dead only to some purposes, not
to all; for if it was so to all, it would no longer be the aged body of a
living man, but the corpse of a dead one. Although that question, how
Abraham begot children of Keturah, is usually solved in this way, that the
gift of begetting which he received from the Lord, remained even after the
death of his wife, yet I think that solution of the question which I have
followed is preferable, because, although in our days an old man of a
hundred years can beget children of no woman, it was not so then, when men
still lived so long that a hundred years did not yet bring on them the
decrepitude of old age.

CHAP. 29.--OF THE THREE MEN OR ANGELS, IN WHOM THE LORD IS RELATED TO HAVE
APPEARED TO ABRAHAM AT THE OAK OF MAMRE.

   God appeared again to Abraham at the oak of Mature in three men, who it
is not to be doubted were angels, although some think that one of them was
Christ, and assert that He was visible before He put on flesh. Now it
belongs to the divine power, and invisible, incorporeal, and incommutable
nature, without changing itself at all, to appear even to mortal men, not
by what it is, but by what is subject to it. And what is not subject to it?
Yet if they try to establish that one of these three was Christ by the fact
that, although he saw three, he addressed the Lord in the singular, as it
is written, "And, lo, three men stood by him: and, when he saw them, he ran
to meet them from the tent-door, and worshipped toward the ground, and
said, Lord, if I have found favor before thee,"(1) etc.; why do they not
advert to this also, that when two of them came to destroy the Sodomites,
while Abraham still spoke to one, calling him Lord, and interceding that he
would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked in Sodom, Lot
received these two in such a way that he too in his conversation with them
addressed the Lord in the singular? For after saying to them in the plural,
"Behold, my lords, turn aside into your servant's house,"(2) etc., yet it
is afterwards said, "And the angels laid hold upon his hand, and the hand
of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters, because the Lord was
merciful unto him. And it came to pass, .whenever they had led him forth
abroad, that they said, Save thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay
thou in all this region: save thyself in the mountain, lest thou be caught.
And Lot said unto them, I pray thee, Lord, since thy servant hath found
grace in thy sight,"(3) etc. And then after these words the Lord also
answered him in the singular, although He was in two angels, saying, "See,
I have accepted thy face,"(4) etc. This makes it much more credible that
both Abraham in the three men and Lot in the two recognized the Lord,
addressing Him in the singular number, even when they were addressing men;
for they received them as they did for no other reason than that they might
minister human refection to them as men who needed it. Yet there was about
them something so excellent, that those who showed them hospitality as men
could not doubt that God was in them as He was wont to be in the prophets,
and therefore sometimes addressed them in the plural, and sometimes God in
them in the singular. But that they were angels the Scripture testifies,
not only in this book of Genesis, in which these transactions are related,
but also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where in praising hospitality it is
said, "For thereby some have entertained angels unawares." 5 By these three
men, then, when a son Isaac was again promised to Abraham by Sarah, such a
divine oracle was also given that it was said, "Abraham shall become a
great and numerous nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed in him."(6)  And here these two things, are promised with the
utmost brevity and fullness,--the nation of Israel according to the flesh,
and all nations according to faith.

CHAP. 30.--OF LOT'S DELIVERANCE FROM SODOM, AND ITS CONSUMPTION BY FIRE
FROM HEAVEN; AND OF ABIMELECH, WHOSE LUST COULD NOT HARM SARAH'S CHASTITY.

   After this promise Lot was delivered out of Sodom, and a fiery rain
from heaven turned into ashes that whole region of the impious city, where
custom had made sodomy as prevalent as laws have elsewhere made other kinds
of wickedness. But this punishment of theirs was a specimen of the divine
judgment to come. For what is meant by the angels for-bidding those who
were delivered to look back, but that we are not to look back in heart to
the old life which, being regenerated through grace, we have put off, if we
think to escape the last judgment? Lot's wife, indeed, when she looked
back, remained, and, being turned into salt, furnished to believing men a
condiment by which to savor somewhat the warning to be drawn from that
example. Then Abraham did again at Gerar, with Abimelech the king of that
city, what he had done in Egypt about his wife, and received her back
untouched in the same way. On this occasion, when the king rebuked Abraham
for not saying she was his wife, and calling her his sister, he explained
what he had been afraid of, and added this further, "And yet indeed she is
my sister by the father's site, but not by the mother's;(7)  for she was
Abraham's sister by his own father, and so near of kin. But her beauty was
so great, that even at that advanced age she could be fallen in love with.

CHAP. 31.--OF ISAAC, WHO WAS BORN ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE, WHOSE NAME WAS
GIVEN ON ACCOUNT OF THE LAUGHTER OF BOTH PARENTS.

   After these things a son was born to Abraham, according to God's
promise, of Sarah, and was called Isaac:, which means laughter. For his
father had laughed when he was promised to him, in wondering delight, and
his mother, when he was again promised by those three men, had laughed,
doubting for joy; yet she was blamed by the angel because that laughter,
although it was for joy, yet was not full of faith. Afterwards she was
confirmed in faith by the same angel. From this, then, the boy got his
name. For when Isaac was born and called by that name, Sarah showed that
her laughter was not that of scornful reproach, but that of joyful praise;
for she said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that every one who hears will
laugh with me."(1) Then in a little while the bond maid was cast out of the
house with her son; and, according to the apostle, these two women signify
the old and new covenants,---Sarah representing that of the Jerusalem which
is above, that is, the city of God.(2)

CHAP. 32.--OF ABRAHAM'S OBEDIENCE AND FAITH, WHICH WERE PROVED BY THE
OFFERING UP, OF HIS SON IN SACRIFICE, AND OF SARAH'S DEATH.

   Among other things, of which it would take too long time to mention the
whole, Abraham was tempted about the offering up of his well-beloved son
Isaac, to prove his pious obedience, and so make it known to the world, not
to God. Now every temptation is not blame-worthy; it may even be praise-
worthy, because it furnishes probation. And, for the most part, the human
mind cannot attain to self-knowledge otherwise than by making trial of its
powers through temptation, by some kind of experimental and not merely
verbal self-interrogation; when, if it has acknowledged the gift of God, it
is pious, and is consolidated by steadfast grace and not puffed up by vain
boasting. Of course Abraham could never believe that God delighted in human
sacrifices; yet when the divine commandment thundered, it was to be obeyed,
not disputed. Yet Abraham is worthy of praise, because he all along
believed that his son, on being offered up, would rise again; for God had
said to him, when he was unwilling to fulfill his wife's pleasure by
casting out the bond maid and her son, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called."
No doubt He then goes on to say, "And as for the son of this bond woman, I
will make him a great nation, because he is thy seed."[3] How then is it
said "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," when God calls Ishmael also his
seed? The apostle, in explaining this, says, "In Isaac shall thy seed be
called, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not
the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the
seed."[4] In order, then, that the children of the promise may be the seed
of Abraham, they are called in Isaac, that is, are gathered together in
Christ by the call of grace. Therefore the father, holding fast from the
first the promise which behoved to be fulfilled through this son whom God
had ordered him to slay, did not doubt that he whom he once thought it
hopeless he should ever receive would be restored to him when he had
offered him up. It is in this way the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews
is also to be understood and explained. "By faith," he says, "Abraham
overcame, when tempted about Isaac: and he who had received the promise
offered up his only son, to whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be
called: thinking that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead;"
therefore he has added, "from whence also he received him in a
similitude."[5] In whose similitude but His of whom the apostle says, "He
that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all?"(6) And on
this account Isaac also himself carried to the place of sacrifice the wood
on which he was to be offered up, just as the Lord Himself carried His own
cross. Finally, since Isaac was not to be slain, after his father was
forbidden to smite him, who was that ram by the offering of which that
sacrifice was completed with typical blood? For when Abraham saw him, he
was caught by the horns in a thicket. What, then, did he represent but
Jesus, who, before He was offered up, was crowned with thorns by the Jews?

   But let us rather hear the divine words spoken through the angel. For
the Scripture says, "And Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the
knife, that he might slay his son. And the Angel of the Lord called unto
him from heaven, and said, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he said,
Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now
I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy beloved son for my
sake."(7) It is said, "Now I know," that is, Now I have made to be known;
for God was not previously ignorant of this. Then, having offered up that
ram instead of Isaac his son, "Abraham," as we read, "called the name of
that place The Lord seeth: as they say this day, In the mount the Lord hath
appeared."(8) As it is said, "Now I know," for Now I have made to be known,
so here, "The Lord sees," for The Lord hath appeared, that is, made Himself
to be seen. "And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham from heaven the
second time, saying, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; because thou
hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy beloved son for my sake; that
in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed
as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy
seed shall possess by inheritance the cities of the adversaries: and in thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast
obeyed my voice."(1) In this manner is that promise concerning the calling
of the nations in the seed of Abraham confirmed even by the oath of God,
after that burnt-offering which typified Christ. For He had often promised,
but never sworn. And what is the oath of God, the true and faithful, but a
confirmation of the promise, and a certain reproof to the unbelieving?

   After these things Sarah died, in the 127th year of her life, and the
137th of her husband for he was ten years older than she, as he himself
says, when a son is promised to him by her: "Shall a son be born to me that
am an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old,
bear?"(2) Then Abraham bought a field, in which he buried his wife. And
then, according to Stephen's account, he was settled in that land, entering
then on actual possession of it,--that is, after the death of his father,
who is inferred to have died two years before.

CHAP. 33.--OF REBECCA, THE GRAND-DAUGHTER OF NAHOR, WHOM ISAAC TOOK TO
WIFE.

   Isaac married Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, his father's
brother, when he was forty years old, that is, in the 140th year of his
father's life, three years after his mother's death. Now when a servant was
sent to Mesopotamia by his father to fetch her, and when Abraham said to
that servant, "Put thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by
the Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of the earth, that thou shalt not
take a wife unto my son Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites,"(3) what
else was pointed out by this, but that the Lord, the God of heaven, and the
Lord of the earth, was to come in the flesh which was to be derived from
that thigh? Are these small tokens of the foretold truth which we see
fulfilled in Christ?

CHAP. 34.--WHAT IS MEANT BY ABRAHAM'S MARRYING KETURAH AFTER SARAH'S DEATH.

   What did Abraham mean by marrying Keturah after Sarah's death? Far be
it from us to suspect him of incontinence, especially when he had reached
such an age and such sanctity of faith. Or was he still seeking to beget
children, though he held fast, with most approved faith, the promise of God
that his children should be multiplied out of Isaac as the stars of heaven
and the dust of the earth? And yet, if Hagar and Ishmael, as the apostle
teaches us, signified the carnal people of the old covenant, why may not
Keturah and her sons also signify the carnal people who think they belong
to the new covenant? For both are called both the wives and the concubines
of Abraham; but Sarah is never called a concubine (but only a wife). For
when Hagar is given to Abraham, it is written. "And Sarai, Abram's wife,
took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abraham had dwelt ten years in
the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife."(4)
And of Keturah, whom he took after Sarah's departure, we read, "Then again
Abraham took a wife, whose name was Keturah."(5) Lo! both are called wives,
yet both are found to have been concubines; for the Scripture afterward
says, "And Abraham gave his whole estate unto Isaac his son. But unto the
sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from his son
Isaac, (while he yet lived,) eastward, unto the east country."(6) Therefore
the sons of the concubines, that is, the heretics and the carnal Jews, have
some gifts, but do not attain the promised kingdom; "For they which are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children
of the promise are counted for the seed, of whom it was said, In Isaac
shall thy seed be called."(7) For I do not see why Keturah, who was married
after the wife's death, should be called a concubine, except on account of
this mystery. But if any one is unwilling to put such meanings on these
things, he need not calumniate Abraham. For what if even this was provided
against the heretics who were to be the opponents of second marriages, so
that it might be shown that it was no sin in the case of the father of many
nations himself, when, after his wife's death, he married again? And
Abraham died when he was 175 years old, so that he left his son Isaac
seventy-five years old, having begotten him when 100 years old.

CHAP. 35.--WHAT WAS INDICATED BY THE DIVINE ANSWER ABOUT THE TWINS STILL
SHUT UP IN THE WOMB OF REBECCA THEIR MOTHER.

   Let us now see how the times of the city of God run on from this point
among Abraham's descendants. In the time from the first year of Isaac's
life to the seventieth, when his sons were born, the only memorable thing
is, that when he prayed God that his wife, who was barren, might bear, and
the Lord granted what he sought, and she conceived, the twins leapt while
still enclosed in her womb. And when she was troubled by this struggle, and
inquired of the Lord, she received this answer: "Two nations are in thy
womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the
one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder shall serve the
younger." (1) The Apostle Paul would have us understand this as a great
instance of grace; (2) for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, the younger is chosen without any good desert and
the elder is rejected, when beyond doubt, as regards original sin, both
were alike, and as regards actual sin, neither had any. But the plan of the
work on hand does not permit me to speak more fully of this matter now, and
I have said much about it in other works. Only that saying, "The elder
shall serve the younger," is understood by our writers, almost without
exception, to mean that the elder people, the Jews, shall serve the younger
people, the Christians. And truly, although this might seem to be fulfilled
in the Idumean nation, which was born of the elder (who had two names,
being called both Esau and Edom. whence the name Idumeans), because it was
afterwards to be overcome by the people which sprang from the younger, that
is, by the Israelites, and was to become subject to them; yet it is more
suitable to believe that, when it was said, "The one people shall overcome
the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger," that prophecy
meant some greater thing; and what is that except what is evidently
fulfilled in the Jews and Christians?

CHAP. 36. -- OF THE ORACLE AND BLESSING WHICH ISAAC RECEIVED, JUST AS HIS
FATHER DID, BEING BELOVED FOR HIS SAKE.

