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In the succeeding words, "Remember the law of Moses my servant,
which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel," the prophet
opportunely mentions precepts and statutes, after declaring the
important distinction hereafter to be made between those who observe and
those who despise the law. He intends also that they learn to
interpret the law spiritually, and find Christ in it, by whose
judgment that separation between the good and the bad is to be made.
For it is not without reason that the Lord Himself says to the
Jews, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he
wrote of me." For by receiving the law carnally without perceiving
that its earthly promises were figures of things spiritual, they fell
into such murmur ings as audaciously to say, "It is vain to serve
God; and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that
we have walked suppliantly before the face of the Lord Almighty? And
now we call aliens happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set
up." It was these words of theirs which in a manner compelled the
prophet to announce the last judgment, in which the wicked shall not
even in appearance be happy, but shall manifestly be most miserable;
and in which the good shall be oppressed with not even a transitory
wretchedness, but shall enjoy unsullied and eternal felicity. For he
had previously cited some similar expressions of those who said,
"Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and
such are pleasing to Him." It was, I say, by understanding the
law of Moses carnally that they had come to murmur thus against God.
And hence, too, the writer of the 73rd Psalm says that his feet
were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped, because he was
envious of sinners while he considered their prosperity, so that he
said among other things, How doth God know, and is there knowledge
in the Most High? and again, Have I sanctified my heart in vain,
and washed my hands in innocency? He goes on to say that his efforts
to solve this most difficult problem, which arises when the good seem
to be wretched and the wicked happy, were in vain until he went into
the sanctuary of God, and understood the last things. For in the
last judgment things shall not be so; but in the manifest felicity of
the righteous and manifest misery of the wicked quite another state of
things shall appear.
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