reprobated and rejected, was the shadow of a kingdom yet to come which
should remain to eternity. For, indeed, the oil with which he was
anointed, and from that chrism he is called Christ, is to be taken in a
mystical sense, and is to be understood as a great mystery; which David
himself venerated so much in him, that he trembled with smitten heart
when, being hid in a dark cave, which Saul also entered when pressed
by the necessity of nature, he had come secretly behind him and cut
off a small piece of his robe, that he might be able to prove how he
had spared him when he could have killed him, and might thus remove
from his mind the suspicion through which he had vehemently persecuted
the holy David, thinking him his enemy. Therefore he was much afraid
lest he should be accused of violating so great a mystery in Saul,
because he had thus meddled even his clothes. For thus it is written:
"And David's heart smote him because he had taken away the skirt of
his cloak."[391] But to the men with him, who advised him to destroy
Saul thus delivered up into his hands, he saith, "The Lord forbid that
I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's christ, to lay my hand
upon him, because he is the Lord's christ." Therefore he showed so
great reverence to this shadow of what was to come, not for its own
sake, but for the sake of what it prefigured. Whence also that which
Samuel says to Saul, "Since thou hast not kept my commandment which
the Lord commanded thee, whereas now the Lord would have prepared thy
kingdom over Israel for ever, yet now thy kingdom shall not continue
for thee; and the Lord will seek Him a man after His own heart, and
the Lord will command him to be prince over His people, because thou
hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee,"[392] is not to be
taken as if God had settled that Saul himself should reign for ever,
and afterwards, on his sinning, would not keep this promise; nor was He
ignorant that he would sin, but He had established his kingdom that it
might be a figure of the eternal kingdom. Therefore he added, "Yet now
thy kingdom shall not continue _for thee_." Therefore what it signified
has stood and shall stand; but it shall not stand for this man, because
he himself was not to reign for ever, nor his offspring; so that at
least that word "for ever" might seem to be fulfilled through his
posterity one to another. "And the Lord," he saith, "will seek Him a
man," meaning either David or the Mediator of the New Testament,[393]
who was figured in the chrism with which David also and his offspring
was anointed. But it is not as if He knew not where he was that God
thus seeks Him a man, but, speaking through a man, He speaks as a man,
and in this sense seeks us. For not only to God the Father, but also
to His Only-begotten, who came to seek what was lost,[394] we had been
known already even so far as to be chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world.[395] "He will seek him" therefore means, He will have His
own (just as if He had said, Whom He already has known to be His own
He will show to others to be His friend). Whence in Latin this word
(_quærit_) receives a preposition and becomes _acquirit_ (acquires),
the meaning of which is plain enough; although even without the
addition of the preposition _quærere_ is understood as _acquirere_,
whence gains are called _quæstus_.
7. _Of the disruption of the kingdom of Israel, by which the
perpetual division of the spiritual from the carnal Israel was
prefigured._
Again Saul sinned through disobedience, and again Samuel says to him
in the word of the Lord, "Because thou hast despised the word of the
Lord, the Lord hath despised thee, that thou mayest not be king over
Israel."[396] And again for the same sin, when Saul confessed it, and
prayed for pardon, and besought Samuel to return with him to appease
the Lord, he said, "I will not return with thee: for thou hast
despised the word of the Lord, and the Lord will despise thee that
thou mayest not be king over Israel. And Samuel turned his face to go
away, and Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and rent it.
And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom from Israel
out of thine hand this day, and will give it to thy neighbour, who
is good above thee, and will divide Israel in twain. And He will not
be changed, neither will He repent: for He is not as a man, that He
should repent; who threatens and does not persist."[397] He to whom
it is said, "The Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not be king
over Israel," and "The Lord hath rent the kingdom from Israel out of
thine hand this day," reigned forty years over Israel,--that is, just
as long a time as David himself,--yet heard this in the first period
of his reign, that we may understand it was said because none of his
race was to reign, and that we may look to the race of David, whence
also is sprung, according to the flesh,[398] the Mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus.[399]
But the Scripture has not what is read in most Latin copies, "The Lord
hath rent the kingdom of Israel out of thine hand this day," but just
as we have set it down it is found in the Greek copies, "The Lord hath
rent the kingdom from Israel out of thine hand;" that the words "out
of thine hand" may be understood to mean "from Israel." Therefore this
man figuratively represented the people of Israel, which was to lose
the kingdom, Christ Jesus our Lord being about to reign, not carnally,
but spiritually. And when it is said of Him, "And will give it to thy
neighbour," that is to be referred to the fleshly kinship, for Christ,
according to the flesh, was of Israel, whence also Saul sprang. But
what is added, "Good above thee," may indeed be understood, "Better
than thee," and indeed some have thus translated it; but it is better
taken thus, "Good above thee," as meaning that because He is good,
therefore He must be above thee, according to that other prophetic
saying, "Till I put all Thine enemies under Thy feet."[400] And among
them is Israel, from whom, as His persecutor, Christ took away the
kingdom; although the Israel in whom there was no guile may have been
there too, a sort of grain, as it were, of that chaff. For certainly
thence came the apostles, thence so many martyrs, of whom Stephen,
is the first, thence so many churches, which the Apostle Paul names,
magnifying God in their conversion.
Of which thing I do not doubt what follows is to be understood, "And
will divide Israel in twain," to wit, into Israel pertaining to the
bond woman, and Israel pertaining to the free. For these two kinds were
at first together, as Abraham still clave to the bond woman, until the
barren, made, fruitful by the grace of God, cried, "Cast out the bond
woman and her son."[401] We know, indeed, that on account of the sin of
Solomon, in the reign of his son Rehoboam Israel was divided in two,
and continued so, the separate parts having their own kings, until that
whole nation was overthrown with a great destruction, and carried away
by the Chaldeans. But what was this to Saul, when, if any such thing
was threatened, it would be threatened against David himself, whose son
Solomon was? Finally, the Hebrew nation is not now divided internally,
but is dispersed through the earth indiscriminately, in the fellowship
of the same error. But that division with which God threatened the
kingdom and people in the person of Saul, who represented them, is
shown to be eternal and unchangeable by this which is added, "And He
will not be changed, neither will He repent: for He is not as a man,
that He should repent; who threatens and does not persist,"--that is, a
man threatens and does not persist, but not God, who does not repent
like man. For when we read that He repents, a change of circumstance
is meant, flowing from the divine immutable foreknowledge. Therefore,
when God is said not to repent, it is to be understood that He does not
change.
We see that this sentence concerning this division of the people
of Israel, divinely uttered in these words, has been altogether
irremediable and quite perpetual. For whoever have turned, or are
turning, or shall turn thence to Christ, it has been according to the
foreknowledge of God, not according to the one and the same nature of
the human race. Certainly none of the Israelites, who, cleaving to
Christ, have continued in Him, shall ever be among those Israelites
who persist in being His enemies even to the end of this life, but
shall for ever remain in the separation which is here foretold.
For the Old Testament, from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to
bondage,[402] profiteth nothing, unless because it bears witness to
the New Testament. Otherwise, however long Moses is read, the veil is
put over their heart; but when any one shall turn thence to Christ,
the veil shall be taken away.[403] For the very desire of those who
turn is changed from the old to the new, so that each no longer
desires to obtain carnal but spiritual felicity. Wherefore that great
prophet Samuel himself, before he had anointed Saul, when he had
cried to the Lord for Israel, and He had heard him, and when he had
offered a whole burnt-offering, as the aliens were coming to battle
against the people of God, and the Lord thundered above them and
they were confused, and fell before Israel and were overcome; [then]
he took one stone and set it up between the old and new Massephat
(Mizpeh), and called its name Ebenezer, which means "the stone of the
helper," and said, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."[404] Massephat
is interpreted "desire." That stone of the helper is the mediation of
the Saviour, by which we go from the old Massephat to the new,--that
is, from the desire with which carnal happiness was expected in
the carnal kingdom to the desire with which the truest spiritual
happiness is expected in the kingdom of heaven; and since nothing is
better than that, the Lord helpeth us hitherto.
8. _Of the promises made to David in his son, which are in no wise
fulfilled in Solomon, but most fully in Christ._
And now I see I must show what, pertaining to the matter I treat of,
God promised to David himself, who succeeded Saul in the kingdom,
whose change prefigured that final change on account of which all
things were divinely spoken, all things were committed to writing.
When many things had gone prosperously with king David, he thought to
make a house for God, even that temple of most excellent renown which
was afterwards built by king Solomon his son. While he was thinking
of this, the word of the Lord came to Nathan the prophet, which he
brought to the king, in which, after God had said that a house should
not be built unto Him by David himself, and that in all that long
time He had never commanded any of His people to build Him a house of
cedar, he says, "And now thus shalt thou say unto my servant David,
Thus saith God Almighty, I took thee from the sheep-cote that thou
mightest be for a ruler over my people in Israel: and I was with thee
whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies from
before thy face, and have made thee a name, according to the name of
the great ones who are over the earth. And I will appoint a place for
my people Israel, and will plant him, and he shall dwell apart, and
shall be troubled no more; and the son of wickedness shall not humble
him any more, as from the beginning, from the days when I appointed
judges over my people Israel. And I will give thee rest from all
thine enemies, and the Lord will tell [hath told] thee, because thou
shalt build an house for Him. And it shall come to pass when thy days
be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, that I will
raise up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels,
and I will prepare his kingdom. He shall build me an house for my
name; and I will order his throne even to eternity. I will be his
Father, and he shall be my son. And if he commit iniquity, I will
chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the sons of
men: but my mercy I will not take away from him, as I took it away
from those whom I put away from before my face. And his house shall
be faithful, and his kingdom even for evermore before me, and his
throne shall be set up even for evermore."[405]
He who thinks this grand promise was fulfilled in Solomon greatly errs;
for he attends to the saying, "He shall build me an house," but he
does not attend to the saying, "His house shall be faithful, and his
kingdom for evermore before me." Let him therefore attend and behold
the house of Solomon full of strange women worshipping false gods,
and the king himself, aforetime wise, seduced by them, and cast down
into the same idolatry: and let him not dare to think that God either
promised this falsely, or was unable to foreknow that Solomon and his
house would become what they did. But we ought not to be in doubt here,
or to see the fulfilment of these things save in Christ our Lord, who
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh,[406] lest we
should vainly and uselessly look for some other here, like the carnal
Jews. For even they understand this much, that the son whom they read
of in that place as promised to David was not Solomon; so that, with
wonderful blindness to Him who was promised and is now declared with
so great manifestation, they say they hope for another. Indeed, even
in Solomon there appeared some image of the future event, in that he
built the temple, and had peace according to his name (for Solomon
means "pacific"), and in the beginning of his reign was wonderfully
praiseworthy; but while, as a shadow of Him that should come, he
foreshowed Christ our Lord, he did not also in his own person resemble
Him. Whence some things concerning him are so written as if they were
prophesied of himself, while the Holy Scripture, prophesying even by
events, somehow delineates in him the figure of things to come. For,
besides the books of divine history, in which his reign is narrated,
the 72d Psalm also is inscribed in the title with his name, in which so
many things are said which cannot at all apply to him, but which apply
to the Lord Christ with such evident fitness as makes it quite apparent
that in the one the figure is in some way shadowed forth, but in the
other the truth itself is presented. For it is known within what bounds
the kingdom of Solomon was enclosed; and yet in that psalm, not to
speak of other things, we read, "He shall have dominion from sea even
to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth,"[407] which we see
fulfilled in Christ. Truly he took the beginning of His reigning from
the river where John baptized; for, when pointed out by him, He began
to be acknowledged by the disciples, who called Him not only Master,
but also Lord.
Nor was it for any other reason that, while his father David was
still living, Solomon began to reign, which happened to none other of
their kings, except that from this also it might be clearly apparent
that it was not himself this prophecy spoken to his father signified
beforehand, saying, "And it shall come to pass when thy days be
fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, that I will raise
up thy seed which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will prepare
His kingdom." How, therefore, shall it be thought on account of what
follows, "He shall build me an house," that this Solomon is prophesied,
and not rather be understood on account of what precedes, "When thy
days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will raise
up thy seed after thee," that another pacific One is promised, who is
foretold as about to be raised up, not before David's death, as he was,
but after it? For however long the interval of time might be before
Jesus Christ came, beyond doubt it was after the death of king David,
to whom He was so promised, that He behoved to come, who should build
an house of God, not of wood and stone, but of men, such as we rejoice
He does build. For to this house, that is, to believers, the apostle
saith, "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."[408]
9. _How like the prophecy about Christ in the_ 89_th Psalm is
to the things promised in Nathan's prophecy in the Books of
Samuel._
Wherefore also in the 89th Psalm, of which the title is, "An
instruction for himself by Ethan the Israelite," mention is made
of the promises God made to king David, and some things are there
added similar to those found in the Book of Samuel, such as this,
"I have sworn to David my servant that I will prepare his seed for
ever."[409] And again, "Then thou spakest in vision to thy sons, and
saidst, I have laid help upon the mighty One, and have exalted the
chosen One out of my people. I have found David my servant, and with
my holy oil I have anointed him. For mine hand shall help him, and
mine arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not prevail against
him, and the son of iniquity shall harm him no more. And I will beat
down his foes from before his face, and those that hate him will I
put to flight. And my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my
name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea,
and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my
Father, my God, and the undertaker of my salvation. Also I will make
him my first-born, high among the kings of the earth. My mercy will I
keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall be faithful (sure)
with him. His seed also will I set for ever and ever, and his throne
as the days of heaven."[410] Which words, when rightly understood,
are all understood to be about the Lord Jesus Christ, under the
name of David, on account of the form of a servant, which the same
Mediator assumed[411] from the virgin of the seed of David.[412] For
immediately something is said about the sins of his children, such
as is set down in the Book of Samuel, and is more readily taken as
if of Solomon. For there, that is, in the Book of Samuel, he says,
"And if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men,
and with the stripes of the sons of men; but my mercy will I not take
away from him,"[413] meaning by stripes the strokes of correction.