   Isaac also received such an oracle as his father had often received. Of
this oracle it is thus written: "And there was a famine aver the land,
beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went
unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar, And the Lord appeared
unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; but dwell in the land which I
shall tell thee of. And abide in this land, and I will be with thee, and
will bless thee: unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all this land; and
I will establish mine oath, which I sware unto Abraham thy father: and I
will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed
all this land: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed; because that Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept my
precepts, my commandments, my righteousness, and my laws." (3) This
patriarch neither had another wife, nor any concubine, but was content with
the twin-children begotten by one act of generation. He also was afraid,
when he lived among strangers, of being brought into danger owing to the
beauty of his wife, and did like his father in calling her his sister, and
not telling that she was his wife; for she was his near blood-relation by
the father's and mother's side. She also remained untouched by the
strangers, when it was known she was his wife. Yet we ought not to prefer
him to his father because he knew no woman besides his one wife. For beyond
doubt the merits of his father's faith and obedience were greater, inasmuch
as God says it is for his sake He does Isaac good: "In thy seed," He says,
"shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because that Abraham thy
father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts, my commandments, my statutes,
and my laws." And again in another oracle He says, "I am the God of Abraham
thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply
thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake." (4) So that we must understand how
chastely Abraham acted, because imprudent men, who seek some support for
their own wickedness in the Holy Scriptures, think he acted through lust.
We may also learn this, not to compare men by single good things, but to
consider everything in each; for it may happen that one man has something
in his life and character in which he excels another, and it may be far
more excellent than that in which the other excels him. And thus, according
to sound and true judgment, while continence is preferable to marriage, yet
a believing married man is better than a continent unbeliever; for the
unbeliever is not only less praiseworthy, but is even highly detestable. We
must conclude, then, that both are good; yet so as to hold that the married
man who is most faithful and most obedient is certainly better than the
continent man whose faith and obedience are less. But if equal in other
things, who would hesitate to. prefer the continent man to the married?

CHAP. 37.--OF THE THINGS MYSTICALLY PREFIGURED IN ESAU AND JACOB.

   Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, grew up together. The primacy of the
elder was transferred to the younger by a bargain and agreement between
them, when the elder immoderately lusted after the lentiles the younger had
prepared for food, and for that price sold his birthright to him,
confirming it with an oath. We learn from this that a person is to be
blamed, not for the kind of food he eats, but for immoderate greed. Isaac
grew old, and old age deprived him of his eyesight. He wished to bless the
elder son, and instead of the elder, who was hairy, unwittingly blessed the
younger, who put himself under his father's hands, having covered himself
with kid-skins, as if bearing the sins of others. Lest we should think this
guile of Jacob's was fraudulent guile, instead of seeking in it the mystery
of a great thing, the Scripture has predicted in the words just before,
"Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a simple man,
dwelling at home." (1) Some of our writers have interpreted this, "without
guile. But whether the Greek a'plastos means without guile," or "simple,"
or rather "without reigning," in the receiving of that blessing what is the
guile of the man without guile? What is the guile of the simple, what the
fiction of the man who does not lie, but a profound mystery of the truth?
But what is the blessing itself? "See," he says, "the smell of my son is as
the smell of a full field which the Lord hath blessed: therefore God give
thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fruitfulness of the earth, and plenty
of corn and wine: let nations serve thee, and princes adore thee: and be
lord of thy brethren, and let thy father's sons adore thee: cursed be he
that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee." (2) The blessing
of Jacob is therefore a proclamation of Christ to all nations. It is this
which has come to pass, and is now being fulfilled. Isaac is the law and
the prophecy: even by the mouth of the Jews Christ is blessed by prophecy
as by one who knows not, because it is itself not understood. The world
like a field is filled with the odor of Christ's name: His is the blessing
of the dew of heaven, that is, of the showers of divine words; and of the
fruitfulness of the earth, that is, of the gathering together of the
peoples: His is the plenty of corn and wine, that is, the multitude that
gathers bread and wine in the sacrament of His body and blood. Him the
nations serve, Him princes adore. He is the Lord of His brethren, because
His people rules over the Jews. Him His Father's sons adore, that is, the
sons of Abraham according to faith; for He Himself is the son of Abraham
according to the flesh. He is cursed that curseth Him, and he that blesseth
Him is blessed. Christ, I say, who is ours is blessed, that is, truly
spoken of out of the mouths of the Jews, when, although erring, they yet
sing the law and the prophets, and think they are blessing another for whom
they erringly hope. So, when the elder son claims the promised blessing,
Isaac is greatly afraid, and wonders when he knows that he has blessed one
instead of the other, and demands who he is; yet he does not complain that
he has been deceived, yea, when the great mystery is revealed to him, in
his secret heart he at once eschews anger, and confirms the blessing. "Who
then," he says, "hath hunted me venison, and brought it me, and I have
eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him, and he shall be
blessed?" (3) Who would not rather have expected the curse of an angry man
here, if these things had been done in an earthly manner, and not by
inspiration from above? O things done, yet done prophetically; on the
earth, yet celestially; by men, yet divinely!  If everything that is
fertile of so great mysteries should be examined carefully, many volumes
would be filled; but the moderate compass fixed for this work compels us to
hasten to other things.

CHAP. 38.--OF JACOB'S MISSION TO MESOPOTAMIA TO GET A WIFE, AND OF THE
VISION WHICH HE SAW IN A DREAM BY THE WAY, AND OF HIS GETTING FOUR WOMEN
WHEN HE SOUGHT ONE WIFE.

   Jacob was sent by his parents to Mesopotamia that he might take a wife
there. These were his father's words on sending him: "Thou shall not take a
wife of the daughters of the Canaanites. Arise, fly to Mesopotamia, to the
house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of
the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. And my God bless thee, and
increase thee, and multiply thee; and thou shall be an assembly of peoples;
and give to thee the blessing of Abraham thy father, and to thy seed after
thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou dwellest, which God
gave unto Abraham." (4) Now we understand here that the seed of Jacob is
separated from Isaac's other seed which came through Esau. For when it is
said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," (5) by this seed is meant solely
the city of God; so that from it is separated Abraham's other seed, which
was in the son  of the bond woman, and which was to be in the sons of
Keturah. But until now it had been uncertain regarding Isaac's twin-sons
whether that blessing belonged to both or only  to one of them; and if to
one, which of them it was. This is now declared when Jacob is prophetically
blessed by his father, and it is said to him, "And thou shalt be an
assembly of peoples, and God give to thee the blessing of Abraham thy
father."

   When Jacob was going to Mesopotamia, he received in a dream an oracle,
of which it is thus written: "And Jacob went out from the well of the oath,
(1) and went to Haran. And he came to a place, and slept there, for the sun
was set; and he took of the stones of the place, and put them at his head,
and slept in that place, and dreamed. And behold a ladder set up on the
earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and the angels of God ascended
and descended by it. And the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the God of
Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac fear not: the land whereon thou
sleepest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth; and it shall be spread abroad to the sea, and to
Africa, and to the north, and to the east: and all the tribes of the earth
shall be blessed in thee and in thy seed. And, behold, I am with thee, to
keep thee in all thy way wherever thou goest, and I will bring thee back
into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have, done all which I
have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, Surely
the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said,
How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and
this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob arose, and took the stone that he had
put under his head there, and set it up for a memorial, and poured oil upon
the top of it. And Jacob called the name of that place the house of God."
(2) This is prophetic. For Jacob did not pour oil on the stone in an
idolatrous way, as if making it a god; neither did he adore that stone, or
sacrifice to it. But since the name of Christ comes from the chrism or
anointing, something pertaining to the great mystery was certainly
represented in this. And the Saviour Himself is understood to bring this
latter to remembrance in the gospel, when He says of Nathanael, "Behold an
Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" (3) because Israel who saw this
vision is no other than Jacob. And in the same place He says, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

   Jacob went on to Mesopotamia to take a wife from thence. And the divine
Scripture points out how, without unlawfully desiring any of them, he came
to have four women, of whom he begat twelve sons and one daughter; for he
had come to take only one. But when one was falsely given him in place of
the other, he did not send her away after unwittingly using her in the
night, lest he should seem to have put her to shame; but as at that time,
in order to multiply posterity, no law forbade a plurality of wives, he
took her also to whom alone he had promised marriage. As she was barren,
she gave her handmaid to her husband that she might have children by her;
and her elder sister did the same thing in imitation of her, although she
had borne, because she desired to multiply progeny. We do not read that
Jacob sought any but one, or that he used many, except for the purpose of
begetting offspring, saving conjugal rights; and he would not have done
this, had not his wives, who had legitimate power over their own husband's
body, urged him to do it. So he begat twelve sons and one daughter by four
women. Then he entered into Egypt by his son Joseph, who was sold by his
brethren for envy, and carried there, and who was there exalted.

CHAP. 39.--THE REASON WHY JACOB WAS ALSO CALLED ISRAEL.

   As I said a little ago, Jacob was also called Israel, the name which
was most prevalent among the people descended from him. Now this name was
given him by the angel who wrestled with him on the way back from
Mesopotamia, and who was most evidently a type of Christ. For when Jacob
overcame him, doubtless with his own consent, that the mystery might be
represented, it signified Christ's passion, in which the Jews are seen
overcoming Him. And yet he besought a blessing from the very angel he had
overcome; and so the imposition of this name was the blessing. For Israel
means seeing God, (4) which will at last be the reward of alI the saints.
The angel also touched him on the breadth of the thigh when he was
overcoming him, and in that way made him lame. So that Jacob was at one and
the same time blessed and lame: blessed in those among that people who
believed in Christ, and lame in the unbelieving. For the breadth of the
thigh is the multitude of the family. For there are many of that race of
whom it was prophetically said beforehand, "And they have halted in their
paths."(5)

CHAP. 40.--HOW IT IS SAID THAT JACOB WENT INTO EGYPT WITH SEVENTY-FIVE
SOULS, WHEN MOST OF THOSE WHO ARE MENTIONED WERE BORN AT A LATER PERIOD.

   Seventy-five men are reported to have entered Egypt along with Jacob,
counting him with his children. In this number only two women are
mentioned, one a daughter, the other a grand-daughter. But when the thing
is carefully considered, it does not appear that Jacob's offspring was so
numerous on the day or year when he entered Egypt. There are also included
among them the great-grandchildren of Joseph, who could not possibly be
born already. For Jacob was then 130 years old, and his son Joseph thirty-
nine and as it is plain that he took a wife when he was thirty or more, how
could he in nine years have great-grandchildren by the children whom he had
by that wife? Now since, Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, could
not even have children, for Jacob found them boys under nine years old when
he entered Egypt, in what way are not only their sons but their grandsons
reckoned among those seventy-five who then entered Egypt with Jacob? For
there is reckoned there Machir the son of Manasseh, grandson of Joseph, and
Machir's son, that is, Gilead grandson of Manasseh, great-grandson of
Joseph; there, too, is he whom Ephraim, Joseph's other son, begot, that is,
Shuthelah grandson of Joseph, and Shuthelah's son Ezer, grandson of
Ephraim, and great-grand-son of Joseph, who could not possibly be in
existence when Jacob came into Egypt, and there found his grandsons, the
sons of Joseph, their grandsires, still boys under nine years of age.' But
doubtless, when the Scripture mentions Jacob's entrance into Egypt with
seventy-five souls, it does not mean one day, or one year, but that whole
time as long as Joseph lived, who was the cause of his entrance. For the
same Scripture speaks thus of Joseph: "And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he  and
his brethren, and all his father's house: and Joseph lived 110 years, and
saw Ephraim's children of the third generation." (2) That is, his great-
grandson, the third from Ephraim; for the third generation means son,
grandson, great-grandson. Then it is added," The children also of Machir,
the son of Manasseh, were born upon Joseph's knees." (3) And this is that
grandson of Manasseh, and great-grandson of Joseph. But the plural number
is employed according to scriptural usage; for the one daughter of Jacob is
spoken of as daughters, just as in the usage of the Latin tongue liberi is
used in the plural for children even when there is only one. Now, when
Joseph's own happiness is proclaimed, because he could see his great-
grandchildren, it is by no means to be thought they already existed in the
thirty-ninth year of their great-grand-sire Joseph, when his father Jacob
came to him in Egypt. But those who diligently look into these things will
the less easily be mistaken, because it is written, "These are the names of
the sons of Israel who entered into Egypt along with Jacob their father."
(4) For this means that the seventy-five are reckoned along with him, not
that they were all with him when he entered Egypt; for, as I have said, the
whole period during which Joseph, who occasioned his entrance, lived, is
held to be the time of that entrance.

CHAP. 41.--OF THE BLESSING WHICH JACOB PROMISED IN JUDAH HIS SON.

   If, on account of the Christian people in whom the city of God sojourns
in the earth, we look for the flesh of Christ in the seed of Abraham,
setting aside the sons of the concubines, we have Isaac; if in the seed of
Isaac, setting aside Esau, who is also Edom, we have Jacob, who also is
Israel; if in the seed of Israel himself, setting aside the rest, we have
Judah, because Christ sprang of the tribe of Judah. Let us hear, then, how
Israel, when dying in Egypt, in blessing his sons, prophetically blessed
Judah. He says: "Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee: thy hands shall be
on the back of thine enemies; thy father's children shall adore thee. Judah
is a lion's whelp: from the sprouting, my son, thou art gone up: lying
down, thou hast slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp; who shall awake
him? A prince shall not be lacking out of Judah, and a leader from his
thighs, until the things come that are laid up for him; and He shall be the
expectation of the nations. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's
foal to the choice vine; he shall wash his robe in wine, and his clothes in
the blood of the grape: his eyes are red with wine, and his teeth are
whiter than milk." (5) I have expounded these words in disputing against
Faustus the Manichaean; and I think it is enough to make the truth of this
prophecy shine, to remark that the death of Christ is predicted by the word
about his lying down, and not the necessity, but the voluntary character of
His death, in the title of lion. That power He Himself proclaims in the
gospel, saying, "I have the power of laying down my life, and I have the
power of taking it again. No man taketh it from me; but I lay it down of
myself, and take it again." (1) So the lion roared, so He fulfilled what He
said. For to this power what is added about the resurrection refers, "Who
shall awake him?" This means that no man but Himself has raised Him, who
also said of His own body, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up." (2) And the very nature of His death, that is, the height of
the cross, is understood by the single words "Thou are gone up." The
evangelist explains what is added, "Lying down, thou hast slept," when he
says, "He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." (3) Or at least His
burial is to be understood, in which He lay down sleeping, and whence no
man raised Him, as the prophets did some, and as He Himself did others; but
He Himself rose up as if from sleep. As for His robe which He washes in
wine, that is, cleanses from sin in His own blood, of which blood those who
are baptized know the mystery, so that he adds, "And his clothes in the
blood of the grape," what is it but the Church? "And his eyes are red with
wine," [these are] His spiritual people drunken with His cup, of which the
psalm sings, "And thy cup that makes drunken, how excellent it is!" "And
his teeth are whiter than milk," (4)--that is, the nutritive words which,
according to the apostle, the babes drink, being as yet unfit for solid
food. (5) And it is He in whom the promises of Judah were laid up, so that
until they come, princes, that is, the kings of Israel, shall never be
lacking out of Judah. "And He is the expectation of the nations." This is
too plain to need exposition.

CHAP. 42.--OF THE SONS OF JOSEPH, WHOM JACOB BLESSED, PROPHETICALLY
CHANGING HIS HANDS.

