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And now I see I must show what, pertaining to the matter I treat
of, God promised to David himself, who succeeded Saul in the
kingdom, whose change prefigured that final change on account of which
all things were divinely spoken, all things were committed to writing.
When many things had gone prosperously with king David, he thought to
make a house for God, even that temple of most excellent renown which
was afterwards built by king Solomon his son. While he was thinking
of this, the word of the Lord came to Nathan the prophet, which he
brought to the king, in which, after God had said that a house should
not be built unto Him by David himself, and that in all that long
time He had never commanded any of His people to build Him a house of
cedar, he says, "And now thus shalt thou say unto my servant
David, Thus saith God Almighty, I took thee from the sheepcote
that thou mightest be for a ruler over my people in Israel: and I was
with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine
enemies from before thy face, and have made thee a name, according to
the name of the great ones who are over the earth. And I will appoint
a place for my people Israel, and will plant him, and he shall dwell
apart, and shall be troubled no more; and the son of wickedness shall
not humble him any more, as from the beginning, from the days when I
appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give thee rest
from all thine enemies, and the Lord will tell [hath told] thee,
because thou shall build an house for Him. And it shall come to pass
when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shall sleep with thy fathers,
that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of
thy bowels, and I will prepare his kingdom. He shall build me an
house for my name;and I will order his throne even to eternity. I
will be his Father, and he shall be my son. And if he commit
iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the
stripes of the sons of men: but my mercy I will not take away from
him, as I took it away from those whom I put away from before my
face. And his house shall be faithful, and his kingdom even for
evermore before me, and his throne shall be set up even for
evermore."
He who thinks this grand promise was fulfilled in Solomon greatly
errs; for he attends to the saying, "He shall build me an house,"
but he does not attend to the saying, "His house shall be faithful,
and his kingdom for evermore before me." Let him therefore attend and
behold the house of Solomon full of strange women worshipping false
gods, and the king himself, aforetime wise, seduced by them, and
cast down into the same idolatry: and let him not dare to think that
God either promised this falsely, or was unable to fore-know that
Solomon and his house would become what they did. But we ought not to
be in doubt here, or to see the fulfillment of these things save in
Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh, lest we should vainly and uselessly look for some other here,
like the carnal Jews. For even they understand this much, that the
son whom they read of in that place as promised to David was not
Solomon; so that, with wonderful blindness to Him who was promised
and is now declared with so great manifestation, they say they hope for
another. Indeed, even in Solomon there appeared some image of the
future event, in that he built the temple, and had peace according to
his name (for Solomon means "pacific"), and in the beginning of
his reign was wonderfully praiseworthy; but while, as a shadow of Him
that should come, he foreshowed Christ our Lord, he did not also in
his own person resemble Him. Whence some things concerning him are so
written as if they were prophesied of himself, while the Holy
Scripture, prophesying even by events, somehow delineates in him the
figure of things to come. For, besides the books of divine history,
in which his reign is narrated, the 72nd Psalm also is inscribed in
the title with his name, in which so many things are said which cannot
at all apply to him, but which apply to the Lord Christ with such
evident fitness as makes it quite apparent that in the one the figure is
in some way shadowed forth, but in the other the truth itself is
presented. For it is known within what bounds the kingdom of Solomon
was enclosed; and yet in that psalm, not to speak of other things, we
read, "He shall have dominion from sea even to sea, and from the
river to the ends of the earth," which we see fulfilled in Christ.
Truly he took the beginning of His reigning from the river where John
baptized; for, when pointed out by him, He began to be acknowledged
by the disciples, who called Him not only Master, but also Lord.
Nor was it for any other reason that, while his father David was
still living, Solomon began to reign, which happened to none other of
their kings, except that from this also it might be clearly apparent
that it was not himself this prophecy spoken to his father signified
beforehand, saying, "And it shall come to pass when thy days be
fulfilled, and thou shall sleep with thy fathers, that I will raise
up thy seed which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will prepare
His kingdom." How, therefore, shall it be thought on account of
what follows, "He shall build me an house," that this Solomon is
prophesied, and not rather be understood on account of what precedes,
"When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers,
I will raise up thy seed after thee," that another pacific One is
promised, who is foretold as about to be raised up, not before
David's death, as he was, but after it? For however long the
interval of time might be before Jesus Christ came, beyond doubt it
was after the death of king David, to whom He was so promised, that
He behoved to come, who should build an house of God, not of wood
and stone, but of men, such as we rejoice He does build. For to
this house, that is, to believers, the apostle saith, "The temple
of God is holy, which temple ye are."
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