Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
Psaim CXV.] ON THE ~ PSALMS. 553 worship. . . . They presume to reply, that they worship not the bodies themselves, but the deities which preside over the government of them. One sentence of the Apostle, therefore, testifieth to their punishment and condemnation ; " Who," he saith, " have changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever." ! For in the former part of this sentence he condemned idols ; in the latter, the account they give of their idols: for by designating images wrought by an artificer by the names of the works of God's creation, they change the truth of God into a lie; while, by considering these works themselves as deities, and worshipping them as such, they serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. . . . 7. But, it will be said, we also have very many instruments and vessels made of materials or metal of this description for the purpose of celebrating the Sacraments, which being consecrated by these ministrations are called holy, in honour of Him who is thus worshipped for our salvation: and what indeed are these very instruments or vessels, but the work of men's hands? But have they mouth, and yet speak not? have they eyes, and see not? do we pray unto them, because through them we pray to God? This is the chief cause of this insane profanity, that the figure resembling the living person, which induces men to worship it, hath more influence in the minds of these miserable persons, than the evident fact that it is not living, so that it ought to be despised by the living."
they may apprehend that for which they are apprehended,5 and may know even as they are known,° " He is their helper and defender."" For both " fear the Lord, and have hoped in the Lord :
He is their helper and defender " (ver. 11).
g. For we do not by our deservings prevent the mercy of God; but, "The Lord hath been mindful of us, and hath blessed us. He hath blessed the. house of Israel, He hath blessed the house of Aaron" (ver. 12). But in blessing both of these, "He hath blessed all that fear the Lord" (ver. 13). Dost thou ask, who are meant by both of these? He answereth, "both small and great." That is, the house of Israel with the house of Aaron, those who among that nation believed in Jesus the Saviour. . For in the character of those who out of that nation believed, it is said, " Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha."' 7 Seed, because when it has been scattered over the earth, it multiplied.
10. For the great ones, of the house of Aaron, have said, "May the Lord increase you more and more, you and your children" (ver. 14). And thus it hath happened. For children that have been raised even from the stones have flocked unto Abraham :* sheep which were not of this fold, have flocked unto him, that there might be one flock, and one shepherd ; 9 the faith of all nations was added, and the number grew, not only of wise priests, but of obedient peoples ; the Lord increasing not only their fathers more and more, who in Christ might show the way to the rest who should imitate them, but also their children, who should follow their fathers' pious footsteps.
8. The result that ensueth is that described in the next verse: '' They that make them are like unto them, and so are all such as put their trust in them" (ver. 8). Let them therefore see with open eyes, and worship with shut and dead understandings, idols that neither see nor live. " But the house of Israel hath hoped in the Lord" (ver. 9). "For hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."3 But that this patience may endure to the end, "He is their helper and defender." Do perhaps spiritual persons (by whom carnal minds are built up in "the spirit of meekness," + because they pray as higher for lower minds) already see, and is that already to them reality which to the lower ishope? Itisnotso. For even "the house of Aaron hath hope in the Lord" (ver. 10). Therefore, that they also may stretch forward perseveringly towards those things which are before them, and may run perseveringly, until
11. Therefore the Prophet saith unto these great and small, the mountains and the little hills, the rams and the young sheep, what followeth: " Ye are the blessed of the Lord, who made heaven and earth" (ver. 15). As if he should say, Ye are the blessed of the Lord, who made the heaven in the great, earth in the small: not this visible heaven, studded with luminaries which are objects to these eyes. For " The heaven of heavens is the Lord's" (ver. 16) ; who hath elevated the minds of some saints to such a height, that they became teachable by no man, but by God Himself; in comparison of which heaven, whatever is discerned with carnal eyes is to be called earth; which "He hath given to the children of men;" that when it is contemplated, whether in that region which illumineth above, as that which is called heaven, or in that which is illumined beneath, which is properly called earth (since in comparison with that which is called heaven of heaven, the whole,
1 Rom. i. 25. 2 [Compare the gross misstatements and bad reasoning of the Trent Catechism. A. N. F. vol. iii. p. 76. —C. 3 Rom. viii. 24, 25. 4 Gal. vi. 1.
© x Cor, xiii. 12. 7 Rom, ix, 29. 5 Philip. ili. 12-14.
iii 9 John x. 1-16, 28, 29. 8 Matt. iii. 9.