   Now, as Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, furnished a type of the two
people, the Jews and the Christians (although as pertains to carnal descent
it was not the Jews but the Idumeans who came of the seed of Esau, nor the
Christian nations but rather the Jews who came of Jacob's; for the type
holds only as regards the saying, "The elder shall serve the younger" (6)),
so the same thing happened in Joseph's two sons; for the elder was a type
of the Jews, and the younger of the Christians. For when Jacob was blessing
them, and laid his fight hand on the younger, who was at his left, and his
left hand on the elder, who was at his right, this seemed wrong to their
father, and he admonished his father by trying to correct his mistake and
show him which was the elder. But he would not change his hands, but said,
"I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall
be exalted; but his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed
shall become a multitude of nations." (7) And these two promises show the
same thing. For that one is to become "a people;" this one "a multitude of
nations." And what can be more evident than that these two promises
comprehend the people of Israel, and the whole world of Abraham's seed, the
one according to the flesh, the other according to faith?

CHAP. 43.--OF THE TIMES OF MOSES AND JOSHUA THE SON OF NUN, OF THE JUDGES,
AND THEREAFTER OF THE KINGS, OF WHOM SAUL WAS THE FIRST, BUT DAVID IS TO BE
REGARDED AS THE CHIEF, BOTH BY THE OATH AND BY MERIT.

   Jacob being dead, and Joseph also, during the remaining 144 years until
they went out of the land of Egypt, that nation increased to an incredible
degree, even although wasted by so great persecutions, that at one time the
male children were murdered at their birth, because the wondering Egyptians
were terrified at the too great increase of that people. Then Moses, being
stealthily kept from the murderers of the infants, was brought to the royal
house, God preparing to do great things by him, and was nursed and adopted
by the daughter of Pharaoh (that was the name of all the kings of Egypt),
and became so great a man that he--yea, rather God, who had promised this
to Abraham, by him--drew that nation, so wonderfully multiplied, out of the
yoke of hardest and most grievous servitude it had borne there. At first,
indeed, he fled thence (we are told he fled into the land of Midian),
because, in defending an Israelite, he had slain an Egyptian, and was
afraid. Afterward, being divinely commissioned in the power of the Spirit
of God, he overcame the magi of Pharaoh who resisted him. Then, when the
Egyptians would not let God's people go, ten memorable plagues were brought
by Him upon them,--the water turned into blood,  the frogs and lice, the
flies, the death of the cattle, the boils, the hail, the locusts. the
darkness, the death of the first-born. At last the Egyptians were destroyed
in the Red Sea while pursuing the Israelites, whom they had let go when at
length they were broken by so many great plagues. The divided sea made a
way for the Israelites who were departing, but, returning on itself, it
overwhelmed their pursuers with its waves. Then for forty years the people
of God went through the desert, under the leadership of Moses, when the
tabernacle of testimony was dedicated, in which God was worshipped by
sacrifices prophetic of things to come, and that was after the law had been
very terribly given in the mount, for its divinity was most plainly
attested by wonderful signs and voices. This took place soon after the
exodus from Egypt, when the people had entered the desert, on the fiftieth
day after the passover was celebrated by the offering up of a lamb, which
is so completely a type of Christ, foretelling that through His sacrificial
passion He should go from this world to the Father (for pascha in, the
Hebrew tongue means transit), that when the new covenant was revealed,
after Christ our passover was offered up, the Holy Spirit came from heaven
on the fiftieth day; and He is called in the gospel the Finger of God,
because He recalls to our remembrance the things done before by way of
types, and because the tables of that law are said to have been written by
the finger of God.

   On the death of Moses, Joshua the son of Nun ruled the people, and led
them into the land of promise, and divided it among them. By these two
wonderful leaders wars were also carried on most prosperously and
wonderfully, God calling to witness that they had got these victories not
so much on account of the merit of the Hebrew people as on account of the
sins of the nations they subdued. After these leaders there were judges,
when the people were settled in the land of promise, so that, in the
meantime, the first promise made to  Abraham began to be fulfilled about
the one nation, that is, the Hebrew, and about the land of Canaan; but not
as yet the promise about all nations, and the whole wide world, for that
was to be fulfilled, not by the observances of the old law, but by the
advent of Christ in the flesh, and by the faith of the gospel. And it was
to prefigure this that it was not Moses, who received the law for the
people on Mount Sinai, that led the people into the land of promise, but
Joshua, whose name also was changed at God's command,  so that he was
called Jesus. But in the times of the judges prosperity alternated with
adversity in war, according as the sins of the  people and the mercy of God
were displayed. We come next to the times of the kings. The first who
reigned was Saul; and when he was rejected and laid low in battle, and his
offspring rejected so that no kings should arise out of it, David succeeded
to the kingdom, whose son Christ is chiefly called. He was made a kind of
starting-point and beginning of the advanced youth of God's people, who had
passed a kind of age of puberty from Abraham to this David. And it is not
in vain that the evangelist Matthew records the generations in such a way
as to sum up this first period from Abraham to David in fourteen
generations. For from the age of puberty man begins to be capable of
generation; therefore he starts the list of generations from Abraham, who
also was made the father of many nations when he got his name changed. So
that previously this family of God's people was in its childhood, from Noah
to Abraham; and for that reason the first language was then learned, that
is, the Hebrew. For man begins to speak in childhood, the age succeeding
infancy, which is so termed because then he cannot speak. (1) And that
first age is quite drowned in oblivion, just as the first age of the human
race was blotted out by the flood; for who is there that can remember his
infancy? Wherefore in this progress of the city of God, as the previous
book contained that first age, so this one ought to contain the. second and
third ages, in which third age, as was shown by the heifer of three years
old, the she-goat of three years  old, and the ram of three years old, the
yoke of the law was imposed, and there appeared abundance of sins, and the
beginning of the earthly kingdom arose, in which there were not lacking
spiritual men, of whom the turtledove and pigeon represented the mystery.


BOOK XVII.

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

CHAP. I .--OF THE PROPHETIC AGE.

   By the favor of God we have treated distinctly of His promises made to
Abraham, that both the nation of Israel according to the flesh, and all
nations according to faith, should be his seed, and the City of God,
proceeding according to the order of time, will point (1) out how they were
fulfilled. Having therefore in the previous book come down to the reign of
David, we shall now treat of what remains, so far as may seem sufficient
for the object of this work, beginning at the same reign. Now, from the
time when holy Samuel began to prophesy, and ever onward until the people
of Israel was led captive into Babylonia, and until, according to the
prophecy of holy Jeremiah, on Israel's return thence after seventy years,
the house of God was built anew. this whole period is the prophetic age.
For although both the patriarch Noah himself, in whose days the whole earth
was destroyed by the flood, and others before and after him down to this
time when there began to be kings over the people of God, may not
underservedly be styled prophets, on account  of certain things pertaining
to the city of God and the kingdom of heaven, which they either predicted
or in any way signified should come to pass, and especially since we read
that some of them, as Abraham and Moses, were expressly so styled, yet
those are most and chiefly called the days of the prophets from the time
when Samuel began to prophesy, who at God's command first anointed Saul to
be king, and, on his rejection, David himself, whom others of his issue
should succeed as long as it was fitting they should do so. If, therefore,
I wished to rehearse all that the  prophets have predicted concerning
Christ, while the city of God, with its members dying and being born in
constant succession, ran its course through those times, this work would
extend beyond all bounds. First, because the Scripture itself, even when,
in treating in order of the kings and of their deeds and the events of
their reigns, it seems to be occupied in narrating as with historical
diligence the affairs transacted, will be found, if the things handled by
it are considered with the aid of the Spirit of God, either more, or
certainly not less, intent on foretelling things to come than on relating
things past. And who that thinks even a little about it does not know how
laborious and prolix a work it would be, and how many volumes it would
require to search this out by thorough investigation and demonstrate it by
argument? And then, because of that which without dispute pertains to
prophecy, there are so many things concerning Christ and the kingdom of
heaven, which is the city of God, that to explain these a larger discussion
would be necessary than the due proportion of this work admits of.
Therefore I shall, if I can, so limit myself, that in carrying through this
work, I may, with God's help, neither say what is superfluous nor omit what
is necessary.

CHAP. 2 .--AT WHAT TIME THE PROMISE OF GOD WAS FULFILLED CONCERNING THE
LAND OF CANAAN, WHICH EVEN CARNAL ISRAEL GOT IN POSSESSION.

   In the preceding book we said, that in the promise of God to Abraham
two things were promised from the beginning, the one, namely, that his seed
should possess the land of Canaan, which was intimated when it was said,
"Go into a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great
nation;" (1) but the other far more excellent, concerning not the carnal
but the spiritual seed, by which he is the father, not of the one nation of
Israel, but of all nations who follow the footsteps of his faith, which
began to be promised in these words, "And in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed." (2) And thereafter we showed by yet many other proofs
that these two things were promised. Therefore the seed of Abraham, that
is, the people of Israel according to the flesh, already was in the land of
promise; and there, not only by holding and possessing the cities of the
enemies, but also by having kings, had already begun to reign, the promises
of God concerning that people being already in great part fulfilled: not
only those that were made to those three fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and whatever others were made in their times, but those also that
were made through Moses himself, by whom the same people was set free from
servitude in Egypt, and by whom all bygone things were revealed in his
times, when he led the people through the wilderness. But neither by the
illustrious leader Jesus the son of Nun, who led that people into the land
of promise, and, after driving out the nations, divided it among the twelve
tribes according to God's command, and died; nor after him, in the whole
time of the judges, was the promise of God concerning the land of Canaan
fulfilled, that it should extend from some river of Egypt even to the great
river Euphrates; nor yet was it still prophesied as to come, but its
fulfillment was expected. And it was; fulfilled through David, and Solomon
his son, whose kingdom was extended over the whole promised space; for they
subdued all those nations, and made them tributary. And thus, under those
kings, the seed of Abraham was established in the land of promise according
to the flesh, that is, in the land of Canaan, so that nothing yet remained
to the complete fulfillment of that earthly promise of God, except that, so
far as pertains to temporal prosperity, the Hebrew nation should remain in
the same land by the succession of posterity in an unshaken state even to
the end of this mortal age, if it obeyed the laws of the Lord its God. But
since God knew it would not do this, He used His temporal punishments also
for training His few faithful ones in it, and for giving needful warning to
those who should afterwards be in all nations, in whom the other promise,
revealed in the New Testament, was about to be fulfilled through the
incarnation  of Christ.

CHAP. 3.--OF THE THREE-FOLD MEANING OF THE PROPHECIES, WHICH ARE TO BE
REFERRED NOW TO THE EARTHLY, NOW TO THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM, AND NOW AGAIN
TO BOTH.

   Wherefore just as that divine oracle to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
all the other prophetic signs or sayings which are given in the earlier
sacred writings, so also the other prophecies from this time of the kings
pertain partly to the nation of Abraham's flesh, and partly to that seed of
his in which all nations are blessed as fellow-heirs of Christ by the New
Testament, to the possessing of eternal life and the kingdom of the
heavens. Therefore they pertain partly to the bond maid who gendereth to
bondage, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her
children; but partly to the free city of God, that is, the true Jerusalem
eternal in the heavens, whose children are all those that live according to
God in the earth: but there are some things among them which are understood
to pertain to both,--to the bond maid properly, to the free woman
figuratively. (3)

   Therefore prophetic utterances of three kinds are to be found;
forasmuch as there are some relating to the earthly Jerusalem, some to the
heavenly, and some to both. I think it proper to prove what I say by
examples. The prophet Nathan was sent to convict king David of heinous sin,
and predict to him what future evils should be consequent on it. Who can
question that this and the like pertain to the terrestrial city, whether
publicly, that is, for the safety or help of the people, or privately, when
there are given forth for each one's private good divine utterances whereby
something of the future may be known for the use of temporal life? But
where we read, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make for
the house of Israel, and for the house of Judah, a new testament: not
according to the testament that I settled for their fathers in the day when
I laid hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because
they continued not in my testament, and I regarded them not, saith the
Lord. For this is the testament that I will make for the house of Israel:
after those days, saith the Lord, I will give my laws in their mind, and
will write them upon their hearts, and I will see to them; and I will be to
them a God, and they shall be to me a people;" (4)--without doubt this is
prophesied to the Jerusalem above, whose reward is God Himself, and whose
chief and entire good it is to have Him, and to be His. But this pertains
to both, that the city of God is called Jerusalem, and that it is
prophesied the house of God shall be in it; and this prophecy seems to be
fulfilled when king Solomon builds that most noble temple. For these things
both happened in the earthly Jerusalem, as history shows, and were types of
the heavenly Jerusalem. And this kind of prophecy, as it were compacted and
commingled of both the others in the ancient canonical books, containing
historical narratives, is of very great significance, and has exercised and
exercises  greatly the wits of those who search holy writ. For example,
what we read of historically as predicted and fulfilled in the seed of
Abraham according to, the flesh, we must also inquire the allegorical
meaning of, as it is to be fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according to
faith. And so much is this the case, that some have thought there is
nothing in these books either foretold and effected, or effected although
not foretold, that does not insinuate something else which is to be
referred by figurative signification to the city of God on high, and to her
children who are pilgrims in this life. But if this be so, then the
utterances of the prophets, or rather the whole of those Scriptures that
are reckoned under the title of the Old Testament, will be not of three,
but of two different kinds. For there will be nothing there which pertains
to the terrestrial Jerusalem only, if whatever is there said and fulfilled
of or concerning her signifies something which also refers by allegorical
prefiguration to the celestial Jerusalem; but there will be only two kinds
one that pertains to the free Jerusalem, the other to both. But just as, I
think, they err greatly who are of opinion that none of the records of
affairs in that kind of writings mean anything more than that they so
happened, so I think those very daring who contend that the whole gist of
their contents lies in allegorical significations. Therefore I have said
they are threefold, not two-fold. Yet, in holding this opinion, I do not
blame those who may be able to draw out of everything there a spiritual
meaning, only saving, first of all, the historical truth. For the rest,
what believer can doubt that those things are spoken vainly which are such
that, whether said to have been done or to be yet to come, they do not be-
seem either human or divine affairs? Who would not recall these to
spiritual understanding if he could, or confess that they should be
recalled by him who is able?

CHAP. 4.--ABOUT THE PREFIGURED CHANGE OF THE ISRAELITIC KINGDOM AND
PRIESTHOOD, AND ABOUT THE THINGS HANNAH THE MOTHER OF SAMUEL PROPHESIED,
PERSONATING THE CHURCH.

