CHAPTER 1

(238)    Of the Sojourn of the Word of God with Men.

From Psalm xvii.

The Shewing forth of the Coming of God to Men, and the Consequent Call of the Gentiles.

[Passage quoted, Ps. xvii. 9-11.]

I CONSIDER that we have here an express prophecy of God's Descent from heaven. For after telling many divine truths he adds the above. In saying "He bowed the heavens and came down," he notes that humiliation of the Divine Glory, which the divine apostle expressed, when he said:

"Who being in the form of God, did not consider it a prize to be equal with God, but emptied himself, and took the form of a servant."

And by the words, "He rode upon Cherubim and flew," I believe he presents darkly the return to Divine Glory, which He made surrounded by troops of angelic and divine powers. And this also seems to be intended by, "He flew upon the wings of the wind." And by, "making darkness his secret-place, and darkness under his feet," is signified the hidden and secret dispensation, under which He accomplished all this. What shall we understand by "round about him was his tabernacle" but His Holy Catholic Church, either the earthly, or the heavenly? And afterwards at the end of the same Psalm, there is a prophecy of the rejection of the former people coincident with the call of the Gentiles:

" 43. Save me from the gainsayings of the people, thou wilt make me the head of the Gentiles. A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
"44. At the hearing of the ear they obeyed me: the strange children lied to me. - 3 - 
"45. The strange children waxed old: and grew lame from their paths."

I will examine in the proper place what meaning is to be attributed to this.