Hence that saying, "Touch ye not my christs."[414] For what else
is that than, Do not harm them? But in the psalm, when speaking as
if of David, He says something of the same kind there too. "If his
children," saith He, "forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
if they profane my righteousnesses, and keep not my commandments;
I will visit their iniquities with the rod, and their faults with
stripes: but my mercy I will not make void from him."[415] He did not
say "from them," although He spoke of his children, not of himself;
but he said "from him," which means the same thing if rightly
understood. For of Christ Himself, who is the head of the Church,
there could not be found any sins which required to be divinely
restrained by human correction, mercy being still continued; but they
are found in His body and members, which is His people. Therefore
in the Book of Samuel it is said, "iniquity of Him," but in the
psalm, "of His children," that we may understand that what is said
of His body is in some way said of Himself. Wherefore also, when
Saul persecuted His body, that is, His believing people, He Himself
saith from heaven, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"[416] Then
in the following words of the psalm He says, "Neither will I hurt in
my truth, nor profane my covenant, and the things that proceed from
my lips I will not disallow. Once have I sworn by my holiness, if I
lie unto David,"[417]--that is, I will in no wise lie unto David; for
Scripture is wont to speak thus. But what that is in which He will
not lie, He adds, saying, "His seed shall endure for ever, and his
throne as the sun before me, and as the moon perfected for ever, and
a faithful witness in heaven."[418]
10. _How different the acts in the kingdom of the earthly Jerusalem
are from those which God had promised, so that the truth of the
promise should be understood to pertain to the glory of the
other King and kingdom._
That it might not be supposed that a promise so strongly expressed
and confirmed was fulfilled in Solomon, as if he hoped for, yet did
not find it, he says, "But Thou hast cast off, and hast brought to
nothing, O Lord."[419] This truly was done concerning the kingdom
of Solomon among his posterity, even to the overthrow of the
earthly Jerusalem itself, which was the seat of the kingdom, and
especially the destruction of the very temple which had been built by
Solomon. But lest on this account God should be thought to have done
contrary to His promise, immediately he adds, "Thou hast delayed Thy
Christ."[420] Therefore he is not Solomon, nor yet David himself, if
the Christ of the Lord is delayed. For while all the kings are called
His christs, who were consecrated with that mystical chrism, not only
from king David downwards, but even from that Saul who first was
anointed king of that same people, David himself indeed calling him
the Lord's christ, yet there was one true Christ, whose figure they
bore by the prophetic unction, who, according to the opinion of men,
who thought he was to be understood as come in David or in Solomon,
was long delayed, but who, according as God had disposed, was to come
in His own time. The following part of this psalm goes on to say what
in the meantime, while He was delayed, was to become of the kingdom
of the earthly Jerusalem, where it was hoped He would certainly
reign: "Thou hast overthrown the covenant of Thy servant; Thou hast
profaned in the earth his sanctuary. Thou hast broken down all his
walls; Thou hast put his strongholds in fear. All that pass by the
way spoil him; he is made a reproach to his neighbours. Thou hast set
up the right hand of his enemies; Thou hast made all his enemies to
rejoice. Thou hast turned aside the help of his sword, and hast not
helped him in war. Thou hast destroyed him from cleansing; Thou hast
dashed down his seat to the ground. Thou hast shortened the days of
his seat; Thou hast poured confusion over him."[421] All these things
came upon Jerusalem the bond woman, in which some also reigned who
were children of the free woman, holding that kingdom in temporary
stewardship, but holding the kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose
children they were, in true faith, and hoping in the true Christ. But
how these things came upon that kingdom, the history of its affairs
points out if it is read.
11. _Of the substance of the people of God, which through His
assumption of flesh is in Christ, who alone had power to
deliver His own soul from hell._
But after having prophesied these things, the prophet betakes him
to praying to God; yet even the very prayer is prophecy: "How long,
Lord, dost Thou turn away in the end?"[422] "Thy face" is understood,
as it is elsewhere said, "How long dost Thou turn away Thy face from
me?"[423] For therefore some copies have here not "dost," but "wilt
Thou turn away;" although it could be understood, "Thou turnest
away Thy mercy, which Thou didst promise to David." But when he
says, "in the end," what does it mean, except even to the end? By
which end is to be understood the last time, when even that nation
is to believe in Christ Jesus, before which end what He has just
sorrowfully bewailed must come to pass. On account of which it is
also added here, "Thy wrath shall burn like fire. Remember what is
my substance."[424] This cannot be better understood than of Jesus
Himself, the substance of His people, of whose nature His flesh
is. "For not in vain," he says, "hast Thou made all the sons of
men."[425] For unless the one Son of man had been the substance of
Israel, through which Son of man many sons of men should be set free,
all the sons of men would have been made wholly in vain. But now
indeed all mankind through the fall of the first man has fallen from
the truth into vanity; for which reason another psalm says, "Man is
like to vanity: his days pass away as a shadow;"[426] yet God has not
made all the sons of men in vain, because He frees many from vanity
through the Mediator Jesus, and those whom He did not foreknow as to
be delivered, He made not wholly in vain in the most beautiful and
most just ordination of the whole rational creation, for the use of
those who were to be delivered, and for the comparison of the two
cities by mutual contrast. Thereafter it follows, "Who is the man
that shall live, and shall not see death? shall he snatch his soul
from the hand of hell?"[427] Who is this but that substance of Israel
out of the seed of David, Christ Jesus, of whom the apostle says,
that "rising from the dead He now dieth not, and death shall no more
have dominion over Him?"[428] For He shall so live and not see death,
that yet He shall have been dead; but shall have delivered His soul
from the hand of hell, whither He had descended in order to loose
some from the chains of hell; but He hath delivered it by that power
of which He says in the Gospel, "I have the power of laying down my
life, and I have the power of taking it again."[429]
12. _To whose person the entreaty for the promises is to be
understood to belong, when he says in the psalm, "Where are
Thine ancient compassions, Lord?" etc._
But the rest of this psalm runs thus: "Where are Thine ancient
compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth?
Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, which I have borne in
my bosom of many nations; wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O
Lord, wherewith they have reproached the change of Thy Christ."[430]
Now it may with very good reason be asked whether this is spoken in
the person of those Israelites who desired that the promise made to
David might be fulfilled to them; or rather of the Christians, who
are Israelites not after the flesh but after the Spirit.[431] This
certainly was spoken or written in the time of Ethan, from whose
name this psalm gets its title, and that was the same as the time of
David's reign; and therefore it would not have been said, "Where are
Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou hast sworn unto David
in Thy truth?" unless the prophet had assumed the person of those
who should come long afterwards, to whom that time when these things
were promised to David was ancient. But it may be understood thus,
that many nations, when they persecuted the Christians, reproached
them with the passion of Christ, which Scripture calls His change,
because by dying He is made immortal. The change of Christ, according
to this passage, may also be understood to be reproached by the
Israelites, because, when they hoped He would be theirs, He was made
the Saviour of the nations; and many nations who have believed in
Him by the New Testament now reproach them who remain in the old
with this: so that it is said, "Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy
servants;" because through the Lord's not forgetting, but rather
pitying them, even they after this reproach are to believe. But what
I have put first seems to me the most suitable meaning. For to the
enemies of Christ who are reproached with this, that Christ hath left
them, turning to the Gentiles,[432] this speech is incongruously
assigned, "Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants," for such
Jews are not to be styled the servants of God; but these words fit
those who, if they suffered great humiliations through persecution
for the name of Christ, could call to mind that an exalted kingdom
had been promised to the seed of David, and in desire of it, could
say not despairingly, but as asking, seeking, knocking,[433] "Where
are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David
in Thy truth? Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, that I
have borne in my bosom of many nations;" that is, have patiently
endured in my inward parts. "That Thine enemies have reproached,
O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the change of Thy Christ,"
not thinking it a change, but a consumption.[434] But what does
"Remember, Lord," mean, but that Thou wouldst have compassion,
and wouldst for my patiently borne humiliation reward me with the
excellency which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? But if we
assign these words to the Jews, those servants of God who, on the
conquest of the earthly Jerusalem, before Jesus Christ was born after
the manner of men, were led into captivity, could say such things,
understanding the change of Christ, because indeed through Him was
to be surely expected, not an earthly and carnal felicity, such as
appeared during the few years of king Solomon, but a heavenly and
spiritual felicity; and when the nations, then ignorant of this
through unbelief, exulted over and insulted the people of God for
being captives, what else was this than ignorantly to reproach with
the change of Christ those who understand the change of Christ?
And therefore what follows when this psalm is concluded, "Let the
blessing of the Lord be for evermore, amen, amen," is suitable enough
for the whole people of God belonging to the heavenly Jerusalem,
whether for those things that lay hid in the Old Testament before
the New was revealed, or for those that, being now revealed in the
New Testament, are manifestly discerned to belong to Christ. For the
blessing of the Lord in the seed of David does not belong to any
particular time, such as appeared in the days of Solomon, but is for
evermore to be hoped for, in which most certain hope it is said,
"Amen, amen;" for this repetition of the word is the confirmation of
that hope. Therefore David understanding this, says in the second
Book of Kings, in the passage from which we digressed to this
psalm,[435] "Thou hast spoken also for Thy servant's house for a
great while to come."[436] Therefore also a little after he says,
"Now begin, and bless the house of Thy servant for evermore," etc.,
because the son was then about to be born from whom his posterity
should be continued to Christ, through whom his house should be
eternal, and should also be the house of God. For it is called the
house of David on account of David's race; but the selfsame is called
the house of God on account of the temple of God, made of men, not
of stones, where shall dwell for evermore the people with and in
their God, and God with and in His people, so that God may fill His
people, and the people be filled with their God, while God shall be
all in all, Himself their reward in peace who is their strength in
war. Therefore, when it is said in the words of Nathan, "And the
Lord will tell thee what an house thou shalt build for Him,"[437] it
is afterwards said in the words of David, "For Thou, Lord Almighty,
God of Israel, hast opened the ear of Thy servant, saying, I will
build thee an house."[438] For this house is built both by us through
living well, and by God through helping us to live well; for "except
the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it."[439]
And when the final dedication of this house shall take place, then
what God here says by Nathan shall be fulfilled, "And I will appoint
a place for my people Israel, and will plant him, and he shall dwell
apart, and shall be troubled no more; and the son of iniquity shall
not humble him any more, as from the beginning, from the days when I
appointed judges over my people Israel."[440]
13. _Whether the truth of this promised peace can be ascribed to
those times passed away under Solomon._
Whoever hopes for this so great good in this world, and in this
earth, his wisdom is but folly. Can any one think it was fulfilled
in the peace of Solomon's reign? Scripture certainly commends that
peace with excellent praise as a shadow of that which is to come.
But this opinion is to be vigilantly opposed, since after it is
said, "And the son of iniquity shall not humble him any more," it is
immediately added, "as from the beginning, from the days in which I
appointed judges over my people Israel."[441] For the judges were
appointed over that people from the time when they received the land
of promise, before kings had begun to be there. And certainly the
son of iniquity, that is, the foreign enemy, humbled him through
periods of time in which we read that peace alternated with wars; and
in that period longer times of peace are found than Solomon had, who
reigned forty years. For under that judge who is called Ehud there
were eighty years of peace.[442] Be it far from us, therefore, that
we should believe the times of Solomon are predicted in this promise,
much less indeed those of any other king whatever. For none other
of them reigned in such great peace as he; nor did that nation ever
at all hold that kingdom so as to have no anxiety lest it should be
subdued by enemies: for in the very great mutability of human affairs
such great security is never given to any people, that it should not
dread invasions hostile to this life. Therefore the place of this
promised peaceful and secure habitation is eternal, and of right
belongs eternally to Jerusalem the free mother, where the genuine
people of Israel shall be: for this name is interpreted "Seeing God;"
in the desire of which reward a pious life is to be led through faith
in this miserable pilgrimage.[443]
14. _Of David's concern in the writing of the Psalms._
In the progress of the city of God through the ages, therefore, David
first reigned in the earthly Jerusalem as a shadow of that which
was to come. Now David was a man skilled in songs, who dearly loved
musical harmony, not with a vulgar delight, but with a believing
disposition, and by it served his God, who is the true God, by the
mystical representation of a great thing. For the rational and
well-ordered concord of diverse sounds in harmonious variety suggests
the compact unity of the well-ordered city. Then almost all his
prophecy is in psalms, of which a hundred and fifty are contained in
what we call the Book of Psalms, of which some will have it those
only were made by David which are inscribed with his name. But there
are also some who think none of them were made by him except those
which are marked "Of David;" but those which have in the title "For
David" have been made by others who assumed his person. Which opinion
is refuted by the voice of the Saviour Himself in the Gospel, when He
says that David himself by the Spirit said Christ was his Lord; for
the 110th Psalm begins thus, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou
at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."[444]
And truly that very psalm, like many more, has in the title, not
"of David," but "for David." But those seem to me to hold the more
credible opinion, who ascribe to him the authorship of all these
hundred and fifty psalms, and think that he prefixed to some of them
the names even of other men, who prefigured something pertinent to
the matter, but chose to have no man's name in the titles of the
rest, just as God inspired him in the management of this variety,
which, although dark, is not meaningless. Neither ought it to move
one not to believe this, that the names of some prophets who lived
long after the times of king David are read in the inscriptions of
certain psalms in that book, and that the things said there seem to
be spoken as it were by them. Nor was the prophetic Spirit unable to
reveal to king David, when he prophesied, even these names of future
prophets, so that he might prophetically sing something which should
suit their persons; just as it was revealed to a certain prophet that
king Josiah should arise and reign after more than three hundred
years, who predicted his future deeds also along with his name.[445]
15. _Whether all the things prophesied in the Psalms concerning
Christ and His Church should be taken up in the text of this work._
And now I see it may be expected of me that I shall open up in this
part of this book what David may have prophesied in the Psalms
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ or His Church. But although I
have already done so in one instance, I am prevented from doing as
that expectation seems to demand, rather by the abundance than the
scarcity of matter. For the necessity of shunning prolixity forbids
my setting down all things; yet I fear lest if I select some I shall
appear to many, who know these things, to have passed by the more
necessary. Besides, the proof that is adduced ought to be supported
by the context of the whole psalm, so that at least there may be
nothing against it if everything does not support it; lest we should
seem, after the fashion of the centos, to gather for the thing we
wish, as it were verses out of a grand poem, what shall be found
to have been written not about it, but about some other and widely
different thing. But ere this could be pointed out in each psalm, the
whole of it must be expounded; and how great a work that would be,
the volumes of others, as well as our own, in which we have done it,
show well enough. Let him then who will, or can, read these volumes,
and he will find out how many and great things David, at once king
and prophet, has prophesied concerning Christ and His Church, to wit,
concerning the King and the city which He has built.