   Therefore the advance of the city of God, where it reached the times of
the kings, yielded a figure, when, on the rejection of Saul, David first
obtained the kingdom on such a footing that thenceforth his descendants
should reign in the earthly Jerusalem in continual succession; for the
course of affairs signified and foretold, what is not to be passed by in
silence, concerning the change of things to come, what belongs to both
Testaments, the Old and the New,--where the priesthood and kingdom are
changed by one who is a priest, and at the same time a king, new and
everlasting, even Christ Jesus. For both the substitution in the ministry
of God, on Eli's rejection as priest, of Samuel, who executed at once the
office of priest and judge, and the establishment of David in the kingdom,
when  Saul was rejected, typified this of which I speak. And Hannah
herself, the mother of Samuel, who formerly was barren, and afterwards was
gladdened with fertility, does not seem to prophesy anything else, when she
exultingly pours forth her thanksgiving to the Lord, on yielding up to God
the same boy she had born and weaned with the same piety with which she had
vowed him. For she says, "My heart is made strong in the Lord, and my horn
is exalted in my God; my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; I am made
glad in Thy salvation. Because there is none holy as the Lord; and none is
righteous as our God: there is none holy save Thee. Do not glory so
proudly, and do not speak lofty things, neither let vaunting talk come out
of your mouth; for a God of knowledge is the Lord, and a God preparing His
curious designs. The bow of the mighty hath He made weak, and the weak are
girded with strength. They that were full of bread are diminished; and the
hungry have passed beyond the earth: for the barren hath born seven; and
she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh
alive: He bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up again. The Lord maketh
poor and maketh rich: He bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the
poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, that He
may set him among the mighty of [His] people, and maketh them inherit the
throne of glory; giving the vow to him that voweth, and He hath blessed the
years of the just: for man is not mighty in strength. The Lord shall make
His adversary weak: the Lord is holy. Let not the prudent glory in his
prudence and let not the mighty glory in his might; and let not the rich
glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, to understand
and know the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in the midst of the
earth. The Lord hath ascended into the heavens, and hath thundered: He
shall judge the ends of the earth, for He is righteous: and He giveth
strength to our kings, and shall exalt the horn of His Christ." (3)

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

   Therefore let the Church of Christ, the city of the great King, (2)
full of grace, prolific of offspring, let her say what the prophecy uttered
about her so long before by the mouth of this pious mother confesses, "My
heart is made strong in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God." Her
heart is truly made strong, and her horn is truly exalted, because not in
herself, but in the Lord her God. "My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies;"
because even in pressing straits the word of God is not bound, not even in
preachers who  are bound. (3) "I am made glad," she says, "in Thy
salvation." This is Christ Jesus Himself, whom old Simeon, as we read in
the Gospel, embracing as a little one, yet recognizing as great, said,"
Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen
Thy salvation." (4) Therefore may the Church say, "I am made glad in Thy
salvation. For there is none holy as the Lord, and none is righteous as our
God;" as holy and sanctifying, just and justifying. (5) "There is none holy
beside Thee;" because no one becomes so except by reason of Thee. And then
it follows, "Do not glory so proudly, and do not speak lofty things,
neither let vaunting talk come out of your mouth. For a God of knowledge is
the Lord." He knows you even when no one knows; for "he who thinketh
himself to be something when he is nothing deceiveth himself." (6) These
things are said to the adversaries of the city of God who belong to
Babylon, who presume in their own strength, and glory in themselves, not in
the Lord; of whom are also the carnal Israelites, the earth-born
inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem, who, as saith the apostle, "being
ignorant of the righteousness of God," (7) that is, which God, who alone is
just, and the justifier, gives to man, "and wishing to establish their
own," that is, which is as it were procured by their own selves, not
bestowed by Him, "are not subject to the righteousness of God," just
because they are proud, and think they are able to please God with their
own, not with that which is of God, who is the God of knowledge, and
therefore also takes the oversight of consciences, there beholding the
thoughts of men that they are vain, (8) if they are of men, and are not
from Him. "And preparing," she says, "His curious designs." What curious
designs do we think these are, save that the proud must  fall, and the
humble rise? These curious designs she recounts, saying, "The bow of the
mighty is made weak, and the weak are girded with strength." The bow is
made weak, that is, the intention of those who think themselves so
powerful, that without the gift and help of God they are able by human
sufficiency to fulfill the divine commandments; and those are girded with
strength whose inward cry is, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak."
(1)

   "They that were full of bread," she says, "are diminished, and the
hungry have gone beyond the earth." Who are to be understood as full of
bread except those same who were as if mighty, that is, the Israelites, to
whom were committed the oracles of God? (2) But among that people the
children of the bond maid were diminished,--by which word minus, although
it is Latin, the idea is well expressed that from being greater they were
made less,--because, even in the very bread, that is, the divine oracles,
which the Israelites alone of all nations have received, they savor earthly
things. But the nations to whom that law was not given, after they have
come through the New Testament to these oracles, by thirsting much have
gone beyond the earth, because in them they have savored not earthly, but
heavenly things. And the reason why this is done is as it were sought; "for
the barren," she says, "hath born seven, and she that hath many children is
waxed feeble." Here all that had been prophesied hath shone forth to those
who understood the number seven, which signifies the perfection of the
universal Church, For which reason also the Apostle John writes to the
seven churches, (3) showing in that way that he writes to the totality of
the one Church; and in the Proverbs of Solomon it is said aforetime,
prefiguring this, "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath strengthened her
seven pillars." (4) For the city of God was barren in all nations before
that child arose whom we see. (5) We also see that the temporal Jerusalem,
who had many children, is now waxed feeble. Because, whoever in her were
sons of the free woman were her strength; but now, forasmuch as the letter
is there, and not the spirit, having lost her strength, she is waxed
feeble.

   "The Lord killeth and maketh alive:" He has killed her who had many
children, and made this barren one alive, so that she has born seven.
Although it may be more suitably understood that He has made those same
alive whom He has killed. For she, as it were, repeats that by adding, "He
bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up." To whom truly the apostle says,
"If ye be dead with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God." (6) Therefore they are killed by the
Lord in a salutary way, so that he adds, " Savor things which are above,
not things on the earth;" so that these are they who, hungering, have
passed beyond the earth. "For ye are dead," he says: behold how God
savingly kills! Then there follows, "And your life is hid with Christ in
God:" behold  how God makes the same alive! But does He bring them down to
hell and bring them  up again? It is without controversy among believers
that we best see both parts of this work fulfilled in Him, to wit our Head,
with whom the apostle has said our life is hid in God. "For when He spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all," (7) in that way,
certainly, He has killed Him. And forasmuch as He raised Him up again from
the dead, He has made Him alive again. And since His voice is acknowledged
in the prophecy, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," (3) He has brought
Him down to hell and brought Him up again. By this poverty of His we are
made rich; (9) for "the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich." But that we may
know what this is, let us hear what follows: "He bringeth low and lifteth
up;" and truly He humbles the proud and exalts the humble. Which we also
read elsewhere, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."
(10) This is the burden of the entire song of this woman whose name is
interpreted "His grace."

   Farther, what is added, "He raiseth up the poor from the earth," I
understand of none better than of Him who, as was said a little ago, "was
made poor for us, when He was rich, that by His poverty we might be made
rich." For He raised Him from the earth so quickly that His flesh did not
see corruption. Nor shall I divert from Him what is added, "And raiseth up
the poor from the dunghill." For indeed he who is the poor man is also the
beggar.(11) But by the dunghill from which he is lifted up we are with the
greatest reason to understand the persecuting Jews, of whom the apostle
says, when telling that when he belonged to them he persecuted the Church,
"What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ; and I have
counted them not only loss, but even dung, that I might win Christ." (12)
Therefore that poor one is raised up from the earth above all the rich, and
that beggar is lifted up from that dunghill above all the wealthy, "that he
may sit among the mighty of the people," to whom He says, "Ye shall sit
upon twelve thrones," (13) "and to make them inherit the throne of glory."
For these mighty ones had said, "Lo, we have forsaken all and followed
Thee." They had most mightily vowed this vow.

   But whence do they receive this, except from Him of whom it is here
immediately said, "Giving the vow to him that voweth?" Otherwise they would
be of those mighty ones whose bow is weakened. "Giving," she saith, "the
vow to him that voweth." For no one could vow anything acceptable to God,
unless he received from Him that which he might vow, There follows, "And He
hath blessed the years of the just," to wit, that he may live for ever with
Him to whom it is said, "And Thy years shall have no end." For there the
years abide; but here they pass away, yea, they perish: for before they
come they are not, and when they shall have come they shall not be, because
they bring their own end with them. Now of these two, that is, "giving the
vow to him that voweth," and "He hath blessed the years of the just," the
one is what we do, the other what we receive. But this other is not
received from God, the liberal giver, until He, the helper, Himself has
enabled us for the former; "for man is not mighty in strength." "The Lord
shall make his adversary weak," to wit, him who envies the man that vows,
and resists him, lest he should fulfill what he has vowed. Owing to the
ambiguity of the Greek, it may also be understood "his own adversary." For
when God has begun to possess us, immediately he who had been our adversary
becomes His, and is conquered by us; but not by our own strength, "for man
is not mighty in strength." Therefore "the Lord shall make His own
adversary weak, the Lord is holy," that he may be conquered by the saints,
whom the Lord, the Holy of holies, hath made saints. For this reason, "let
not the prudent glory in his prudence, and let not the mighty glory in his
might, and let not the rich glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth
glory in this,--to understand and know the Lord, and to do judgment and
justice in the midst of the earth," He in no small measure understands and
knows the  Lord who understands and knows that even this, that he can
understand and know the Lord, is given to him by the Lord. "For what hast
thou," saith the apostle, "that thou  hast not received? But if thou hast
received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?" (1)
That is, as if thou hadst of thine own self whereof thou mightest glory.
Now, he does judgment and justice who lives aright. But he lives aright who
yields obedience to God when He commands. "The end of the commandment,"
that is, to which the commandment has reference, "is charity out of a pure
heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned." Moreover, this
"charity," as the Apostle John testifies, "is of God," (2) Therefore to do
justice and judgment is of God. But what is "in the midst of the earth?"
For ought those who dwell in the ends of the earth not to do judgment and
justice? Who would say so? Why, then, is it added, "In the midst of the
earth?" For if this had not been added, and it had only been said, "To do
judgment and justice," this commandment would rather have pertained to both
kinds of men,--both those dwelling inland and those on the sea-coast. But
lest any one should think that, after the end of the life led in this body,
there remains. a time for doing judgment and justice which he has not done
while he was in the flesh, and that the divine judgment can thus be
escaped, "in the midst of the earth" appears to me to be said of the time
when every one lives in the body; for in this life every one carries about
his own earth, which, on a man's dying, the common earth takes back, to be
surely returned to him on his rising again. Therefore "in the midst of the
earth," that is, while our soul is shut up in this earthly body, judgment
and justice are to be done, which shall be profitable for us hereafter,
when "every one shall receive according to that he hath done in the body,
whether good or bad." (3) For when the apostle there says "in the body," he
means in the time he has lived in the body. Yet if any one blaspheme with
malicious mind and impious thought, without any member of his body being
employed in it, he shall not therefore be guiltless because he has not done
it with bodily motion, for he will have done it in that time which he has
spent in the body. In the same way we may suitably understand what we read
in the psalm, "But God, our King before the worlds, hath wrought salvation
in the midst of the earth;" (4) so that the Lord Jesus may be understood to
be our God who is before the worlds, because by Him the worlds were made,
working our salvation in the midst of the earth, for the Word was made
flesh and dwelt in an earthly body.

   Then after Hannah has prophesied in these words, that he who glorieth
ought to glory not in himself at all, but in the Lord, she i says, on
account of the retribution which is to come on the day of judgment, "The
Lord  hath ascended into the heavens, and hath thundered: He shall judge
the ends of the earth, for He is righteous." Throughout she holds to the
order of the creed of Christians: For the Lord Christ has ascended into
heaven, and is to come thence to judge the quick and dead.(1) For, as saith
the apostle, "Who hath ascended but He who hath also descended into the
lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended
up above all heavens, that He might fill all things."(2) Therefore He hath
thundered through His clouds, which He hath filled with His Holy Spirit
when He ascended up. Concerning which the bond maid Jerusalem--that is, the
unfruitful vineyard--is threatened in Isaiah the prophet that they shall
rain no showers upon her. But "He shall judge the ends of the earth" is
spoken as if it had been said, "even the extremes of the earth." For it
does not mean that He shall not judge the other parts of the earth, who,
without doubt, shall judge all men. But it is better to understand by the
extremes of the earth the extremes of man, since those things shall not be
judged which, in the middle time, are changed for the better or the worse,
but the ending in which he shall be found who is judged. For which reason
it is said, "He that shall persevere even unto the end, the same shall be
saved."(3) He, therefore, who perseveringly does judgment and justice in
the midst of the earth shall not be condemned when the extremes of the
earth shall be judged. "And giveth," she saith, "strength to our kings,"
that He may not condemn them in judging. He giveth them strength whereby as
kings they rule the flesh, and conquer the world in Him who hath poured out
His blood for them. "And shall exalt the horn of His Christ." How shall
Christ exalt the horn of His Christ? For He of whom it was said above, "The
Lord hath ascended into the heavens," meaning the Lord Christ, Himself, as
it is said here, "shall exalt the horn of His Christ." Who, therefore, is
the Christ of His Christ? Does it mean that He shall exalt the horn of each
one of His believing people, as she says in the beginning of this hymn,
"Mine horn is exalted in my God?" For we can rightly call all those christs
who are anointed with His chrism, forasmuch as the whole body with its head
is one Christ.(4) These things hath Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the holy
and much-praised man, prophesied, in which, indeed, the change of the
ancient priesthood was then figured and is now fulfilled, since she that
had many children is waxed feeble, that the barren who hath born seven
might have the new priesthood in Christ.

CHAP. 5.--OF THOSE THINGS WHICH A MAN OF GOD SPAKE BY THE SPIRIT TO ELI THE
PRIEST, SIGNIFYING THAT THE PRIESTHOOD WHICH HAD BEEN APPOINTED ACCORDING
TO AARON WAS TO BE TAKEN AWAY.

