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| About the Prefigured Change of the Israelitic Kingdom and Priesthood, and About the Things Hannah the Mother of Samuel Prophesied, Personating the Church.
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Chapter 4.—About the Prefigured
Change of the Israelitic Kingdom and Priesthood, and About the
Things Hannah the Mother of Samuel Prophesied, Personating the
Church.
Therefore the advance of the city
of God, where it reached the times of the kings, yielded a figure,
when, on the rejection of Saul, David first obtained the kingdom on
such a footing that thenceforth his descendants should reign in the
earthly Jerusalem in continual succession; for the course of
affairs signified and foretold, what is not to be passed by in
silence, concerning the change of things to come, what belongs to
both Testaments, the Old and the New,—where the priesthood and
kingdom are changed by one who is a priest, and at the same time a
king, new and everlasting, even Christ Jesus. For both the
substitution in the ministry of God, on Eli’s rejection as
priest, of Samuel, who executed at once the office of priest and
judge, and the establishment of David in the kingdom, when Saul was
rejected, typified this of which I speak. And Hannah herself, the
mother of Samuel, who formerly was barren, and afterwards was
gladdened with fertility, does not seem to prophesy anything else,
when she exultingly pours forth her thanksgiving to the Lord, on
yielding up to God the same boy she had born and weaned with the
same piety with which she had vowed him. For she says, “My
heart is made strong in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God;
my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; I am made glad in Thy
salvation. Because there is none holy as the Lord; and none is
righteous as our God: there is none holy save Thee. Do not
glory so proudly, and do not speak lofty things, neither let
vaunting talk come out of your mouth; for a God of knowledge is the
Lord, and a God preparing His curious designs. The bow of the
mighty hath He made weak, and the weak are girded with strength.
They that were full of bread are diminished; and the hungry have
passed beyond the earth: for the barren hath born seven; and she
that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and
maketh alive: He bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up again.
The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich: He bringeth low and lifteth
up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the
beggar from the dunghill, that He may set him among the mighty of
[His] people, and maketh them inherit the throne of glory; giving
the vow to him that voweth, and He hath blessed the years of the
just: for man is not mighty in strength. The Lord shall
make
His adversary weak: the Lord is holy. Let not the prudent glory
in his prudence and let not the mighty glory in his might; and let
not the rich glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory
in this, to understand and know the Lord, and to do judgment and
justice in the midst of the earth. The Lord hath ascended into
the heavens, and hath thundered: He shall judge the ends of the
earth, for He is righteous: and He giveth strength to our kings,
and shall exalt the horn of His Christ.”985
Do you say that these are the words
of a single weak woman giving thanks for the birth of a son? Can
the mind of men be so much averse to the light of truth as not to
perceive that the sayings this woman pours forth exceed her
measure? Moreover, he who is suitably interested in these things
which have already begun to be fulfilled even in this earthly
pilgrimage also, does he not apply his mind, and perceive, and
acknowledge, that through this woman—whose very name, which is
Hannah, means “His grace”—the very Christian religion, the
very city of God, whose king and founder is Christ, in fine, the
very grace of God, hath thus spoken by the prophetic Spirit,
whereby the proud are cut off so that they fall, and the humble are
filled so that they rise, which that hymn chiefly celebrates?
Unless perchance any one will say that this woman prophesied
nothing, but only lauded God with exulting praise on account of the
son whom she had obtained in answer to prayer. What then does she
mean when she says, “The bow of the mighty hath He made weak, and
the weak are girded with strength; they that were full of bread are
diminished, and the hungry have gone beyond the earth; for the
barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed
feeble?” Had she herself born seven, although she had been
barren? She had only one when she said that; neither did she bear
seven afterwards, nor six, with whom Samuel himself might be the
seventh, but three males and two females. And then, when as yet
no one was king over that people, whence, if she did not prophesy,
did she say what she puts at the end, “He giveth strength to our
kings, and shall exalt the horn of His Christ?”