16. _Of the things pertaining to Christ and the Church, said
either openly or tropically in the_ 45_th Psalm._
For whatever direct and manifest prophetic utterances there may be
about anything, it is necessary that those which are tropical should
be mingled with them; which, chiefly on account of those of slower
understanding, thrust upon the more learned the laborious task of
clearing up and expounding them. Some of them, indeed, on the very
first blush, as soon as they are spoken, exhibit Christ and the
Church, although some things in them that are less intelligible
remain to be expounded at leisure. We have an example of this in that
same Book of Psalms: "My heart bubbled up a good matter: I utter my
words to the king. My tongue is the pen of a scribe, writing swiftly.
Thy form is beautiful beyond the sons of men; grace is poured out
in Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee for evermore. Gird Thy
sword about Thy thigh, O Most Mighty. With Thy goodliness and Thy
beauty go forward, proceed prosperously, and reign, because of Thy
truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and Thy right hand shall
lead Thee forth wonderfully. Thy sharp arrows are most powerful. The
people shall fall under Thee: in the heart of the King's enemies.
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of direction is the
rod of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hast hated
iniquity: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil
of exultation above Thy fellows. Myrrh and drops, and cassia from
Thy vestments, from the houses of ivory: out of which the daughters
of kings have delighted Thee in Thine honour."[446] Who is there, no
matter how slow, but must here recognise Christ whom we preach, and
in whom we believe, if he hears that He is God, whose throne is for
ever and ever, and that He is anointed by God, as God indeed anoints,
not with a visible, but with a spiritual and intelligible chrism? For
who is so untaught in this religion, or so deaf to its far and wide
spread fame, as not to know that Christ is named from this chrism,
that is, from this anointing? But when it is acknowledged that this
King is Christ, let each one who is already subject to Him who reigns
because of truth, meekness, and righteousness, inquire at his leisure
into these other things that are here said tropically: how His form
is beautiful beyond the sons of men, with a certain beauty that is
the more to be loved and admired the less it is corporeal; and what
His sword, arrows, and other things of that kind may be, which are
set down, not properly, but tropically.
Then let him look upon His Church, joined to her so great Husband
in spiritual marriage and divine love, of which it is said in
these words which follow, "The queen stood upon Thy right hand in
gold-embroidered vestments, girded about with variety. Hearken, O
daughter, and look, and incline thine ear; forget also thy people,
and thy father's house. Because the King hath greatly desired thy
beauty; for He is the Lord thy God. And the daughters of Tyre shall
worship Him with gifts; the rich among the people shall entreat Thy
face. The daughter of the King has all her glory within, in golden
fringes, girded about with variety. The virgins shall be brought
after her to the King: her neighbours shall be brought to Thee.
They shall be brought with gladness and exultation: they shall be
led into the temple of the King. Instead of thy fathers, sons shall
be born to thee: thou shalt establish them as princes over all the
earth. They shall be mindful of thy name in every generation and
descent. Therefore shall the people acknowledge thee for evermore,
even for ever and ever."[447] I do not think any one is so stupid
as to believe that some poor woman is here praised and described,
as the spouse, to wit, of Him to whom it is said, "Thy throne, O
God, is for ever and ever: a rod of direction is the rod of Thy
kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity: therefore
God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of exultation above
Thy fellows;"[448] that is, plainly, Christ above Christians. For
these are His fellows, out of the unity and concord of whom in all
nations that queen is formed, as it is said of her in another psalm,
"The city of the great King."[449] The same is Sion spiritually,
which name in Latin is interpreted _speculatio_ (discovery); for
she descries the great good of the world to come, because her
attention is directed thither. In the same way she is also Jerusalem
spiritually, of which we have already said many things. Her enemy is
the city of the devil, Babylon, which is interpreted "confusion."
Yet out of this Babylon this queen is in all nations set free by
regeneration, and passes from the worst to the best King,--that is,
from the devil to Christ. Wherefore it is said to her, "Forget thy
people and thy father's house." Of this impious city those also are
a portion who are Israelites only in the flesh and not by faith,
enemies also of this great King Himself, and of His queen. For
Christ, having come to them, and been slain by them, has the more
become the King of others, whom He did not see in the flesh. Whence
our King Himself says through the prophecy of a certain psalm, "Thou
wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people; Thou wilt make
me head of the nations. A people whom I have not known hath served
me: in the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me."[450] Therefore
this people of the nations, which Christ did not know in His bodily
presence, yet has believed in that Christ as announced to it; so that
it might be said of it with good reason, "In the hearing of the ear
it hath obeyed me," for "faith is by hearing."[451] This people, I
say, added to those who are the true Israelites both by the flesh and
by faith, is the city of God, which has brought forth Christ Himself
according to the flesh, since He was in these Israelites only. For
thence came the Virgin Mary, in whom Christ assumed flesh that He
might be man. Of which city another psalm says, "Mother Sion, shall
a man say, and the man is made in her, and the Highest Himself hath
founded her."[452] Who is this Highest, save God? And thus Christ,
who is God, before He became man through Mary in that city, Himself
founded it by the patriarchs and prophets. As therefore was said
by prophecy so long before to this queen, the city of God, what we
already can see fulfilled, "Instead of thy fathers, sons are born
to thee; thou shalt make them princes over all the earth;"[453] so
out of her sons truly are set up even her fathers [princes] through
all the earth, when the people, coming together to her, confess to
her with the confession of eternal praise for ever and ever. Beyond
doubt, whatever interpretation is put on what is here expressed
somewhat darkly in figurative language, ought to be in agreement with
these most manifest things.
17. _Of those things in the_ 110_th Psalm which relate to
the priesthood of Christ, and in the_ 22_d to His passion._
Just as in that psalm also where Christ is most openly proclaimed
as Priest, even as He is here as King, "The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy
footstool."[454] That Christ sits on the right hand of God the Father
is believed, not seen; that His enemies also are put under His feet
doth not yet appear; it is being done, [therefore] it will appear
at last: yea, this is now believed, afterward it shall be seen. But
what follows, "The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out
of Sion, and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,"[455] is so
clear, that to deny it would imply not merely unbelief and mistake,
but downright impudence. And even enemies must certainly confess
that out of Sion has been sent the law of Christ which we call the
gospel, and acknowledge as the rod of His strength. But that He rules
in the midst of His enemies, these same enemies among whom He rules
themselves bear witness, gnashing their teeth and consuming away, and
having power to do nothing against Him. Then what he says a little
after, "The Lord hath sworn and will not repent,"[456] by which
words He intimates that what He adds is immutable, "Thou art a priest
for ever after the order of Melchizedek,"[457] who is permitted to
doubt of whom these things are said, seeing that now there is nowhere
a priesthood and sacrifice after the order of Aaron, and everywhere
men offer under Christ as the Priest, which Melchizedek showed when
he blessed Abraham? Therefore to these manifest things are to be
referred, when rightly understood, those things in the same psalm
that are set down a little more obscurely, and we have already made
known in our popular sermons how these things are to be rightly
understood. So also in that where Christ utters through prophecy the
humiliation of His passion, saying, "They pierced my hands and feet;
they counted all my bones. Yea, they looked and stared at me."[458]
By which words he certainly meant His body stretched out on the
cross, with the hands and feet pierced and perforated by the striking
through of the nails, and that He had in that way made Himself a
spectacle to those who looked and stared. And he adds, "They parted
my garments among them, and over my vesture they cast lots."[459]
How this prophecy has been fulfilled the Gospel history narrates.
Then, indeed, the other things also which are said there less openly
are rightly understood when they agree with those which shine with
so great clearness; especially because those things also which we do
not believe as past, but survey as present, are beheld by the whole
world, being now exhibited just as they are read of in this very
psalm as predicted so long before. For it is there said a little
after, "All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the
Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him;
for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule the nations."
18. _Of the_ 3_d_, 41_st_, 15_th_, _and_ 68_th Psalms, in which
the death and resurrection of the Lord are prophesied._
About His resurrection also the oracles of the Psalms are by no
means silent. For what else is it that is sung in His person in the
3d Psalm, "I laid me down and took a sleep, [and] I awaked, for
the Lord shall sustain me?"[460] Is there perchance any one so
stupid as to believe that the prophet chose to point it out to us as
something great that He had slept and risen up, unless that sleep
had been death, and that awaking the resurrection, which behoved to
be thus prophesied concerning Christ? For in the 41st Psalm also it
is shown much more clearly, where in the person of the Mediator, in
the usual way, things are narrated as if past which were prophesied
as yet to come, since these things which were yet to come were in
the predestination and foreknowledge of God as if they were done,
because they were certain. He says, "Mine enemies speak evil of me;
When shall he die, and his name perish? And if he came in to see
me, his heart spake vain things: he gathered iniquity to himself.
He went out of doors, and uttered it all at once. Against me all
mine enemies whisper together: against me do they devise evil. They
have planned an unjust thing against me. Shall not he that sleeps
also rise again?"[461] These words are certainly so set down here
that he may be understood to say nothing else than if he said, Shall
not He that died recover life again? The previous words clearly
show that His enemies have meditated and planned His death, and
that this was executed by him who came in to see, and went out to
betray. But to whom does not Judas here occur, who, from being His
disciple, became His betrayer? Therefore because they were about to
do what they had plotted,--that is, were about to kill Him,--he,
to show them that with useless malice they were about to kill Him
who should rise again, so adds this verse, as if he said, What vain
thing are you doing? What will be your crime will be my sleep. "Shall
not He that sleeps also rise again?" And yet he indicates in the
following verses that they should not commit so great an impiety with
impunity, saying, "Yea, the man of my peace in whom I trusted, who
ate my bread, hath enlarged the heel over me;"[462] that is, hath
trampled me under foot. "But Thou," he saith, "O Lord, be merciful
unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them."[463] Who can
now deny this who sees the Jews, after the passion and resurrection
of Christ, utterly rooted up from their abodes by warlike slaughter
and destruction? For, being slain by them, He has risen again, and
has requited them meanwhile by temporary discipline, save that for
those who are not corrected He keeps it in store for the time when He
shall judge the quick and the dead.[464] For the Lord Jesus Himself,
in pointing out that very man to the apostles as His betrayer,
quoted this very verse of this psalm, and said it was fulfilled in
Himself: "He that ate my bread enlarged the heel over me." But what
he says, "In whom I trusted," does not suit the head but the body.
For the Saviour Himself was not ignorant of him concerning whom He
had already said before, "One of you is a devil."[465] But He is
wont to assume the person of His members, and to ascribe to Himself
what should be said of them, because the head and the body is one
Christ;[466] whence that saying in the Gospel, "I was an hungered,
and ye gave me to eat."[467] Expounding which, He says, "Since ye
did it to one of the least of mine, ye did it to me."[468] Therefore
He said that He had trusted, because His disciples then had trusted
concerning Judas; for he was numbered with the apostles.[469]
But the Jews do not expect that the Christ whom they expect will
die; therefore they do not think ours to be Him whom the law and the
prophets announced, but feign to themselves I know not whom of their
own, exempt from the suffering of death. Therefore, with wonderful
emptiness and blindness, they contend that the words we have set down
signify, not death and resurrection, but sleep and awaking again. But
the 16th Psalm also cries to them, "Therefore my heart is jocund, and
my tongue hath exulted; moreover, my flesh also shall rest in hope:
for Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou give Thine
Holy One to see corruption."[470] Who but He that rose again the
third day could say His flesh had rested in this hope; that His soul,
not being left in hell, but speedily returning to it, should revive
it, that it should not be corrupted as corpses are wont to be, which
they can in no wise say of David the prophet and king? The 68th Psalm
also cries out, "Our God is the God of salvation: even of the Lord
the exit was by death."[471] What could be more openly said? For the
God of salvation is the Lord Jesus, which is interpreted Saviour, or
Healing One. For this reason this name was given, when it was said
before He was born of the virgin: "Thou shalt bring forth a Son, and
shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their
sins."[472] Because His blood was shed for the remission of their
sins, it behoved Him to have no other exit from this life than death.
Therefore, when it had been said, "Our God is the God of salvation,"
immediately it was added, "Even of the Lord the exit was by death,"
in order to show that we were to be saved by His dying. But that
saying is marvellous, "Even of the Lord," as if it was said, Such is
that life of mortals, that not even the Lord Himself could go out of
it otherwise save through death.