   But this is said more plainly by a man of God sent to Eli the priest
himself, whose name indeed is not mentioned, but whose office and ministry
show him to have been indubitably a prophet. For it is thus written: "And
there came a man of God unto Eli, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I plainly
revealed myself unto thy father's house, when they were in the land of
Egypt slaves in Pharaoh's house; and I chose thy father's house out of all
the sceptres of Israel to fill the office of priest for me, to go up to my
altar, to burn incense and wear the ephod; and I gave thy father's house
for food all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel.
Wherefore then hast thou looked at mine incense and at mine offerings with
an impudent eye, and hast glorified thy sons above me, to bless the first-
fruits of every sacrifice in Israel before me? Therefore thus saith the
Lord God of Israel, I said thy house and thy father's house should walk
before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them
that honor me will I honor, and he that despiseth me shall be despised.
Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thy seed, and the seed of thy
father's house, and thou shalt never have an old man in my house. And I
will cut off the man of thine from mine altar, so that his eyes shall be
consumed, and his heart shall melt away; and every one of thy house that is
left shall fall by the sword of men. And this shall be a sign unto thee
that shall come upon these thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas; in one day
they shall die both of them. And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that
shall do according to all that is in mine heart and in my soul; and I will
build him a sure house, and he shall walk before my Christ for ever. And it
shall come to pass that he who is left in thine house shall come to worship
him with a piece of money, saying, Put me into one part of thy priesthood,
that I may eat bread."(5)

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

   But what follows belongs properly to the house of Eli, to whom these
things were said: "And every one of thine house that is left shall fall by
the sword of men. And this shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon
these thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of
them." This, therefore, is made a sign of the change of the priesthood from
this man's house, by which it is signified that the priesthood of Aaron's
house is to be changed. For the death of this man's sons signified the
death not of the men, but of the priesthood itself of the sons of Aaron.
But what follows pertains to that Priest whom Samuel typified by succeeding
this one. Therefore the things which follow are said of Christ Jesus, the
true Priest of the New Testament: "And I will raise me up a faithful Priest
that shall do according to all that is in mine heart and in my soul; and I
will build Him a sure house." The same is the eternal Jerusalem above. "And
He shall walk," saith He, "before my Christ always." "He shall walk" means
"he shall be conversant with," just as He had said before of Aaron's house,
"I said that thine house and thy father's house shall walk before me for
ever." But what He says, "He shall walk before my Christ," is to be
understood entirely of the house itself, not of the priest, who is Christ
Himself, the Mediator and Saviour. His house, therefore, shall walk before
Him. "Shall walk" may also be understood to mean from death to life, all
the time this mortality passes through, even to the end of this world. But
where God says, "Who will do all that is in mine heart and in my soul," we
mast not think that God has a soul, for He is the Author of souls; but this
is said of God tropically, not properly, just as He is said to have hands
and feet, and other corporal members. And, lest it should be supposed from
such language that man in the form of this flesh is made in the image of
God, wings also are ascribed to Him, which man has not at all; and it is
said to God, "Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings,"(1) that men may
understand that such things are said of that ineffable nature not in proper
but in figurative words.

   But what is added, "And it shall come to pass that he who is left in
thine house shall come to worship him," is not said properly of the house
of this Eli, but of that Aaron, the men of which remained even to the
advent of Jesus Christ, of which race there are not wanting men even to
this present. For of that house of Eli it had already been said above, "And
every one of thine house that is left shall fall by the sword of men." How,
therefore, could it be truly said here, "And it shall come to pass that
every one that is left shall come to worship him," if that is true, that no
one shall escape the avenging sword, unless he would have it understood of
those who belong to the race of that whole priesthood after the order of
Aaron? Therefore, if it is of these the predestinated remnant, about whom
another prophet has said, "The remnant shall be saved;"(1) whence the
apostle also says, "Even so then at this time also the remnant according to
the election of grace is saved;"(2)  since it is easily understood to be of
such a remnant that it is said, "He that is left in thine house," assuredly
he believes in Christ; just as in the time of the apostle very many of that
nation believed; nor are there now wanting those, although very few, who
yet believe, and in them is fulfilled what this man of God has here
immediately added, "He shall come to worship him with a piece of money;" to
worship whom, if not that Chief Priest, who is also God? For in that
priesthood after the order of Aaron men did not come to the temple or altar
of God for the purpose of worshipping the priest. But what is that he says,
"With a piece of money," if not the short word of faith, about which the
apostle quotes the saying, "A consummating and shortening word will the
Lord make upon the earth?"(3) But that money is put for the word the psalm
is a witness, where it is sung, "The words of the Lord are pure words,
money tried with the fire."(4)

   What then does he say who comes to worship the priest of God, even the
Priest who is God? "Put me into one part of Thy priesthood, to eat bread."
I do not wish to be set in the honor of my fathers, which is none; put me
in a part of Thy priesthood. For "I have chosen to be mean in Thine
house;"(5) I desire to be a member, no matter what, or how small, of Thy
priesthood. By the priesthood he here means the people itself, of which He
is the Priest who is the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus.(6) This people the Apostle Peter calls "a holy people, a royal
priesthood."(7) But some have translated, "Of Thy sacrifice," not "Of Thy
priesthood," which no less signifies the same Christian people. Whence the
Apostle Paul says, "We being many are one bread, one body."(8) [And again
he says, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice."(9)] What, therefore, he
has added, to "eat bread," also elegantly expresses the very kind of
sacrifice of which the Priest Himself says, "The bread which I will give is
my flesh for the life of the world." The same is the sacrifice not after
the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchisedec:(11) let him that
readeth understand.(12) Therefore this short and salutarily humble
confession, in which it is said, "Put me in a part of Thy priesthood, to
eat bread," is itself the piece of money, for it is both brief, and it is
the Word of God who dwells in the heart of one who believes. For because He
had said above, that He had given for food to Aaron's house the sacrificial
victims of the Old Testament, where He says, "I have given thy father's
house for food all things which are offered by fire of the children of
Israel," which indeed were the sacrifices of the Jews; therefore here He
has said, "To eat bread," which is in the New Testament the sacrifice of
the Christians.

CHAP. 6.--OF THE JEWISH PRIESTHOOD AND KINGDOM, WHICH, ALTHOUGH PROMISED TO
BE ESTABLISHED FOR EVER, DID NOT CONTINUE; SO THAT OTHER THINGS ARE TO BE
UNDERSTOOD TO WHICH ETERNITY IS ASSURED.

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

   In this way, too, the kingdom of Saul himself, who certainly was
reprobated and rejected, was the shadow of a kingdom yet to come which
should remain to eternity. For, indeed, the oil with which he was anointed,
and from that chrism he is called Christ, is to be taken in a mystical
sense, and is to be understood as a great mystery; which David himself
venerated so much in him, that he trembled with smitten heart when, being
hid in a dark cave, which Saul also entered when pressed by the necessity
of nature, he had come secretly behind him and cut off a small piece of his
robe, that he might be able to prove how he had spared him when he could
have killed him, and might thus remove from his mind the suspicion through
which he had vehemently persecuted the holy David, thinking him his enemy.
Therefore he was much afraid test he should be accused of violating so
great a mystery in Saul, because he had thus meddled even his clothes. For
thus it is written: "And David's heart smote him because he had taken away
the skirt of his cloak."(1) But to the men with him, who advised him to
destroy Saul thus delivered up into his hands, he saith, "The Lord forbid
that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's christ, to lay my hand
upon him, because he is the Lord's christ." Therefore he showed so great
reverence to this shadow of what was to come, not for its own sake, but for
the sake of what it prefigured. Whence also that which Samuel says to Saul,
"Since thou hast not kept my commandment which the Lord commanded thee,
whereas now the Lord would have prepared thy kingdom over Israel for ever,
yet now thy kingdom shall not continue for thee; and the Lord will seek Him
a man after His own heart, and the Lord will command him to be prince over
His people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded
thee,"(2) is not to be taken as if God had settled that Saul himself should
reign for ever, and afterwards, on his sinning, would not keep this
promise; nor was He ignorant that he would sin, but He had established his
kingdom that it might be a figure of the eternal kingdom. Therefore he
added, "Yet now thy kingdom shall not continue for thee." Therefore what it
signified has stood and shall stand; but it shall not stand for this man,
because he himself was not to reign for ever, nor his offspring; so that at
least that word "for ever" might seem to be fulfilled through his posterity
one to another. "And the Lord," he saith, "will seek Him a man," meaning
either David or the Mediator of the New Testament,(3) who was figured in
the chrism with which David also and his offspring was anointed. But it is
not as if He knew not where he was that God thus seeks Him a man, but,
speaking through a man, He speaks as a man, and in this sense seeks us. For
not only to God the Father, but also to His Only-begotten, who came to seek
what was lost,(4) we had been known already even so far as to be chosen in
Him before the foundation of the world.(5) "He will seek Him" therefore
means, He will have His own (just as if He had said, Whom He already has
known to be His own He will show to others to be His friend). Whence in
Latin this word (quaerit) receives a preposition and becomes acquirit
(acquires), the meaning of which is plain enough; although even Without the
addition of the preposition quaerete is understood as acquirere, whence
gains are called quaestus.

CHAP. 7.-- OF THE DISRUPTION OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL, BY WHICH THE
PERPETUAL DIVISION OF THE SPIRITUAL FROM THE CARNAL ISRAEL WAS PREFIGURED.

   Again Saul sinned through disobedience, and again Samuel says to him in
the word of the Lord, "Because thou hast despised the word of the Lord, the
Lord hath despised thee, that thou mayest not be king over Israel."(6) And
again for the same sin, when Saul confessed it, and prayed for pardon, and
besought Samuel to return with him to appease the Lord, he said, "I will
not return with thee: for thou hast despised the word of the Lord, and the
Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not be king over Israel. And Samuel
turned his face to go away, and Saul Laid hold upon the skirt of his
mantle, and rent it. And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the
kingdom from Israel out of thine hand this day, and will give it to thy
neighbor, who is good above thee, and will divide Israel in twain. And He
will not be changed, neither will He repent: for He is not as a man, that
He should repent; who threatens and does not persist."(7) He to whom it is
said, "The Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not be king over
Israel," and "The Lord hath rent the kingdom from Israel out of thine hand
this day," reigned forty years over Israel,--that is, just as long a time
as David himself,--yet heard this in the first period of his reign, that we
may understand it was said because none of hid race was to reign, and that
we may look to the race of David, whence also is sprung, according to the
flesh,(1) the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.(2)

   But the Scripture has not what is read in most Latin copies, "The Lord
hath rent the kingdom of Israel out of thine hand this day," but just as we
have set it down it is found in the Greek copies, "The Lord hath rent the
kingdom from Israel out of thine hand;" that the words "out of thine hand"
may be understood to mean "from Israel." Therefore this man figuratively
represented the people of Israel, which was to lose the kingdom, Christ
Jesus our Lord being about to reign, not carnally, but Spiritually. And
when it is said of Him, "And will give it to thy neighbor," that is to be
referred to the fleshly kinship, for Christ, according to the flesh, was of
Israel, whence also Saul sprang. But what is added, "Good above thee," may
indeed be understood, "Better than thee," and indeed some have thus
translated it; but it is better taken thus, "Good above thee," as meaning
that because He is good, therefore He must be above thee, according to that
other prophetic saying, "Till I put all Thine enemies under Thy feet."(3)
And among them is Israel, from whom, as His persecutor, Christ took away
the kingdom; although the Israel in whom there was no guile may have been
there too, a sort of grain, as it were, of that chaff. For certainly thence
came the apostles, thence so many martyrs, of whom Stephen is the first,
thence so many churches, which the Apostle Paul names, magnifying God in
their conversion.

   Of which thing I do not doubt what follows is to be understood, "And
will divide Israel in twain," to wit, into Israel pertaining to the bond
woman, and Israel pertaining to the free. For these two kinds were at first
together, as Abraham still clave to the bond woman, until the barren, made
fruitful by the grace of God, cried, "Cast out the bond woman and her
son."(4) We know, indeed, that on account of the sin of Solomon, in the
reign of his son Rehoboam, Israel was divided in two, and continued so, the
separate parts having their own kings, until that whole nation was
overthrown with a great destruction, and carried away by the Chaldeans. But
what was this to Saul, when, if any such thing was threatened, it would be
threatened against David himself, whose son Solomon was? Finally, the
Hebrew nation is not now divided internally, but is dispersed through the
earth indiscriminately, in the fellowship of the same error. But that
division with which God threatened the kingdom and people in the person of
Saul, who represented them, is shown to be eternal and unchangeable by this
which is added, "And He will not be changed, neither will He repent: for He
is not as a man, that He should repent; who threatens and does not
persist,"--that is, a man threatens and does not persist, but not God, who
does not repent like man. For when we read that He repents, a change of
circumstance is meant, flowing from the divine immutable foreknowledge.
Therefore, when God is said not to repent, it is to be understood that He
does not change.

   We see that this sentence concerning this division of the people of
Israel, divinely uttered in these words, has been altogether irremediable
and quite perpetual. For whoever have turned, or are turning, or shall turn
thence to Christ, it has been according to the foreknowledge of God, not
according to the one and the same nature of the human race. Certainly none
of the Israelites, who, cleaving to Christ, have continued in Him, shall
ever be among those Israelites who persist in being His enemies even to the
end of this life, but shall for ever remain in the separation which is here
foretold. For the Old Testament, from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to
bondage,(5) profiteth nothing, unless because it bears witness to the New
Testament. Otherwise, however long Moses is read, the veil is put over
their heart; but when any one shall turn thence to Christ, the veil shall
be taken away.(6) For the very desire of those who turn is changed from the
old to the new, so that each no longer desires to obtain carnal but
spiritual felicity. Wherefore that great, prophet Samuel himself, before he
had anointed Saul, when he had cried to the Lord for Israel, and He had
heard him, and when he had offered a whole burnt-offering, as the aliens
were coming to battle against the people of God, and the Lord thundered
above them and they were confused, and fell before Israel and were
overcome; [then] he took one stone and set it up between the old and new
Massephat [Mizpeh], and called its name Ebenezer, which means "the stone of
the helper," and said, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."(7) Massephat is
interpreted "desire." That stone of the helper is the mediation of the
Saviour, by which we go from the old Massephat to the new,--that is, from
the desire with which carnal happiness was expected in the carnal kingdom
to the desire with which the truest spiritual happiness is expected in the
kingdom of heaven; and since nothing is better than that, the Lord helpeth
us hitherto.

CHAP. 8.--OF THE PROMISES MADE TO DAVID IN HIS SON, WHICH ARE IN NO WISE
FULFILLED IN SOLOMON, BUT MOST FULLY IN CHRIST.

