Augustine of Hippo

"The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our taker up" [Psalm 46:7]. Not any man, not any power, not, in short, Angel, or any creature either earthly or heavenly, but "the Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our taker up." He who sent Angels, came after Angels, came that Angels might serve Him, came that men He might make equal to Angels. Mighty Grace! If God be for us, who can be against us? "The Lord of Hosts is with us." What Lord of Hosts is with us? "If" (I say) "God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how has He not with Him also freely given us all things." [Romans 8:31-32] Therefore be we secure, in tranquillity of heart nourish we a good conscience with the Bread of the Lord. "The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our taker up." However great be your infirmity, see who takes you up. One is sick, a physician is called to him. His own taken-up, the Physician calls the sick man. Who has taken him up? Even He. A great hope of salvation; a great Physician has taken him up. What Physician? Every Physician save He is man: every Physician who comes to a sick man, another day can be made sick, beside Him. "The God of Jacob is our taker up." Make yourself altogether as a little child, such as are taken up by their parents. For those not taken up, are exposed; those taken up are nursed. Do you think God has so taken you up, as when an infant your mother took you up? Not so, but to eternity. For your voice is in that Psalm, "My father and my mother forsake me, but the Lord has taken me up."

"Come and see the works of the Lord" [Psalm 46:8]. Now of this taking up, what has the Lord done? Consider the whole world, come and see. For if you come not, you see not; if you see not, you believe not; if you believe not, you stand afar off: if you believek, you come; if you believek, you see. For how came we to that mountain? Not on foot? Is it by ship? Is it on the wing? Is it on horses? For all that pertain to space and place, be not concerned, trouble not yourself, He comes to you. For out of a small stone He has grown, and become a great mountain, so that He has filled all the face of the earth. Why then would you by land come to Him, who fills all lands? Lo, He has already come: watch thou. By growing He wakes even sleepers; if yet there is not in them so deep sleep, as that they be hardened even against the mountain coming; but they hear, "Awake, you that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light." [Ephesians 5:14] For it was a great thing for the Jews to see the stone. For the stone was yet small: and small they deservedly despised it, and despising they stumbled, and stumbling they were broken; remains that they be ground to powder. For so was it said of the stone, "Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." [Luke 20:18] It is one thing to be broken, another to be ground to powder. To be broken is less than to be ground to powder: but none grinds He coming exalted, save whom He broke lying low. For now before His coming He lay low before the Jews, and they stumbled at Him, and were broken; hereafter shall He come in His Judgment, glorious and exalted, great and powerful, not weak to be judged, but strong to judge, and grind to powder those who were broken stumbling at Him. For "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense," [1 Peter 2:8] is He to them that believe not. Therefore, brethren, no wonder if the Jews acknowledged not Him, whom as a small stone lying before their feet they despised. They are to be wondered at, who even now so great a mountain will not acknowledge. The Jews at a small stone by not seeing stumbled; the heretics stumble at a mountain. For now that stone has grown, now say we unto them, Lo, now is fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel, "The stone that was small became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." [Daniel 2:35] Wherefore stumble ye at Him, and go not rather up to Him? Who is so blind as to stumble at a mountain? Came He to you that you should have whereat to stumble, and not have whereto to go up? "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord." [Isaiah 2:3] Isaiah says this: "Come ye, and let us go up." What is, "Come ye, and let us go up"? "Come ye," is, Believe ye. "Let us go up," is, Let us profit. But they will neither come, nor go up, nor believe, nor profit. They bark against the mountain. Even now by so often stumbling on Him they are broken, and will not go up, choosing always to stumble. Say we to them, "Come ye, and see the works of the Lord:" what "prodigies He has set forth through the earth." Prodigies are called, because they portend something, those signs of miracles which were done when the world believed. And what thereafter came to pass, and what did they portend?

