God's Truth shewn through His Mercy to Israel. 241

2.

them up. On their account therefore who are destroyed and VER. built up, that they might not conceive their being built up merely temporary, as the previous ruin was in which they were destroyed, the Psalmist, through whose mouth is made known the truth of God, held to the truth. Therefore will tenuit. I make it known, therefore do I declare it, because Thou hast said: I that am man declare it in full confidence, for Thou God hast said: for even if I wavered in my own words, in Thine should I be confirmed. What saidst Thou? Mercy shall be built up for ever: Thy truth shall Thou establish in the very Heavens. As He had said in the former place, I will sing of Thy mercies, O Lord, for ever: with my mouth will I make known Thy truth to all generations. In what follows, he joins these two words, mercy and faithfulness; For Thou hast said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: Thy truth shall be established in the Heavens: in which mercy and truth are repeated, for all the ways of the Lord are Psa. 25, mercy and truth, for truth in the fulfilment of promises could 10. not be shewn, unless mercy in the remission of sins preceded. Next, as many things were promised in prophecy even to the people of Israel that came according to the flesh from the seed of Abraham, and that people was increased that the promises of God might be fulfilled in it; while yet God did not close the fountain of His goodness even to the Gentiles, whom He had placed under the rule of the Angels, while He reserved the people of Israel as His own portion: the Apostle expressly mentions the Lord's mercy and truth as referring to these two parties. For he calls Christ a minister of the Circumcision for the Rom.15, truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. See how God deceived not; see how He cast not off His people, whom He foreknew. For while the Apostle is treating of the fall of the Jews, to prevent any from believing them so far disowned of God, that no wheat from improthat floor's fanning could reach the granary, he saith, God hath not cast away His people, whom He foreknew; for Rom.11, I also am an Israelite. If all that nation are thorns, how am I who speak unto you wheat? So that the truth of God was fulfilled in those Israelites who believed, and one wall from the circumcision is thus brought to meet the

8.

batos.

12.

LXXXIX.

8.9.

242 Mercy in the Gentiles; Truth in Heavens' of the Church. PSALM corner stone. But this stone would not form a corner, I unless it received another wall from the Gentiles: so that the former wall relates in a special manner to the truth, the Rom 15, latter to the mercy of God. Now I say, says the Apostle, that Jesus Christ was a minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promise made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. Justly then is it added, Thy truth shalt Thou stablish in the Heavens: for all those Israelites who were called to be Apostles became as Heavens which declare the glory of Ps. 19, God: as it is written by them, The Heavens declare the 1.3.4. glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handywork.

Mat. 5,

34.

To assure you that this is the meaning of the Heavens, it is more expressly added, There is neither speech nor language, whereof their voices are not heard. If you ask, whose voices? there is nothing to refer it to but the Heavens. If therefore those whose voice is heard in all languages are the Apostles, it is also of them that it is said, Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends of the world. Since, although they were taken up from hence before the Church filled the whole world, yet as their words reached to the ends of the world, we are right in supposing this which we have just read, Thy truth shalt Thou stablish in the Heavens, fulfilled in them.

4. Ver. 3. I have made a covenant with My chosen. "Thou hast said, you understand, is to be carried on: Thou hast said, I have made a covenant with My chosen. What covenant, but the new, by which we are renewed to a fresh inheritance, in our longing desire and love of which we sing a new song. I have made a covenant with My chosen, saith the Psalmist : I have sworn unto David My servant. How confidently does he speak, who understands, whose mouth serves truth! I speak without fear; since Thou hast said. If Thou makest me fearless, because Thou hast said, how much more so dost Thou make me, when Thou hast sworn! For the oath of God is the assurance of a promise. Man is justly forbidden to swear: lest by the habit of swearing, since a man may be deceived, he fall into perjury. God alone swears securely, because He alone is infallible.

5. Let us see then what God hath sworn.

(Ver. 4.) I

Christ's Kingdom to all, or both, generations.

243

4.

Gal. 3,

23.

29.

have sworn, He saith, to David My servant; thy seed will I Ver, establish for ever. But what is the seed of David, but that of Abraham. And what is the seed of Abrahamn? And to 16. thy seed, He saith, which is Christ. But perhaps that Christ, the Head of the Church, the Saviour of the body, is the seed Eph. 5, of Abraham, and therefore of David; but we are not Abraham's seed? We are assuredly; as the Apostle saith, And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs Gal. 3, according to the promise. In this sense, then, let us take the words, brethren, Thy seed will I stablish for ever, not only of that Flesh of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, but also of all of us who believe in Christ, for we are limbs of that Head. This body cannot be deprived of its Head: if the Head is in glory for ever, so are the limbs, so that Christ remains entire for ever. Thy seed will I stablish for ever and set up thy throne to generation and generation. We suppose he saith, for ever, because it is to generation and generation: since he has said above, with my mouth will I ever be shewing Thy truth to generation and generation. What is 'to generation and generation?' To every generation : for the word needed not as many repetitions, as the coming and passing away of the several generations. The multiplication of generations is signified and set forth to notice by the repetition. Are possibly two generations to be understood, as ye are aware, my beloved brethren, and as I have before explained? for there is now a generation of flesh and blood: there will be a future generation in the resurrection of the dead. Christ is proclaimed here: He will be proclaimede there: here He is proclaimed, that He may be believed in: there, He will be welcomed, that He may be seen. I will set up Thy throne from one generation to another. Christ hath now a throne in us, His throne is set up in us: for unless he sate enthroned within us, He would not rule us: but if we were not ruled by Him, we should be thrown down by ourselves. He therefore sits within us, reigning over us: He sits also in another generation, which will come from the resurrection of the dead. Christ will reign for ever over His Saints. God has promised this; He hath said it: if this is not enough, God hath sworn it. As then the promise is certain, not on Oxf. Mss.' He is proclaimed;' and so again below.