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

   He who thinks this grand promise was fulfilled in Solomon greatly errs;
for he attends to the saying, "He shall build me an house," but he does not
attend to the saying, "His house shall be faithful, and his kingdom for
evermore before me." Let him therefore attend and behold the house of
Solomon full of strange women worshipping false gods, and the king himself,
aforetime wise, seduced by them, and cast down into the same idolatry: and
let him not dare to think that God either promised this falsely, or was
unable to fore-know that Solomon and his house would become what they did.
But we ought not to be in doubt here, or to see the fulfillment of these
things save in Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh,(2) lest we should vainly and uselessly look for some other
here, like the carnal Jews. For even they understand this much, that the
son whom they read of in that place as promised to David was not Solomon;
so that, with wonderful blindness to Him who was promised and is now
declared with so great manifestation, they say they hope for another.
Indeed, even in Solomon there appeared some image of the future event, in
that he built the temple, and had peace according to his name (for Solomon
means "pacific"), and in the beginning of his reign was wonderfully
praiseworthy; but while, as a shadow of Him that should come, he foreshowed
Christ our Lord, he did not also in his own person resemble Him. Whence
some things concerning him are so written as if they were prophesied of
himself, while the Holy Scripture, prophesying even by events, somehow
delineates in him the figure of things to come. For, besides the books of
divine history, in which his reign is narrated, the 72d Psalm also is
inscribed in the title with his name, in which so many things are said
which cannot at all apply to him, but which apply to the Lord Christ with
such evident fitness as makes it quite apparent that in the one the figure
is in some way shadowed forth, but in the other the truth itself is
presented. For it is known within what bounds the kingdom of Solomon was
enclosed; and yet in that psalm, not to speak of other things, we read, "He
shall have dominion from sea even to sea, and from the river to the ends of
the earth,"(3) which we see fulfilled in Christ. Truly he took the
beginning of His reigning from the river where John baptized; for, when
pointed out by him, He began to be acknowledged by the disciples, who
called Him not only Master, but also Lord.

   Nor was it for any other reason that, while his father David was still
living, Solomon began to reign, which happened to none other of their
kings, except that from this also it might be clearly apparent that it was
not himself this prophecy spoken to his father signified beforehand,
saying, "And it shall come to pass when thy days be fulfilled, and thou
shall sleep with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed which shall
proceed out of thy bowels, and I will prepare His kingdom." How, therefore,
shall it be thought on account of what follows, "He shall build me an
house," that this Solomon is prophesied, and not rather be understood on
account of what precedes, "When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep
with thy fathers, I will raise up thy seed after thee," that another
pacific One is promised, who is foretold as about to be raised up, not
before David's death, as he was, but after it? For however long the
interval of time might be before Jesus Christ came, beyond doubt it was
after the death of king David, to whom He was so promised, that He behoved
to come, who should build an house of God, not of wood and stone, but of
men, such as we rejoice He does build. For to this house, that is, to
believers, the apostle saith, "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye
are."(1)

CHAP. 9.--HOW LIKE THE PROPHECY ABOUT CHRIST IN THE 89TH PSALM IS TO THE
THINGS PROMISED IN NATHAN'S PROPHECY IN THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL.

   Wherefore also in the 89th Psalm, of which the title is, "An
instruction for himself by Ethan the Israelite," mention is made of the
promises God made to king David, and some things are there added similar to
those found in the Book of Samuel, such as this, "I have sworn to David my
servant that I will prepare his seed for ever."(2)  And again, "Then thou
spakest in vision to thy sons, and saidst, I have laid help upon the mighty
One, and have exalted the chosen One out of my people. I have found David
my servant, and with my holy oil I have anointed him. For mine hand shall
help him, and mine arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not prevail
against him, and the son of iniquity shall harm him no more. And I will
beat down his foes from before his face, and those that hate him will I put
to flight. And my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name
shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his
right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God,
and the undertaker of my salvation. Also I will make him my first-born,
high among the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for
evermore, and my covenant shall be faithful (sure) with him. His seed also
will I set for ever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven."(3)
Which words, when rightly understood, are all understood to be about the
Lord Jesus Christ, under the name of David, on account of the form of a
servant, which the same Mediator assumed(4) from the virgin of the seed of
David.(5) For immediately something is said about the sins of his children,
such as is set down in the Book of Samuel, and is more readily taken as if
of Solomon. For there, that is, in the Book of Samuel, he says, "And if he
commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the
stripes of the sons of men; but my mercy will I not take away from him,"(6)
meaning by stripes the strokes of correction. Hence that saying, "Touch ye
not my christs."(7) For what else is that than, Do not harm them? But in
the psalm, when speaking as if of David, He says something of the same kind
there too. "If his children," saith He, "forsake my law, and walk not in my
judgments; if they profane my righteousnesses, and keep not my
commandments; I will visit their iniquities with the rod, and their faults
with stripes: but my mercy I will not make void from him."(8) a He did not
say "from them," although He spoke of his children, not of himself; but he
said "from him," which means the same thing if rightly understood. For of
Christ Himself, who is the head of the Church, there could not be found any
sins which required to be divinely restrained by human correction, mercy
being still continued; but they are found in His body and members, which is
His people. Therefore in the Book of Samuel it is said, "iniquity of Him,"
but in the psalm, "of His children," that we may understand that what is
said of His body is in some way said of Himself. Wherefore also, when Saul
persecuted His body, that is, His believing people, He Himself saith from
heaven, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"(9) Then in the following
words of the psalm He says, "Neither will I hurt in my truth, nor profane
my covenant, and the things that proceed from my lips I will not disallow.
Once have I sworn by my holiness, if I lie unto David,"(10)--that is, I
will in no wise lie unto David; for Scripture is wont to speak thus. But
what that is in which He will not lie, He adds, saying, "His seed shall
endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me, and as the moon
perfected for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven."(1)

CHAP. 1O.--HOW DIFFERENT THE ACTS IN THE KINGDOM OF THE EARTHLY JERUSALEM
ARE FROM THOSE WHICH GOD HAD PROMISED, SO THAT THE TRUTH OF THE PROMISE
SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD TO PERTAIN TO THE GLORY OF THE OTHER KING AND KINGDOM.

   That it might not be supposed that a promise so strongly expressed and
confirmed was fulfilled in Solomon, as if he hoped for, yet did not find
it, he says, "But Thou hast cast off, and hast brought to nothing, O
Lord."(2) This truly was done concerning the kingdom of Solomon among his
posterity, even to the overthrow of the earthly Jerusalem itself, which was
the seat of the kingdom, and especially the destruction of the very temple
which had been built by Solomon. But lest on this account God should be
thought to have done contrary to His promise, immediately he adds, "Thou
hast delayed Thy Christ."(3) Therefore he is not Solomon, nor yet David
himself, if the Christ of the Lord is delayed. For while all the kings are
called His christs, who were consecrated with that mystical chrism, not
only from king David downwards, but even from that Saul who first was
anointed king of that same people, David himself indeed calling him the
Lord's christ, yet there was one true Christ, whose figure they bore by the
prophetic unction, who, according to the opinion of men, who thought he was
to be understood as come in David or in Solomon, was long delayed, but who,
according as God had disposed, was to come in His own time. The following
part of this psalm goes on to say what in the meantime, while He was
delayed, was to become of the kingdom of the earthly Jerusalem, where it
was hoped He would certainly reign: "Thou hast overthrown the covenant of
Thy servant; Thou hast profaned in the earth his sanctuary. Thou hast
broken down all his walls; Thou hast put his strong-holds in fear. All that
pass by the way spoil him; he is made a reproach to his neighbors. Thou
hast set up the right hand of his enemies; Thou hast made all his enemies
to rejoice. Thou hast turned aside the help of his sword, and hast not
helped him in war. Thou hast destroyed him from cleansing; Thou hast dashed
down his seat to the ground. Thou hast shortened the days of his seat; Thou
hast poured confusion over him."(4) All these things came upon Jerusalem
the bond woman, in which some also reigned who were children of the free
woman, holding that kingdom in temporary stewardship, but holding the
kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose children they were, in true faith,
and hoping in the true Christ. But how these things came upon that kingdom,
the history of its affairs points out if it is read.

CHAP. 11.--OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD, WHICH THROUGH HIS
ASSUMPTION OF FLESH IS IN CHRIST, WHO ALONE HAD POWER TO DELIVER HIS OWN
SOUL FROM HELL.

   But after having prophesied these things, the prophet betakes him to
praying to God; yet even the very prayer is prophecy: "How long, Lord, dost
Thou turn away in the end?"(5) "Thy face" is understood, as it is elsewhere
said, "How long dost Thou turn away Thy face from me?"(6) For therefore
some copies have here not "dost," but "wilt Thou turn away;" although it
could be understood, "Thou turnest away Thy mercy, which Thou didst promise
to David." But when he says, "in the end," what does it mean, except even
to the end? By which end is to be understood the last time, when even that
nation is to believe in Christ Jesus, before which end what He has just
sorrowfully bewailed must come to pass. On account of which it is also
added here, "Thy wrath shall burn like fire. Remember what is my
substance."(7) This cannot be better understood than of Jesus Himself, the
substance of His people, of whose nature His flesh is. "For not in vain,"
he says, "hast Thou made all the sons of men."(8) For unless the one Son of
man had been the substance of Israel, through which Son of man many sons of
men should be set free, all the sons of men would have been made wholly in
vain. But now, indeed, all mankind through the fall of the first man has
fallen from the truth into vanity; for which reason another psalm says,
"Man is like to vanity: his days pass away as a shadow;"(9) yet God has not
made all the sons of men in vain, because He frees many from vanity through
the Mediator Jesus, and those whom He did not foreknow as to be delivered,
He made not wholly in vain in the most beautiful and most just ordination
of the whole rational creation, for the use of those who were to be
delivered, and for the comparison of the two cities by mutual contrast.
Thereafter it follows, "Who is the man that shall live, and shall not see
death? shall he snatch his soul from the hand of hell?"(1) Who is this but
that substance of Israel out of the seed of David, Christ Jesus, of whom
the apostle says, that "rising from the dead He now dieth not, and death
shall no more have dominion over Him?"(2) For He shall so live and not see
death, that yet He shall have been dead; but shall have delivered His soul
from the hand of hell, whither He had descended in order to loose some from
the chains of hell; but He hath delivered it by that power of which He says
in the Gospel, "I have the power of laying down my life, and I have the
power of taking it again."

CHAP. 12.--TO WHOSE PERSON THE ENTREATY FOR THE PROMISES IS TO BE
UNDERSTOOD TO BELONG, WHEN HE SAYS IN THE PSALM, "WHERE ARE THINE ANCIENT
COMPASSIONS, LORD?" ETC.

   But the rest of this psalm runs thus: "Where are Thine ancient
compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? Remember,
Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, which I have borne in my bosom of many
nations; wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they
have reproached the change of Thy Christ."(4) Now it may with very good
reason be asked whether this is spoken in the person of those Israelites
who desired that the promise made to David might be fulfilled to them; or
rather of the Christians, who are Israelites not after the flesh but after
the Spirit.(5) This certainly was spoken or written in the time of Ethan,
from whose name this psalm gets its title, and that was the same as the
time of David's reign; and therefore it would not have been said, "Where
are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou hast sworn unto David in
Thy truth?" unless the prophet had assumed the person of those who should
come long afterwards, to whom that time when these things were promised to
David was ancient. But it may be understood thus, that many nations, when
they persecuted the Christians, reproached them with the passion of Christ,
which Scripture calls His change, because by dying He is made immortal. The
change of Christ, according to this passage, may also be understood to be
reproached by the Israelites, because, when they hoped He would be theirs,
He was made the Saviour of the nations; and many nations who have believed
in Him by the New Testament now reproach them who remain in the old with
this: so that it is said, "Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants;"
because through the Lord's not forgetting, but rather pitying them, even
they after this reproach are to believe. But what I have put first seems to
me the most suitable meaning. For to the enemies of Christ who are
reproached with this, that Christ hath left them, turning to the
Gentiles,(6) this speech is incongruously assigned, "Remember, Lord, the
reproach of Thy servants," for such Jews are not to be styled the servants
of God; but these words fit those who, if they suffered great humiliations
through persecution for the name of Christ, could call to mind that an
exalted kingdom had been promised to the seed of David, and in desire of
it, could say not despairingly, but as asking, seeking, knocking,(7) "Where
are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy
truth? Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, that I have borne in
my bosom of many nations;" that is, have patiently endured in my inward
parts. "That Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have
reproached the change of Thy Christ," not thinking it a change, but a
consumption.(8) But what does "Remember, Lord," mean, but that Thou wouldst
have compassion, and wouldst for my patiently borne humiliation reward me
with the excellency which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? But if we
assign these words to the Jews, those servants of God who, on the conquest
of the earthly Jerusalem, before Jesus Christ was born after the manner of
men, were led into captivity, could say such things, understanding the
change of Christ, because indeed through Him was to be surely expected, not
an earthly and carnal felicity, such as appeared during the few years of
king Solomon, but a heavenly and spiritual felicity; and when the nations,
then ignorant of this through unbelief, exulted over and insulted the
people of God for being captives, what else was this than ignorantly to
reproach with the change of Christ those who understand the change of
Christ? And therefore what follows when this psalm is concluded, "Let the
blessing of the Lord be for evermore, amen, amen," is suitable enough for
the whole people of God belonging to the heavenly Jerusalem, whether for
those things that lay hid in the Old Testament before the New was revealed,
or for those that, being now revealed in the New Testament, are manifestly
discerned to belong to Christ. For the blessing of the Lord in the seed of
David does not belong to any particular time, such as appeared in the days
of Solomon, but is for evermore to be hoped for, in which most certain hope
it is said, "Amen, amen;" for this repetition of the word is the
confirmation of that hope. Therefore David understanding this, says in the
second Book of Kings, in the passage from which we digressed to this
psalm,(1) "Thou hast spoken also for Thy servant's house for a great while
to come."(2) Therefore also a little after he says, "Now begin, and bless
the house of Thy servant for evermore," etc., because the son was then
about to be born from whom his posterity should be continued to Christ,
through whom his house should be eternal, and should also be the house of
God. For it is called the house of David on account of David's race; but
the selfsame is called the house of God on account of the temple of God,
made of men, not of stones, where shall dwell for evermore the people with
and in their God, and God with and in His people, so that God may fill His
people, and the people be filled with their God, while God shall be all in
all, Himself their reward in peace who is their strength in war. Therefore,
when it is said in the words of Nathan, "And the Lord will tell thee what
an house thou shalt build for Him,"(3)  it is afterwards said in the words
of David, "For Thou, Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hast opened the ear of
Thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house."(4) For this house is
built both by us through living well, and by God through helping us to live
well; for "except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build
it."(5) And when the final dedication of this house shall take place, then
what God here says by Nathan shall be fulfilled, "And I will appoint a
place for my people Israel, and will plant him, and he shall dwell apart,
and shall be troubled no more; and the son of iniquity shall not humble him
any more, as from the beginning, from the days when I appointed judges over
my people Israel."(6)

CHAP. 13.--WHETHER THE TRUTH OF THIS PROMISED PEACE CAN BE ASCRIBED TO
THOSE TIMES PASSED AWAY UNDER SOLOMON.

