'He giveth strength to our kings, and shall exalt the horn of his Christ'—whence did she say it, if she was not prophesying? Let the Church of Christ therefore say it, the city of the great King, full of grace, fruitful with offspring; let it say what it recognizes as so long before prophesied concerning itself through the mouth of this pious mother: 'My heart is confirmed in the Lord, my horn is exalted in my God.' Truly the heart confirmed and the horn truly exalted, because not in itself but in the Lord its God. 'My mouth is enlarged over my enemies'; because even in the straits of pressures the word of God is not bound, nor in its heralds though bound. 'I have rejoiced,' she says, 'in thy salvation.' This is Christ Jesus, whom Simeon, as is read in the Gospel, an old man, embracing the little one, recognizing the great one:
'Now,' he said, 'thou dismissest thy servant, O Lord, in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.' Let the Church therefore say: 'I have rejoiced in thy salvation; for there is none holy as the Lord, and there is none righteous as our God'—as one holy and sanctifying, righteous and justifying. 'There is none holy beside thee,' because no one becomes so except from thee. Then it follows: 'Do not glory, and do not speak lofty things, nor let great-speaking go forth from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge.' He Himself knows you, even where no one knows; for whoever thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself.
These things are said against the adversaries of the City of God who belong to Babylon, who presume upon their own strength, who glory in themselves and not in the Lord. Among them are also the carnal Israelites, earth-born citizens of the earthly Jerusalem, who, as the Apostle says, being ignorant of the righteousness of God (that is, the righteousness which God, who alone is righteous and who justifies, gives to man) and wishing to establish their own (that is, as though it were procured by themselves for themselves, not bestowed by Him), have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God — surely because, being proud, they suppose that they can please God by what is their own and not by what is God's. Yet He is the God of knowledge and therefore also the judge of consciences, seeing there the thoughts of men, that they are vain, if they are of men and are not from Him.
'And preparing,' she says, 'His own devices.' What devices do we suppose these to be, except that the proud should fall and the humble should rise? She goes on to set forth these very devices, saying: 'The bow of the mighty is made weak, and the weak are girded with strength.' The bow is made weak — that is, the purpose of those who seem so mighty to themselves that, without the gift and help of God, they think they can fulfil the divine commandments by human sufficiency; and they are girded with strength whose inward voice is: 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak.' 'They that were full of bread,' she says, 'are brought low, and the hungry have passed over the earth.' Who are to be understood as full of bread, except these same as though mighty ones, that is, the Israelites, to whom were entrusted the oracles of God?
But in that people the sons of the handmaid are brought low (by which expression, though it is less correct Latin, yet it is well rendered, that from greater they were made lesser), because even in those very loaves, that is, in the divine oracles which the Israelites alone among all nations then received, they relish earthly things. But the nations, to whom that law had not been given, after they came through the New Testament to those oracles, by much hungering passed over the earth, because in them they relished not earthly but heavenly things. And as if it were asked the cause why this came to pass: 'Because the barren,' she says, 'has borne seven, and she that had many sons has become weak.'
Here all that was being prophesied shines forth to those who recognize the sevenfold number, by which is signified the perfection of the universal Church. For this reason also the apostle John writes to seven churches, showing in this way that he writes to the fulness of the one Church; and in the proverbs of Solomon, Wisdom prefiguring this beforehand 'has built herself a house and has set up seven pillars.' For the City of God was barren in all the nations before that offspring, which we behold, arose. We see too that she who had many sons, the earthly Jerusalem, is now made weak; because whatever sons of the free woman were in her were her strength; but now, since there is the letter and the spirit is not there, having lost her strength, she is made weak.
