Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| That All the Saints, Both Under the Law and Before It, Were Justified by Faith in the Mystery of Christ’s Incarnation.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter 25.—That All the Saints,
Both Under the Law and Before It, Were Justified by Faith in the
Mystery of Christ’s Incarnation.
It was by faith in this mystery,
and godliness of life, that purification was attainable even by the
saints of old, whether before the law was given to the Hebrews (for
God and the angels were even then present as instructors), or in
the periods under the law, although the promises of spiritual
things, being presented in figure, seemed to be carnal, and hence
the name of Old Testament. For it was then the prophets lived, by
whom, as by angels, the same promise was announced; and among them
was he whose grand and divine sentiment regarding the end and
supreme good of man I have just now quoted, “It is good for me to
cleave to God.”423
In this
psalm the distinction between the Old and New Testaments is
distinctly announced. For the Psalmist says, that when he saw
that the carnal and earthly promises were abundantly enjoyed by the
ungodly, his feet were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh
slipped; and that it seemed to him as if he had served God in vain,
when he saw that those who despised God increased in that
prosperity which he looked for at God’s hand. He says, too,
that, in investigating this matter with the desire of understanding
why it was so, he had labored in vain, until he went into the
sanctuary of God, and understood the end of those whom he had
erroneously considered happy. Then he understood that they were
cast down by that very thing, as he says, which they had made their
boast, and that they had been consumed and perished for their
inequities; and
that that whole fabric of
temporal prosperity had become as a dream when one awaketh, and
suddenly finds himself destitute of all the joys he had imaged in
sleep. And, as in this earth or earthy city they seemed to
themselves to be great, he says, “O Lord, in Thy city Thou wilt
reduce their image to nothing.” He also shows how beneficial it
had been for him to seek even earthly blessings only from the one
true God, in whose power are all things, for he says, “As a beast
was I before Thee, and I am always with Thee.” “As a
beast,” he says, meaning that he was stupid. For I ought to
have sought from Thee such things as the ungodly could not enjoy as
well as I, and not those things which I saw them enjoying in
abundance, and hence concluded I was serving Thee in vain, because
they who declined to serve Thee had what I had not. Nevertheless,
“I am always with Thee,” because even in my desire for such
things I did not pray to other gods. And consequently he goes on,
“Thou hast holden me by my right hand, and by Thy counsel Thou
hast guided me, and with glory hast taken me up;” as if all
earthly advantages were left-hand blessings, though, when he saw
them enjoyed by the wicked, his feet had almost gone. “For
what,” he says, “have I in heaven, and what have I desired from
Thee upon earth?” He blames himself, and is justly displeased
with himself; because, though he had in heaven so vast a possession
(as he afterwards understood), he yet sought from his God on earth
a transitory and fleeting happiness;—a happiness of mire, we may
say. “My heart and my flesh,” he says, “fail, O God of my
heart.” Happy failure, from things below to things above! And
hence in another psalm He says, “My soul longeth, yea, even
faileth, for the courts of the Lord.”424
Yet, though he had said of both
his heart and his flesh that they were failing, he did not say, O
God of my heart and my flesh, but, O God of my heart; for by the
heart the flesh is made clean. Therefore, says the Lord,
“Cleanse that which is within, and the outside shall be clean
also.”425
He then
says that God Himself,—not anything received from Him, but
Himself,—is his portion. “The God of my heart, and my portion
for ever.” Among the various objects of human choice, God alone
satisfied him. “For, lo,” he says, “they that are far from
Thee shall perish: Thou destroyest all them that go a-whoring
from Thee,”—that is, who prostitute themselves to many gods.
And then follows the verse for which all the rest of the psalm
seems to prepare: “It is good for me to cleave to God,”—not
to go far off; not to go a-whoring with a multitude of gods. And
then shall this union with God be perfected, when all that is to be
redeemed in us has been redeemed. But for the present we must, as
he goes on to say, “place our hope in God.” “For that which
is seen,” says the apostle, “is not hope. For what a man
sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it.”426
Being, then, for the present
established in this hope, let us do what the Psalmist further
indicates, and become in our measure angels or messengers of God,
declaring His will, and praising His glory and His grace. For
when he had said, “To place my hope in God,” he goes on,
“that I may declare all Thy praises in the gates of the daughter
of Zion.” This is the most glorious city of God; this is the
city which knows and worships one God: she is celebrated by the
holy angels, who invite us to their society, and desire us to
become fellow-citizens with them in this city; for they do not wish
us to worship them as our gods, but to join them in worshipping
their God and ours; nor to sacrifice to them, but, together with
them, to become a sacrifice to God. Accordingly, whoever will lay
aside malignant obstinacy, and consider these things, shall be
assured that all these blessed and immortal spirits, who do not
envy us (for if they envied they were not blessed), but rather love
us, and desire us to be as blessed as themselves, look on us with
greater pleasure, and give us greater assistance, when we join them
in worshipping one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, than if we
were to offer to themselves sacrifice and worship.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