19. _Of the_ 69_th Psalm, in which the obstinate unbelief of
the Jews is declared._
But when the Jews will not in the least yield to the testimonies of
this prophecy, which are so manifest, and are also brought by events to
so clear and certain a completion, certainly that is fulfilled in them
which is written in that psalm which here follows. For when the things
which pertain to His passion are prophetically spoken there also in the
person, of Christ, that is mentioned which is unfolded in the Gospel:
"They gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar
for drink."[473] And as it were after such a feast and dainties in this
way given to Himself, presently He brings in [these words]: "Let their
table become a trap before them, and a retribution, and an offence: let
their eyes be dimmed that they see not, and their back be always bowed
down,"[474] etc. Which things are not spoken as wished for, but are
predicted under the prophetic form of wishing. What wonder, then, if
those whose eyes are dimmed that they see not do not see these manifest
things? What wonder if those do not look up at heavenly things whose
back is always bowed down that they may grovel among earthly things?
For these words transferred from the body signify mental faults. Let
these things which have been said about the Psalms, that is, about king
David's prophecy, suffice, that we may keep within some bound. But let
those readers excuse us who knew them all before; and let them not
complain about those perhaps stronger proofs which they know or think I
have passed by.
20. _Of David's reign and merit; and of his son Solomon, and that
prophecy relating to Christ which is found either in those
books which are joined to those written by him, or in those
which are indubitably his._
David therefore reigned in the earthly Jerusalem, a son of the heavenly
Jerusalem, much praised by the divine testimony; for even his faults
are overcome by great piety, through the most salutary humility of
his repentance, that he is altogether one of those of whom he himself
says, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins
are covered."[475] After him Solomon his son reigned over the same
whole people, who, as was said before, began to reign while his father
was still alive. This man, after good beginnings, made a bad end. For
indeed "prosperity, which wears out the minds of the wise,"[476] hurt
him more than that wisdom profited him, which even yet is and shall
hereafter be renowned, and was then praised far and wide. He also is
found to have prophesied in his books, of which three are received as
of canonical authority, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.
But it has been customary to ascribe to Solomon other two, of which
one is called Wisdom, the other Ecclesiasticus, on account of some
resemblance of style,--but the more learned have no doubt that they
are not his; yet of old the Church, especially the Western, received
them into authority,--in the one of which, called the Wisdom of
Solomon, the passion of Christ is most openly prophesied. For indeed
His impious murderers are quoted as saying, "Let us lie in wait for
the righteous, for he is unpleasant to us, and contrary to our works;
and he upbraideth us with our transgressions of the law, and objecteth
to our disgrace the transgressions of our education. He professeth to
have the knowledge of God, and he calleth himself the Son of God. He
was made to reprove our thoughts. He is grievous for us even to behold;
for his life is unlike other men's, and his ways are different. We
are esteemed of him as counterfeits; and he abstaineth from our ways
as from filthiness. He extols the latter end of the righteous; and
glorieth that he hath God for his Father. Let us see, therefore, if
his words be true; and let us try what shall happen to him, and we
shall know what shall be the end of him. For if the righteous be the
Son of God, He will undertake for him, and deliver him out of the hand
of those that are against him. Let us put him to the question with
contumely and torture, that we may know his reverence, and prove his
patience. Let us condemn him to the most shameful death; for by His
own sayings He shall be respected. These things did they imagine, and
were mistaken; for their own malice hath quite blinded them."[477] But
in Ecclesiasticus the future faith of the nations is predicted in this
manner: "Have mercy upon us, O God, Ruler of all, and send Thy fear
upon all the nations: lift up Thine hand over the strange nations, and
let them see Thy power. As Thou wast sanctified in us before them, so
be Thou sanctified in them before us, and let them acknowledge Thee,
according as we also have acknowledged Thee; for there is not a God
beside Thee, O Lord."[478] We see this prophecy in the form of a wish
and prayer fulfilled through Jesus Christ. But the things which are
not written in the canon of the Jews cannot be quoted against their
contradictions with so great validity.
But as regards those three books which it is evident are Solomon's,
and held canonical by the Jews, to show what of this kind may be
found in them pertaining to Christ and the Church demands a laborious
discussion, which, if now entered on, would lengthen this work
unduly. Yet what we read in the Proverbs of impious men saying, "Let
us unrighteously hide in the earth the righteous man; yea, let us
swallow him up alive as hell, and let us take away his memory from
the earth: let us seize his precious possession,"[479] is not so
obscure that it may not be understood, without laborious exposition,
of Christ and His possession the Church. Indeed, the gospel parable
about the wicked husbandmen shows that our Lord Jesus Himself said
something like it: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the
inheritance shall be ours."[480] In like manner also that passage in
this same book, on which we have already touched[481] when we were
speaking of the barren woman who hath born seven, must soon after
it was uttered have come to be understood of only Christ and the
Church by those who knew that Christ was the Wisdom of God. "Wisdom
hath builded her an house, and hath set up seven pillars; she hath
sacrificed her victims, she hath mingled her wine in the bowl; she
hath also furnished her table. She hath sent her servants summoning
to the bowl with excellent proclamation, saying, Who is simple,
let him turn aside to me. And to the void of sense she hath said,
Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled
for you."[482] Here certainly we perceive that the Wisdom of God,
that is, the Word co-eternal with the Father, hath builded Him an
house, even a human body in the virgin womb, and hath subjoined the
Church to it as members to a head, hath slain the martyrs as victims,
hath furnished a table with wine and bread, where appears also the
priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, and hath called the simple
and the void of sense, because, as saith the apostle, "He hath chosen
the weak things of this world that He might confound the things which
are mighty."[483] Yet to these weak ones she saith what follows,
"Forsake simplicity, that ye may live; and seek prudence, that ye may
have life."[484] But to be made partakers of this table is itself to
begin to have life. For when he says in another book, which is called
Ecclesiastes, "There is no good for a man, except that he should eat
and drink,"[485] what can he be more credibly understood to say, than
what belongs to the participation of this table which the Mediator of
the New Testament Himself, the Priest after the order of Melchizedek,
furnishes with His own body and blood? For that sacrifice has
succeeded all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain
as a shadow of that which was to come; wherefore also we recognise
the voice in the 40th Psalm as that of the same Mediator speaking
through prophesy, "Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire;
but a body hast Thou perfected for me."[486] Because, instead of all
these sacrifices and oblations, His body is offered, and is served up
to the partakers of it. For that this Ecclesiastes, in this sentence
about eating and drinking, which he often repeats, and very much
commends, does not savour the dainties of carnal pleasures, is made
plain enough when he says, "It is better to go into the house of
mourning than to go into the house of feasting."[487] And a little
after He says, "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
and the heart of the simple in the house of feasting."[488] But I
think that more worthy of quotation from this book which relates to
both cities, the one of the devil, the other of Christ, and to their
kings, the devil and Christ: "Woe to thee, O land," he says, "when
thy king is a youth, and thy princes eat in the morning! Blessed art
thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat
in season, in fortitude, and not in confusion!"[489] He has called
the devil a youth, because of the folly and pride, and rashness and
unruliness, and other vices which are wont to abound at that age;
but Christ is the Son of nobles, that is, of the holy patriarchs,
of those belonging to the free city, of whom He was begotten in
the flesh. The princes of that and other cities are eaters in the
morning, that is, before the suitable hour, because they do not
expect the seasonable felicity, which is the true, in the world to
come, desiring to be speedily made happy with the renown of this
world, but the princes of the city of Christ patiently wait for the
time of a blessedness that is not fallacious. This is expressed by
the words, "in fortitude, and not in confusion," because hope does
not deceive them, of which the apostle says, "But hope maketh not
ashamed."[490] A psalm also saith, "For they that hope in Thee shall
not be put to shame."[491] But now the Song of Songs is a certain
spiritual pleasure of holy minds, in the marriage of that King and
Queen-city, that is, Christ and the Church. But this pleasure is
wrapped up in allegorical veils, that the Bridegroom may be more
ardently desired, and more joyfully unveiled, and may appear; to whom
it is said in this same song, "Equity hath delighted Thee;"[492] and
the bride who those hears, "Charity is in thy delights."[493] We pass
over many things in silence, in our desire to finish this work.
21. _Of the kings after Solomon, both in Judah and Israel._
The other kings of the Hebrews after Solomon are scarcely found to have
prophesied, through certain enigmatic words or actions of theirs, what
may pertain to Christ and the Church, either in Judah or Israel; for
so were the parts of that people styled, when, on account of Solomon's
offence, from the time of Rehoboam his son, who succeeded him in the
kingdom, it was divided by God as a punishment. The ten tribes, indeed,
which Jeroboam the servant of Solomon received, being appointed the
king in Samaria, were distinctively called Israel, although this had
been the name of that whole people; but the two tribes, namely, of
Judah and Benjamin, which for David's sake, lest the kingdom should
be wholly wrenched from his race, remained subject to the city of
Jerusalem, were called Judah, because that was the tribe whence David
sprang. But Benjamin, the other tribe which, as was said, belonged
to the same kingdom, was that whence Saul sprang before David. But
these two tribes together, as was said, were called Judah, and were
distinguished by this name from Israel, which was the distinctive title
of the ten tribes under their own king. For the tribe of Levi, because
it was the priestly one, bound to the servitude of God, not of the
kings, was reckoned the thirteenth. For Joseph, one of the twelve sons
of Israel, did not, like the others, form one tribe, but two, Ephraim
and Manasseh. Yet the tribe of Levi also belonged more to the kingdom
of Jerusalem, where was the temple of God whom it served. On the
division of the people, therefore, Rehoboam, son of Solomon, reigned in
Jerusalem as the first king of Judah, and Jeroboam, servant of Solomon,
in Samaria as king of Israel. And when Rehoboam wished as a tyrant
to pursue that separated part with war, the people were prohibited
from fighting with their brethren by God, who told them through a
prophet that He had done this; whence it appeared that in this matter
there had been no sin either of the king or people of Israel, but the
accomplished will of God the avenger. When this was known, both parts
settled down peaceably, for the division made was not religious but
political.
22. _Of Jeroboam, who profaned the people put under him by the
impiety of idolatry, amid which, however, God did not cease
to inspire the prophets, and to guard many from the crime of
idolatry._
But Jeroboam king of Israel, with perverse mind, not believing in God,
whom he had proved true in promising and giving him the kingdom, was
afraid lest, by coming to the temple of God which was in Jerusalem,
where, according to the divine law, that whole nation was to come in
order to sacrifice, the people should be seduced from him, and return
to David's line as the seed royal; and set up idolatry in his kingdom,
and with horrible impiety beguiled the people, ensnaring them to the
worship of idols with himself. Yet God did not altogether cease to
reprove by the prophets, not only that king, but also his successors
and imitators in his impiety, and the people too. For there the great
and illustrious prophets Elijah and Elisha his disciple arose, who also
did many wonderful works. Even there, when Elijah said, "O Lord, they
have slain Thy prophets, they have digged down Thine altars; and I am
left alone, and they seek my life," it was answered that seven thousand
men were there who had not bowed the knee to Baal.[494]
23. _Of the varying condition of both the Hebrew kingdoms, until
the people of both were at different times led into captivity,
Judah being afterwards recalled into his kingdom, which finally
passed into the power of the Romans._
So also in the kingdom of Judah pertaining to Jerusalem prophets were
not lacking even in the times of succeeding kings, just as it pleased
God to send them, either for the prediction of what was needful,
or for correction of sin and instruction in righteousness;[495]
for there, too, although far less than in Israel, kings arose who
grievously offended God by their impieties, and, along with their
people, who were like them, were smitten with moderate scourges. The
no small merits of the pious kings there are praised indeed. But we
read that in Israel the kings were, some more, others less, yet all
wicked. Each part, therefore, as the divine providence either ordered
or permitted, was both lifted up by prosperity and weighed down by
adversity of various kinds; and it was afflicted not only by foreign,
but also by civil wars with each other, in order that by certain
existing causes the mercy or anger of God might be manifested; until,
by His growing indignation, that whole nation was by the conquering
Chaldeans not only overthrown in its abode, but also for the most
part transported to the lands of the Assyrians,--first, that part
of the thirteen tribes called Israel, but afterwards Judah also,
when Jerusalem and that most noble temple was cast down,--in which
lands it rested seventy years in captivity. Being after that time
sent forth thence, they rebuilt the overthrown temple. And although
very many stayed in the lands of the strangers, yet the kingdom no
longer had two separate parts, with different kings over each, but
in Jerusalem there was one prince over them; and at certain times,
from every direction wherever they were, and from whatever place
they could, they all came to the temple of God which was there. Yet
not even then were they without foreign enemies and conquerors; yea,
Christ found them tributaries of the Romans.
24. _Of the prophets, who either were the last among the Jews, or
whom the gospel history reports about the time of Christ's
nativity._
But in that whole time after they returned from Babylon, after
Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah, who then prophesied, and Ezra, they
had no prophets down to the time of the Saviour's advent except
another Zechariah, the father of John, and Elisabeth his wife, when
the nativity of Christ was already close at hand; and when He was
already born, Simeon the aged, and Anna a widow, and now very old;
and, last of all, John himself, who, being a young man, did not
predict that Christ, now a young man, was to come, but by prophetic
knowledge pointed Him out although unknown; for which reason the
Lord Himself says, "The law and the prophets were until John."[496]
But the prophesying of these five is made known to us in the gospel,
where the virgin mother of our Lord herself is also found to have
prophesied before John. But this prophecy of theirs the wicked Jews
do not receive; but those 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[343] "Has pointed."
[344] Gen. xii. 1, 2.
[345] Gen. xii. 3.