'The Lord kills and makes alive'; He killed her who had many sons, and made alive this barren one, who has borne seven. Although it may more fittingly be understood that He makes alive the very same whom He had killed. For she seems to have repeated this by adding: 'He brings down to hell and brings back again.' For to those to whom the Apostle says: 'If you are dead with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God,' they are surely put to death by the Lord for their salvation; to whom he adds: 'Relish the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth'; that they themselves may be those who, hungering, passed over the earth. 'For you are dead,' he says; behold in what manner God puts to death for salvation; then there follows: 'And your life is hidden with Christ in God';
behold in what manner God makes the very same alive. But did He bring down to hell and bring back again the very same? Both of these, without controversy among the faithful, we see fulfilled rather in Him, namely in our Head, with whom the Apostle said our life was hidden in God. For when He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, in this way surely He put Him to death; and because He raised Him from the dead, He again made the same one alive. And because in prophecy His voice is recognized: 'You will not leave my soul in hell,' He brought the same one down to hell and brought Him back again. By this His poverty we have been enriched. For 'the Lord makes poor and makes rich.' For that we may know what this is, let us hear what follows: 'He humbles and exalts';
surely He humbles the proud and exalts the humble. For what is read elsewhere: 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble,' this whole discourse of her contains, whose name is interpreted 'His grace.' Now as for what is added: 'He raises up the poor man from the earth,' I understand it of none better than of Him who for our sake became poor, though He was rich, that by His poverty, as was said a little before, we might be enriched. For Him He raised up from the earth so quickly that His flesh did not see corruption. Nor will I alienate from Him that which is added: 'And from the dunghill He lifts up the needy.' For the needy is the same as the poor;
but the dunghill from which he was lifted up are most rightly understood to be the persecuting Jews, in whose number when the Apostle had said that he had persecuted the Church, he says: 'What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ; and not only loss, but I esteemed them even as dung, that I might gain Christ.' From the earth, therefore, was that poor man raised up above all the rich, and from that dunghill was that needy one lifted up above all the opulent, that He might sit with the mighty ones of the people, to whom He says: 'You shall sit upon twelve thrones,' giving them a throne of glory as an inheritance; for those mighty ones had said: 'Behold, we have left all and followed You.' This vow they had vowed most mightily.
But whence was this to them, except from Him of whom it is here immediately said: 'Giving the vow to him that vows'? Otherwise they would be of those mighty ones whose bow was made weak. 'Giving,' she says, 'the vow to him that vows.' For no one would vow anything right to the Lord, except he who received from Him what he might vow. There follows: 'And He has blessed the years of the just,' that he may live with Him without end, to whom it is said: 'And your years shall not fail.' For there the years stand, but here they pass away, nay rather they perish; for before they come, they are not; and when they have come, they shall not be, because they come with their own end. Now of these two, that is, 'Giving the vow to him that vows,' and 'He has blessed the years of the just,' the one is what we do, the other what we receive. But this latter is not received except by God the Bestower.
unless with Him as helper that former thing is first effected: 'For not in his own strength is a man mighty. The Lord will make his adversary weak'; namely him who envies and resists the man that vows, lest he be able to fulfil what he has vowed. From the ambiguous Greek it can also be understood 'his own adversary.' For when the Lord has begun to possess us, surely the adversary who had been ours becomes His, and shall be overcome by us — but not by our own strength, because 'not in his own strength is a man mighty.' The Lord, therefore, will make His adversary weak, the Lord, the Holy One; that he may be overcome by the saints, whom the Lord, the Holy One of holy ones, makes holy.
And through this, 'let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glories glory in this, to understand and know the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in the midst of the earth.' Not in a small part does he understand and know the Lord, who understands and knows that this very thing is given him by the Lord, namely to understand and know the Lord. 'For what have you,' says the Apostle, 'that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received?' that is, as though it were from yourself to yourself, whence you glory. Now he does judgment and justice who lives rightly. And he lives rightly who obeys God who commands;
and 'the end of the commandment,' that is, that to which the commandment is referred, 'is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned.' Moreover this love, as the apostle John testifies, 'is of God.' To do judgment and justice, therefore, is of God. But what is meant by 'in the midst of the earth'? For surely they who dwell at the ends of the earth ought not to refrain from doing judgment and justice. Who would say this? Why then is it added: 'in the midst of the earth'? For if it were not added and it were said only: 'To do judgment and justice,' this commandment would rather pertain to both kinds of men, both the inland and the maritime.
But lest anyone should suppose that after the end of the life which is passed in this body there remains time for doing judgment and justice which he did not do while he was in the flesh, and that thus the divine judgment can be escaped: 'in the midst of the earth' seems to me to be said 'while each one lives in the body.' For in this life each one carries about his own earth, which, when the man dies, the common earth receives, surely to render it back at the resurrection. Accordingly, in the midst of the earth, that is, while our soul is enclosed in this earthly body, judgment and justice must be done, which may profit us hereafter, when each receives according to those things which he has done through the body, whether good or evil. For 'through the body' the Apostle there meant 'during the time he lived in the body.'
