{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But as regards those three books which it is evident are\r\nSolomon's, and held canonical by the Jews, to show what of\r\nthis kind may be found in them pertaining to Christ and the\r\nChurch demands a laborious discussion, which, if now entered\r\non, would lengthen this work unduly. Yet what we read in\r\nthe Proverbs of impious men saying, \"Let us unrighteously\r\nhide in the earth the righteous man; yea, let us swallow him\r\nup alive as hell, and let us take away his memory from the\r\nearth: let us seize his precious possession,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_479_479\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_479_479\">[479]</a> is not so obscure\r\nthat it may not be understood, without laborious exposition,\r\nof Christ and His possession the Church. Indeed, the gospel\r\nparable about the wicked husbandmen shows that our Lord\r\nJesus Himself said something like it: \"This is the heir; come,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_211\">[Pg 211]</a></span>\r\nlet us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_480_480\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_480_480\">[480]</a> In like\r\nmanner also that passage in this same book, on which we have\r\nalready touched<a id=\"FNanchor_481_481\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_481_481\">[481]</a> when we were speaking of the barren woman\r\nwho hath born seven, must soon after it was uttered have\r\ncome to be understood of only Christ and the Church by those\r\nwho knew that Christ was the Wisdom of God. \"Wisdom\r\nhath builded her an house, and hath set up seven pillars; she\r\nhath sacrificed her victims, she hath mingled her wine in the\r\nbowl; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent her\r\nservants summoning to the bowl with excellent proclamation,\r\nsaying, Who is simple, let him turn aside to me. And\r\nto the void of sense she hath said, Come, eat of my bread,\r\nand drink of the wine which I have mingled for you.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_482_482\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_482_482\">[482]</a> Here\r\ncertainly we perceive that the Wisdom of God, that is, the\r\nWord co-eternal with the Father, hath builded Him an house,\r\neven a human body in the virgin womb, and hath subjoined\r\nthe Church to it as members to a head, hath slain the martyrs\r\nas victims, hath furnished a table with wine and bread, where\r\nappears also the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, and\r\nhath called the simple and the void of sense, because, as saith\r\nthe apostle, \"He hath chosen the weak things of this world\r\nthat He might confound the things which are mighty.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_483_483\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_483_483\">[483]</a> Yet\r\nto these weak ones she saith what follows, \"Forsake simplicity,\r\nthat ye may live; and seek prudence, that ye may have\r\nlife.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_484_484\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_484_484\">[484]</a> But to be made partakers of this table is itself to\r\nbegin to have life. For when he says in another book, which\r\nis called Ecclesiastes, \"There is no good for a man, except\r\nthat he should eat and drink,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_485_485\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_485_485\">[485]</a> what can he be more credibly\r\nunderstood to say, than what belongs to the participation of\r\nthis table which the Mediator of the New Testament Himself,\r\nthe Priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes with His\r\nown body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all\r\nthe sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a\r\nshadow of that which was to come; wherefore also we recognise\r\nthe voice in the 40th Psalm as that of the same\r\nMediator speaking through prophesy, \"Sacrifice and offering<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_212\">[Pg 212]</a></span>\r\nThou didst not desire; but a body hast Thou perfected for me.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_486_486\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_486_486\">[486]</a>\r\nBecause, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, His body\r\nis offered, and is served up to the partakers of it. For that\r\nthis Ecclesiastes, in this sentence about eating and drinking,\r\nwhich he often repeats, and very much commends, does not\r\nsavour the dainties of carnal pleasures, is made plain enough\r\nwhen he says, \"It is better to go into the house of mourning\r\nthan to go into the house of feasting.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_487_487\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_487_487\">[487]</a> And a little after\r\nHe says, \"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,\r\nand the heart of the simple in the house of feasting.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_488_488\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_488_488\">[488]</a> But\r\nI think that more worthy of quotation from this book which\r\nrelates to both cities, the one of the devil, the other of Christ,\r\nand to their kings, the devil and Christ: \"Woe to thee, O land,\"\r\nhe says, \"when thy king is a youth, and thy princes eat in\r\nthe morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the\r\nson of nobles, and thy princes eat in season, in fortitude, and\r\nnot in confusion!\"<a id=\"FNanchor_489_489\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_489_489\">[489]</a> He has called the devil a youth, because\r\nof the folly and pride, and rashness and unruliness, and other\r\nvices which are wont to abound at that age; but Christ is the\r\nSon of nobles, that is, of the holy patriarchs, of those belonging\r\nto the free city, of whom He was begotten in the flesh.\r\nThe princes of that and other cities are eaters in the morning,\r\nthat is, before the suitable hour, because they do not expect\r\nthe seasonable felicity, which is the true, in the world to come,\r\ndesiring to be speedily made happy with the renown of this\r\nworld, but the princes of the city of Christ patiently wait\r\nfor the time of a blessedness that is not fallacious. This is\r\nexpressed by the words, \"in fortitude, and not in confusion,\"\r\nbecause hope does not deceive them, of which the apostle\r\nsays, \"But hope maketh not ashamed.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_490_490\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_490_490\">[490]</a> A psalm also saith,\r\n\"For they that hope in Thee shall not be put to shame.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_491_491\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_491_491\">[491]</a>\r\nBut now the Song of Songs is a certain spiritual pleasure of\r\nholy minds, in the marriage of that King and Queen-city, that\r\nis, Christ and the Church. But this pleasure is wrapped up\r\nin allegorical veils, that the Bridegroom may be more ardently\r\ndesired, and more joyfully unveiled, and may appear; to whom\r\nit is said in this same song, \"Equity hath delighted Thee;\"<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_213\">[Pg 213]</a></span><a id=\"FNanchor_492_492\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_492_492\">[492]</a>\r\nand the bride who those hears, \"Charity is in thy delights.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_493_493\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_493_493\">[493]</a>\r\nWe pass over many things in silence, in our desire to finish\r\nthis work.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK SEVENTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-342"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"f2622f80613c9170b03748e167fccb383afb7eca6ef32bda4e32a36bcbb1a22a","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_493_493","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_493_493","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_493_493\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_493_493\"><span class=\"label\">[493]</span></a> Cant. vii. 6.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_493_493","text_sha256":"c39dd6df84ca678c7521d27831eedc229c6438450e5a5a49c98dcda9e671fdee","verified":false,"work_id":null}