"He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth" [Psalm 46:9]. This not yet see we fulfilled: yet are there wars, wars among nations for sovereignty; among sects, among Jews, Pagans, Christians, heretics, are wars, frequent wars, some for the truth, some for falsehood contending. Not yet then is this fulfilled, "He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth;" but haply it shall be fulfilled. Or is it now also fulfilled? In some it is fulfilled; in the wheat it is fulfilled, in the tares it is not yet fulfilled. What is this then, "He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth"? Wars He calls whereby it is warred against God. But who wars against God? Ungodliness. And what to God can ungodliness do? Nothing. What does an earthen vessel dashed against the rock, however vehemently dashed? With so much greater harm to itself it comes, with how much the greater force it comes. These wars were great, frequent were they. Against God fought ungodliness, and earthen vessels were dashed in pieces, even men by presuming on themselves, by too much prevailing by their own strength. This is that, the shield whereof Job also named concerning one ungodly. "He runs against God, upon the stiff neck of his shield." [Job 15:26] What is, "upon the stiff neck of his shield"? Presuming too much upon his own protection. Were they such who said, "God is our refuge and strength, a Helper in tribulations which have found us out too much"? Or in another Psalm, "For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me." When one learns that in himself he is nothing, and help in himself has none, arms in him are broken in pieces, wars are made to cease. Such wars then destroyed that Voice of the Most High out of His holy clouds, whereby the earth was moved, and the kingdoms were bowed. These wars has He made to cease unto the end of the earth. "He shall break the bow, and dash in pieces the arms, and burn the shield with fire." Bow, arms, shield, fire. The bow is plots; arms, public warfare; shields, vain presuming of self-protection: the fire wherewith they are burned, is that whereof the Lord said, "I have come to send fire on the earth;" [Luke 12:49] of which fire says the Psalm, "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof." This fire burning, no arms of ungodliness shall remain in us, needs must all be broken, dashed in pieces, burned. Remain thou unharmed, not having any help of your own; and the more weak you are, having no arms your own, the more He takes you up, of whom it is said, "The God of Jacob is our taker up."...But when God takes us up, does He send us away unarmed? He arms us, but with other arms, arms Evangelical, arms of truth, continence, salvation, faith, hope, charity. These arms shall we have, but not of ourselves: but the arms which of ourselves we had, are burnt up: yet if by that fire of the Holy Spirit we are kindled, whereof it is said, "He shall burn the shields with fire;" you, who wished to be powerful in yourself, has God made weak, that He may make you strong in Him, because in yourself you were made weak.

"O clap your hands, all you nations" [Psalm 47:1]. Were the people of the Jews all the nations? No, but blindness in part is happened to Israel, that senseless children might cry, "Calve," "Calve;" and so the Lord might be crucified in the place of Calvary, that by His Blood shed He might redeem the Gentiles, and that might be fulfilled which says the Apostle, "Blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." [Romans 11:25] Let them insult, then, the vain, and foolish, and senseless, and say, "Calve," "Calve;" but you redeemed by His Blood which was shed in the place of Calvary, say, "O clap your hands, all you nations;" because to you has come down the Grace of God. "O clap your hands." What is "O clap"? Rejoice. But wherefore with the hands? Because with good works. Do not rejoice with the mouth while idle with the hands. If you rejoice, "clap your hands." The hands of the nations let Him see, who joys has deigned to give them. What is, the hands of the nations? The acts of them doing good works. "O clap your hands, all you nations: shout unto God with the voice of triumph." Both with voice and with hands. If with the voice only it is not well, because the hands are slow; if only with the hands it is not well, because the tongue is mute. Agree together must the hands and tongue. Let this confess, these work. "Shout unto God with the voice of triumph."

"He has subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet" [Psalm 47:3]. Which subdued, and to whom? Who are they that speak? Haply Jews? Surely, if Apostles; surely, if Saints. For under these God has subdued the people and the nations, that today are they honoured among the nations, who by their own citizens earned to be slain: as their Lord was slain by His citizens, and is honoured among the nations; was crucified by His own, is adored by aliens, but those by a price made His own. For therefore bought He us, that aliens from Him we might not be. Do you think then these are the words of Apostles, "He has subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet"? I know not. Strange that Apostles should speak so proudly, as to rejoice that the nations were put under their feet, that is, Christians under the feet of Apostles. For they rejoice that we are with them under the feet of Him who died for us. For under Paul's feet ran they, who would be of Paul, to whom He said, "Was Paul crucified for you?" [1 Corinthians 1:13] What then here, what are we to understand? "He has subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet." All pertaining to Christ's inheritance are among "all the nations," and all not pertaining to Christ's inheritance are among "all the nations:" and you see so exalted in Christ's Name is Christ's Church, that all not yet believing in Christ lie under the feet of Christians. For what numbers now run to the Church; not yet being Christians, they ask aid of the Church; to be succoured by us temporally they are willing, though eternally to reign with us as yet they are unwilling. When all seek aid of the Church, even they who are not yet in the Church, has He not "subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet"?