[346] Gal. iv. 22-31.
[347] Heb. viii. 8-10.
[348] 1 Sam. ii. 1-10.
[349] Ps. xlviii. 2.
[350] 2 Tim. ii. 9; Eph. vi. 20.
[351] Luke ii. 25-30.
[352] Rom. iii. 26?
[353] Gal. vi. 3.
[354] Rom. x. 3.
[355] Ps. xciv. 11; 1 Cor. iii. 20.
[356] Ps. vi. 2.
[357] Rom. iii. 2.
[358] Rev. i. 4.
[359] Prov. ix. 1.
[360] "By whom we see her made fruitful."
[361] Col. iii. 1-3.
[362] Rom. viii. 32.
[363] Ps. xvi. 10; Acts ii. 27, 31.
[364] 2 Cor. viii. 9.
[365] Jas. iv. 6; 1 Pet. v. 5.
[366] "For the poor man is the same as the beggar."
[367] Phil. iii. 7, 8.
[368] Matt. xix. 27, 28.
[369] 1 Cor. iv. 7.
[370] 1 John iv. 7.
[371] 2 Cor. v. 10.
[372] Ps. lxxiv. 12.
[373] Acts x. 42.
[374] Eph. iv. 9, 10.
[375] Matt. xxiv. 13.
[376] 1 Cor. 12.
[377] 1 Sam. ii. 27-36.
[378] Ps. xvii. 8.
[379] Isa. x. 21.
[380] Rom. xi. 5.
[381] Isa. xxviii. 22; Rom. ix 28.
[382] Ps. xii. 6.
[383] Ps. lxxxiv. 10.
[384] 1 Tim. ii. 5.
[385] 1 Pet. ii. 9.
[386] 1 Cor. x. 17.
[387] Rom. xii. 1.
[388] John vi. 51.
[389] Heb. vii. 11, 27.
[390] Matt. xxiv. 15.
[391] 1 Sam. xxiv. 5, 6.
[392] 1 Sam. xiii. 13, 14.
[393] Heb. ix. 15.
[394] Luke xix. 10.
[395] Eph. i. 4.
[396] 1 Sam. xv. 23.
[397] 1 Sam. xv. 26-29.
[398] Rom. i. 3.
[399] 1 Tim. ii. 5.
[400] Ps. cx. 1.
[401] Gen. xxi. 10.
[402] Gal. iv. 25.
[403] 2 Cor. iii. 15, 16.
[404] 1 Sam. vii. 9-12.
[405] 2 Sam. vii. 8-16.
[406] Rom. i. 3.
[407] Ps. lxxii. 8.
[408] 1 Cor. iii. 17.
[409] Ps. lxxxix. 3, 4.
[410] Ps. lxxxix. 19-29.
[411] Phil. ii. 7.
[412] Matt. i. 1, 18; Luke i. 27.
[413] 2 Sam. vii, 14, 15.
[414] Ps. cv. 15.
[415] Ps. lxxxix. 30-33.
[416] Acts ix. 4.
[417] Ps. lxxxix. 34, 35.
[418] Ps. lxxxix. 36, 37.
[419] Ps. lxxxix. 38.
[420] Ps. lxxxix. 38.
[421] Ps. lxxxix. 39-45.
[422] Ps. lxxxix. 46.
[423] Ps. xiii. 1.
[424] Ps. lxxxix. 46, 47.
[425] Ps. lxxxix. 47.
[426] Ps. cxliv. 4.
[427] Ps. lxxxix. 48.
[428] Rom. vi. 9.
[429] John x. 18.
[430] Ps. lxxxix. 49-51.
[431] Rom. iii. 28, 29.
[432] Acts xiii. 46.
[433] Matt. vii. 7, 8.
[434] Another reading, "consummation."
[435] See above, chap. viii.
[436] 2 Sam. vii. 19.
[437] 2 Sam. vii. 8.
[438] 2 Sam. vii. 27.
[439] Ps. cxxvii. 1.
[440] 2 Sam. vii. 10, 11.
[441] 2 Sam. vii. 10, 11.
[442] Judg. iii. 30.
[443] Israel = "a prince of God;" Peniel = "the face of God" (Gen.
xxxii. 28-30).
[444] Ps. cx. 1, quoted in Matt. xxii. 44.
[445] 1 Kings xiii. 2; fulfilled 2 Kings xxiii. 15-17.
[446] Ps. xlv. 1-9.
[447] Ps. xlv. 9-17.
[448] Ps. xlv. 7.
[449] Ps. xlviii. 2.
[450] Ps. xviii. 43.
[451] Rom. x. 5.
[452] Ps. lxxxvii. 5.
[453] Ps. xlv. 16.
[454] Ps. cx. 1.
[455] Ps. cx. 2.
[456] Ps. cx. 4.
[457] Ps. cx. 4.
[458] Ps. xxii. 16, 17.
[459] Ps. xxii. 18, 19.
[460] Ps. iii. 5.
[461] Ps. xli. 5-8.
[462] Ps. xli. 9.
[463] Ps. xli. 10.
[464] 2 Tim. iv. 1; 2 Pet. iv. 5.
[465] John vi. 70.
[466] 1 Cor. xii. 12.
[467] Matt. xxv. 35.
[468] Matt. xxv. 40.
[469] Acts i. 17.
[470] Ps. xvi. 9, 10.
[471] Ps. lxviii. 20.
[472] Matt. i. 21.
[473] Ps. lxix. 21; Matt. xxvii. 34, 48.
[474] Ps. lxix. 22, 23.
[475] Ps. xxxii. 1.
[476] Sallust, _Bel. Cat._ c. xi.
[477] Wisd. ii. 12-21.
[478] Ecclus. xxxvi. 1-5.
[479] Prov. i. 11-13.
[480] Matt. xxi. 38.
[481] Ch. 4.
[482] Prov. ix. 1-5 (ver. 1 is quoted above in ch. 4).
[483] 1 Cor. i. 27.
[484] Prov. ix. 6.
[485] Eccles. ii. 24, iii. 13, v. 18, viii. 15.
[486] Ps. xl. 6.
[487] Eccles. vii. 2.
[488] Eccles. vii. 4.
[489] Eccles. x. 16, 17.
[490] Rom. v. 5.
[491] Ps. lxix. 6. ?
[492] Cant. i. 4.
[493] Cant. vii. 6.
[494] 1 Kings xix. 10, 14, 15.
[495] 2 Tim. 16.
[496] Matt. xi. 13.
BOOK EIGHTEENTH.
ARGUMENT.
AUGUSTINE TRACES THE PARALLEL COURSES OF THE EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY
CITIES FROM THE TIME OF ABRAHAM TO THE END OF THE WORLD; AND
ALLUDES TO THE ORACLES REGARDING CHRIST, BOTH THOSE UTTERED BY
THE SIBYLS, AND THOSE OF THE SACRED PROPHETS WHO WROTE AFTER
THE FOUNDATION OF ROME, HOSEA, AMOS, ISAIAH, MICAH, AND THEIR
SUCCESSORS.
1. _Of those things down to the times of the Saviour which have
been discussed in the seventeen books._
I promised to write of the rise, progress, and appointed end of the two
cities, one of which is God's, the other this world's, in which, so
far as mankind is concerned, the former is now a stranger. But first
of all I undertook, so far as His grace should enable me, to refute
the enemies of the city of God, who prefer their gods to Christ its
founder, and fiercely hate Christians with the most deadly malice. And
this I have done in the first ten books. Then, as regards my threefold
promise which I have just mentioned, I have treated distinctly, in the
four books which follow the tenth, of the rise of both cities. After
that, I have proceeded from the first man down to the flood in one
book, which is the fifteenth of this work; and from that again down to
Abraham our work has followed both in chronological order. From the
patriarch Abraham down to the time of the Israelite kings, at which
we close our sixteenth book, and thence down to the advent of Christ
Himself in the flesh, to which period the seventeenth book reaches,
the city of God appears from my way of writing to have run its course
alone; whereas it did not run its course alone in this age, for both
cities, in their course amid mankind, certainly experienced chequered
times together just as from the beginning. But I did this in order
that, first of all, from the time when the promises of God began to
be more clear, down to the virgin birth of Him in whom those things
promised from the first were to be fulfilled, the course of that
city which is God's might be made more distinctly apparent, without
interpolation of foreign matter from the history of the other city,
although down to the revelation of the new covenant it ran its course,
not in light, but in shadow. Now, therefore, I think fit to do what I
passed by, and show, so far as seems necessary, how that other city ran
its course from the times of Abraham, so that attentive readers may
compare the two.
2. _Of the kings and times of the earthly city which were
synchronous with the times of the saints, reckoning from the
rise of Abraham._
The society of mortals spread abroad through the earth everywhere,
and in the most diverse places, although bound together by a certain
fellowship of our common nature, is yet for the most part divided
against itself, and the strongest oppress the others, because all
follow after their own interests and lusts, while what is longed for
either suffices for none, or not for all, because it is not the very
thing. For the vanquished succumb to the victorious, preferring any
sort of peace and safety to freedom itself; so that they who chose
to die rather than be slaves have been greatly wondered at. For
in almost all nations the very voice of nature somehow proclaims,
that those who happen to be conquered should choose rather to be
subject to their conquerors than to be killed by all kinds of warlike
destruction. This does not take place without the providence of God,
in whose power it lies that any one either subdues or is subdued in
war; that some are endowed with kingdoms, others made subject to
kings. Now, among the very many kingdoms of the earth into which, by
earthly interest or lust, society is divided (which we call by the
general name of the city of this world), we see that two, settled and
kept distinct from each other both in time and place, have grown far
more famous than the rest, first that of the Assyrians, then that of
the Romans. First came the one, then the other. The former arose in
the east, and, immediately on its close, the latter in the west. I
may speak of other kingdoms and other kings as appendages of these.
Ninus, then, who succeeded his father Belus, the first king of Assyria,
was already the second king of that kingdom when Abraham was born in
the land of the Chaldees. There was also at that time a very small
kingdom of Sicyon, with which, as from an ancient date, that most
universally learned man Marcus Varro begins, in writing of the Roman
race. For from these kings of Sicyon he passes to the Athenians, from
them to the Latins, and from these to the Romans. Yet very little
is related about these kingdoms, before the foundation of Rome, in
comparison with that of Assyria. For although even Sallust, the Roman
historian, admits that the Athenians were very famous in Greece, yet he
thinks they were greater in fame than in fact. For in speaking of them
he says, "The deeds of the Athenians, as I think, were very great and
magnificent, but yet somewhat less than reported by fame. But because
writers of great genius arose among them, the deeds of the Athenians
were celebrated throughout the world as very great. Thus the virtue
of those who did them was held to be as great as men of transcendent
genius could represent it to be by the power of laudatory words."[497]
This city also derived no small glory from literature and philosophy,
the study of which chiefly flourished there. But as regards empire,
none in the earliest times was greater than the Assyrian, or so widely
extended. For when Ninus the son of Belus was king, he is reported
to have subdued the whole of Asia, even to the boundaries of Libya,
which as to number is called the third part, but as to size is found
to be the half of the whole world. The Indians in the eastern regions
were the only people over whom he did not reign; but after his death
Semiramis his wife made war on them. Thus it came to pass that all
the people and kings in those countries were subject to the kingdom
and authority of the Assyrians, and did whatever they were commanded.
Now Abraham was born in that kingdom among the Chaldees, in the time
of Ninus. But since Grecian affairs are much better known to us than
Assyrian, and those who have diligently investigated the antiquity of
the Roman nation's origin have followed the order of time through the
Greeks to the Latins, and from them to the Romans, who themselves are
Latins, we ought on this account, where it is needful, to mention the
Assyrian kings, that it may appear how Babylon, like a first Rome, ran
its course along with the city of God, which is a stranger in this
world. But the things proper for insertion in this work in comparing
the two cities, that is, the earthly and heavenly, ought to be taken
mostly from the Greek and Latin kingdoms, where Rome herself is like a
second Babylon.
At Abraham's birth, then, the second kings of Assyria and Sicyon
respectively were Ninus and Europs, the first having been Belus
and Ægialeus. But when God promised Abraham, on his departure from
Babylonia, that he should become a great nation, and that in his seed
all nations of the earth should be blessed, the Assyrians had their
seventh king, the Sicyons their fifth; for the son of Ninus reigned
among them after his mother Semiramis, who is said to have been put
to death by him for attempting to defile him by incestuously lying
with him. Some think that she founded Babylon, and indeed she may
have founded it anew. But we have told, in the sixteenth book, when
or by whom it was founded. Now the son of Ninus and Semiramis, who
succeeded his mother in the kingdom, is also called Ninus by some,
but by others Ninias, a patronymic word. Telexion then held the
kingdom of the Sicyons. In his reign times were quiet and joyful to
such a degree, that after his death they worshipped him as a god by
offering sacrifices and by celebrating games, which are said to have
been first instituted on this occasion.
3. _What kings reigned in Assyria and Sicyon when, according to
the promise, Isaac was born to Abraham in his hundredth year,
and when the twins Esau and Jacob were born of Rebecca to Isaac
in his sixtieth year._
In his times also, by the promise of God, Isaac, the son of Abraham,
was born to his father when he was a hundred years old, of Sarah his
wife, who, being barren and old, had already lost hope of issue.
