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For whatever direct and manifest prophetic utterances there may be
about anything, it is necessary that those which are tropical should be
mingled with them; which, chiefly on account of those of slower
understanding, thrust upon the more learned the laborious task of
clearing up and expounding them. Some of them, indeed, on the very
first blush, as soon as they are spoken, exhibit Christ and the
Church, although some things in them that are less intelligible remain
to be expounded at leisure. We have an example of this in that same
Book of Psalms: "My heart bubbled up a good matter: I utter my
words to the king. My tongue is the pen of a scribe, writing
swiftly. Thy form is beautiful beyond the sons of men; grace is
poured out in Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee for
evermore. Gird Thy sword about Thy thigh, O Most Mighty. With
Thy goodliness and Thy beauty go forward, proceed prosperously, and
reign, because of Thy truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and
Thy right hand shall lead Thee forth wonderfully. Thy sharp arrows
are most powerful: in the heart of the king's enemies. The people
shall fall under Time. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever:
a rod of direction is the rod of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved
righteousness, and hast hated iniquity: therefore God, Thy God,
hath anointed Thee with the oil of exultation above Thy fellows.
Myrrh and drops, and cassia from Thy vestments, from the houses of
ivory: out of which the daughters of kings have delighted Thee in
Thine honor." Who is there, no matter how slow, but must here
recognize Christ whom we preach, and in whom we believe, if he hears
that He is God, whose throne is for ever and ever, and that He is
anointed by God, as God indeed anoints, not with a visible, but
with a spiritual and intelligible chrism? For who is so untaught in
this religion, or so deaf to its far and wide spread fame, as not to
know that Christ is named from this chrism, that is, from this
anointing? But when it is acknowledged that this King is Christ,
let each one who is already subject to Him who reigns because of
truth, meekness, and righteousness, inquire at his leisure into these
other things that are here said tropically: how His form is beautiful
beyond the sons of men, with a certain beauty that is the more to be
loved and admired the less it is corporeal; and what His sword,
arrows, and other things of that kind may be, which are set down, not
properly, but tropically.
Then let him look upon His Church, joined to her so great Husband
in spiritual marriage and divine love, of which it is said in these
words which follow, "The queen stood upon Thy right hand in
gold-embroidered vestments, girded about with variety. Hearken, O
daughter, and look, and incline thine ear; forget also thy people,
and thy father's house. Because the King hath greatly desired thy
beauty; for He is the Lord thy God. And the daughters of Tyre
shall worship Him with gifts; the rich among the people shall entreat
Thy face. The daughter of the King has all her glory within, in
golden fringes, girded about with variety. The virgins shall be
brought after her to the King: her neighbors shall be brought to
Thee. They shall be brought with gladness and exultation: they shall
be led into the temple of the King. Instead of thy fathers, sons
shall be born to thee: thou shalt establish them as princes over all
the earth. They shall be mindful of thy name in every generation and
descent. Therefore shall the people acknowledge thee for evermore,
even for ever and ever." 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;" 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." 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." 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." 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." Who is this Highest, save God? And thus Christ,
who is God, before He became man through Mary in that city,
Himself rounded it by the patriarchs and prophets. As therefore was
said by prophecy so long before to this queen, the city of God, what
we already can see fulfilled, "Instead of thy fathers, sons are born
to thee; thou shall make them princes over all the earth;" 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.
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