For when the things which pertain to His passion are prophetically spoken there also in the person of Christ, that is mentioned which is unfolded in the Gospel: "They gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar for drink."(12) And as it were after such a feast and dainties in this way given to Himself, presently He brings in [these words]: "Let their table become a trap before them, and a retribution, and an offence: let their eyes be dimmed that they see not, and their back be always bowed down,"(13) etc.Which things are not spoken as wished for, but are predicted under the prophetic form of wishing.What wonder, then, if those whose eyes are dimmed that they see not do not see these manifest things? What wonder if those do not look up at heavenly things whose back is always bowed down that they may grovel among earthly things? For these words transferred from the body signify mental faults.Let, these things which have been said about the Psalms, that is, about king David's prophecy, suffice, that we may keep within some bound.But let those readers excuse us who knew them all before;and let them not complain about those perhaps stronger proofs which they know or think I have passed by.
CHAP.20.--OF DAVID'S REIGN AND MERIT; AND OF HIS SON SOLOMON, AND THATPROPHECY
RELATING TO CHRIST WHICH IS FOUND EITHER IN THOSE BOOKS WHICH ARE JOINEDTO THOSE
WRITTEN BY HIM, OR IN THOSE WHICH ARE INDUBITABLY HIS.
David therefore reigned in the earthly Jerusalem, a son of the heavenly Jerusalem, much praised by the divine testimony; for even his faults are overcome by great piety, through the most salutary humility of his repentance, that he is altogether one of those of whom he himself says, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered."(1) After him Solomon his son reigned over the same whole people, who, as was said before, began to reign while his father was still alive.
This man, after good beginnings, made a bad end.For indeed "prosperity, which wears out the minds of the wise,"(2) hurt him more than that wisdom profiled him, which even yet is and shall hereafter be renowned, and was then praised far and wide.He also is found to have prophesied in his hooks, of which three are received as of canonical authority, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.But it has been customary to ascribe to Solomon other two, of which one is called Wisdom, the other Ecclesiasticus, on account of some resemblance of style,--but the more learned have no doubt that they are not his; yet of old the Church, especially the Western, received them into authority,--in the one of which, called the Wisdom of Solomon, the passion of Christ is most openly prophesied.For indeed His impious murderers are quoted as saying, "Let us lie in wait for the righteous, for he is unpleasant to us, and contrary to our works; and he upbraideth us with our transgressions of the law, and objecteth to our disgrace the transgressions of our education.He professeth to have the knowledge of God, and he calleth himself the Son of God.He was made to reprove our thoughts.He is grievous for as even to behold; for his life is unlike other men's and his ways are different.We are esteemed of him as counterfeits;and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness.
He extols the latter end of the righteous; and glorieth that he hath God for his Father.Let us see, therefore, if his words be true;and let us try what shall happen to him, and we shall know what shall be the end of him.For if the righteous be the Son of God, He will undertake for him, and deliver him out of the hand of those that are against him.Let us put him to the question with contumely and torture, that we may know his reverence, and prove his patience.Let us condemn him to the most shameful death; for by His own sayings He shall be respected.These things did they imagine, and were mistaken; for their own malice hath quite blinded them."(3) But in Ecclesiasticus the future faith of the nations is predicted in this manner: "Have mercy Upon us, O God, Ruler of all, and send Thy fear upon all the nations: lift up Thine hand over the strange nations, and let them see Thy power.As Thou wast sanctified in us before them, so be Thou sanctified in them before us, and let them acknowledge Thee, according as we also have acknowledged Thee; for there is not a God beside Thee, O Lord."(4) We see this prophecy in the form of a wish and prayer fulfilled through Jesus Christ.But the things which are not written in the canon of the Jews cannot be quoted against their contradictions with so great validity.
But as regards those three books which it is evident are Solomon's and held canonical by the Jews, to show what of this kind may be found in them pertaining to Christ and the Church demands a laborious discussion, which, if now entered on, would lengthen this work unduly.Yet what we read in the Proverbs of impious men saying, "Let us unrighteously hide in the earth the righteous man; yea, let us swallow him up alive as hell, and let us take away his memory from the earth: let us seize his precious possession,"(5) is not so obscure that it may not be understood, without laborious exposition, of Christ and His possession the Church.Indeed, the gospel parable about the wicked husbandmen shows that our Lord Jesus Himself said something like it:
"This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours."(6 In like manner also that passage in this same book, on which we have already touched when we were speaking of the barren woman who hath born seven, must soon after it was tittered have come to be understood of only Christ and the Church by those who knew that Christ was the Wisdom of God.