Aralius was then the fifth king of the Assyrians. To Isaac himself,
in his sixtieth year, were born twin-sons, Esau and Jacob, whom
Rebecca his wife bore to him, their grandfather Abraham, who died
on completing a hundred and seventy years, being still alive, and
reckoning his hundred and sixtieth year.[498] At that time there
reigned as the seventh kings,--among the Assyrians, that more
ancient Xerxes, who was also called Balæus; and among the Sicyons,
Thuriachus, or, as some write his name, Thurimachus. The kingdom of
Argos, in which Inachus reigned first, arose in the time of Abraham's
grandchildren. And I must not omit what Varro relates, that the
Sicyons were also wont to sacrifice at the tomb of their seventh king
Thuriachus. In the reign of Armamitres in Assyria and Leucippus in
Sicyon as the eighth kings, and of Inachus as the first in Argos, God
spoke to Isaac, and promised the same two things to him as to his
father,--namely, the land of Canaan to his seed, and the blessing of
all nations in his seed. These same things were promised to his son,
Abraham's grandson, who was at first called Jacob, afterwards Israel,
when Belocus was the ninth king of Assyria, and Phoroneus, the son
of Inachus, reigned as the second king of Argos, Leucippus still
continuing king of Sicyon. In those times, under the Argive king
Phoroneus, Greece was made more famous by the institution of certain
laws and judges. On the death of Phoroneus, his younger brother
Phegous built a temple at his tomb, in which he was worshipped as
God, and oxen were sacrificed to him. I believe they thought him
worthy of so great honour, because in his part of the kingdom (for
their father had divided his territories between them, in which they
reigned during his life) he had founded chapels for the worship of
the gods, and had taught them to measure time by months and years,
and to that extent to keep count and reckoning of events. Men still
uncultivated, admiring him for these novelties, either fancied he
was, or resolved that he should be made, a god after his death. Io
also is said to have been the daughter of Inachus, who was afterwards
called Isis, when she was worshipped in Egypt as a great goddess;
although others write that she came as a queen out of Ethiopia, and
because she ruled extensively and justly, and instituted for her
subjects letters and many useful things, such divine honour was given
her there after she died, that if any one said she had been human, he
was charged with a capital crime.
4. _Of the times of Jacob and his son Joseph._
In the reign of Balæus, the ninth king of Assyria, and Mesappus,
the eighth of Sicyon, who is said by some to have been also called
Cephisos (if indeed the same man had both names, and those who put
the other name in their writings have not rather confounded him with
another man), while Apis was third king of Argos, Isaac died, a
hundred and eighty years old, and left his twin-sons a hundred and
twenty years old. Jacob, the younger of these, belonged to the city
of God about which we write (the elder being wholly rejected), and
had twelve sons, one of whom, called Joseph, was sold by his brothers
to merchants going down to Egypt, while his grandfather Isaac was
still alive. But when he was thirty years of age, Joseph stood before
Pharaoh, being exalted out of the humiliation he endured, because,
in divinely interpreting the king's dreams, he foretold that there
would be seven years of plenty, the very rich abundance of which
would be consumed by seven other years of famine that should follow.
On this account the king made him ruler over Egypt, liberating him
from prison, into which he had been thrown for keeping his chastity
intact; for he bravely preserved it from his mistress, who wickedly
loved him, and told lies to his weakly credulous master, and did not
consent to commit adultery with her, but fled from her, leaving his
garment in her hands when she laid hold of him. In the second of the
seven years of famine Jacob came down into Egypt to his son with all
he had, being a hundred and thirty years old, as he himself said in
answer to the king's question. Joseph was then thirty-nine, if we add
seven years of plenty and two of famine to the thirty he reckoned
when honoured by the king.
5. _Of Apis king of Argos, whom the Egyptians called Serapis,
and worshipped with divine honours._
In these times Apis king of Argos crossed over into Egypt in ships,
and, on dying there, was made Serapis, the chief god of all the
Egyptians. Now Varro gives this very ready reason why, after his
death, he was called, not Apis, but Serapis. The ark in which he
was placed when dead, which every one now calls a sarcophagus, was
then called in Greek σορὸς, and they began to worship him when
buried in it before his temple was built; and from Soros and Apis
he was called first [Sorosapis, or] Sorapis, and then Serapis, by
changing a letter, as easily happens. It was decreed regarding him
also, that whoever should say he had been a man should be capitally
punished. And since in every temple where Isis and Serapis were
worshipped there was also an image which, with finger pressed on
the lips, seemed to warn men to keep silence, Varro thinks this
signifies that it should be kept secret that they had been human.
But that bull which, with wonderful folly, deluded Egypt nourished
with abundant delicacies in honour of him, was not called Serapis,
but Apis, because they worshipped him alive without a sarcophagus. On
the death of that bull, when they sought and found a calf of the same
colour,--that is, similarly marked with certain white spots,--they
believed it was something miraculous, and divinely provided for them.
Yet it was no great thing for the demons, in order to deceive them,
to show to a cow when she was conceiving and pregnant the image
of such a bull, which she alone could see, and by it attract the
breeding passion of the mother, so that it might appear in a bodily
shape in her young, just as Jacob so managed with the spotted rods
that the sheep and goats were born spotted. For what men can do with
real colours and substances, the demons can very easily do by showing
unreal forms to breeding animals.
6. _Who were kings of Argos, and of Assyria, when Jacob died
in Egypt._
Apis, then, who died in Egypt, was not the king of Egypt, but of Argos.
He was succeeded by his son Argus, from whose name the land was called
Argos and the people Argives, for under the earlier kings neither
the place nor the nation as yet had this name. While he then reigned
over Argos, and Eratus over Sicyon, and Balæus still remained king of
Assyria, Jacob died in Egypt a hundred and forty-seven years old, after
he had, when dying, blessed his sons and his grandsons by Joseph, and
prophesied most plainly of Christ, saying in the blessing of Judah, "A
prince shall not fail out of Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until
those things come which are laid up for him; and He is the expectation
of the nations."[499] In the reign of Argus Greece began to use fruits,
and to have crops of corn in cultivated fields, the seed having been
brought from other countries. Argus also began to be accounted a god
after his death, and was honoured with a temple and sacrifices. This
honour was conferred in his reign, before being given to him, on a
private individual for being the first to yoke oxen in the plough. This
was one Homogyrus, who was struck by lightning.
7. _Who were kings when Joseph died in Egypt._
In the reign of Mamitus, the twelfth king of Assyria, and Plemnæus,
the eleventh of Sicyon, while Argus still reigned over the Argives,
Joseph died in Egypt a hundred and ten years old. After his death,
the people of God, increasing wonderfully, remained in Egypt a
hundred and forty-five years, in tranquillity at first, until those
who knew Joseph were dead. Afterward, through envy of their increase,
and the suspicion that they would at length gain their freedom, they
were oppressed with persecutions and the labours of intolerable
servitude, amid which, however, they still grew, being multiplied
with God-given fertility. During this period the same kingdoms
continued in Assyria and Greece.
8. _Who were kings when Moses was born, and what gods began to
be worshipped then._
When Saphrus reigned as the fourteenth king of Assyria, and
Orthopolis as the twelfth of Sicyon, and Criasus as the fifth of
Argos, Moses was born in Egypt, by whom the people of God were
liberated from the Egyptian slavery, in which they behoved to be
thus tried that they might desire the help of their Creator. Some
have thought that Prometheus lived during the reign of the kings now
named. He is reported to have formed men out of clay, because he was
esteemed the best teacher of wisdom; yet it does not appear what
wise men there were in his days. His brother Atlas is said to have
been a great astrologer; and this gave occasion for the fable that
he held up the sky, although the vulgar opinion about his holding
up the sky appears rather to have been suggested by a high mountain
named after him. Indeed, from those times many other fabulous things
began to be invented in Greece; yet, down to Cecrops king of Athens,
in whose reign that city received its name, and in whose reign God
brought His people out of Egypt by Moses, only a few dead heroes are
reported to have been deified according to the vain superstition of
the Greeks. Among these were Melantomice, the wife of king Criasus,
and Phorbas their son, who succeeded his father as sixth king of the
Argives, and Iasus, son of Triopas, their seventh king, and their
ninth king, Sthenelas, or Stheneleus, or Sthenelus,--for his name
is given differently by different authors. In those times also,
Mercury, the grandson of Atlas by his daughter Maia, is said to have
lived, according to the common report in books. He was famous for his
skill in many arts, and taught them to men, for which they resolved
to make him, and even believed that he deserved to be, a god after
death. Hercules is said to have been later, yet belonging to the same
period; although some, whom I think mistaken, assign him an earlier
date than Mercury. But at whatever time they were born, it is agreed
among grave historians, who have committed these ancient things to
writing, that both were men, and that they merited divine honours
from mortals because they conferred on them many benefits to make
this life more pleasant to them. Minerva was far more ancient than
these; for she is reported to have appeared in virgin age in the
times of Ogyges at the lake called Triton, from which she is also
styled Tritonia, the inventress truly of many works, and the more
readily believed to be a goddess because her origin was so little
known. For what is sung about her having sprung from the head of
Jupiter belongs to the region of poetry and fable, and not to that
of history and real fact. And historical writers are not agreed when
Ogyges flourished, in whose time also a great flood occurred,--not
that greatest one from which no man escaped except those who could
get into the ark, for neither Greek nor Latin history knew of it, yet
a greater flood than that which happened afterward in Deucalion's
time. For Varro begins the book I have already mentioned at this
date, and does not propose to himself, as the starting-point from
which he may arrive at Roman affairs, anything more ancient than the
flood of Ogyges, that is, which happened in the time of Ogyges. Now
our writers of chronicles--first Eusebius, and afterwards Jerome, who
entirely follow some earlier historians in this opinion--relate that
the flood of Ogyges happened more than three hundred years after,
during the reign of Phoroneus, the second king of Argos. But whenever
he may have lived, Minerva was already worshipped as a goddess when
Cecrops reigned in Athens, in whose reign the city itself is reported
to have been rebuilt or founded.
9. _When the city of Athens was founded, and what reason Varro
assigns for its name._
Athens certainly derived its name from Minerva, who in Greek is
called Ἀθηνη, and Varro points out the following reason why it was so
called. When an olive-tree suddenly appeared there, and water burst
forth in another place, these prodigies moved the king to send to
the Delphic Apollo to inquire what they meant and what he should do.
He answered that the olive signified Minerva, the water Neptune, and
that the citizens had it in their power to name their city as they
chose, after either of these two gods whose signs these were. On
receiving this oracle, Cecrops convoked all the citizens of either
sex to give their vote, for it was then the custom in those parts
for the women also to take part in public deliberations. When the
multitude was consulted, the men gave their votes for Neptune, the
women for Minerva; and as the women had a majority of one, Minerva
conquered. Then Neptune, being enraged, laid waste the lands of the
Athenians, by casting up the waves of the sea; for the demons have no
difficulty in scattering any waters more widely. The same authority
said, that to appease his wrath the women should be visited by the
Athenians with the threefold punishment--that they should no longer
have any vote; that none of their children should be named after
their mothers; and that no one should call them Athenians. Thus that
city, the mother and nurse of liberal doctrines, and of so many and
so great philosophers, than whom Greece had nothing more famous and
noble, by the mockery of demons about the strife of their gods, a
male and female, and from the victory of the female one through
the women, received the name of Athens; and, on being damaged by
the vanquished god, was compelled to punish the very victory of
the victress, fearing the waters of Neptune more than the arms of
Minerva. For in the women who were thus punished, Minerva, who had
conquered, was conquered too, and could not even help her voters so
far that, although the right of voting was henceforth lost, and the
mothers could not give their names to the children, they might at
least be allowed to be called Athenians, and to merit the name of
that goddess whom they had made victorious over a male god by giving
her their votes. What and how much could be said about this, if we
had not to hasten to other things in our discourse, is obvious.
10. _What Varro reports about the term Areopagus, and about
Deucalion's flood._
Marcus Varro, however, is not willing to credit lying fables against
the gods, lest he should find something dishonouring to their
majesty; and therefore he will not admit that the Areopagus, the
place where the Apostle Paul disputed with the Athenians, got this
name because Mars, who in Greek is called Ἄρης, when he was charged
with the crime of homicide, and was judged by twelve gods in that
field, was acquitted by the sentence of six; because it was the
custom, when the votes were equal, to acquit rather than condemn.
Against this opinion, which is much most widely published, he tries,
from the notices of obscure books, to support another reason for
this name, lest the Athenians should be thought to have called it
Areopagus from the words "Mars" and "field,"[500] as if it were the
field of Mars, to the dishonour of the gods, forsooth, from whom
he thinks lawsuits and judgments far removed. And he asserts that
this which is said about Mars is not less false than what is said
about the three goddesses, to wit, Juno, Minerva, and Venus, whose
contest for the palm of beauty, before Paris as judge, in order to
obtain the golden apple, is not only related, but is celebrated in
songs and dances amid the applause of the theatres, in plays meant
to please the gods who take pleasure in these crimes of their own,
whether real or fabled. Varro does not believe these things, because
they are incompatible with the nature of the gods and of morality;
and yet, in giving not a fabulous but a historic reason for the name
of Athens, he inserts in his books the strife between Neptune and
Minerva as to whose name should be given to that city, which was so
great that, when they contended by the display of prodigies, even
Apollo dared not judge between them when consulted; but, in order to
end the strife of the gods, just as Jupiter sent the three goddesses
we have named to Paris, so he sent them to men, when Minerva won by
the vote, and yet was defeated by the punishment of her own voters,
for she was unable to confer the title of Athenians on the women who
were her friends, although she could impose it on the men who were
her opponents. In these times, when Cranaos reigned at Athens as the
successor of Cecrops, as Varro writes, but, according to our Eusebius
and Jerome, while Cecrops himself still remained, the flood occurred
which is called Deucalion's, because it occurred chiefly in those
parts of the earth in which he reigned. But this flood did not at all
reach Egypt or its vicinity.