"He has chosen an inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom He loved" [Psalm 47:4]. A certain beauty of Jacob He has chosen for our inheritance. Esau and Jacob were two brothers; in their mother's womb both struggled, and by this struggle their mother's bowels were shaken; and while they two were yet therein, the younger was elected and preferred to the elder, and it was said, "Two peoples are in your womb, and the elder shall serve the younger." [Genesis 25:23] Among all nations is the elder, among all nations the younger; but the younger is in good Christians, elect, godly, faithful; the elder in the proud, unworthy, sinful, stubborn, defending rather than confessing their sins: as was also the very people of the Jews, "being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness." [Romans 10:3] But for that it is said, "The elder shall serve the younger;" it is manifest that under the godly are subdued the ungodly, under the humble are subdued the proud. Esau was born first, and Jacob was born last; but he who was last born, was preferred to the first-born, who through gluttony lost his birthright. So you have it written, [Genesis 25:30-34] He longed for the pottage, and his brother said to him, If you will that I give it you, give me your birthright. He loved more that which carnally he desired, than that which spiritually by being born first he had earned: and he laid aside his birthright, that he might eat lentils. But lentils we find to be the food of the Egyptians, for there it abounds in Egypt. Whence is so magnified the lentil of Alexandria, that it comes even to our country, as if here grew no lentil. Therefore by desiring Egyptian food he lost his birthright. So also the people of the Jews, of whom it is said, "in their hearts they turned back again into Egypt." [Acts 7:39] They desired in a manner the lentil, and lost their birthright.

"God is gone up with jubilation" [Psalm 47:5]. Even He our God, the Lord Christ, is gone up with jubilation; "the Lord with the sound of a trumpet." "Is gone up:" whither, save where we know? Whither the Jews followed Him not, even with their eyes. For exalted on the Cross they mocked Him, ascending into Heaven they did not see Him. "God has gone up with jubilation." What is jubilation, but admiration of joy which cannot be expressed in words? As the disciples in joy admired, seeing Him go into Heaven, whom they had mourned dead; truly for the joy, words sufficed not: remained to jubilate what none could express. There was also the voice of the trumpet, the voice of Angels. For it is said, "Lift up your voice like a trumpet." Angels preached the ascension of the Lord: they saw the Disciples, their Lord ascending, tarrying, admiring, confounded, nothing speaking, but in heart jubilant: and now was the sound of the trumpet in the clear voice of the Angels, "You men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This is Jesus." [Acts 1:11] As if they knew not that it was the same Jesus. Had they not just before seen Him before them? Had they not heard Him speaking with them? Nay, they not only saw the figure of Him present, but handled also His limbs. Of themselves then knew they not, that it was the same Jesus? But they being by very admiration, from joy of jubilation, as it were transported in mind, the Angels said, "that same is Jesus." As though they said, If you believe Him, this is that same Jesus, whom crucified, your feet stumbled, whom dead and buried, you thought your hope lost. Lo, this is the same Jesus. He has gone up before you, "He shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven." His Body is removed indeed from your eyes, but God is not separated from your hearts: see Him going up, believe in Him absent, hope for Him coming; but yet through His secret Mercy, feel Him present. For He who ascended into Heaven that He might be removed from your eyes, promised unto you, saying, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." [Matthew 28:20] Justly then the Apostle so addressed us, "The Lord is at hand; be careful for nothing." [Philippians 4:5-6] Christ sits above the Heavens; the Heavens are far off, He who there sits is near....

