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| 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.
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Chapter 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.”1112
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,”1113
| 1113 Sallust, Bell. Cat. c.
xi. | 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 as even
to behold; for his life is unlike other men’s and his ways are
different. We are esteemed of him as counterfeits; and he
abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness. He extols the latter
end of the righteous; and glorieth that he hath God for his
Father. Let us see, therefore, if his words be true; and let us
try what shall happen to him, and we shall know what shall be the
end of him. For if the righteous be the Son of God, He will
undertake for him, and deliver him out of the hand of those that
are against him. Let us put him to the question with contumely
and torture, that we may know his reverence, and prove his
patience. Let us condemn him to the most shameful death; for by
His own sayings He shall be respected. These things did they
imagine, and were mistaken; for their own malice hath quite blinded
them.”1114
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.”1115
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,”1116
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.”1117
In like manner also that
passage in this same book, on which we have already touched1118
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.”1119
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.”1120
Yet to
these weak ones she saith what follows, “Forsake simplicity, that
ye may live; and seek prudence, that ye may have life.”1121
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,”1122
| 1122 Eccles. ii. 24;
iii. 13; v. 18; viii. 15. | what can
he be more credibly understood to say, than what belongs to the
participation of this table which the Mediator of the New Testament
Himself, the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes with
His own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all the
sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a shadow of
that which was to come; wherefore also we recognize the voice in
the 40th Psalm as that of the same Mediator speaking through
prophesy, “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; but a
body hast Thou perfected for me.”1123
Because, instead of all these
sacrifices and oblations, His body is offered, and is served up to
the partakers of it. For that this Ecclesiastes, in this sentence
about eating and drinking, which he often repeats, and very much
commends, does not savor the dainties of carnal pleasures, is made
plain enough when he says, “It is better to go into the house of
mourning than to go into the house of feasting.”1124
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.”1125
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!”1126
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.”1127
A psalm
also saith, “For they that hope in Thee shall not be put to
shame.”1128
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;1129
and the bride who there hears,
“Charity is in thy delights.”1130
We pass over many things in
silence, in our desire to finish this work.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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