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The City of God

Chapter 6.--Of the Jewish Priesthood and Kingdom, Which, Although Promised to Be Established for Ever, Did Not Continue; So that Other Things are to Be Understood to Which Eternity is Assured.

While, therefore, these things now shine forth as clearly as they were loftily foretold, still some one may not vainly be moved to ask, How can we be confident that all things are to come to pass which are predicted in these books as about to come, if this very thing which is there divinely spoken, "Thine house and thy father's house shall walk before me for ever," could not have effect? For we see that priesthood has been changed; and there can be no hope that what was promised to that house may some time be fulfilled, because that which succeeds on its being rejected and changed is rather predicted as eternal. He who says this does not yet understand, or does not recollect, that this very priesthood after the order of Aaron was appointed as the shadow of a future eternal priesthood; and therefore, when eternity is promised to it, it is not promised to the mere shadow and figure, but to what is shadowed forth and prefigured by it. But lest it should be thought the shadow itself was to remain, therefore its mutation also behoved to be foretold.

In this way, too, the kingdom of Saul himself, who certainly was reprobated and rejected, was the shadow of a kingdom yet to come which should remain to eternity. For, indeed, the oil with which he was anointed, and from that chrism he is called Christ, is to be taken in a mystical sense, and is to be understood as a great mystery; which David himself venerated so much in him, that he trembled with smitten heart when, being hid in a dark cave, which Saul also entered when pressed by the necessity of nature, he had come secretly behind him and cut off a small piece of his robe, that he might be able to prove how he had spared him when he could have killed him, and might thus remove from his mind the suspicion through which he had vehemently persecuted the holy David, thinking him his enemy. Therefore he was much afraid lest he should be accused of violating so great a mystery in Saul, because he had thus meddled even his clothes. For thus it is written: "And David's heart smote him because he had taken away the skirt of his cloak." ¹ But to the men with him, who advised him to destroy Saul thus delivered up into his hands, he saith, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's christ, to lay my hand upon him, because he is the Lord's christ." Therefore he showed so great reverence to this shadow of what was to come, not for its own sake, but for the sake of what it prefigured. Whence also that which Samuel says to Saul, "Since thou hast not kept my commandment which the Lord commanded thee, whereas now the Lord would have prepared thy kingdom over Israel for ever, yet now thy kingdom shall not continue for thee; and the Lord will seek Him a man after His own heart, and the Lord will command him to be prince over His people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee," ² is not to be taken as if God had settled that Saul himself should reign for ever, and afterwards, on his sinning, would not keep this promise; nor was He ignorant that he would sin, but He had established his kingdom that it might be a figure of the eternal kingdom. Therefore he added, "Yet now thy kingdom shall not continue for thee." Therefore what it signified has stood and shall stand; but it shall not stand for this man, because he himself was not to reign for ever, nor his offspring; so that at least that word "for ever" might seem to be fulfilled through his posterity one to another. "And the Lord," he saith, "will seek Him a man," meaning either David or the Mediator of the New Testament, ³ who was figured in the chrism with which David also and his offspring was anointed. But it is not as if He knew not where he was that God thus seeks Him a man, but, speaking through a man, He speaks as a man, and in this sense seeks us. For not only to God the Father, but also to His Only-begotten, who came to seek what was lost, ⁴ we had been known already even so far as to be chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. ⁵ "He will seek Him" therefore means, He will have His own (just as if He had said, Whom He already has known to be His own He will show to others to be His friend). Whence in Latin this word (quaerit) receives a preposition and becomes acquirit (acquires), the meaning of which is plain enough; although even without the addition of the preposition quaerere is understood as acquirere, whence gains are called quaestus.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput VI: De Iudaico sacerdotio et regno, quae cum in aeternum dicantur statuta, non permanent, ut alia intellegantur, quorum spondetur aeternitas.