Therefore let the Church of Christ,
the city of the great King,986
full of grace, prolific of
offspring, let her say what the prophecy uttered about her so long
before by the mouth of this pious mother confesses, “My heart is
made strong in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God.” Her
heart is truly made strong, and her horn is truly exalted, because
not in herself, but in the Lord her God. “My mouth is enlarged
over mine enemies;” because even in pressing straits the word of
God is not bound, not even in preachers who are bound.987
“I am
made glad,” she says, “in Thy salvation.” This is Christ
Jesus Himself, whom old Simeon, as we read in the Gospel, embracing
as a little one, yet recognizing as great, said, “Lord, now
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen
Thy salvation.”988
Therefore
may the Church say, “I am made glad in Thy salvation. For there
is none holy as the Lord, and none is righteous as our God;” as
holy and sanctifying, just and justifying.989
“There is none holy beside
Thee;” because no one becomes so except by reason of Thee. And
then it follows, “Do not glory so proudly, and do not speak lofty
things, neither let vaunting talk come out of your mouth. For a
God of knowledge is the Lord.” He knows you even when no one
knows; for “he who thinketh himself to be something when he is
nothing deceiveth himself.”990
These things are said to the
adversaries of the city of God who belong to Babylon, who presume
in their own strength, and glory in themselves, not in the Lord; of
whom are also the carnal Israelites, the earth-born inhabitants of
the earthly Jerusalem, who, as saith the apostle, “being ignorant
of the righteousness of God,”991
that is, which God, who alone is
just, and the justifier, gives to man, “and wishing to establish
their own,” that is, which is as it were procured by their own
selves, not bestowed by Him, “are not subject to the
righteousness of God,” just because they are proud, and think
they are able to please God with their own, not with that which is
of God, who is the God of knowledge, and therefore also takes the
oversight of consciences, there beholding the thoughts of men that
they are vain,992
| 992 Ps. xciv. 11; 1 Cor. iii.
20. | if they are
of men, and are not from Him. “And preparing,” she says,
“His curious designs.” What curious designs do we think these
are, save that the proud must fall, and the humble rise? These
curious designs she recounts, saying, “The bow of the mighty is
made weak, and the weak are girded with strength.” The bow is
made weak, that is, the intention of those who think themselves so
powerful, that without the gift and help of God they are able by
human sufficiency to fulfill the divine commandments; and those are
girded with strength whose in
ward cry is, “Have mercy upon
me, O Lord, for I am weak.”993
“They that were full of bread,”
she says, “are diminished, and the hungry have gone beyond the
earth.” Who are to be understood as full of bread except those
same who were as if mighty, that is, the Israelites, to whom were
committed the oracles of God?994
But among that people the
children of the bond maid were diminished,—by which word
minus, although it is Latin, the idea is well expressed that
from being greater they were made less,—because, even in the very
bread, that is, the divine oracles, which the Israelites alone of
all nations have received, they savor earthly things. But the
nations to whom that law was not given, after they have come
through the New Testament to these oracles, by thirsting much have
gone beyond the earth, because in them they have savored not
earthly, but heavenly things. And the reason why this is done is
as it were sought; “for the barren,” she says, “hath born
seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.” Here
all that had been prophesied hath shone forth to those who
understood the number seven, which signifies the perfection of the
universal Church. For which reason also the Apostle John writes
to the seven churches,995
showing in that way that he writes
to the totality of the one Church; and in the Proverbs of Solomon
it is said aforetime, prefiguring this, “Wisdom hath builded her
house, she hath strengthened her seven pillars.”996
For the
city of God was barren in all nations before that child arose whom
we see.997
We also
see that the temporal Jerusalem, who had many children, is now
waxed feeble. Because, whoever in her were sons of the free woman
were her strength; but now, forasmuch as the letter is there, and
not the spirit, having lost her strength, she is waxed
feeble.
“The Lord killeth and maketh
alive:” He has killed her who had many children, and made this
barren one alive, so that she has born seven. Although it may be
more suitably understood that He has made those same alive whom He
has killed. For she, as it were, repeats that by adding, “He
bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up.” To whom truly the
apostle says, “If ye be dead with Christ, seek those things which
are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”998
Therefore
they are killed by the Lord in a salutary way, so that he adds,
“Savor things which are above, not things on the earth;” so
that these are they who, hungering, have passed beyond the earth.
