The City of God, Volume IIAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
The City of God, Volume II
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Apologetics -- Early works to 1800; Kingdom of God -- Early works to 1800
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 foreknow that Solomon and his
house would become what they did. But we ought not to be in doubt here,
or to see the fulfilment of these things save in Christ our Lord, who
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh,[406] 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 72d 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,"[407] 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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