11. _When Moses led the people out of Egypt; and who were kings
when his successor Joshua the son of Nun died._
Moses led the people out of Egypt in the last time of Cecrops king
of Athens, when Ascatades reigned in Assyria, Marathus in Sicyon,
Triopas in Argos; and having led forth the people, he gave them at
Mount Sinai the law he received from God, which is called the Old
Testament, because it has earthly promises, and because, through
Jesus Christ, there was to be a New Testament, in which the kingdom
of heaven should be promised. For the same order behoved to be
observed in this as is observed in each man who prospers in God,
according to the saying of the apostle, "That is not first which is
spiritual, but that which is natural," since, as he says, and that
truly, "The first man of the earth, is earthly; the second man, from
heaven, is heavenly."[501] Now Moses ruled the people for forty years
in the wilderness, and died a hundred and twenty years old, after
he had prophesied of Christ by the types of carnal observances in
the tabernacle, priesthood, and sacrifices, and many other mystic
ordinances. Joshua the son of Nun succeeded Moses, and settled in
the land of promise the people he had brought in, having by divine
authority conquered the people by whom it was formerly possessed. He
also died, after ruling the people twenty-seven years after the death
of Moses, when Amyntas reigned in Assyria as the eighteenth king,
Coracos as the sixteenth in Sicyon, Danaos as the tenth in Argos,
Ericthonius as the fourth in Athens.
12. _Of the rituals of false gods instituted by the kings of Greece
in the period from Israel's exodus from Egypt down to the death
of Joshua the son of Nun._
During this period, that is, from Israel's exodus from Egypt down to
the death of Joshua the son of Nun, through whom that people received
the land of promise, rituals were instituted to the false gods by the
kings of Greece, which, by stated celebration, recalled the memory of
the flood, and of men's deliverance from it, and of that troublous
life they then led in migrating to and fro between the heights and the
plains. For even the Luperci,[502] when they ascend and descend the
sacred path, are said to represent the men who sought the mountain
summits because of the inundation of water, and returned to the
lowlands on its subsidence. In those times, Dionysus, who was also
called Father Liber, and was esteemed a god after death, is said to
have shown the vine to his host in Attica. Then the musical games were
instituted for the Delphic Apollo, to appease his anger, through which
they thought the regions of Greece were afflicted with barrenness,
because they had not defended his temple which Danaos burnt when he
invaded those lands; for they were warned by his oracle to institute
these games. But king Ericthonius first instituted games to him in
Attica, and not to him only, but also to Minerva, in which games the
olive was given as the prize to the victors, because they relate that
Minerva was the discoverer of that fruit, as Liber was of the grape. In
those years Europa is alleged to have been carried off by Xanthus king
of Crete (to whom we find some give another name), and to have borne
him Rhadamanthus, Sarpedon, and Minos, who are more commonly reported
to have been the sons of Jupiter by the same woman. Now those who
worship such gods regard what we have said about Xanthus king of Crete
as true history; but this about Jupiter, which the poets sing, the
theatres applaud, and the people celebrate, as empty fable got up as a
reason for games to appease the deities, even with the false ascription
of crimes to them. In those times Hercules was held in honour in
Tyre, but that was not the same one as he whom we spoke of above. In
the more secret history there are said to have been several who were
called Father Liber and Hercules. This Hercules, whose great deeds are
reckoned as twelve (not including the slaughter of Antæus the African,
because that affair pertains to another Hercules), is declared in their
books to have burned himself on Mount Œta, because he was not able, by
that strength with which he had subdued monsters, to endure the disease
under which he languished. At that time the king, or rather tyrant
Busiris, who is alleged to have been the son of Neptune by Libya the
daughter of Epaphus, is said to have offered up his guests in sacrifice
to the gods. Now it must not be believed that Neptune committed this
adultery, lest the gods should be criminated; yet such things must be
ascribed to them by the poets and in the theatres, that they may be
pleased with them. Vulcan and Minerva are said to have been the parents
of Ericthonius king of Athens, in whose last years Joshua the son of
Nun is found to have died. But since they will have it that Minerva
is a virgin, they say that Vulcan, being disturbed in the struggle
between them, poured out his seed into the earth, and on that account
the man born of it received that name; for in the Greek language ἔρις
is "strife," and χθὼν "earth," of which two words Ericthonius is a
compound. Yet it must be admitted that the more learned disprove
and disown such things concerning their gods, and declare that this
fabulous belief originated in the fact that in the temple at Athens,
which Vulcan and Minerva had in common, a boy who had been exposed was
found wrapped up in the coils of a dragon, which signified that he
would become great, and, as his parents were unknown, he was called
the son of Vulcan and Minerva, because they had the temple in common.
Yet that fable accounts for the origin of his name better than this
history. But what does it matter to us? Let the one in books that speak
the truth edify religious men, and the other in lying fables delight
impure demons. Yet these religious men worship them as gods. Still,
while they deny these things concerning them, they cannot clear them of
all crime, because at their demand they exhibit plays in which the very
things they wisely deny are basely done, and the gods are appeased by
these false and base things. Now, even although the play celebrates an
unreal crime of the gods, yet to delight in the ascription of an unreal
crime is a real one.
13. _What fables were invented at the time when judges began to
rule the Hebrews._
After the death of Joshua the son of Nun, the people of God had judges,
in whose times they were alternately humbled by afflictions on account
of their sins, and consoled by prosperity through the compassion of
God. In those times were invented the fables about Triptolemus, who,
at the command of Ceres, borne by winged snakes, bestowed corn on
the needy lands in flying over them; about that beast the Minotaur,
which was shut up in the Labyrinth, from which men who entered its
inextricable mazes could find no exit; about the Centaurs, whose form
was a compound of horse and man; about Cerberus, the three-headed dog
of hell; about Phryxus and his sister Hellas, who fled, borne by a
winged ram; about the Gorgon, whose hair was composed of serpents,
and who turned those who looked on her into stone; about Bellerophon,
who was carried by a winged horse called Pegasus; about Amphion, who
charmed and attracted the stones by the sweetness of his harp; about
the artificer Dædalus and his son Icarus, who flew on wings they had
fitted on; about Œdipus, who compelled a certain four-footed monster
with a human face, called a sphynx, to destroy herself by casting
herself headlong, having solved the riddle she was wont to propose
as insoluble; about Antæus, who was the son of the earth, for which
reason, on falling on the earth, he was wont to rise up stronger, whom
Hercules slew; and perhaps there are others which I have forgotten.
These fables, easily found in histories containing a true account of
events, bring us down to the Trojan war, at which Marcus Varro has
closed his second book about the race of the Roman people; and they
are so skilfully invented by men as to involve no scandal to the gods.
But whoever have pretended as to Jupiter's rape of Ganymede, a very
beautiful boy, that king Tantalus committed the crime, and the fable
ascribed it to Jupiter; or as to his impregnating Danäe as a golden
shower, that it means that the woman's virtue was corrupted by gold:
whether these things were really done or only fabled in those days,
or were really done by others and falsely ascribed to Jupiter, it is
impossible to tell how much wickedness must have been taken for granted
in men's hearts that they should be thought able to listen to such lies
with patience. And yet they willingly accepted them, when, indeed, the
more devotedly they worshipped Jupiter, they ought the more severely
to have punished those who durst say such things of him. But they not
only were not angry at those who invented these things, but were afraid
that the gods would be angry at them if they did not act such fictions
even in the theatres. In those times Latona bore Apollo, not him of
whose oracle we have spoken above as so often consulted, but him who is
said, along with Hercules, to have fed the flocks of king Admetus; yet
he was so believed to be a god, that very many, indeed almost all, have
believed him to be the selfsame Apollo. Then also Father Liber made
war in India, and led in his army many women called Bacchæ, who were
notable not so much for valour as for fury. Some, indeed, write that
this Liber was both conquered and bound; and some that he was slain
in Persia, even telling where he was buried; and yet in his name, as
that of a god, the unclean demons have instituted the sacred, or rather
the sacrilegious, Bacchanalia, of the outrageous vileness of which the
senate, after many years, became so much ashamed as to prohibit them in
the city of Rome. Men believed that in those times Perseus and his wife
Andromeda were raised into heaven after their death, so that they were
not ashamed or afraid to mark out their images by constellations, and
call them by their names.
14. _Of the theological poets._
During the same period of time arose the poets, who were also called
_theologues_, because they made hymns about the gods; yet about such
gods as, although great men, were yet but men, or the elements of
this world which the true God made, or creatures who were ordained as
principalities and powers according to the will of the Creator and
their own merit. And if, among much that was vain and false, they
sang anything of the one true God, yet, by worshipping Him along
with others who are not gods, and showing them the service that is
due to Him alone, they did not serve Him at all rightly; and even
such poets as Orpheus, Musæus, and Linus, were unable to abstain
from dishonouring their gods by fables. But yet these theologues
worshipped the gods, and were not worshipped as gods, although the
city of the ungodly is wont, I know not how, to set Orpheus over
the sacred, or rather sacrilegious, rites of hell. The wife of king
Athamas, who was called Ino, and her son Melicertes, perished by
throwing themselves into the sea, and were, according to popular
belief, reckoned among the gods, like other men of the same times,
[among whom were] Castor and Pollux. The Greeks, indeed, called her
who was the mother of Melicertes, Leucothea, the Latins Matuta; but
both thought her a goddess.
15. _Of the fall of the kingdom of Argos, when Picus the son of
Saturn first received his father's kingdom of Laurentum._
During those times the kingdom of Argos came to an end, being
transferred to Mycene, from which Agamemnon came, and the kingdom of
Laurentum arose, of which Picus son of Saturn was the first king,
when the woman Deborah judged the Hebrews; but it was the Spirit
of God who used her as His agent, for she was also a prophetess,
although her prophecy is so obscure that we could not demonstrate,
without a long discussion, that it was uttered concerning Christ.
Now the Laurentes already reigned in Italy, from whom the origin
of the Roman people is quite evidently derived after the Greeks;
yet the kingdom of Assyria still lasted, in which Lampares was the
twenty-third king when Picus first began to reign at Laurentum. The
worshippers of such gods may see what they are to think of Saturn the
father of Picus, who deny that he was a man; of whom some also have
written that he himself reigned in Italy before Picus his son; and
Virgil in his well-known book says,--
"That race indocile, and through mountains high
Dispersed, he settled, and endowed with laws,
And named their country Latium, because
Latent within their coasts he dwelt secure.
Tradition says the golden ages pure
Began when he was king."[503]
But they regard these as poetic fancies, and assert that the father
of Picus was Sterces rather, and relate that, being a most skilful
husbandman, he discovered that the fields could be fertilized by the
dung of animals, which is called _stercus_ from his name. Some say
he was called Stercutius. But for whatever reason they chose to call
him Saturn, it is yet certain they made this Sterces or Stercutius
a god for his merit in agriculture; and they likewise received into
the number of these gods Picus his son, whom they affirm to have
been a famous augur and warrior. Picus begot Faunus, the second king
of Laurentum; and he too is, or was, a god with them. These divine
honours they gave to dead men before the Trojan war.
16. _Of Diomede, who after the destruction of Troy was placed among
the gods, while his companions are said to have been changed
into birds._
Troy was overthrown, and its destruction was everywhere sung and made
well known even to boys; for it was signally published and spread
abroad, both by its own greatness and by writers of excellent style.
And this was done in the reign of Latinus the son of Faunus, from
whom the kingdom began to be called Latium instead of Laurentum. The
victorious Greeks, on leaving Troy destroyed and returning to their own
countries, were torn and crushed by divers and horrible calamities.
Yet even from among them they increased the number of their gods, for
they made Diomede a god. They allege that his return home was prevented
by a divinely imposed punishment, and they prove, not by fabulous and
poetic falsehood, but by historic attestation, that his companions
were turned into birds. Yet they think that, even although he was made
a god, he could neither restore them to the human form by his own
power, nor yet obtain it from Jupiter his king, as a favour granted to
a new inhabitant of heaven. They also say that his temple is in the
island of Diomedæa, not far from Mount Garganus in Apulia, and that
these birds fly round about this temple, and worship in it with such
wonderful obedience, that they fill their beaks with water and sprinkle
it; and if Greeks, or those born of the Greek race, come there, they
are not only still, but fly to meet them; but if they are foreigners,
they fly up at their heads, and wound them with such severe strokes as
even to kill them. For they are said to be well enough armed for these
combats with their hard and large beaks.
17. _What Varro says of the incredible transformations of men._
In support of this story, Varro relates others no less incredible
about that most famous sorceress Circe, who changed the companions
of Ulysses into beasts, and about the Arcadians, who, by lot, swam
across a certain pool, and were turned into wolves there, and lived
in the deserts of that region with wild beasts like themselves.
But if they never fed on human flesh for nine years, they were
restored to the human form on swimming back again through the same
pool. Finally, he expressly names one Demænetus, who, on tasting a
boy offered up in sacrifice by the Arcadians to their god Lycæus
according to their custom, was changed into a wolf, and, being
restored to his proper form in the tenth year, trained himself as
a pugilist, and was victorious at the Olympic games. And the same
historian thinks that the epithet Lycæus was applied in Arcadia to
Pan and Jupiter for no other reason than this metamorphosis of men
into wolves, because it was thought it could not be wrought except by
a divine power. For a wolf is called in Greek λυκὸς, from which the
name Lycæus appears to be formed. He says also that the Roman Luperci
were as it were sprung of the seed of these mysteries.