LXXXIX.

244 The Spiritual Heavens proclaim God's Works and Truth.

PSALM account of our deservings, but of His pity, no one ought to be afraid in proclaiming that which he cannot doubt of. Let that strength then inspire our hearts, whence Etham received his name, 'strong in heart:' let us preach the truth of God, the utterance of God, His promises, His oath; and let us, strengthened on every side by these means, glorify God, and by bearing Him along with us, become Heavens.

are thus

6. Ver. 5. O Lord, the very Heavens shall praise Thy wondrous works. The Heavens will not praise their own merits, but thy wondrous works, O Lord. For in every act of mercy on the lost, of justification of the unrighteous, what do we praise but the wondrous works of God? Thou praisest Him, because the dead have risen: praise Him yet more, because the lost are redeemed. What grace, what mercy of God! Thou seest a man yesterday a whirlpool of drunkenness, to-day an ornament of sobriety: a man yesterday the sink of luxury, to-day the beauty of temperance: yesterday a blasphemer of God, to-day His praiser: yesterday the slave of the creature, to-day the worshipper of the Creator. From all these desperate states men converted: let them not look at their own merits: let them become Heavens, and praise the wondrous works of Him by Ps. 8, 3. Whom they were made Heavens. For "I will consider," he saith," Thy Heavens, even the works of Thy fingers.” O Lord, the very Heavens shall praise Thy wondrous works! And that you may understand who the Heavens are, let us see what follows: and Thy truth in the congregation of the Saints. There can therefore be no doubt, that by the Heavens are meant the preachers of the word of truth, and where will the Heavens praise Thy wondrous works, and Thy truth? In the congregation of the Saints. May the Church receive the dew of the Heavens: may the Heavens rain upon the parched soil, and may the earth as it receives the rain give birth to fruitful blossoms, good works: may it not give thorns for genial rain, and thus expect the fire instead of the barn! The very Heavens shall praise Thy wondrous works, O Lord: and Thy truth in the congregation of the Saints. The Heavens shall then praise Thy wondrous works, and Thy truth. All that the Heavens proclaim is of Thee, and from Thee and therefore they preach fearlessly: for they

Preachers of the Gospel called Clouds.'

245

know Whom they preach of, since they cannot blush for Him VER. of Whom they preach.

7. What do the Heavens preach? What shall they praise in the congregation of the saints?

6.

Ver. 6. For who is he among the clouds, who shall be compared unto Thee, Lord! Is this to be the praise of the Heavens, is this to be their rain? What? are the preachers confident, because none among the clouds shall be compared unto the Lord? Does it appear to you, brethren, a high ground of praise, that the clouds cannot be compared with their Creator? If it is taken in its literal, not in its mystical meaning, it is not so: what? are the stars that are above the clouds to be compared with the Lord? what? can the Sun, Moon, Angels, Heavens, be even compared with the Lord? Why is it then that he says, as if he meant some high praise, For who is he among the clouds, that shall be compared unto the Lord? We understand, my brethren, those clouds, as the Heavens, to be the preachers of truth; Prophets, Apostles, the announcers of the word of God; for that all these kinds of preachers are called clouds we learn from that prophecy, where God in His anger against His vineyard said, I will command the clouds that they rain no shower upon it: and the meaning of this vine the prophet explains most clearly in the following verse, for the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is Is. 5, 6. the house of Israel. That you may not understand the vine-7. yard otherwise, and missing the men who are signified by it, think of the earth; The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, he says, is the house of Israel. Let the house of Israel understand that she and no other is My vineyard: that it is she who has given Me thorns instead of grapes, she who has become ungrateful to her Planter and Cultivator, ungrateful to Him that watered her. If then the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, what said He in His anger? I will command the clouds that they rain no more upon it. And so indeed He did: the Apostles were sent like clouds to rain upon the Jews, and when they rejected the word of God, because they yielded thorns for grapes, the Apostles said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been Acts 13, spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, lo, we turn to 46. the Gentiles. From that time the clouds ceased to pour rain