For if anyone with malignant mind and impious thought should blaspheme and yet not perform it by any members of the body, he will not for that reason be guiltless, because he did not commit it by the motion of the body, since he committed this during that time in which he committed it together with the body. In this way that also can fittingly be understood which is read in the psalm: 'But God our King before the ages has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth'; so that the Lord Jesus is understood as our God who is before the ages, because through Him the ages were made, having wrought our salvation in the midst of the earth, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt in an earthly body.
Then, after it had been prophesied in these words of Hannah how he ought to glory who glories — not in himself, surely, but in the Lord — on account of the retribution which shall come to pass on the day of judgment: 'The Lord,' she says, 'has ascended into the heavens and has thundered; He Himself shall judge the ends of the earth, because He is just.' Plainly she kept the order of the confession of the faithful. For the Lord Christ ascended into heaven, and thence He is to come to judge the living and the dead. For 'who ascended,' as the Apostle says, 'but He who also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same also who ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.' Through His own clouds, therefore, He thundered, which He filled with the Holy Spirit when He had ascended.
Concerning these clouds He threatened, in the prophet Isaiah, against the handmaid Jerusalem, that is, the ungrateful vineyard, that they should not rain rain upon her. But it was said: 'He Himself shall judge the ends of the earth,' as if it were said: 'Even the ends of the earth.' For He will not fail to judge the other parts, who will without doubt judge all men. But it is better understood that the ends of the earth are the ends of man: since those things will not be judged which in the meantime are changed for better or for worse, but those final states in which he shall be found who is to be judged. For which reason it was said: 'He who shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved.' He therefore who perseveringly does judgment and justice in the midst of the earth shall not be condemned when the ends of the earth shall be judged.
'And He gives,' she says, 'strength to our kings'; that He may not condemn them by judging. He gives them the strength by which they may rule the flesh like kings, and may conquer, in Him who shed His blood for them, the world. 'And He shall exalt the horn of His Christ.' In what manner shall Christ exalt the horn of His Christ? For of whom it was said above: 'The Lord has ascended into the heavens,' and He was understood as the Lord Christ: He Himself, as is here said, shall exalt the horn of His Christ. Who then is the Christ of Christ? Or shall He exalt the horn of each of His own faithful, as she herself says at the beginning of this hymn: 'My horn is exalted in my God'? For all who are anointed with His chrism we can rightly call christs; yet that whole body together with its Head is one Christ.
These things Hannah prophesied, the mother of Samuel, a holy and much-praised man; in whom indeed was then prefigured the change of the old priesthood, and now fulfilled, when she who had many sons was made weak, that the barren one who bore seven might have the new priesthood in Christ. CHAPTER V. Concerning those things which the man of God spoke to Eli the priest by a prophetic spirit, signifying that the priesthood which had been instituted according to Aaron was to be taken away. But this is spoken more plainly when a man of God is sent to Eli the priest himself, whose name indeed is not mentioned, but who is understood without doubt to be a prophet by his office and ministry. For thus it is written: 'And a man of God came to Eli and said: Thus says the Lord:'
'I plainly revealed Myself to the house of your father, when they were in the land of Egypt as servants in the house of Pharaoh; and I chose the house of your father out of all the tribes of Israel to perform priestly service to Me, that they should go up to My altar and burn incense and bear the ephod; and I gave to the house of your father all that are of the fire of the children of Israel for food. And why have you looked upon My incense and upon My sacrifice with a shameless eye, and have glorified your sons above Me, to bless the firstfruits of every sacrifice in Israel in My sight? Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel: I said: Your house and the house of your father shall pass before Me for ever. And now the Lord says:'
'Far be it, but those who glorify Me I will glorify, and he who despises Me shall be despised. Behold, the days come, and I will exterminate your seed and the seed of your father's house, and there shall not be for you an old man in My house all the days; and I will exterminate for you a man from My altar, that his eyes may fail and his soul may waste away; and everyone that shall be left of your house shall fall by the sword of men. And this shall be the sign to you, which shall come upon these two sons of yours, Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall both die. And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who shall do all the things that are in My heart and in My soul; and I will build him a faithful house, and he shall pass before My Christ all the days.'
