|
By the favor of God we have treated distinctly of His promises made
to Abraham, that both the nation of Israel according to the flesh,
and all nations according to faith, should be his seed, and the City
of God, proceeding according to the order of time, will point out how
they were fulfilled. Having therefore in the previous book come down
to the reign of David, we shall now treat of what remains, so far as
may seem sufficient for the object of this work, beginning at the same
reign. Now, from the time when holy Samuel began to prophesy, and
ever onward until the people of Israel was led captive into
Babylonia, and until, according to the prophecy of holy Jeremiah,
on Israel's return thence after seventy years, the house of God was
built anew. This whole period is the prophetic age. For although
both the patriarch Noah himself, in whose days the whole earth was
destroyed by the flood, and others before and after him down to this
time when there began to be kings over the people of God, may not
undeservedly be styled prophets, on account of certain things
pertaining to the city of God and the kingdom of heaven, which they
either predicted or in any way signified should come to pass, and
especially since we read that some of them, as Abraham and Moses,
were expressly so styled, yet those are most and chiefly called the
days of the prophets from the time when Samuel began to prophesy, who
at God's command first anointed Saul to be king, and, on his
rejection, David himself, whom others of his issue should succeed as
long as it was fitting they should do so. If, therefore, I wished
to rehearse all that the prophets have predicted concerning Christ,
while the city of God, with its members dying and being born in
constant succession, ran its course through those times, this work
would extend beyond all bounds. First, because the Scripture
itself, even when, in treating in order of the kings and of their
deeds and the events of their reigns, it seems to be occupied in
narrating as with historical diligence the affairs transacted, will be
found, if the things handled by it are considered with the aid of the
Spirit of God, either more, or certainly not less, intent on
foretelling things to come than on relating things past. And who that
thinks even a little about it does not know how laborious and prolix a
work it would be, and how many volumes it would require to search this
out by thorough investigation and demonstrate it by argument? And
then, because of that which without dispute pertains to prophecy,
there are so many things concerning Christ and the kingdom of heaven,
which is the city of God, that to explain these a larger discussion
would be necessary than the due proportion of this work admits of.
Therefore I shall, if I can, so limit myself, that in carrying
through this work, I may, with God's help, neither say what is
superfluous nor omit what is necessary.
|
|