Cum igitur haec tanta tunc altitudine praenuntiata sint, tanta nunc manifestatione clarescant, non frustra tamen moueri quispiam potest ac dicere: Quo modo confidimus uenire omnia, quae in libris illis uentura praedicta sunt, si hoc ipsum, quod ibi diuinitus dictum est: Domus tua et domus patris tui transibunt coram me in aeternum, effectum habere non potuit? quoniam uidemus illud sacerdotium fuisse mutatum, et quod illi domui promissum est, nec sperari aliquando complendum, quia illud, quod ei reprobato mutatoque succedit, hoc potius praedicatur aeternum. Hoc qui dicit, nondum intellegit aut non recolit etiam ipsum secundum ordinem Aaron sacerdotium tamquam umbram futuri aeterni sacerdotii constitutum; ac per hoc, quando aeternitas ei promissa est, non ipsi umbrae ac figurae, sed ei, quod per ipsam adumbrabatur figurabaturque, promissum est. Sed ne putaretur ipsa umbra esse mansura, ideo etiam mutatio eius debuit prophetari.

Regnum quoque isto modo etiam Saulis ipsius, qui certe reprobatus atque reiectus est, futuri regni erat umbra in aeternitate mansuri. Oleum quippe illud, quo unctus est et ab eo chrismate christus est dictus, mystice accipiendum et magnum sacramentum intellegendum est; quod in eo tantum ueneratus est ipse Dauid, ut percusso corde pauitauerit, quando in tenebroso occultatus antro, quo etiam Saul urgente intrauerat necessitate naturae, exiguam particulam uestis eius retrorsum latenter abscidit, ut haberet unde monstraret, quo modo ei pepercerit, cum posset occidere, atque ita suspicionem de animo eius, qua sanctum Dauid putans inimicum suum uehementer persequebatur, auferret. Ne itaque reus esset tanti sacramenti in Saule uiolati, quia uel indumentum eius sic adtrectauit, extimuit. Ita enim scriptum est: Et percussit cor Dauid super eum, quia abstulit pinnulam chlamydis eius. Viris autem, qui cum illo erant et, ut Saulem in manus suas traditum interimeret, suadebant: Non mihi, inquit, contingat a Domino, si fecero hoc uerbum domino meo christo Domini, inferre manum meam super eum. quia christus Domini est hic. Huic ergo umbrae futuri non propter ipsam, sed propter illud, quod praefigurabat, tanta ueneratio exhibebatur. Vnde et illud, quod ait Sauli Samuel: Quoniam non seruasti mandatum meum, quod mandauit tibi Dominus, quem ad modum nunc parauerat Dominus regnum tuum usque in aeternum super Israel: et nunc regnum tuum non stabit tibi, et quaeret Dominus sibi hominem secundum cor suum, et mandabit ei Dominus esse in principem super populum suum. quia non custodisti quae mandauit tibi Dominus, non sic accipiendum est, ac si ipsum Saulem Deus in aeternum praeparauerit regnaturum, et hoc postea noluerit seruare peccanti (neque enim eum peccaturum esse nesciebat); sed praeparauerat regnum eius, in quo figura regni esset aeterni. Ideo addidit: Et nunc regnum tuum non stabit tibi. Stetit ergo et stabit, quod in illo significatum est; sed non huic stabit, quia non in aeternum ipse fuerat regnaturus, nec progenies eius, ut saltem per posteros alterum alteri succedentes uideretur impleri quod dictum est: In aeternum. Et quaeret, inquit, Dominus sibi hominem; siue Dauid siue ipsum Mediatorem significans testamenti noui, qui figurabatur in chrismate etiam, quo unctus est ipse Dauid et progenies eius. Non autem quasi nesciat ubi sit, ita sibi hominem Deus quaerit; sed per hominem more hominum loquitur, quia et sic loquendo nos quaerit. Non solum enim Deo Patri, uerum ipsi quoque Vnigenito eius, qui uenit quaerere quod perierat, usque adeo iam eramus noti, ut in ipso essemus electi ante constitutionem mundi. Quaeret sibi ergo dixit "suum habebit". Vnde in Latina lingua hoc uerbum accipit praepositionem et "adquirit" dicitur; quod satis apertum est quid significet. Quamquam et sine additamento praepositionis quaerere intellegatur adquirere; ex quo lucra uocantur et quaestus.