'And it shall be, that whoever shall be left in your house shall come to worship him for a piece of silver, saying: Cast me into one part of your priesthood to eat bread.' It cannot be said that this prophecy, in which with such great manifestation the change of the old priesthood was foretold, was fulfilled in Samuel. (For although Samuel was not of another tribe than that which had been appointed by the Lord to serve the altar, yet he was not of the sons of Aaron, whose progeny had been assigned as that from which priests should be made;
and through this, in that deed also which was done, the same change which was to come through Christ was foreshadowed, and the prophecy, even of the deed itself and not of the word, pertained properly to the Old Testament, but figuratively to the New, signifying namely by the deed that which by word was spoken to Eli the priest through the prophet.) For there were afterwards priests of the race of Aaron, such as Zadok and Abiathar, when David reigned, and others in succession, before the time should come in which those things which were foretold so long before concerning the changing of the priesthood had to be brought about through Christ. But who now, looking upon these things with a faithful eye, does not see that they have been fulfilled?
Since indeed no tabernacle, no temple, no altar, no sacrifice, and therefore no priest either, has remained to the Jews, to whom it had been commanded in the law of God that he should be ordained of the seed of Aaron. This too was here mentioned when the prophet said: 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I said: Your house and the house of your father shall pass before Me for ever. And now the Lord says: Far be it, but those who glorify Me I will glorify, and he who despises Me shall be despised.' For that he names the house of his father, that he is speaking not of his immediate father, but of that Aaron who was first instituted priest, from whose progeny the rest should follow, the foregoing words demonstrate, where he says:
'I revealed Myself to the house of your father, when they were in the land of Egypt as servants in the house of Pharaoh, and I chose the house of your father out of all the tribes of Israel to perform priestly service to Me.' Which of the fathers of this man was there in that Egyptian servitude, from which when they had been delivered, he was chosen to the priesthood, except Aaron? Of his stock, therefore, He said in this place that it should come to pass that there should be no more priests; which we now see fulfilled. Let faith keep watch, the facts are at hand, they are discerned, they are held fast, and are thrust upon the eyes even of those unwilling to see. 'Behold,' he says,
'the days come, and I will exterminate your seed and the seed of your father's house, and there shall not be for you an old man in My house all the days; and I will exterminate for you a man from My altar, that his eyes may fail and his soul may waste away.' Behold the days which were foretold have now come. There is no priest according to the order of Aaron; and whoever of his race is a man, when he sees the sacrifice of Christians flourishing throughout the whole world, but that great honour withdrawn from himself, his eyes fail and his soul wastes away in the languor of grief. But what follows pertains properly to this house of Eli, to whom these things were spoken: 'And everyone that shall be left of your house shall fall by the sword of men.'
'And this shall be the sign to you, which shall come upon these two sons of yours, Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall both die.' This sign, therefore, was given of the priesthood being changed from this house; by which sign was signified that the priesthood of the house of Aaron was to be changed. For the death of his sons signified the death not of men, but of the priesthood itself of the sons of Aaron. But what follows pertains now to that priest whose figure Samuel bore by succeeding to this one. Accordingly, the things that follow are spoken of Christ Jesus, the true priest of the New Testament: 'And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who shall do all the things that are in My heart and in My soul; and I will build him a faithful house.' This is the eternal and supernal Jerusalem.