18. _What we should believe concerning the transformations which
seem to happen to men through the art of demons._
Perhaps our readers expect us to say something about this so great
delusion wrought by the demons; and what shall we say but that men
must fly out of the midst of Babylon?[504] For this prophetic precept
is to be understood spiritually in this sense, that by going forward
in the living God, by the steps of faith, which worketh by love,
we must flee out of the city of this world, which is altogether a
society of ungodly angels and men. Yea, the greater we see the power
of the demons to be in these depths, so much the more tenaciously
must we cleave to the Mediator through whom we ascend from these
lowest to the highest places. For if we should say these things are
not to be credited, there are not wanting even now some who would
affirm that they had either heard on the best authority, or even
themselves experienced, something of that kind. Indeed we ourselves,
when in Italy, heard such things about a certain region there, where
landladies of inns, imbued with these wicked arts, were said to be
in the habit of giving to such travellers as they chose, or could
manage, something in a piece of cheese by which they were changed on
the spot into beasts of burden, and carried whatever was necessary,
and were restored to their own form when the work was done. Yet their
mind did not become bestial, but remained rational and human, just
as Apuleius, in the books he wrote with the title of _The Golden
Ass_, has told, or feigned, that it happened to his own self that, on
taking poison, he became an ass, while retaining his human mind.
These things are either false, or so extraordinary as to be with
good reason disbelieved. But it is to be most firmly believed that
Almighty God can do whatever He pleases, whether in punishing or
favouring, and that the demons can accomplish nothing by their
natural power (for their created being is itself angelic, although
made malign by their own fault), except what He may permit, whose
judgments are often hidden, but never unrighteous. And indeed
the demons, if they really do such things as these on which this
discussion turns, do not create real substances, but only change
the appearance of things created by the true God so as to make them
seem to be what they are not. I cannot therefore believe that even
the body, much less the mind, can really be changed into bestial
forms and lineaments by any reason, art, or power of the demons; but
the phantasm of a man, which even in thought or dreams goes through
innumerable changes, may, when the man's senses are laid asleep or
overpowered, be presented to the senses of others in a corporeal
form, in some indescribable way unknown to me, so that men's bodies
themselves may lie somewhere, alive, indeed, yet with their senses
locked up much more heavily and firmly than by sleep, while that
phantasm, as it were embodied in the shape of some animal, may appear
to the senses of others, and may even seem to the man himself to be
changed, just as he may seem to himself in sleep to be so changed,
and to bear burdens; and these burdens, if they are real substances,
are borne by the demons, that men may be deceived by beholding at the
same time the real substance of the burdens and the simulated bodies
of the beasts of burden. For a certain man called Præstantius used
to tell that it had happened to his father in his own house, that
he took that poison in a piece of cheese, and lay in his bed as if
sleeping, yet could by no means be aroused. But he said that after a
few days he as it were woke up and related the things he had suffered
as if they had been dreams, namely, that he had been made a sumpter
horse, and, along with other beasts of burden, had carried provisions
for the soldiers of what is called the Rhœtian Legion, because it was
sent to Rhœtia. And all this was found to have taken place just as
he told, yet it had seemed to him to be his own dream. And another
man declared that in his own house at night, before he slept, he
saw a certain philosopher, whom he knew very well, come to him and
explain to him some things in the Platonic philosophy which he had
previously declined to explain when asked. And when he had asked this
philosopher why he did in his house what he had refused to do at
home, he said, "I did not do it, but I dreamed I had done it." And
thus what the one saw when sleeping was shown to the other when awake
by a phantasmal image.
These things have not come to us from persons we might deem unworthy
of credit, but from informants we could not suppose to be deceiving
us. Therefore what men say and have committed to writing about the
Arcadians being often changed into wolves by the Arcadian gods, or
demons rather, and what is told in song about Circe transforming the
companions of Ulysses,[505] if they were really done, may, in my
opinion, have been done in the way I have said. As for Diomede's
birds, since their race is alleged to have been perpetuated by
constant propagation, I believe they were not made through the
metamorphosis of men, but were slyly substituted for them on their
removal, just as the hind was for Iphigenia, the daughter of king
Agamemnon. For juggleries of this kind could not be difficult for the
demons if permitted by the judgment of God; and since that virgin was
afterward found alive, it is easy to see that a hind had been slyly
substituted for her. But because the companions of Diomede were of
a sudden nowhere to be seen, and afterward could nowhere be found,
being destroyed by bad avenging angels, they were believed to have
been changed into those birds, which were secretly brought there from
other places where such birds were, and suddenly substituted for them
by fraud. But that they bring water in their beaks and sprinkle it
on the temple of Diomede, and that they fawn on men of Greek race
and persecute aliens, is no wonderful thing to be done by the inward
influence of the demons, whose interest it is to persuade men that
Diomede was made a god, and thus to beguile them into worshipping
many false gods, to the great dishonour of the true God; and to
serve dead men, who even in their lifetime did not truly live, with
temples, altars, sacrifices, and priests, all which, when of the
right kind, are due only to the one living and true God.
19. _That Æneas came into Italy when Abdon the judge ruled over
the Hebrews._
After the capture and destruction of Troy, Æneas, with twenty ships
laden with the Trojan relics, came into Italy, when Latinus reigned
there, Menestheus in Athens, Polyphidos in Sicyon, and Tautanos
in Assyria, and Abdon was judge of the Hebrews. On the death of
Latinus, Æneas reigned three years, the same kings continuing in the
above-named places, except that Pelasgus was now king in Sicyon, and
Sampson was judge of the Hebrews, who is thought to be Hercules,
because of his wonderful strength. Now the Latins made Æneas one
of their gods, because at his death he was nowhere to be found.
The Sabines also placed among the gods their first king, Sancus,
[Sangus], or Sanctus, as some call him. At that time Codrus king of
Athens exposed himself _incognito_ to be slain by the Peloponnesian
foes of that city, and so was slain. In this way, they say, he
delivered his country. For the Peloponnesians had received a response
from the oracle, that they should overcome the Athenians only on
condition that they did not slay their king. Therefore he deceived
them by appearing in a poor man's dress, and provoking them, by
quarrelling, to murder him. Whence Virgil says, "Or the quarrels of
Codrus."[506] And the Athenians worshipped this man as a god with
sacrificial honours. The fourth king of the Latins was Silvius the
son of Æneas, not by Creüsa, of whom Ascanius the third king was
born, but by Lavinia the daughter of Latinus, and he is said to
have been his posthumous child. Oneus was the twenty-ninth king of
Assyria, Melanthus the sixteenth of the Athenians, and Eli the priest
was judge of the Hebrews; and the kingdom of Sicyon then came to an
end, after lasting, it is said, for nine hundred and fifty-nine years.
20. _Of the succession of the line of kings among the Israelites
after the times of the judges._
While these kings reigned in the places mentioned, the period of the
judges being ended, the kingdom of Israel next began with king Saul,
when Samuel the prophet lived. At that date those Latin kings began
who were surnamed Silvii, having that surname, in addition to their
proper name, from their predecessor, that son of Æneas who was called
Silvius; just as, long afterward, the successors of Cæsar Augustus
were surnamed Cæsars. Saul being rejected, so that none of his issue
should reign, on his death David succeeded him in the kingdom, after
he had reigned forty years. Then the Athenians ceased to have kings
after the death of Codrus, and began to have a magistracy to rule
the republic. After David, who also reigned forty years, his son
Solomon was king of Israel, who built that most noble temple of God
at Jerusalem. In his time Alba was built among the Latins, from which
thereafter the kings began to be styled kings not of the Latins, but
of the Albans, although in the same Latium. Solomon was succeeded
by his son Rehoboam, under whom that people was divided into two
kingdoms, and its separate parts began to have separate kings.
21. _Of the kings of Latium, the first and twelfth of whom,
Æneas and Aventinus, were made gods._
After Æneas, whom they deified, Latium had eleven kings, none of
whom was deified. But Aventinus, who was the twelfth after Æneas,
having been laid low in war, and buried in that hill still called
by his name, was added to the number of such gods as they made for
themselves. Some, indeed, were unwilling to write that he was slain
in battle, but said he was nowhere to be found, and that it was not
from his name, but from the alighting of birds, that hill was called
Aventinus.[507] After this no god was made in Latium except Romulus
the founder of Rome. But two kings are found between these two, the
first of whom I shall describe in the Virgilian verse:
"Next came that Procas, glory of the Trojan race."[508]
That greatest of all kingdoms, the Assyrian, had its long duration
brought to a close in his time, the time of Rome's birth drawing
nigh. For the Assyrian empire was transferred to the Medes after
nearly thirteen hundred and five years, if we include the reign of
Belus, who begot Ninus, and, content with a small kingdom, was the
first king there. Now Procas reigned before Amulius. And Amulius
had made his brother Numitor's daughter, Rhea by name, who was also
called Ilia, a vestal virgin, who conceived twin sons by Mars, as
they will have it, in that way honouring or excusing her adultery,
adding as a proof that a she-wolf nursed the infants when exposed.
For they think this kind of beast belongs to Mars, so that the
she-wolf is believed to have given her teats to the infants, because
she knew they were the sons of Mars her lord; although there are not
wanting persons who say that when the crying babes lay exposed, they
were first of all picked up by I know not what harlot, and sucked
her breasts first (now harlots were called _lupæ_, she-wolves, from
which their vile abodes are even yet called _lupanaria_), and that
afterwards they came into the hands of the shepherd Faustulus, and
were nursed by Acca his wife. Yet what wonder is it, if, to rebuke
the king who had cruelly ordered them to be thrown into the water,
God was pleased, after divinely delivering them from the water, to
succour, by means of a wild beast giving milk, these infants by whom
so great a city was to be founded? Amulius was succeeded in the
Latian kingdom by his brother Numitor, the grandfather of Romulus;
and Rome was founded in the first year of this Numitor, who from that
time reigned along with his grandson Romulus.
22. _That Rome was founded when the Assyrian kingdom perished,
at which time Hezekiah reigned in Judah._
To be brief, the city of Rome was founded, like another Babylon, and as
it were the daughter of the former Babylon, by which God was pleased
to conquer the whole world, and subdue it far and wide by bringing it
into one fellowship of government and laws. For there were already
powerful and brave peoples and nations trained to arms, who did not
easily yield, and whose subjugation necessarily involved great danger
and destruction as well as great and horrible labour. For when the
Assyrian kingdom subdued almost all Asia, although this was done by
fighting, yet the wars could not be very fierce or difficult, because
the nations were as yet untrained to resist, and neither so many nor
so great as afterward; forasmuch as, after that greatest and indeed
universal flood, when only eight men escaped in Noah's ark, not much
more than a thousand years had passed when Ninus subdued all Asia
with the exception of India. But Rome did not with the same quickness
and facility wholly subdue all those nations of the east and west
which we see brought under the Roman empire, because, in its gradual
increase, in whatever direction it was extended, it found them strong
and warlike. At the time when Rome was founded, then, the people of
Israel had been in the land of promise seven hundred and eighteen
years. Of these years twenty-seven belong to Joshua the son of Nun, and
after that three hundred and twenty-nine to the period of the judges.
But from the time when the kings began to reign there, three hundred
and sixty-two years had passed. And at that time there was a king in
Judah called Ahaz, or, as others compute, Hezekiah his successor, the
best and most pious king, who it is admitted reigned in the times of
Romulus. And in that part of the Hebrew nation called Israel, Hoshea
had begun to reign.
23. _Of the Erythræan sibyl, who is known to have sung many things
about Christ more plainly than the other sibyls._
Some say the Erythræan sibyl prophesied at this time. Now Varro
declares there were many sibyls, and not merely one. This sibyl of
Erythræ certainly wrote some things concerning Christ which are
quite manifest, and we first read them in the Latin tongue in verses
of bad Latin, and unrhythmical, through the unskilfulness, as we
afterward learned, of some interpreter unknown to me. For Flaccianus,
a very famous man, who was also a proconsul, a man of most ready
eloquence and much learning, when we were speaking about Christ,
produced a Greek manuscript, saying that it was the prophecies of
the Erythræan sibyl, in which he pointed out a certain passage which
had the initial letters of the lines so arranged that these words
could be read in them: Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ υἱὸς σωτήρ, which mean,
"Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour." And these verses, of
which the initial letters yield that meaning, contain what follows as
translated by some one into Latin in good rhythm:
Ι Judgment shall moisten the earth with the sweat of its
standard,
Η Ever enduring, behold the King shall come through the ages,
Σ Sent to be here in the flesh, and Judge at the last of the
world.
Ο O God, the believing and faithless alike shall behold Thee
Υ Uplifted with saints, when at last the ages are ended.
Σ Sisted before Him are souls in the flesh for His judgment.
Χ Hid in thick vapours, the while desolate lieth the earth.
Ρ Rejected by men are the idols and long hidden treasures;
Ε Earth is consumed by the fire, and it searcheth the ocean
and heaven;
Ι Issuing forth, it destroyeth the terrible portals of hell.
Σ Saints in their body and soul freedom and light shall
inherit;
Τ Those who are guilty shall burn in fire and brimstone for
ever.
Ο Occult actions revealing, each one shall publish his
secrets;
Σ Secrets of every man's heart God shall reveal in the light.
Θ Then shall be weeping and wailing, yea; and gnashing of
teeth;
Ε Eclipsed is the sun, and silenced the stars in their chorus.
Ο Over and gone is the splendour of moonlight, melted the
heaven.
Υ Uplifted by Him are the valleys, and cast down the
mountains.
Υ Utterly gone among men are distinctions of lofty and lowly.
Ι Into the plains rush the hills, the skies and oceans are
mingled.
Ο Oh, what an end of all things! earth broken in pieces shall
perish;
Σ Swelling together at once shall the waters and flames flow
in rivers.
Σ Sounding the archangel's trumpet shall peal down from
heaven,
Ω Over the wicked who groan in their guilt and their manifold
sorrows.
Τ Trembling, the earth shall be opened, revealing chaos and
hell.
Η Every king before God shall stand in that day to be judged.
Ρ Rivers of fire and of brimstone shall fall from the heavens.