   Whoever hopes for this so great good in this world, and in this earth,
his wisdom is but folly. Can any one think it was fulfilled in the peace of
Solomon's reign? Scripture certainly commends that peace with excellent
praise as a shadow of that which is to come. But this opinion is to be
vigilantly opposed, since after it is said, "And the son of iniquity shall
not humble him any more," it is immediately added, "as from the beginning,
from the days in which I appointed judges over my people Israel."(7) For
the judges were appointed over that people from the time when they received
the land of promise, before kings had begun to be there. And certainly the
son of iniquity, that is, the foreign enemy, humbled him through periods of
time in which we read that peace alternated with wars; and in that period
longer times of peace are found than Solomon had, who reigned forty years.
For under that judge who is called Ehud there were eighty years of
peace.(8) Be it far from us, therefore, that we should believe the times of
Solomon are predicted in this promise, much less indeed those of any other
king whatever. For none other of them reigned in such great peace as he;
nor did that nation ever at all hold that kingdom so as to have no anxiety
lest it should be subdued by enemies: for in the very great mutability of
human affairs such great security is never given to any people, that it
should not dread invasions hostile to this life. Therefore the place of
this promised peaceful and secure habitation is eternal, and of right
belongs eternally to Jerusalem the free mother, where the genuine people of
Israel shall be: for this name is interpreted "Seeing God;" in the desire
of which reward a pious life is to be led through faith in this miserable
pilgrimage.(9)

CHAP. 14.--OF DAVID'S CONCERN IN THE WRITING OF THE PSALMS.

   In the progress of the city of God through the ages, therefore, David
first reigned in the earthly Jerusalem as a shadow of that which was to
come. Now David was a man skilled in songs, who dearly loved musical
harmony, not with a vulgar delight, but with a believing disposition, and
by it served his God, who is the true God, by the mystical representation
of a great thing. For the rational and well-ordered concord of diverse
sounds in harmonious variety suggests the compact unity of the well-ordered
city. Then almost all his prophecy is in psalms, of which a hundred and
fifty are contained in what we call the Book of Psalms, of which some will
have it those only were made by David which are inscribed with his name.
But there are also some who think none of them were made by him except
those which are marked "Of David;" but those which have in the title "For
David" have been made by others who assumed his person. Which opinion is
refuted by the voice of the Saviour Himself in the Gospel, when He says
that David himself by the Spirit said Christ was his Lord; for the 110th
Psalm begins thus, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand,
until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."(1)  And truly that very psalm,
like many more, has in the title, not "of David," but "for David." But
those seem to me to hold the more credible opinion, who ascribe to him the
authorship of all these hundred and fifty psalms, and think that he
prefixed to some of them the names even of other men, who prefigured
something pertinent to the matter, but chose to have no man's name in the
titles of the rest, just as God inspired him in the management of this
variety, which, although dark, is not meaningless. Neither ought it to move
one not to believe this that the names of some prophets who lived long
after the times of king David are read in the inscriptions of certain
psalms in that book, and that the things said there seem to be spoken as it
were by them. Nor was the prophetic Spirit unable to reveal to king David,
when he prophesied, even these names of future prophets, so that he might
prophetically sing something which should suit their persons; just as it
was revealed to a certain prophet that king Josiah should arise and reign
after more than three hundred years, who predicted his future deeds also
along with his name.(2)

CHAP. 15.--WHETHER ALL THE THINGS PROPHESIED IN THE PSALMS CONCERNING
CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH SHOULD BE TAKEN UP IN THE TEXT OF THIS WORK.

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

CHAP. 16.--OF THE THINGS PERTAINING TO CHRIST AND THE CHURCH, SAID EITHER
OPENLY OR TROPICALLY IN THE 45TH PSALM.

   For whatever direct and manifest prophetic utterances there may be
about anything, it is necessary that those which are tropical should be
mingled with them; which, chiefly on account of those of slower
understanding, thrust upon the more learned the laborious task of clearing
up and expounding them. Some of them, indeed, on the very first blush, as
soon as they are spoken, exhibit Christ and the Church, although some
things in them that are less intelligible remain to be expounded at
leisure. We have an example of this in that same Book of Psalms: "My heart
bubbled up a good matter: I utter my words to the king. My tongue is the
pen of a scribe, writing swiftly. Thy form is beautiful beyond the sons of
men; grace is poured out in Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee for
evermore. Gird Thy sword about Thy thigh, O Most Mighty. With Thy
goodliness and Thy beauty go forward, proceed prosperously, and reign,
because of Thy truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and Thy right hand
shall lead Thee forth wonderfully. Thy sharp arrows are most powerful: in
the heart of the king's enemies. The people shall fall under Time. Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of direction is the rod of Thy
kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hast hated iniquity: therefore
God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of exultation above Thy
fellows. Myrrh and drops, and cassia from Thy vestments, from the houses of
ivory: out of which the daughters of kings have delighted Thee in Thine
honor."(3)  Who is there, no matter how slow, but must here recognize
Christ whom we preach, and in whom we believe, if he hears that He is God,
whose throne is for ever and ever, and that He is anointed by God, as God
indeed anoints, not with a visible, but with a spiritual and intelligible
chrism? For who is so untaught in this religion, or so deaf to its far and
wide spread fame, as not to know that Christ is named from this chrism,
that is, from this anointing? But when it is acknowledged that this King is
Christ, let each one who is already subject to Him who reigns because of
truth, meekness, and righteousness, inquire at his leisure into these other
things that are here said tropically: how His form is beautiful beyond the
sons of men, with a certain beauty that is the more to be loved and admired
the less it is corporeal; and what His sword, arrows, and other things of
that kind may be, which are set down, not properly, but tropically.

   Then let him look upon His Church, joined to her so great Husband in
spiritual marriage and divine love, of which it is said in these words
which follow, "The queen stood upon Thy right hand in gold-embroidered
vestments, girded about with variety. Hearken, O daughter, and look, and
incline thine ear; forget also thy people, and thy father's house. Because
the King hath greatly desired thy beauty; for He is the Lord thy God. And
the daughters of Tyre shall worship Him with gifts; the rich among the
people shall entreat Thy face. The daughter of the King has all her glory
within, in golden fringes, girded about with variety. The virgins shall be
brought after her to the King: her neighbors shall be brought to Thee. They
shall be brought with gladness and exultation: they shall be led into the
temple of the King. Instead of thy fathers, sons shall be born to thee:
thou shalt establish them as princes over all the earth. They shall be
mindful of thy name in every generation and descent. Therefore shall the
people acknowledge thee for evermore, even for ever and ever."(1) I do not
think any one is so stupid as to believe that some poor woman is here
praised and described, as the spouse, to wit, of Him to whom it is said,
"Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of direction is the rod of
Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity: therefore
God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of exultation above Thy
fellows;"(2) that is, plainly, Christ above Christians. For these are His
fellows, out of the unity and concord of whom in all nations that queen is
formed, as it is said of her in another psalm, "The city of the great
King."(3) The same is Sion spiritually, which name in Latin is interpreted
speculatio (discovery); for she descries the great good of the world to
come, because her attention is directed thither. In the same way she is
also Jerusalem spiritually, of which we have already said many things. Her
enemy is the city of the devil, Babylon, which is interpreted "confusion."
Yet out of this Babylon this queen is in all nations set free by
regeneration, and passes from the worst to the best King,--that is, from
the devil to Christ. Wherefore it is said to her, "Forget thy people and
thy father's house." Of this impious city those also are a portion who are
Israelites only in the flesh and not by faith, enemies also of this great
King Himself, and of His queen. For Christ, having come to them, and been
slain by them, has the more become the King of others, whom He did not see
in the flesh. Whence our King Himself says through the prophecy of a
certain psalm, "Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people;
Thou wilt make me head of the nations. A people whom I have not known hath
served me: in the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me."(4) Therefore this
people of the nations, which Christ did not know in His bodily presence,
yet has believed in that Christ as announced to it; so that it might be
said of it with good reason, "In the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me,"
for "faith is by hearing."(5)  This people, I say, added to those who are
the true Israelites both by the flesh and by faith, is the city of God,
which has brought forth Christ Himself according to the flesh, since He was
in these Israelites only. For thence came the Virgin Mary, in whom Christ
assumed flesh that He might be man. Of which city another psalm says,
"Mother Sion, shall a man say, and the man is made in her, and the Highest
Himself hath founded her."(6)  Who is this Highest, save God? And thus
Christ, who is God, before He became man through Mary in that city, Himself
rounded it by the patriarchs and prophets. As therefore was said by
prophecy so long before to this queen, the city of God, what we already can
see fulfilled, "Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee; thou shall
make them princes over all the earth;"(7) so out of her sons truly are set
up even her fathers [princes] through all the earth, when the people,
coming together to her, confess to her with the confession of eternal
praise for ever and ever. Beyond doubt, whatever interpretation is put on
what is here expressed somewhat darkly in figurative language, ought to be
in agreement with these most manifest things.

CHAP. 17.--OF THOSE THINGS IN THE 110TH PSALM WHICH RELATE TO THE
PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST, AND IN THE 22D TO HIS PASSION.

   Just as in that psalm also where Christ is most openly proclaimed as
Priest, even as He is here as King, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou
at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."(1) That Christ
sits on the right hand of God the Father is believed, not seen; that His
enemies also are put under His feet doth not yet appear; it is being done,
[therefore] it will appear at last: yea, this is now believed, afterward it
shall be seen. But what follows, "The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy
strength out of Sion, and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,"(2) is
so clear, that to deny it would imply not merely unbelief and mistake, but
downright impudence. And even enemies must certainly confess that out of
Sion has been sent the law of Christ which we call the gospel, and
acknowledge as the rod of His strength. But that He rules in the midst of
His enemies, these same enemies among whom He rules themselves bear
witness, gnashing their teeth and consuming away, and having power to do
nothing against Him. Then what he says a little after, "The Lord hath sworn
and will not repent,"(3) by which words He intimates that what He adds is
immutable, "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,"(4)
who is permitted to doubt of whom these things are said, seeing that now
there is nowhere a priesthood and sacrifice after the order of Aaron, and
everywhere men offer under Christ as the Priest, which Melchizedek showed
when he blessed Abraham? Therefore to these manifest things are to be
referred, when rightly understood, those things in the same psalm that are
set down a little more obscurely, and we have already made known in our
popular sermons how these things are to be rightly understood. So also in
that where Christ utters through prophecy the humiliation of His passion,
saying, "They pierced my hands and feet; they counted all my bones. Yea,
they looked and stared at me."(5) By which words he certainly meant His
body stretched out on the cross, with the hands and feet pierced and
perforated by the striking through of the nails, and that He had in that
way made Himself a spectacle to those who looked and stared. And he adds,
"They parted my garments among them, and over nay vesture they cast
lots."(6) How this prophecy has been fulfilled the Gospel history narrates.
Then, indeed, the other things also which are said there less openly are
rightly understood when they agree with those which shine with so great
clearness; especially because those things also which we do not believe as
past, but survey as present, are beheld by the whole world, being now
exhibited just as they are read of in this very psalm as predicted so long
before. For it is there said a little after, "All the ends of the earth
shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations
shall worship before Him; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule
the nations."

CHAP. 18.--OF THE 3D, 41ST, 15TH, AND 68TH PSALMS, IN WHICH THE DEATH AND
RESURRECTION OF THE LORD ARE PROPHESIED.

   About His resurrection also the oracles of the Psalms are by no means
silent. For what else is it that is sung in His person in the 3d Psalm, "I
laid me down and took a sleep, [and] I awaked, for the Lord shall sustain
me?"(7) Is there perchance any one so stupid as to believe that the prophet
chose to point it out to us as something great that He had i slept and
risen up, unless that sleep had been death, and that awaking the
resurrection, which behoved to be thus prophesied concerning Christ? For in
the 41st Psalm also it is shown much more clearly, where in the person of
the Mediator, in the usual way, things are narrated as if past which were
prophesied as yet to come, since these things which were yet to come were
in the predestination and foreknowledge of God as if they were done,
because they were certain. He says, "Mine enemies speak evil of me; When
shall he die, and his name perish? And if he came in to see me, his heart
spake vain things: he gathered iniquity to himself. He went out of doors,
and uttered it all at once. Against me all mine enemies whisper together:
against me do they devise evil They have planned an unjust thing against
me. Shall not he that sleeps also rise again?"(8) These words are certainly
so set down here that he may be understood to say nothing else than if he
said, Shall not He that died recover life again? The previous words clearly
show that His enemies have mediated and planned His death, and that this
was executed by him who came in to see, and went out to betray. But to whom
does not Judas here occur, who, from being His disciple, became His
betrayer? Therefore because they were about to do what they had plotted,--
that is, were about to kill Him,--he, to show them that with useless malice
they were about to kill Him who should rise again, so adds this verse, as
if he, said, What vain thing are you doing? What will be your crime will be
my sleep. "Shall not He that sleeps also rise again ?" And yet he indicates
in the following verses that they should not commit so great an impiety
with impunity, saying," Yea, the man of my peace m whom I trusted, who ate
my bread, hath enlarged the heel over me;"(1) that is, hath trampled me
under foot. "But Thou," he saith, "O Lord, he merciful unto me, and raise
me up, that I may requite them."(2) Who can now deny this who sees the
Jews, after the passion and resurrection of Christ, utterly rooted up from
their abodes by warlike slaughter and destruction? For, being slain by
them, He has risen again, and has requited them meanwhile by temporary
discipline, save that for those who are not corrected He keeps it in store
for the time when He shall judge the quick and the dead.(3) For the Lord
Jesus Himself, in pointing out that very man to the apostles as His
betrayer, quoted this very verse of this psalm, and said it was fulfilled
in Himself: "He that ate my bread enlarged the heel over me." But what he
says, "In whom I trusted," does not suit the head but the body. For the
Saviour Himself was not ignorant of him concerning whom He had already said
before, "One of you is a devil."(4) But He is wont to assume the person of
His members, and to ascribe to Himself what should be said of them, because
the head and the body is one Christ;(5) whence that saying in the Gospel,
"I was an hungered, and ye gave me to eat."(6) Expounding which, He says,
"Since ye did it to one of the least of mine, ye did it to me."(7)
Therefore He said that He had trusted, because his disciples then had
trusted concerning Judas; for he was numbered with the apostles.(8)

   But the Jews do not expect that the Christ whom they expect will die;
therefore they do not think ours to be Him whom the law and the prophets
announced, but feign to themselves I know not whom of their own, exempt
from the suffering of death. Therefore, with wonderful emptiness and
blindness, they contend that the words we have set down signify, not death
and resurrection, but sleep and awaking again. But the 16th Psalm also
cries to them, "Therefore my heart is jocund, and my tongue hath exulted;
moreover, my flesh also shall rest in hope: for Thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell; neither wilt Thou give Thine Holy One to see corruption."(9) Who
but He that rose again the third day could say his flesh had rested in this
hope; that His soul, not being left in hell, but speedily returning to it,
should revive it, that it should not be corrupted as corpses are wont to
be, which they can in no wise say of David the prophet and king? The 68th
Psalm also cries out, "Our God is the God of Salvation: even of the Lord
the exit was by death."(10) What could be more openly said? For the God of
salvation is the Lord Jesus, which is interpreted Saviour, or Healing One.
For this reason this name was given, when it was said before He was born of
the virgin: "Thou shall bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus;
for He shall save His people from their sins."(11) Because His blood was
shed for the remission of their sins, it behoved Him to have no other exit
from this life than death. Therefore, when it had been said, "Our God is
the God of salvation," immediately it was added, "Even of the Lord the exit
was by death," in order to show that we were to be saved by His dying. But
that saying is marvellous, "Even of the Lord," as if it was said, Such is
that life of mortals, that not even the Lord Himself could go out of it
otherwise save through death.