'And he shall pass before My Christ,' she says, 'all the days.' By 'shall pass' he meant 'shall converse' or 'shall live'; just as above he had said of the house of Aaron: 'I said: Your house and the house of your father shall pass before Me for ever.' But as for what he says: 'He shall pass before My Christ,' it is surely to be understood of that very house, not of that priest who is Christ Himself, the mediator and saviour. His house, therefore, shall pass before Him. 'Shall pass' can also be understood of passing from death to life, all the days during which this mortality is carried on unto the end of this present age. But as for what God says: 'Who shall do all the things that are in My heart and in My soul': let us not suppose that God has a soul, since He is the maker of the soul;
but this is said of God tropically, not properly, just as hand and foot and other members of the body are. And lest, according to this, man should be believed to have been made to the image of God in the form of this flesh, there are added also wings, which surely man does not have, and it is said to God: 'Under the shadow of Your wings You will protect me'; so that men may understand that of that ineffable nature these things are said not by proper, but by transferred, names of things. But as for what is added: 'And it shall be, that whoever shall be left in your house shall come to worship him,' it is not said properly of this house of Eli, but of that of Aaron, of which men remained until the coming of Jesus Christ, and of which race there are even now still not lacking. For of that house of this Eli it had already been said above:
'And everyone that shall be left of your house shall fall by the sword of men.' In what manner, therefore, could it here be truly said: 'And it shall be, that whoever shall be left in your house shall come to worship him,' if that is true, that no one of them survived the avenging sword? Unless because He wished those to be understood who pertain to the stock — but to the stock of that whole priesthood according to the order of Aaron. Therefore, if it is of those predestined remnants, of which another prophet said: 'The remnant shall be saved' (whence also the Apostle: 'So therefore,' he says, 'even at this present time a remnant has been made according to the election of grace'), since of such remnants he is well understood to be, of whom it was said: 'Who shall be left in your house': he surely believes in Christ;
just as in the times of the apostles very many of that nation itself believed, nor are there now lacking those who, though very rarely, yet believe; and in him is fulfilled that which this man of God here immediately added in continuation: 'He shall come to worship him for a piece of silver.' Whom to worship, except that highest priest, who is also God? For in that priesthood according to the order of Aaron men did not come to the temple or altar of God for this purpose, that they might worship the priest. But what is meant by: 'For a piece of silver,' except by the brevity of the word of faith, of which the Apostle records it was said: 'The Lord shall make a consummating and shortening word upon the earth'? And that silver is put for speech, the psalm is witness, where it is sung: 'The words of the Lord are chaste words, silver tried by fire.'
What then does he say, who comes to worship the priest of God and the priest-God? 'Cast me into a part of your priesthood, to eat bread.' I do not wish to be placed in the honour of my fathers, which is none; cast me into a part of your priesthood. For I have chosen to be abject in the house of God; I desire to be a member of your priesthood, of whatever sort and however small. For here he calls priesthood the very people, of which people that one is priest, the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. To which people the apostle Peter says: 'A holy people, a royal priesthood.' Although some have interpreted it 'of your sacrifice,' not 'of your priesthood'; which nonetheless signifies the same Christian people. Whence the apostle Paul says:
'One bread, one body, we many are.' What therefore he added: 'To eat bread,' he also elegantly expressed the very kind of sacrifice, of which the priest Himself says: 'The bread which I shall give is My flesh for the life of the world.' This is the sacrifice; not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek: let him who reads understand. Brief therefore is that confession, and wholesomely humble, by which it is said: 'Cast me into a part of your priesthood, to eat bread'; this is the piece of silver, because it is both brief and is the word of the Lord dwelling in the heart of the believer. For since he had said above that he had given foods to the house of Aaron from the victims of the Old Testament, where he says:
'I gave to the house of your father all that are of the fire of the children of Israel for food' (for these had been the sacrifices of the Jews): therefore here he said: 'To eat bread,' which in the New Testament is the sacrifice of Christians. CHAPTER VI. Concerning the Jewish priesthood and kingdom, which, although they are said to be established for ever, do not endure, so that others may be understood, whose eternity is promised. Since therefore these things were foretold then with such great loftiness, and now shine clear with such great manifestation, yet not without cause can anyone be moved and say: How do we trust that all things shall come which are foretold as to come in those books, if this very thing, which was there divinely said:
'Your house and the house of your father shall pass before Me for ever,' could not have its effect? Since we see that priesthood was changed, and that what was promised to that house cannot be hoped ever to be fulfilled, because that which succeeds it, when it is reproved and changed, this rather is declared eternal. Whoever says this does not yet understand, or does not recall, that the priesthood itself according to the order of Aaron was instituted as a shadow of the future eternal priesthood; and through this, when eternity was promised to it, it was promised not to the shadow and figure itself, but to that which was shadowed and figured through it. But lest the shadow itself should be thought to be about to remain, therefore its change too had to be prophesied.
The kingdom too, in this way, even of Saul himself, who certainly was reproved and rejected, was a shadow of the future kingdom that should remain in eternity. For that oil with which he was anointed, and from that chrism was called christ (anointed), is to be received mystically and to be understood as a great sacrament; which David so venerated in him alone, that, struck in his heart, he trembled when, hidden in a dark cave which Saul also had entered under the urging of nature's necessity, he secretly cut off behind a small piece of his garment, that he might have whereby to show how he had spared him when he could have killed him, and thus might remove the suspicion from his mind, by which, thinking holy David his enemy, he was vehemently persecuting him.