"For God is the King of all the earth" [Psalm 47:7]. What? And before was He not God of all the earth? Is He not God of both heaven and earth, since by Him surely were all things made? Who can say that He is not his God? But not all men acknowledged Him their God; and where He was acknowledged, there only, so to say, He was God. "In Judah is God known." Not yet was it said to the sons of Korah, "O clap your hands, all you nations." For that God known in Judah, is King of all the earth: now by all He is acknowledged, for that is fulfilled which Isaiah says, "He is your God who has delivered you, the God of the whole earth shall He be called." [Isaiah 54:5] "Sing ye praises with understanding." He teaches us and warns us to sing praises with understanding, not to seek the sound of the ear, but the light of the heart. The Gentiles, whence you were called that you might be Christians, adored gods made with hands, and sang praises to them, but not with understanding. If they had sung with understanding, they had not adored stones. When a man sensible sang to a stone insensible, did he sing with understanding? But now, brethren, we see not with our eyes Whom we adore, and yet correctly we adore. Much more is God commended to us, that with our eyes we see Him not. If with our eyes we saw Him, haply we might despise. For even Christ seen, the Jews despised; unseen, the Gentiles adored.

"God shall reign over all nations" [Psalm 47:8]. Who reigned over one nation, "shall reign" (says He) "over all nations." When this was said, God reigned over one nation. It was a prophecy, the thing was not yet shown. Thanks be to God, we now see fulfilled what before was prophesied. A written promise God sent unto us before the time, the time fulfilled He has repaid us. "God shall reign over all nations," is a promise. "God sits upon His Holy Seat." What then was promised to come, now being fulfilled, is acknowledged and held. "God sits upon His Holy Seat." What is His Holy Seat? Haply says one, The Heavens, and he understands well. For Christ has gone up, [Acts 1:2] as we know, with the Body, wherein He was crucified, and sits at the right hand of the Father; thence we expect Him to come to judge the quick and the dead. [2 Timothy 4:1] "God sits upon His Holy Seat." The Heavens are His Holy Seat. Will you also be His Seat? Think not that you can not be; prepare for Him a place in your heart. He comes, and willingly sits. The same Christ is surely "the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God:" [1 Corinthians 1:24] and what says the Scripture of Wisdom Herself? The soul of the righteous is the seat of Wisdom. [Wisdom 7:27] If then the soul of the righteous is the seat of Wisdom, be your soul righteous, and you shall be a royal seat of Wisdom. And truly, brethren, all men who live well, who act well, converse in godly charity, does not God sit in them, and Himself command? Your soul obeys God sitting in it, and itself commands the members. For your soul commands your members, that so may move the foot, the hand, the eye, the ear, and itself commands the members as its servants, but yet itself serves its Lord sitting within. It cannot well rule its inferior, unless its superior it have not disdained to serve.

"The princes of the peoples are gathered together unto the God of Abraham" [Psalm 47:9]. The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. [Exodus 3:6] True it is, God said this, and thereupon the Jews prided themselves, and said, "We are Abraham's children;" [John 8:33] priding themselves in their father's name, carrying his flesh, not holding his faith; by seed cleaving to Him, in manners degenerating. But the Lord, what said He to them so priding themselves? "If you are Abraham's children, do the works of Abraham." [John 8:39] Again..."The princes of the peoples:" the princes of the nations: not the princes of one people, but the princes of all people have "gathered together unto the God of Abraham." Of these princes was that Centurion too, of whom but now when the Gospel was read ye heard. For he was a Centurion having honour and power among men, he was a prince among the princes of the peoples. Christ coming to him, he sent his friends to meet Him, nay unto Christ truly passing over to him he sent his friends, and asked that He would heal his servant who was dangerously sick. And when the Lord would come, he sent to Him this message: "I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but say in a word only, and my servant shall be healed." "For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers." [Luke 7:6-7] See how he kept his rank! First he mentioned that he was under another, and afterwards that another was under him. I am under authority, and I am in authority; both under some I am, and over some I am....As though he said, If I being set under authority command those who are under me, You who is set under no man's authority, canst not Thou command Your creature, since all things were made by You, and without You was nothing made. "Say," then, said he, "in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof."...Admiring at his faith, Jesus reprobates the Jews' misbelief. For sound to themselves they seemed, whereas they were dangerously sick, when their Physician not knowing they slew. Therefore when He reprobated, and repudiated their pride what said he? "I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west," not belonging to the kindred of Israel: many shall come to whom He said, "O clap your hands, all you nations;" "and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Abraham begot them not of his own flesh; yet shall they come and sit down with him in the kingdom of heaven, and be his sons. Whereby his sons? Not as born of his flesh, but by following his faith. "But the children of the kingdom," that is, the Jews, "shall be cast into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." [Matthew 8:12] They shall be condemned to outer darkness who are born of the flesh of Abraham, and they shall sit down with him in the kingdom of heaven, who have imitated Abraham's faith.

"Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised" [Psalm 48:1]....That is, "in the city of our God, in His holy mountain." This is the city set upon an hill, which cannot be hid: this is the candle which is not hidden under a bushel, [Matthew 5:14-15] to all known, to all proclaimed. Yet are not all men citizens thereof, but they in whom "great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised." What then is that city: let us see whether perhaps, since it is said, "In the city of our God, in His holy mountain," we ought not to enquire for this mountain where also we may be heard....What then is that mountain, brethren? One is it with great care to be enquired for, with great solicitude investigated, with labour also to be occupied and ascended. But if in any part of the earth it is, what shall we do? Shall we go abroad out of our own country, that to that mountain we may arrive? Nay, then we are abroad, when in it we are not. For that is our city, if we are members of the King, who is the head of the same city....For there was a certain corner-stone contemptible, whereat the Jews stumbled, [Romans 9:32] cut out of a certain mountain without hands, that is, coming of the kingdom of the Jews without hands, because human operation went not with Mary of whom was born Christ. [Matthew 1:16] But if that stone, when the Jews stumbled thereat, had remained there, you had not had whither to ascend. But what was done? What says the prophecy of Daniel? What but that the stone grew, and became a great mountain? How great? So that it filled the whole face of the earth. [Daniel 2:35] By growing, then, and by filling the whole face of the earth, that mountain came to us. Why then seek we the mountain as though absent, and not as being present ascend to it; that in us the Lord may be "great, and greatly to be praised"?

Further,...when he had said, "in the city of our God, in His holy mountain," what added he? "Spreading abroad the joys of the whole earth, the mountains of Sion" [Psalm 48:2]. Sion is one mountain, why then "mountains"? Is it that to Sion belonged also those which came from the other side, so as to meet together on the Corner Stone, and become two walls, as it were two mountains, one of the circumcision, the other of the uncircumcision; one of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles: no longer adverse, although diverse, because from different sides, now in the corner not even diverse. "For He is our peace, who has made both one." [Ephesians 2:14] The same Corner Stone "which the builders rejected, has become the Head Stone of the corner." The mountain has joined in itself two mountains; one house there is, and two houses; two, because coming from different sides; one, because of the Corner Stone, wherein both are joined together. Hear also this, "the mountains of Sion: the sides of the North are the city of the great King."...See the Gentiles; "the sides of the North:" the sides of the North are joined to the city of the great King. The North is wont to be contrary to Sion: Sion forsooth is in the South, the North over against the South. Who is the North, but He who said, "I will sit in the sides of the North, I will be like the Most High"? [Isaiah 14:13-14] The devil had held dominion over the ungodly, and possessed the nations serving images, adoring demons; and all whatsoever there was of human kind anywhere throughout the world, by cleaving to Him, had become North. But since He who binds the strong man, takes away his goods, [Matthew 12:29] and makes them His own goods; men delivered from infidelity and superstition of devils, believing in Christ, are fitted on to that city, have met in the corner that wall that comes from the circumcision, and that was made the city of the great King, which had been the sides of the North. Therefore also in another Scripture is it said, "Out of the North come clouds of golden colour: great is the glory and honour of the Almighty." [Job 37:22] For great is the glory of the physician, when from being despaired of the sick recovers. "Out of the North come clouds," and not black clouds, not dark clouds, not lowering, but "of golden colour." Whence but by grace illumined through Christ? See, "the sides of the North are the city of the great King."...