CHAP. 19.--OF THE 69TH PSALM, IN WHICH THE OBSTINATE UNBELIEF OF THE JEWS
IS DECLARED.

   But when the Jews will not in the least yield to the testimonies of
this prophecy, which are so manifest, and are also brought by events to so
clear and certain a completion, certainly that is fulfilled in them which
is written in that psalm which here follows. For when the things which
pertain to His passion are prophetically spoken there also in the person of
Christ, that is mentioned which is unfolded in the Gospel: "They gave me
gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar for drink."(12) And
as it were after such a feast and dainties in this way given to Himself,
presently He brings in [these words]: "Let their table become a trap before
them, and a retribution, and an offence: let their eyes be dimmed that they
see not, and their back be always bowed down,"(13) etc. Which things are
not spoken as wished for, but are predicted under the prophetic form of
wishing. What wonder, then, if those whose eyes are dimmed that they see
not do not see these manifest things? What wonder if those do not look up
at heavenly things whose back is always bowed down that they may grovel
among earthly things? For these words transferred from the body signify
mental faults. Let, these things which have been said about the Psalms,
that is, about king David's prophecy, suffice, that we may keep within some
bound. But let those readers excuse us who knew them all before; and let
them not complain about those perhaps stronger proofs which they know or
think I have passed by.

CHAP. 20.--OF DAVID'S REIGN AND MERIT; AND OF HIS SON SOLOMON, AND THAT
PROPHECY RELATING TO CHRIST WHICH IS FOUND EITHER IN THOSE BOOKS WHICH ARE
JOINED TO THOSE WRITTEN BY HIM, OR IN THOSE WHICH ARE INDUBITABLY HIS.

   David therefore reigned in the earthly Jerusalem, a son of the heavenly
Jerusalem, much praised by the divine testimony; for even his faults are
overcome by great piety, through the most salutary humility of his
repentance, that he is altogether one of those of whom he himself says,
"Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are
covered."(1) After him Solomon his son reigned over the same whole people,
who, as was said before, began to reign while his father was still alive.
This man, after good beginnings, made a bad end. For indeed "prosperity,
which wears out the minds of the wise,"(2) hurt him more than that wisdom
profiled him, which even yet is and shall hereafter be renowned, and was
then praised far and wide. He also is found to have prophesied in his
hooks, of which three are received as of canonical authority, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. But it has been customary to ascribe
to Solomon other two, of which one is called Wisdom, the other
Ecclesiasticus, on account of some resemblance of style,--but the more
learned have no doubt that they are not his; yet of old the Church,
especially the Western, received them into authority,--in the one of which,
called the Wisdom of Solomon, the passion of Christ is most openly
prophesied. For indeed His impious murderers are quoted as saying, "Let us
lie in wait for the righteous, for he is unpleasant to us, and contrary to
our works; and he upbraideth us with our transgressions of the law, and
objecteth to our disgrace the transgressions of our education. He
professeth to have the knowledge of God, and he calleth himself the Son of
God. He was made to reprove our thoughts. He is grievous for as even to
behold; for his life is unlike other men's and his ways are different. We
are esteemed of him as counterfeits; and he abstaineth from our ways as
from filthiness. He extols the latter end of the righteous; and glorieth
that he hath God for his Father. Let us see, therefore, if his words be
true; and let us try what shall happen to him, and we shall know what shall
be the end of him. For if the righteous be the Son of God, He will
undertake for him, and deliver him out of the hand of those that are
against him. Let us put him to the question with contumely and torture,
that we may know his reverence, and prove his patience. Let us condemn him
to the most shameful death; for by His own sayings He shall be respected.
These things did they imagine, and were mistaken; for their own malice hath
quite blinded them."(3) But in Ecclesiasticus the future faith of the
nations is predicted in this manner: "Have mercy Upon us, O God, Ruler of
all, and send Thy fear upon all the nations: lift up Thine hand over the
strange nations, and let them see Thy power. As Thou wast sanctified in us
before them, so be Thou sanctified in them before us, and let them
acknowledge Thee, according as we also have acknowledged Thee; for there is
not a God beside Thee, O Lord."(4) We see this prophecy in the form of a
wish and prayer fulfilled through Jesus Christ.  But the things which are
not written in the canon of the Jews cannot be quoted against their
contradictions with so great validity.

   But as regards those three books which it is evident are Solomon's and
held canonical by the Jews, to show what of this kind may be found in them
pertaining to Christ and the Church demands a laborious discussion, which,
if now entered on, would lengthen this work unduly. Yet what we read in the
Proverbs of impious men saying, "Let us unrighteously hide in the earth the
righteous man; yea, let us swallow him up alive as hell, and let us take
away his memory from the earth: let us seize his precious possession,"(5)
is not so obscure that it may not be understood, without laborious
exposition, of Christ and His possession the Church. Indeed, the gospel
parable about the wicked husbandmen shows that our Lord Jesus Himself said
something like it: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the
inheritance shall be ours."(6) In like manner also that passage in this
same book, on which we have already touched when we were speaking of the
barren woman who hath born seven, must soon after it was tittered have come
to be understood of only Christ and the Church by those who knew that
Christ was the Wisdom of God. "Wisdom hath builded her an house, and hath
set up seven pillars; she hath sacrificed her victims, she hath mingled her
wine in the bowl; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent her
servants summoning to the bowl with excellent proclamation, saying, Who is
simple, let him turn aside to me. And to the void of sense she hath said,
Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for
you."(2) Here certainly we perceive that the Wisdom of God, that is, the
Word co-eternal with the Father, hath builded Him an house, even a human
body in the virgin womb, and hath subjoined the Church to it as members to
a head, hath slain the martyrs as victims, hath furnished a table with wine
and bread, where appears also the priesthood after the order of
Melchizedek, and hath called the simple and the void of sense, because, as
saith the apostle, "He hath chosen the weak things of this world that He
might confound the things which are mighty."(3) Yet to these weak ones she
saith what follows, "Forsake simplicity, that ye may live; and seek
prudence, that ye may have life."(4) But to be made partakers of this table
is itself to begin to have life. For when he says in another book, which is
called Ecclesiastes, "There is no good for a man, except that he should eat
and drink,"(5) what can he be more  credibly understood to say, than what
belongs to the participation of this table which the Mediator of the New
Testament Himself, the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes
with His own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all the
sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a shadow of that which
was to come; wherefore also we recognize the voice in the 40th Psalm as
that of the same Mediator speaking through prophesy," Sacrifice and
offering Thou didst not desire; but a body hast Thou perfected for me."(6)
Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, His body is
offered, and is served up to the partakers of it. For that this
Ecclesiastes, in this sentence about eating and drinking, which he often
repeats, and very much commends, does not savor the dainties of carnal
pleasures, is made plain enough when he says, "It is better to go into the
house of mourning than to go into the house of feasting."(7) And a little
after He says, "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the
heart of the simple in the house of feasting."(8) But I think that more
worthy of quotation from this book which relates to both cities, the one of
the devil, the other of Christ, and to their kings, the devil and Christ:
"Woe to thee, O land," he says, "when thy king is a youth, and thy princes
eat in the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of
nobles, and thy princes eat in season, in fortitude, and not in
confusion!"(9) He has called the devil a youth, because of the folly and
pride, and rashness and unruliness, and other vices which are wont to
abound at that age; but Christ is the Son of nobles, that is, of the holy
patriarchs, of those belonging to the free city, of whom He was begotten in
the flesh. The princes of that and other cities are eaters in the morning,
that is, before the suitable hour, because they do not expect the
seasonable felicity, which is the true, in tile world to come, desiring to
be speedily made happy with the renown of this world; but the princes of
the city of Christ patiently wait for the time of a blessedness that is not
fallacious. This is expressed by the words, "in fortitude, and not in
confusion," because hope does not deceive them; of which the apostle says,
"But hope maketh not ashamed."(10) A psalm also saith, "For they that hope
in Thee shall not be put to shame."(11) But now the Song of Songs is a
certain spiritual pleasure of holy minds, in the marriage of that King and
Queen-city, that is, Christ and the Church. But this pleasure is wrapped up
in allegorical veils, that the Bridegroom may be more ardently desired, and
more joyfully unveiled, and may appear; to whom it is said in this same
song, "Equity hath delighted Thee;(12) and the bride who there hears,
"Charity is in thy delights."(13) We pass over many things in silence, in
our desire to finish this work.

CHAP. 21.--OF THE KINGS AFTER SOLOMON, BOTH IN JUDAH AND ISRAEL.

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

CHAP. 22.--OF JEROBOAM, WHO PROFANED THE PEOPLE PUT UNDER HIM BY THE
IMPIETY OF IDOLATRY, AMID WHICH, HOWEVER, GOD DID NOT CEASE TO INSPIRE THE
PROPHETS, AND TO GUARD MANY FROM THE CRIME OF IDOLATRY.

   But Jeroboam king of Israel, with perverse mind, not believing in God,
whom he had proved true in promising and giving him the kingdom, was afraid
lest, by coming to the temple of God which was in Jerusalem, where,
according to the divine law, that whole nation was to come in order to
sacrifice, the people should be seduced from him, and return to David's
line as the seed royal; and set up idolatry in his kingdom, and with
horrible impiety beguiled the people, ensnaring them to the worship of
idols with himself. Yet God did not altogether cease to reprove by the
prophets, not only that king, but also his successors and imitators in his
impiety, and the people too. For there the great and illustrious prophet
Elijah and Elisha his disciple arose, who also did many wonderful works.
Even there, when Elijah said, "O Lord, they have slain Thy prophets, they
have digged down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life,"
it was answered that seven thousand men were there who had not bowed the
knee to Baal.(1)

CHAP. 23.--OF THE VARYING CONDITION OF BOTH THE HEBREW KINGDOMS, UNTIL THE
PEOPLE OF BOTH WERE AT DIFFERENT TIMES LED INTO CAPTIVITY, JUDAH BEING
AFTERWARDS RECALLED INTO HIS KINGDOM, WHICH FINALLY PASSED INTO THE POWER
OF THE ROMANS.

   So also in the kingdom of Judah pertaining to Jerusalem prophets were
not lacking even in the times of succeeding kings, just as it pleased God
to send them, either for the prediction of what was needful, or for
correction of sin and instruction in righteousness;(2) for there, too,
although far less than in Israel, kings arose who grievously offended God
by their impieties, and, along with their people, who were like them, were
smitten with moderate scourges. The no small merits of the pious kings
there are praised indeed. But we read that in Israel the kings were, some
more, others less, yet all wicked. Each part, therefore, as the divine
providence either ordered or permitted, was both lifted up by prosperity
and weighed down by adversity of various kinds; and it was afflicted not
Only by foreign, but also by civil wars with each other, in order that by
certain existing causes the mercy or anger of God might be manifested;
until, by His growing indignation, that whole nation was by the conquering
Chaldeans not only overthrown in its abode, but also for the most part
transported to the lands of the Assyrians,--first, that part of the
thirteen tribes called Israel, but afterwards Judah also, when Jerusalem
and that most noble temple was cast down,--in which lands it rested seventy
years in captivity. Being after that time sent forth thence, they rebuilt
the overthrown temple. And although very many stayed in the lands of the
strangers, yet the kingdom no longer had two separate parts, with different
kings over each, but in Jerusalem there was one prince over them; and at
certain times, from every direction wherever they were, and from whatever
place they could, they all came to the temple of God which was there. Yet
not even then were they without foreign enemies and conquerors; yea, Christ
found them tributaries of the Romans.

CHAP. 24.--OF THE PROPHETS, WHO EITHER WERE THE LAST AMONG THE JEWS, OR
WHOM THE GOSPEL HISTORY REPORTS ABOUT THE TIME OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY.

   But in that whole time after they returned from Babylon, after Malachi,
Haggai, and Zechariah, who then prophesied, and Ezra, they had no prophets
down to the time of the Saviour's advent except another Zechariah, the
father of John, and Elisabeth his wife, when the nativity of Christ was
already close at hand; and when He was already born, Simeon the aged, and
Anna a widow, and now very old; and, last of all, John himself, who, being
a young man, did not predict that Christ, now a young man, was to come, but
by prophetic knowledge pointed Him out although unknown; for which reason
the Lord Himself says, "The law and the prophets were until John."(1) But
the prophesying of these five is made known to us in the gospel, where the
virgin mother of our Lord herself is also found to have prophesied before
John. But this prophecy of theirs the wicked Jews do not receive; but those
innumerable persons received it who from them believed the gospel. For then
truly Israel was divided in two, by that division which was foretold by
Samuel the prophet to king Saul as immutable. But even the reprobate Jews
hold Malachi, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra as the last received into
canonical authority. For there are also writings of these, as of others,
who being but a very few in the great multitude of prophets, have written
those books which have obtained canonical authority, of whose predictions
it seems good to me to put in this work some which pertain to Christ and
His Church; and this, by the Lord's help, shall be done more conveniently
in the following book, that we may not further burden this one, which is
already too long.


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF I/II, Schaff). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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