“For ye are dead,” he says: behold how God savingly kills!
Then there follows, “And your life is hid with Christ in God:”
behold how God makes the same alive! But does He bring them down
to hell and bring them up again? It is without controversy among
believers that we best see both parts of this work fulfilled in
Him, to wit our Head, with whom the apostle has said our life is
hid in God. “For when He spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all,”999
in that way, certainly, He has
killed Him. And forasmuch as He raised Him up again from the
dead, He has made Him alive again. And since His voice is
acknowledged in the prophecy, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell,”1000
| 1000 Ps. xvi. 10; Acts ii. 27,
31. | He has
brought Him down to hell and brought Him up again. By this
poverty of His we are made rich;1001
for “the Lord maketh poor and
maketh rich.” But that we may know what this is, let us hear
what follows: “He bringeth low and lifteth up;” and truly He
humbles the proud and exalts the humble. Which we also read
elsewhere, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the
humble.”1002
This is
the burden of the entire song of this woman whose name is
interpreted “His grace.”
Farther, what is added, “He
raiseth up the poor from the earth,” I understand of none better
than of Him who, as was said a little ago, “was made poor for us,
when He was rich, that by His poverty we might be made rich.”
For He raised Him from the earth so quickly that His flesh did not
see corruption. Nor shall I divert from Him what is added, “And
raiseth up the poor from the dunghill.” For indeed he who is
the poor man is also the beggar.1003
But by the dunghill from which
he is lifted up we are with the greatest reason to understand the
persecuting Jews, of whom the apostle says, when telling that when
he belonged to them he persecuted the Church, “What things were
gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ; and I have counted
them not only loss, but even dung, that I might win Christ.”1004
Therefore that poor one is raised up from the earth above all the
rich, and that beggar is lifted up from that dunghill above all the
wealthy, “that he may sit among the mighty of the people,” to
whom He says, “Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones,”1005
“and to
make them inherit the throne of glory.” For these mighty
ones
had said, “Lo, we have forsaken all and followed
Thee.” They had most mightily vowed this vow.
But whence do they receive this,
except from Him of whom it is here immediately said, “Giving the
vow to him that voweth?” Otherwise they would be of those
mighty ones whose bow is weakened. “Giving,” she saith,
“the vow to him that voweth.” For no one could vow anything
acceptable to God, unless he received from Him that which he might
vow. There follows, “And He hath blessed the years of the
just,” to wit, that he may live for ever with Him to whom it is
said, “And Thy years shall have no end.” For there the years
abide; but here they pass away, yea, they perish: for before they
come they are not, and when they shall have come they shall not be,
because they bring their own end with them. Now of these two,
that is, “giving the vow to him that voweth,” and “He hath
blessed the years of the just,” the one is what we do, the other
what we receive. But this other is not received from God, the
liberal giver, until He, the helper, Himself has enabled us for the
former; “for man is not mighty in strength.” “The Lord
shall make his adversary weak,” to wit, him who envies the man
that vows, and resists him, lest he should fulfill what he has
vowed. Owing to the ambiguity of the Greek, it may also be
understood “his own adversary.” For when God has begun to
possess us, immediately he who had been our adversary becomes His,
and is conquered by us; but not by our own strength, “for man is
not mighty in strength.” Therefore “the Lord shall make His
own adversary weak, the Lord is holy,” that he may be conquered
by the saints, whom the Lord, the Holy of holies, hath made
saints. For this reason, “let not the prudent glory in his
prudence, and let not the mighty glory in his might, and let not
the rich glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in
this,—to understand and know the Lord, and to do judgment and
justice in the midst of the earth.” He in no small measure
understands and knows the Lord who understands and knows that even
this, that he can understand and know the Lord, is given to him by
the Lord. “For what hast thou,” saith the apostle, “that
thou hast not received? But if thou hast received it, why dost
thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?”1006
That is, as if thou hadst of
thine own self whereof thou mightest glory. Now, he does judgment
and justice who lives aright. But he lives aright who yields
obedience to God when He commands. “The end of the
commandment,” that is, to which the commandment has reference,
“is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith
unfeigned.” Moreover, this “charity,” as the Apostle John
testifies, “is of God.”1007
Therefore to do justice and
judgment is of God. But what is “in the midst of the
earth?” For ought those who dwell in the ends of the earth not
to do judgment and justice? Who would say so? Why, then, is it
added, “In the midst of the earth?” For if this had not been
added, and it had only been said, “To do judgment and justice,”
this commandment would rather have pertained to both kinds of
men,—both those dwelling inland and those on the sea-coast. But
lest any one should think that, after the end of the life led in
this body, there remains a time for doing judgment and justice
which he has not done while he was in the flesh, and that the
divine judgment can thus be escaped, “in the midst of the
earth” appears to me to be said of the time when every one lives
in the body; for in this life every one carries about his own
earth, which, on a man’s dying, the common earth takes back, to
be surely returned to him on his rising again. Therefore “in
the midst of the earth,” that is, while our soul is shut up in
this earthly body, judgment and justice are to be done, which shall
be profitable for us hereafter, when “every one shall receive
according to that he hath done in the body, whether good or
bad.”1008
For when
the apostle there says “in the body,” he means in the time he
has lived in the body. Yet if any one blaspheme with malicious
mind and impious thought, without any member of his body being
employed in it, he shall not therefore be guiltless because he has
not done it with bodily motion, for he will have done it in that
time which he has spent in the body. In the same way we may
suitably understand what we read in the psalm, “But God, our King
before the worlds, hath wrought salvation in the midst of the
earth;”1009
so that
the Lord Jesus may be understood to be our God who is before the
worlds, because by Him the worlds were made, working our salvation
in the midst of the earth, for the Word was made flesh and dwelt in
an earthly body.
Then after Hannah has prophesied in
these words, that he who glorieth ought to glory not in himself at
all, but in the Lord, she says, on account of the retribution which
is to come on the day of judgment, “The Lord hath ascended into
the heavens, and hath
thundered: He shall judge the
ends of the earth, for He is righteous.” Throughout she holds
to the order of the creed of Christians: For the Lord Christ has
ascended into heaven, and is to come thence to judge the quick and
dead.1010
For, as
saith the apostle, “Who hath ascended but He who hath also
descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is
the same also that ascended up above all heavens, that He might
fill all things.”1011
Therefore He hath thundered
through His clouds, which He hath filled with His Holy Spirit when
He ascended up. Concerning which the bond maid Jerusalem—that
is, the unfruitful vineyard—is threatened in Isaiah the prophet
that they shall rain no showers upon her. But “He shall judge
the ends of the earth” is spoken as if it had been said, “even
the extremes of the earth.” For it does not mean that He shall
not judge the other parts of the earth, who, without doubt, shall
judge all men. But it is better to understand by the extremes of
the earth the extremes of man, since those things shall not be
judged which, in the middle time, are changed for the better or the
worse, but the ending in which he shall be found who is judged.
For which reason it is said, “He that shall persevere even unto
the end, the same shall be saved.”1012
He, therefore, who perseveringly
does judgment and justice in the midst of the earth shall not be
condemned when the extremes of the earth shall be judged. “And
giveth,” she saith, “strength to our kings,” that He may not
condemn them in judging. He giveth them strength whereby as kings
they rule the flesh, and conquer the world in Him who hath poured
out His blood for them. “And shall exalt the horn of His
Christ.” How shall Christ exalt the horn of His Christ? For
He of whom it was said above, “The Lord hath ascended into the
heavens,” meaning the Lord Christ, Himself, as it is said here,
“shall exalt the horn of His Christ.” Who, therefore, is the
Christ of His Christ? Does it mean that He shall exalt the horn
of each one of His believing people, as she says in the beginning
of this hymn, “Mine horn is exalted in my God?” For we can
rightly call all those christs who are anointed with His chrism,
forasmuch as the whole body with its head is one Christ.1013
These
things hath Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the holy and much-praised
man, prophesied, in which, indeed, the change of the ancient
priesthood was then figured and is now fulfilled, since she that
had many children is waxed feeble, that the barren who hath born
seven might have the new priesthood in Christ.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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