"They saw it, and so they marvelled" [Psalm 48:4]. After their marvelling at the miracles and glory of Christ, what followed? "They were troubled, they were moved" [Psalm 48:5], "trembling took hold upon them." Whence took trembling hold upon them, but from the consciousness of sins? Let them run then, king after a king; kings, let them acknowledge the King. Therefore says He elsewhere, "Yet have I been set by Him a King upon His holy hill of Sion."...A King then was heard of, set up in Sion, to Him were delivered possessions even to the uttermost parts of the earth. Kings behooved to fear lest they should lose the kingdom, lest the kingdom be taken from them. As wretched Herod feared, and for the Child slew the children. [Matthew 2:16] But fearing to lose his kingdom, he deserved not to know the King. Would that he too had adored the King with the Magi: not by ill-seeking the kingdom, slain the Innocents, and perished guilty. For as concerning him, he destroyed the Innocents: but as for Christ, even a Child, the children dying for Him did He crown. Therefore behooved kings to fear when it was said, "Yet have I been set a King by Him upon His holy hill of Sion," and inheritance to the uttermost parts of the earth shall He give Him, who set Him up King....Thence also this is said to them, "Understand now therefore, O you kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling." And what did they? "There pains as of a woman in travail." What are the pains "as of a woman in travail," but the pangs of a penitent? See the same conception of pain and travail: "Of Your fear" (says Isaiah) "we have conceived, we have travailed of the Spirit of salvation." [Isaiah 26:17-18] So then the kings conceived from the fear of Christ, that by travailing they brought forth salvation by believing on Him whom they had feared. "There pains as of a woman in travail:" when of travail you hear, expect a birth. The old man travails, but the new man is born.

"With a strong wind You shall break the ships of Tarshish" [Psalm 48:6]. Briefly understood, this is, You shall overthrow the pride of the nations. But where in this history is mentioned the overthrowing of the pride of the nations? Because of "the ships of Tarshish." Learned men have enquired for Tarshish a city, that is, what city was signified by this name: and to some it has seemed that Cilicia is called Tarshish, because its metropolis is called Tarsus. Of which city was the Apostle Paul, being born in Tarsus of Cilicia. [Acts 21:39] But some have understood by it Carthage, being haply sometimes so named, or in some language so signified. For in the Prophet Isaiah it is thus found: "Howl, you ships of Carthage." But in Ezekiel by some interpreters the word is translated Carthage, by some Tarshish: and from this diversity it can be understood that the same which was called Carthage, is called Tharsus. But it is manifest, that in the beginning of its reign Carthage flourished with ships, and so flourished, that among other nations they excelled in trafficking and navigation. For when Dido, flying from her brother, escaped to the parts of Africa, where she built Carthage, the ships which had been prepared for commerce in his country she had taken with her for her flight, the princes of the country consenting to it; and the same ships also when Carthage was built failed not in traffic. And hence that city became too proud, so that justly by its ships may be understood the pride of the nations, presuming on things uncertain, as on the breath of the winds. Now let none presume on full sails, and on the seeming fair state of this life, as of the sea. Be our foundation in Sion: there ought we to be established, not to be "carried about with every wind of doctrine." [Ephesians 4:14] Whoso then by the uncertain things of this life had been puffed up, let them be overthrown, and be all the pride of the nations subjected to Christ, who shall "with a strong wind break all the ships of Tarshish:" not of any city, but of "Tarshish." How "with a strong wind"? With very strong fear. For so all pride feared Him that shall judge, as on Him humble to believe, lest Him exalted it should fear.

"As we have heard, so have we seen" [Psalm 48:7]. Blessed Church! At one time you have heard, at another time you have seen. She heard in promises, sees in performance: heard in Prophecy, sees in the Gospel. For all things which are now fulfilled were before prophesied. Lift up your eyes then, and stretch them over the world; see now His "inheritance even to the uttermost parts of the earth:" see now is fulfilled what was said, "All kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him:" see fulfilled what was said, "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Your glory above all the earth." See Him whose feet and hands were pierced with nails, whose bones hanging on the tree were counted, upon whose vesture lots were cast: [Matthew 27:35] see reigning whom they saw hanging; see sitting in Heaven [Matthew 26:64] whom they despised walking on earth: see thus fulfilled, "All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him." Seeing all this, exclaim with joy, "As we have heard, so have we seen." Justly the Church herself is so called out of the Gentiles....They to whom the Prophets were not sent, first heard and understood the Prophets: they who first heard not, afterwards hearing marvelled. They remained behind to whom they were sent, carrying the books, understanding not the truth: having the tables of the Testament, and not holding the inheritance. But we,..."As we have heard, so have we seen." And where do you hear? Where do you see? "In the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God. God has founded it for ever." Let not heretics insult, divided into parties, let them not exalt themselves who say, "Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there." [Matthew 24:23] Whoso says, "Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there," invites to parties. Unity God promised. The kings are gathered together in one, not dissipated through schisms. But haply that city which has held the world, shall sometime be overthrown? Far be the thought! "God has founded it for ever." If then God has founded it for ever, why do you fear lest the firmament should fall?